Azaleas are your garden’s spring royalty
Bright regal blossoms make azaleas a favorite in the spring garden. Most azalea varieties bloom from mid-April to mid-May in the mid-Atlantic area. While the hardier deciduous azaleas, which lose their leaves in fall, are native, you may be more familiar with evergreen azaleas, originally from Japan. Because azaleas have been hybridized (cross-bred) over many years, there is a wide ... READ MORE
Contemporary Art Institute opens at VCU
The $41-million Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University — built entirely with private money and opening April 21 — is the most recent feather in Richmond’s many-feathered cap. Almost five years ago, Forbes magazine listed Virginia’s capital city as one of the top 10 up-and-coming cities in the world for entrepreneurial startups. And last year Virginia... READ MORE
First lady of public television
If you’ve watched television in Baltimore during the past five decades or so, you have undoubtedly watched Rhea Feikin. “I’ve been around a long time!” the native Baltimorean laughed. Often dubbed the “First Lady” of Maryland Public Television (MPT), Feikin is currently familiar to viewers as host of the station’s on-air membership drives; anchor of MPT’s weekly... READ MORE
Up and raring to go at the crack of dawn
It was 8 a.m. on the East Coast. I was poised over my computer keyboard, stuck for an answer to a student’s question. So I picked up the phone and called the guy who would know — a former colleague from ages ago who had become an expert in the appropriate field. He answered on the first ring. “Didn’t wake you, did I?,” I asked. “Are you kidding?,” he replied. ... READ MORE
Allison Janney finally wins her first Oscar
The Academy Awards seemed like a formality when it came to the best supporting actress category this year. Since the world devoured Allison Janney’s brilliantly acidic performance as Tonya Harding’s abusive mother in I, Tonya, she has won nearly every major award she’s been up for — including a BAFTA, a Screen Actors Guild award, a Golden Globe and a Critics’ Choice... READ MORE
Ways to celebrate National Poetry Month
April is National Poetry Month, and there are numerous readings and events throughout the area in celebration. Many venues also offer poetry events year round. Here are a few options. Split This Rock Poetry Festival This biennial festival will take place April 19 to 21. Subtitled Poems of Provocation & Witness, the event gathers more than 700 poets and activists for readings,... READ MORE
Making sense of the world
Publisher’s note: Sometimes life sends us groping for answers. That’s generally true, for example, during our teenage years. But it’s also the case after the loss of a loved one or a personal setback. We may also search for words when we’re moved by intense feelings for natural beauty. For example, see our travel story on the tiny paradise nation of Andorra. But even in... READ MORE
A Columbia sculptor with animal instincts
What have we here? There’s an elephant with its trunk holding up a striped umbrella, a bear sitting behind a desk, a bird perched on an outhouse titled “Bird with an Urge,” and a “Sweet Beak” work with another bird tipping into a scoop of ice cream in a cone. These are but a few of the sculptured works created by Columbia artist Ken Beerbohm. About 10 years ago, Beerbohm,... READ MORE
Expressing our inner essence
Iambic pentameter, free verse, quatrains and a haiku or two will resound around Howard Community College on April 26, as students, local writers and prize-winning poets Marilyn Chin and Joseph Ross gather on the Columbia campus for the 10th annual Blackbird Poetry Festival. The all-day event, co-sponsored by HCC and HoCoPoLitSo (the Howard County Poetry and Literary Society), will be... READ MORE
Immigration Museum welcomes newcomers
“Not many people know that Baltimore was the third most active port — following New York and Boston — at which immigrants from many different nationalities across Europe would arrive in the United States,” said Brigitte Fessenden, president of the Baltimore Immigration Museum in Locust Point. “We want to highlight and promote the role Baltimore played during the country’s... READ MORE
