2023, in a chlorified water.

A glitch blue hue taste bleachful.

A sea a baby can’t stand.

With a hue that blinds

The blue egg of thirst: say hello

2016 in a saltified water.

A dark blue-brown hue tasted… salty.

A sea one can not drink.

With a hue that makes a fish a home.

The blue egg of thirst: say hello

2011, once more in chlorine.

The puddle tasted bleachy.

The puddle tasted salty.

Like the first warning.

Don’t drink the water.

The blue egg of thirst: say hello

The beauty of sea and water.

Of salt or chlorine, ironically.

Both are the same water,

Because neither you can drink.

NaCL 

         NCL

The green eagle of breath says hello.

The post CL See appeared first on Baltimore Beat.

In 2016, I think I finally understood what true fear felt like.

The Black history museum in Washington, D.C., my mom managed to get tickets for the opening week, still we waited on the side of the street waiting for hours, Ours all around us.

I’d never seen so many reflections of myself, a crowd of culture.

When we finally stepped in the air changed, my feet rocked as we started at the bottom of our history, on a ship, a slave ship, each floor a different chapter, it was heavy, to carry, to learn, to see, and nothing could’ve prepared me for the room.

One on Emmett Till. I hadn’t known who he was until I heard his story, even though I couldn’t understand.

Until I saw his face.

In an open casket he lay, his eyes popping from his head, the face of a boy mutilated, desecrated, it was too horrific to be real, the rest of the day I reeled into my soul, shut down, at the fact that it was.

That night I cried.

Every time I closed my eyes, I saw his face…

I wailed to my parents, slept in their bed, my head a mess in a way it had never been before, and that night when my parents started to snore, I would see him in the open doorway, it felt like I was being haunted that night. I sat alone as the weight of this newly found grief settled at the pit of my stomach.

I did not sleep.

The next day I didn’t go to school, and I didn’t feel very Cool for missing, my heart still hissing; not only sad, angry.

But I didn’t regret what I saw; it was more important than any lesson or story from school—because I finally understood what true fear felt like, and I finally understood why his mother wanted the casket open.

The post The Picture appeared first on Baltimore Beat.

there is citrus in my ears can someone get it out

These thoughts don’t know how to space themselves

i look for life in the slack moments separating hypothermia

Breath is sunburn against my lungs, titanium on glass,

but i can’t break the rhythm of it

The bedsheets snarl on my skin but won’t swallow

every nightmare that sings vicious velvet over my body

i wish i could parasail over the paragraphs

that draft themselves inside my head,

which feels like the biggest part of me,

the only thing that makes sound anymore

i want to eat the tears for breakfast

maybe then i could consume the memory of what caused them

instead of the other way around

They give me handkerchiefs to fix my eyes, 

but it won’t fall if it’s bottled and it won’t heal if it keels

If you’re here with me now, 

you must have a taste for terror, a taste to be the tower while i cower

why do you want to swim into supernovas to pluck the asteroid out of my sky

why do you want to get the peanut butter out of my hair

why do you want to stick to my loose fingers

Don’t talk to jellyfish or you might become one

They tapped the Dead Sea and filled my veins with it

Every touchy word floats to the top

If the thinking makes it to my optics i’m afraid i’ll see red

My gut only ever learned how to be in a knot

My brittle wings spent too long in the toaster

My mind has garish wallpaper

where is the incubator

i can see all the places where i’ll have wrinkles when i’m older 

but the scar tissue grows in backwards

There’s no blood on my conscience, just spoiled milk

The punctured eggshells were never bulletproof 

Can’t stay whole if you’re in my hands, so you’d better get out of them

Nothing sticks to loose fingers

Baltimore Beat is running poems from participants in the group Writers in Baltimore Schools, which offers programming that builds skills in literacy and communication while creating a community of support for young writers.

The post Loose Fingers appeared first on Baltimore Beat.

When Baltimore poet Mohamed Tall performed his poem, “Invisible Cage” at the 2017 Youth Poet Laureate Competition held at City Hall, he was a little nervous.

The poem is a critique of capitalism and makes reference to the fight to raise minimum wage. It was a fight that Mayor Catherine Pugh, who was in the audience, had backed out of after promising during the election, to raise minimum wage for city workers.

