Storyteller

After hyping it up on Twitter for the past week, rising Baltimore rapper Starrz debuted his new video, as promised, late last night. The clip is for the more-serious "American Nightmare" track from last year's "Best Mixtape Ever" project. The video, which features Baltimore R&B singer Paula Campbell , was shot last week in West Baltimore at ConneXions School for the Arts (2801 N. Dukeland St.) and directed by Todd "Wiz" Dorsey . "American Nightmare," which was produced by J. Oliver , finds Starrz is in storyteller mode, making this track immediately stand out from his well-received mixtape.

In seven minutes, Tim Kuhn will progress from first date to realizing he'll never be straight. And that terrifies him. As part of Monday night's Stoop Storytelling show at Center Stage, Kuhn will share with a crowd of strangers how he came to terms with being gay. As the show approached, he spent a considerable amount of time revisiting his breakthrough moment, practiced his monologue several times and now says he's more or less ready....

After Jon Spelman got the bad news, he found himself thinking often and at odd moments about "Moby-Dick. " Perhaps that's because the behemoth that was attacking the Baltimore storyteller was as submerged, unreasoning and unpredictable as any great white whale, and every bit as ferocious. Spelman knew that like Captain Ahab, the anti-hero of Herman Melville's novel, he would have to hunt his hunter. He armed himself not just with doctors and surgery and cancer-fighting drugs, but with wit, bravery and a determination to look straight at his own death - whenever it might come.

After Jon Spelman got the bad news, he found himself thinking often and at odd moments about "Moby-Dick. " Perhaps that's because the behemoth that was attacking the Baltimore storyteller was as submerged, unreasoning and unpredictable as any great white whale, and every bit as ferocious. Spelman knew that like Captain Ahab, the anti-hero of Herman Melville's novel, he would have to hunt his hunter. He armed himself not just with doctors and surgery and cancer-fighting drugs, but with wit, bravery and a determination to look straight at his own death - whenever it might come.

Master storyteller Len Cabral will return to share stories of Africa and the West Indies as well as traditional American folk tales at 2 p.m. Feb. 2 at the Provinces library, located in the Severn Square Shopping Center, Route 175 and Ridge Road in Severn.The program, commemorating Black History Month, will include mime, poetry, song and audience participation.Cabral, of Providence, R.I., treasures the tales his Cape Verdean great-grandparents brought with them when they immigrated to America.

A quarter-century seems like a long time to do anything — except when it's something you love, and when every day is new and inspiring, and fuels your curiosity and creativity. This week, the Towson Times is experiencing a milestone as Loni Ingraham, whose name has graced these pages since 1987 as a reporter, editor, columnist, correspondent, community representative … and even occasional photographer, hangs up her pen and paper with us. Those are the titles, but the job Loni has accomplished most completely is that of storyteller, whose tales of local residents, events and issues have chronicled the lives, times, struggles, setbacks and victories of the greater Towson community.

Sojourner Truth, the illiterate former slave who became a spokeswoman for the rights of blacks and women, showed up at Southern Middle School yesterday, in the person of storyteller Alice McGill."

Donald W. Fisher, a Lutherville business owner, church elder and storyteller, died Saturday at Greater Baltimore Medical Center of complications from radiation therapy for cancer. He was 80. Mr. Fisher was born and raised in West Baltimore and graduated from Polytechnic Institute in 1939. After working briefly in the paper wholesale industry, Mr. Fisher entered the Army Air Forces in 1943. He attained the rank of corporal. Leaving the service after World War II, Mr. Fisher went to work for his father at Robins Paper Co. and became part-owner of the West Pratt Street business after his father's death in 1949.

Storyteller and author Alice McGill appears at the Aberdeen Branch Library on Wednesday to wrap up the library's Black History Month celebration. Performing "Songs and Tales of African-American Folklore," McGill will draw from a collection of more than 200 stories, chants and songs, weaving their words and themes together to show the similarities in folk tales across ethnic and racial boundaries. McGill frequently explores ethnic and racial themes in her literary works. Her first book, Molly Bannaky, recounts the true story of a white servant girl living in Maryland in the late 17th century who falls in love with and marries a black indentured man. Miles' Song, McGill's second book, is set in the pre-Civil War South and tells the experiences of a 12-year-old slave boy as he learns about life and struggles to find a "song of freedom."

Joanne Hay is willing to travel any distance from her Harney Road home to share stories from folk tales of many cultures.A storyteller, she is one of a vanishing breed that imparts folklore to new generations. Her skill lies in the dramatization of the tale, as she does not read from a book.Instead, she memorizes the story and delivers it using visual aids -- puppets, masks, hats and other props that fill several boxes and shelves in a spare room of her home. She chooses items that will enhance a particular story.

