On a chilly evening last spring, the auditorium of Stephens Hall Theatre at Towson University was packed with opera patrons who had scored a ticket for Opera Baltimore’s nearly sold-out performance of Verdi’s beautifully tragic La Traviata, composed in 1853. Translated as “the fallen woman,” it tells the story of Violetta—in today’s parlance she might be described as part party girl, part influencer, and part high-class sex worker—who catches the eye of the wealthy Alfredo. This is opera, so theirs is not an easy romance, as class and other entanglements thwart their happily-ever-after, including—spoiler alert—her battle with tuberculosis, which had no cure in Verdi’s day.

The graceful soprano Lindsay Ohse, whose credits include critically acclaimed performances with major companies like the Metropolitan Opera (Met), was a charming lead, and the performance garnered rave reviews. Yet many Baltimoreans had no idea the performance had even taken place. Their exposure to opera may be limited to Bugs Bunny singing “Kill the Wabbit!” to the tune of “Ride of the Valkyries,” from Richard Wagner’s The Ring Cycle opera trilogy.

“It seems that many people imagine opera to be people in horns shouting at one another,” explains James Harp, who currently serves as artistic director for Maryland Opera (the second area opera company in addition to Opera Baltimore) and has been a leader in the city’s opera scene for nearly four decades.

“But the stories of opera are more relevant than people could possibly imagine,” he continues. “They tell the highs and lows of the human experience, set to the greatest music of all time. Opera is the culmination of the arts: It brings together the visual, the musical, the vocal, and the dramatic to create this incredible work of art that really takes us to a level that is so profoundly personal and reaches our very core.”

Baltimoreans may not be aware that opera has thrived in the city for nearly three centuries, starting in the 1700s. Later, it was ground zero for the performance of perhaps the country’s first homegrown opera that rose to European standards, when Arthur Clifton’s The Enterprise premiered here in 1822.

“Arthur Clifton was an English composer who immigrated to Baltimore and was central in the theatrical scene here,” says Dr. Aaron Ziegel, associate professor of music history and culture at Towson University and scholar-in-residence with Opera Baltimore. “This was the first operatic thing to be composed and premiered in Baltimore during the Colonial Era. The local press was really excited and there was a feeling that, ‘We’ve done it for the first time! A real, live, American-produced opera here in our city, composed by somebody here in our city, cast with actors from here in our city.’”

The years following the Civil War became known as the “golden age of opera.” A new theater district popped up around Howard Street with the construction of the Concordia Opera House, Ford’s Grand Opera House—the same Ford who owned the D.C. theater where Lincoln was assassinated—the Academy of Music, and The Music Hall. These venues were constructed to mimic the grand style of European opera houses, with a substantial main floor, tiered balconies, and stages that would fit the scenery and full choruses the large-scale productions demanded.

Unfortunately, none of these venues survive today except one: The Music Hall, now known as the Lyric. This majestic space, modeled after Amsterdam’s famous Concertgebouw, was purchased by Met Opera board chair and influential banker Otto Kahn in 1909. Kahn renamed it the Lyric Theater, securing it as a venue for Met performances. As a Met presenter, the Lyric would host major opera stars throughout the early part of the 20th century.

The quality of operas in Charm City and the popularity of the genre at the time gave rise to a sizable community of opera boosters in Baltimore. Eugene Martinet, a celebrated singer and director, founded the Baltimore Civic Opera Company in 1932, which largely featured local, amateur singers. That all changed when the company reorganized after his death and superstar diva Rosa Ponselle helmed the company as artistic director from roughly 1950 to 1979. Her star power attracted leading singers and professionalized the company, which dropped “civic” from its name entirely in 1970 to become the Baltimore Opera Company.

Baltimore Opera Company enjoyed many decades of high quality opera performances. Luminaries who later became household names came here, including Beverly Sills, Birgit Nilsson, Plácido Domingo, and Anna Moffo. The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, which shared the Lyric as its home venue until the 1982 opening of the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, served as the pit orchestra from the 1950s until the mid-1980s, when Baltimore Opera Company formed its own orchestra.

But like most arts institutions, Baltimore Opera Company faced its share of financial challenges. By the early 2000s, it was carrying significant debt. Operas are notoriously expensive to produce; revenue from ticket sales covers less than half of the cost of each production. The rest must be funded through public and private donations and an endowment draw. As a result, the annual budget can easily be blown off course. The 2007-2009 recession was the gust of wind that took down Baltimore Opera Company, which filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December 2008 and canceled its remaining two productions without issuing refunds to ticket holders.

James Harp, who served as Baltimore Opera Company’s artistic administrator beginning in 1989 and its chorus master from 1993 on, keenly felt the demise of the company he loved. “I felt it was like the plot of a terribly tragic opera of which I wanted no part,” Harp wrote to The Baltimore Sun in 2020.

Baltimore Opera Company eventually reorganized as Lyric Opera Baltimore and retained Harp as its artistic director. For five more seasons, it continued to perform at a high level at the Lyric—but Baltimore audiences’ changing tastes and increased competition in the market caused it to voluntarily fold in 2017.

But Harp and a dedicated team of board members felt opera still had a place in Baltimore; they just needed to find it. They tried again, forming Maryland Opera in 2018 with a rigorous eye toward sustainability.

“We came back with the intention of being an opera company with education programs and full stage productions but also acknowledging the new way of producing theater as being very flexible.” Harp explains. “And indeed we did not really have a home, but have found a home around the state.”

Today, Maryland Opera is appealing to new audiences, producing fully staged productions at unconventional venues like their popular First Friday performances at Boordy Vineyards. They’re also fostering a love of opera with a new generation through school programs and a two-week Opera Camp offered completely free for high school and early college-age students.

Baltimore Opera Company’s 2009 loss was another’s gain: The professional company Opera Baltimore was founded that year and today produces major, fully staged operas, such as this month’s production of Verdi’s Rigoletto.

“We began as a group of choristers who got together to produce one concert opera while the Baltimore Opera Company figured out how they were going to get past this hurdle and move forward,” recalls Opera Baltimore’s artistic director and general director Julia Turner Cooke, referring to Baltimore Opera Company’s bankruptcy. And from the start, they had a community-driven mission. “We’ve always been trying to do our best to run a conscientious, thoughtful opera company that honors all of the people involved,” says Cooke.

One of the ways Opera Baltimore lives out this goal is through community engagement initiatives. Last season, it partnered with several West Baltimore community organizations and the Enoch Pratt Free Library to create a series of events called Opera on the Avenue, to uplift the stories of African-American artists from Baltimore.

The first phase of the project celebrated African-American opera singer and Old West Baltimore native Anne Wiggins Brown, who was the first person to play “Bess” in George Gershwin’s famous opera Porgy and Bess. A special exhibit, titled “Baltimore Legends,” featured Anne Wiggins Brown and other Baltimore musicians and appeared online and in print at several city branches of the Enoch Pratt Free Library.

“Baltimore City is a predominantly African-American city. We are Opera Baltimore and we want to speak into—or sing into—the experience of our neighbors and our community. We want opera to be relevant and galvanize conversation,” says Catrin Davies, who serves as Opera Baltimore’s director of community engagement and development. In that role she also leads the organization’s other outreach initiatives that include school music programs and Opera Club, which she describes as, “like book club, only louder!”

