News

In Hibernation

What happened to the Mayor’s Safe Art Space Task Force and how is the DIY scene carrying on?

After Life's Fitful Fever

Digging up history and art in Green Mount Cemetery

Q&A: Dan Deacon on the 10th anniversary of "Spiderman of the Rings" and "Ultimate Reality," the state of DIY, and more

Full disclosure: The last time I saw Dan Deacon I hugged him. It's not worth detailing in full, but here are the basics: He was DJing the last Best of Baltimore party, I was drunk, and he said some nice and important things to the entire crowd about the end of City Paper that everybody on staff...

What's On Tap: Comptroller Peter Franchot discusses Maryland's beer laws, his task force on changing them, and more

Fall Arts Guide: Artists on immigration at School 33, plus staff picks for art events this season

"We Are Kinda Unbreakable": Trans sex workers remain resilient in Baltimore while navigating neighborhood associations, cops, gentrification, and more

2017 Best of Baltimore

Filmmaker Theo Anthony talks "Rat Film," yoga balls, and the limits of nonfiction

Murder Ink: 3 murders this week, 285 murders this year

This week's low murder count is luck. There were 23 non-fatal shootings, including four double-shootings. Police arrested four people with handguns, and charged four people, including two women, with shootings. Keith Davis Jr. was convicted of murdering Kevin Jones. Tuesday, Oct. 17 7:37 p.m. Demetrius...

Baltimore City Power Rankings: Up for rich assholes, whoever spray painted the speed camera, more

⬆︎ Rich Assholes Elon Musk showed up in Maryland the other day digging a hole, and Gov. Hogan heartily approved. "Get hyped," the governor tweeted, referring to Musk's The Boring Company and his plans to dig an underground hyperloop along MD RT 295. Meanwhile, Mayor Catherine Pugh sent a love letter...

Baltimore City Power Rankings: Up for Amy Sherald, down for Pugh, BPD, more

↑ City Springs Elementary/Middle and Cardinal Shehan School students At City Springs Elementary/Middle, students in Wyatt Oroke's humanities class helped raise thousands of dollars for Hurricane Harvey relief. The story got the attention of "The Ellen Show," which featured a segment on Oroke and...

Murder Ink: 8 murders this week, 282 murders this year

After a light week we're back to over one homicide per day. Baltimore has averaged about eight per week lately; the rate of killings is increasing despite city officials' efforts. Another of the four men shot on the 3200 block of Lyndale Avenue during the Sept. 26 mass shooting (the city's sixth...

Baltimore City Power Rankings: Shorty gets his grill back, pumpkin spice closes a school, and more

↑ Shorty Davis Last week, activist, organizer, artist, homeless advocate, and cook Duane "Shorty" Davis announced his massive, tank-like grill had been stolen. It spread across social media as many tried to raise awareness for locating it, and even media outlets that've long seen Shorty as a thorn...

A Significant Victory: State settles Maryland Housing discrimination complaint, hundreds of affordable homes promised

Affordable housing for the poor has long remained elusive in the Baltimore region's most prosperous communities—and under pressure from fair housing advocates, Maryland's housing department just took a step toward changing that. On Sept. 20, the Maryland Board of Public Works approved $225,000...

Murder Ink: 5 murders this week, 275 murders this year

A comparatively light week for killings should not mask that 18 other people were shot non-fatally, including three double-shootings. Monday, Oct. 2 On Sept. 28 at about 8 p.m., Leonard Carolina, a 40-year-old African-American man, was near the intersection of Poplar Grove and Riggs Avenue in the...

Murder Ink: 12 murders this week, 271 murders this year

A 9-year-old girl was shot in the foot in a crossfire on the 1000 block of Slater Road. Four people were shot and two were killed on the 3200 block of Lyndale Avenue. In Cherry Hill, cops captured an 18-year-old man, disguised in a wig and a dress, carrying a rifle with a drum magazine, plus another...

Baltimore City Power Rankings: Branded Polorses, fickle Ravens fans, the Fatberg, more

⬆︎ Baltimore Clayworks Over the summer we all thought Baltimore Clayworks was gonna be gone for good—with over $1 million in debt and a failed attempt to leverage the sale of their buildings in order to stay open, its board decided abruptly to close and file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. But after...

Murder Ink: 14 murders over the past two weeks, 258 murders this year

This week's Murder Ink covers the past two weeks of murders. There were 27 murders in the past 30 days. Police continue to seize illegal guns and arrest people, and shootings continue anyway: 15 people within the last week shot non-fatally. Federal agents closed four city murder cases, revealed...

"The Feds Got Instagram Dummy": Twelfth Murdaland Mafia defendant pleads guilty

When Dontray Johnson visited Dante Bailey at the Baltimore County jail and told him he had killed fellow gang member Brian "Nutty B" Johnson for refusing to pay gang dues, Bailey approved. "I told you about this," the leader of the Murdaland Mafia Piru (MMP) said, according to a wiretapped conversation...

Baltimore City Power Rankings: All-Ravens edition

↑ The Ravens Who Kneeled Following outlandish and un-American remarks by President Donald Trump that any player who protests during the "Star-Spangled Banner" is a "son of a bitch" and should be fired, a group of more than a dozen Ravens took a knee during the anthem before a game against the Jacksonville...

