Baltimore Center Stage: Akeelah and the Bee

 Akeelah and the Bee was written by Cheryl L. West and has been around for a while.  It was also made into a successful movie--and why not?  It is the ultimate feel good story of a little girl who comes from difficult circumstances, defies the odds, defeats her inner demons, redeems her family and teaches a life lesson to one of her peers; as icing on the cake.  Heart-warmed tears--no extra charge.  It was even more lovely that the "Children" in the production, from Akeelah to ensemble, are all from the Freshman class of students at the Baltimore School for the Arts.  There's a lot of amazing talent bubbling its way up in Baltimore.

As a whole the students brought an adolescent exuberance and authenticity to their performances that was engaging.  The perfect counter balance was found in the performances of some of the adult actors.  Most notably Jefferson A. Russell in the role of Dr. Joshua Larabee, the somewhat enigmatic former National Spelling Bee "runner-up" with a satchel of secrets and soul in need of a little redemption.  Also very enjoyable were the duo of Dwayne Alistair Thomas as Drunk Willie (he also played Principal Welch) and Tracy "Symphony" Hall as Batty Ruth the neighborhood gossip and Willie's estranged wife.  One other shout out must go to Quincy Vics who primarily played the strung out neighborhood drug dealer, JT, but also double briefly as the local city Spelling Bee Judge and brought the house down with his performance.  

Listening to all of this you might assume I had a great time.  And I'm not gonna say that I didn't enjoy or appreciate the show--I did.  However, as fate would have it, this performance was also sponsored by the Baltimore Youth Innovation Coalition.  An organization just over a year old that works as an umbrella to support over 30 youth engagement clubs all across the greater Baltimore municipality.  Everything from "Black Girls Cook" (combining culinary practices with healthy nutrition) to "Let's Go" elementary after school enrichment programs focused on STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Mathmatics) to CITCA an organization that works with at-risk youth to meet social emotional needs and promote welfare through collective action.  Let's face it, it's all great stuff, and yet, during a little pep rally before the show started it was clear that unaffiliated adults in the audience were in the minority.  Furthermore, through a show of hands nearly everyone participating in this event by way of the Coalition were first time theater goers.  Sigh.

Baltimore Center Stage's Artistic Director, Stevie Walker-Webb, was there to welcome and celebrate the Coalition's participation.  He invited all the audience to join in with the fun of the place and be expressive, but also to be reflective during the times when the story becomes serious.  He lost them at "expressive"...

For me, it wasn't horrible at first, but it was a dual event.  One, The Play, with the actors--the younger members clearly ramping it up for the delight of the young audience; and Two, The Spectacle--that give and take between the story and an audience full of folk (wee and old) without any obligation to conventional boundaries.  This was most obvious after intermission, when the first hour and 15 minutes had pretty much exhausted the attention spans of most of the children and many of the sponsors alike.  

As a result, during the most serious moments (a drive by shooting that forced Akeelah's mother to throw her to the floor and shield her with her own body) many members of the audience roared with laughter.  On a more specific to me level, the adult sponsor/chaperone for the group sitting directly behind me brought her un-potty-trained daughter who made "ca ca" 15 minutes into the second half and then proceeded to sing little nursery songs apropos of nothing whatsoever happening on the stage for a good 15 minutes.  To be fair it wasn't everybody.  There were 8 young children sitting in the row directly in front of me who were probably 7 or 8 years old.  To a child they were engaged, on the edge of their seats nearly the entire time.  

Let me make this perfectly clear.  I LOVE THE IDEA OF BRINGING ALL OF THESE CHILDREN AND YOUTH INTO THE THEATER.  But I think it was unfair of Baltimore Center Stage to do this and not advertise it to the general public.  Especially when they list "Community Night," "Greek Night," "Family Reunion Night," ASL dedicated performance, AD/TT dedicated performance, and something called the "Chocolate Curlz Cabaret @ Blk Ass Flea Market" as a related event.  And, yes, I did write them with my thoughts on this.  It's not only not right, it's not a good economic strategy for someone who is paying full price to not know what that admission includes prior to making the purchase.  As I wrote in my comment.  Knowing this doesn't mean that I would not come to see the show, it just means I would have chosen another date.