Davies also wants to spread the word that Baltimore has performance opportunities for young and emerging singers, such as with the Young Victorian Theatre Company—known informally as “Young Vic”—where she also serves as artistic director. Each summer it performs an operetta—which tend to be lighter and often comedic—by Gilbert and Sullivan.

“Young Vic is fully professional in its staff and its principal [performers] and its orchestra. But the chorus is volunteer,” says Davies. “That alchemy is just so exciting because the principals are reminded of the joy of performing when they see these choristers coming to every rehearsal, prepared and bringing a high level of artistry, and, conversely, the chorus members get to be part of a very professional production.”

“WE WANT OPERA TO BE RELEVANT AND GALVANIZE CONVERSATION.”

Perhaps it’s no surprise that opera refuses to let the curtain fall in Baltimore given the city’s wealth of young talent, stemming from the its many exceptional opera-training programs.

At the Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University, singers have the opportunity to hone their craft in numerous performances, including a full opera production on the mainstage each semester—all of which the public is welcome to attend. And in preparation for graduation, they have access to classes and support to help them bridge the gap between being a student and a working professional through Peabody’s “Breakthrough Curriculum.”

“We want our students to think of what it means to be a citizen artist, and think about your career as being immersed in the community, and giving the community something that it needs or wants,” explains Elizabeth Futral, an internationally celebrated soprano who serves as Peabody’s Marc C. Von May Distinguished Chair of Vocal Studies.

Dr. Phillip Collister-Murray serves as professor of voice and chair of the music department at Towson University, which also performs a number of quality operas each year that are open to the public. He agrees that real-world skills are essential for today’s opera singers, who face a very different stage than their 20th-century counterparts.

“[Singers] need to have an entrepreneurial mindset and create for themselves the opportunities they will need to be successful,” explains Collister-Murray. “At Towson, you are required to take a number of courses outside of your discipline, which gives a broader perspective. We really nurture our students and are honest with them about what they need to do to be successful.”

A bit of a hidden gem is the vocal program at Morgan State University (MSU). At MSU’s Opera Workshop, students are acquainted with a broad knowledge of opera literature and receive practical onstage experience through the performance of solo and ensemble work. Marquita Lister, the workshop’s artistic director, whose stage credits include performing as “Bess” in New York City Opera’s Emmy Award-nominated production of Porgy and Bess, explains that the program is designed to engage participants in the intellectual and physical techniques used in the development of believable characters on stage and everything that goes into creating fully staged productions.

“For me, especially working at an HBCU [Historically Black Colleges and Universities], it is really important for our students to understand that we have excellence at all levels,” she states.

Students don’t have to look too far to find an exemplar of that excellence. Denyce Graves, one of the most acclaimed mezzo-sopranos of all time, whose Met performances of the title roles in Carmen and Samson et Dalila are the stuff of legends, serves as faculty member at Peabody Institute and is a regular presence in Baltimore. Her voice has been the soundtrack to some of America’s most important moments, including a memorial service for victims of 9/11 in September 2001 and the state funeral for Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Several years ago, Graves became aware of the story of the late Mary Cardwell Dawson—a singer of color who founded the National Negro Opera Company (NNOC) in 1941. In spite of Dawson’s talent and notable achievements—among them having her beloved NNOC perform on the Met stage—very few in the classical music world knew her story. Graves is working to change that. In 2021, she founded The Denyce Graves Foundation. Its Hidden Voices program seeks to sleuth out and elevate the stories of individuals like Dawson who deserve a place in our collective history.

“If we don’t tell a complete story of our history, whoever tells the narrative sort of controls what information we all learn,” says Graves. “I believe that this lack of information has hurt us all and created all kinds of stereotypes.”

Another key initiative of her Foundation is Shared Voices, a collaboration between HBCUs and top conservatories and schools of music in the United States that seeks to bring diversity, equity, and inclusion to music programming. Baltimore’s own Peabody Institute will host a Classical Vocal Arts Symposium for Shared Voices participants and others this fall, intended to provide students access to information about how careers in the classical vocal arts develop and focus on important aspects of a singer’s career, including vocal health, mental health, and physical fitness.

“HBCUs have this very rich [vocal] tradition, but oftentimes lack the resources to nurture this incredible talent,” says Graves. “I’m really proud that Peabody has really stepped out in front to develop and host this symposium.”

Inclusive, innovative efforts like these are what Baltimore’s opera scene needs to thrive into a fourth century. Says Graves, “I hope that more programs like this can be a bridge to help us all celebrate what is beautiful and what is great about all of us.”

Laura Farmer is a communications professional and former opera singer.

he phrase “the new normal” has been thrown around since the COVID-19 pandemic began, and as America struggles to define—and design—what that is exactly, colleges are paving the way for what it might look like.

After the chaos and uncertainty of 2020, colleges and universities throughout the Baltimore region began to find their groove as they moved into the 2021-2022 school year. Coronavirus safety committees had been erected, new mandates put in place, safety protocols implemented—everything from vaccine requirements to temperature checks to quarantine procedures and wastewater testing that can pinpoint a COVID infection before anyone is symptomatic.

By some counts, colleges may very well be the safest places to live and work.

“Just following simple rules of wearing face masks and social distancing, using wastewater management and testing when we need to, we have, in many ways, been able to return to normal life,” says Goucher College President Kent Devereaux. “Full athletics, student clubs, dining in the dining hall, use of the library—everything that you’d normally have, we’ve been able to return to.”

Despite the challenges and anxieties faced by students, staff, and faculty alike, some unexpected silver linings have emerged.

“It’s just incredible to watch how it’s grown into the vision that we, as a group of students, had.”

The widespread adoption of technology across college campuses has proven to provide more flexibility, efficiency, and innovation—and even accessibility, in some cases. Counseling sessions, for example, began to be conducted remotely during the pandemic and many students found that they preferred it to in-person sessions. Students who cannot, for whatever reason, make it to an in-person class can now study from anywhere.

Challenging times, combined with advances in technology and the general acceptance of it, have also brought more cooperation and collaboration among schools. It’s becoming more common, for example, for schools that offer complementary programs to partner with one another to offer students an educational pathway to continue studies in their chosen areas. That may mean a discounted tuition rate, a transfer of class credits, or an internship through a partner school.

Maybe most importantly though, schools, at their best, foster an environment where students are supported, expand who they are, and connect with like-minded people. At a time when gathering together is not always safe, being in a community has become even more precious, and students have found new ways to connect.

OCA Mocha, a coffeehouse in Arbutus founded by University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) students, is one example of how effective a gathering place can be at a time when people are craving human connection. What started as a class assignment—to design a community center of some sort—has become a gathering place not just for UMBC students and alumni, but the Arbutus community at large.

“We’ve heard a lot of stories from people who are extremely grateful to have this space,” says Michael Berardi, UMBC class of 2019 and co-founder and general manager of OCA Mocha, which stands for Opportunities for Community Alliances. The coffee shop includes a stage, a community room, and an art gallery, employs UMBC students and alumni, and provides internship opportunities for current UMBC students.

