What piece of art changed your life? How did it affect you?
Ben E. King's recording of the R&B classic "Stand By Me" captured me as a high school freshman in 1961. The song was a haunting interracial partnership of artists that rose above the segregation of culture and politics in that era. It inspired me [...]

What piece of art changed your life? How did it affect you?
Michael Cataldi did two installation series in Baltimore several years ago called Tire Swings and Flower-Pot-Holes. He would carry a spool of rope with him as he wandered through the city, and wherever he found an abandoned tire by the side of a road [...]

What piece of art changed your life? How did it affect you?
I went to high school in Springfield, Illinois. It’s kind of the center of the U.S. with very Midwestern values. My friends were getting into punk rock and new wave at a time when I felt pretty alone at my school. I felt especially [...]

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The Tinklers, the legendary Baltimore duo known for their witty and achingly humane songs played on homemade wrench xylophones and rubber band guitars, have written a book! Called The Elements, it's a timely and lovely read, and, like The Tinklers' tunes, it's deceptively simple, but poignant.
It's the latest release by Rupert Wondolowski's Shattered Wig Press, [...]

During a recent interview with This American Life host Ira Glass, I asked about his favorite storytellers. Here's his list...
Errol Morris
Michael Lewis ("especially The Blind Side")
Malcolm Gladwell
Jack Hitt
David Sedaris
"The guys who put together The Wire" (David Simon, Ed Burns, etc)
"The guys who did Battlestar Galactica, which is a work of genius storytelling and, sometimes, [...]

Becoming Billie Holiday, by Baltimore's Carole Boston-Weatherford, has won the American Library Association's Coretta Scott King Award. According to the ALA website, the award is "given to an African American author for an outstandingly inspirational and educational contribution. The books promote understanding and appreciation of the culture of all peoples and their contribution to the [...]

What piece of art changed your life? How did it affect you?
Norman Rockwell: Artist and Illustrator by Thomas S Buechner. I became a visual artist because of this 13" x 17" x 2" opus that covers Rockwell's entire career. It has over 600 illustrations, including these incredible gatefold pages that open up to over 30" [...]

What piece of art changed your life? How did it affect you?
The King James version of The Bible changed my life and forced me to have a personal relationship with a higher being. It especially helped me deal with the passing of my father and brother, Glenn. Me and Glenn were considered rebels coming up [...]

What piece of art changed your life? How did it affect you?
As an artist and mother of three young children, I am affected by any book that I actually have time to read. On my nightstand at the moment is Mother on Fire by Sandra Tsing Loh. It's a fiercely hilarious book about Sandra's life as [...]

What piece of art changed your life? How did it affect you?
The first thing that comes to mind is that when I was 11 or 12 years old, I got hold of a collection of Edgar Allan Poe's work. It was a big, thick, hardback edition that looked like a dictionary. I guess it was [...]