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Photo by Philip Laubner
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Kinetic Powwow
This week we left the galleries, nightclubs and museums behind. We ventured out into the city to partake in two of our favorite Baltimore traditions; one that takes place all over town and the other takes place in an undisclosed location.
Here in Baltimore we know it takes multiple blizzards and about a dozen feet of snow to really appreciate the spring, so get out there and enjoy it while it lasts. And while on the subject of spring, Mobtown Modern is presenting a jazz ensemble reinterpreting Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring at The Metro Gallery on Wednesday. If I could only go to one show this week this would be the one.
This isn’t the time or place to take yourselves too seriously, people. This is What Weekly.
The Big Picture – Photo by Philip Laubner
In the big picture above: Where blue sky meets the Chesapeake is where you would have found the The Scotch Bonnets last Sunday when they descended on the 23rd Annual Powwow.
Giant pin wheels and the infectious energy of The Scotch Bonnets had me feeling like a lyric from Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.
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The Good Word.
Bmore Local is a coalition of residents, businesses and organizations in Baltimore who have come together for:
-smart development.
-healthy neighborhoods.
-good jobs.
See how you can help.
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Photo by Brooke Hall
Branwen Movahed and Kelly Ann Richmond were spotted here wearing traditional Pow Wow attire. For several years Kelly Ann has volunteered her time helping clean the site for the celebration and organizing the second stage. This year Dan The Man passed the torch and Kelly Ann, along with the rest of Tribe Productions, ran the show.
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What Weekly Magazine
Justin Allen
Brooke Hall
Contributor
Philip Laubner
Advertising
advertising@whatweekly.com
Contact
charmcity@whatweekly.com
www.whatweekly.com
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Photo by Brooke Hall
Please help misguided young men like Mason Lutz and Scott Grace by donating reasonable sunglasses to the ‘What Weekly Foundation For Ridiculous Sunglasses Intervention Project.’ Together we can make the kind of difference that can change someone’s life.
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Books, Live Music, Art Gallery and more!
Same block as Windup Space, across from Joe Squared. Plenty of room inside for your bike; FREE street parking for your car (we’ll plug your meter before 6, after that it’s free anyway) – come on over…
30 West North Ave.
Baltimore, MD, 21201
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Photo by Philip Laubner
Ah, it was a beautiful day, complete with sun, sea, sailboats and…hardcore punk?! A contradiction? Maybe for anyone other than the genre blending Paul “HR” Hudson, the legendary front man of the seminal DC punk band Bad Brains. Caption and photo by Philip Laubner.
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Photo by Brooke Hall
Happiness is…
Jesse Gelles and Noel Klein.
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Uvumi is a music discovery and promotion platform. Fans can find and listen to new music, artists can gain exposure and use free promotional tools. Check out their free Press Kit Tool.
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Photo by Brooke Hall
Here’s the formula for an instant party: A case of Natty Boh, a fifth of Jameson, invite all your friends over and download a Pasadena album (preferably paid for). If you listen to an entire Pasadena CD and then tell me you don’t like any of it, I’d assume that you were lying. These guys cover so much musical ground I’m not even going to list the genres but I will say this; it’s honest, poetic and danceable. Joe Harkum’s ability to tell a story through song is nothing less than remarkable. More than that, they’re all down to earth and their love for Baltimore shows.
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Photo by Brooke Hall
Extroversion is…
Jeremiah Brown.
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Photo by Philip Laubner
The Pow Wow starts mid-day, by the late afternoon the shaded beach to the east of the setting sun is a welcome respite for both my assistant James Hodges and his friend, sculptor Amanda Schmitt. Caption and photo by Philip Laubner.
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Fred Merrill went to Burning Man for the first time in 2000. The experience in the desert made him feel, in his words: “small”; he’d never experienced that many amazing, creative, and energized people before. Instead of letting it stop him, he was inspired to bring that energy back to Maryland. In 2004 Fred made his first wood sculpture for the Pow Wow and since then he’s created over 40 sculptures for burns in festivals all over the region. Here we see Fred putting the final touches on this years sculpture: “Phoenix.” Caption and photo by Philip Laubner.
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The Pow Wow combines all of the elements; fire, earth, air and water; in this spirit it’s all inclusive, and all forms of expression are welcome. There’s food, music, painting, sculpture, performance art and kinetic movement everywhere. Here we see writer, musician and poet Tom Swiss spinning with the inexhaustible Brittani Cawley. Caption and photo by Philip Laubner.
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Photo by Brooke Hall
Friendship is…
Mike Boyce, Steph Murdock, Jo Fox, Casey Jackson and James Hodges.
