I worked on some skits (scroll to bottom, see “Skits”) this past summer for the Hopkins Center For Educational Resources (CER). They’re located in the Eisenhower Library, Hopkins’ Homewood campus. They turned out pretty nice, I think. Not earth-shattering. Not Italian Neo-Realism. Not French New Wave. But for library skits, I’ll take ’em.

I worked on the scripts with Macie Hall from the Center and we shot everything in a day. 5 skits in a day was a great challenge. How ironical (my favorite made-up word) ’twas Alonzo who worked on a series of Teacher/Student “behavior” videos. One might say there’s even a certain Serendippity. But that’s just making it sound like a lovely walk in the park. Who knows how what we do in life, may possibly connect with what we do later in life? And that’s the irony in this case. When I was a Professor in that other lifetime, I viewed life through a different set of glasses. But that’s also……….just making it sound like a lovely walk in the park.

Alonzo can smile now.

 

 

Tyrone Requer and Alonzo got to read an excerpt from “Zulu Fits” today at the CityLit Project, part of the Baltimore Book Festival. We had BIG FUN. It was an absolutely lovely day, and as I told Tyrone before we started—what a great day just to be a little goddamn artistic. I mentioned to Nicole (wiffee) a few other that “ain’t this grand” statements. I was fortunate to be asked. Hering your words out in the open air with people stopping by, or just momentarily “caught” by something coming from you—is a rush. Here’s the rest of the Playwriting Gang afterwards.

That’s Kathleen Barber, Barry Feinstein’s wife to my right. Barry runs the Fells Point Corner Theatre. Kathleen is a writing powerhouse. The more I stick around writing Plays, the more I appreciate times and events like this. It just hits all the buttons. There are so many “ornery” moments connected to Theater, that when an innocent one arrives you hardly know what to do with yourself. Got a wee bit humbled today……

 

I’ve tried MIGHTILY to describe the plot of “Zulu Fits” and try as I might, it always seems as though I’m talking about some 3-book trilogy that has some shape-shifting plot. I want it be synched-up into a neat nutty-buddy. Well, it’s not. And the more I think about it, the more I realize it’s just a freakin epic. That’s all. It has a design that by it’s very nature, by the very territory it covers, is mind-blowing (and yes, I know I’m the author of “Vivisections From The Blown Mind”). The next production of “Zulu Fits” will be the one that ARRIVES. Mark me words.

 

 

September 30th, me and 7 other Maryland State Arts Council Grant Winners (for Playwriting) will be reading excerpts from our scripts. Where? We’ll be reading Krazy Kat Style downtown as part of the Book festival.

It’ll be me reading along with another actor, Tyrone Requer. We’re psyched! Psyched I tell ya! We’re reading in a Tent right around the Monument on Charles St. We’re scheduled to start at 12:00. Come on down. We’re gonna tear Da Roof Off Da Sucka. Natch. Tyrone and Alonzo will be reading from “Zulu Fits”.

 

Here’s an update on the Project I’m working on with Hopkins. We have a new title and I think this gives a bit more clarity to the nature of our presentation. It’s happening on Nov. 5th.

 

I’m excited, to be sure.

 

Hey Out There! I’m working with Project Gado (Tom & Amy Smith) to create a dramatic presentation at Hopkins. We’re looking to incorporate images from the AFRO-AMERICAN Newspaper, which feature Hopkins and East Baltimore. I’ve already written the script—-and the actors are all on board (Yakima Rich, Tyrone Requer and Tucker Fultz). How’s bout that. We’re getting funding from the Welch Library and the Office of Government and Community Affairs. We’re looking for a 3rd party since we’re still a lil bit short money-wise.

We think it’s a gem of an idea—and Alonzo has been hard at work talking to a variety of campus organizations. Getting this off the ground has been a challenge to say the least. It’s all getting started from the ground up, and something like this has never been done at Hopkins before. So it takes some convincing (by Alonzo) to everyone I talk to that we’re not out to cure all the social ills between Hopkins and East Baltimore. I think folks immediately think we’re creating some polemic, propaganda about race and privilege. That’s for someone else’s play. We’re creating small, intimate moments that reflect on the development of Hopkins, the community of East Baltimore and framing these around some gorgeous historical images.

