John Lewis Lives Music Video - Ruben Stoddard

A tribute to civil rights icon John Lewis.  “John Lewis Lives Feat. Ruben Studdard “ is a song by Alan Scott, sung by American Idol winner and gospel artist Ruben Studdard. Film by Lenny Bass. Music Producer Mark Williams. Choreography by Tracie Jiggetts.

Visionary Women 2021 Sarah Matthews Interview

Sarah Matthews is a printmaker and book artist. Her work has been exhibited in the US and is a part of the permanent collections of Yale’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, George Washington University’s Gelman Library, University of Puget Sound.

Visionary Women 2021 Wendy Ng Interview

Wendy Ng loves the play of light and shadows as they affect her perception of shapes and textures. Her early art training in Hong Kong, where she grew up, and her formal science education all contributed towards her current artistic expressions.

Featured

Gallery Tour: Artists' Gallery

In 1994, the New Arts Alliance, a Columbia, Md. art organization, initiated a search for a venue to showcase local artists. The management of the American City Building, corporate home of The Rouse Company, offered to design a small gallery space in the building’s lobby to support the fine arts in Columbia.

Gallery Tour: Columbia Art Center

Columbia Art Center offers art classes in Columbia, MD and is dedicated to providing artistic experiences in the visual arts for all ages and interest levels and to join with local arts organizations and community businesses in creating diverse offerings.

Gallery Tour: Columbia Art Center & Artist Interviews

Gallery Tour: HorseSpirit Arts Gallery

HorseSpirit Arts Gallery opened as a small, one-room gallery where Robin exhibited her own artwork and that of a few other local artists. In 2015, she moved HorseSpirit Arts Gallery to Main Street in Old Ellicott City, MD. On Main Street, the gallery grew to represent over 40 local artists.

Gallery Tour: HorseSpirit Arts Gallery & Artist Interview

Take a tour of the Columbia Art Center and meet Gallery owner Robin Holliday as well as artist Brenda Kidera who shares an exclusive look at some of the great work currently on exhibit.

Howard County Arts Council/Center for the Arts Virtual Gallery Tour: Regeneration

Video walkthrough of Regeneration on display at Howard County Center for the Arts. Regeneration features large-scale mixed-media sculptures and installations by Marcia Wolfson Ray and Micaela de Vivero.

Virtual Gallery Tour: Resiliencia

Video walkthrough of Resiliencia on display at Howard County Center for the Arts. This exhibit features artworks by Julia Justo, Dulce Pinzón, and Christine Sloan Stoddard.

Howard County Arts Council's Road To The Arts

Full Concert: A Holiday Concert

Seasons Greetings from the Columbia Orchestra! Members of the orchestra bring you a socially-distanced Holiday concert with many special guests.

Full Concert: Appalachian Spring

Members of the Columbia Orchestra perform a socially-distanced concert including Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 3, Jessie Montgomery's Strum, and Aaron Copland's Appalachian Spring Suite.​

Full Concert: Pictures At An Exhibition

The Columbia Orchestra, an all-volunteer community orchestra in Howard County, MD, performs Modest Mussorgsky's thrilling "Pictures at an Exhibition," orchestrated by Maurice Ravel, in the Jim Rouse Theatre.​

Columbia Orchestra

Columbia Pro Cantare - Messiah

The Columbia Pro Cantare Chorus of Columbia, MD, performance of Handel's "Messiah" from December 2019 with soloists Amy Van Roekel and Charles Reid, including  past solo performances of MaryAnn McCormick and Lester Lynch.

Columbia Pro Cantare -Vivaldi "Gloria"

Excerpts from a Columbia Pro Cantare Chorus Concert recorded live on March 13, 2016 at First Evangelical Lutheran Church, Ellicott City, MD by Alan Wonneberger Music. Introduction and Preconcert Lecture by Dr. Barbara Renton recorded live on February 15, 2021.

Columbia Pro Cantare

Concert Clip: Beck - Where It's At

Where It's At, Beck, Merriweather Post Pavilion, Columbia, Maryland; August 22nd, 2019; The Night Running Tour with Cage the Elephant

Concert Clip: Darin Atwater - Brown

Soulful Symphony's debut performance at Merriweather Post Pavilion on June 29 was a smashing success. In this short clip, Darin Atwater leads the crowd in a singalong of his original piece, "Brown".