After hyping it up on Twitter for the past week, rising Baltimore rapper Starrz debuted his new video, as promised, late last night. The clip is for the more-serious "American Nightmare" track from last year's "Best Mixtape Ever" project. The video, which features Baltimore R&B singer Paula Campbell , was shot last week in West Baltimore at ConneXions School for the Arts (2801 N. Dukeland St.) and directed by Todd "Wiz" Dorsey . "American Nightmare," which was produced by J. Oliver , finds Starrz is in storyteller mode, making this track immediately stand out from his well-received mixtape.

"I Used to be Darker," the latest movie from Baltimore's Matt Porterfield, will be shown at January's Sundance Film Festival, organizers announced Wednesday. "I was in a bit of a state of shock," said Porterfield, who was on a return bus trip from New York when he got the news. "I'm ecstatic. " The movie, Porterfield's third feature as a writer-director, tells the story of a runaway from Northern Ireland who moves in with her aunt and uncle in Baltimore, and the family crises that ensue.

It's hard to figure which primal fear Barry Levinson doesn't tap into with "The Bay," a horror-thriller in which, it turns out, the problems in the Chesapeake go much deeper than a declining oyster harvest and too much shoreline development. Of course, there's fear of the unknown, a staple of horror stories since caveman days. But in Levinson's skilled hands, "The Bay" also evokes the fear of science run amok, of nature unbridled (not to mention ticked off), of government censorship, of disease, of unstoppable forces, of darkness, of technology unchecked.

After 14 hours of watching Sandy storm coverage, I am convinced that no one deserves more praise than the reporters and camerapersons on the ground in places like Ocean City. I know in these snarky, all-you-need-is-irony, postmodern times, lots of folks, including some journalists who should know better, like to make fun of TV reporters standing in high winds and driving rain or snow to report on a storm. I could not disagree more. The image of a correspondent being pounded by the elements is as crystal-clear an objective correlative for the core role of journalism as I can imagine.

Belinda G. Galbreath, a retired Baltimore County librarian who was an accomplished storyteller, died Sunday of complications from diabetes at Upper Chesapeake Medical Center in Bel Air. The lifelong Street resident was 59. The daughter of dairy farmers, Belinda Grace Galbreath was born in Baltimore and raised on the family farm in Street. After graduating from North Harford High School in 1970, she earned a bachelor's degree in library science in 1975 from the University of Maryland, College Park.

Last week I wrote about the death of Urbanite magazine from my perspective as a former employee. I soon discovered I was not alone in my sadness. As news of the publication's demise continued to spread, others, like me, seemed to be mourning the loss of not something but someone. A daily paper like The Sun reflects the efforts of professionals to present a city or town as it is. This is important work. But with its fiction contests, personal essay-writing workshops and long-form journalism, Urbanite facilitated something different, a collective meditation on what Baltimore could become.

The Carroll County Arts Council is sponsoring a countywide series of storytelling sessions this week featuring Bill Grimmette.Weaving stories in the African griot tradition, Mr. Grimmette uplifts spirits with tales that offer lessons to live by. His folk and mythological stories span many cultures.Mr. Grimmette hopes to entertain and educate the young and to encourage the elderly to tell their stories to younger generations.He shows children how to use stories to create images that encourage learning and gives teachers learning strategies to incorporate into their stories.

Jennifer Rudick is a Jewish storyteller, but she doesn't relate tales from Yiddish folklore. Instead, she tells the true stories of Arab-Americans she has interviewed since the terrorist attacks Sept. 11. Rudick, a member of Chevrei Tzedek Congregation in Baltimore, will present her stories as part of Diversity Week at 7 p.m. tomorrow in the McDaniel Lounge at Western Maryland College. Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, Rudick has talked with, among others, professors, college students, middle school pupils and imams, Islamic prayer leaders, about being an American, what Islam means to them and how the terrorist acts have affected their lives as individuals and as a community.

Baltimore's Jim McKay anchored the first American telecast of the Summer Olympics in 1960 from a primitive CBS studio in Grand Central Terminal in New York City. Coverage of the Rome Games totaled 20 hours and cost the network $394,000 in rights fees. On Friday night, starting with the Opening Ceremonies, NBC Universal will launch what will ultimately total 5,535 hours of Olympics coverage across six network and cable outlets and one live streaming website over 17 days and nights.

A quarter-century seems like a long time to do anything — except when it's something you love, and when every day is new and inspiring, and fuels your curiosity and creativity. This week, the Towson Times is experiencing a milestone as Loni Ingraham, whose name has graced these pages since 1987 as a reporter, editor, columnist, correspondent, community representative … and even occasional photographer, hangs up her pen and paper with us. Those are the titles, but the job Loni has accomplished most completely is that of storyteller, whose tales of local residents, events and issues have chronicled the lives, times, struggles, setbacks and victories of the greater Towson community.