We’ll see how things work out as we move further into September…….

 

This was a sample Video from a Project I just completed in collaboration with the Johns Hopkins Center for Educational Resources. Like I say, it’s just a sample (you know that from the very opening when you see my big hand waving). Later this month I’ll post the link to the final Videos (5 total), that will be on the Center’s website. I had big fun doing them. Hired an independent editor, several actors (Yakima Rich being one of them, she can act for me ANYTIME. She’s that good) and we were off and running.

It was great to land this job. Candice Dalrymple, Director for the Center, and I just sorta stumbled into the territory. She mentioned it, I said I could do it. And there you have it. For the sample we filmed down at the Barnes and Noble on St. Paul and 33rd. St. I’m actually very excited about the possibilities that may come from this………as they used to say, “one never knows, do one?”

A few years ago Nicole and I started our own company, “Mumbo Jumbo Productions” (Ishmael Reed wrote a fabulous book called “Mumbo Jumbo”) and produced “That Serious He-Man Ball” at Towson under the Mumbo Jumbo auspices. Alas, the world of theatre didn’t quite embrace us, so back on the shelf it went. But now, I can see “Mumbo Jumbo” rising like a Phoenix!

This is my decade. I intend to own it.

Yes, it’s that time of year. The city has turned into a rainforest greenhouse. So it’s only right that I take a long bike ride during some vacay time. I was in Wildwood, NJ. and decided to ride to Atlantic City, NJ. A mere 67 miles—–but took the longer way home and made it 85 miles. Oh, did I mention it was 99 degrees. Here’s a monument of “Civil War Soldiers and Sailors,” along with my bike friday and my new best friend—my Carradice saddlebag. Who looks better? The monument or my Friday?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Continuing my ride back, I passed by a giant elephant “Lucy The Elephant,” who I thought was just a weird way for the City of Margate to express their love wholly mammoths.

But as is usually the case, little do Alonzo know.

So there…….meanwhile back at work somebody took my pic as I was “sounding intelligent” during a Student Activities Fair. We’re actually talking bicycle rides, which (lemme tell ya) is a lot more fun than talking medical school business. I’ve also been working on some video skits for Johns Hopkins Eisenhower Library.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And to wind things up, here’s a small taste of my (almost finished) play “B-Side Man”……(it’s all about my life, but you’ll get that pretty quick).

“I didn’t want normal. Normal? Normal? I watched my friends go normal. Blah on Normal. If I wanted Normal, I wouldn’t have been an UNEMPLOYED 35 YEARS OLD LIVING AT HOME WHEN MY DAD  CAUGHT ME IN THE BATHTUB WITH A 16 YR. OLD. Taboo? No. Ta-Boo-Boo.………(Pause)

My friends said going to school in Vermont would take me outta blackness. Wouldn’t know my culture, my people, yakkety-yak……I never had a problem with nobody’s blackness, especially my own, and I didn’t think fresh geography would change my perspective. I thought me being a little city with a dose of country let me breathe some fresh air.

Matter of fact, being of two worlds had advantages. During freshman year I got a ride home for Thanksgiving break. We hadda drop off a couple other students. We came outta the Green Mountains, through New York, parts of Jersey, Philly and by the time we hit Baltimore I thought—–this is some URBAN-ASS LANDSCAPE. I mean, coming outta this pristine, nature-filled, ROBUST land of maple syrup—back to Baltimore—-I almost said “keep driving”.  That first trip back I felt like black people were living in concentration camps. The whole east coast felt like a ghetto. Trains ran through ‘em, buses ran in ‘em, Alonzo wanted to run from ‘em. But who was I? What was I? I started to merge a little of both worlds. Brought some up-north devil-may-care to Baltimore, took back some racial ID to Vermont.

(We now her party sounds)

In B’Mo I now went to parties. Asked pretty women to dance. I was a full-blown Artiste who was time and a half for local office girlies, they mighta had jobs—but I had ideas and vo-cab-bu-lary. A visiting scholar in my own town. Back then women were impressed with men of arts and letters. It was a break from the 9-to-5 caramel Endicotts who were rushing to get MBA’s that were already useless. Brothers  in my neighborhood were always trying to land pretty women. And oh how they struggled. Stared women down. Drove impressive rides. Wore candy-colored suits. When everybody thinks they got the best dick on the planet, nobody does. Alonzo used…………..conversation. Is there anything more dangerous?”

