BmoreArt’s Picks: January 16-22
This Week: Susan Muaddi Darraj + Carla Du Pree in conversation at Bird in Hand, Lisa Moren panel discussion at The Peale, Baltimore Jewelry Center presents Neve Coppersmith virtual artist talk, opening reception for Polly Apfelbaum at the Mitchell Museum, Liminal Interactions & Explorations at Zo Gallery, Kim Keller artist reception at Hamilton Gallery, Jamie Grace Alexander at The Walters, Lillian Bayley Hoover at MoCA Arlington, Baltimore Square Dance at Mobtown Ballroom, and Black Cherry Puppet Theater’s Puppet Slamwich — PLUS auditions for BROS and more featured opportunities!
BmoreArt’s Picks presents the best weekly art openings, events, and performances happening in Baltimore and surrounding areas. For a more comprehensive perspective, check the BmoreArt Calendar page, which includes ongoing exhibits and performances, and is updated on a daily basis.
To submit your calendar event, email us at events@bmoreart.com!
Susan Muaddi Darraj: BEHIND YOU IS THE SEA (with Carla Du Pree)
Tuesday, January 16 :: 6pm
@ Bird in Hand
We are thrilled to host award-winning author, Susan Muaddi Darraj, in celebration of her debut novel! BEHIND YOU IS THE SEA gives voice to the diverse residents of a Palestinian American community in Baltimore—from young activists in conflict with their traditional parents to the poor who clean for the rich—lives which intersect across divides of class, generation, and religion. We hope you will join us to hear from and discuss what Naomi Shihab Nye calls a “necessary, beautiful work.” We are thrilled that the inimitable literary force Carla Du Pree will join Susan in conversation.
Click here to preorder BEHIND YOU IS THE SEA!
Susan Muaddi Darraj is the author of A Curious Land, a novel in stories which earned an American Book Award and was a finalist for a Palestine Book Award. In 2018, she was named a Ford Fellow by USA Artists. A past winner of the Maryland State Art Council’s Independent Artist Award, she is also the author of Farah Rocks, the first children’s book series to feature a Palestinian-American character. She lives in Baltimore, Maryland, and teaches at Johns Hopkins University.
Carla Du Pree is a fiction writer, a state and national arts advocate, a literary consultant, and the executive director of the literary nonprofit, CityLit Project, which holds an annual award-winning CityLit Festival. As part of her work with CityLit, she co-founded Scribente Maternum, (a fancy way of saying Writing Mamas) which holds an annual Write Like A Mother Retreat. Her fiction appears in several literary journals. She is the recipient of fiction fellowships from the Peter Bullough Foundation, Hedgebrook, Baldwin for the Arts (founded by Jacqueline Woodson), Rhode Island Writers Colony for Writers of Color (directed by Jason Reynolds), Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (2x), Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing, and Poetry Foundation through Furious Flower Poetry Center. She is a Rubys and MSAC grantee. She was awarded the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies’inaugural Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Individual Award and the Maryland State Department of Education’s Arts Leader for April 2020. She is a member of the Wintergreen Women Writers’ Collectiveand serves on executive committees of several local, state, and national boards, all relating to the arts and with the intention of magnifying diversity and inclusion work. She holds a Master’s from Johns Hopkins University’s Writing Seminars, has three adult children, one grandson, and a beau of 45 years.
Emerging Strategies Under the Bay in AR\XR Chamber of Wonders: Artwork by Lisa Moren
Thursday, January 18 :: 5-8pm
@ The Peale
In conjunction with the Chamber of Wonders exhibition, join panelists in-person at The Peale for a fascinating discussion. This art, philosophy, and science panel will include:
- Dr. Tsvetan Bachvaroff, Associate Research Professor, IMET (marine biologist and panelist)
- Dr. Jane Bennett, Andrew W. Mellon Professor of the Humanities at Johns Hopkins University (philosopher and panelist, author of Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things, Duke University Press)
- Lee Boot, Director of the Imaging Research Center, UMBC (artist and panelist)
- Lisa Moren, Professor of Art, UMBC (moderator and artist panelist)
This panel is in conjunction with the exhibition Chamber of Wonders, a series of hands-on installations telling the invisible stories of living microbes under the surface of the Chesapeake Bay. Photography, hand-made objects and painted assemblages alongside multi-media, live microbes, augmented reality and animation will be interacting with live data streaming in from the Chesapeake Bay water. The exhibition is on view December 14 through February 1, 2024.
To listen to the project podcast, download the AR app or to learn more on the projects go to lisamoren.com.
Neve Coppersmith Residency Talk
Thursday, January 18 :: 7pm
presented by Baltimore Jewelry Center
Join the BJC Thursday, January 18th at 7pm for Neve Coppersmith’s residency artist talk. Neve Coppersmith has their BFA in Craft/Material Studies from Virginia Commonwealth University and they just spent September through December as one of the BJC’s artists-in-residence. Learn more about Neve, their metalsmithing practice, and the concepts they explored during their time at the BJC during their presentation. You can join us for Neve’s residency artist talk in the studio or online via zoom. Advanced registration is required for digital participation.
Read more of this week’s picks at BmoreArt.