Tall read the poem aloud: “But God himself/ Ain’t never been dollar bill green/ I’ve seen politicians baptized in false dreams/ but I’ve been graced with sight keen/ enough to see past the facade…”

Despite warnings from some at the competition to skip that poem during his reading, he felt something telling him he had to perform it.

“I was thinking about Amiri Baraka in 2003 in New Jersey. He was the poet laureate and he spoke out about 9/11 attacks and the response to it,” he says, referring to the controversy surrounding Baraka reading “Somebody Blew Up America.”

“The New Jersey legislature called for him to either apologize for his statements or step down and he refused to do both,” Tall says. “And as a result they abolished the entire position. I was thinking about all those things. If I really believed that I’m standing in the shoes of these people then I have to stick to my guns.”

Tall, who is 21 and a Political Science major at Morgan State University, won the competition, earning himself the title of Baltimore City Youth Poet Laureate 2017. As part of the win, Dewmore Publishing put out a book of his poetry.

“Too Broke to Die,” his first book of poetry, was just released.

While Tall always wrote raps and poems, he got serious about it his junior year at Woodlawn High School in Baltimore County and students and teachers there were encouraging of his work. His teacher introduced him to Baltimore poet Jacob Mayberry, who became a mentor. Mayberry connected him with the Baltimore City Youth Poetry team which put him in the direction of eventually competing in and winning the Youth Poet Laureate Competition.

Tall almost didn’t even compete in the contest. His mother had just been diagnosed with cancer and he didn’t know if he had it in him to perform.

“So when I won it, I just broke into tears,” he says.

Tall’s mother died in March of last year. The book is dedicated to her and opens with a poem about her. In the poem, “Aisha,” he writes about the pain he faced after her death and the obligation he feels to her to make her proud: “Oh mama,/ the girl got sunshine in between her smile/ when she walks the dandelions converge in song/ Am I worth singing about,” he writes. “Oh mama,/ I’m a wide awake nightmare/ Suffering the guilt survivors get/ I fought with you, for you..”

“The book’s title, “Too Broke to Die,” came from a conversation he was having with himself, about how most working people will never be able to afford to retire.

“I was just thinking about all of the people who continue to work and don’t even get to see retirement,” he says. “We are just too broke to die because only poor people are working to live.”

It’s another way Tall’s poetry explores the way money controls all of our lives and the way poverty can consume whole communities.

Another consistent theme in Tall’s book is his religion. The book is interspersed with selections from the Quran. His mother was key to shaping his identity as a Muslim as well. She taught him that Islam was his center, his home, even when the outside world was chaotic and crazy.

Tall says he knew he was Muslim even before he knew he was black.

“That came from my mom instilling those values,” he says. “Yeah, all these things happen in the outside world, but at the end of the day you have to be concerned with trying to preserve yourself and your soul and the good that exists within you. Islam is that thing for me…and the poetry is an extension of that.”

He says that he draws much of his inspiration from Muslim scholar and poet Rumi. “It’s a form of meditation. Poetry that could exist beyond time,” he says, describing Rumi’s work. “I look at a poet like Rumi and I say ‘Wow, if I connected with him I could have taken so much from him.’ Even just through reading his poems, I feel like there’s so much I’ve learned.”

In his poem, “Who will Come to Mohamed?” he writes, “The thorn in my side has been my own judgement,/ The pebble in my shoe is a product of my unforgiving nature./ Will God overlook my benevolence?/ Will I continue to deny the God in me?”

Tall graduates from Morgan this spring. In addition to writing and publicizing the book, he’s been busy learning more about poetry and leadership. In 2018, he was one of eight students accepted into the Benjamin A. Quarles Research Scholars program at Morgan, which gives participants a chance to research various aspects of the African-American legacy. It’s an extension of the kind of work he’s already done through his poetry.

“I’ve been doing research centered around black poets as documentarians and preservationists,” Tall says.

Two years after his performance of “Invisible Cage,” where he challenged Mayor Catherine Pugh, she’s on a leave of absence amid the “Healthy Holly” scandal and this morning, City Hall, her homes, her lawyers’ office, and elsewhere were raided by the FBI.

He once again used his words to comment, joking via Twitter, “idk if this is bad time, but…is city hall hiring?”

