The Spy

The Legacy of Martin Luther King with Bishop Ronald Fisher

January 18, 2021 by The Spy Leave a Comment

For Bishop Ronald Fisher of the Faith Life Church in Kent County, Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy is a simple one. With literally decades of service to the Eastern Shore and the church, the Bishop has been consistent in his firm belief that Dr.King’s legacy rests on the role of faith in conquering social inequality.

A native of Queen Anne’s County, Bishop Fisher quickly adopted into a life of service. In 1974, he started his life with God. He then promptly joined Gospel Church of God (Faith Life) two years later under pastor Bishop C.W. Cotton and succeeded him as Pastor in 1990.

Beyond his role as pastor, the Bishop has been an active participant on a state and local level. He has served as a counselor with the State of Maryland’s Division of Parole and Probation Boot Camp, provided sensitivity training for police departments, and is a member of the Kent County Extension Advisory Council for the Maryland Cooperative extension. He also developed two after-school mentoring programs, Boys to Men and Young Ladies on the Move.

With this deep background, Donald plans to focus on the power of MLK’s message in times of conflict for his virtual address today to the annual 19th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Observance and Breakfast. The Spy sat down with him last week by Zoom to capture his thoughts for those who couldn’t make the online event.

This video is approximately five minutes in length. For more information about Faith Life Church please go here.

An Angel in Easton: Washingtonian Magazine Looks at the Prager Phenomenon

January 15, 2021 by The Spy Leave a Comment

Perhaps one of the best gifts to a community is when an outside news source can bring a new perspective on sometimes controversial issues or trends taking place.

One of those trends taking place in every Spy market on the Mid-Shore is the appearance of “angels” in these small towns with not only a vision to rescue its struggling downtowns but access to capital to implement those plans.

To many residents in these communities, there is a sense of gratitude that their town is worthy of such remarkable investments. On the other hand, as Easton knows well, some challenges come with these engaged, strong-willed stakeholders who don’t hesitate to use their legitimate say on issues impacting a town’s look and culture.

The Washingtonian in its January issue provides a unique take on Easton’s number one fan and benefactor, Paul Prager, and his Talbot County hospitality projects.

Read the full article here.

At the Academy: Finding the Next AAM Director with Lee Kappelman

January 4, 2021 by The Spy Leave a Comment

Lee Kappelman, the well-seasoned executive recruiter who will be working with the Academy Art Museum’s board to find a new museum director, is the first to acknowledge that finding a replacement for the recently departed Ben Simons won’t be easy. But in her candid conversation with the Spy about the challenges of finding his replacement and finding the right person for the right institution, Lee feels that Ben’s success will only make the position more appealing for quality candidates.

That is just one of several points that the AAM headhunter discusses, including the pandemic impact on museums, the essential need for diversity, and why institutions sometimes fail in their search for the right leader.

This video is approximately nine minutes in length. For more information about the Academy Art Museum please go here.

Avalon Takes to the Stage Again: The Spy Chats with Tim Weigand

October 2, 2020 by The Spy Leave a Comment

There were times over the last six months when the words “live concert” seemed to be a dated concept for the Avalon Foundation. Shut down by the COVID-19 crisis, staff and patrons alike were more than worried that one of the most essential parts of Avalon’s programming would come to an abrupt end as Maryland’s stay-at-home orders were issued in March. With no ability to forecast when the Avalon Theatre or the Stoltz Listening Room would open its doors again, it was hard to see any silver lining for the art organization that had made its weekly concerts one of the most successful and critical acclaimed parts of its regional reputation.

Equally disappointing was the technology being used for remote concerts. While Zoom might have been a godsend to hundreds of businesses and schools eager to keep their lights on, the use of such tools had minimal appeal for the world of musicians. Those software programs’ video quality was marginal at best, while the compression of audio signals made professional musicians pull their hair out.

But as the Avalon’s Tim Weigand explains in his interview with the Spy yesterday, much as changed since so those early days of the coronavirus. The Avalon team devoted months to testing different models that would allow the venue to continue live performances and perfect their video and audio equipment that would provide a professional-grade level for remote concerts.