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Photo by Brooke Hall
Ryan Little, Dwight Nash and Natalie Flores caught quite content in our camera’s eye. Pow Wow is the first real outdoor festival of the season. And unlike most other outdoor festivals, this one isn’t centered around one neighborhood. All of the people you may have missed while tucked away for the winter come together to take in the sunshine and good will. It’s not uncommon to run into old friends you may have missed for years. This is the sentiment that makes Pow Wow unique.
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Photo by Brooke Hall
I’m not sure what Substantial did to get Shodekeh on stage, but no one was complaining. I think we ran out of compliments to give Shodekeh a long time ago so here’s one for Substantial. Baltimore needs more MC’s like Substantial who are both positive and talented. The city has enough negativity around the edges, that’s why What Weekly only spreads the good news and that’s why you’re in this week’s issue.
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Photo by Brooke Hall
Cheryl Molton hooping beneath the Phoenix.
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Photo by Brooke Hall
Phillip Whitley or Marry Poppins? A little of both I think.
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Photo by Brooke Hall
Mama Saray and Ms. Queen. If you don’t know Saray, you must not be from around here. Saray gets this week’s prestigious and highly coveted “If You Can Cook It She Can Cook It Better” award. Hands down, best fried tofu in the city.
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Photo by Brooke Hall
Just when things needed to get a little bit strange, Voodoo Pharmacology opened up their bag of tricks in time for the burn. Blending elements of organic and digital instrumentation to create a soundtrack fit for any of the Brothers Grimm’s darker fairy tales, the band was the perfect fit for twilight at Pow Wow.
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Photo by Brooke Hall
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Kinetic Sculpture Race
Photo by Brooke Hall
Each year, dozens of contestants (hoping to win the ‘Grand East Coast National Mediocre Champion’ award) come to Baltimore to compete in the fabulous and somewhat confusing American Visionary Art Museum’s Kinetic Sculpture Race, which really isn’t a race at all according to the judges we met on the scene.
What you’re looking at is the kinetic sculpture by Los Muertos, which appears to be a homage to both Arrabers and the Day of The Dead.
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The racecourse takes the contestants across the city over pavement, into the harbor, through the mud, over an ice rink and several other places I’m sure. No one ever watches the whole thing so know one really knows. Here’s the back half of Los Muertos as they ace the water obstacle.
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Guess who’s happy he’s not in Arizona?
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When I asked this mysterious bandito if Los Muertos represented any particular organization he said, “Los Make Believers.” Los Muertos won AVAM’s ‘Art’ award for the event.
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Photo by Brooke Hall
Winners of ‘The Best Pit Crew’ award, Team Platypus.
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Andy Hershberger and Oliver Hunter Heck.
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Crowds gather at this particular stretch of the race in hopes to see someone, anyone, sink. This is because we all know watching someone fail makes us feel a little better about ourselves and on this day they would not be disappointed. But it wasn’t Fifi who satiated the audience’s sadism. This veteran queen of the racing circuit exhibits the utmost grace and poise while doing her kinetic doggy paddle.
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Bumpo the Elephant makes an escape around the pier while authorities apprehend this Barrack Obama look alike who tried to hijack the packaderm in the midst of a paranoid delusion in which crazy people in white wigs and black robes were attacking him. As he was being dragged away, he could be heard mumbling to himself, “yes I can, yes I can.”
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Ed and Kim have been involved in the Kinetic Sculpture Race for twelve years and Ed actually had a hand in building Bumpo, which you would think might make him biased. The truth is that the bribes trading hands on the pier made any idea of objectivity kind of silly.
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 Photo by Brooke Hall
Finally failure! Well, kind of. They didn’t sink per se, but they did have to be towed to complete the course. And it was a team from the Johns Hopkins Engineering Department, no less. Yes, that is a Blue Jay perched upon a collapsing Kinetic Sculpture.
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‘Going to Hell’ from Falls Church, Virginia. Why does evil look so cool?
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Winner of the ‘Sock Creature of The Universe’ award, Team Chessie.
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Baltimore is…
Waiting for someone to sink.
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Thanks to the crew on the pier and everyone else from the American Visionary Art Museum for the hospitality and for being determined to make life a little more interesting.
What the . . . ?
What is What Weekly?
It’s an online magazine documenting Baltimore’s artistic Renaissance. We also handpick the most compelling upcoming events, live shows, exhibitions and performances each week. We have an awesome mission.
Want To Be a Part of What Weekly?
1. Share What Weekly with your friends. Forward it, link to it, spread the love.
2. Send us events you’d like us to cover.
3. Send us photos you’ve taken of events and we might publish them (we’ll also credit you and link back to you, of course).
4. Help us shoot or edit our video content.
5. Intern with us and we’ll teach you things. We need people who like HTML, programming, photography, writing, socializing, music, art and/or doing something meaningful. Get in touch.
Does What Weekly Advertise?
