Due to unforeseen circumstances, there have been some changes to the Frederick Douglass Day celebrations.

Unfortunately, the Frederick Douglass Day Parade and the Outdoor Marketplace have been cancelled. However, the spirit of the event remains undeterred. The Welcome Ceremony has been relocated and will now take place at the Talbot County Free Library’s Meeting Room at 10:30 a.m.

For families attending, the Children’s Village activities have been moved indoors to the Talbot County Free Library’s children’s areas. Additionally, the Frederick Douglass Day Entertainment Stage performances will now be showcased at the Avalon Theatre, kicking off with the Easton Middle and Easton High School Bands at 12 Noon. They will be followed by performances from the Covenant Gospel Choir, Randall Butler, and Hip Hop Artist Baba Bomani.

Those looking forward to the lecture with Dr. Spires, it will proceed as planned at the Library at 1 p.m. Book enthusiasts can still catch Jeff McGuiness at Vintage Books and Fine Arts from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., and Dr. Robert Levine will be signing at Flying Cloud Booksellers at 11:30 a.m.

This marks the first time we’ve encountered unfavorable weather on Frederick Douglass Day. We extend our heartfelt thanks to Dana Newman, Jessica Bellis, and Vickie Wilson for their generosity and swift action. Their efforts have ensured that only two activities were cancelled, and all other outdoor events could be moved indoors. We’re proud to say that Easton truly is a remarkable town.

September is the one month not named after a Roman deity and it is the only month with the same number of letters in its name as the number of the month (9). September derives its name from the Latin word “septum,” which means seven. In the original Roman calendar, September was the seventh month, later the calendar was adjusted to add January and February.

Sapphire is the birthstone of September. The calming energy of the Sapphire stone is a great healer, it helps to slow down the mind, serving as a natural relief for insomnia. Like other beautiful blue gemstones, the Sapphire is connected to the throat and third eye chakras. The throat chakra is essential in learning how to communicate our truth and the third eye chakra is all about spiritual communication and intuition. Sapphire is a stone that promotes clear and positive thinking when following the path of your dreams.

Virgo is the sixth sign of the zodiac whose mascot is the maiden. The maiden pays homage to Virgo’s hardworking nature. Virgos have a tendency to be purely practical and very logical in their thinking. Virgos are kind, have positive energy and are great at problem solving. Virgo as an earth sign takes a lot of comfort, cleansing, and calm from healing crystals. Virgos make the best friends as they are fiercely loyal and they have a huge heart space which makes for strong connections.

September 15 is the first day of Hispanic Heritage Month, an annual celebration in the United States that honors the history, culture, and contributions of Americans whose ancestry can be traced to Mexico, Central and South America, the Caribbean, and Spain. September 15 was chosen as the kickoff date since it coincides with the Independence Day celebrations of Costa Rico, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua, followed by Mexico on September 16, Chile on September 18, and Belize on September 21.

The idea to celebrate Hispanic History began as a week long observance in 1968 under President Lyndon B. Johnson and was later extended to a full month twenty years later by President Ronald Reagan.

According to the 2020 U.S. Census, the Hispanic or Latine population hit 62.1 million, making this community the largest minority group in America. Although they are used interchangeably, the terms “Hispanic” and “Latino” have different meanings. Hispanic refers to someone who comes from or is a descendant of a Spanish speaking country, whereas Latino or Latina (or the gender neutral Latine) refers to someone who comes from or is a descendent of any Latin American country.

My sixth grade teacher had been a Peace Corps volunteer in Venezuela so the Hispanic Heritage celebration in our class was memorable. My teacher, wearing the traditional ruffled dress, put her oil filled, electric skillet on her desk and fried empanadas, plantains, and sopapillas. Everything was delicious. We had spent days making a brightly colored piñata and had great fun bashing it with a broom.

My kindergarten class this year will celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month by exploring Alebrijes. Alebrijes are strange, fantastical animals such as a lion with an eagle’s head and a donkey with butterfly wings. Years ago, my youngest son created an alebrijes, he drew the head of a cat and the body of a caterpillar, it was so amazing that we framed his drawing and had t-shirts made with the image. Alebrijes came from the imagination of Pedro Linares. Mexican artists, Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo made alebrijes popular and they are now a form of Mexican folk art.