“We have local groups and organizations that meet regularly in our community space and are grateful to not have to meet in someone’s living room or church basement,” says Berardi. “We see a lot of connections being made. It’s just incredible to watch how it’s grown into the vision that we, as a group of students, had.”

We checked in with colleges and universities throughout the region to find out what’s new and what campus life and classes look like, two years into the pandemic.

COPPIN STATE UNIVERSITY
A historically Black institution founded in 1900, Coppin State University is situated in the heart of Baltimore City in the Mondawmin neighborhood. Part of the University System of Maryland in Baltimore, the school offers 32 undergraduate and 11 graduate degrees, along with nine certificate programs and one doctorate degree. It’s been rated No. 4 Best HBCU in the Nation (College Consensus), the Top 5 Best Value Online Program (Online School Center), and No. 17 Best Value in the Nation (College Consensus).

In the summer of 2021, CSU announced its Student Debt Relief Initiative, which clears roughly $1 million in student balances and provided a $1,200 credit to every student enrolled in the fall 2021 semester. CSU also created the Freddie Gray Student Success Scholarship, which is available to graduates of Carver Vocational-Technical High School, where Gray was a student.

Coppin also takes esports (competitive video gaming) seriously. In the fall of 2021, Coppin became the first HBCU to open a building on campus exclusively devoted to esports. The Premier Esports Lab opened in September with a guest appearance from Grammy-nominated artist Cordae.

• SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 2,383 undergraduates, 341 graduates
• STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 13:1
• ANNUAL TUITION: $6,809 in-state, $13,334 out-of-state
• ACCEPTANCE RATE: 40%
• POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Nursing, Business, Biology, Education, and Criminal Justice, Rehabilitation Counseling

DICKINSON COLLEGE
Founded in 1783, Dickinson College is a liberal arts college in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, with a suburban campus that spans 144 acres. The school offers 41 undergraduate degrees within 17 fields of study.

It’s been rated as one of the best schools in the country for its sustainability efforts, which include an 80-acre, USDA-certified organic farm. Princeton Review rated it No. 2 in the Top 50 Green Colleges, and it was rated No. 2 in Overall Top Performers among baccalaureate institutions in the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education’s “Sustainable Campus Index” in 2019 and 2020.

• SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 2,345
• STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 9:1
• ANNUAL TUITION: $58,708
• ACCEPTANCE RATE: 52%
• POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: International Business, Economics, Political Science & Government, International Relations & National Security, General Psychology

GETTYSBURG COLLEGE
Gettysburg College, a private, liberal arts school, sits on 225 acres adjacent to the historical Gettysburg Battlefield in Pennsylvania. Many of the buildings on campus are historically significant, so it’s no wonder that it draws students interested in studying history.

The school offers 65 academic programs, more than 120 campus clubs and organizations, and 800 events on campus each year, plus more than 100 study-abroad opportunities open to students.

Its Majestic Theater serves as a venue for the greater Gettysburg community, hosting national acts as well as performances by the school’s Sunderman Conservatory of Music students.

It’s ranked No. 12 for “students who study the most” by the Princeton Review, which also ranked Gettysburg College’s dining hall No. 9 in the country for best campus food.

• SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 2,600
• STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 10:1
• ANNUAL TUITION: $59,960
• ACCEPTANCE RATE: 56%
• POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Political Science, Economics, Health Sciences, Organization and Management Studies, History, Psychology

GOUCHER COLLEGE
A private, liberal arts college in Towson, Goucher College prides itself on its close-knit community.

Goucher was extremely proactive when it came to COVID-19 precautions, being the first in the state to implement wastewater testing, which is able to isolate COVID infections by dorm.

Also of note: The college recently opened two new residence halls as part of the school’s First-Year Village. One hundred percent of Goucher students study abroad, and the school is committed to sustainability.

Most recently, Goucher has begun exciting partnerships with other schools, such as Johns Hopkins University, Loyola University, and more to come, to provide a pathway for students to continue their education beyond Goucher. For instance, their 4+1 MBA Program allows students to earn an advanced business degree through Loyola via a “Fast Track” admission process, and at a 15% discount on tuition.

SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 1,100
STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 9:1
ANNUAL TUITION: $48,000
ACCEPTANCE RATE: 79%
POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Psychology, International Relations, Economics, Political Science, Business Administration

JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
Johns Hopkins University (JHU) offers nine academic divisions and hundreds of courses of study, with campuses spread throughout Baltimore, including the Peabody Institute, a music and dance conservatory in Mount Vernon. Its main Homewood campus is located on North Charles Street.

The prestigious, world-renowned university has a strong reputation for its public health and medical studies and has been compared to Ivy League schools.

One of its points of pride is its financial aid program, which covers 100% of calculated need for every admitted student, without loans. This means JHU works with families to calculate what they can afford to contribute toward the total cost of attendance—including meals, books, travel, and other expenses—and JHU covers the rest with grants that don’t need to be repaid.

This school year, JHU added two new minors: Latin American Studies and Writing Seminars.

It also announced new efforts this year to move toward a broader, more flexible undergraduate educational experience that will include a required first-year seminar and the streamlining of major requirements to allow for greater intellectual exploration.

• SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 6,333 undergraduates, 22,559 graduates
• STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 6:1
• ANNUAL TUITION: $56,313 for Peabody Institute, $58,720 for the School of Engineering and the School of Arts and Sciences
• ACCEPTANCE RATE: 9%
• POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Computer Science, Molecular and Cellular Biology, Neuroscience, Economics, Public Health Studies, International Studies

LOYOLA UNIVERSITY
This private, Jesuit institution offers undergraduate and graduate programs on a beautiful urban campus in northern Baltimore City. Education at Loyola is based in the Jesuit tradition of scholarship cura personalis, or care for the whole person. Loyola is known for its academic rigor while helping students lead purposeful lives. Seventy percent of students study abroad. It currently ranks fourth in best universities in the North region according to U.S. News & World Report.

• SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 3,787 undergraduates, 1,353 graduates
• STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 12:1
• ANNUAL TUITION: $53,430
• ACCEPTANCE RATE: 80%
• POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Business, Management, Marketing, Journalism, Social Sciences, Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Psychology, English Language and Literature, Engineering and Education.

McDANIEL COLLEGE
McDaniel College sits in a bucolic setting near Westminster in Carroll County. The private, four-year liberal arts college offers more than 70 undergraduate programs of study and more than 20 graduate programs. McDaniel’s most recent addition to its curriculum is a National Security Fellows Program that provides students with knowledge, skills, and experience in national security as well as the ability to specialize in an area of interest, such as interstate conflict, intrastate political violence, cybersecurity, ethics, and human rights.

Also new this year, McDaniel appointed an inaugural associate provost for equity and belonging who provides vision and leadership to the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and works in collaboration with the provost to co-lead the college’s diversity, equity, and inclusion administrative committee, and guides the Bias Education Response Support Team.

The school also launched a new STEM Center to serve as a physical hub to support students studying the sciences. It hosts workshops and other events while also supplying online and hybrid support.

• SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 1,757 undergraduates, 1,324 graduates
• STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 13:1
• ANNUAL TUITION: $46,336
• ACCEPTANCE RATE: 81%
• POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Kinesiology, Business Administration, Psychology, Biology, Political Science, International Studies

MORGAN STATE UNIVERSITY
The largest of Maryland’s HBCU’s (Historically Black Colleges and Universities), Morgan is a public institution founded in 1867. It is situated in northeast Baltimore. As a Carnegie-classified high research (R2) institution, Morgan provides instruction to a multiethnic, multiracial, multinational student body and offers more than 140 academic programs at undergraduate and graduate levels. As Maryland’s Preeminent Public Urban Research University, Morgan fulfills its mission to address the needs and challenges of the modern urban environment through intense community level study and pioneering solutions.

• SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 6,270 undergraduates, 1,364 graduates
• STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 15:1
• ANNUAL TUITION: $8,008 for in-state and $18,480 for out-of-state
• ACCEPTANCE RATE: 73%
• POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Civil Engineering, Communications Engineering, Business Administration and Management, Social Work, Biology/Biological Sciences, Architecture, Finance, Psychology, Sociology

NOTRE DAME OF MARYLAND UNIVERSITY
A private, Catholic liberal arts university in northern Baltimore, Notre Dame of Maryland University offers programs from undergraduate through PhD, as well as Maryland’s only women’s college. It recently launched the first master’s of art degree in Art Therapy program in the state.
The beautiful, wooded campus is just steps from the bustling downtown Baltimore culture. With values rooted in Catholicism, the school focuses on service to others and social responsibility.

• SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 783
• STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 7:1
• ANNUAL TUITION: $39,675
• ACCEPTANCE RATE: 88%
• POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Nursing, Education, Biology, Art Therapy, Pharmacy

TOWSON UNIVERSITY
One of the largest public universities in the state, Towson University offers more than 60 undergraduate majors and continues to draw students from other states, though it remains part of the University System of Maryland.

Its campus continues to expand, with a huge new dining hall, a 23,000-foot recreation and fitness facility with an indoor swimming pool, and its 5,200-seat arena for sporting events and concerts. In 2021, it opened its new Science Complex, the largest academic building on campus at 320,000 square feet.

In September, Towson opened its StarTUp at the Armory, a space for startups and new businesses to engage with the broader community and larger businesses. It serves as a home to Towson’s entrepreneurship programs, as well as student competitions and events.

While Towson remains the largest supplier of medical professionals and educators in the state, the university has also built a strong reputation for its College of Fine Arts and Communication, as well as its Asian Arts & Culture Center, both of which bring students into the wider community and the Baltimore community to Towson for enriching performing arts, music, and visual art programs.

• SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 17,907 undergraduates, 2,949 graduates
• STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 16:1
• ANNUAL TUITION: $7,100 in-state, $22,152 out-of-state
• POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Business Administration, Education, Nursing, Exercise Science, Psychology, Sociology and Anthropology, Biology, Computer Science, Information Technology

UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND, BALTIMORE
University of Maryland, Baltimore is Maryland’s only public health, law, and human services university. Located in downtown Baltimore, it offers 86 degree and certificate programs through its six nationally ranked professional schools—dentistry, law, medicine, nursing, pharmacy, and social work—and an interdisciplinary graduate school.

The school’s 14-acre BioPark is Baltimore’s biggest biotechnology cluster, employing 1,000 people, and remains on the cutting edge of new drugs, treatments, and medical devices.

• SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 7,244
• ANNUAL TUITION: Varies by school
• POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Medicine, Law, Dentistry, Pharmacy, Nursing, Social Work

UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND, BALTIMORE COUNTY
University of Maryland, Baltimore County educates a campus of more than 10,000 students in programs spanning the arts, engineering, information technology, humanities, sciences, preprofessional studies, and social sciences. Located on the edge of Baltimore County, it allows easy access into the city and all the conveniences of suburban life and housing. It also offers plenty of opportunities for study abroad.

In the fall of 2021, UMBC opened the Center for Well-Being, a new two-story complex that houses Retriever Integrated Health, Student Conduct and Community Standards, and i3b’s Gathering Space for Spiritual Well-Being. UMBC’s already significant NASA partnerships have continued to grow. In October, NASA announced a major award of $72 million over three years for the new Goddard Earth Sciences Technology and Research II center. UMBC is leading the national consortium and will receive over $38 million. The GESTAR II consortium will support over 120 researchers, creating extensive opportunities for breakthroughs in Earth and atmospheric science research, and providing major opportunities for students to conduct research and be mentored by NASA scientists and engineers.

• SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 13,638
• STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 17:1
• ANNUAL TUITION: $12,280 in-state, $28,470 out-of-state
• ACCEPTANCE RATE: 81%
• POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Computer and Information Sciences and Support Services, Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Social Sciences, Psychology, Visual and Performing Arts

Cited tuition costs exclude room and board and books.

“My mother, Myrtle, was an avid tennis player and we lived near Druid Hill Park, so my three sisters and I grew up playing,” recalls Ann Koger. “She joined the Baltimore Tennis Club, whose history people should look up. They were doctors, lawyers, and educators who offered lessons and they put together a program to develop juniors and organized tournaments.”

In 1917, the club, originally called the Monumental City Tennis Club, hosted the first National Championship of the American Tennis Association, which remains the oldest Black sports association in the U.S. In 1924, the club again hosted the ATA National Championships in Druid Hill Park. In 1948, several club members, including Koger’s mother, protested the segregation of the park’s popular clay courts and, despite arrests, got the city to open the courts.

Eventually, the Baltimore Tennis Club played host to U.S. Open and Wimbledon champions Althea Gibson and Arthur Ashe—as well as Koger, who would go on to a groundbreaking career at then-Morgan College, where she starred on the men’s team, and as one of the first two Black women, with former Morgan teammate Bonnie Logan, to play on the Virginia Slims professional circuit. (Koger was on hand when Billie Jean King routed Bobby Riggs in the famed “Battle of the Sexes” match at the Houston Astrodome in 1973.)

Not that discrimination on Baltimore’s tennis courts had ended when she began playing as a girl in the late ’50s. Black players could only use Druid Hill Park’s clay courts after white players had first crack. At public-court tournaments, the Black players were all put into the same bracket to prevent more than one from reaching the finals. Other tournaments were held at private white clubs, which maintained the city’s only grass courts.

“The first time I played on grass was at a national tournament in Illinois,” Koger says. “To prepare for the speed, I practiced indoors on a basketball court.” Then, there was the cheating by some white opponents, which was ignored by officials. “I told one girl that I was going keep playing until I met her again, and I was going beat her,” Koger says. “She looked at me like I was a crazy. Being 12, I’d sit down under a tree and cry.”

After her pro career, Koger coached at Haverford College for 35 years, once pulling the team from a South Carolina event as part of a boycott around the state capitol’s Confederate flag. She also found time to officiate college basketball and was the first women to referee a Division I men’s game in the ’80s. Still, her time at Morgan, where she lettered in seven sports from 1968-1972—an era loaded with Baltimore talent—remains memorable for many reasons.

