Here at Baltimore School for the Arts (BSA), the To Work In Gaining Skills (TWIGS) advisor and mentor Michael Solomon is known by most students as the helpful gentleman who can point anyone in the right direction, no matter the time or place.

As a TWIGS and BSA student, I have known Mr. Solomon for 10 years, but I don’t believe I actually knew him until our conversation. Working as the TWIGS School/Parent Liaison is just one of the many hats he wears. 

Though we know him as our Mr. Solomon, the world knows him as Professor Solomon: the author, Harvard graduate, substitute teacher, photographer and researcher. I have always been curious about Mr. Solomon’s story, and I was lucky enough to interview him. Here is an edited version of our conversation:

Capista: Your pen name is Professor Solomon, where and when did you acquire this title?

Solomon: Just after college I had a magic show for children. I wasn’t a very good magician but I thought it would be fun, and I became known as Professor Solomon the magician. I did it for about a year, fast forward many years later, I’d done some writing, and I got this idea for a book on how to find lost objects. My friends worked with me like a team. I wrote it and my friends helped build the scenery, take pictures, and we decided it would be by Professor Solomon, my magician name, and that was the beginning of Professor Solomon. 

I’m Professor Solomon as a writer, it just became my pen name, and I like that we kept it. I tell people I’m like a fake professor, I’m like an amateur professor, not professors at colleges. The term has often been used to describe band leaders, and side shows at Coney Island, Professor so and so, I’m one of those fake professors. 

Capista: You’re from Cleveland, is that right? How did you ever end up in Baltimore?

Solomon: I went to high school in Cleveland, I got into college and went to college in Massachusetts (Harvard). After I graduated from college, I stayed in Boston. I liked it. So I lived in Boston all those years working as a substitute teacher. I had friends here in Baltimore who were renovating houses, and my friends in Baltimore were good friends. I helped them renovate houses and was no good, so I finally signed up to be a substitute teacher.

That was 1989, so I’ve lived here for 30 something years. This is my home, because of this job I stayed, I have a great job right here. However, I recently published a book called Cleveland Notables, all about Cleveland, and it’s about famous people and not famous people all in Cleveland, and I include my parents, my grandparents and it’s all about Cleveland, sort of a memory trick for me.

Capista: You said you stay here because of how great your job is. What makes working at BSA so special?

Solomon: Everyone wants to be here, and everybody is talented. It’s unique, most schools are not like that, and I’ve been to a lot of schools. There’s a great spirit. It’s a great place for everyone.

BSA changed my life. I really like being here, it’s not just a job. Things worked out for me, they don’t often do that for people. I was lucky.

Capista: Being here for over 30 years, I’m sure you’ve seen many kids start in the TWIGS Program and eventually watch through their BSA graduation. Do you find yourself becoming sentimental watching these kids grow up?

Solomon: Well most of them come back. They visit people. It’s one of the few schools where people come back. We hire many graduates to teach here. Many of my colleagues, the dance teachers, Ms. Iris, the head of the Dance Department, Becky, the head of the Theatre Department, I knew them all as students. Mellasenah [Edwards, head of the Music Department] went here too. Almost all of the department heads went here. 

Capista: Have the department heads changed much since their time at BSA?

Solomon: Well they grew up, but they stayed the same person for sure.

Capista: Walk me through your day. What does a typical day for Professor Solomon look like?

Solomon: I come three days a week. I come in at 3:00 PM and I get everything set up here. TWIGS starts at 4:00. I’m here with Officer Johnson till about 7:30 at night, then I go home and have dinner. I’m also here on Saturdays all morning, as that’s our big day for TWIGS. 

Capista: Where do you spend most of your time when you are not at BSA?

Solomon: I have two jobs really: here, and as a writer. I spend the entire morning writing, every morning without exception. I get up at 4:30 AM, have a quick breakfast: cup of coffee, toast with cream cheese, and fresh squeezed Whole Foods orange juice, best orange juice in the world, once you taste it you can never go back to the usual stuff.