A release party for “Too Broke to Die” will be held at Morgan State University on April 26 from 6-7:30 p.m. at the James E. Lewis Museum of Fine Arts. Order the book here.

The post Working To Live: Poet Mohamed Tall talks about his book ‘Too Broke To Die’ appeared first on Baltimore Beat.

Bird in Hand, 11 E. 33rd St., (410) 814-0373, birdinhandcharlesvillage.com.

Award-winning author Eric Puchner will read from his latest collection of stories, “Last Day on Earth,” now out in paperback. Puchner will be joined in conversation by local Baltimore writer, Nate Brown. March 1, 7 p.m.

The next installment of the local Readings with Ralphie series with Raphael Alvarez features novelists Eric D. Goodman, Jeff Richards, and Erin J. Mullikin, who is founding editor of the online literary journal Nightblock and small literary press Midnight City Books. March 6, 7 p.m.

Greedy Reads, 1744 Aliceanna St., (410) 276-6222, greedyreads.com. Join author Susan Weis-Bohlen for a book talk and signing of her book “Ayurveda Beginner’s Guide: Essential Ayurvedic Principles and Practices to Balance and Heal Naturally.”

The Ivy Bookshop, 6080 Falls Road, (410) 377-2966, theivybookshop.com. Giles Milton, host of the podcast Unknown History, will read from his latest book “Churchill’s Ministry Of Ungentlemanly Warfare: The Mavericks Who Plotted Hitler’s Defeat,” an account of the top-secret organization whose purpose was nothing short of the destruction of Hitler’s war machine. March 6, 7 p.m.

Elliot Ackerman, former Marine and author of the critically acclaimed novel “Green on Blue,” will read from his new novel of the Syrian Civil War, “Dark at the Crossing.” Nominated for a National Book Award, “Dark at the Crossing” has been named one of the best books of the year by The Washington Post, NPR, The Christian Science Monitor, Military Times, and others. March 7, 7 p.m.

The Red Canoe, 4337 Harford Road, (410) 444-4440, redcanoecafe.virb.com. First Friday: Every first Friday of the month, Red Canoe showcases a new local artist, along with delicious food and complimentary wine. March 1, 6-9 p.m.

Red Emma’s, 30 W. North Ave., (443) 602-7585, redemmas.org. Todd Miller, author of “Storming the Wall: Climate Change, Migration, and Homeland Security,” will discuss how the world is preparing for mass displacement by fortifying borders and imprisoning migrants. He will be joined by Nasim Chatha, of Alliance for Global Justice, and the two will discuss the U.S.’s role in managing or advising the prison systems of 38 different countries. March 2, 7:30 p.m.

World-renowned activist and poet Sonya Renee Taylor will read from her latest, “The Body Is Not an Apology,” a book that invites us to reconnect with the radical origins of our minds and bodies and celebrate our collective, enduring strength. March 4, 3 p.m.

Spanning American transgender history from the mid-20th century to today, Susan Stryker will lead attendees on a chronological journey through major movements, writings, and events in her new revised edition of “Transgender History.” March 6, 7:30 p.m.

The post Literary Events: Feb. 28-March 7 appeared first on Baltimore Beat.

Atomic Books, 3260 Falls Road, (410) 662-4444, atomicbooks.com.

Joanna Angel reads from her first novel-length work of fiction, “Night Shift: A Choose-Your-Own Erotic Fantasy.” A surprise is in store for attendees, as Joanna will be bringing her own “Choose-Your-Own” aspect to the reading. The event will also feature a special acoustic performance by War On Women. Feb. 24, 7 p.m.

The Children’s Bookstore, 737 Deepdene Road, (410)532-2000, thecbstore.com.

The Children’s Bookstore will host Newbery Honor Award winning author and illustrator Victoria Jamieson in the store. Widely acclaimed for 2015’s “Roller Girl,” Jamieson’s latest book is “All’s Faire in Middle School.” Feb. 26, 3:40 p.m.

The Ivy Bookshop, 6080 Falls Road, (410) 377-2966, theivybookshop.com.

New York Times bestselling author Laura Lippman launches her newest thriller, “Sunburn.” The Baltimore-based writer will follow the reading with a book signing; Feb. 23, 7 p.m.

Children’s author Casey Lyall will read from her latest book, “Inky’s Great Escape.” The book is inspired by the true-life story of “Inky the Octopus” who escaped from the National Aquarium of New Zealand in 2016; Feb. 24, 10 a.m.