And it the last few weeks, all of this has come together in a unique pairing of limited seating live concerts and a robust live stream experience. Saturday concerts at the Avalon now allow seating up to twenty in their main theatre (which typically holds close to 200 seats) and, at the same time, offers viewers at home to plug in through Facebook and YouTube.

This video is approximately two minutes in length. For more information about the Avalon Theatre schedule, please go here.

Spy Art Moment: Being Hopeful at Washington and Dover Streets

July 11, 2020 by The Spy Leave a Comment

Early Friday night, a crowd of about one hundred gathered in Thompson Park for the unveiling of two art sculptures by Maine artist Charlie Hewitt entitled “Hopeful” which will be seen on Dover and Washington Street as part of the Hopeful 2020 project.

The Dock Street Foundation and the Mid-Shore Community Foundation are the two major sponsors of Hopeful 2020, which plans to engage citizens to express hope for the future by contributing funds to the Mid-Shore Community Foundation’s Covid-19 Response Fund. Those contributions, in turn, will support nonprofit organizations that provide food, shelter and health services to Talbot County’s underserved residents.

The Talbot Arts Council is so partnering with their encouragement of arts groups to consider new projects in music, fine arts, crafts, poetry, and writing related to the theme of “hope.”

The Spy captured some of Hewitt’s comments regarding the meaning of being hopeful.

This video is approximately three minutes in length. For more information about the Mid-Shore Community Foundation Covid-19 Response Fund or make a donation, please go here.

And Yet Plein Air Easton Perseveres: A Spy Chat with the Avalon

July 10, 2020 by The Spy Leave a Comment

Like many arts organizations, the Avalon Foundation found themselves with a daunting decision to make after COVID related social distancing became mandatory. In Avalon’s case, it was what to do about Plein Art Easton, their flagship event for the past eighteen years.

The first option of merely cancel Plein Art was discarded quickly. Nobody, be they Avalon staff and board members, artists, or artist patrons, wanted this major art event, which already had social distancing baked into its programming, to disappear.

The better option was answering the question of how to make Plein Art work during a coronavirus crisis. And with that goal in mind, the Avalon’s Al Bond and Jessica Bellis started working with their long term partners and stakeholders to come up with a plan of action.

In their Spy interview, Al and Jess talk about how their team quickly pivoted to make Plein Art Easton 2020 exciting and safe at the same time.

This video is approximately three minutes in length. To learn more all of what Plein Art Easton offers please go here.

COVID Makes New Partners with the Avalon, Tidewater Inn, and Wylder Tilghman Island

July 7, 2020 by The Spy Leave a Comment

There was a lot in common with the Avalon Foundation, the Tidewater Inn and Wylder Tilghman Island before COVID-19 came knocking on their doors. All three have always been heavily dependent on the summer months for special events, weddings, and seasonal crowds all eager for entertainment and hospitality services. But after the coronavirus crisis hit, most of those long awaited plans were left in the dust in the wind as stay-at-home orders came down from the Governor’s office.

Nonetheless, the desire by all three to partner on a creative way to create new revenue was almost immediate. With the Avalon’s Suzy Moore, using her eighteen years as its artistic director, securing popular local bands, coupled with chef Jordan Lloyd at Wylder and chef Daniel Pochron at the Tidewater on the food front, the team has formed a dinner and music program that has already become a huge success on Tilghman Island and in downtown Easton.

The Spy asked Suzy, Jordan and the Tidewater’s Lauren Catterton to spend a few minutes to talk about this new alliance and how Wednesday and Thursday nights have been turned into the Sunlit Summer Song Series, an al fresco style dinner and some of the region’s best performers.

This video is approximately three minutes in length. For more information about the Wylder Inn concert series please go here. For the Tidewater Inn’s programming please go here.

Ask Irma: How’s Londonderry during COVID-19?

