Brine Blog Contributor, Diamond Pollard interviewed Baltimore-based filmmaker Benedict A. Dorsey to discuss his career in film.

Benedict Dorsey, On Directing His Own Screenplays

Benedict Dorsey, On Entering Film

Stephen Babcock is the lead writer for technical.ly Baltimore, a local branch of a regional publication that covers Baltimore's technology community.  Beginning his career in journalism at Northeastern University, Babcock has covered investigative stories in New Mexico and New Orleans prior to coming to Baltimore.   His current stories often don't just promote, but offer commentary on how the tech community relates to the larger political and socioeconomic picture of Baltimore city.  The following interview is an edited version of a conversation between Brine reporter Dan Adler and Stephen.

Stephen Babcock on Journalism and Technology in Baltimore

Cheryl Fair is a multitalented digital artist, photographer, and filmmaker from Baltimore.  She is a full time artist that creates work for commercial and private clients. Her work includes editorial photos for various publications, art photographs for exhibition in galleries, short experimental films, and music videos.  Her photographic style has been described as “Magical Realism”, Colorful Photo-secessionist”, and “Digital painting”  

Cheryl Fair's Magical Realism

Nina Lerner Interviews the Past Poet Laureate of Britain On His Move To Baltimore

Andrew Motion is currently a professor in the Writing Seminars department of Johns Hopkins University. Born and bred in England, he’s taught at the University of Hull and the University of East Anglia, worked at the publishing house Chatto & Windus and as Philip Larkin’s literary executor, and oh yeah, was the literal Poet Laureate of Britain from 1999 to 2009. If you don’t know what that is, Google it. This guy is a big deal.

He’s observant, expert in all walks of life, charming (as 10 seconds of the audio recording will show you), and my professor in writing for two semesters running. We recorded this chat after our class on Tuesday. These are his thoughts on wealth disparity, community, opportunity and more in Baltimore. We’re lucky to have him here.

Moments that may need an explanation:

At 0:45, “the Reading Program here” refers to the graduate program in Writing Seminars, which Motion has just taken over. The graduate students have seminars and workshops for their own work run by Motion while also teaching sections of the undergrad class Intro to Poetry and Fiction by themselves. 
At 2:13, the “people coming to read for us” are professional authors and poets that the school brings in to do readings of their work (read: it costs $$$). Motion thinks the readings should be announced to a wider audience than just the Hopkins campus. The graduate students in Writing Seminars themselves participate in weekly readings of their own pieces. 
At 4:20, the 40 years of his life spent living in “one of the greatest cities in the world,” means London, Oxford, and at times, East Anglia and Hull. 
At 6:59, “the art museum around the corner” is the Art Gallery of Fells Point. http://www.fellspointgallery.org/ 
At 9:30, “what had happened here” refers to the protests and bursts of violence that came to Baltimore after the injustice over Freddie Gray’s death in April 2015. 
At 9:39, “as we were saying earlier in a different context this afternoon” refers to our poetry class’s discussion a few hours earlier about imagined worlds vs. reality in reference to John Keats’ 1819 poem “Ode to a Grecian Urn.” 
At 12:06, secondary school means high school. 
I'd like to clarify unlike what I said at 12:42, that I do know what a checkbook is. I was using hyperbole; don’t worry, Mom! (Also, I actually find knowing presidential history helpful and relevant. I could’ve thought of a much better example of wasted time in schools – like maybe learning endless details about how to identify the different types of rocks or something.) 
12:57 references to “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, written in 1798. 
13:22 talks about the poem we discussed in class was “The Windhover” by Gerard Manly Hopkins, written in 1877. 
At 14:19, I said, “But for the future being…?” Nice one, Nina. For the future TIME being.

Speaking with Andrew Motion

Jeffery Kent Interview by Mary Kate Turner

Jeffrey Kent Interview

John Durovsik interviews Joel Pally of Thread

Joel Pally | Thread Interview

Jesse Shuman interviews Aden Weisel at Galerie Myrtis in Baltimore, Maryland. 

Aden Weisel at Galerie Myrtis | Interview with Jesse Shuman

A talk with Dave Inscore, the art director at Sparkypants Studios in Baltimore

What Kind of Name is Sparkypants?

Church & Company is not your average venue.  Part-owner Alex Fox bought the Hampden space about five years back when it was advertised on Craigslist as a "New York style loft".  Turns out the space was not fitting for an apartment, unless you're okay to live in an unfinished church designed by George Frederick, the same architect who designed Baltimore City Hall.  So what does a MICA student with business partner Joey Rubolotta do?  Rebuild the entire place, and make it into an apartment/venue that has hosted plays, orchestras, weddings and more.  In addition, Alex is working with the Hampden community to redesign other structures in the Falls Road area.   I got to sit down with Alex in his 37th street church, and with cars rolling by and carrying through the church's cracked walls, I was given a small picture of where the building has come from, and where it's going in the near future.

Unfinished Business: Interview with Alex at Church & Company

Brine is a Johns Hopkins University and Maryland Institute College of Art student run arts and culture webzine based in Baltimore.

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