“I taught [future NBA first-round pick] Marvin Webster his hook shot,” she laughs. “In a pick-up game, I once got sandwiched under the boards between [future Pro Bowl tight end] Ray Chester and another football player and got knocked out.

“Everyone always comments about my hair when they see those photos from Morgan,” Koger continues, with another laugh. “On campus, the police would stop me because they thought I was Angela Davis, who was then a fugitive wanted by the FBI. I don’t think I even look like Angela Davis. I did like the hairstyle. No fuss, which was perfect because I went from one sport to the next in those days.”

Not Angela Davis. But a revolutionary with a racquet.

In 2018, as an associate public health professor at Morgan State University, Lawrence Brown was honored with the Open Society Institute-Baltimore’s “Bold Thinker” award for sparking discussion around the city’s racial segregation. The same year, The Root named him to its annual list of the most influential African Americans ages 25 to 45.

After serving as a visiting professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the West Memphis native returns to Morgan this year to launch the school’s Center for Urban Health Equity. Brown’s new role coincides with the release of The Black Butterfly: The Harmful Politics of Race and Space in America. It’s a must-read for anyone who wants to understand the political and economic forces behind Baltimore’s bifurcated white and Black neighborhoods, and the modern-day segregation at the center of so much of the city’s inequity.

In 2015, you coined the term “The Black Butterfly” to describe the geography of East and West Baltimore. How did that term originate?
I had been teaching undergraduates about the segregation of space in the city and was trying to think of ways to get people to understand the concept. It was something the undergraduates—18, 19, 20 years old—could hang their hat on. The Black Butterfly is half a term of art and half of social science. [The street artist] Nether picked up on it and used it in a mural and [painter] Chris Wilson has used it in his work. The research in the book kind of came later, after others had already run with it.

This book is not directly focused on the struggle for voting rights or even of-the-moment concerns about the need for police reform. It’s a story of systemic racism in the built environment—infrastructure, housing, and neighborhoods.
I sum up the book in one sentence—you can’t make Black lives matter if you don’t make Black neighborhoods matter. There is a lot of activism and advocacy around Black lives and police violence. I wanted to expand the scope and say we shouldn’t just care about Black lives when they die at the hands of police, but we should care about all of the factors that lead up to early Black deaths . . . [including] health inequality. For every one of those [violent incidents], there’s 10,000 children, like Freddie Gray and Korryn Gaines, who are poisoned by lead. There’s people who die of asthma, HIV, or now COVID. If we’re saying Black Lives Matter, we have to care about Black neighborhoods, because that’s where Black people live.

In Baltimore, it seems the protests around the Port Covington tax increment financing (TIF) plan signaled a breakthrough moment in terms of how city government and public dollars foster segregation and inequality.
Port Covington was a turning point, in terms of organizing. There were marches and protests around the death of Freddie Gray. Now, there was organizing over a TIF. We had like 800 people come out to City Council work-group meetings at the War Memorial building that summer. It was 2016, the year after the Uprising, and here the city was giving a massive $660-million TIF to this billionaire at the corner of the “White L.” The public awareness [and outcry] was a tremendous step forward.

One of the most enlightening parts of the book is the look back at The Sun’s vociferous support of housing segregation.
The impetus for many white homeowner’s associations was the “Negro Invasion” [a characterization in the Baltimore Sun]. That was the rhetoric that was weaponized.

In 2010, as David Wilson was deciding whether to leave his chancellor post at both the University of Wisconsin colleges and the University of Wisconsin–Extension to become president at Morgan State University, he visited the campus to glean exactly what he would be inheriting. When his tour reached its outer edges, he saw the state of the Northwood Commons Shopping Center across Hillen Road and was immediately disillusioned.

“I could not understand the condition of the shopping center that was literally in [Morgan State’s] backyard,” Wilson says. “I left that first visit shaking my head thinking about how this could exist outside a significant university.”

Now, 10 years after Wilson took the Morgan State job and made rejuvenating the shopping center a top priority, things are finally starting to take shape. After a four-year negotiation process with developers, German grocery chain Lidl recently announced it will open a location in the plaza.

The new grocery store will eventually serve as an anchor for the $50-million renovation project expected to be completed by 2023, which will also include a new Barnes & Noble-branded bookstore, Morgan State public safety building, and sit-down restaurants.

“This whole area has been a food desert,” Wilson says. “We’re pleased this project will be anchored by a supermarket. We see it as more than just a place to minister to the needs of students and faculty, but also to the needs of the larger community.”

Morgan State has always been an important mainstay for Northeast Baltimore. The campus is rife with history and serves as a nexus for activity in the community. In turn, it’s important that the areas surrounding the school have amenities to support its 8,000 students, as well as residents of the neighborhood. Currently, the area is a bit desolate, with a McDonald’s, liquor store, and not much else.

The history of Morgan State, the largest of Maryland’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), traces back to the school’s founding in West Baltimore in 1867. It celebrated its sesquicentennial anniversary in 2017.

The school moved to its current location roughly a century ago, and its history with the Northwood Shopping Center has been complicated throughout the years. In particular, during the 1950s and 1960s, when black students, who weren’t permitted to patronize the center’s movie theater and drugstore’s lunch counter, began organizing demonstrations and sit-ins. The Morgan students’ protests, including the first successful lunch counter sit-in in the country at Read’s drugstore, set off a chain reaction that saw the desegregation of many businesses across the city.

“The students rose up and said, ‘Enough of this—we are going to be treated like human beings who are full citizens,’” Wilson says. “That’s the wound that has stayed with that area for six decades.”

Unfortunately, there is still tension from this trying time in Morgan’s history, according to Wilson. He has often found that any mention of the center is met with apprehension.

“Those meetings in the first three or four years of my tenure were the toughest in my entire career,” he says. “They were ripe with raw emotion, yelling, and no progress. It took a lot of effort and care to spend time with community associations and build trust.”

Wilson lobbied in Annapolis to secure funding for the part of the property that Morgan State controlled, soon after issuing a mandate to the property’s owners, Northwood, SC, to be creative with their stake in collaboration with the two project developers—local firms MCB Real Estate and MLR Partners are also collaborating in the deal. Through that process, all parties involved have come up with a redevelopment plan and construction fencing is being put up as of this month. When finished, the hope is for the renovated plaza to bring new tax dollars into the area and create jobs for students.

“This is a great community, and it’s underserviced,” says Mark Renbaum, managing partner of MLR Partners. “This is not just a real estate project—it’s a lot more than that. Our strategy was to structure redevelopment around a community that was desiring better services than what was currently being offered, as well as integrating development to Morgan State.”

Though the target date for completion is three years away, Morgan State hopes to use the project to grow its enrollment, as well as show the community tangible progress.

“It’s been a long time coming,” says David Bramble, managing partner of MCB Real Estate. “The community needed a clean and safe shopping center.”

Of course, the project’s epicenter is Morgan State, where students will soon have a place to get a late bite to eat, grab fresh food for the week, and congregate with other members of the community.

“We’re envisioning this area becoming a model community where people all over the world will come to recognize what it means to be an anchor institution playing a significant role in community revitalization,” Wilson says. “This is a turning point for Morgan State and Northeast Baltimore. This is the first step toward healing some of those deep wounds that unfortunately were inflicted over 50 years ago.”