The Red Canoe, 4337 Harford Road, (410) 444-4440, redcanoecafe.virb.com. 

Calling all YA readers! Local YA author Katelyn Brawn will read from her recently published novel, “Pumpkin Pie.” Feb. 25, 1-3 p.m.

Red Emma’s, 30 W. North Ave., (443) 602-7585, redemmas.org. 

What is harm reduction? What are Safer Consumption Spaces? These questions and more will be answered when Nurses for Justice and Baltimore Harm Reduction Coalition come together to host a panel on Safer Consumption Spaces; Feb. 21, 7:30 p.m.

Cultural critic and American studies professor Noliwe Rooks, author of “Cutting School: Privatization, Segregation, and the End of Public Education,” will explore the challenges and tensions at play today in America’s “separate and unequal’ public school system; Feb. 23, 7:30 p.m.

National Book Award Finalist Nancy MacLean will discuss her book “Democracy in Chains,” a thoroughly researched narrative that follows Nobel Prize-winning political economist James McGill Buchanan and the operation he and his colleagues designed over six decades to alter every branch of government to disempower the democratic majority; Feb. 24, 6 p.m.

Stevenson University presents the Baltimore Speakers Series, Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, 1212 Cathedral St., (410) 783-8000, baltimorespeakersseries.org. 

The popular travel guide author and host of the PBS series “Rick Steves’ Europe,” Rick Steves will speak to a Baltimore audience on the benefits of independent traveling, the joys of visiting small villages off the beaten path, and the virtues of being a “temporary local.” Feb. 27, 8 p.m.

The post Literary Events: Feb. 21-28 appeared first on Baltimore Beat.

Abdu Ali is an independent music artist, writer, and multimedia arts curator based in Baltimore and Brooklyn. Ali has released five musical projects, all notable for his idiosyncratic blend of punk, futurism, Baltimore Club music, and rap music, with lyrics yielding poetic uprise. Through his work as a rapper, curator, writings, and outspokenness via social media/interviews, Ali has been elected as a radical underground Baltimore music and cultural figure. Unapologetically black and queer, Ali’s work is bold, raw, and most importantly life-affirming. Ali is an internationally touring artist and has been featured in Out Magazine, AfroPunk, Noisey, The Fader, Subbacultcha, Les InRocks, and Tracks Arte TV. Follow him on Instagram @Abdu__Ali and on Facebook at facebook.com/AbduAliWorldWide.

Aurora Engle-Pratt makes poetry and pottery in Baltimore. Their work deals with themes of memory, gender, disruption, liminality, family, and interpersonal relationships. Their writing has appeared in a variety of publications both print and online, including Metatron’s ALPHA, Cosmonauts Avenue, The Light Ekphrastic, and The Avenue. The poem featured here is a selection from an ongoing project called Crush Object, which Aurora has described as Soft Queer Body Horror, an exploration of annihilation, and a love letter. Follow them on Instagram @auroraemmanuel and on Twitter @panickyanimal.

Rebekah Kirkman is a writer whose work has appeared in the Baltimore Beat, City Paper, Hyperallergic, and other places. She is the former visual arts editor of City Paper as well as an artist and poet. You can read her depression tweets and her professional tweets all together over @rebekahkirkman and find some of her journalism/criticism at rebekahkirkman.wordpress.com.

The post Poetry for the body appeared first on Baltimore Beat.

Atomic Books, 3260 Falls Road, (410) 662-4444, atomicbooks.com. At this book launch party, New York Times essayist Tim Kreider will discuss his latest essay collection, “I Wrote This Book Because I Love You”; Feb. 9, 7 p.m. To celebrate the release of the expanded edition of her classic book, “Deviant Desires: A Tour of the Erotic Edge,” author Katharine Gates will be presenting a slideshow about deviant desires; Feb. 10, 7 p.m.

Bird in Hand, 11 E. 33rd Street, (410) 814-0373, birdinhandcharlesvillage.com. Bird in Hand presents Baltimore-based author Timmy Reed in conversation with Jane Delury, chair of the Johns Hopkins School of Communication Design. The two will discuss Reed’s new novel, “Kill Me Now”; Feb. 8, 7 p.m. John Darnielle, frontman of The Mountain Goats and New York Times bestselling author, reads from and discusses his second novel, “Universal Harvester”; Feb. 10, 7 p.m.