Akeelah (Natalya Benton) and Reggie (Theodore Sherron III) her older brother after she awakes from a nightmare.

Akeelah and her principal, Mr Welch (Dwayne Alistair Thomas) as he is trying to convince her to participate in the spelling bee.

Akeelah's mother, Gail Anderson (Zipporah Brown Gladden) in conversation with her daughter.

Akeelah and her spelling bee mentor, Dr. Larabee (Jefferson A. Russell) discussing strategies and avoiding personal things.

Dylan Chiu (Braxton Singhanath) Akeelah's arch rival in the competition.  Background: Baltimore School for the Arts freshman member of the ensemble (David Rittner)

Akeelah and Dylan playing Scrabble at a friends birthday party.

May I Predict a Shellacking?

 I apologize in advance.  This may be a bit long-winded.  

FACT: Donald Trump won the 2024 Presidential Election with a total of 77,302,580 votes.  This gave him 49.8% of all votes cast, leaving Harris with 48.3% or 75,017,613 votes.  When you break this down around the total number of eligible voters in the country, it gives both candidates percentages of just over and just under 30% respectively.  The reality is that Donald Trump was elected by 30.1% of the eligible voting public.  That's hardly a mandate, and it's certainly NOT a majority of Americans.  

I'm NOT suggesting that his election is in any way illegitimate.  He IS our president.  However, his agenda is a MINORITY agenda.  And like any majority agenda, the pendulum will swing. 

 
We have some really good evidence of this just 3 months into Trump's second term.  1) a landslide victory of a liberal justice in Wisconsin, whose opponent went out of their way to be the voice and face of President Trump in the Race.  2) Two house seats in deeply Republican districts in Florida where in November Republican candidates won with 30% and 31% margins, are retained; however the margins were slightly more than cut in half at 14.6% and 14% respectively.  And 3), Trumps choice for Ambassador to the United Nations, New York Representative Elisa Stefanik withdrawals her nomination because a replacement election is deemed too risky now, with only a 3 seat margin for Republican in the House of Representatives.  Stefanie won her seat with a margin of 25%.  

Everyone who thinks that Elise fell on her own sword, please, raise your hand...  Exactly.  

Would it surprise you to know that there are 76 seats held by Republicans in the House of Representatives where the margin of victory is less than 24%?  Here's one better, more realistic; there are 36 with margins of 14.6% or less?  These are the golden seats.  All the Democrats will need in November of 2026 is 4! 

 
Now, every state is different, and 19 months is a long time.  However, everything we can see and say of this administration is that it will be 19 months of discrimination, inflation and alienation.  They've already shut the doors of equality to Gays, African Americans, Muslims, Hispanics, Government workers, all of those who depend on Government support, and a trade war that will have devastating effects on small business owners, farmers, and skyrocketing inflation that will effect EVERYONE.  For every newscast that features a faithful Trumper, there's another with someone admitted to buyer's remorse.  

Seats likely to switch:

STATE - SEAT - Margin of Republican victory in 2024

ALASKA - At Large - 2.0%
ARIZONA - 1 - 3.8%

ARIZONA - 2 - 9.0%

CALIFORNIA - 3 - 10.0%

CALIFORNIA - 22 - 6.8%

CALIFORNIA - 41 - 3.4%

COLORADO - 3 - 5.0%

COLORADO - 4 - 11.6%

COLORADO - 5 - 12.8%

COLORADO - 8 - 0.8%

FLORIDA - 7 - 13.0%

FLORIDA - 13 - 9.6%

FLORIDA - 15 - 12.4%

IOWA - 1 - 0.2%

IOWA - 3 - 3.8%

MICHIGAN - 4 - 11.7%

MICHIGAN - 10 - 6.1%

MONTANA - 1 - 7.7%

NEBRASKA - 2 - 1.8%

NEVADA - 2 - 10%

NEW JERSEY - 7 - 5.4%

NEW YORK - 1 - 10.4%

NEW YORK - 17 - 6.4%

NEW YORK - 19 - 2.2%

NORTH CAROLINA - 11 - 13.6%

OHIO - 15 - 13.0%

PENNSYLVANIA - 1 - 12.8%

PENNSYLVANIA - 7 - 1.0%

PENNSYLVANIA - 8 - 1.6%

PENNSYLVANIA - 10 - 1.2%

TEXAS - 15 - 14.2%

VIRGINIA - 1 - 12.8%
VIRGINIA - 2 - 3.8%

WISCONSIN - 2 NEW SEATS

I know you pessimists are saying, it'll never happen.  The sky is just going to continue falling...  Look at the last one.  Wisconsin is about to redraw its congregational districts in a way that will all but guarantee two seats will flip.  In a contest with a margin of 1 seat, there are more likely possibilities than there are ways to screw them up.  With the chaos created by both government employees and military cuts AND an unpopular Republican governor in Virginia, I would bet both of these seats will flip.  If the races just completed in Florida indicate the amount of disillusion in the sunshine state, then there are 3 more seats.  And on and on it goes.  This also bodes well for the Senate.  More thoughts on that to come.  

My 2 cents: Wisconsin's State Supreme Court Election

Full Disclosure: I'm a registered Democrat.  In my state, you have to be to make a difference in the outcome of any election.  I consider myself both a progressive and a liberal; however, I believe in fiscal accountability, and on a local level rail against higher taxes for stupid shit like hiring a Chaplin for our city's Police and Fire departments.  I'm sorry.  If you need spiritual support, join a church, synagogue or temple.  It's not like you could throw a stone and hit one of them around here!  My first time out of the box, I voted for Ronald Reagan, and do not regret it.  Different times, different issues.  

What we have presently in charge is a true Shit Show.  The most corrupt President ever calling everyone else corrupt like a child on an elementary school playground.  Hell, he doesn't even understand how tariffs work, but he soon will...

The tides always turn.  The more crazy the individual, the sooner the shift happens.  Yesterday's Wisconsin State Supreme Court victory for the liberal judge by a landslide margin of 10% coupled with the GOP's pulling the plug on the nomination of House Leadership Member Elise Stefanik of upstate New York to be our Ambassador to the United Nations because they are too worried about holding that seat is very telling.

Stefanik won her seat just 5 months ago with a 24.2% margin--amazing.  And now it's too vulnerable to risk a special election over?  

Maryland Zoo: Highlight #5 -- "I'm Ready For My Close-up" a Visit to the Farm Yard

 Maryland Zoo has, like so many other zoos, a farm area.  It once won awards back in the early 1990's.  It's home to various species of: goats, sheep, alpaca, pigs, donkeys and swans.  Two of our signature conservation animals are our Trumpeter Swans (we've contributed dozens of offspring to wild restoration efforts in Iowa and Oregon.  And our Kune Kune pigs, ambassadors of the endangered species native to New Zealand.  There is also a small group of miniature Texas Long-horn Cattle that you can only hope to get a look at if you ride the zoo train.

I have big dreams for this area.  I would love to keep most of the current incumbents, but rechristened the space: "The World Farm @ the Maryland Zoo" With an emphasis on endangered domestic species.

1) I would replace the current pig/sheep house with a new duo of structures that would reflect a fusion of New Zealand and Southern Steppe architecture.  I would keep the Kune Kune pigs and replace the Cotswold Sheep with Karakul Sheep.  The renovation would include an expansive yard behind the building to allow for at least 6 animals: (1 Ram and 5 Ewes), and plans to sell offspring to private breeders to off-set the cost of caring for the herd.

2) Expanded Alpaca and Goat yards

3) Maintain the current Mediterranean Miniature Donkey and Trumpeter Swan habitats.

4) North of the Goat Yard, build a new barn in the white-washed Gaelic style and host a small group of Highland Cattle.