Former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton will attend and speak at the funeral of Congressman Elijah Cummings in Baltimore on Friday, Cummings’ office has announced.

Cummings, the passionate advocate for civil rights and Baltimore, died a week ago at the age of 68 from complications due to longstanding health challenges.

Other speakers at the Friday service, according to the release from Cummings’ congressional office, include Baltimore native and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, former U.S. Senator and First Lady Hillary Clinton, former NAACP leader and Baltimore congressman Kweisi Mfume, University of Maryland School of Law professor Larry Gibson, former City Health Department commissioner and former head of Planned Parenthood Leana Wen, and several of Cummings’ immediate family members, including his widow Maya Rockeymoore Cummings.

Rockeymoore Cummings, chairwoman of the Maryland Democratic Party, is expected to be among those to run for her late husband’s seat.

An overflowing crowd is expected Friday morning for the 10 a.m. services at New Psalmist Baptist Church in Northwest Baltimore. Bishop Walter S. Thomas Jr., pastor at New Psalmist, where Cummings regularly attended services, will deliver the eulogy.

Thursday, the late Democratic chairman of the House Oversight Committee will lie in state for public viewing at the U.S. Capitol. Born and raised in Baltimore, the son of former South Carolina sharecroppers is the first African American elected official to be so honored.

It is a special recognition that since 1852 has been bestowed less than three dozen times previously for former presidents, statesman, and military leaders in the history of United States. “Of the many things I learned from my father—and neither he nor my mother completed elementary school because they went to work in the fields—was to treat everyone with equal respect and not to speak or act out of anger,” Cummings told us in a 2014 Baltimore profile.

The service at the Capitol will include an arrival ceremony, a scripture reading from Baltimore native and Maryland U.S. Senator Ben Cardin, wreath-laying presentations from leaders of the House and Senate, and music from the Morgan State Gospel Choir. The event will be live streamed and recorded by C-Span.

Yesterday, Morgan State University, where Cummings had sat on the board of directors, hosted a viewing and services for the former legislator that included remarks from two-dozen city and state leaders, including Baltimore native and former Maryland U.S. Senator Barbara Mikulski. Earlier this year, Cummings gave the commencement address to Morgan’s 143rd spring graduating class.

Cummings’ career in public service began in the Maryland House of Delegates, where he served for 14 years and became the first African American in state history to be named speaker pro tem.

Among the mourners at Morgan was 59-year-old Noreen Wright, a nurse, who brought her 9 and 12-year-old grandsons, telling The Washington Post that she wanted them to witness history. “He’s an icon,” Wright said of Cummings. “He’s someone that the next generation can look at to see how it’s supposed to be done.” With tears in her eyes, according to The Post, Wright described Cummings as a modern-day civil rights leader. “He’s like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to me,” she said. “He stood for the rights of people.”

Visual Art

Monsters & Myths: Surrealism and War in the 1930s and 1940s
Constant conflict throughout Europe in the 1930s and 1940s shaped many of the great modern artists. This show focuses on the Surrealists—Salvador Dalí, Pablo Picasso, Max Ernst, and André Masson, among others—and how they interpreted the violence and destruction around them. View masterworks inspired by the Spanish Civil War and World War II in this exhibition of nearly 90 pieces. Opens Feb. 24; on view during museum hours through May 26. Baltimore Museum of Art, 10 Art Museum Dr.

David Driskell: Memories of Romare Bearden
Presented in conjunction with the exhibition Romare Bearden: Visionary Artist, join one of the leading authorities on African-American art for a discussion of Bearden and his impact. David Driskell will present not only his scholarly opinion, but his personal memories of Bearden as both a friend and artist. 1-3 p.m. Feb. 9. Reginald F. Lewis Museum, 830 E. Pratt St.

Music

Fourth Annual Charm City Django Jazz Fest
Celebrate the musical legacy of jazz legend Django Reinhardt over two days at the Creative Alliance. Enjoy workshops and performances from acts such as Baltimore gypsy jazz outfit Ultrafaux and Ellicott City teen guitar star Samuel Farthing, or stop in Saturday evening for a free lecture about the life of the man himself from Siv B. Lie. Times vary Feb. 22-23. Creative Alliance, 3134 Eastern Ave.

Theater

UnPresidented! A Political Variety Show
The most people usually do to celebrate President’s Day is buy a mattress at a discount. Spice up this holiday by heading to Single Carrot Theatre for a cabaret-style night of parody songs, political-themed strip tease, and artful renditions of presidential erotic poetry. Pro tip: Snag a VIP ticket for a front-row seat and open bar privileges. 8 p.m. Feb. 16. Single Carrot Theatre, 2600 N. Howard St.

Film

Docs from the Docks: Trash Dance
When most people see garbage trucks, they don’t think beauty—and that’s if they think of them at all. Choreographer Allison Orr wanted people to see these essential vehicles and the people who work on them in a new light, so she got to work. The result is Trash Dance, a Sundance- and AFI-lauded documentary about Austin’s sanitation workers, their lives, and the one night they came together to dance in front of thousands. Ahead of the screening, enjoy a live dance performed by Baltimore’s own Fluid Movement. Doors at 6:30 p.m., screening at 7 p.m., panel Q&A to follow, Feb. 21. Brown Advisory, 901 S. Bond St.

From Swastika to Jim Crow
Jewish academics who escaped Nazi Germany arrived in the United States to find that antisemitism was rampant on both sides of the Atlantic. Turned away by many major universities, these scholars began teaching at Historically Black Colleges and Universities throughout the South, where they bonded with their students through shared experiences of segregation and discrimination. From Swastika to Jim Crow explores this phenomenon and the ways it shaped both groups. 7-8:30 p.m. Feb. 27. Morgan State University Student Center Theater, 1700 E. Cold Spring Ln.

Dance

Lunar New Year Celebration
Ring in the Year of the Pig with this annual celebration at The Walters Art Museum. Let the kids try out art activities and a Chinese zodiac-themed scavenger hunt through the Arts of Asia, then secure your spot in the Sculpture Court for a performance by the Yong Han Lion Dance Troupe. The colorful dance featuring traditional lion costumes is a spectacle not to be missed. 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Feb. 10. The Walters Art Museum, 600 N. Charles St.

Literature

Talking About Race: Steve Luxenberg and Judge Robert Bell
Author and Washington Post senior editor Steve Luxenberg will be joined by former chief judge of the Maryland Court of Appeals Robert Bell for this conversation about the lasting impact of Plessy v. Ferguson, the court case that established the “separate but equal” doctrine in the United States. Luxenberg’s new book, Separate: The Story of Plessy v. Ferguson, recounts the case through the eyes of its major figures using letters, diaries, and archives. Copies will be available for sale and signing following the discussion. 7-8:30 p.m. Feb. 13. Church of The Redeemer, 5603 N. Charles St.

News

True Vine Finds a New Home
The True Vine Record Shop has announced that the store will move to a new location in Station North. Golden West Cafe will take over the shop’s former Hampden home, and True Vine is scheduled to reopen in its new space at 1827 N. Charles Street sometime this spring. A GoFundMe to help cover relocation costs has raised nearly $3,000 since being launched Dec. 16.