Concert Clip: Grateful Dead - Shakedown Street

Grateful Dead 6-30-85: Shakedown Street, Merriweather

Concert Clip: Heart - Stairway To Heaven

Stairway to Heaven, Heart, Merriweather Post Pavilion, Columbia, Maryland; August 13th, 2019; Love Alive Tour with Joan Jett

Concert Clip: Jackson Browne - Running On Empty

Jackson performs this classic song where it was recorded in 1977. Merriweather Post Pavilion 50th Birthday show with Jackson Browne, Willie Nelson,  Father John Misty, and Grace Potter 7/15/17 - Columbia, Maryland

Concert Clip: Jimi Hendrix - Star Spangled Banner '68

Jimi Hendrix Star Spangled Banner 68 08 16 Tr 9 Merriweather Post Pavilion, Columbia, Maryland - Audio Only

Concert Clip: O.A.R. - Full Show

O.A.R. live at Merriweather Post Pavilion 08/21/2015

Concert Clip: Phish - Steam

Phish - "Steam" - 6/12/11 Merriweather Post Pavilion

Concert Clip: Robert Plant - Going To California

Going to California, Robert Plant & the Sensational Space Shifters, Merriweather Post Pavilion, Columbia, Maryland; June 12th, 2018; Carry Fire Tour

Concert Clip: The Cure - Lullaby

Lullaby, The Cure, Merriweather Post Pavilion, Columbia, Maryland; June 22nd, 2016; North American Tour

Concert Clip: The Roots - Captain Kirk Douglas Solo

Captain Kirk's great solo at Summer Spirit Festival on August 5th, 2018 at Merriweather Post Pavilion.

DCACC/Merriweather Post Pavilion

Visionary Women 2021 Edna Knox Davin Interview

Born and raised in Washington, DC, Edna Knox Davin is a sculptor who currently works as a Kiln Technician at the Columbia Art Center and resides in Columbia, Maryland.

Visionary Women 2021 Fariba Gheisour Interview

Fariba Ghisor is an Iranian-American artist who is working as a full-time professional painter in Maryland. Fariba studied art at the Art Institute in Tehran. She established her own art studio in 1995 in Tehran where she developed art courses and taught painting classes to students in different age groups, particularly at the college level.

Visionary Women 2021 Kathy Daywalt Interview

Kathy Daywalt is a prolific working artist with over 40 years of successful experience in a variety of mediums. Her award-winning works have been included in numerous juried exhibitions and one-person shows.

Art Galleries

Festival Retrospective - 5 Pages

Alden Lee is an aspiring writer. Nothing matters more to him than writing. When he is 16 years old, he is told he only has 5 pages left to write in his life. The story follows him throughout stages of his life, adjusting to his new lifestyle.

Festival Retrospective - After Charlottesville

Over laughter, tea and a few tears, two friends try to help each other process the events of the Charlottesville protests of August 11-12.

Festival Retrospective - Ape Canyon

In the midst of a quarter-life crisis, Cal Piker drags his big sister Samantha along on a Bigfoot-hunting expedition.

Festival Retrospective - Archie An American Journey

Archie Avedisian was a disrupter long before the term became cache. But rather than move fast and break things, Archie moved fast and built communities. He integrated clubs during the era of segregation, introduced clubs to the DC housing projects during the crack cocaine crisis, and brought girls into his boys’ clubs long before the national organization was ready to do that.

Festival Retrospective - Black Vietnam: Into The Light

Black Vietnam veterans heal their symptoms of PTSD by retelling their stories of war and racism and engaging in holistic practices like meditation, tai chi and Reiki.

Festival Retrospective - Full Moon

A quick-witted high schooler must fend for her life when the curse of a Full Moon brings out the primal nature of those closest to her.

Festival Retrospective - Habibah

Lakbira, an illegal immigrant from Morocco, must make incredible sacrifices for her daughter, Kitty, in order to give her a better life. Kitty’s quest for mobility becomes lawless, forcing Lakbira to disown her.

Festival Retrospective - Half Way Home

When a social worker makes a routine visit to a foster home, she uncovers an ugly truth hiding inside the house.

Festival Retrospective - Hourglass

Hourglass is about a young man named Brian who is introduced to an Hourglass with a mysterious power to bring a loved one back to life for an hour. A story about relationships and moving on.

Festival Retrospective - Inside My Mind

Michael wakes up from a nightmare surrounded by his three friends, Sarah, Zach and Katie. They are on holiday in a mountain chalet. Michael is feeling wired, he’s having visions. In the evening, a power cut occurs, then strange events begin.

Festival Retrospective - Lost In The Woods

Matt, a college student, battles with the different sides of his mind while being lost in the woods on a weekend camping trip.

Festival Retrospective - Maven Explores Mars

Festival Retrospective - Sergeants Jacob and Olivia Barnes

A short fiction film about a dual active duty married couple in the U.S. Marine Corps confronting infidelity. They are forced to face their dysfunctional intimacy issues while being trapped in the behaviors ingrained in them as Marines.

Film Festival Retrospective

Poetry Moment - 8AM Sunday August 28, 2005

August 28, 2005, Hurricane Katrina blew apart the bayou.