While we should never wait for an annual event or holiday to celebrate someone’s ethnic background, Hispanic Heritage Month is a great opportunity to honor the respective cultures and ancestral backgrounds of Latine and Hispanic Americans.

The Washington Post this morning released an extensive profile of Eastern Shore artist Jason Patteson and his longtime interest in state flags and their confederate roots. Serving now as interim deputy director of Washington College’s Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience, Paterson critiques flags that still show the legacy of slavery, including the beloved Maryland flag.

Read the full story here (a paywall may exist for some readers):

Every year, the Town of Centreville hosts a fun day out for families at Wharf Park. It’s a chance for everyone to get outside, enjoy the waterfront, and have a great time without spending a dime. It all begins at 4 PM on September 9,

One of the day’s highlights is the Kids’ Fishing Derby. Children aged between two to 15 can join in the fun. There are three age groups, and winners in each group get a trophy. Don’t have a fishing pole? No worries! There are poles available for kids to borrow. Plus, bait is provided for free. And for those who are new to fishing or need a bit of help, volunteers from the Corsica River Conservancy will be there alongside town volunteers to give a hand.

Hungry after all that fishing? Grab a free hot dog, enjoy a cool sno-cone, and wash it down with some water. All of these treats are up for grabs at no cost.

But the fun doesn’t end when the sun goes down. Stick around for the Family Movie Night. This year, the movie being shown is “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish” from Universal Pictures, released in 2022. Everyone can sit back, relax, and watch the movie for free. And here’s an exciting bit – there will be a free drawing, and one lucky family will win a copy of the movie to take home!

If you have any questions or need further details on the day, reach out to the onsite contacts. You can call Michael Whitehill at (443) 988-1947 or email him at [email protected]. Alternatively, you can get in touch with Ashley Heffernan Kaiser, Esq, the Vice President of the Town of Centreville Council, at [email protected].

WHO: Local families and Centreville Parks Advisory Board
WHEN: Saturday, September 9, 2023; Fishing Derby from 4 to 6 p.m. and
Family Movie Night featuring Puss in Boots: The Last Wish at 8 p.m.
WHERE: Centreville Wharf Park, 212 Water Way (GPS has the street name as Watson Rd).

The Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum is pleased to announce the expansion of its on-water experience offerings through the acquisition of the cruise boat PATRIOT, which has been docked at CBMM’s waterfront for decades.

Effective immediately, CBMM assumes day-to-day operations of the 65-foot, two-level vessel modeled to resemble a Chesapeake Bay steamboat that has offered guests scenic cruises of the Miles River since 1990. All reservations will be honored, with the current staff remaining in place.

“We are absolutely thrilled to add PATRIOT to the CBMM family,” CBMM President & CEO Kristen Greenaway said. “Given PATRIOT’s impeccable reputation and ability to give access to the Miles River to 20,000 guests per year, the acquisition of the vessel is a key addition to delivering our mission. We appreciate previous owners Robin and John Marrah with entrusting us to steward PATRIOT into its next chapter and wish them all the best.”

Adding PATRIOT is a natural step for CBMM as it has been a fixture of St. Michaels Harbor and CBMM partner, dating back to 1969 when Jim Heikes refitted a wooden fishing boat as a cruise vessel named PATRIOT.

Today, PATRIOT has the capacity to provide tours for up to 149 passengers. The enclosed main deck offers climate-controlled comfort, while the top deck is partially covered by a canopy. It’s the perfect setting to enjoy breathtaking views while learning local history from experienced guides.

“Robin and I have been blessed for almost 14 years of ownership of the PATRIOT,” John Marrah said. “It has been a huge part of our lives in St. Michaels, and we truly believe that CBMM is the best new home where the PATRIOT will thrive. We have valued our relationship with Kristen Greenaway and the CBMM team for many years and are thrilled that the PATRIOT is in their loving hands.”

CBMM has long prioritized offering its guests opportunities to experience the Miles River on the water.