Talk about getting the best news ever!

During the homecoming halftime performance, the Magnificent Marching Machine at Morgan State University found out that they will be taking their signature Baltimore beat up to NYC for the 2019 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on November 21.

For weeks, the Macy’s parade staff has been secretly working with the band’s director, Melvin Miles, to pull off this once-in-a-lifetime surprise for the members of the band. The stunned students learned that they are one of nine marching bands selected—from a pool of more than 100 applicants nationwide—to participate in the 93rd annual holiday spectacular.

“The Magnificent Marching Machine has a long tradition of entertaining crowds by delivering high energy performances with a big sound,” said Wesley Wheatley, creative producer for the parade in an email. “Those traits will translate perfectly to the streets of NYC on Thanksgiving morning.”

The Morganites will make their first appearance in the show with more than four million spectators braving the cold Manhattan streets to watch the three-hour parade, and an average of 23 million viewers at home.

The official lineup has yet to be announced, but here at Baltimore (and as an MSU alum) we are proud to have one our own to represent in such a major way.

“The entire Morgan Community is excited and looking forward to seeing our Bears on such a grand stage,” said David Wilson, president of MSU. “This is will be our occasion to share just a small sample of ‘The Morgan Way’ with the rest of the world.”

In its third year, Light City has expanded to cover three weekends: Neighborhood Lights from April 6-8, Light City art and music festival from April 14-21, and Labs@LightCity from April 18-21. Expect to see 21 illuminated art installations along the Inner Harbor, more than 50 performances, dozens of speakers at panel discussions at Labs@LightCity, fireworks, and a whole lot of light bulbs.

Opening Night Parade

The kickoff to the main festival comes by way of parade. Community groups, school marching bands, stilt-walkers, and arts groups will take to the streets in a celebratory walk that starts at 7:30 p.m. April 14. You can stop by 621 E. Pratt St. at noon that day for a workshop to make artwork for the parade, then take part in it. After all, this is about celebrating our city and the people and art who make it light up.

Grand Master Flash and G. Love

Headlining music acts are always a draw, and this year is no exception. Headlining music acts: Grand Master Flash will perform at 10 p.m. April 14, G. Love & Special Sauce at 10:30 p.m. April 20, and Kimbra at 10:30 p.m. April 21 on the Light Up the Night! Concert Stage at the Inner Harbor Amphitheater. For a complete list of musical acts, see https://lightcity.org.

A New Stage

A second Club Light City stage, presented by Morgan State University, has been added to the event in 2018 to showcase local, national, and international DJs playing house, dance, and hip-hop in Kaufman Pavilion by Rash Field.

Audio Tour

New this year, you can grab your phone, dial 410-934-7821, enter the number of your Art Walk stop, and listen in* for a self-guided audio tour of the art installations—both at the BGE Light Art Walk and Neighborhood Lights. Learn about the stories behind these wondrous pieces. (*Works best on speaker phone and shared with friends.) 

Illuminated Crankies

Crankies have gained widespread appeal throughout the city, perhaps in part to performances at Black Cherry Puppet Theater and the popular Crankie Fest at the Creative Alliance. Lantern Studios will roll a cart through the festival that will bring shadow puppet crankies shows to the streets. As the story scroll is lit from behind to reveal silhouetted characters and settings, crankies are a perfect addition to a festival of lights.

Drone Prix

A drone race—the only of its kind in the world—will bring league competitors from across the country to the festival’s light installation/sculpture garden/obstacle course, created by Baltimore-based artist collaborative McCormack and Figg. During any race downtime, you can wander through the installation to see it up close.

Labs@LightCity

Billed as an “ecosystem of ideas,” Labs@LightCity brings together leading thinkers for conversations focusing on education, the environment, the arts, social issues, health, the makers movement, and food. Registration is required, but tickets are “pay what you can.” There are so many speakers to get excited about, it’s hard to choose—arts activist Aaron Maybin, Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr. of the Hip Hop Caucus, beloved artist Joyce Scott, radio host Marion Winik, to name a few.

Fireflies Pedicabs

Whether you ride on one of artist Cai Guo-Qiang’s Fireflies, or watch them go by, these whimsical pedicabs will be a sight to behold. The artist designed 27 illuminated kinetic sculptures that will be attached to pedicabs, for a more festive way to travel during the event.

Neighborhood Lights

This artist-in-residence program pairs local visual artists with community organizers in 14 Baltimore neighborhoods. For a full weekend, you can see site-specific art installations made specifically with each neighborhood personality in mind. Take photos because they won’t last long. That’s part of their beauty.

“The Eighth Art”

Much like Labs@LightCity, it’s impossible to pick just one art installation at the Inner Harbor when each of the 21 pieces will be mind blowing. For instance, “The Eighth Art,” by Erinn E. Hagerty and Adam P. Savje of Unfolding of the Wave Ltd., is a 24-foot geodesic dome that you can actually get inside of, to watch the light displays around you.

His lucky shirt.
A Las Vegas doctor credited an Under Armour compression T-shirt with saving the life of shooting victim Philip Aurich, who suffered major internal injuries in the deadliest mass shooting in recent U.S. history.

The Minnesota-native, who was shot in the back, was moved out of intensive care this week, WCCO in Minneapolis reported. Aurich’s brother told the television station that doctors said the tight-fitting Under Armour T-shirt his sibling had worn helped compress the bleeding until he reached the hospital and helped saved his life.

“Doctors said that shirt was a big part of him not bleeding terribly, bleeding out, pretty, much,” Ben Aurich, who played high school football with his brother in St. Paul, told WCCO.

This past Sunday, Philip Aurich, who lost his spleen and part of his colon—and still has a bullet lodged in his lung—got to see his two kids for the first time since the shooting. 

Good News; bad news.
The good news first: Baltimore moved closer to becoming a host of the 2026 FIFA World Cup this week. The United Bid Committee, coordinating the joint effort between the U.S., Canada, and Mexico to host the 2026 tournament, announced that Baltimore and M&T Bank Stadium had made the narrowing list of 32 cities that could serve as a venue for the world’s most prestigious soccer tournament. (Pittsburgh notably did not make the list. Just saying.) At least a dozen cities will ultimately host games. The bad news? The U.S. men’s soccer team lost 2-1 to Trinidad and Tobago in a qualifying round Tuesday for the 2018 World Cup in Russia, thereby getting eliminated before the tourney even began. 

Will (legal) sports betting come to Maryland?
The 1992 Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act prohibited sports betting in every state—save four: Nevada, Montana, Delaware, and New Jersey. However, the law required that those states offer sports betting with a year, which the Garden State did not do—or they’d lose their privilege, giving rise to current N.J. Gov. Chris Christie’s subsequent legal challenge. The U.S. Supreme is scheduled to hear New Jersey’s petition Dec. 4. Among the groups filing amicus curiae (“friend of the court”) briefs are the European Sports Security Administration, the American Gaming Association, West Virginia and 17 other states, as well as the governors of Kentucky, North Dakota—and Maryland. Gov. Larry Hogan hasn’t said much about legalizing sports betting, but he is considered a long-time political ally of Christie. A bill last year was introduced into the General Assembly to study and implement sports betting—contingent on the overturning of the ’92 federal ban. Gambling lobbyists have already begun campaigning for state elected officials to take up measure again in 2018.