Then I write till 9-10:00 AM, because I am always working on a book. I’m working on a book right now!

Capista: Can I ask what book you’re working on right now, or is it top secret?

Solomon: Yes you may. So the new book is about famous people in Baltimore. Famous people who have lived in the school and who have been in our buildings, like Tupac, people that become notable. I’m into it.

Capista: How long does it take you to complete a book?

Solomon: It varies, but I worked on this Cleveland book for three years, and it’s not just the writing, it’s the research. I love doing research on the internet, the library. 

Capista: Do you have any hidden talents?

Solomon: Well as a writer I worked for a while in film. After college I went to film school and I made a friend there. We made short comedies for children’s television. I helped write them. He was the film maker. So that is what I did before I really started publishing my stuff.  When we stopped doing that I started writing. 

Capista: What do you love about publishing books?

Solomon: I love doing it, I love the research, I love figuring out what I am going to say. It’s a challenge, it just doesn’t write itself. I believe in books, I believe in literature, I majored in English at Harvard. I love getting up in the morning and having the challenge of today’s chapter. 

Capista: Which book of yours is your favorite or the best in your opinion?

Solomon: The best is the latest (Cleveland Notables), people have told me it was the best. My favorite was the lost objects book (How to Find Lost Objects), that’s my first that’s where I began. I’ve done a series of five books on magicians, five volumes of histories of stage magicians, and each chapter is a different magician.

I did a book about Coney Island, where I wrote a history of it. I researched and then went there for two days. I interviewed all the old timers, took pictures of them, and asked them why Coney Island declined the way it did. I got these great stories and they’re in the book. I’ll never forget those two days I spent on Coney Island interviewing those people who had been there for years.

Capista: Do you have any words of wisdom to share?

Solomon: Do what you love to do. You only live once, do it now. Don’t base your life on making a living, don’t take a job you hate, you’ll be miserable for the rest of your life. Take a job you sorta like, and do what you really want to do on the side.

 It’s difficult to make a living as an artist, maybe you will. That’s great. If you can’t, get a day job that is bearable and go home and be an artist. That’s the advice I have to give to you. 

Capista: If you could be in any department at BSA what would it be?

Solomon: I’d be in Film, that’s what I’ve done and that’s what I’d do. 

Capista: If you could add a department to BSA what would it be?

Solomon: A publishing and writing department. That is something I learned how to do on my own. I got the software, I publish these books, and I do the layout, the integration of the photographs, and the editing. 

That’s a major task and I love to do it, it’s like a craft. All 10 of these books were self published. Self publishing is easy and cheap to do, not that anyone will read your books necessarily. But one of mine got published by Penguin, and was in book stores for a couple of years. 

Capista: How have you seen BSA change throughout your time here?

Solomon: The building itself has changed, but it’s the same place, and what I mean by that is the spirit hasn’t changed. It’s the same that it was 25 years ago. We have many more kids than we used to. It was 100, now it’s 450. When TWIGS started it was 100, now it’s 500. 

The scale of the school has changed, but it’s the same place, and when people come back as alumni they agree. They look at the current students and say, “Yeah it’s the same place.” It’s been here for 45 years and it’s a miracle that it exists, it really is.

Capista: How would you describe BSA in three words?

Solomon: It’s a miracle. “Where the arts change kids’ lives,” is cliche but it’s true. 

Capista: Finally, how would you describe yourself in three words?

Solomon: I don’t know!

Mr. Solomon is truly a hidden treasure within our school. To find out more about him, his writing, or his job, check out the End-of-Year Film Screening on Thursday, May 28 at 5 p.m. to see junior film student Sydney Sharp’s film on Mr. Solomon.

To contact this writer, email Muse Newspaper at musebsa@bsfa.org.

Featured photo by Kenya Price for The Muse.