5) Across the path from the new cattle barn I would create a paddock for horses.  The barn could be centered between two sets of pens and include two species: a) Assateague Island Ponies, and possibly Galeciños.

6) Transform the little orchard that is there now into a habitat from Running Ducks from India.  This would include a sizable pond and duck house built in the style of a rural Indian animal house.  Further, I would design a lattice over part of the pond and train cucumbers to climb it and provide a canopy for summer shade, while allowing guests to see how the fruit grows off the ground and dangles so it can be easily harvested by someone in a little boat.  (An ingenious practice I encountered while traveling in China.)  You could also place the Peafowl in this habitat.

7) On the northern edge of all of this clear out a space to include a Rabbitarium--the first structure dedicated to the preservation of endangered Rabbit species in any AZA institution.  A breeding program could also contribute to the zoo's income.  The building would be an octogon with entrances on opposite sides and three exterior spaces on opposite sides of these with three interior spaces to match.  The Idea would be to celebrate European Breeds with perhaps the following endangered and critically endangered species present: Belgian Hare (Belgium), Blanc de Hotot and Creme d'Argent (France), Silver Martin (England), Gotland Rabbit (Sweden) and the Carmagnola Grey (Italy).  Displays could feature a wider range of endangered species and even highlight some wild breeds that are endangered like the Riverine Hare of South Africa.  

One of the draws of the Farm is to give people opportunities to see adorable animals that they can whenever possible interact with.  It's also important to demonstrate how animals and people interact in other places.  What domestication looks like and the fact that breeds of domesticated animals can also go extinct.

8) And finally beyond the new far end of the farm area establish an heirloom Apple orchard.  This would highlight the fact that even fruit species can go extinct.  It might also lead to an annual Heirloom Apple festival with all sort of potential revenue streams for the zoo.  It would also require a certain amount of engineering prowess to be successful in keeping out the local deer.  In this area the main feature is a hillock.  I would love to see that turned into a raised "field" with steep stone walls all around of say 10 feet with a stylish wrought iron fencing around it.  Access would come via a set of steps with a complimentary ADA ramp and a gate sufficient to keep the deer out.  A space large enough to hold 16 trees, 8 each of two endangered heirloom species like: the Virginia Greening and the Roxbury Russet.  The latter is considered the oldest apple cultivar to originate in the United States.

That's a lot.  Here are some pics of our lovely farmyard folk.

Maryland Zoo: Highlight #4 - Chimpanzee Forest

 Built in the mid-1990's, our Chimp Forest was the final bit of major construction that marked the late 1980's and 1990's as the Maryland Zoo's transformation into a modern zoological institution.  The Chimpanzee Forest is the epicenter of our Primate populations.  Built with a spacious interior featuring one large habitat called the "Day Room" specifically for the use of our Chimpanzees, and two smaller (but still large) adjacent interior habitats, followed on one end by a large habitat with both dry and wet areas (and under-water viewing) to house a species of African crocodile.  Multi-story faux trees with massive trunks both conceal support beams and integrate the guest experience in the large open hall with the habitats reserved for the apes and monkeys.  Live foliage adds a natural feel to the human only spaces.

When completed in the summer of 1995, the AZA christened it with a troop of 6 Chimpanzees.  It has been 25 years since Chimpanzees were part of the Maryland Zoo Experience.   One Male, Harvey (age 36), came from the Toledo Zoo on loan to anchor the troop as its first Alpha male.  Once a permanent male was selected, Harvey returned to Toledo and his home and troop there.  And Five Females: Joice, (age 23), her offspring, Renee (age 3), Carole (age 10), Rustie (age 7) who arrived pregnant and almost due (she gave birth to Raven, who was, obviously our first newborn Chimpanzee), and Bunny (Age 5).  From the start Joice asserted herself as the Alpha female and had a strong predilection to peacemaking.  To this day: Joice, Rustie, Carole, Bunny, and Rustie's daughter, Raven, remain part of our troop.  Renee and Rustie (who diabetic) both passed of natural causes.  Joice, at 53, is the oldest mammal at the Maryland Zoo and continues to play the role of peacemaker.  Four additional females joined the troop over time: Abbie Jane, Asali, and Rozi. Rozi was Rusties daughter and raised by keepers along side of Asali who was transferred from another zoo after her mother failed to nurture her.

