“Voices of the Gods,” Juneteenth Celebration, SNF Parkway, 5 W. North Avenue, June 18, 7 p.m.
“Process is everything,” is the motto of the visionary visual artist and filmmaker Al Santana, whose decades of documentary work have produced films about Black merchant marines, youth recruitment into the forever wars, and the Durban 400, a grassroots group of activists who went to the UN in 2001 to demand reparations for the transatlantic slave trade. “Voices of the Gods,” a 1985 documentary that the Parkway is screening as part of a Juneteenth celebration, is a study of the “Akan and Yoruba religions, two West African traditions practiced within the United States today,” according to Santana’s site. “It looks at their cosmologies, their use of music, dance and medicine in various ceremonies and rituals.”
The trailer is stunning and previews a newly restored version of the film. Afterwards, Santana will be in conversation with Yoruba elder, scholar, and priest Baba John Mason and Sharayna Ashanti, whose Afrofuturist film, “A Birth of Remembrance,” will also be screening.
The show’s curator, Jenné Afiya Matthews says that Baltimore “has been and continues to be a stronghold for practitioners of these traditions,” and describes the screening as an offering “to the now elders, some of whom may even see themselves or their dear ones on screen, that reached back and did not allow us to forget.” (Baynard Woods)
“The African Singularity,” The Voxel, 9 W. 25th Street, June 17-21, times vary.
Even if “The African Singularity” presents an alternate history where the European colonization of Africa failed, its creator, the writer and director Louis Williams III, is based about as deep in real-world Baltimore as it gets. He’s worked at Everyman Theatre and is part of WombWork Production’s Nu World Art Ensemble; he studied with Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle and works with Black Yield Institute. Hell, man, hit us up. You ought to add writing for the Beat to that list.
Though the Voxel is known for its high-tech productions, stage designer Keyonna LaShawn says that this production is intended to highlight the writing, with the actors doing an immersive stage reading with projection, percussion, sound, and lights.
The story follows three young adults who discover the parallel reality where they find “a prosperous nation built on communal responsibility and spiritual balance,” and “must learn the ways of the new nation and decide if it can (or should) be a home for the African descendants harmed by White Supremacy in their world.” (Baynard Woods)
“40 Year Old Puberty: The Homecoming King,” Baltimore Improv Group (BIG), 1727 N. Charles Street, June 19, 9 p.m.
Ti Malik Coleman, the first trans troupe member at BIG, returns for a special Juneteenth performance of their award-winning one-man show “40 Year Old Puberty.” Award-winning is usually a bullshit adjective that adds little to the discussion, but this show has really been racking up the accolades, including eight awards at the Charm City Fringe Fest.
“When I brought 40 Year Old Puberty to the Charm City Fringe in 2024, the reception was incredible and I ended my run feeling like I was the Homecoming King,” Coleman said over email.
So, this “Homecoming King” performance is built around the place where Coleman developed as an artist. “Homecoming is about my relationship to BIG, my original art home. BIG is where I honed my craft, discovered my voice, gained my confidence as a performer and BIG is where I finally believed I was a ‘real artist,’” Coleman said. “It is an acknowledgement of all that I contributed to the theater and all that it gave me back in return. It’s a nod to the greatest city, Baltimore. As an army brat, Baltimore was my only anchor, the only place I ever called home.” (Baynard Woods)
Ben Egerman Presents “a gay little history of maryland: volume 1” in Conversation
With Rahne Alexander, Red Emma’s, 3128 Greenmount Avenue, June 25, 7 p.m.
Librarian and researcher Ben Egerman’s “Gay Little History” zines have gained a cult following among those curious about the queer history of Maryland. Previous volumes have touched upon queer tales from old Baltimore, lavender scares, and the gay liberation and lesbian feminist era. The series also highlights how many of the important figures in Maryland’s queer history were Black — for example, the first national organization for Black LGBTQ+ people was started in suburban Maryland in 1978.
“Maryland’s queer history is a lot longer than you probably think it is,” Egerman said. “And a lot weirder.”
Most recently, Egerman released a zine about John Waters and his influence on queer culture, which launched on June 11 at his regular Gay Little History night at The Club Car. He also began a partnership with Red Emma’s to collect the first six volumes of his zines into one printed book. Egerman will launch this collection at the bookstore/café on June 25, in conversation with local trans writer and Beat contributor Rahne Alexander. (nat raum)
The Grand Finale: “You Can Always Come Back Home” Exhibition Closing and Zine Release Celebration, Creative Alliance Main Gallery, 3134 Eastern Avenue, June 26, 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Baltimore-based twin artists Hope and Faith McCorkle began making art to process the death of their mother, Tonya Wendell McCorkle, when they unexpectedly lost her at 17. Their practice has only expanded since, encompassing Black grief, spirituality, and ancestral veneration through a variety of media, including film and video, collage, interactive installations, and their signature mixed-media scrolls.
Hope and Faith’s practice emphasizes healing as a collective act, and their exhibition at the Creative Alliance is a testament to this, asking each viewer to consider “where [home is] when the world keeps moving and the people who made it are no longer here.” This particular curation of scrolls, participatory installations, and inherited objects draws from the idea of bell hooks’ “homeplace as a site of resistance” to create an altar to their late mother made from her old dinner table. The exhibition also extends into thematic community programming such as sound healing workshops, storytelling gatherings, and a potluck community dinner.
The closing reception will celebrate the exhibition alongside the launch of Hope and Faith’s curated art zine, “Manifesting the Metaphysical: Beyond Black Grief,” which was designed by Blackberry Zine Collective. The zine collects sacred narratives from Black artists in the Baltimore region to form a multifaceted portrait of loss, grief, and healing, and is heavily influenced by the concept of metaphysics, or the study of existence beyond the physical. Through this exhibition and its many components, Hope and Faith envision home as “not a fixed location but as a space where memory, spirit, and ancestry live as one” — a sanctuary in which their mother’s spirit is present. (nat raum)