While the city of New York always get the credit for being The City That Never Sleeps but in reality, all cities never does sleep and along with this sleeplessness state are news and current events.
Aretha Franklin dies aged 76.
The “Queen of Soul” visited Baltimore a few times during her career.
Franklin at The Lyric in Baltimore, 2014. Photo courtesy of Owen Sweeney / Owen Sweeney/Invision/AP
In 1971, less than a year after releasing her album “Spirit in the Dark,” Franklin performed at Baltimore’s Civic Center. The Sun’s Earl Arnett attended to review Franklin’s performance, but due to technical difficulties and a pressing deadline, Arnett had to leave before Franklin took the stage.
The “Respect” singer headlined the opening night of the 1994 Artscape festival. Her performance with the “Whit” Williams Orchestra was highly anticipated throughout the city.
“It’s great to have her here, as they say, the First Lady of Soul, ” Mayor Kurt Schmoke said at the time.
An estimated 120,000 people attended the concert, with some finding creative ways to get a view of the singer, who was the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.
“People climbed trees and stood on the roofs of nearby buildings and parking garages to get a better view,” reads The Sun’s story from July 16, 1994.
Franklin returned to Baltimore on Nov. 13, 2014, to perform at the Modell Performing Arts Center at the Lyric. Her final appearance in the region came last year on July 29, when Franklin headlined the Wolf Trap in Vienna, Va. She had canceled a show there a year before due to “doctors’ orders,” according to a news release at the time, but returned in 2017, when she performed her many hits with a lively full band. Full story.
Where one story ends another begins. Baltimore is constantly growing with new restaurants, bars, and pubs.
From Closing to a New Beginning
Bar Louie, the chain bar and restaurant that focuses on cocktails, will open at the former Tilted Kilt Pub and Eatery in White Marsh on August 31, wrote Wesley Case for Baltimore Sun.
The bar will be open from 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. that day, said Kayla Dillon, a Bar Louie marketing manager. Going forward, Bar Louie will be open at 8133-C Honeygo Blvd., 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. Monday-Friday, and 10 a.m. to 2 a.m. Saturday and Sunday, with weekend brunch service, Dillon said.
The White Marsh Bar Louie will mark the fifth location for the Texas-based franchise in Maryland. Other Bar Louies open here include Owings Mills’ Foundry Row, Hunt Valley, Rockville and Wheaton. Full story.
With school right around the corner, our focus is back on Baltimore’s great athletic programs. Some of the best Maryland athletes are from Baltimore. Not only do they do on to do great things, but they often come home to give back to the community.
Along With New Hope
Photo courtesy of Jim Mahjoubain/Baltimore City Public Schools
The second annual Rudy Gay Flight 22 Classic, a high school boys basketball showcase featuring East Coast teams, is set to take place Saturday, Aug. 18, and Sunday, Aug. 19, at Park School in Baltimore.
Gay, a Baltimore native and former Archbishop Spalding standout who now plays for the San Antonio Spurs, started the event last year to provide a showcase for high school talent and raise money for his Flight 22 Foundation.
The mission of the foundation is to provide disadvantaged youth with proper access to resources and opportunities that will increase their confidence and leadership skills to successfully compete in the 21st century workforce. Full story by Glenn Graham.
Sometimes progress doesn’t have to be a large gesture. The mayor has taken steps to change Baltimore’s image.
… And Still Being Hoped For Change
Overnight over a year ago, as most of Baltimore slept, crews working for the city took down three memorials to the Confederacy and a statue of Roger B. Taney, the Supreme Court justice who wrote the Dred Scott decision that upheld slavery.
The unannounced, dark-of-night strike was as dramatic as it was long in coming.
For years, Baltimore, a majority African-American city in a state where nearly three times as many fought for the Union as for the Confederacy, had studied and debated what to do with statues that many saw as symbols of white supremacy.
Mayor Catherine Pugh ordered their removal, a process that began after 11:30 p.m. Aug. 15 and continued through the morning. Later that week state officials ordered a statue of Taney removed from the front lawn of the State House in Annapolis, also overnight.
Pugh received much praise at the time for her decisive action, a moment in the national spotlight that for a change didn’t involve negative news about crime, police brutality or police corruption.
Looking back this week, Pugh said Baltimore became a model for how other cities could handle their own controversial monuments. But she was otherwise fairly subdued on the subject. She said she didn’t have any particular feelings watching the monuments come down, and was just focused on preventing the kind of violence that had broken out elsewhere. Full story by Jean Marbella.
As such, Baltimore also never sleeps. Pursuing career in the Charm City or need help with your house but that is not news-worthy? Let us help you with your real estate needs! Dependable Homebuyers has been buying houses in Baltimore since 2012.
