Beflast Free Library

Art Reception for Thatcher Barrett
2024-11-06 16:00 - 17:00 (America/New_York) | Kramer Gallery
Belfast Free Library Youth Services is pleased to announce that the November art installation at the library will feature teen artist Thatcher Barrett. The exhibit will be on view in the Kramer Gallery from November 5th-30th and a reception with refreshments will be held on November 6th from 4-5 pm. Teen art displays rotate each month on the second floor of the library at 106 High Street in Belfast as well, so stop in to see creativity in action! For more information, contact Crystal Vaccaro at cvaccaro@belfastlibrary.org or 207-338-3884, ext 26.

Knit2Together
2024-11-06 16:00, 2024-10-30 16:00, 2024-10-23 16:00 | Abbott Room
Knitters, crocheters, yarn enthusiasts of all experience levels are welcome to join us every Wednesday , from 4:00-5:30 pm in the Abbott Room.
This drop-in event is a chance for knitters- and crocheters too- of all ages and experience levels to chat, get tips, and learn from each other while working on their own projects. Library staff will have computers available to demonstrate how to use Ravelry.com and other websites to help find patterns and organize your work. Registration is not required. For more information please call 338-3884 ext.10
Contact bharrington@belfastlibrary.org to sign up to to join the knitting group.

Music Together: Discover the Magic
2024-11-04 10:00 - 11:00 | Abbott Room
~Singing, Dancing and Jamming for children and their families! Brought to you by Music Together and Midcoast Music Academy.

Updates and Recommendations from the Maine Climate Council with Ivan Fernandez
2024-10-29 18:30 - 20:00 | Abbott Room
Updates from the Maine Climate Council about Maine Won’t Wait
with Ivan Fernandez, Distinguished Professor at the University of Maine’s Climate Change Institute and co-chair of the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee of
the Maine Climate Council.

Register for the Zoom link here

Scary Storytelling: Not For the Faint of Heart
2024-10-29 16:30 - 17:30 | Abbott Room
Folktales told by Children’s Librarian Stephanie Holman
Spine tingling folktales are told in the spoken word art form of storytelling. Found in collections of children’s literature, this type of tale helps one face fears through story and in a fun group setting.
For older children: listening and patience and a love of scary stories required.

McKenna and Her Camera: Artists and Their Work with Kevin Johnson
2024-10-28 19:00 - 20:00 | Abbott Room
Belfast Historical Society and Museum Presentation
Kevin Johnson, photo-archivist Penobscot Marine Museum, will present Peggy McKenna’s “unportraits,” photographs of artists and local celebrities living and working in the midcoast 1987 to 2002. With some time out working in New York City as a photographer, she spent most of her adult life photographing the life and people of Montville and Waldo County, working as staff photographer both for the Republican Journal (1980-83) and the Waldo Independent (1988-2002). This program is in conjunction with shows this summer at both the Penobscot Marine Museum and Waterfall Arts.
*Event limited to 75 attendees. Program will be recorded.

Tarot Deck Making Group for Teens
2024-10-23 15:30 - 17:00 | Conference Room
~ Teens 11-17, come be part of our tarot deck making group! You will choose your art style, and card fronts, and then start creation of your very own tarot deck! Tarot deck making takes a bit of time and we don’t want to rush it! This being said, Tarot Deck Group is an ongoing group!
Please come and try it out! You will find an inclusive group of teens who love making art and talking about tarot!!
Dates: October 23rd, November 5th
Time: 3:30 to 5:00
Location: The Conference Room of the Belfast Free Library

The Case for Local News in Our U.S. Democracy with Micaela Schweitzer-Bluhm
2024-10-22 18:30 - 20:00 | Abbott Room
Journalism is an integral part of democracy. Yet, newspapers across the U.S. have closed, including in Maine, which has lost more than 60% of newspaper jobs. Studies show that communities with no newspapers see lower voter participation and increased corruption.
The Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, celebrating its 15th year, was among the first nonprofit news organizations to buck this trend. The Center publishes The Maine Monitor and delivers high-quality, nonpartisan journalism to inform people in Maine. It makes that reporting free for anyone to access.
Learn how nonprofit news works and why it is the future of local news with Micaela Schweitzer-Bluhm the Executive Director of the nonprofit Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, which publishes The Maine Monitor. She came to MCPIR after serving as a U.S. Foreign Service Officer representing the United States around the world for 26 years.
This special presentation, co-sponsored by the Belfast Senior College and the Belfast Free Library, is FREE and open to the public. Register for the Zoom Option here

No One Told Me ~ Film Screening
2024-10-21 17:30 - 19:30 | Abbott Room
No One Told Me provides a raw and honest look at the postpartum period, a unique time in a woman’s life that is rarely captured in documentary film.
The purely observational footage of incredibly intimate moments shows the highs and lows encountered by parents Elise and Marc as they adapt to life with a baby.
Focusing on the new mother, the film shares the changes she faces during the first 10 weeks of motherhood.
Zulilah Merry, Documentary Filmmaker and Director & Producer of No One Told Me will take questions and lead a discussion after the film.