June 23, 2020 by The Spy Leave a Comment

From March 15, when the coronavirus crisis canceled our regular “Ask Irma” monthly interview, the Spy hadn’t actually heard from Irma herself. Given that her day job is being the C.E.O. of Londonderry on the Tred Avon, we realized she had many things on her mind, but that didn’t stop a certain worry for her and her community of close to 200 hundred residents that call Londonderry home during a major pandemic.

So it was with great relief that the Spy and Irma finally sat down last week to continue our conversations on aging that we heard everything was ‘a-ok’ on Port Street in Easton. In fact, since COVID-19 hit the United States, Londonderry (knock on wood ) has not had one single case of the virus.

But that didn’t end Irma’s challenges as she and her team found ways to maintain a sense of a community for residents that would not be able to leave the houses for many months to come.

In our latest installment of Ask Irma, we talk about Londonderry’s response to COVID and the importance of staying in touch throughout the day with those in the hood.

This video is approximately three minutes in length. For more information about Londonderry on the Tred Avon please go here.

The Talbot Boys Conversation (Redux): John Ford

June 21, 2020 by The Spy Leave a Comment

Editor’s Note. On August 23, 2017, the Spy published an extensive interview with the Town of Easton Council president John Ford. One of the topics we discussed was his belief that the Talbot Boys statue should be removed from the Courthouse green. President Ford passed away on February 4, 2020.

This video is approximately two minutes in length

From & Fuller: Defunding the Police, 2020 Senate Races, and Franchot on the Talbot Boys

June 11, 2020 by The Spy Leave a Comment

Every Thursday, the Spy hosts a conversation with Al From and Craig Fuller on the most topical political news of the moment.

Today the Spy commentators to discuss the political ramifications of the emerging “Defund the Police” movement, President Trump’s impact on 2020 Senate races, and Maryland Comptroller Peter Franchot’s prompt call for the Talbot Boys memorial be removed by the Talbot County Council.

This video is approximately fourteen minutes in length.

Background

While the Spy’s public affairs mission has always been hyper-local, it has never limited us from covering national, or even international issues, that impact the communities we serve. With that in mind, we were delighted that Al From and Craig Fuller, both highly respected Washington insiders, have agreed to a new Spy video project called “The Analysis of From and Fuller” over the next year.

The Spy and our region are very lucky to have such an accomplished duo volunteer for this experiment. While one is a devoted Democrat and the other a lifetime Republican, both had long careers that sought out the middle ground of the American political spectrum.

Al From, the genius behind the Democratic Leadership Council’s moderate agenda which would eventually lead to the election of Bill Clinton, has never compromised from this middle-of-the-road philosophy. This did not go unnoticed in a party that was moving quickly to the left in the 1980s. Including progressive Howard Dean saying that From’s DLC was the Republican wing of the Democratic Party.

From’s boss, Bill Clinton, had a different perspective. He said it would be hard to think of a single American citizen who, as a private citizen, has had a more positive impact on the progress of American life in the last 25 years than Al From.”

Al now lives in Annapolis and spends his semi-retirement as a board member of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University (his alma mater) and authoring New Democrats and the Return to Power. He also is an adjunct faculty member at Johns Hopkins’ Krieger School and recently agreed to serve on the Annapolis Spy’s Board of Visitors.

For Craig Fuller, his moderation in the Republican party was a rare phenomenon. With deep roots in California’s GOP culture of centralism, Fuller, starting with a long history with Ronald Reagan, leading to his appointment as Reagan’s cabinet secretary at the White House, and later as George Bush’s chief-of-staff and presidential campaign manager was known for his instincts to find the middle ground. Even more noted was his reputation of being a nice guy in Washington, a rare characteristic for a successful tenure in the White House.

Craig has called Easton his permanent home for the last five years, where now serves on the boards of the Academy Art Museum, the Benedictine School, and Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum. He also serves on the Spy’s Board of Visitors.

With their rich experience and long history of friendship, now joined by their love of the Chesapeake Bay, they have agreed through the magic of Zoom, to talk inside politics and policy with the Spy every Thursday.

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