On Tour: In Good Time Press and Classroom visits in Maryland

The last few days of the tour were pretty busy. The screening on Wednesday evening was at the Weinberg Center, a historic theater in Frederick, MD.

At noon on the day of the screening Victoria Temiz gave me a ride to WHAG-TV in Hagerstown. We chatted on the drive and I found out Victoria was a trained operatic singer. At the TV station we met up with Rona Mensah from the Weinberg who was to appear on air with me. Rona is a local radio personality as well as working at the Weinberg. Erin Wolfe, the WHAG producer of our segment on the noon news, welcomed us and brought us to the studio.

Huey and Rona Mensah, just before going on the air

In a few minutes we were live being interviewed by Patricia Martellotti, the anchor for the noon news. Patricia told me off camera that she is trained classical pianist. Being a father of 3 daughters it was great to see these women in charge. And also to learn about their involvement in the arts.

It made me think about Marian in 1948 coming to America and breaking into the jazz scene. She was one of the few women instrumentalists of her day. Even though she doesn’t focus on the discrimination of the time, she had the courage to prevail over the gender prejudices of the day. In the film Diana Krall and Nnenna Freelon both comment about being women in jazz and what Marian had to do to break into the jazz world of the 1950s. But as Marian says she was the leader and if the men didn’t want to be part of her gig then she hired someone else. But she said they always showed up.

The next day I left early to drive to Annapolis. Within an hour of arriving I was in Bates Middle School giving a presentation to a class of middle school students. Bates is next to the Maryland Hall of Creative Arts, the screening site. It is a beehive of artists, dancers, musicians, and students of all ages. Later in the afternoon I met with a group of students in an after school arts program. They were making a movie for a stage presentation they were putting together involving, student artists, dancers, actors, musicians and singers.

Huey, Paige Hernandez, performer and teaching artist, and Chris Funn, jazz musician,  at Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts screening

The evening screening at MHCA went well with friends from the area in the audience . I had a late supper and got ready to drive in the morning to the last site, Rehoboth Beach, DE.

Post by Huey, OSIP Touring Filmmaker