“I haven’t had a new one in a long time,” Gehrig said.

City Manager Terry McGean mused that some Ocean City visitors will have keychains with 10 telescopes commemorating generations of family trips.

So when the owners of Telescope Pictures, the sole bearer of the 75-year-old Ocean City tradition, asked the council for help staying afloat, the council had no hesitation in lending a hand.

“There are traditions that are important to Ocean City, but some of our traditions have been lost over the years because times have changed,” Mayor Richard Meehan said at the meeting. “This is one worth holding onto.”

The council unanimously voted to reduce the annual franchise fee for Telescope Pictures during a working session on July 15.

Telescope Pictures, a beach photography business, is a unique tradition where photographers approach beachgoers in Ocean City and take a photo to put inside a “telescope” as a souvenir.

Jon Cameron, who owns Telescope Pictures with his wife, Samantha, said the proliferation of cellphones and heightened labor costs have contributed to the company’s recent struggles.

“Everyone’s a photographer, and we have to prove to the customers through our actions, through our words, through our friendly manner [and] all the things that we do that what we do is better than what they can do,” Jon Cameron said during the meeting.

The company has since evolved, now offering framed photos and ornaments, for example, McGean explained.

When Jon Cameron worked as an employee selling telescope photos on the beach 25 years ago, he said he only got paid on commission. Now, with minimum wage requirements, employees are paid even without making a sale, and he said it’s “extremely challenging because of motivating young adults.”

He also pointed to increased minimum wage in Maryland as a factor in increased labor costs. The state’s minimum wage has been steadily increasing over the years, reaching $15 per hour in 2024.

McGean told The Baltimore Sun the beach photography business was once competitive, causing the city to divide the beach for different operators. The last time the city put out a bid, the Camerons were the only bidder on the south end of Ocean City, with no bids on the north end, McGean said.

The Camerons signed a four-year contract with the city in December 2018 at $152,000 per year. Then, in the following summer, they expressed interest in the other open bid, and the council accepted their bid of $76,250 per year for four years in September 2019, according to meeting documents.

With popularity dropping, the Camerons approached the council last week for short- and long-term assistance. One of the requests was eliminating the annual fee from the second franchise bid, reducing their total annual fee by $76,250.

“The fact they are willing to maintain and honor the initial bid price they had, we believe it is acceptable,” McGean said to the council during the meeting.

The council has supported Telescope Pictures in the past, altering the payment structure and eliminating a 10% increase in September 2023, as well as granting a payment extension last month, according to meeting documents.

All council members expressed interest in supporting the historic industry. Mayor Meehan noted how he has never received a complaint about the beach photography franchise, even though he’s received complaints for “just about everything.”

“They have always been good ambassadors for Ocean City on the beach,” Meehan said during the meeting.

The Camerons also asked for a three-year contract extension into November 2030 and a collaboration with the city’s tourism department. This collaboration could include the town’s logo on the telescopes or sending photographers to town events, McGean said.

McGean said there is no hesitation for the contract extension from the City Council, but it requires a change in ordinance, which can only happen at a formal meeting. The first reading of the ordinance change will be Aug. 18.

Gehrig expressed concern over the lack of details in the tourism collaboration and suggested pushing it to a later date.

The council elected to vote only on the annual fee reduction, which passed with a 6-0 vote.

Have a news tip? Contact Brendan Nordstrom at bnordstrom@baltsun.com or on X at @bnords03.

She was formally offered the job leading the Baltimore Office of Promotion & the Arts during the board of directors’ quarterly meeting.

The appointment was hailed by Mayor Brandon Scott in a news release that arrived almost immediately after the board meeting ended, indicating he is confident the city’s previously contentious relationship with BOPA has been repaired.

“Robyn is a lifelong Baltimorean, proven leader and convener who has a vision that deeply understands the creativity, energy and talent that define Baltimore,” Scott said in the release. “Her ability to foster innovation, inspire confidence, and build and maintain relationships makes her the right person to fill this important role.”

Murphy’s appointment as BOPA’s CEO also required her to resign as BOPA’s board chair, a position that will be filled by director Scott Tucker.

BOPA is a quasi-governmental agency that helps plan city events like Artscape and other public celebrations. It also operates a handful of facilities, from School 33 Art Center to The Cloisters Castle, and is responsible for distributing about $500,000 in state funds annually to artists and performing groups.

Murphy noted during the board meeting that a one-year contract for BOPA — which is being rebranded as “Create Baltimore” — was approved by the Baltimore City Council in late spring “without any dissent.” The organization’s annual contribution from the city — $2.8 million this year — has also been ratified.

“Robyn Murphy is the right type of leader for this moment,” Derrick Chase, an artist and BOPA board member, said in the release. “She’s a gifted communicator who listens to creatives and builds the necessary ecosystem to move Baltimore’s art community forward.”

Murphy is BOPA’s fourth CEO in the past three years. Two of her predecessors, Donna Drew Sawyer and Rachel Graham, clashed publicly with Scott and were quickly ousted.