Poetry Moment - A Final Thing

If we’re lucky enough, we remember elders reading books to us as children. And then, if we’re doubly lucky, we become readers, and pass the literary love down to successive generations.

Poetry Moment - According To Beauty

Poetry Moment - Blake

Poetry Moment - Blind Tom Plays On

Experiencing Tyehimba Jess read his verse at the Blackbird Poetry Festival in April 2017 was like watching Cirque de Soleil with words.    Jess, who had won the Pulitzer Prize a few weeks before he arrived to read for HoCoPoLitSo, stood at the front of Smith Theatre and flashed on-screen his poems and pictures of the minstrel musicians.

Poetry Moment - Carp Poem

Terrance Hayes is an American poet and educator who has published seven poetry collections. In conversation with the poet Tara Betts in this #PoetryMoment clip from 2011, he reads “Carp” from the book Lighthead.

Poetry Moment - Digging

Poetry Moment - Elegy

Poetry Moment - For Chris

Poetry Moment - For Every One

Students across the nation are returning to their studies this fall in a time of fear and in methods that are bizarre. Most of them won’t board buses with their parents sniffing back tears on the sidewalk. They won’t giggle in clusters or eat in cafeterias. College students won’t be packing stadiums or gathering on the quad.

Poetry Moment - Gentle Reader

“If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can warm me, I know that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry. These are the only ways I know it. Is there any other way?” Emily Dickinson wrote to Thomas Wentworth Higginson in 1870.

Poetry Moment - Good Times

HoCoPoLitSo was founded to celebrate diverse literary heritages and to foster literary appreciation in diverse populations, including varying gender, ethnic and cultural identities, age groups, and income levels.

Poetry Moment - I Give You Back

Joy Harjo, this nation’s National Poet Laureate, is acquainted with racism and fear, but she doesn’t accept them. The first Native American to hold the national position with the Library of Congress, Harjo has been writing poetry, playing music, dancing, and painting since she was in a boarding school run by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Poetry Moment - Is Eric Dolphy Coming Or Going?

Watching Miller read his poem, “Is Eric Dolphy Coming or Going?” in this week’s episode of HoCoPoLitSo’s Poetry Moment is a similar experience, a poetic party that he guides his audience through, throwing out names and ideas thick and heavy.

Poetry Moment - Lady Freedom Among Us

The former National Poet Laureate and official national treasure Rita Dove stars in this week’s Poetry Moment, featuring her poem “Lady Freedom Among Us.”

Poetry Moment - Long Story Short

Poetry Moment - Mrs. Wei Wants To Believe The First Amendment

Adopted Dec. 15, 1791, the amendment is first on the list of the Bill of Rights, and grants Americans the right to assemble, the right to a free press, and the freedom to speak their truth to power and to petition the government.

Poetry Moment - My Deepest Condiments

These days, many of us are progressing through the five stages of grief that Elizabeth Kubler-Ross named: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.   Sure, Shakespeare wrote, “To weep is to make less the depth of grief.” But what about laughter? With his poem “My Deepest Condiments,” Mali poses that humor can help one endure grief.

Poetry Moment - Requiem

Poet Carolyn Forché, known for her own poems about civil war atrocities in El Salvador, spent more than thirteen years collecting work from poets around the world who had endured imprisonment, exile, repression, censorship, war.

Poetry Moment - Sleeping With One Eye Open

When Mark Strand was a student at The Iowa Writers’ Workshop in the 1960s, he was worried about nuclear war with Russia, among other things. The Pulitzer winner and former National Poet Laureate wrote his poem “Sleeping with One Eye Open” in 1962.

Poetry Moment - Southern Road

Poetry Moment - Switch

Tara Betts’s poem “Switch” is old school. Betts has been reciting a version of the poem for twenty years, first at Chicago and then national poetry slams.

Poetry Moment - The Long Boat

Stanley Kunitz, the lauded poet who read and wrote and gardened until he was 100 years old, spoke truth about the world—that while we’re in the midst of being alive, we’re also on the path to our graves.

Poetry Moment - The Pomegranate

Kidnapped by Hades and imprisoned in hell, Persephone is pursued by her mother, who searches ceaselessly until she finally finds her daughter.

Poetry Moment - The Solstice

End of October we give in to the dark. At least for the winter.  On that Sunday morning, we turn our clocks back, and our evenings grow darker and darker until the shortest day of the year, the solstice, Dec. 21, 2020. It’s not just the upcoming Halloween (or election) that sends shivers in the dark.

Poetry Moment - The Trouble Ball

Poetry Moment - We Real Cool

In 1985, Gwendolyn Brooks arrived from Chicago in Washington D.C., to become America’s first Black person to hold the position of Poetry Consultant to the Library of Congress.

