2022 marks the 50th anniversary of Hurricane Agnes, a storm that brought the most rain and wreaked the worst damage in U.S. history up to its time. With impacts from Florida through southeastern Pennsylvania, Agnes saved her strongest blows for the Susquehanna River basin, catching forecasters and riverside communities by surprise in a 400-mile rampage from the Finger Lakes of upstate New York to Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay. In five days, the Agnes floods flushed more sediment and pollution into the Bay than had come in perhaps the previous fifty years, and the impacts are still felt fifty years later. In this session, author Gary Letcher will recount the Agnes story, sharing a compelling narrative that brings home the power of nature – and the power of ordinary people in the face of epic catastrophe.

Staff program lead: Jill Ferris, jferris@cbmm.org, 410-745-4986. 

For generations, cookbooks have raised money for churches and charities, while also documenting regional food traditions. A recipe inside one of these books can tell the story of a meal, a cook, and even a community. In this talk, culinary blogger Kara Harris will dig deeper into the stories of the lives lived between the meals, and the culinary legacies left behind.

Staff program lead: Jill Ferris, jferris@cbmm.org, 410-745-4986. 

Author Joseph Koper recalls the unique and tragic story of Isaiah Fountain, a successful Black farmer from Trappe, Md. In an explosive case of racial and judicial injustice, Fountain was tried and convicted twice and almost lynched several times, before being the last person to be legally executed on the Eastern Shore. Drawing on media coverage and court records from a century ago, Koper discusses a forgotten chapter in America’s difficult past.

Staff program lead: Jill Ferris, jferris@cbmm.org, 410-745-4986.