In recent years, many of those cruises were offered on its passenger-carrying buyboat Winnie Estelle, and with that venerable vessel undergoing maintenance this year, CBMM has added Harbor Highlights Cruises aboard other vessels in its historic floating fleet. More offerings are also on the horizon aboard its newest buyboat, Choptank.

With PATRIOT, CBMM’s short-term focus will be to finish the season strong while beginning to explore the long-term opportunities that the acquisition provides.

Guests can continue to book tours online at patriotcruises.com or buy tickets from the booth adjacent to the dock through Oct. 22.

Right now, Narrated Historical Cruises are offered seven days per week, plus Island Music Cocktail Cruises on select weekend days. Adults and seniors will continue to receive a $3 discount off CBMM general admission by showing their PATRIOT ticket.

Peak viewing season for the “naked eye” giant planets continues this month, with Saturn visible all night, Jupiter, rising later, dominating the eastern sky before dawn. Meantime, Venus becomes even brighter in the early morning sky, and by the end of September will be joined by Mercury.

Saturn, which just passed opposition August 27th, remains at its best visibility for 2023 all month among the dim stars of zodiac constellation Aquarius. From the southeastern sky at sunset it appears due south by midnight early in September. By the end of the month it will be due south by 10 p.m. On September 23rd the growing gibbous Moon will appear just below Saturn.

Jupiter rises around 10 p.m. in early September and it will be well up in the eastern sky by 10 p.m. by September 30th. Among the faint star of Aries the ram it is unmistakable. Both Jupiter and Saturn are beautiful in small telescopes all month.

Venus is so bright in the eastern sky and hour and a half before dawn that it cannot be mistaken. On September 11th a very thin crescent Moon appears just above the planet an hour before the Sun rises. Mercury rises above the eastern horizon too, brightening all the while from September 6th to September 22nd, gaining altitude steadily. It does not get as high as Venus but it can be found below Venus 30 minutes before sunrise on September 29th.

The autumnal equinox is marked on September 23rd when the Sun appears above the Celestial Equator (the equator of the sky). At that time the Sun at noon will be found exactly 50 degrees above the southern horizon. Thereafter with each passing day the Sun will appear below the sky’s equator until it reaches its lowest point at Winter Solstice (solstice means “Sun stop.”) on December 22nd. For us then, at 39 degrees North Latitude, the Sun will only be 26 1/2 degrees above the southern horizon at noon.

Look nearly overhead September nights and spot Vega (in Lyra the harp), the brightest star of summer. Cast your eyes left (east) to another bright star Deneb (in Cygnus the Swan); and then down to find Altair, brightest star in Aquila the eagle. Then look back up to Vega. You will have traced the “Summer Triangle” —– a beautiful asterism formed by these 3 first magnitude stars. It will remain visible, appearing to move into the west as we move into fall and on into Early December.

When the Spy sends two special agents on any case, particularly those involving the culinary arts, it shows we mean business when checking out new establishments in the area.

And that was the resource allocation for the Spy’s first reconnaissance mission this week at Anthony’s in Oxford.

Despite its under-the-radar opening a few weeks ago, it was easy for anyone passing the old beloved Latitude 38 on Oxford Road that Anthony’s had now arrived in its place.

While it looks the same on the outside, native Oxford will be a bit shocked and impressed with the warm red dining rooms that take its cue from Italy rather than the Eastern Shore.

A friendly wait staff seemed to be off to a good start as they continue to find their footing. And both the wine list and the dinner menu offer clues that some thought has gone into both. So it was perhaps no surprise that Anthony was Pope Tavern’s first chef when its new owners purchased it a few years back.

Now, Anthony has taken the big step of finally having his own place, and pride in ownership is very much on display. And that includes baking his own bread.

The agents didn’t push the envelope on the ordering front: salad and bolognese pasta for one, escargot and salmon for the other. A shared bottle of high quality chaniti and two folks were provided for a decidedly cinnamon-oriented tiramisu at the end.

All of those selections were enjoyable, but it is far too early (and unfair, says the Spy manual) to provide a serious critique here. Nonetheless, the agents gave Anthony’s an initial “code green,” meaning it was safe for the community to test themselves.

And that will be easy to do since, going against recent trends, Anthony’s is open seven days a week.

