Art

Baltimore Times Publisher Joy Bramble Immortalized in Wax

WASHINGTON INFORMER — Joy Bramble, publisher of The Baltimore Times, was recently immortalized in wax for her 30-plus years of providing a Black media outlet. Bramble was honored with a proclamation from the Maryland House and Senate before the unveiling of a wax figure in her name at the National Great Blacks in Wax Museum in Baltimore.

Published

6 years ago

May 6, 2019

Eunice Moseley Special to The Informer

By Eunice Moseley, Special to The Informer

Joy Bramble, publisher of The Baltimore Times, was recently immortalized in wax for her 30-plus years of providing a Black media outlet.

Bramble was honored with a proclamation from the Maryland House and Senate before the unveiling of a wax figure in her name at the National Great Blacks in Wax Museum in Baltimore.

“I was surprised and honored,” Bramble said of the proclamation and unveiling. “The reason is what we’ve been able to accomplish with The Baltimore Times.”

As their first employee in 1986, I was a witness and full participant in those accomplishments. Bramble started The Baltimore Times with the blessing and help from her husband Rev. Peter Bramble, an Episcopal priest. I was straight out of college as a telecommunications major working at WEBB Radio as a paid intern when I was hired by Joy Bramble.

The Baltimore Times, when it changed from a monthly publication to a weekly, became the largest-circulated Black-owned newspaper in Maryland. It grew to have three sister publications — The Annapolis Times, The Prince George’s County Times and The Baltimore County Times. It was the first company to offer community events in Baltimore that provided free services with its Housing Expo (onsite pre-approvals), Health Expo (free health care screenings), Men’s Expo (free health care screenings) and Women’s Expo (free seminars).

“My whole life has been like magic,” said Bramble, a native of Montserrat. “I’ve never been afraid to try things. If that doesn’t work you move on. Set an example and keep trying.”

But Bramble didn’t start off in the states as a newspaper publisher. She began as an educator in the Baltimore City school system and even owned a lucrative corner store before deciding she wanted to saturate the city with “positive stories about positive people,” the motto for her newspaper.

“Someone broke into the store and I was afraid and decided to close it,” she said about her corner store venture.

As far as her role as a teacher, she said, “I feel if I am not making a difference I have to do something else. I found out how hard it was teaching in Baltimore schools. I knew that I wasn’t fulfilling my potential and that was not for me.”

Bringing “positive stories about positive people” and providing free community services to Baltimore city residents to help save lives and people’s homes was where she was able to fulfill her potential.

“Taking chances and learning,” Bramble told me of how she grew her newspaper. “And the people I’ve come in contact with. I made a difference in their lives, set an example. Look at you! You are a prime example.”

Bramble is talking about all the achievements I have made with her blessing and because of her urging. I came to The Baltimore Times because I love writing, but she saw that I could make a great salesperson. So we made a deal: she would let me write for the newspaper if I sold ads for her. She was right — I became the highest-paid salesperson at the newspaper.

My love for writing resulted in a position as entertainment editor at the newspaper. I am now a syndicated entertainment columnist with over 1/4 million readers a week nationwide. At one point as her business manager, she urged me in the strongest way to be her promotions director and because of it, I helped spearhead The Baltimore Times community event projects. The events garnered the newspaper recognitions from the city for serving the community with events held annually. Each of the four events raked up thousands of dollars in extra venue for the newspaper.

Bramble allowed me to learn all these skills on the job by not limiting me and by urging me. I was able to open up my own business, a public relations/business service company. She did not mind me moonlighting after work as long as I did my job at the newspaper. I founded “Uplifting Minds,” a free entertainment conference event for the newspaper, in 1999 to reach young readers — the fifth event.

In 2000, Bramble granted my request for ownership of the event and as “Uplifting Minds II” I took the free entertainment conference annually to communities in Baltimore, Los Angeles, Atlanta and Houston. I am only one of many employees Joy Bramble has helped in this way.

“Life is a challenge — I like challenges,” she said. “Someone tells me I can’t do something — I find a way. The statue will be unveiled at the State House. I’m getting a proclamation from the Senate and the House and the statue will be unveiled afterward at The Great Blacks in Wax.”

Moseley’s The Pulse of Entertainment column has an estimated weekly readership of over 250,000.

This article originally appeared in the Washington Informer.

Eunice Moseley Special to The Informer

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Activism

Griot Theater Company Presents August Wilson’s Work at Annual Oratorical Featuring Black Authors

The performance explores the legacy of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson whose 10-play Century Cycle chronicles the African American experience across the 20th century, with each play set in a different decade. “Half a Century” journeys through the final five plays of this monumental cycle, bringing Wilson’s richly woven stories to life in a way that celebrates history, resilience, and the human spirit.

Published

2 months ago

February 17, 2025

Oakland Post

Late playwright August Wilson. Wikipedia photo.

By Godfrey Lee

Griot Theater Company will present their Fifth Annual Oratorical with August Wilson’s “Half a Century,” at the Belrose on 1415 Fifth Ave., in San Rafael near the San Rafael Public Library.