Harvey was replaced by Kasoje, who was born at the Little Rock Zoo.  All of the females came to us from Yerkes Regional Primate Center in Georgia, a non-public AZA affiliated organization.  The next new members were a pair of brothers and former Hollywood Actors, Louie and Jack.  They starred in the two film franchise "MVP" Most Valuable Primates, a farce about Chimps who led a sport team to victory.  In addition, the pair were also seen in commercials and as guest spots on network shows.   The transition from life with humans to members of a Chimpanzee troop was not easy.  However, both boys found their footing, and today Jack is, in point of fact, the Alpha male--in spite of Kasoje's ongoing protestations. 

The final outside member is Alex.  If Jack is the Alpha Chimp, then Alex is the Omega.  Alex joined the troop in 2019 at the recommendation of the AZA after the Potowatomie Zoo in South Bend, Indiana decided to end their care of Chimps.  With a troop of just four, Alex and three females, and a habitat falling out of compliance with AZA requirements, Potowatomie Zoo made the difficult and necessary decision to place their focus on other species more suited to their space and welfare concerns for the animals in their care.  I learned only this past weekend that Alex, after nearly six years at the zoo, has never been formally introduced to Kasoje out of an abundance of caution for Kasoje's at times explosive temperament against Alex's demure and gentle nature.  This impresses the socks off of me.  How grateful I am that the habitats are designed with multiple interior and exterior spaces that allow for random and strategic grouping of the Chimpanzees.

So let us land in the year 2018.  The AZA's Chimpanzee committee meets and discusses the viability of the collective population, members at various institutions and desired lineages for future members.  As a result, the Maryland Zoo gets the green light to breed.  The first consequence of this occurs on July 5, 2019 with the birth of Lola to Bunny!  Bunny is a first time mom, and as keepers work with her, they have one major concern; Bunny has some degree of hearing loss.  Through the process, the depth of her disability becomes more apparent, but so does the depth of her maternal instincts.  Bunny is an excellent mom!  Prior to this, she was also the low chimp on the totem pole of females.  Now her cache among the troop rises exponentially.

In December of the same year, Raven gives birth to Violet.  Now there are two.  Then in the Summer of 2020, a newborn female chimp from the Oklahoma City Zoo joined our troop after her mother failed to nurture her.  At the Maryland Zoo, female member Abby came with a history of nurturing orphaned infants; however, this time she showed little interest.  That's when our keeper staff stepped in and using extraordinary strategies became Maisie's collective "mother," all the while working to introduce her to the troop.  The efforts paid-off.  And rather than a surrogate mother, she found a surrogate father in Louie.  Today she's a spunky little member of the sisterhood of young female chimps.

But wait, there's more!  In 2024, the troop experienced two births.  One chimp unfortunately died shortly after birth from conditions that could not have been remedied.  The other, another daughter, was born to Rozi and is our newest troop member, Ivy.  

A few years back, the Maryland Zoo made the extraordinary decision to hire a pair of animal research psychologists and create positions of lead and assistant Animal Behavioral Curators.  Their work began with making sense of the mountains of observational and behavior data that the zoo collects, and then turning that into actionable improvements for the welfare of our animals.  In the Chimp troop, this work led to a process called "Fission-Fusion" which monitors individual animal interactions in order to determine how to help them choose daily groupings.rs  Without the benefit of acres and acres of territory, this process best mimics the Chimps own natural ability to support or take a break from one another to the benefit of the ability of the troop to thrive socially.

On this midweek visit, I discovered only three members of the troop in the day room.  Louie relaxing on a bed of straw on his back.  Alex, grooming his lower belly and inner thighs, and little Maisie, grooming his left flank.  All engaged in behaviors that build their relationships and deepen their commitments to look out for one another.  Four Pics of Maisie

Four Pics of Maizie!

