By Sean Yoes, AFRO Baltimore Editor, syoes@afro.com On the morning of April 25, agents of the FBI and IRS raided the Ashburton home of Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh. On May 1, there was a prayer vigil outside of Pugh’s house, led by her friends, some members of clergy and other political leaders. Things may not be looking […]
Author Archives: Sean Yoes
AFRO Baltimore Editor
Posted inArts & Culture, ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT, ENTERTAINMENT, TV and Film
21st Maryland Film Festival Set to Launch
By Sean Yoes, AFRO Baltimore Editor, syoes@afro.com For devotees of more avant garde cinema offerings, the Maryland Film Festival (MFF) has grown in power and prestige over the last 21 years and the festival, which runs this year from May 8-12, has earned a burgeoning national reputation for presenting a wide-range of films that elicit visceral responses […]
Posted inBaltimore News, Homepage Slider, NEWS, Uncategorized
The Demolition of Gilmor Homes Underway
By J. K. Schmid, Special to the AFRO There’s no horizon from the center of Gilmor Homes. Brick apartment blocks stretch out in every direction. There’s a park in the center. The picnic tables lie ruined. Rusty nails stick up out of the grass from the planks that used to be benches. A sapling tree has […]
Posted inBaltimore News, NEWS
Rodney Orange Jr., Longtime Director of Arena Players, Dies
By Sean Yoes, AFRO Baltimore Editor, syoes@afro.com Baltimore’s Arena Players is the oldest continuously operating Black community theatre in the United States. As executive director of the Arena Players for more than 30 years, Rodney Orange, Jr., had been instrumental in the ongoing viability of the theatre into the 21st century. Orange died April 22 of heart […]
Posted inBaltimore News, BUSINESS, LIFE & STYLE, Living, NEWS
`My Style of Jewelry Making is Not Traditional’
By Sean Yoes, AFRO Baltimore Editor, syoes@afro.com Tracey Beale first channeled her considerable artistic energy into a jewelry business in 2003. But, the Baltimore native has been a formidable creative force since prior to her days as a student at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), in the 1990’s. Tracey Beale is the creative force behind […]
Posted inBaltimore Government, Baltimore News, NEWS, POLITICS
A `Champion of Peace’ to Step Down
By Sean Yoes, AFRO Baltimore Editor There are thousands of people in Baltimore, many of them among the most disenfranchised communities of the city, who dread this week because they will have to bid farewell to Chief Melvin Russell, a man who embodied the term “public servant” as a member of the Baltimore Police Department (BPD), […]
Posted inArts & Culture, ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT, Baltimore News, ENTERTAINMENT, NEWS
Lady Brion: Power Through Poetry
By Sean Yoes, AFRO Baltimore Editor, syoes@afro.com Brion Gill, known on poetry stages internationally as “Lady Brion” wields her gift like a cudgel, or waves it like silk depending on the occasion. Yet, she consistently lifts her voice as an instrument for liberation. “As a community leader, poetry creates an opportunity for authentic expression that provides opportunity […]
Posted inArts & Culture, ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT, Books, BUSINESS, ENTERTAINMENT
Rebecca Dupas: ‘Not Without Black Women’
By Sean Yoes, AFRO Baltimore Editor, syoes@afro.com Award-winning poet Rebecca Dupas’ latest literary offering, Not Without Black Women, should perhaps be the mantra of the Democratic Party, reflecting its most loyal voting bloc. But, her compilation of poetry published earlier this year transcends the seeming ubiquity of American politics. “This year I published…Not Without Black Women in […]
Posted inBaltimore News, NEWS
Harrison’s De-construction of the BPD Seemed Inevitable
By Sean Yoes, AFRO Baltimore Editor, syoes@afro.com April 19 will mark four years since Freddie Carlos Gray, Jr. succumbed to the injuries he suffered while in custody of the Baltimore Police Department (BPD), a death ruled a homicide by the medical examiner. On April 12, 2015, police chased and jumped on Gray for “looking at them the […]
Posted inArts & Culture, ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT, Baltimore News, ENTERTAINMENT, NEWS
Award-Winning Actor Portrays `Douglass Now’
By Sean Yoes, AFRO Baltimore Editor, syoes@afro.com Smith, known for his roles in the Spike Lee Films, “Do the Right Thing,” “Malcolm X,” Summer of Sam,” and “School Daze,” among others, as well his portrayal of Black Panther Huey P. Newton and Rodney King on stage and screen, is touring the play nationwide. He was invited to […]
Posted inBaltimore News, BUSINESS, Food, LIFE & STYLE, NEWS
Brown Infuses Culture at ‘Nancy by SNAC’
By Sean Yoes, AFRO Baltimore Editor, syoes@afro.com Business Name: Nancy by SNAC Owners: Kevin Brown and Bill Maughlin What: Nancy by SNAC (Station North Arts Cafe), is the second eatery (their first restaurant SNAC opened in 2005) by partners Brown and Maughlin in the Station North community in September 2013. Brown is the head chef at Nancy, […]
Posted inBaltimore News, NEWS
Baltimore: Don’t ‘Believe’ the Hype
By Sean Yoes, Baltimore AFRO Editor syoes@afro.com I don’t remember a time quite like this in Baltimore; to paraphrase the great Chinua Achebe, everything is falling apart. As we continue to reel in the aftermath of the Uprising, which was sparked four years ago this month after the death of Freddie Gray (ruled a homicide) in […]