Sawyer was removed in January 2023 after canceling the city’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day Parade with less than two weeks’ notice. A furious Scott declared the city would mount its own parade in honor of the slain civil rights leader and demanded that BOPA’s board remove her.

Graham had been in the job just six months when she drew Scott’s ire in September by requesting a $1.8 million emergency bailout from the city. She said she had only recently discovered that the cash-strapped organization had been running annual deficits since at least the 2018-19 fiscal year.

Graham resigned two months later after Scott refused her request and announced plans to defund BOPA. When she left, 10 of BOPA’s 13 board members also quit.

Murphy has notably had a smoother tenure, and in the past six months, BOPA has quietly regained many of its former functions.

Her appointment also likely reflects the city’s success in pulling off a well-received 2025 Artscape, staged less than nine months after the previous one — an unusually short turnaround time.

After three years of pandemic shutdowns, the city’s marquee annual celebration returned in 2023, but was hampered by two consecutive years of poor weather, forcing the cancellation of key events.

This year, Artscape was held at a new downtown location over Memorial Day weekend and benefited from beautiful weather. Murphy told the board Wednesday that the two-day festival was attended by “almost 200,000” people.

A handful of other items were also discussed at the board meeting:

BOPA has begun sharing its pricey office space at 7 St. Paul Place with the Mayor’s Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy. This new city entity, announced in April, has a $2 million budget and is co-led by Linzy Jackson III and Tonya Miller Hall. While sharing the space will help BOPA pay its $16,000 monthly rent, it may also blur the lines between the nonprofit and the city agency.

“Rent here is very expensive,” Murphy said. “Not only has having them here been helpful in that way, but the energy in this office now is strong and fun. I think we’re building a really good working relationship.”

Plans to find an outside vendor to run the city’s weekly farmers markets have been scrapped, Murphy said. Instead, BOPA will continue to oversee the events, which have been a staple of city life for nearly half a century.

Murphy noted that the downtown market, which runs Sunday mornings in the parking lots beneath the Jones Falls Expressway, “is probably the most impactful farmers market in Maryland in terms of being located in a virtual food desert.” She added that it is also the largest food market in the state that accepts SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) vouchers.

The Top of the World observation level in the World Trade Center will remain open to the public through at least Thanksgiving.

The city has rented the space, which provides panoramic views of Baltimore, for decades. But earlier this year, state officials declined to renew the lease after it expired May 31, saying they needed the space.

However, the state later signed a short-term lease extension that runs through November.

“We are uncertain about the future of Top of the World after that,” Murphy said. “More to come.”

Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly reported the location of the Top of the World observation level. The Sun regrets the error.

Have a news tip? Contact Mary Carole McCauley at mmccauley@baltsun.com and 410-332-6704.

“Doug played the villain or straight man, the man in authority,” Waters said. “He took direction well. His character often reacted meanly or insanely, a character who was against the morals of my world — which was actually correct.”

Born Lloyd Douglas Roberts in Richmond, Kentucky, he was the son of Lloyd Roberts, an insurance salesman, and his wife, Ann, who raised show dogs. He was a Lafayette High School graduate in Lexington, Kentucky, and was a graduate of the University of Kentucky.

Mr. Roberts moved to Manhattan and appeared with George C. Scott in the Circle in the Square Theatre’s production of “Desire Under the Elms.” He was also a page and talent coordinator for the “Today” show at Rockefeller Center.

When a new dinner theater, The Barn, opened near Richmond, Virginia, he became intrigued by the concept. He tried it briefly and later moved on, in 1966, to the Oregon Ridge Dinner Theatre in Cockeysville.

Mr. Roberts proposed marriage to his future wife, Tara Russo, at the final game of the 1966 World Series between the Orioles and the Los Angeles Dodgers. She replied, “Only if we win.” The Orioles won, and the two married a year later.

When times were lean, he became a waiter at the old Charcoal Hearth and Oyster Bay restaurants in downtown Baltimore and worked in public relations at the Painters Mill Music Fair and for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. He later bought into the Bolton Hill Dinner Theatre, where he described himself as a cook, actor, director, owner, and dishwasher and bottle washer.

“There were, in Baltimore’s early days of theater and dinner theater and radio and TV and movies and ad voice-overs, a few people like Doug who were talented, willing to work hard and were very generous,” said Stanley Heuisler, the former Baltimore Magazine editor who acted in the 1970s. “And they were respected as the warm, genuine and professional people. Doug could do, and did, it all. And very well.”

Mr. Roberts found that a good living could be made doing commercials and voice-overs for local advertising agencies. His family said he was in more than 5,000 commercials — often anonymously. He sold cars, furniture and appliances over the air, uncredited. He also handled political campaign announcements.

But as Baltimore began attracting film scouts for location work, Mr. Roberts found himself in demand.

He appeared in “Homicide: Life on the Street” and “The Wire.” He also appeared in John Waters’ “Hairspray,” “Cecil B. Demented,” “Serial Mom” and “A Dirty Shame.”