The performance explores the legacy of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson whose 10-play Century Cycle chronicles the African American experience across the 20^th century, with each play set in a different decade. “Half a Century” journeys through the final five plays of this monumental cycle, bringing Wilson’s richly woven stories to life in a way that celebrates history, resilience, and the human spirit.

Previous performance highlighting essential Black American authors included Maya Angelou, James Baldwin, and Lorraine Hansberry with Langston Hughes.

The play will be performed at 3:00. p.m. on Feb. 20, 21, 22, 27, and 28 at 7:00 p.m., and on Feb. 23 at 3:00 p.m.

For more information, go to griottheatercompany.squarespace.com/productions-v2

Oakland Post

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Activism

MLK Day of Service Volunteers Make Blankets and Art for Locals in Need

“Everyone has an opportunity to participate,” said Glenda Roberts, kinship support care program manager at CCYSB. “Our nonprofit organization and participants recognize how important it is to give back to the community and this is serving. As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. stated, ‘Everybody can be great…because anybody can serve.’”

Published

3 months ago

January 18, 2025

Oakland Post

Photo courtesy of the nonprofit.

By Kathy Chouteau
The Richmond Standard

The Contra Costa Youth Service Bureau (CCYSB) and Bethlehem Missionary Baptist Church (BMBC) are collaborating with a team of volunteers for a Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service, Monday, Jan. 20 that will wrap the community’s most vulnerable people in warm blankets and provide them with an uplifting gift of art.

Volunteers will kick off their activities at BMBC at 11 a.m., making blankets for the unhoused people served by the Greater Richmond Interfaith Program (GRIP) and art for those in convalescence in Richmond.

Others will get to work preparing a lunch of chili, salad, a veggie tray, and water for participants, offered courtesy of CCYSB, while supplies last.

“People of all ages are welcome to participate in the MLK Day of Service,” said Roberts. Volunteers can RSVP via phone to Glenda Roberts at 510-215-4670, ext. 125.

CCYSB Boardmember Jackie Marston and her friends donated the materials and supplies to make the blankets and art projects. The nonprofit is also providing the day’s complimentary lunch, as well as employees to volunteer, under the direction of CCYSB Executive Director Marena Brown.

BMBC, led by Rev. Dr. Carole McKindley-Alvarez, is providing the facility for the event and volunteers from the church, which is located at 684 Juliga Woods St. in Richmond.

Located in Richmond, CCYSB is a nonprofit youth advocacy organization that serves eligible children, youth, and low-income families with a variety of wraparound services so they can thrive. Programs include academic achievement, youth mentorship, truancy prevention and direct response.

Oakland Post

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Art

Vandalism at Richmond Ferry Terminal Saddens Residents

Residents have been lamenting the destruction online. Ellen Seskin posted photos of the vandalism to the Facebook group, Everybody’s Richmond, on Jan. 12, saying she encountered it while out on a walk. “It was on the sidewalk, the street, the doors to the ferry, even in the art installation and the ‘stone’ benches,” she said. “I reported it but knowing how slow they are about getting things done — I just know that the longer you leave graffiti, the more likely they are to spray it again.”

Published

3 months ago

January 18, 2025

Oakland Post

Graffiti mars the walkway at the Richmond Ferry Terminal. Photo by Kathy Chouteau, The Richmond Standard.

The Richmond Standard

“This is why we can’t have nice things,” stated the post on NextDoor.

The post referenced images of graffiti at the Richmond Ferry Terminal. Not just on the terminal, but also on public artwork, on trail signs, on public benches and the boardwalk.

On Wednesday, the Standard stopped by to see it for ourselves. The good news was that it appears the graffiti on the terminal and on the artwork, called Changing Tide, have been cleaned for the most part. But graffiti remained abundant in the area around the relatively new ferry terminal, which opened to the public just six years ago.

Graffiti artists tagged benches and the boardwalk. Cars that had done doughnuts in the street marked the cul-de-sac just outside the historic Craneway Pavilion.

A ferry worker told us the graffiti had been there since before he started working for the ferry service about a week ago.

A member of the Army Corps of Engineers who did not want to be named in this report called the scene “sad,” as “they’d done such a nice job fixing it up.”

“It’s sad that all this money has been spent and hoodlums just don’t care and are destroying stuff,” he said.

It wasn’t immediately clear how soon the graffiti would be removed. The Standard reported the graffiti to the city’s graffiti abatement hotline. We were prompted to leave a message reporting the address and location of the graffiti.

“It was on the sidewalk, the street, the doors to the ferry, even in the art installation and the ‘stone’ benches,” she said. “I reported it but knowing how slow they are about getting things done — I just know that the longer you leave graffiti, the more likely they are to spray it again.”

In the comment section responding to Seskin’s post, local attorney Daniel Butt questioned why there aren’t cameras in the area.

On Nextdoor, one resident suggested searching to see if the tags match any accounts on Instagram, hoping to identify the perpetrator.

On its website, the City of Richmond says residents should graffiti immediately call Public Works graffiti removal and/or Code Enforcement at 510-965-4905.

Kathy Chouteau contributed to this report.