In celebration of National Poetry Month, the next Takoma Park Arts poetry reading will feature four local poets who will share their diverse range of work. The featured poets include […]
Entertainment
Jordan Hawkins, who is coming off of leading the UConn Huskies to a National Championship, has officially declared for the NBA Draft. Hawkins is a Montgomery County native who attended Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School in Germantown and Gaithersburg High School for his freshman and sophomore years before transferring to DeMatha. Below is his announcement:
“First and Foremost I would like to thank God for giving me this opportunity. I want to thank my family for their continued support and guidance throughout this entire process. To Coach Hurley and the entire UConn staff thank you for believing in my dream and pushing me at times I felt like giving up.
Montgomery County native Fredricka Whitfield anchors the weekend edition of CNN Newsroom from CNN’s world headquarters in Atlanta, and is also a fill-in/substitute anchor for CNN’s At This Hour With Kate Bolduan. She has been with CNN for over two decades, starting with the news agency in 2002.
Whitfield grew up in Burtonsville and attended/graduated from Paint Branch High School in 1983. She went on to Howard University in DC, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Howard’s School of Communications in 1987. While at Howard, she was a news anchor for campus radio station WHUR. Whitfield worked for News Channel 8 after college, as well as television stations in Miami, Dallas, New Haven, and Charleston prior to serving as the Atlanta-based correspondents for NBC Nightly News from 1995-2001.
Josh Thurmond, a 1994 graduate of Quince Orchard High School and Gaithersburg native, is the inventor of LavaBox Portable Campfire– a new style of portable fire pit that’s built in a military-style ammunition can and was “created to combat climate change and reduce wildfires.” LavaBox has made waves, or fires, since its inception in late 2020, and LavaBox joined fellow Montgomery County businesses that have made it into the tank in recent months (Collars & Co. was featured in November, OoogieBear was featured in September, and ShredSkinz was featured in December) when Thurmond brought LavaBox into the tank on Friday, March 31st at 8pm.
Thurmond was looking for $200,000 for 10% equity in his company. He shared that the Lavabox comes in three sizes, with the most popular being the smaller version which retails for $195 (and costs just over $25 per unit to produce). The larger varieties cost more to produce, but also come with a higher price range. He expects to reach over $1 million in gross revenue sales by the end of this year- numbers that impressed all the sharks. Thurmond explained that most sales come directly from word of mouth, and that he wants tp get into big box stores. Mr. Wonderful Kevin O’Leary was impressed enough to offer the $200,000 for 10% equity that he was looking for. Daymond John made an offer, wanting 20% equity, but was more interested in licensing the LavaBox instead. Lori Greiner then jumped in with an offer of $200,000 for 12.5% equity, but also wants a royalty of .75 cents per unit sold until she gets $200,000 back. Her 12.5% equity would remain the entire time if the deal is accepted. considers his options and chooses to accept Lori’s offer. After considering all offers, Thurmond went with Lori Grenier’s offer.
New, Publicly Listed Company to be 51% Owned by Endeavor and 49% by Existing WWE Shareholders. Endeavor to Contribute UFC into Company at Enterprise Value of $12.1 Billion
Former Montgomery County resident Vince McMahon, owner of World Wrestling Entertainment, has entered an agreement with Endeavor, the parent company of UFC, “to form a new, publicly listed company consisting of two iconic, complementary, global sports and entertainment brands: UFC and WWE.” McMahon and his family lived on Stedwick Dr in Montgomery Village in the late 60’s/early 70’s. His son Shane McMahon, who returned to the company at Sunday night’s Wrestlemania and injured himself at the event, was born while the family lived in the area and considers himself a Gaithersburg native.
As part of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month in May, the Asian Pacific American Student Achievement Action Group (APASAAG) is sponsoring a poster contest for K–12 students. This is the fourth year for the contest.
The contest calls for students to submit original artwork reflecting significant moments or events in Asian American and Pacific Islander history and/or culture. Artwork must be drawings, paintings or digital art and submitted electronically. First, second and third place winners will receive cash awards for lower elementary, upper elementary, middle and high school levels. One entry per student is allowed. Submissions are due Friday, April 23.
