McDaniel College student showcase

Storer and brings to life many of the individuals who taught or were educated there.

“After reading this book and another I found in the National Park Service bookstore at Harpers Ferry, I knew I wanted to depict these persistent and determined students,” Smith said.

Burke said she is pleased and honored to serve as an inspiration for the exhibit and to take part in the March 7 presentation.

McDaniel College’s student honors art exhibition features a variety of work from six art majors.

Titled “Unfolding Reality,” this annual exhibition runs through March 10 in Esther Prangley Rice Gallery, Peterson Hall at McDaniel College, 2 College Hill, Westminster. An opening reception takes place from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Feb. 23, with a gallery talk at 6 p.m.

The exhibition and reception are both free and open to the public. Call 410-857-2595 for more information. Visit mcdaniel.edu for information about McDaniel College.

About The Artists

Rowan Berti (Wilmington, Delaware) uses various media, such as clay, paint, pencil, video and digital graphics, to showcase her overactive imagination. She said, “I strive to make ordinary objects attain character and personality and come to life.”

The portraits were selected from the West Virginia University Storer College Digital Collection. Smith displays the students’ portraits on two backgrounds — one hand-cut and printed representing a style of wallpaper that might have been found on the walls of the homes and buildings first occupied by wealthy white people that became part of Storer College. The second portraits are collaged over actual wallpaper, creating bold color patterns in contrast to the linoleum-printed portraits.

“I hope the portraits invite people to ask questions about who these people were and what Storer College was and encourages them to look into the history that is all around them,” Smith said. “I was surprised to learn how few people in this area are even aware that Storer College existed and about the role it played in history. I think it is a story worth knowing and I hope my portraits help people want to find out more.”

Smith said she conceived of the exhibit during the Black Lives Matter movement.

“I began to wonder what I might do as a white artist to reflect on the positive history and aspirations of Black Americans,” she said. “I had worked for the National Park Service in Harpers Ferry for several years roaming through and around the very buildings that were once home to Storer College. I began to consider that perhaps I had a legitimate link to the stories that were part of Storer College through this rather tenuous association.

Smith researched Storer’s history and was partly inspired to create the portraits after reading a book Burke wrote titled “An American Phoenix: A History of Storer College from Slavery to Desegregation 1865-1955.” The 2015 book provides a comprehensive history of

“As a student of history, I have not only tried to learn from history but also — and likely most important — to be intellectually stretched because of lessons from history, as Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. wrote,” Burke said. “While we perhaps may consider the pinnacle of America’s national divisiveness, chaos, and incivility to be found among the hundreds of thousands of history pages published on the American Civil War, I beg to differ: It is now; it is present; it is here.”

Burke calls Smith’s exhibit the embodiment of the country’s stretch history, saying it contains the portraiture of the deceased and almost forgotten who are asserting their influence on today’s political discourse.

“These Storer College students, as portrayed by Smith, are resurrected from the past to inform the now, contemporary present, living American citizenship about the means, methods, and pathways through which national cohesiveness, civility, and humanity may be achieved through ‘Persistence,’” she said.

Skylar Blackbull (Crownpoint, New Mexico) uses various colors, forms, and a variety of content to represent her Navajo culture. Her project brings recognition to the bravery and sacrifice of the Navajo Code Talkers during World War II. Blackbull’s art consists of images and the use of the Navajo language. She said, “I am honored to present a visual memorial to the 29 original Navajo Code Talkers through a lens filled with history and the beauty of my culture.”

Kelsey Bosley (Manchester, Maryland) uses acrylic paint to illustrate a story book showing the struggles she went through as a child to build a heightened awareness around anxiety and depression. She said, “I mainly use acrylic paint, watercolor, and sketching pencils to create sceneries or realistic portraits of people close to me, so writing and illustrating a children’s story with little characters was a new step in my journey as an artist. “

Kate Cramer (Glen Rock, Pennsylvania) addresses the vastly different roles women play in society through her art. She said, “I explore the challenges, expectations, and stereotypes imposed upon women, both by themselves and the world around them. Conversely, there is also space to celebrate the advancements women have made, and how we can be inspired by them every single day.”