Why, yes. Yes we do. We have really affordable ad rates if you need to get the word out to young, enthusiastic and active Baltimoreans. Contact us if you’re interested. We advertise responsibily.
Want To Use One Of Our Photos?
That’s cool. And flattering. And since we’re all friends, we ask that you please credit WhatWeekly.com if you use our photos elsewhere. (Even if it’s just Facebook.) Thanks!
Giving Link Love
What Weekly is building an online collection of Baltimore artists, musicians, venues, restaurants and galleries that we love. We’re giving out some link love to other websites. If you’d like to be added to our Directory of Cool Things, please contact us.
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Friday, May 7
The Maryland Film Festival 11 am (all weekend)
Follow the link for the full schedule.
Opening Reception For ‘From Ireland’ by Janet Maher at Gallery 1448 6 pm
Gallery 1448 will be exhibiting the work in progress of this artist’s journey as she has sought to uncover her Irish roots.
Opening Reception for Salon No. 4 at Jordan Faye Contemporary 6 pm
Come visit, have a glass of wine & talk with 14 salon artists about their work on view all weekend & join us as we celebrate a variety of work from these talented emerging artists!
Videopolis 2010 at The Metro Gallery 7 pm (all weekend)
Three collaborative experiments by Baltimore based experimental music duo Lurch and Holler and Brooklyn based video artist Julia Oldham and two short films by Baltimore artist Catherine Pancake. Musicians will perform live music with video “optical scores” using dense color fields, flicker effects, and evolving images to break-down cinematic barriers and provide an immersive audio-visual experience.
Kevin Robinson and KREation at An Die Musik 8 pm
With Marc Evans, vocals; Kevin Robinson, woodwinds; Vattel Cherry, bass; Sandy Asirvatham, piano and vocals; Jamal Moore, woodwinds; Shareef Taher, drums; and Chris Taylor, percussion.
For more details, directions and events click here.
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Saturday, May 8
‘Mad As A Hatter’ at Geppi’s Entertainment Museum 11 am
It’s the “Mad As A Hatter” Museum Party from 11am-4pm with Wonderland-themed rooms, activities, crafts, prizes, face-painting and more!
The Flowrer Mart at Mount Vernon 11 am
Flowermart 2010 promises to be as varied and colorful and attendance is FREE.
Flower market including puppeteers, choirs, dance, children’s activities, authors, food and drinks, and contests.
Second Saturday’s at Station North 1 pm
Seven venues – all within 2 blocks of Charles Street and North Avenue – will feature free events throughout the day and evening to encourage people to venue-hop and experience the diversity and creativity of the Station North Arts & Entertainment District. Events this month include Art Exhibitions, Video Installations, Film Screenings, Theatrical Readings, Live Music Performances and more.
Urban / Appalachia- FUSION: Hip-Hop on the Mountain at the Creative Alliance 9 pm
Hip-hop performers cross boundaries and look to the Mountains. Beatbox king Shodekeh with the Shape Note Sisters. Cloggers from Footworks Percussive Dance Ensemble with break dancers the Funk Rhythm Junk Crew. Plus hip hop mainstays 5th L, Brown F.I.S.H. and DJ Booman. Proceeds benefit Wombworks.
Death Set and All Leather at The Talking Head 9 pm
Live experimental/punk/new wave/electro/post punk.
For more details, directions and events click here.
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Sunday, May 9
Drop-in Art Activities: Middle Eastern Bazaar 10 am
Discover the ancient techniques and wonders of the Middle East. Activities include Architectural Wonders. Embellished Book Covers, Glass Paintings, Calligraphic Creations, Past & Future Cityscapes.
Words and Music at Minas Gallery 5 pm
A melange of musical performances and words, the achievements of these three guests include The Hotel of Irrevocable Acts, Modern English, the San Fransisco Smut Fests, and the band T.T. Tucker and the Bum Rush Band. Featuring: Tom DiVenti, Jennifer Blowdryer and Carl Watson.
Six on Sunday: Regional Writers at Cyclops
Join us at Cyclops on Sunday night for a reading by six great writers from around the region. And, if you haven’t already joined the Cyclops Facebook page, please do!
The Gentlemen and Honey House at The Ottobar 7 pm
Live Celtic/Punk.
Professional Soul at Red Maple 9 pm
Urban Hip-Hop and R&B dance party.
For more details, directions and events click here.
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Tuesday, May 11
America’s newest live game show, ‘Let’s Do Some Stuff’ with Landis Expandis at The Hon Bar 7 pm
Free Beer!! Free Drinks!! Fabulous cash prizes!! Press your luck, test your skills, you’ll laugh so hard you might even fill in the blank!! All designed to help you forget how crappy your work day was. It’s americas newest happy hour game show… ‘Lets Do some Stuff”, with your host Landis Expandis.
