Arts & Entertainment
Baltimore arts briefs: events through Nov. 8
Oleta Adams in Annapolis, Barbara Cook in Baltimore, Mr. Erection and more
Gay-friendly Adams comes to Rams Head Annapolis
Oleta Adams (Washington Blade file photo by Joey DiGuglielmo)
Gay-friendly R&B singer Oleta Adams, famous for hits like “Get Here” and “Window of Hope,” plays Rams Head Annapolis Saturday night at 8. Tickets are $45.
Adams proved her LGBT-supportive ways by performing several songs with the gospel choir at Metropolitan Community Church of Washington last Christmas.
Visit ramsheadonstage.com or oletaadams.com for details.
Mr. Maryland Leather this weekend at Hippo
Erection 2012, the XXIV Command MC Run, is this weekend in Baltimore, including the showcase event, the Mr. Maryland Leather 2013 event at the Hippo (1 West Eager Street), Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m.
A whole weekend of events are planned including an evening meet and greet at Leon’s Leather Lounge, a silent auction, victory party, awards brunch and more. “Full Run” packages are available for $125. The Wyndham Baltimore Peabody Court is the host hotel. Visit commandmc.org for full details.
Cook at the Meyerhoff Saturday night
Singing legend Barbara Cook, a former Kennedy Center honoree, is in town this weekend for a Saturday night performance at the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall (1212 Cathedral Street) at 8 p.m.
Tickets range from $35-$80. Cook, 85, promises a “toe-tapping performance of jazz, swing and pop favorites.”
Details and tickets at bsomusic.org.
Light Brigade Md. group gears up for action
With Election Day looming and a same-sex marriage referendum on the ballot in Maryland, Light Brigade Maryland, a demonstration group that supports gay marriage, has several events planned. They meet holding up lighted signs that encourage residents to “vote for Question 6.”
On Saturday at 6:30 p.m., they’ll meet on the sidewalk of the Baltimore Basilica (409 Cathedral Street). On Sunday at 5:30 p.m., they’re at Towson University (10 West Burke Ave. in Towson) on the pedestrian bridge over W. Burke Ave. And on Wednesday at 6 p.m. they plan a victory party in McKeldin Square.
Find the group on Facebook for details.
Celebrity News
Madonna announces release date for new album
‘Confessions II’ marks return to the dance floor
Pop icon Madonna on Wednesday announced that her 15th studio album will be released on July 3.
Titled “Confessions II,” the new album is a sequel to 2005’s “Confessions on a Dance Floor,” an Abba and disco-infused hit.
The new album reunites Madonna with producer Stuart Price, who also helmed the original “Confessions” album. It’s her first album of new material since 2019’s “Madame X.”
“We must dance, celebrate, and pray with our bodies,” Madonna said in a press release. “These are things that we’ve been doing for thousands of years — they really are spiritual practices. After all, the dance floor is a ritualistic space. It’s a place where you connect — with your wounds, with your fragility. To rave is an art. It’s about pushing your limits and connecting to a community of like-minded people,” continued the statement. “Sound, light, and vibration reshape our perceptions. Pulling us into a trance-like state. The repetition of the bass, we don’t just hear it but we feel it. Altering our consciousness and dissolving ego and time.”
Denali (@denalifoxx) of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” performed at Pitchers DC on April 9 for the Thirst Trap Thursday drag show. Other performers included Cake Pop!, Brooke N Hymen, Stacy Monique-Max and Silver Ware Sidora.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)
Arts & Entertainment
In an act of artistic defiance, Baltimore Center Stage stays focused on DEI
‘Maybe it’s a triple-down’
By LESLIE GRAY STREETER | I’m always tickled when people complain about artists “going political.” The inherent nature of art, of creation and free expression, is political. This becomes obvious when entire governments try to threaten it out of existence, like in 2025, when the brand-new presidential administration demanded organizations halt so-called diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programming or risk federal funding.
Baltimore Center Stage’s response? A resounding and hearty “Nah.” A year later, they’re still doubling down on diversity.
“Maybe it’s a triple-down,” said Ken-Matt Martin, the theater’s producing director, chuckling.
The rest of this article can be found on the Baltimore Banner’s website.
Gay D.C. police lieutenant arrested on child porn charges
Demonstrators disrupt OMB director hearing over PEPFAR
HIV/AIDS group NMAC is ‘destabilized’ and in financial crisis: sources
Madonna announces release date for new album
Senegalese court issues first conviction under new anti-LGBTQ law
An effort to increase the number of psychiatrists of color
Comings & Goings
Trump budget targets ‘gender extremism’
Minimal version of ‘Streetcar Named Desire’ heading to Dupont Underground
