Beflast Free Library

Compassionate Witness: Our Responsibility to Destruction and Erasure - Loren McGrail
2025-11-07 15:00 - 17:00 (America/New_York) | Kramer Gallery
Join Loren McGrail in the Kramer Gallery on Fridays from 3:00-5:00pm to learn more about the exhibit,

STEAM Team
2025-11-06 15:30 - 17:00, 2025-10-02 15:30 - 17:00 | Abbott Room
STEAM Team Youth Community Science Explorers Group is a monthly program focused on exploration of climate change.
Do you have a budding entrepreneur or scientist? 4-H Equips youth with skills for the future while meeting them where they are today. We offer opportunities and experiences that shape youth into their full, authentic selves, enabling them to shine both now and in the future.
This year, we will dig into Maine agricultural businesses, from blueberries, maple sugaring, and potatoes to working waterfronts and Agri-tourism and see how they face challenges brought on by the changing world around us.
Youth ages 7-12 are invited to join this partnership between the University of Maine’s 4-H program in Waldo County and the Belfast Free Library. Participants will engage in hands-on activities, create connections with peers, and meet scientists and staff from the University of Maine and other Maine organizations that support Maine business growth.
Registration is Required. Link found below.
For more information or to register, visit the program’s website (https://extension.umaine.edu/waldo/4h/community-science-explorers/) or contact the Belfast Free Library. To request a reasonable accommodation, contact Karen Giles, karen.giles@maine.edu (207) 342-5971

Dates: First Thursday of the Month, October 2025 – May 2026
Time: 3:30pm – 5:00pm
Location: The Abbott Room of the Belfast Free Library

South Africa slide talk with Cloe Chunn
2025-11-03 16:00 - 17:30 | Abbott Room
On Monday afternoon, Nov. 3, 4:00-5:30, in the Abbott Room, local resident Cloe Chunn will show slides and tell us about her recent 3-week trip to South Africa and Mauritius. Contrary to her effort at giving up air travel, she went with her son and saw what is in his opinion a country doing much better than ours at recovering from racial and gender conflict. It has other lessons to teach us, too: diversity in geology, biology, cultures, and origins.
Register for the Zoom option here.

Scary Storytelling
2025-10-29 18:00 - 19:00 | Abbott Room
For older school age children and teens who are able to listen well and love scary stories.
Not for the Faint of Heart!
Scary stories told by Youth Services Librarian Stephanie Holman.

Date: Wednesday, October 29th
Time: 6:00pm – 7:00pm
Location: The Abbott Room of the Belfast Free Library

Book Release: "When Mist and Brine Touch" by Isabel Tutaine
2025-10-28 18:30 - 20:00 | Abbott Room
Celebrate the release of Isabel Tutaine’s new novel, When Mist and Brine Touch, from Golden Bridges Publishing with a talk titled “How Many Lies are in One Fiction—The Nature of Truth in Fiction” during which the author administers a test to help you determine whether you are:

The captain of a cargo ship
A useless socialite
A pirate
All of the above
Someone looking for a good book to read

Belfast Historical Society Presentation
2025-10-27 19:00 - 20:00 | Abbott Room
“Packed Like a Can of Sardines” will be the topic of the Belfast Historical Society’s meeting at 7:00 pm, October 27, in the Abbott Room at the Belfast Free Library. Kevin Johnson, Photo archivist at the Penobscot Marine Museum, will present his program illuminating how the sardine industry supported Maine coastal communities for well over a century. The workforce in canneries included thousands of women, even more than the number of men fishing for herring. This industry was a part of the economic, cultural, and social fabric of families and communities all along our state’s coast. The Penobscot Marine Museum will be celebrating this industry in their Welcome to Sardine Land exhibit and photo archivist Kevin Johnson will cast a net into PMM’s photo archives and share many fishy photos and the stories behind them in his presentation.
More info at belfastmuseum.org

Speaker Series: Climate Resilience: What's Going on in our Communities
2025-10-21 18:30 - 20:00 | Abbott Room
The second talk in the series:
What’s Going on in our Fishing Communities
Clea Harrelson, UMaine Anthropology PhD student will discuss her research on how communities connected to the lobster fishery are navigating social & environmental changes and potential paths forward for resilience.
This speaker series is presented by member organizations of the Waldo County Climate Action Coalition (WCCAC). Programs will take place in the Abbott Room with a Zoom Option.
Register for the Zoom link here
About the speaker:
Clea Harrelson is a PhD student in Anthropology and Environmental Policy at the University of Maine. She is from Tennessee and received her Bachelor’s degree from Colby College and her Master’s degree in Marine Affairs from the University of Rhode Island. Clea has broad experience in social science and science policy through work as a contractor for NOAA’s Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary and her time as a Knauss Marine Policy Fellow and Science Assistant at the National Science Foundation. Her research focuses on social resilience in the American lobster fishery across Maine and Canada and the ways in which resilience is defined in the context of the Anthropocene.

