[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] “Lady Bird” begins with its eponymous character, a 17-year-old with blotchy, hydrant-red hair and acne scarring, and her mother Marion, an anxious psychiatric nurse, crying side-by-side in the family car as they drive around Sacramento. They’re listening to the end of a “Grapes of Wrath” audiobook. By the end of the film, my mother […]
Posted inFood & Booze
Blacksauce Kitchen’s recipe for Coconut Milk-Braised Collard Greens just in time for Thanksgiving
All soul food isn’t created equally. If your fried fish is bland, if your macaroni and cheese is soupy, or if your chicken wings aren’t crispy, your food is suspect. Point blank. Another holy grail item you can’t mess up: collard greens. Everybody’s greens taste a little different, but good greens should always be a […]
Posted inUncategorized
Week In Review: Creek Boyz compromised, youth violence hysteria, more
-Attorneys representing the six-year-old son of Korryn Gaines, a woman shot and killed by police in Baltimore County, are suing county police—including Royce Ruby Jr., the officer who shot and killed Gaines (and also struck Gaines’ son twice)—and question major details of the day’s events. Namely, they say Gaines was not aiming her gun at […]
Posted inArt & Culture
Newly-anointed MacArthur ‘genius’ Njideka Akunyili Crosby considers domesticity for the expatriate
When you’re a first-generation American, you seek home in everything. At first, you reject the old for the new because the old feels wrong. You’re told your lunches smell funny, or that you have an accent, or that your country is poor. But sooner or later, you return to the one you knew—you see it […]
Posted inNews
Police Tragedy, Police State: Detective killed in Harlem Park and the community is put on lockdown
Just a few hours after a Baltimore Police officer was shot in the head around 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 15, cops swarm around some vacants on the 900 block of Bennett Place—the shooter may be inside one of them, some people say, but residents of Harlem Park just want to get into their homes. […]
Posted inNews
With Target closing, Mondawmin loses more than just a store
The Target at Mondawmin Mall, which will close on Feb. 3, 2018, is not like most other Target stores, according to West Baltimore residents and shoppers from all over the city. Councilperson Leon Pinkett of the seventh district, where the Target is located, totally agrees. “I jokingly told someone that even as a councilperson, I […]
Posted inCalendar
Trans March of Resilience tonight
Transgender Day of Remembrance has been held internationally in November since 1998 to honor and bring attention to transgender lives lost to violence—and each year, it seems, the need for this gesture grows more necessary. In 2016, 27 reported murders of transgender people broke 2015’s record of 21 murders, and 2017 is on track to […]
Posted inArt & Culture
The ins and outs of bicycling in Baltimore and the need for more bike lanes
I love riding my bicycle. I love the sense of freedom, of getting from place to place unfettered by appalling bus wait times or the worry about finding a parking spot. I love the feel of the wind on my face as I speed down hills and the steady breath as I pedal back up. […]
Posted inUncategorized
Letter From The Editor: Welcome to the Baltimore Beat
Last week, Devin Allen, the Baltimore photographer who continues to make a name for himself with his arresting, graceful shots of this city and the people in it (go get his book “A Beautiful Ghetto”), agreed to take the cover shot for this, the first issue of our new weekly newspaper. Separately, organizer Erricka Bridgeford, […]
Posted inUncategorized
Week in Review: Target closes in Mondawmin, Pugh and Commish offer shortsighted solutions for crime, and more
-Target announced it would close its Mondawmin location in February because it was underperforming. Crucial to the redesign of Mondawmin Mall, the Target was a badly needed resource for many who didn’t have access to lots of shopping options in an area that had been neglected for years. Maybe we should consider investing locally and […]