Grace Harshman (Hagerstown, Maryland) went through a medical recovery during the time she worked on these pieces. She said, “Technology was something I was already critically looking at as a whole in my work at this time. It only felt right to explore this avenue in an attempt to come to terms with what had happened to me.”

Juliana Stolkovich (Littlestown, Pennsylvania) uses her art to build an awareness around autism, since she has autism herself. She said, “The different media I use is aimed at bringing more depth to each subject matter I focus on, whether it be just symptoms I experience or how other people perceive me.”

Mad River Theater Works presents ‘Freedom Flight’

In honor of Black History Month, theater company Mad River Theater Works presents a performance of their original production, “Freedom Flight,” at 7 p.m. Feb. 27.

A one-act play with music, “Freedom Flight” revolves around the most famous incident in the history of the Underground Railroad in Ohio: the story of Addison White, an escaped slave, and his rescue by the citizens of the town of Mechanicsburg, Ohio. This play brings history to life through original songs and an array of characters that pop right out of the past to relive the turbulence and hope of the Underground Railroad right before your eyes. Artistically beautiful and crafted with heart and authenticity, the show’s embedded messages about tolerance and racism are vital for audiences to hear.

Founded in 1978, Mad River Theater Works is a professional touring theater company that believes theater can make a difference. Through theater, they strive to challenge racism, sexism, and intolerance. Their plays aim to be joyful and entertaining experiences that take audiences to the historic moments where individuals make hard decisions to stand on the side of what is right. Rooted in American history, their plays examine the choices we face in a complex world.

Mad River’s theater artists are experts in traditional modes of music and storytelling that strive to inspire the next generation.

This performance is part of the Common Ground Downtown series, a partnership between the Arts Council and Common Ground on the Hill. Tickets are $30 for adults and $27 for ages 25 and under and ages 60 and up. Tickets can be purchased at carrollcountyartscouncil.org or by calling the box office at 410-848-7272. The Carroll Arts Center is located at 91 W. Main St. in Downtown Westminster.

‘Ghost/Writer’ premieres at Rep Stage

Family secrets spanning decades unravel as history and fiction collide. In 1920 just outside of Tulsa, Patrick, an Irish immigrant, seeks out the services of Ms. Ruby, a mysterious Black woman from Baltimore known to help exorcise ghosts from her clients, but the price she is asking may be too high. Meanwhile, in 2019, Charles Ross hires infamous ghost writer Rebecca Warren to help him through his writer’s block, but what she invokes could be his salvation or undoing.

Rep Stage, Howard Community College’s professional regional theater, presents the world premiere of “Ghost/ Writer” this month by Dane Figueroa Edidi, directed by Danielle A. Drakes. The show runs through Feb. 26.

Edidi’s new play examines the intersections of race and gender and invites the viewer to explore the role of love, justice and joy in a world where the ghosts of the past have yet to be laid to rest.

Rep Stage producing artistic director Joseph W. Ritsch says, “I truly believe that Dane’s voice is one of the most important and necessary voices in the American theater and will continue to be for decades to come. ‘Ghost/Writer’ is many things: a history lesson, a ghost story and a call to action. All of them told through Dane’s brilliant poetry, her arresting imagery that collides history and fiction, and her joy for the theater as a means to bring us together.”

Tickets for “Ghost/Writer” are $40 for general admission, $35 for seniors and military. The production is in The Rouse Company Foundation Studio Theatre at the Horowitz Visual and Performing Arts Center on HCC’s campus at 10901 Little Patuxent Parkway in Columbia.

For tickets and additional information, visit repstage.org/ ghostwriter or call 443-518-1500, ext. 0. This production is recommended forages 18 and up.

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