At Maryland Public Television, Mr. Roberts appeared in “Book, Look, and Listen,” alongside singer Ethel Ennis; hosted the food documentary “Eatin’ Crab Cakes: The Best I Ever Had!”; performed in the “Consumer Survival Kit”; and did comic skits in “Crabs.”

An MPT colleague and director, Richard George, said: “‘Crabs’ was a live-on-the-air sketch comedy show featuring local talent that won 13 Emmys, and Doug was our comedy director. He was the smooth 350 V-8 engine under the hood of ‘Crabs’ that drove us to airtime on every show.”

His favorite film was 1997’s “G.I. Jane,” in which he had a scene with Anne Bancroft.

He also appeared on WBAL-TV and WBAL Radio as an entertainment and food reporter called the Beltway Gourmet.

A baseball and basketball fan, Mr. Roberts served on the Babe Ruth Birthplace Museum’s board. He also fished, hunted and collected penknives.

“He was outgoing and generous, almost to a fault,” his wife said. “But most of all, he was a family man and loved his grandchildren. He was proud to have been a working actor all his life.”

Survivors include his wife of 58 years, Tara Russo Roberts, a retired Baltimore County Schools teacher; two daughters, Hilary Roberts-King and Amy McLoughlin, both of Baltimore; a son, J. Brooke Roberts, of Marietta, Georgia; and eight grandchildren.

The Ruck Towson Funeral Home is handling the funeral arrangements.

Have a news tip? Contact Jacques Kelly at jacques.kelly@baltsun.com and 410-332-6570.

Both sides heralded the agreement, which provides for nearly 14% raises during the three-year contract, eight weeks of paid parental leave and a $750 annual health stipend for part-time staff members — the first time that some workers will get funds from their employer to help cover health expenses.

Sarah Freshnock, a preventive conservator at the Walters and a member of the bargaining committee,  said that the paid parental leave — a benefit the staff has never had before — is especially meaningful to her, since she is getting married in September, and she and her fiance have been discussing starting a family.

“It has been a long process and some people wondered if this contract was ever going to happen,” Freshnock said.

“It is a huge win. We started out really far apart, but people on both sides of the bargaining table worked hard over many months to find a way to come together.”

Kate Burgin, the museum’s Andrea B. and John H. Laporte director and CEO, wrote in a statement that management is committed to a relationship that is “grounded in mutual respect and shared goals in support of our team members.”

She added: “With the [collective bargaining agreement] now ratified, we look forward to moving ahead together with renewed commitment to the museum’s mission to bring art and people together.”

The contract ratification is the most recent example of burgeoning unionization efforts nationwide, which increased dramatically following the coronavirus pandemic-induced job losses and worker protection concerns. Cultural workers locally who have unionized in the past three years include staff members at the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Enoch Pratt Free Library, the Howard County Library System and the Anne Arundel County Public Library.

But at the Walters, unionization efforts proved especially contentious and drawn-out.

“I’m ecstatic that this day has finally come,” Will Murray, who has worked for the Baltimore museum for 27 years and is now its lead maintenance technician, said in a news release. “The Walters is now on par with other progressive institutions who are willing to reward their very deserving employees for their hard work throughout the years with all that this contract entails.”

The long impasse began shortly after staff members who called themselves Walters Workers United announced April 30, 2021, that they planned to organize to address such issues as pay equity, workplace safety and career advancement.

The dispute centered on whether the Walters would have one union or two and which employees would be included in them — issues that took two years, a lawsuit and the introduction of bills into the state legislature to resolve. (The bills were withdrawn once the union election was scheduled.)

Bargaining began shortly after workers voted June 15, 2023, to organize a single union under the auspices of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. The contract includes security guards, educators, conservation staff and gift shop employees, among others. Managers, supervisors, confidential employees and members of the leadership team remain outside union jurisdiction.

The workers said  highlights of their new agreement include:

• Guaranteed “step” increases, or automatic raises given based on years of service, in addition to cost-of-living increases. Base minimum salaries, which range from $36,000 to $39,500, jumped to $45,425, retroactively as of July 1. By the time the contract expires, these union members will be paid at least $49,013, according to Linda He, an AFSCME communications director.
• The establishment of two oversight committees to address health, safety and other workplace concerns.
• The health insurance stipend for part-time employees. Stuart Katzenberg, a director of collective bargaining for the union, said that although Walters employees receive health insurance and other benefits from the city, not all of the part-time employees had been eligible for it.

The contract “gives us the power to advocate for the safety protections and respect we deserve,” Garrett Stralnic, the museum’s public programs coordinator, said in the union news release. “Our hard work is what makes the Walters such a vital part of the Baltimore community.”

Correction: This story has been updated to reflect the correct positions of Kate Burgin, Andrea Laporte and John Laporte. The Sun regrets the errors.

Have a news tip? Contact Mary Carole McCauley at mmccauley@baltsun.com and 410-332-6704. Contact Chevall Pryce at cpryce@baltsun.com.