Murder Ink: 8 murders this week, 293 murders this year

The carnage continues. Tuesday, Oct. 24  2:22 p.m. Kendel Lecompte, a 27-year-old African-American man, was on the 1000 block of W. North Avenue in Reservoir Hill, when someone shot him. He died soon after at Shock Trauma. Lecompte had lived on the 5100 block of Chalgrove Avenue.  4:43 p.m. Antwan...

Murder Ink: 244 murders this year, 14 murders over the past two weeks

Because of last week's holiday, Murder Ink ran online only. It is published in this week's paper along with this week's Murder Ink. Monday, Aug. 28 9:48 p.m. Carlos Jones, a 27-year-old African-American man, was near the intersection of Mount Pleasant and S. Highland avenues when someone shot him...

Baltimore City Power Rankings: Up for CASA and the Ravens, down for University of Baltimore, Canton, and Ray Lewis

↑ CASA de Maryland Last week, right as an eager Attorney General Jeff Sessions—a longtime opponent of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program—announced Trump's decision to repeal DACA, which temporarily protects people who arrived in the U.S. as children, CASA de Maryland and other immigrants'...

Gallery owner, artist, once an insider, now a step away from being out

Dwight Whitley is better than this. His connections used to mean something. Back when George Winfield ran public works, Whitley would meet him at home after work and hang out. "His wife was a sweetheart," Whitley says. "He'd come in and say 'why'd you let this nigger in here?'" He laughs, remembering...

The Clothing Swap is a free exchange of all those items hanging unused in your closet

On a sunny Saturday in February, a crowd gathered in a large room on the second floor of the 29th Street Community Center in Charles Village: twentysomething girls in boots and scarves, a man pushing a baby stroller, a woman with pink hair, a man in a green tie-dyed tunic and black jeans. Tables...

A Green Mount Cemetery tour guide keeps history alive

"Betsy Patterson had some Kardashian in her," says Wayne Schaumburg as he points to the light gray, well-kept headstone of the daughter of one of Baltimore's historical patriarchs, William Patterson. His past-meets-present analogy—one of many that comes with his explanations on his tour of Green...

A Baltimore crime lab technician moves through a surreal city

People danced their hearts out to the Cupid Shuffle as Rodney Montgomery collected forensic evidence at a gruesome Mother's Day homicide scene. That night a 22-year-old man had been shot in the head several times in southeast Baltimore while various family gatherings and holiday festivities were...

Gregory Carpenter hopes to help ex-offenders bake their way into a profession

Gregory Carpenter stands over an industrial-sized sink rinsing his hands off, lathering them with soap, and then rinsing them off again. He repeats this process three times until his hands are good and clean. After all, in his profession cleanliness is the most important ingredient. He clears his...

If the Shoe Fits: Ma Petite Shoe salesman goes the extra mile

Carrying an armful of boots and display props, Glenn Beverly Bennett Jr., better known as the Shoe Guy, is hard at work rearranging shoes and other knickknacks at Hampden's Ma Petite Shoe. He navigates the tiny shop, nestled in a converted rowhouse on the Avenue in one fluid motion, shuffling from...

On the Road: Behind the wheel with a bus driver who explores the MTA's 57 routes

Gary Brewington welcomes two older women aboard the southbound number 27 bus. As the bus heads away from downtown, the two women tease the driver between stops. He teases back. "I know where you're going," he says. "You're going to the casino." "Why, you want to come with?" one woman replies. "He's...

The Reluctant Activist: Former drug dealer, music-industry insider, and community organizer Stokey Cannady

As helicopters hovered overhead, police gathered in riot gear, kids ran out of stores with armfuls of products, and fires burned, 45-year-old Carmichael "Stokey" Cannady received a call from an out-of-state friend telling him, "You gotta do something." A few months before Monday, April 27, Cannady...

Arms and the Man: Jeff Swedarsky has overcome the loss of a limb and hopes to help others

Jeff Swedarsky is still getting used to living with Rocky, the name he has given to his new arm. Swedarsky was a musician—he played piano, trumpet, drums, and some guitar—until 2013, when he and his wife, who was three months pregnant at the time, attended Washington, D.C.'s Jazz in the Park with...

Terrance Frazier, co-owner of City of Gods boutique, gets spiritual about fashion

Terrance Frazier walks out of the 90-degree afternoon into City of Gods, his shop on Hollins Street. He greets Idris, his business partner, and a group of friends who are sitting quietly at the far end of the store. His friends don't get up to greet Frazier, acknowledging his presence as if he...

After more than a decade as a public defender, Stephen Patrick Beatty, "The Big Acquittal" gets his name on the door

During the trial of Morgan Malachi, a protester from Philadelphia who was arrested near Camden Yards on April 25 for disorderly conduct and refusal to obey a lawful order ("Protester Morgan Malachi cleared of all charges," Mobtown Beat, July 29), her attorney, Stephen Patrick Beatty, clearly relished...

City Folk: Kenneth Johnston spends his days climbing trees and doing cool stuff with what he finds

Kenneth Johnston is a professional tree climber, a beat-boxing multi-instrumentalist, and a sculptor. He’s also building a tiny house. The chicken coop is chirping with loud squawks and a gray cat named Gray Cat is sunbathing in a pile of wood chips next to a half-built tiny house, next to a series...