Toni Cade Bambara in Praxis Weekend: Lessons in Care, Sisterhood, and Cultural Work, April 10 to 11, various times and locations.
“She’s helped me name myself,” says Sharayna Christmas of Baltimore’s Muse 360 on Toni Cade Bambara. Bambara, a pillar of Black organizing and Black artistry most known for her novel “The Salt Eaters,” passed away in 1995. Christmas, a teen at the time, learned about Bambara’s importance from her mother. Now, with the release of “TCB – The Toni Cade Bambara School of Organizing,” created by director/editor Monica Henriquez and director/producer Louis Massiah, documentary audiences get a deeper look inside the life and work of the revered 20th-century figure. Christmas hopes the Baltimore screening and a weekend full of events will give folks a chance to “remember the future” by taking notes on strategies from the past.
In collaboration with Maryland Film Festival/Parkway Theatre, Black Women Cultural Workers Archive, LifexCode, African Diaspora Alliance, Jen White-Johnson, and The Diaspora Solidarities Lab, Christmas is dedicating a weekend to Bambara. On April 10 and 11, Muse360 and its collaborators will be offering workshops centered on care, community, and Black political education. Included in the lineup are two different “Sisterhood is a Verb” programs (an “Intergenerational Dialogue” on Friday, April 10, at noon, and another “Black Women Cultural Worker Discussion Circle” at 6:00 p.m.) and a zine lab and Freedom School workshop in addition to the film on Saturday, April 11. You can find the full schedule on Muse 360’s website and socials.
“Care is the politic that Black people need right now,” says Christmas. As a practice of that care, select workshop attendees have the opportunity to receive free tickets to the Friday night screening of “TCB – The Toni Cade Bambara School of Organizing” at the SNF Parkway. Plus, ADA will provide free childcare at Impact Hub during the film so caregivers and kiddos can enjoy activities in the spirit of Bambara. (Bry Reed)
MdFF Retro Special Presentation of HOUSE (Hausu, 1977) with Obayashi scholar Max Robinson, April 10, 9:00 p.m.
Maryland Film Fest brings Nobuhiko Obayashi’s 1977 psychedelic cult classic fantasy horror/ comedy flick and its wild and gorgeous special effects — handless fingers playing a killer piano, a butt-biting head flying up out of a well, and much more — to the big screen, along with “A TAPE,” a short documentary about the director from Obayashi scholar Max Robinson, who will also lead a discussion about the director and his work.
“I think ‘House’ rewired my brain a little after I saw it in my early 20s. It’s a movie that reveals something new every time I revisit because Obayashi crams so many ideas and feelings into it that you’re just kind of overwhelmed,” Robinson, a Beat contributor, said over email.
Robinson has spent the last couple years researching a book about “House” and began to work with Beat co-founder Brandon Soderberg’s Baltimore Film Culture Incubator project on a visual essay about Obayashi’s life for Cult Epics’ home video release of his movie “The Girl Who Leapt Through Time.”
“When we wrapped up that project, we had this idea to put some interview audio I’d captured for the book over a digitized copy of a bootleg ‘House’ VHS tape I’d discovered,” Robinson said. “That eventually evolved into ‘A Tape,’ which is essentially an oral history of how ‘House’ was rediscovered through various forms of piracy and found a whole new audience in America.” (Baynard Woods)
Rise Bmore, April 19, 2640 Space, 2640 Saint Paul Street, 8:00 p.m.
For ten years now, composer Judah Adashi has been organizing and hosting Rise Bmore to commemorate the April 19 death of Freddie Gray, whose spine was severed in the back of a police van in 2015.
Adashi composed “Rise” with poet Tameka Cage Conley during the uprising following Gray’s death and released a recording to help raise money for Gray’s family. That initial composition led to the annual performance, featuring a wide variety of artists and guests including Lafayette Gilchrist, D. Watkins, and Beat co-founder and publisher Lisa Snowden.
This year’s iteration will feature Erricka Bridgeford of the Baltimore Peace Movement reading the work of the great poet Lucille Clifton, who served as Maryland’s poet laureate in the ’80s, and whose former home, the Clifton House, has become a resource for the city’s literary, artistic, and activist communities.
For full disclosure, Beat photo editor J.M. Giordano has photographs in this year’s edition of Rise Bmore. (Baynard Woods)
420, Your House, April 20, 4:20 a.m. to 4:20 p.m.
In the age of corporate cannabis, 420 can feel a bit like Black Friday or President’s Day: an excuse for marketing, sales, and gimmicks, making it all about the wrong kind of green. But we’re stoners, we don’t need big crowds or sanctioned events to get down. In fact, in honor of the millenia-long traditions of cannabis use, the best way to spend the day is probably to find a good pal, take a sit on the back deck or the couch and use the session to kick off some of the good and holy conversations that only seem to happen in those raspy, holding-smoke-in voices.
Pro tip: “Pre-plan your snacks” says an anonymous staffer. “I had a lil 4/20 party a few years ago, where I decked out my dining room table with so many snacks and had friends over to smoke joints on my porch and it was perfect.” They recommend grapes for the texture, chips, Easter candy (which is now on sale), sodas, and a bowl full of joints on the table, just for starters (see “munchies” for more on this aspect of indulgence).
But, hey, you do you. I ain’t gonna tell you how to get recreational. Just don’t let the corporations take over. (Baynard Woods)