The panel adopted, 33-25, a package of amendments to the bill funding the Interior Department, Environmental Protection Agency and related agencies for fiscal 2026, which included a provision to designate the First Lady Melania Trump Opera House at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

The vote was mostly along party lines, with Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington joining all Republicans present in voting in favor.

The ranking Democrat on the Interior-Environment Appropriations Subcommittee, Rep. Chellie Pingree of Maine, said she was “surprised” by the provision.

“Republicans snuck in something that I think is slightly divisive, which is renaming one section of the Kennedy Center after a family member of this administration,” Pingree said during the full committee markup — a meeting when a bill is debated, amended and voted on.

Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Mike Simpson, an Idaho Republican, responded that the name change was “an excellent way to recognize the first lady’s support and commitment to promoting the arts.”

“Yes, we renamed the Opera House at the Kennedy Center for the first lady, who is the honorary chairman of the board of trustees of the Kennedy Center,” Simpson said.

The Kennedy Center is considered one of the nation’s premier performing arts venues.

President Donald Trump removed several members of the Kennedy Center board in February, replacing them with loyalists who elected him board chair. He also fired the cultural center’s president, Deborah Rutter, and replaced her on an interim basis with Richard Grenell, who has held several roles during Trump’s presidencies.

Interior-environment bill

The House Interior-Environment spending bill proposes nearly $38 billion for departments and agencies covered by the measure, an overall spending cut of 6% compared with current levels, mainly from chopping 23% of the EPA’s budget.

The Interior Department would see a cut of less than one-half of 1% of its current funding, according to a summary provided by committee Republicans.

Arts and culture funding would also see major cuts in the bill.

The National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities would each see 35% cuts, bringing each agency’s funding to $135 million. The Smithsonian Institution would receive $961.3 million, representing a 12% cut. The Kennedy Center itself would see a 17.2% cut, to $37.2 million.

The full House Appropriations Committee approved the bill with the amendment, 33-28.

Appropriations bills must win 60 votes in the Senate to become law, which generally makes it difficult for overly partisan provisions to be included in the final text.

The corresponding Senate subcommittee has not released its version of the bill but is scheduled to consider it Thursday.

Maryland Matters is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501(c)(3) public charity. Maryland Matters maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Steve Crane for questions: scrane@marylandmatters.org. Follow Maryland Matters on Facebook and Bluesky.

There the mayor and governor were, in Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall with their families, cranking their right arms in big circles as if winding up for the pitch, bending their knees and swaying back and forth to the rhythms of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and rap legend Nas.

It was the first time that the BSO had performed with a hip-hop star in the orchestra’s 109-year history. And it is just the most recent example of how Maryland’s largest cultural organization is reaching out to a younger and more diverse population and attempting to grow its audience of the future.

”Man, tonight was incredible,” Scott posted later on his Instagram account, below a photo of himself with his wife, Hana, and her son, Ceron.

”I was just a little older than him when ‘Illmatic’ came out and I remember how life-changing hearing it for the first time was for me.”

Also spotted in the crowd: Baltimore City Council President Zeke Cohen.

Tickets to the concert sold out 48 hours after the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra announced April 7 that Nas and the full orchestra would perform his landmark debut album, “Illmatic,” with new arrangements.

“This is perhaps the biggest night in Baltimore in quite a while,” said Allison Burr-Livingstone, the symphony’s senior vice president and chief advancement officer.

“We know that this album means so much to so many people across the country and also here in our community. We hope that we are welcoming longtime fans of Nas who will now be longtime fans of the BSO.”

It would be safe to say that not all of the sold-out 2,443 tickets went to locals.

Nederizio Candelario of Baltimore lured friends from New York to join her at the concert. She has been to the BSO before — she’s a fan of the BSO’s Fusion Series, which intertwines classical melodies with popular music from such bands as Radiohead and songwriter Kendrick Lamar.

”I told them the acoustics [at the Meyerhoff] were very good,” she said.

Symphony officials, who found themselves turning away disappointed ticket-buyers, still aren’t entirely sure what hit them.

“It really was remarkable,” said Mark C. Hanson, the BSO’s president and CEO.

”We had no idea there was such a pent-up demand from people wanting to be in this hall to hear this music. I wish we could have put on five concerts with Nas.”

Fans like Tevin Eubanks and Sharlay Jauvon, of Baltimore, were prepared to splurge. Eubanks said he had hoped to score two of the pricey VIP packages, which included premium seats, a limited edition tour poster and other merchandise.

“The VIP packages sold out fast, and what was left was general admission tickets,” Eubanks said. “I’m glad I was able to get them.”

So Wednesday’s event had all the trappings of a happening, with a pre-performance party in the Meyerhoff lobby that included food trucks, bar service and live music from DJ Impulse.

The concert was divided into three parts: Initially, the Symphony performed a selection of popular tunes from Kurt Weill’s “Mack the Knife” to John Kander and Fred Ebb’s “New York, New York.”

They were joined for the second part by Nas, who gave the crowd what it was waiting for: “Illmatic,” with new arrangements and backed by an 80-piece orchestra.