Organic Soul at Eden’s Lounge 7 pm
An open-mic groomed with a house band made up of all-star musicians. A sort of poetic, soulful jam-session.
Follow the Buffalo Poetry Gala at Salamander Books 7:30 pm
uests Max Ochs and Kim Jensen, author of Bread Alone from Syracuse University Press, join workshop participants Heather Rounds, Ruth Mathews, Emily Peterson Crespo and Joseph Crespo among others in an evening of poetry and music at our new location in Salamander Books.
Out of Your Head Collective at The Windup Space 9:30 pm
The Out of Your Head Collective is an improvised music collective in Baltimore. Each Tuesday night at The Windup Space a new group is formed from the collective’s 30+ members to perform sets of never-before-heard improvised music.
DIG Dance Party at Joe Squared 10 pm
Funk dance party featuring: Landis Expandis and DJ Napspace.
For more details, directions and events click here.
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Ongoing
Atmospheres & Islands by Soledad Salamé and new works by David Brown at Goya Contemporary
Through July 17.
‘From Ireland’ by Janet Maher at Gallery 1448
Gallery 1448 will be exhibiting the work in progress of this artist’s journey as she has sought to uncover her Irish roots. Janet Maher is an Associate Professor of Art at Loyola University Maryland. Through May 23.
Natural Remedies Featuring work by Caitlin Cunningham & Alex Ebstein at John Fonda Gallery
Natural Remedies is a two person exhibition of new works by Caitlin Cunningham and Alex Ebstein. Both artists reflect on their consciousness of health, medicine, and alternative remedies through meticulous, psychedelic imagery. Ends May 30.
‘Social Change’ at The Towson Arts Collective
Artists gather in this juried show to address social change issues and to activate the community by engaging viewers with their re-use of materials, eliciting reactions and starting conversations. This show will be juried by Rebecca Hoffberger, Founder of American Visionary Art Museum and Marc Steiner, Host of the Marc Steiner Show. This show runs through June 3.
The Cyclical Nature of Obsolescence at UMBC
An investigation of the sculptural possibilities of vinyl records and their content: An installation by Patrick Rife. From April 28 to May 17.
Baker Artist Awards 2010 at The Baltimore Museum of Art
The BMA celebrates the Baker Artist Awards with an exhibition of sculpture, film, photography, drawings, music, and performance videos. Ends June 27.
For more details, directions and events click here.
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What is What Weekly?
What Weekly is an email magazine chronicling the real Baltimore movers and shakers- not the corporations, not the politics, What Weekly spotlights the PEOPLE. It’s one of the soon-to-be many platforms of the Baltimore Worldwide movement.
Why email? Disposable print media is wasteful and, with the advent and proliferation of the Internet, it can no longer be justified. Technology is a gift and a fun tool- let’s evolve and build things together.
If you want to be a part of the movement, you can send us your photos to publish, your events to promote and your ideas to talk about. Forward the email, start a movement. Your audience is the world, pass it on.
What’s the Goal?
One day soon you will hear a bit of news like this, “Email Magazine Reaches One Million People.” If we don’t do it, someone else will. We want to build the largest independent distribution channel in history and we’ll use it to tell the world what you’re doing. We want as many people as possible clicking on the links to your websites and ultimately taking an interest in the Baltimore Renaissance and its artists.
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What is Baltimore Worldwide?
Baltimore Worldwide is a movement dedicated to uniting the creative community in and around Baltimore City and then sharing it throughout the world for the benefit of Baltimore and it’s people. The movement has already begun; we just gave it a name.
Using a multi-media platform, we want to put Baltimore on the map so it’s recognized globally for the artistic and intellectual hub that it is. We start by chronicling your amazing work.
We understand that the distribution of ideas is no longer bound by geography. This paradigm shift allows for cultural movements to exist locally and globally simultaneously. We can share everything, we can create anything and we can reach everyone. It’s time to do something with that power.
Baltimore Worldwide does not exist without you. You are the soul of this movement.
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What’s the Story?
From the rubble of the industrial collapse, the people of Baltimore have built a cultural bizarre. We believe Baltimore is experiencing a cultural, artistic and intellectual renaissance that coincides with the global shift in consciousness.
At the same time, technology has given us the tools to reach across oceans and to empower, respect and grow our own local community. It’s an exciting time in history.
With the convergence of world-class institutions, Johns Hopkins, Peabody and MICA for instance, blended with a do-it-yourself attitude and elbow grease of a hard knock society, Baltimore is now the stage on which you’ll see a fascinating and freakish renaissance.
We’re going to document it. And share it with the world.
What’s the Good Word?
We believe in spreading the good news, which also means spotlighting organizations that do good things.
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