The Children’s Bookstore, 737 Deepdene Road, (410)532-2000, thecbstore.com. Weekly storytime for children ages 4 and under; Feb. 9, 9:30 a.m.

Enoch Pratt Central Library – African American Department, 400 Cathedral St., (410)-361-9287, calendar.prattlibrary.org. Award-winning illustrator Floyd Cooper discusses his work in “Ira’s Shakespeare Dream,” a biography of African-American Shakespearean actor Ira Aldridge. Ages 7-12; Feb. 7, 6:30 p.m.

The Ivy Bookshop, 6080 Falls Road, (410) 377-2966, theivybookshop.com. Acclaimed journalist and veteran Elliot Ackerman discusses his latest novel, “Dark At The Crossing,” which was a finalist for the 2017 National Book Award; Feb. 7, 7 p.m. Raúl The Third, illustrator of the children’s graphic novel “Lowriders To The Center Of The Earth,” reads and leads a discussion for children aged 9-12; Feb. 12, 7 p.m.

The Red Canoe, 4337 Harford Road, (410) 444-4440, redcanoecafe.virb.com. Local artist and maker, Berber Poplin, owner of the Colorful Berry, will be hosting a Valentine’s workshop for kids aged 5-9. $5 per child; Feb. 11, 1-2 p.m. Tiny Dog Press will lead kids through a Valentine’s Day Card making workshop. Paper, stickers, markers, and stamps will be provided. In addition, The Red Canoe’s small letterpress will be made available for printing special love notes; Feb. 12, 3:30-4:30 p.m.

Red Emma’s, 30 W. North Ave., (443) 602-7585, redemmas.org. Joined by the co-directors of Popular Resistance in leading a discussion on organizing strategies, author and activist Nick Licata will speak about how the organizing principles that are illustrated in his book “Becoming A Citizen Activist” can assist citizens in stopping Trumpism; Feb 7, 5 p.m. Jerry Z. Muller presents his latest book, “The Tyranny of Metrics,” which uncovers the damage our obsession with metrics is causing—and points to how we can begin to fix the problem; Feb. 8, 7:30 p.m. Matthew R.Pembleton gives a talk on his new book “Containing Addiction: The Federal Bureau of Narcotics and  the Origins of America’s Global Drug War”; Feb. 10, 6 p.m.

The post Literary Events: Feb. 7-14 appeared first on Baltimore Beat.

Timmy Reed, “Kill Me Now”

Feb. 1

The latest from prolific, ambitious Baltimore author and educator Timmy Reed (previous books: “Tell God I Don’t Exist,” “The Ghosts That Surrounded Them,” “Stray/Pest,” “Miraculous Fauna,” “Star Backwards,” and “IRL”) is “Kill Me Now,” a tough-minded bildungsroman about a young man nicknamed “Retard” (boy are teens terrible to each other!) who befriends an older neighbor and well, learns to be a bit more open and accepting. Written in the voice of “Retard” (actual name: Miles) by way of journal entries, Reed constructs a warts-and-all depiction of being young and open-hearted and understandably very pissed off. As to not spoil much more, here’s a quick excerpt from early in the book: “I chew on my pens until they explode in my mouth and the ink gets suck in the cracks between my teeth and people laugh. My shoelaces are always coming untied. I sweat in my sleep and wake up very cold. My short-term memory sucks donkey wang. Everything I touch somehow gets lost. People tell me I look confused.” Reed will be in conversation with Madison Smartt Bell tonight at Atomic (and will also appear at Bird In Hand on Feb. 8 on conversation with Jane Delury). 7 p.m., Atomic Books, 3620 Falls Road, (410) 662-4444, atomicbooks.com, free. (Brandon Soderberg)

Mark Whitaker, “Smoketown: The Untold Story Of The Other Great Black Renaissance”