Hey, it’s (as they used to say) “all the way live”.

Hey There. The summer scenes I’m thinking of aren’t all visual. I did do the annual “Tour Dem Parks, Hon!” ride a week ago.

This was—-drum roll—-the first time I’ve ever done an organized bicycle ride with another person. Hard to believe, yes. But there it is. I was with a co-worker from the Welch Library, Carrie Price. She thought she would do 25 miles, but right at the fork in ye olde road—there we were on our way to the 33 miler. (Carrie’s filling up on aqua at Patterson Park. Sure it was hot. And sure it was humid. It’s always that way for this ride

 

We had a fun time, and Carrie more than held her own. She has a bike that she’s been riding for over 20 years, but that baby came through like a true CHAMP-PEEN.

We motored along and she saw sights her Frederick-born self hadn’t seen in Baltimore. Everyone’s always surprised about the size and prettyness of the parks in B’More. Even though I work with Carrie, I didn’t know she was the tough trooper she was on a bike. Meaning: she didn’t complain.

Though you may not quite make it out, that’s the Patterson Park Pagoda behind the tree. I do love organized rides, but not everyone is made for spandex.

I’m just saying….but that’s small potatoes. The ride is really fabulous. You get nature, and you get some of the grit of the city.

 

 

 

 

Ever since I attended a library assembly meeting about being “born digital,” and unearthing “hidden collections,” these thoughts have stayed in my mind. I wasn’t born digital and thus, articles and reviews that were written about me are indeed hidden. I have to get them digitized, otherwise no one will know my participation in my own “scholarship” that is my writing, my plays. There is a volume of non-digital material that I have to get digitized. Why? Much like this blog—-I need to see it. I need to know that I was present during my career. And that career goes way back, much further than what I’ve posted so far. If you google up my name you won’t get anywhere NEAR what I consider a fair assessment of my artistic life. I need to make that right.

Hey it’s good to be back. Where’ve I been? Switzerland? Paris? Bangkok? Nope, Baltimore. Working. Writing. Eating. Riding. Living. Here’s some pics at the American Visionary Arts Museum—I went to the Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Awards Ceremony the other day, and saw some of me peers, we laughed it up. Everyone was kind, and as they say, generous in spirit.

 

 

 

 

 

That’s me with Kwame Kwei Arnah, Director of Center Stage. They’re probably not doing a play of mine anytime soon, but it’s good to have a conversation on a breezy night.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And Alonzo shares some fun with George Ciscle, Curator for MICA. George was actually my High School Art Teacher at Cardinal Gibbons, this was of course when Dinosaurs walked the earth.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And I think this pic says it all about my mood for the entire evening. If I could join the Rat Pack I would. As we participated in a very nice ceremony (it’s great when artists are just hanging out without the threat of “grading” each other), I realized it was time for me to get more involved in the world of big ideas. Preferably, my own. Not that I have to create them, I believe they’re already out there. I just think it’s time for them to be unleashed. TIme for a few more productions. Time for me to meet folks who’ve already been a bit more unleashed. Time, period. It felt good getting another grant. The more I can stay in the arts world and keep my name alive, the better I feel. Upward motion is often hard to define beyond something that goes up. Well, I feel that definition applied to my recent thoughts. I feel as though I’ve had enough spectator time at the races, and now it’s time for my own special event.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That’s Jim Carey who worked with me in the Playwrights-In-The-Schools program in another lifetime. Jim is a legend, and someone who showed me the ropes in a gracious manner. What can I say—it was a great night to be an artist.

Alonzo is headed to the TURNER CLASSIC FILM FESTIVAL this week. Will let you know how things went,  and what I saw. I’m very excited, first film festival and first time back in Los Angeles in a very long time. Staying with my good buddy Charles, and there are so many, many great films I’d like to see. “Chinatown” being one. I remember seeing that one evening on my own, and was just blown so far away it wasn’t funny. I’ve watched many times since and even have the title music. Extremely haunting and John Huston as Faye Dunaway’s notorious father is absolutely nefarious.

I think it’s the movie (not “Easy Rider”) that made Nicholson a star.