Additionally, the Chimpanzee Forest is home to a large, modular Herpetarium containing some of the Panamanian Golden Frogs that call the Maryland Zoo home.  Presently Extinct in the Wild in Panama, the Maryland Zoo was the first AZA institution to successfully breed these amazing amphibians in captivity.  The zoo is also a critically important partner with EVACC- El Valle Amphibian Conservation Center in Panama where the only captive population of this animal exists in the country that thinks of it as its national symbol.  At any given time there will be up to 40 male frogs in the herpetarium, while behind the scenes at the Panamanian Golden Frog Conservation Center located in the zoo's hospital, up to 500 members of this species can be found.  Chances are if you encounter them at any other AZA zoo or aquarium, there will be members that are first, second or third generations relatives of those residing there.

Every Panamanian Golden Frog has a unique pattern, like a fingerprint

Dinner: Ground Beef Chow Mein

 

Folger Theatre: A Room in the Castle

 "A Room in the Castle" is the story of Ophelia and the relationship that she develops with Queen Gertrude and a handmaid named Anna that ultimate gives her the power to write her own ending out of one of Shakespeare's most beloved tragedies, "Hamlet".  In "A Room" Lauren Gunderson, the playwright, does what she does so well, she creates empathetic characters who live just outside the lines of actual historical or fictional works.  She looks for the cracks and then inserts her own unique and delightful light.  The play is both funny and tragic, and holds the same timeline as Hamlet, only deeper inside the walls of Elsinore Castle.  

The acting is outstanding.  Anna, played by Burgess Byrd, is Ester Roll reincarnated and just as sassy and tiger-mom maternal.  I don't know if it was intentional, but a life-long fan of "Good Times" and Ms. Roll's creation of Florida Evans, Byrd seems to adopt many of her mannerisms and facial expressions--and it works.  Rather than feel stolen, they come off as inevitable.  Oneika Phillips plays the implacable Queen of Denmark in a script that is cut like a fine diamond or a polished glass slipper perfectly fitted to allow her walls to slowly come down as her world in the other play also unravels.  I would LOVE to see her play Gertrude in Hamlet, too. And here I take a moment to praise Gunderson again.  She devised  a way to integrate the two was simple, yet very affecting and didn't require any actual actors in the rolls of Hamlet, Laertes, Polonius or Claudius, for this was first and foremost a women's play.

Saving the best for last, Sabrina Lynne Sawyer was made to play the isolated, neurotic, creative and still very much adolescent Ophelia.  From the first time we see her sitting on her bed composing love songs in response to the letters Hamlet has sent to her, the very end when her escape is complete and she knows she will never again live in the shadow of a castle or a man I was captivated by her performance.   The production is a joint affair between Folger and the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company.  Both Byrd and Phillips work in the Cincinnati region, while Sawyer is a DMV native.  

One final shout out to a supporting member of the design team that I rarely praise: The Costumer.  Nicole Jescinth Smith created outfits that were trapped between two worlds: ancient Denmark and the red carpet.  Of particular note were the Queens gowns--stunning in their look and enhancing the character in the way they accentuated her powerful physical choices.   

When we first encounter Ophelia (Sabrina Lynn Sawyer) composing songs

Enter her handmaiden, Anna (Burgess Byrd), who was unaware of her musical talents.

When we first meet Queen Gertrude (Oneika Phillips), like her gown, she is as cold as ice.

But as she warms up, so does the color of her gown

Over wine the three women hatch a plan to save Ophelia's life.

And still there are obligations to the other play that must be met.

Anna, in her most tiger mom moment lets the queen know that if the plan fails it will be her fault and Anna will have her justice.

The plan does not fail, and yet the end for the queen is not something that she or they can rewrite...Her death scene delivered from a balcony.

Ophelia with Anna disguised as men realizing that they are as Anna tells them, "Free at last."