We close out the show with the energetic voices of the Baltimore Citywide Youth Poetry Team - this year comprised completely of young talented women – who will be representing Baltimore at the 16^th Annual Brave New Voices International Youth Poetry Slam in August in Chicago.

We are joined by A. F. James MacArthur, blogger for the Baltimore Spectator, who was recently released after spending several months in jail following a standoff last December with the police.

We turn to a debate over the IRS and Tea Party scandal, with columnist and political analyst Edward Wyckoff Williams, and political analyst Lenny McAllister, who calls himself the “Working Man’s Conservative.”

We discuss Islam and peace with Faheem Younus, National Secretary of Education for the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community and  Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Maryland.

You can find Faheem at his blog, Muslimerican.

We get an update on the powerful, monster tornado that hit Moore, Oklahoma yesterday, killing at least 51 people. While initial reports ranked this tornado EF-4, the second most powerful kind of tornado, there is evidence that the tornado might be upgraded to EF-5, indicating speeds over 200mph. Reports indicate that the tornado was anywhere from half-a-mile to one mile wide, destroying everything along a stretch anywhere from 12-20 miles.

Scott Dance, weather and breaking news blogger for The Baltimore Sun, and Zakk Flash Luttrell of the Central Oklahoma Black and Red Alliance (COBRA) join us for the segment.

Yesterday was the anniversary of Malcolm X’s birth, who would have turned 88. We host a conversation about Malcolm X’s legacy and his relevance for today with:

• Paul Coates, founder of Black Classic Press;
  
• Kevin Alexander Gray, author of The Decline of Black Politics: From Malcolm X to Barack Obama and Waiting for Lightning to Strike: The Fundamentals of Black Politics, and organizer for the Harriet Tubman Freedom House Project;
• Frederick Harris, Director of the Institute for Research in African-American Studies and the Center on African-American Politics and Society at Columbia University, and author of The Price of the Ticket: Barack Obama and the Rise and Decline of Black Politics;
• and Jared Ball, Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Morgan State University and co-editor of A Lie of Reinvention: Correcting Manning Marable’s Malcolm X.

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Are you concerned about unemployment in our city and beyond? So is the Baltimore City Council, which last week voted on a piece of legislation that would require businesses receiving contracts from the city to hire 51% of the new workers from Baltimore City, or face sanctions. The City law department has indicated that such a mandate would be unconstitutional. We host a roundtable discussion to consider the issue of dire unemployment and whether this measure or others will be effective with:

• Councilwoman Mary Pat Clarke, Baltimore City Councilwoman for the 14th District;
  
• Marta Mossburg, columnist for The Baltimore Sun and The Frederick News-Post;
• Cory McCray, labor activist and co-founder of B.E.S.T. Democratic Club.

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According to a U.S. Department of Justice study released last week, the Maryland Correctional Institution for Women in Jessup has higher-than-average rates of inmate abuse. Nearly 13 percent of inmates at that facility reported being abused either by a fellow inmate or staff member. We talk with legislators and prison reform advocates about what real reform means. Our guests include:

• Delegate Sam Arora, Democrat representing Maryland’s 19th District (Montgomery County) in the Maryland House of Delegates;
• Delegate Nicholaus Kipke, House Minority Leader for the Maryland House of Delegates and Republican representing Maryland’s 31st District (Anne Arundel County);
• Tracy Velazquez, former Vice Chair of the Montana Democratic Party and former Director of the Justice Policy Institute in Washington, D.C.;
• and Chris Daley, Deputy Executive Director of Just Detention International.

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We close our show with a fascinating tour through Mt. Auburn Cemetery, the oldest African American cemetery in Baltimore, for which a 7-year restoration process was recently completed under the direction of Morgan State University (MSU), and which was rededicated on Tuesday by Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley. With:

• Robin Howard, Associate Director of the Center of Museums with the James E. Lewis Museum of Art at MSU;
• and Jeanne D. Hitchcock, Esq., Secretary of Appointments for the Governor’s Office.

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We talk with artist Mina Cheon, AKA Kim IL Soon, and Ethan Cohen of Ethan Cohen Fine Arts in New York City – which hosted a show of Kim Il Soon’s work in 2012 – about the work of this Socialist Realist painter from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, and how her work is tied to a quest for the reunification of Korea and global peace.

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