"Songs from Here" with Sarah Tuttle, pianist Bridget Convey, and guest poets
2024-10-19 15:00 - 17:00 | Gammans Room
We are thrilled to welcome for the first time to the Belfast Poetry Festival SONGS FROM HERE, a Maine-based initiative dedicated to the commission of new vocal works by composers born or based in Maine. The program, featuring Sarah Tuttle, pianist Bridget Convey, and guest poets, will include original compositions with poetry readings interspersed between groups of songs. The performance takes place on Saturday, October 19 at 3 pm in the Gammans Room at the Belfast Free Library
Following Songs from Here, the Gammans Room will host Jay Hanes and Eleanor Weisman for “Compress, Impulse, Express,” an original choreopoem based on John Dewey’s aesthetic process and motivated by climate destruction and the rise of fascism. The duo will also offer intermedial interpretations of works by Lawrence Ferlinghetti. To close the afternoon program, Mark S. Burrows, Willie Sordillo and Liz Kalloch present “Dancing the Orange,” an improvisational performance that begins with the poet Rainer Maria Rilke’s eccentric call in one of his Sonnets to Orpheus to “dance the orange”—and, as he goes on to suggest, to “establish kinship / with the pure, resisting rind, / with the juice that fills the happy fruit.” The trio will weave together a dialogue with poetry, saxophone, and movement.

Belfast Poetry Festival workshop: "Literary Litanies" with Doug Woodsum
2024-10-19 11:30 - 13:00 | Abbott Room
LITERARY LITANIES a workshop with Doug Woodsum
Poets have been writing litanies forever. Some people call them catalog poems. Anaphora is repetition of words or phrases in a group of poetic lines. The class begins with a brief discussion of classic litanies, then moves into brief warm-up writing exercises. Participants will craft a draft (or two) of their own litanies to share.

Free and open to all.
Douglas “Woody” Woodsum has taught at two universities and five public schools. He has published poetry in Yankee, Maine Times, The Café Review, Prairie Schooner, Antioch Review, English Journal, Off The Coast, Southern Review, Denver Quarterly, Exquisite Corpse, Massachusetts Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, Puckerbrush Review, New England Review and The Beloit Poetry Journal. His work is on-line at Poetry Daily and the educational website, www.fishousepoems.org. In 1995, he changed his focus from his own writing to teach English, first in rural Maine, then in extremely rural Maine. With his students, he has published twelve annual anthologies of oral history, folklore, and creative writing. His book The Lawns of Lobstermen is available from Moon Pie Press.
More information about the Belfast Poetry Festival here.

WRITING OUR OWN NARRATIVES: A panel on transgender ecology, ancestry, and legacy with t love smith and guests
2024-10-19 10:00 - 11:30 | Abbott Room
WRITING OUR OWN NARRATIVES: A panel on transgender ecology, ancestry, and legacy – with t love smith and guests

A Belfast Poetry Festival Event
What is the legacy of transgender history? Where can we find authentic representation and how can we authentically represent ourselves? This panel opens a space for transgender and non-binary poets to share their own perspectives and offer hope for recovering and amplifying transgender narratives.

t love

TWO WORLDS, ONE BREATH: A Haiku Workshop with Geoffrey Philp
2024-10-18 15:00 - 17:00 | Abbott Room
TWO WORLDS, ONE BREATH: A Haiku Workshop
with Geoffrey Philp
Explore the art of haiku in Belfast’s autumn landscape. Through discussions, outdoor experiences, and writing exercises, participants will learn about haiku’s history, aesthetics, and principles. We will practice mindful observation of the changing season and use haiku techniques to create meaningful poems reflecting our experiences.
Geoffrey Philp, a Silver Musgrave Medal recipient from Jamaica, is a versatile and accomplished author. His extensive work includes two short story collections, two novels, three children’s books, and eight poetry collections, with his latest, “Archipelagos,” published by Peepal Tree Press and longlisted for the Laurel Prize.
Free and open to all.
More information and the full schedule here
After the workshop join us for:

HAIKU DEATH MATCH!
with host Mattie Bamman and special guest appearance by The Exceptions
7:00 pm; Dreamland, The Colonial Theater
A fun, fast-paced spectator sport, featuring competing haikuists vying for the grand prize. The Exceptions (Kathryn Robyn, Lisa Leaverton, and Karin Spitfire), creative collaborators for nearly 50 years in poetry, cosmology, performance, and activism, will present a salty set of fun & cranky experimental retro-punk folk-jazz improv poetry, peppered with a good helping of audience participation.
More information here