Finally, symphony musicians left the stage and Nas performed some of his more recent work.

The BSO won’t have audience demographics from Wednesday’s performance until later this year. But Hanson won’t be surprised if attendees prove to be significantly younger and more racially diverse than typical BSO ticket-buyers. He expects many of the rapper’s fans to be first-time visitors to the Meyerhoff, including those who traveled to Maryland from out of state.

Baltimore‘s Grant Coleman said he had never heard the BSO perform before Wednesday’s concert, though his wife, Tiffany, has; she attended a February 2024 concert that paired the music of rap icons Tupac Shakur (who spent his teen years in Baltimore) and Notorious B.I.G. with Gustav Mahler’s “Resurrection” symphony.

“This concert is a blending of two different styles and cultures,” Grant Coleman said. “Nas is an awesome performer, and the BSO is an awesome orchestra.”

Symphony officials noted that the experience was eye-opening for people on both sides of the stage. Wednesday’s concert was the first time some of the players had been exposed to Nas’ music, Burr-Livingstone said.

“The opportunity for us to collaborate with an artist as legendary as Nas is huge,” Hanson said.

“It invites new audience members into the Meyerhoff to experience a symphonic concert. And it also broadens our mindset as an organization, leading to other new ideas and ways of collaborating.”

Of course, the 51-year-old Grammy Award-winning Nas isn’t just any rapper, and “Illmatic” isn’t just any album.

The Brooklyn-born, Queens-raised Nas — his original stage name was “Nasty Nas” — is rooted in East Coast hip-hop and famed for his intricate, sophisticated rhymes and storytelling ability. He was named the third greatest rapper of all time in 2015 by Billboard magazine.

“Illmatic” routinely makes Top 10 greatest hip-hop album lists and is included in the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry.

The “Illmatic” tour, which began in 2024 in Europe, celebrates the album’s 30th anniversary.

Though Wednesday was Nas’ first performance with the BSO, it was not his first concert in Baltimore.

In 2019, he performed at the Royal Farms Arena, now CFG Bank Arena, with Mary J. Blige. Five years earlier, he headlined the Preakness Infieldfest in 2014, along with the New Zealand singer/songwriter Lorde.

Though Nas has left Charm City, he will remain in the mid-Atlantic region for at least this weekend. He is scheduled to perform concerts on Friday in Philadelphia and in Pittsburgh on Saturday.

Sun reporters Matthew Schumer and Brendan Townsend contributed to this article.

Have a news tip? Contact Mary Carole McCauley at mmccauley@baltsun.com and 410-332-6704.

In September, the 26-year-old Baltimorean will be a Cafritz Young Artist with Washington National Opera, one of the most competitive programs for emerging opera singers in the U.S.

But it wasn’t always easy being a Black teenage male in the Belair-Edison neighborhood singing music written hundreds of years ago by European men wearing wigs.

“I definitely got pushback,” Henderson said. “I was a social outcast in many ways.”

Nonetheless, he persevered, graduating from Baltimore School for the Arts and Morgan State University, and later earning a master’s degree from England’s Royal Northern College of Music.

Oh, and did we mention that Henderson is also a composer? A song that he co-wrote when he was in his teens was featured in a Netflix television series created by the filmmaker Spike Lee.

”The story that my parents tell is that when my mother was pregnant with me, my father put speakers playing jazz music to my mother’s belly,” Henderson said, “and I came out singing.”

Baltimoreans will have a chance to appreciate Henderson’s talents July 31, when he participates in a free outdoor concert at Mount Vernon Place sponsored by Maryland Opera.

The following interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Congratulations on your selection as a Cafritz Young Artist.

Thank you. This is an initiative to help up-and-coming opera singers prepare for international careers. For two years, I will cover [understudy] principal roles in Washington Opera productions and possibly sing small roles. It will put me in an entirely different professional marketplace than I am in now, where I hopefully will be able to earn a living wage.

How did you decide on a career in opera?

I originally wanted to have a career as a pop singer. I didn’t really fall in love with opera until I was 17 and was studying music theory and history. I was listening to Claude Debussy’s Arabesque No. 1, and something kind of clicked. The harmonies brought me so much joy. Classical music remains is still in some ways inaccessible to my generation. I’m going into this career because I want to make opera exciting.

You also still perform popular music.

Singing pop and musical theater is freeing for me. Classical music can be very linear and one-dimensional.  There is a certain way it should be approached. But pop and musical theater [are] still evolving. Just look at “Hamilton.” You can make that music your own.

What is it like to be a Black teenager who sings opera? 

There were people who presented themselves as wanting to help me but said things that were demeaning and disrespectful. Once I was working on a bel canto piece, [music historically performed at royal courts] and a gentleman told me, “It must be hard for you to understand the aristocracy.” Someone else told me, “You ought to consider using Henry instead of Hakeem as your professional name.” It was like running into a brick wall.

What other obstacles have you faced?