Poetry Moment - When Your Word Is A Match

George Floyd and Emmett Till had many things in common, but two similarities rise to the top. They were both killed by white men who believed they had power over Black bodies. And they both called for help from their mothers just before they died, Floyd on a Minneapolis street in May 2020, Till in a Mississippi barn in August 1955.

HoCoPoLitSo

Horizon Foundation 20th Anniversary

Since our founding in 1998, we've worked to improve the health and wellness of everyone who lives or works in Howard County. We partner with community leaders and organizations to shape policy, lead initiatives and invest in programs that make Howard County more vibrant.

Horizon: Emotional Support Human - Buzzing

A small effort can make a big difference. Emotional Support Humans show a willingness to reach out and listen compassionately for loved ones living with anxiety, depression, and other mental health challenges.

Horizon: Emotional Support Human - Cloud

Connecting with loved ones doesn’t just have to be in a conversation. You can show your support in actions too. Consider practical and realistic options.

Horizon: Emotional Support Human - Heavy Lift

Finding the words can be the hardest part of reaching out to someone. You don’t need to be a mental health expert to say things effectively, though.

Horizon: Emotional Support Human - Quicksand

Maybe you’re the one giving support. Maybe you’re the one receiving support. Maybe you’re both.

Horizon: Emotional Support Human - Underwater

Feelings take a lot of energy, and sometimes that doesn’t leave much space to handle everyday activities.  Helping with small household tasks or errands can make a big difference.

Horizon: Equity - Chronic Stress

One way to fight racism is to learn how to spot its impact – even in situations where it may not be obvious to you. In Howard County, African Americans are dying of COVID-19 at disproportionate rates. And it's not just about underlying health conditions. It's also about the laws and practices that have negatively impacted African Americans.

Horizon: Equity - Racism In Health Care

While work is happening to change the laws and practices that left African Americans vulnerable in this pandemic – and plenty of crises before it – that change won’t happen overnight. Here’s how local leaders are protecting themselves and their communities.

Horizon: Equity - Racism In Health Care Covid-19

One way to fight racism is to learn how to spot its impact – even in situations where it may not be obvious to you. In Howard County, African Americans are dying of COVID-19 at disproportionate rates.

Horizon: Speak Easy - Do You Have A Health Care Agent?

We asked Howard County residents how far they'd go for the ones they love. We didn't tell them those loved ones were watching.

Horizon: Speak Easy - I Did It My Way (The Stoop)

On Nov. 1, 2018, Speak(easy) Howard and The Stoop Storytelling Series hosted "I Did It My Way: Stories about Creating a Life – and Death – On Your Own Terms," an inspiring, sold-out storytelling event with over 250 attendees at The Soundry in Columbia, Md.

Horizon: Speak Easy - Rev. Ostein Truitt Made Her Plan

Your health care agent is the person you choose to make medical decisions for you if you can't. Rev. Ostein Truitt named hers. See what it meant for her and her family.

Horizon: Unsweetened - Coaches Peter And Micah

Wilde Lake High School junior varsity basketball coaches Pete Bergin and Micah Mbah talk about keeping the fun in youth sports and motivating their team to make healthy choices.

Horizon: Unsweetened - Cutting Sugary Drinks

Check out other ways parents like you are cutting sugary drinks out of their household

Horizon: Unsweetened - Kids Make Gatorade 1

Local kids made their own Gatorade. Results are surprising. http://switchthedrink.com/

Horizon: Unsweetened - Switch The Drink

Type in your favorite drink, push the button and BAM!    Find a drink your kids will love.

Horizon Foundation

Finalist Interview: Alan Scott

Interview with Songs of Strength competition First Place Winner Alan Scott about his song John Lewis Lives.

Finalist Interview: Conor Brendan

Conor Brendan and his songs Lay My Worries Down and No Plateau with both in the Top 10 for the Songs of Strength competition.

Finalist Interview: Jonathan Waller

Johnathan Waller, his band Big Red Capes, and his song Give A Little Love came in 3rd place in the Songs of Strength competition. His song Finally Fearless was also in the Finals.

Finalist Interview: Meg McDermott

Meg McDermott and her song Staircase To Nowhere were one of the top 10 Finalists

Finalist Interview: Queen Earth

Queen Earth and her song Queer Core were in the top 10 Finalist for the Songs of Strength competition.

Finalist Interview: Saleem

Saleem and his song Middle Passage Through North America came in as Second Place winners at the Songs of Strength Competition.

Finalist Interview: Triana Akila

Triana Akila and her song Better Than Nothing was the Audience Choice Award Winner for the Songs of Strength competition.

Songs of Strength

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