Our Immigrant Neighbors
2025-10-20 18:30 - 20:00 | Abbott Room

The Belfast Poetry Festival
2025-10-17 10:00 - 16:00 | Abbott Room
The Belfast Free Library is a community partner and venue for the Belfast Poetry Festival, celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2025.
Workshops at the library begin Friday October 17th, 10:00am
“Exploring The Monstrous” with Michelle Menting, 10:00
“A poetry Workshop for Everyone” with Pamela Alexander, 2:00 pm
” Turning Edna Golden: Exploring Millay & Hayes” with Judy Kaber, 2:00 pm
On Friday October 17th at 7:00pm the second annual Haiku Death Match with host Mattie John Bamman at the Colonial Theater, 163 High Street in Belfast. This tournament-style live haiku showdown was a big hit last year, don’t miss it!
Audience participation determines both the prompts for the haikus and the winner of each head-to-head battle. The last competitor to remain standing will be declared the Haiku Master, and prizes and celebration will ensue! The doors open at 6:30 pm for this free event which starts at 7:00pm. More information at belfastpoetryfestival.com
An exhibit of festival artist Peter Walls will be in the Kramer Gallery and the Abbott Room for the month of October.
Join us Saturday October 18th at 10:30 for a workshop “Ekphrastic Explorations” with Ann Van Buren.
This workshop will take place at the Kramer Gallery at the Belfast Public Library, using Peter Walls’s exhibit and installations as springboards for writing.

Diamond Art
2025-10-16 15:00 - 16:00 | Conference Room
Teens can join in and make their own diamond art coasters! Bedazzle tiny, shiny gems onto a pre-printed pattern in this relaxing, go-at-your-own-pace craft. All supplies needed will be provided.
For ages 11-17
Date: Thursday, October 16
Time: 3:00pm – 4:00pm
Location: 3rd Floor Conference Room at the Belfast Free Library

Genealogy group meeting: More aMazing Munyons
2025-10-15 14:00 - 15:30 | Abbott Room
During a prior presentation, Rick Davis shared the stories of James Munroe Munyon, the patent medicine mogul, and Curtiss Munyan, who was on a submarine mission involving the Japanese Navy’s war plan during World War II. Over the course of his research for his book, A Genealogy of the Munyon/Lamunyon Family in America, he found information on many other amazing Munyons. On October 15th, he will present short sketches of four “More aMazing Munyons,” and also demonstrate why genealogists should include FamilySearch.org’s Digital Library in their own research.
All are welcome! This is a hybrid meeting, 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.

Closed for Indigenous People's Day
2025-10-13

Opening Reception for "Enchant ME" - Peter Walls
2025-10-09 18:00 - 19:30 | Kramer Gallery
Enchant ME: The Art of Peter Walls
The Belfast Poetry Festival announces an exhibit celebrating the work of our Festival Artist, Peter Walls, will be on display throughout the month of October in the Kramer Gallery and in the Abbott Room, both located on the ground floor of the Belfast Free Library.
All are invited to the opening reception for “Enchant Me: The Art of Peter Walls” Thursday October 9, 6- 7:30 pm in the Kramer Gallery.
The exhibit, “Enchant ME” includes works from several of his series—Something The Birds Told Me is an ongoing conversation with the Maine birds. Time Amongst Trees are three tondo paintings from an installation in 2023 at The Parsonage Gallery in Searsport, Maine. The shaped landscape paintings are from Peter’s most recent exhibition, Memory Palace, at The Zillman Art Museum in Bangor, Maine, and in the Abbott Room are a few works from Peter’s Penobscot collection which focuses on the Penobscot watershed.
Peter is a renowned muralist and studio Artist living and working in Stockton Springs, Maine with his artist wife Allegra Kuhn. He has been a practicing studio Artist for over 30 years and his paintings can be seen regularly in many Maine venues. Peter is also currently Public Art Liaison for Waterfall Arts in Belfast, Maine and works with Bangor Beautiful regularly where he mentors, teaches, and encourages Public Art making throughout Maine. He recently completed his first solo museum exhibition at the Zillman Art Museum in Bangor and his work can be experienced at Blue Raven Gallery in Rockland, Maine. To learn more about Peter, visit www.peterwallsstudio.com.
For more information and the full schedule of the Belfast Poetry Festival visit www.belfastpoetryfestival.com.

Music Together
2025-10-06 10:00 - 11:00 | Abbott Room
~Singing, Dancing and Jamming for children and their families!
A free monthly sample of the Music Together series. Sponsored by the Belfast Free Library.
For ages Birth – 5.

Date: First Monday of every Month, September 2025 – June 2026
Time: 10:00am – 10:45am
Location: The Abbott Room of the Belfast Free Library