Anthony’s Italian Restaurant
 26342 Oxford Rd, Oxford, MD 21654
Phone: (410) 226-1118
Open seven days a week

Groundbreaking masters of the 20th century and a similarly groundbreaking still-life photographer who’s also the Academy Art Museum’s 2023 artist-in-residence shared the spotlight in the opening reception for three new exhibits at Easton’s Academy Art Museum Thursday evening, Aug. 3. 

Le Repas Frugal, by Pablo Picasso

“Spatial Reckoning: Morandi, Picasso and Villon” in the museum’s Healy Gallery focuses on how three famed European painters changed how representational art of the 19th century evolved into Modernism, Cubism, and, later, Post-Expressionism. Upon entering, the first image you’ll see what looks to be a 1931 unfinished drypoint etching, Le Peintre Decorateur (The Painter Decorator), a near-faceless ghostly image by French artist Jacques Villon (1875-1963). Next is a second etching of the same title with facial features filled in. Next are the Two Renees which depicts a girl on her bicycle (1906) and another, five years later – presumably of the same girl, this time with a pouting scowl on her face. 

Moving on, you can’t miss the true masterpiece, Le Repas Frugal, by Pablo Picasso of Spain (1881-1973), a 1913 print of the famous etching from a private collection picturing a despondent couple who’ve just shared a meal that did not satisfy either their physical or spiritual hunger. Another Picasso, a circa 1900 watercolor, depicts a painter named Carlos who, in profile, projects a clownishly prominent nose and ruby red lips. In between, we get a glimpse of Picasso’s Cubist future, a quite geometric 1912 pen-and-ink on paper of a man holding a cigar. The evolution toward Cubism advances with Villon’s 1941-42 engraving of a girl’s distorted, cross-hatched face, looking as if startled by a frightful event.

The show’s last third belongs to Italian painter Giorgio Morandi (1890-1964), who devoted much of his career to painting or drawing ordinary kitchen objects – pitchers, cups, and vases. I can’t say that I get the appeal or what they have to do with the progression to modern art movements, other than his 1927 Still Life with Cloth on the Left, executed with far more textured detail than his other works on display here.

All three artists are said to have been inspired by Paul Cezanne, and a print of his oil portrait of his wife in a red dress is mounted next to text describing the influence he had on artists from his time.

Across the hall in the Lederer Gallery, Canadian-born/Chicago-based artist-in-residence Laura Letinsky changes the visual subject to the 21st century with her large, lens-based color still lifes and arranged domestic scenes of mostly residual disorder. Who Loves the Sun (Weather Report), a 2022 archival pigment print, looks like a messy forecast with something spilled all over it. A 2013 untitled series of chromogenic images printed on silver-based paper under the designation of Albeit features one of the sushi-roll slices beside an empty plate as if someone forgot to serve them properly. An untitled #9 diptych from a 2006 To Say It Isn’t So series places an unused Target shopping bag next to a depleted serving box of McDonald’s fries. This image is paired with an opened gift box and a broken fork stabbing a black ribbon. Go figure. I can only guess what it says about life in the new millennium, though it appears to suggest dysfunction. 

In the two smaller downstairs museum galleries, Baltimore-based artist Amy Boone-McCreesh’s Visual Currency presents wry commentary on what passes for high fashion and decorative arts in a setting of luxury and showy bad taste. Her 2019 Vanity Wall Hanging, a digital printed mixed-media on silk, depicts a charmingly vintage interpretation of a frilly but chintzy imitation of the rich life – possibly, we imagine, purchased with collapsed crypto-currency. Similarly, in Access to Beauty I and II, the 2021 mixed-media collages suggest that access to the scenic environs beyond are blocked by forbidding fencing. Don’t fence me in, country singers used to sing. How about don’t fence me out?======

Steve Parks is a retired New York arts critic and editor now living in Easton.

Three New Academy Art Shows
“Laura Letinsky, 2023 Artist-in-Residence: No More Than It Should Be,” “Spatial Reckoning: Morandi, Picasso and Villon,” both through Oct. 22, and “Amy Boone-McCreesh: Visual Currency,” through Nov. 5, Academy Museum of Art, 106 South St., Easton; academyartmuseum.org