When I was 7 years old, I was diagnosed with ADHD [attention-deficit/hyperacivity disorder] and a mood disorder. When I started at School for the Arts, it was my first time in a structured environment.  I didn’t know a C note from a G, I didn’t know how to organize my time, and I struggled with my attention span. I almost flunked out my freshman year. It was very grueling, and some nights I cried. But my father talked to the school and explained that I was neurodivergent, and they arranged to give me more time to take tests and learn. It made all the difference. Now, some of the people who gave me failing grades have become my colleagues.

What was college like for you?

I was very anxious about what the future would hold for me, and Morgan was not even my first choice. I was rejected from Peabody [Conservatory]. But, it was a very fruitful experience. Many doors opened for me at Morgan that I wasn’t expecting. I sang in the Morgan State Choir under Eric Conway, and when we traveled internationally, I sang a solo.

You had a professional debut that most singers only dream about. Performing at the Edinburgh International Festival is a little like going from school straight to Broadway. How did that happen?

Someone asked Dr. Conway if he had a singer who could perform in “West Side Story” at the festival, and he recommended me. I was in the Jets ensemble, and we performed with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Sir John Eliot Gardiner. I had a ball. Everyone was very generous. It was one of the best times of my life.

You’re also a composer. Wasn’t some of your music featured on the TV series based on Spike Lee’s “She’s Gotta Have It”?

When I was 18 or 19, my mother sent me a link that Spike was looking for original music for his television show. I didn’t know who the man was. I had never seen any of his films, but my brother Nazeeh is a writer and a poet, and we often collaborate. We wrote a song about my first love called “I Wish to Hold You Again.”

I didn’t think it was my best work.

But in 2018, I was in the car with my mother and stepfather on the way to a gig and I got a call. He said, “This is Spike. I’m calling to congratulate you. You won.”

Our song was used in episode 8 of that season.

Do you plan on doing more composing in the future?

I also co-wrote a song called “Keep on Movin’ On” with Luis Sullivan, a fellow student at the Royal Northern College of Music, and it subsequently aired on BBC Radio.

At some point, I want to get back to composing. But right now, my schedule singing opera is taking all of my focus and time.

Have a news tip? Contact Mary Carole McCauley at mmccauley@baltsun.com and 410-332-6704.

If you go

Tenor Hakeem Henderson and soprano Nina Evelyn will perform at 7 p.m. July 31 in Mount Vernon Place’s west park with members of the Maryland Opera’s summer camp. Free. For details, go to marylandopera.org.

Exactly how an 1844 oil painting of John Beale Davidge found its way to the former Bertha’s Mussels in Fells Point isn’t entirely clear from the medical school news release last week announcing the discovery.

But the portrait has been donated to the medical school and is already hanging in historic Davidge Hall, the building bearing the name of a founder of the nation’s first public medical school.

Larry Pitrof, executive director of the Medical Alumni Association of the University of Maryland on Tuesday described the finding as “extraordinary.” He added:

“This is the only portrait of Davidge that we’re aware of that exists. It is certainly the oldest. Until another one shows up, this is our Mona Lisa.”

The painting was discovered May 29 as workers at Bertha’s were preparing the once-iconic Baltimore property for auction. The portrait bears a plaque with Davidge’s name, and the woman who found it, a friend of the medical historian Meg Fairfax Fielding, sent her a text message saying she might want to take a look at it.

Fielding found an oil painting that is roughly 2 feet square. It was in need of a good cleaning, she said, but otherwise was in remarkably good shape given its age and storage conditions.

“This is such a Baltimore story,” said Fielding, director of the History of Maryland Medicine at MedChi, the Maryland State Medical Society. “I knew who it was right away.”

Davidge, who died in 1829 at age 61, was a remarkable if flawed human being.

As a young man, his single mother attempted to apprentice him to a cabinetmaker. But Davidge yearned to become a physician — and financed his education by “obtaining aid from friends and coming into possession of some slaves through the death of a relative,” according to mdhistoryonline.net, a website that chronicles the history of medicine in Maryland from 1752 to 1920.

Additional research concluded that at some point in his life, Davidge owned eight enslaved people, according to the University of Maryland, Baltimore’s 1807 Commission on Slavery and Racism.

“We don’t know what happened to his slaves or whether he eventually freed them,” Pitrof said. “We didn’t find evidence in his last will and testament that he owned any slaves at the time of his death.”

The fates of those eight people apparently were never documented. What was recorded for posterity is Davidge’s extraordinary medical career.

Three yellow fever epidemics decimated Baltimore in the late 1700s. One wiped out 10% of the population. Davidge became the 19th-century equivalent of the heroic doctors and nurses who treated patients during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.

”No one knew where yellow fever came from,” Pitrof said. “Doctors like everyone else died from yellow fever, and doctors like everyone else fled for the hills. But not John Davidge.

”He had a theory that yellow fever wasn’t contagious, which turned out to be true. The common mosquito was the culprit. He stayed in Baltimore and treated patients with yellow fever and was a calming presence in the city.”