Eun Yang, who grew up in MoCo and celebrated 20 years with NBC4 last year, has announced that she will be moving to evenings after spending the last 12 years anchoring News 4 Today. Yang was born in Seoul, Korea and grew up in the right here in Montgomery County. She graduated from Paint Branch High School (1991) in Burtonsville and then earned a degree in broadcast journalism from the University of Maryland in 1995.
Per the Montgomery County Commission for Women, Yang began her broadcast journalism career while at the University of Maryland. She worked as a reporter for “Maryland Update,” a program on the University’s cable channel, and then moved to TV- 58 where she freelanced as a special projects reporter for Asian- Pacific American affairs. In 1995, she worked full-time as a WUSA-TV production assistant while finishing her last year at the University of Maryland. She was a “reporter trainee” for a year when the station started its weekend-morning newscast. She remained at WUSA-TV for six years, working her way up to a substitute anchor.
A new exhibit by the artists of the VisAbility Art Lab opens at The Seneca (55 West Gude Drive) in Rockville this Saturday. The VisAbility Art Lab is a studio program that “provides artists with autism and intellectual and developmental disabilities a place and the resources to create art and develop the skills necessary to work in the arts.” The exhibit will be open daily from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM through Friday, April 26. Full details below courtesy of VisArts:
We are delighted to announce that more than 30 pieces of art will go on exhibit at The Seneca in Rockville on Saturday, March 25 – works created by the artists of VisArts’ VisAbility Art Lab. These highly talented painters, sketchers, and sculptors have two things in common: they are artists with autism or other intellectual and developmental disabilities and they are successfully pursuing careers in art.
The American Film Institute (AFI) announced that Ray Barry, Director of the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center, will retire this month after nearly 50 years at AFI. Silver Theatre Director of Programming and Associate Director of the Silver Theatre and Cultural Center, Todd Hitchcock has been named as Barry’s replacement. Additional information below, per AFI’s press release:
Ray Barry has been a fixture at AFI for nearly 50 years, serving as the Director of the AFI Theater at the John F. Kennedy Center, and later spearheading AFI’s initiative to restore the historic Silver Theatre and transform it into the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center—a state-of-the-art center for the moving image. He was also instrumental in the launch of many of AFI’s national programs over the years, including AFI FEST in Los Angeles and the AFI/Discovery Channel SILVERDOCS Documentary Film Festival, the annual AFI European Union Film Showcase and AFI Latin American Film Festival in Washington, DC, as well as having developed a wide variety of special exhibition projects for presentation both in the United States and overseas.
Arts on the Green presents a ceramics exhibit featuring works by members of Montgomery Potters. The exhibit is on display through June 4, 2023. Meet the artists and view their works at a joint Artists Reception on Thursday, April 27 from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at both the Arts Barn & Kentlands Mansion, where the Gaithersburg Fine Arts Association’s exhibition will be on display. The joint reception is open to all and free to attend. Light refreshments will be served. Masks & social distancing are encouraged, but not required.
Members of Montgomery Potters will also provide docent tours of the exhibit from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. during the Arts Barn’s 20th Anniversary Celebration on Saturday, April 15. “We are so pleased to welcome the Montgomery Potters to the Arts Barn Gallery,” says Gallery Program Coordinator Jaree Donnelly. “Their work is terrific and varied in style, and we hope our patrons will enjoy perusing the pieces from this talented group of artists & choose to acquire something from the exhibit for their collection or to give as a wonderful, unique gift.”
Radio station Hot 99.5 (WIHT FM) is currently running it’s annual “Best High School in the DMV” contest on Instagram. The six Montgomery County high schools to make the “Sweet 16” are Montgomery Blair, Northwest, Richard Montgomery, Rockville, Walter Johnson, and Wheaton. The schools included in the tournament were selected after receiving the most nominations and the winning high school will be awarded with $1,000 (courtesy of Burn Bootcamp in Rockville.) Wheaton High School lost to Osbourn Park High School (Manassas, VA) in the final round of the 2021 tournament. Voting takes place in Hot 99.5’s Instagram page’s stories. Hot 99.5 (WIHT) broadcasts out of the IHeartMedia studios at 1801 Rockville Pike in Rockville.
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