Feb. 6

There are almost endless alternative or underground histories of America—or OK, in this case, Amerikkka—that have been ignored, removed, whitewashed, or just not talked about all that much because well, racism. So many cities are full of robust and massively important black cultural and political hubs that don’t get nearly half the critical and historical engagement they should. Mark Whitaker’s book “Smoketown: The Untold Story Of The Other Great Black Renaissance,” intends to expand the black history of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania beyond the setting of numerous August Wilson plays. Whitaker recently wrote in the Paris Review that while the European-American history in Pittsburgh “is well documented . . . far less chronicled but just as extraordinary is the confluence of forces that made the black population of the city, for a brief but glorious stretch of the twentieth century, one of the most vibrant and consequential communities of color in U.S. History.” Pairs nicely with RJ Smith’s 2007 book, “The Great Black Way: L.A. in the 1940s and the Last African American Renaissance.” 6:30 p.m., Enoch Pratt Central Library, 400 Cathedral St., (410) 396-5430, prattlibrary.org, free. (Brandon Soderberg)

Atomic Books, 3260 Falls Road, (410) 662-4444, atomicbooks.com. Timmy Reed, a writer and teacher from Baltimore, will discuss his new coming-of-age novel, “Kill Me Now,” in conversation with Madison Smartt Bell, Professor of English at Goucher College; Feb. 1, 7 p.m. Monthly First Friday, this time featuring Oliver Brewing Company. Happy Hour prices on their beer all night, and extended hours at Atomic’s Eightbar until 11 p.m.; Feb. 6, 7 p.m.

Baltimore County Public Library Pikesville Branch, 1301 Reisterstown Road, (410) 887-1234, bcpl.info. Astrophysicist and author Mario Livio discusses his new book “Why?: What Makes Us Curious,” an exploration of the scientific nature of curiosity; Jan. 31, 2:30 p.m.

The Children’s Bookstore, 737 Deepdene Road, (410) 532-2000, thecbstore.com. Weekly storytime for children ages 4 and under; Feb. 2, 9:30 a.m.

Church of the Redeemer, 5603 N. Charles St., (410) 435-7333, redeemerbaltimore.org/events. Enoch Pratt Free Library sponsors Writers LIVE with Chris Matthews, author of “Bobby Kennedy: A Raging Spirit”; Jan. 31, 7:30 p.m.

Enoch Pratt Central Library – African American Department, 400 Cathedral S., (410) 361-9287, calendar.prattlibrary.org. Author, historian, and journalist Mark Whitaker discusses his new book “Smoketown,” a portrait of Black culture in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania from the 1920s-1950s; Feb. 6, 6:30 p.m.

The Ivy Bookshop, 6080 Falls Road, (410) 377-2966, theivybookshop.com. NoNieqa Ramos, interviewed by Amanda Eby, discusses her new teen memoir-style novel, “The Disturbed Girl’s Dictionary”; Feb. 1, 7 p.m. An evening of poetry from Mason Jar Press, an independent press based in Baltimore, specializing in handmade, limited edition chapbooks and full-length publications by both established and emerging writers; Feb. 2, 7 p.m.

Red Emma’s, 30 W. North Ave., (443) 602-7585, redemmas.org. Award-winning journalist Johann Hari presents “Lost Connections: Uncovering the Real Causes of Depression—And the Unexpected Solutions”; Feb. 1, 7:30 p.m. Red Emma’s Mother Earth Poetry Vibe Featuring Lyrispect, the Philadelphia-based, award-winning lyricist, author, educator and voiceover artist whose work brings together multiple art forms; Feb. 3, 7:30 p.m.

The post Literary Events: Jan. 31-Feb. 7 appeared first on Baltimore Beat.

“The Stories We Tell: Classic True Tales By America’s Greatest Women Journalists”

Jan. 18

Thanks to some savvy rereleases, the past few years have resulted in the lifting up of a few women journalists whose reputations, if not exactly forgotten, are not where they should be (and a lot of that has to do with them being women and journalism being like most things, a big dumb boys club) such as Renata Adler and Eve Babitz (who is a journalist even when she’s a fiction writer). On Netflix, there is the Joan Didion documentary “Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold” (if you want to understand the current political situation, read “Slouching Towards Bethlehem” and “The White Album”) and oh, here in Baltimore there is even a restaurant named after Ida B. Wells. It is all, well, a start to usurping the journalistic canon. Editor Patsy Sims’ anthology “The Stories We Tell: Classic True Tales By America’s Greatest Women Journalists” collects pieces of nonfiction from Didion, Susan Orlean, Lillian Ross, and 16 others. Sims is joined by journalists Suzannah Lessard and Maggie Mes at Ivy Bookshop to discuss the anthology. 7 p.m., The Ivy Bookshop, 6080 Falls Road, (410) 377-2966, theivybookshop.com, free. (Brandon Soderberg)