At the time, aspiring physicians learned their craft through a series of apprenticeships. As the founder of Baltimore’s first School of Anatomy, Davidge dissected corpses at his home at Liberty and Saratoga streets — a practice that enraged the populace because of its associations with grave robbing.

During one dissection in 1807, Davidge and his colleagues realized they were being observed.

”An hour later, a mob had formed outside his home,” Pitrof said. “He and his colleagues were lucky to escape with their lives.”

Fielding said the mob burned Davidge’s house to the ground.

”That was what galvanized them to apply to the state legislature for a charter for a medical school,” Pitrof said.

So when Fielding realized whose portrait she was looking at, it never occurred to her to keep it, even though the institution she works for has a large collection of medical portraits.

Since it appears that the oil painting was created about 15 years after Davidge’s death in 1829, it must have been copied from a depiction of the physician made while he was still alive, Fielding said.

What isn’t clear is the artist’s name. An inscription on the rear of the canvas attributes it to a Hungarian portraitist named “A.L.Ratzka” — but that artist wasn’t born until 1869, or long after this portrait was created, Fielding said.

She said that Bertha’s former owner doesn’t remember exactly when or where he acquired the artwork. He told Fielding he suspects he might have bought the portrait at a flea auction.

It hung on a wall in Bertha’s dining room for years, and later in a music studio and eventually in a storage closet. Bertha’s closed in October 2023.

Fielding’s discovery is especially meaningful to the medical school because its only previous portrait of Davidge —a small image in an oval frame — was stolen in the 1990s.

Though Pitrof said the portrait is on view now just inside the Davidge Building’s front door, it will be removed temporarily once renovations begin on the interior of the 1812 building, which the medical school describes as “the oldest medical teaching building in the Western Hemisphere still in use.”

”The painting is stunning,” Pitrof said. “Make no mistake, there will be a prominent location for it once the building reopens.”

Have a news tip? Contact Mary Carole McCauley at mmccauley@baltsun.com and 410-332-6704.

He was taken by ambulance to the Johns Hopkins Hospital, where his death was confirmed an hour after the accident.

Born in Baltimore, he was the son of William George Herman, a Hardware Fair manager, and his wife, Priscilla Engle Herman. He attended Leith Walk Elementary, St. Matthew’s School and Ridgely Junior High, and graduated from Towson High School. He also studied at what is now Towson University and earned a degree from the Maryland Institute College of Art.

Mr. Herman lived in Cork Factory, a Guilford Avenue cooperative studio building, and was well known in the Station North arts community.

A neighbor, Lou Linden, said: “Dave was a productive artist and primarily a painter whose recent landscapes were really quite good. People said he was coming into his own. He was becoming an overnight sensation after 25 years of work.”

Another neighbor, Robert Levine, said: “Dave was a free spirit. He was a social guy and seemed to know everyone. He was an excellent artist and often talked of selling his unit one day and living on a beach.”

Mr. Herman, who took commissions for his art, also was in demand as a bartender for caterers.

“As a bartender, he liked to talk. He was magnanimous and always open to chatting with his patrons at the parties he worked,” said Liz Lord, a co-worker. “He was a joy to be around. He was carefree and laid-back.”

She also said: “Dave had a lot of chosen family and was widely networked in the music and arts community. He cared greatly for his Greenmount West and Station North neighborhoods. And yet he always wanted to leave Baltimore behind and pursue a simple life in the [Florida] Keys or the Caribbean.”

Ms. Lord said he worked parties in Bolton Hill and Roland Park and for events associated with private schools, including Bryn Mawr, Gilman, McDonogh and the St. Paul’s Schools.

“He worked with us for 15 years,” said Carey Talucci, owner of Talucci Fine Foods. “He was the best employee. He was low-maintenance. He always showed up. He was the last to leave a party because he was discussing things with our guests. They all loved him. He never got stressed in the party battle. If things got tense, he’d turn to yoga and we’d find him standing on his head on the lawn.”

“His paintings were stunning and beautiful,” Ms. Talucci said. “And he loved to surf.”

Kevin Simmons, a fellow bartender and friend, said: “Dave was a gentle soul who had a way of touching people. He found a commonality with them.”

A memorial will be held from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Aug 10 at Area 405 at 405 E. Oliver St.

Survivors include his father and stepmother, William George and Gail Herman, of Selbyville, Delaware; his brother, Christopher Herman, of Corning, New York; and a half-sister, Stacey Herman, of Baltimore.

Have a news tip? Contact Jacques Kelly at jacques.kelly@baltsun.com and 410-332-6570.

Once Trump signs the bill, it will effectively remove all federal support for public broadcasting beginning Oct. 1. The CPB will continue to exist on paper, since it was established by federal statute, but it will be an organization with almost no budget.

Congress’ action leaves local stations, particularly smaller outlets in rural areas, scrambling to figure out how to replace money that currently finances such functions as the national Emergency Alert System, regional news and educational programming.

