No other living singer possesses the talent or credentials of the extraordinary Ethel Ennis. Ms. Ennis has performed with an all-star Benny Goodman band in Europe, jammed with Louis Armstrong, sung on national television with Duke Ellington and was the first to perform the national anthem a cappella at a presidential inauguration. The late Ella Fitzgerald praised Ms. Ennis as her favorite. Billie Holiday personally encouraged her. Frank Sinatra described her as "my kind of singer," and Joe Williams called her "little sister." In addition to past legends, she has also performed with such living icons as Wynton Marsalis, McCoy Tyner and Phil Woods. But she never became the star that she could have. Sallie Kravetz, author of the illustrated biography, Ethel Ennis, the Reluctant Jazz Star wrote that when she refused to accept the advice of a New York manager, show business powers dismissed her as a "semi-star," someone not willing to sacrifice enough for full-blown stardom. Determined to advance at her own pace, Ethel remained in her native Baltimore and carved out an artistic career which has left little musical terrain uncharted.

Maryland Traditions is a traditional and folk arts program promoted by the Maryland State Arts Council and the Maryland Historical Trust. In an effort to preserve Maryland traditional art forms, this program instituted a master-apprenticeship schedule that is designed to help individual artists pass on their unique skills to future generations. Artisans like master silversmiths, master wagon wrights and Irish musicians share their skills with those interested in learning their crafts for a full year under a scheduled stipend. The culmination of the year is the Maryland Masters event that takes place to showcase the artisans and their pupils. This colorful event happens June 19th at 7:30pm at the Creative Alliance at the Patterson, 3134 Eastern Avenue in Baltimore, MD. For more information, contact Mr. Cliff Murphy at Maryland Traditions, 410-767-6450.

Maryland Traditions website
The Creative Alliance

This week's Salon Art is from A Line in the Sand, a traveling photographic exhibit chronicling Maryland's fight against domestic violence. Thirteen different photographers were given free reign to express their artistic interpretations on this important subject matter by photographing subjects who are pivotal to the fight against domestic violence. From composing a photograph on a canvas made up of many Polaroids to developing a picture the old-fashioned way on archival paper, the results were phenomenal.

The exhibit runs June 6 through June 27th at Gallery Imperato, 921 East Fort Avenue in Baltimore, MD. The gallery hours are Tues.–Sat., 11-7pm. For more information regarding the different locations and times that this exhibit will run, contact the House of Ruth Maryland, 410-554-8449.

A Line in the Sand Project
Gallery Imperato

The truth is often stranger than fiction, and nowhere is this more apparent than at the annual AFI SilverDocs Documentary Film Festival in Silver Spring, MD. With over 100 documentaries presented over 8 days, often with the filmmakers present to discuss their films, it is a cinephile's dream. And this year, filmmaker Spike Lee will be honored. SilverDocs runs from June 16 to the 23rd, and the AFI Silver Theatre is at 8633 Colesville Road in Silver Spring.

AFI SilverDocs Film Festival

"I Love You, Beth Cooper," by former "The Simpsons" and "Beavis and Butt-Head " writer Larry Doyle, is a riotous account of the next 17 hours in Denis Cooverman’s life. In a single exhilarating night, Denis experiences an accelerated adolescence at all the perennial high school haunts—the spooky road, the unsupervised party, the girls’ locker room—along with characters we either remember or we once were.

Larry Doyle was an Emmy award-winning writer and supervising producer of “The Simpsons” for four years; executive editor of Spy magazine during the last of the funny years; an editor-writer at New York magazine for four years; and an editor at National Lampoon, which, thanks largely to his efforts, folded a year after he arrived. He has written for numerous magazines, including GQ, Rolling Stone, Harpers and Time, and is a frequent contributor to the New Yorker’s “Shouts and Murmurs” section. He is a 1976 graduate of Buffalo Grove High School, the setting for I LOVE YOU, BETH COOPER. He was not valedictorian. He ranked 13th out of 500, a standing he attributes to the fact that several of the students above him took pretty easy classes. Doyle lives outside Baltimore with his wife Becky, their three children and one dog. "I Love You, Beth Cooper" is now available on paperback at your local bookstore.

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On ArtChat This Week, Nate and Rhea discuss the 2010 Americans for the Arts covention headed to Baltimore. More than 2000 arts leaders and educators will meet in Baltimore and organizers expect more than 4000 hotel room reservations for the event. And as the summer starts to kick off, the theater season is not far behind. Already the buzz about the 2008-2009 season is making the rounds. Theatre Project and Creative Alliance are partnering up to produce two productions in the Spring of 2009.

Theatre Project