“It’s Even Worse Than You Think: What The Trump Administration Is Doing To America”

Jan. 23

So readers, you could spend the beginning of this week listening to Donna Brazille cogently explain why the Democratic party is hot mess, and you could end it hearing investigative journalist David Cay Johnston, who has been around covering Trump for about 30 years, explain why—well, just look at the title of his new book: “It’s Even Worse Than You Think: What The Trump Administration Is Doing To America.” All of this might get you more depressed and that’s totally legit, but it might also be good to endure a whole bunch of sobering real talk about politics, and Johnston knows Trump’s bullshit well. The book is split up into different sections where it unpacks what Trump’s doing or not doing piece-by-piece (“A President Like No Other,” “Jobs,” “Taxes,” “Fossil Fuels,” “Global Affairs,” “Education,” “Law and Order,” and so on). Here’s a quick, cogent excerpt: “Emotionally, [Trump] remains the thirteen-year-old troublemaker his father sent off to a military academy, where by his own account brutality was common. Being stuck in the awkward year between childhood and maturity for nearly six decades is a terrible fate, one that has twisted Trump’s personality.” 6:30 p.m., Enoch Pratt Free Library, Central Branch, 400 Cathedral St., (410) 396-5430, prattlibrary.org, free. (Brandon Soderberg)

Baltimore County Public Library Pikesville Branch, 1301 Reisterstown Road, (410) 887-1234, bcpl.info. Chef, author, and owner of Gertrude’s John Shields discusses his book, “Chesapeake Bay Cooking.” Jan. 17, 2:30 p.m.

Bird In Hand, 11 E. 33rd St., (410) 814-0373, birdinhandcharlesvillage.com. Charm City Spec, a speculative fiction series, featuring Tom Doyle, Malka Older, and Ariel S. Winter. Jan. 17, 7 p.m. A reading series featuring 2016’s Rubys Artist Project Grantees Thea Brown, Andria Nacina Cole, Michael Downs, Carla Du Pree, Andrew Klein, and Susan Muaddi Darraj. Jan. 23, 7 p.m.

Church of the Redeemer, 5603 N. Charles St., prattlibrary.org. The Enoch Pratt Free Library presents Donna Brazile, a longtime Washington insider and the author of “Hacks: The Inside Story Of The Break-Ins And Breakdowns That Put Donald Trump In The White House.” Jan. 17, 7 p.m.

Enoch Pratt Free Library, Central Branch, 400 Cathedral St., (410) 396-5430, prattlibrary.org. David Cay Johnston discusses his new book, “It’s Even Worse Than You Think: What The Trump Administration Is Doing To America.” Jan. 23, 6:30 p.m.

Enoch Pratt Free Library, Govans Branch, 5714 Bellona Ave., (410) 396-6098, prattlibrary.org. Katia D. Ulysse, the Kratz Center’s Writer-in-Residence at Goucher College and author of “Mouths Don’t Speak.”

The Ivy Bookshop, 6080 Falls Road, (410) 377-2966, theivybookshop.com. A discussion about Patsy Sims’ “The Stories We Tell: Classic True Tales By America’s Greatest Women Journalists,” part of the Sager Group Women In Journalism Series, with Sims, Suzannah Lessard, and Maggie Messitt. Jan. 18, 7 p.m. Singer-songwriter ellen cherry and poet Edward Doyle-Gillespie. Jan. 21, 5 p.m. “Love, Hate, And Other Filters” author Samira Ahmed in conversation with Sujata Massey. Jan. 22, 7 p.m.

Red Emma’s, 30 W. North Ave., (443) 602-7585, redemmas.org. Baltimore Science Cafe: Brain Stimulation with Dr. Pablo Celnik, a researcher and clinician in the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Jan. 17, 7:30 p.m. Cindy Millstein, the editor of “Rebellious Mourning: The Collective Work Of Grief.” Jan. 21, 3 p.m.

The post Literary Events: Jan. 17-24 appeared first on Baltimore Beat.