“Without federal funding, many local public radio and television stations will be forced to shut down. Parents will have fewer high quality learning resources available for their children. Millions of Americans will have less trustworthy information about their communities, states, country, and world with which to make decisions about the quality of their lives,” Patricia Harrison, President and CEO of CPB said in a statement. “Cutting federal funding could also put Americans at risk of losing national and local emergency alerts that serve as a lifeline to many Americans in times of severe need.”

In contrast to the media executives who decried the action by Congress, some taxpayer advocates praised the defunding as long overdue.

“This is a great first step, but there needs to be more cuts to the budget down the road,” said David Williams, president of the Washington D.C.-based Taxpayers Protection Alliance.

“The media landscape has changed greatly in the past 10, 15 and 20 years. People have a lot more access to a variety of resources. Taxpayers should not be paying to provide the news whether it comes from the right wing or the left wing. That is the job of the private sector.”

National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting service — each best known by their acronyms of NPR and PBS — will feel the cuts much less than their local affiliates. PBS receives about 15% of its budget from the federal government, while for NPR the financial loss is much smaller, about 1%.

But funding these national broadcasters is just a small part of the CPB’s mission;  70% of its annual budget is allocated to support 1,500 local public radio and television stations nationwide. In 2024, eight Maryland radio and television stations received $6,357,641 from the CPB in direct grants, according to its website.

“We’ll get through,” said Judy Diaz, general manager of Delmarva Public Media, who will forfeit 15% of her budget for three small radio stations on the Eastern Shore, or roughly $300,000 a year. “But losing the CPB is like [being stabbed with] a dagger. We know how important local independent media is to rural markets like ours. We’re too small to attract major donors. But we are here covering what is important to Delmarva because it is our home, too.”

Maryland Public Television President & CEO Steven J. Schupak wrote in an email to The Sun that station leadership is working to identify which cost-cutting measures will be necessary now that the station is losing about $4 million annually in federal funds.

The vote by Congress, Schupak wrote, “will unfortunately require adjustments to our delivery of educational services, reductions in Maryland-focused TV programs, fewer community engagement activities across the state, and possible impacts to our public safety and emergency communications services.”

Mary Stewart, vice president of external affairs at WETA, said that the impact of the funding loss is even greater at producing stations like hers. WETA mounts several popular shows that air nationwide: “PBS NewsHour,” director Ken Burns’ documentary films (including the upcoming six-part series, “The American Revolution”) and the historical documentaries hosted by Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates.

It’s too early to speculate about which cost-cutting measures WETA will implement, Stewart said, but she worries that programming nationwide inevitably will suffer when cash-strapped stations can no longer afford collaborative ventures that are standard today.

“The loss of the CPB will have a substantial impact on us,” Stewart said. “We’re also trying to figure out the ramifications of taking half of a billion dollars out of a system of public television stations that is so interdependent. Collectively, we were able to do so much more together than we will be able to provide on our own.”

Craig Swagler, president and general manager of Baltimore Public Media, cited a recent Harris poll conducted on behalf of NPR which found that two-thirds of Americans support federal funding for public radio, including more than half of Republicans (58%) and three-quarters of Democrats (77%). The poll has a margin of error of 2.5 percent.

Baltimore Public Media is the parent company of NPR affiliate stations WYPR and WTMD.

“There is support for what these community-oriented stations do,” Swagler said. “Unfortunately, there was a mandate from the Trump administration and everyone fell in line. The politics of the moment have overruled the demands of the people.”

Though Swagler’s stations will lose $2.5 million in federal money over the next four years, he said that for now his focus is on raising money to offset the loss rather than cutting programming.

“There was no runway,” he said. “The money just got pulled back overnight.”

He is concerned that the demise of the CPB will add costly new responsibilities to local stations such as negotiating broadcasting rights at the same time the outlets are grappling with millions of dollars of revoked federal income. Not all rural broadcasters, he said, will survive that double whammy. And if enough small public media stations cease operations, that could shift the nation’s airwaves politically to the right.

“Some of these organizations will be affected by the cuts right away and could go under,” he said. “It will be a prime opportunity for religious and conservative broadcasters to snap up those licenses — as they are already doing around the country.”

But Jesse Walker, a Baltimore-based author and senior editor for Reason magazine, a libertarian publication, thinks that in the long run, independent stations will benefit from being severed however forcibly from the CPB.

“I’ve been saying for years that there should be a divorce between non-commercial broadcasting and the federal government,” he said.

“Federal subsidies create an opportunity for government officials to stick their snouts into the stations’ business. I also don’t think taxpayers should be forced to fund media outlets they don’t agree with.”

He thinks that radio stations will thrive if they return to their pre-CPB roots of operating on shoestring budgets, being staffed by community volunteers and airing points of view from outside the mainstream.

When government checks disappear, “that doesn’t mean you’re doomed,” Walker wrote Thursday on the Reason Foundation website.

“If you can cover neglected local news, offer technical training to local kids, and give the region’s bands and DJs a place to showcase their talents, you just might stay afloat.”

Have a news tip? Contact Mary Carole McCauley at mmccauley@baltsun.com and 410-332-6704.