This is monumental.

Morgan State University, celebrating its 150th anniversary, unveiled its new “Legends Plaza” on campus this week, including life-size bronze statues of former Coach Edward (“Eddie”) Hurt and Coach Earl (“Papa Bear”) Banks. According to a press release from Morgan, the memorial—part of a nearly 2,000-square-foot enclosed area near Hughes Stadium and the school’s student center—will eventually add bronze plaques honoring other former Morgan athletic standouts as well. Starting in 1929, Hurt’s football, basketball, and track squads won 33 conference titles, and once posted a 54-game winning streak on the gridiron. Banks’ football teams won five CIAA conference championships, played in four bowl games, and posted three regular-season unbeaten records, including a 31-game winning streak.                                                                                                                      

“It’s okay not to be okay.” 
Greatest swimmer of all time and Towson native Michael Phelps opened up recently about his own anxiety, sharing a story about being bullied and depressed in the new documentary Angst. IndieFlix CEO and founder Scilla Andreen, which made the film, told the Associated Press that she hopes the 56-minute documentary will reach more than 3 million people around the world from 25,000 school and community screenings. Shot in the U.S. and U.K, the film is appropriate for children age 10 and older.

“Once I opened up about that [being bullied] and things that I had kept inside of me for so many years, I then found that life was a lot easier,” Phelps says in the film, describing a period when he did not want to look at himself in mirror. “I got to the point where I understood that it’s OK to not be OK.”      

With deep roots in the city, not to mention its national headquarters, the NAACP kicks off its annual national convention in Baltimore this weekend.

Elected officials scheduled to speak at the convention over the next several days include Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings and Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin. Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ)—all considered possible Democratic presidential contenders in 2020—are also scheduled to appear.

The convention officially begins Friday with an opening press conference slotted for Saturday at 9:30 a.m., during which the NAACP has said it will be making an announcement about the future of the organization. The nation’s oldest and largest civil rights organization has been without a president since its board of directors announced it was letting go of Cornell Brooks last month. 

Earlier this week, President Donald Trump said he had declined an invitation to address the convention. The White House said later it would be open to meeting with NAACP leadership for a dialogue. 

Among the recent issues in contention between the civil rights organization and the new president have been the Trump Administration’s efforts to collect detailed voter data from state governments.

In a statement, Leon W. Russell, chair of the NAACP national board of directors, described the nation as finding itself “in a new period of turmoil” with looming cutbacks in education funding, civil rights enforcement and health care. 

“This year’s convention takes place at a pivotal time for our country, and for our association,” said Russell.

“Our theme for 2017 (“steadfast and immovable”) reminds us that as an organization, our intent is to fulfill the vision and mission of our founders, and we will leave Baltimore united and committed to making our nation a better place for all,” said Derrick Johnson, vice-chair of the board of directors.

The five-day conference features seminars, committee meetings, workshops, exhibits and panel discussions, as well as keynote addresses from NAACP staff, civil rights and faith leaders, elected officials, and media and youth leaders.

Tessa Hill-Aston, president of the NAACP’s Baltimore City branch, who put in the city’s bid to host the convention three years ago, said five-day event offers an opportunity for Baltimore leaders to engage with city and national leaders in addressing concerns that are common across the country. She said the convention is expected to bring 5-6,000 visitors to the city.

“Baltimore has specific problems [to address], in criminal justice, for example, but many of the issues here are also issues in Chicago and Detroit and other cities across the country,” Hill-Aston said. “There are national level issues that we need to address, discuss and find solutions for.”

The Baltimore branch of NAACP, the second chartered in the country, was founded in 1912 and was led by numerous notable civil rights figures in the past, including Carl Murphy, Lillie Carroll Jackson, Juanita Jackson Mitchell and Enolia McMillian.

Baltimore, of course, is also the birthplace of Thurgood Marshall, the legendary civil rights lawyer and Supreme Court justice who successfully argued Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, thereby ending the country’s legal doctrine of segregation. Marshall, for whom the University of Maryland law school library named its library in 1980, founded the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund in 1940.

For three decades, another Baltimorean, Clarence Mitchell Jr., led the NAACP’s office in Washington D.C., where he became known as “the 101^st Senator” for his efforts in helping pass the key civil rights legislation of the 1950s and 1960s.

Two recent NAACP presidents also have deep connections to Baltimore. Former NAACP president Kweise Mfume, current chairmen of the board at Morgan State University, was born and raised here, and Ben Jealous, a Democratic candidate for governor in Maryland, spent summers visiting his grandparents in Baltimore.

Under Armour inks deal with MLB for uniforms in 2020.
Kevin Plank’s sports apparel empire has had tentacles in almost every major sport—and now it can add baseball to that roster. In its first major professional sports uniform deal, UA will take over for Majestic Athletic as the official on-field uniform provider for Major League Baseball starting in 2020. New Era will continue to provide hats for the league.

Based on the flashy uniforms that Under Armour has produced for University of Maryland, Northwestern, and Team USA, baseball teams in 2020 will likely get quite spruced up. We see many flag patterns in our future.

Ryan Mallett says he’ll be ready to fill in for Flacco on Sunday.
These haven’t been the best few weeks for the Ravens offense, which is why you might see the team switch things up on Sunday against the Jets. Ravens backup quarterback Ryan Mallett practiced with the team this week as Joe Flacco was nursing a right shoulder injury. Both head coach John Harbaugh and new offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg seem to think that Flacco will be ready come game day, but Mallett says he is prepared either way.

“You’ve got to be ready at a drop of a hat,” Mallett told The Baltimore Sun. “Something can happen during a game, any week of the season. So you’ve just always got to be ready.”

Olympic fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad speaks at Morgan State.
After becoming the first Muslim-American woman to compete and medal in the Olympic games wearing a hijab, fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad came to Morgan State University to discuss race in sports and culture.

The symposium, titled “The Impact of Negative Images on Black Women Athletes,” also featured ESPN’s Jemele Hill, former WNBA All-Star Kara Lawson, and former Washington Post columnist Lonnae O’Neal.

“When I qualified [for the Olympics] . . . immediately, my life and my experiences in sport just kind of felt bigger than me,” Muhammad said according to The Sun. “I feel the same way when we think of firsts in swimming with Simone Manuel being the first African-American woman to medal in an Olympic swimming event. Those moments in our history are so much bigger than we are.”

But Muhammad was very candid when talking about how she is treated differently compared to some other athletes on Team USA. “As a black woman and as an African-American Muslim woman . . . everything we do is under a microscope,” she said. “We have to watch what we say. We have to watch how we act. We have to watch what we tweet. We’re being policed more than others. Michael Phelps laughs during the medal ceremony. . . Even with Ryan Lochte, it was ‘Well, boys will be boys.'”

Muhammad continued to come back to the importance of sharing her narrative with the goal of inspiring young athletes.

“I remember being a kid and being told that I didn’t belong in my sport,” she said, “For me, it has always been really important to try to reach our youth, specifically to let them know there is no limit to what you can do as long as you’re willing to work.”