Beflast Free Library

Food Waste and Climate Change: What is the Connection? with Susanne Lee
2024-10-15 18:30 - 20:00 (America/New_York) | Abbott Room
In the U.S. and Maine, 40% of the food that we produce is never eaten – wasting the money, energy, and other valuable resources that are used to produce that food. The results are rising food costs, hunger and nutrition issues, and environmental damage. The good news is that there are simple and effective food waste actions that can be taken to end this problem.
Join Susanne Lee as she shares these solutions to help reduce food waste in your home and community. She will also highlight Food Rescue MAINE’s food waste research projects where her team works with community and business partners to implement these solutions.
Susanne Lee is a faculty fellow with the Senator George J. Mitchell Center for Sustainability Solutions at the University of Maine. Susanne’s career as an entrepreneurial business executive saw her successfully creating, launching and operating multi-million-dollar consumer products brands and businesses with Fortune 100 companies as well as lean start-ups. She joined the Mitchell Center in fall 2021 where she leads a team working directly with state, business, and community stakeholders as well as national and global food waste experts to develop solutions to end food waste in Maine.
Register for the Zoom link here.

This program is part of the “Finding Hope In Our Climate Crisis : A lecture series on Climate Change Solutions” brought to you in cooperation with the Waldo County Climate Action Coalition, The UU Church Climate Action Team and the Belfast Free Library.

Genealogy group meeting
2024-10-16 14:00 - 16:00 | Abbott Room
Monthly meeting of the Wawenoc Chapter of the Maine Genealogical Society.
All are welcome! These meetings are now in a hybrid format with the option to join in-person in the Abbott Room or to join online over Zoom. To receive the Zoom link or for more information, please email Sharon Pietryka at spietryka@belfastlibrary.org.

Knit2Together
2024-10-16 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.

Peace & Justice Group of Waldo County Fall Forum
2024-10-16 18:00 - 20:00 | Abbott Room
Peace & Justice Group of Waldo County Fall Forum to show the film Where Olive Trees Weep
Filmed in 2022 in the West Bank, the film follows both Palestinian and Israeli journalists, healers and activists as it offers a glimpse into life under occupation and the commitment to freedom of the Palestinian people.
From the producers of the film: “Our interconnectedness compels us to bear witness, to speak out, to act in the face of injustice….And in the midst of this struggle, let us remember to keep finding beauty in the midst of grief…” Join us
~FMI: peace.and.justice.waldo@gmail.com

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

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

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.

"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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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
