Maine College of Art

PANEL: Printers Without Margins: A Fellowship for Change
2018-10-20 18:00 - 20:00 (America/New_York) | SPEEDWELL, 630 Forest Avenue, Portland, ME, 04101, United States
Pickwick Independent Press is a community print shop in Portland, Maine that had the opportunity to give six activists a fellowship this year. Each Fellow was guided through the process of printing and distributing their own supporting materials. This panel will host and highlight these fellows as they talk about their activism, the printed matter they created at Pickwick and disseminated into their larger communities. Posters, Postcards, broadsides, books and apparel were created in service of youth advocacy, fighting sexploitation, immigration, communities of color, and de-stigmatizing addiction. Come to learn about the entire Printers Without Margins project and see the work made by these artist-activists.

Read the Bios of each fellow here.

Co-hosted by Pickwick Independent Press and Speedwell Gallery.

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PANEL: History of Immigration in Maine
2018-10-24 12:00 - 13:00 | Rhines Auditorium, Portland Public Library, 5 Monument Way, Portland, ME, 04101, United States
Held in conjunction with the exhibition Home: Reflections on Place, hosted by the Portland Public Library.
Join us for a panel discussion about the History of Immigration in Maine hosted by Portland Press Herald reporter, Megan Doyle. Panelists will talk about advocacy and programs to support Maine immigrants.
Panelists include:
Julia Trujillo, Director of the Office of Economic Opportunity, City of Portland
Tarlan Ahmadov, State Refugee Coordinator at Catholic Charities
TBA
Find more information at Portland Public Library.

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FILM: Family and Community
2018-10-24 18:00 - 20:00 | YWCA Central Maine, 130 East Ave., Lewiston, ME, 04240, United States
Screening of My American Girls by Aaron Matthews. Described by the Los Angeles Times as “packed with uncommon honesty and humor,” this intimate cinema-verite documentary captures the contradictions of contemporary immigrant life in America, showcasing the rewards and the costs of assimilation. Filmed over the course of a year, the film follows the family of Sandra and Bautista Ortiz, hardworking immigrants living frugally in a multi-family house in Brooklyn. From the Dominican Republic, they dream of retiring there, and actively save money to build a home among their Dominican friends and family there. Their three American-born daughters have other ideas altogether.
Part of Becoming American: A Documentary Film and Discussion Series on Our Immigration Experience. The Becoming American series is a three-month public program featuring documentary film screenings and moderated discussions designed to encourage an informed discussion of immigration issues against the backdrop of our immigration history.
Please register to attend here. Sponsored by Museum L-A.

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EXHIBITION: Out of the Fog: Retracing the Path to Greenland
2018-10-25 - 2018-12-14 | Maine Women Writers Collection, 716 Stevens Ave., Portland, ME, 04103, United States
Pairing Iceblink, a project by artist Carrie Scanga, with the archival source materials from Marie Peary Stafford’s papers that inspired Scanga’s work, this exhibit explores the personal and societal projections of spiritual aspirations onto the Arctic landscape. Stafford’s return to the land of her birth as an explorer in 1932 is documented in her journals and scrapbooks, the details of which inform Iceblink, work that follows Stafford’s gaze across the ice. During the opening, Cathleen Miller and Carrie Scanga will read passages from Stafford’s journal and related text to illuminate the prints and objects on display.
Opening reception Thursday, October 25 at 7pm.
Hosted by the Maine Women Writers Collection at University of New England, Portland Campus.
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Gallery Talk: Seeing Otherwise | Caroline Webb
2018-10-25 12:00 - 13:00 | Colby College Museum of Art, 5600 Mayflower Hill Drive, Waterville, ME, 04901, United States
Co-curator Caroline Webb will introduce visitors to the Seeing Otherwise exhibition at the Colby College Museum of Art. Featured work by Romare Bearden, Phong Bui, Lalla Essaydi, Whitfield Lovell, Meleko Mokgosi, Richard Mosse, Leo Rubinfien, Alfred Stieglitz, and Fred Wilson invites an novel view of displacement and reinvention, presence and absence, memory and identity.

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FILM+PANEL: There Is My Home
2018-10-25 13:00 - 15:00 | Payson Smith Hall, USM Portland Campus, 96 Falmouth St., Portland, ME, 04103, United States
There Is My Home features Hawa Ibrahim and Batula Ismail, two women trying to support their families as farmers in Maine. Born and raised in the Jubba River Valley of Somalia, both learned to farm at a young age from their parents. When civil war broke out in 1991, their villages were repeatedly raided for food. Thousands of friends, family and fellow villagers were brutally killed. Hawa and Batula fled and eventually reached safety in refugee camps in Kenya. In 2004, they were resettled in Dallas and Baltimore respectively. But they struggled to adapt to city life. In 2004 they learned of a place called Lewiston, Maine — a small northern city close to farmland. That's where this story begins.
Sponsored by the University of Southern Maine Food Studies Program.

Screening in room 303 Payson Smith Hall.
Panel discussion to follow.

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EXHIBITION: VR Pop-up: At the Periphery | Maine College of Art & Design
2018-10-25 17:00 - 19:00 | Maine College of Art & Design, 522 Congress Street, Portland, ME, 04101, United States
Virtual reality filmmaker Daniel Quintanilla, working with the Yarn Corporation,
will be in the gallery to share At the Periphery, a virtual experience that explores the often
paradoxical idea of "visibility" as it relates to the immigrant experience. In this virtual journey,
one is transported to spaces occupied temporarily or permanently by immigrant communities
in Maine: a seasonal blueberry camp, a community farm organized by refugees, a takeout
restaurant.
This event will be hosted in the Institute of Contemporary Art at MECA&D.

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Traces | VR Pop-up: At the Periphery #2 | @ MECA&D
2018-10-25 17:00 - 19:00 | ME

MUSIC: Wazo Daveed in Concert at Portland Public Library
2018-10-25 18:30 - 20:00 | Rhines Auditorium, Portland Public Library, 5 Monument Way, Portland, ME, 04101, United States
Wazo Daveed is A 19-year-old artist, musician, and youth advocate. Daveed spent his time building his art portfolio through the emerging arts community in Portland. Whether it’s through fashion, music, or visual arts, Daveed has been involved with it all, most significantly creating a youth art collective called Kesho Wazo. Kesho Wazo translates to “Tomorrow’s Ideas” in Swahili, and the focus of the collective is youth art, and creating a platform for young people by advancing youth through artistic expressions, individuality, and cultural experiences. Although his career as an artist is just getting started, Daveed has had the opportunity to open up for music legend and co founder of the Fugees Wyclef Jean this past summer at Aura. Wazo Daveed gave Ted Talk last fall 2017. Opening Acts TBA!!
Please join us for this FREE community concert headlining Wazo Daveed!
Find more information at Portland Public Library.

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EXHIBITION: Flight | Alison Hildreth
2018-10-26 - 2018-11-30 | SPEEDWELL, 630 Forest Avenue, Portland, ME, 04101, United States
Alison's sources are often derived from literature and history. In her current body of work she has been combining disparate ideas concerning migrations, refugees, medical drawings, astronomy, architectural traces, and more. Visual representations of these interests appear as a shape shifting progression where one image morphs into another, changes but still holds the prior imprint.
Opening reception for Flight October 26, 6-8 pm at Speedwell Gallery.

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MUSIC + POETRY: The Power of We: Celebrating the Opening of the GPIWC Digital Language Lab & Fourth Floor Expansion
2018-10-26 17:00 - 19:00 | Greater Portland Immigrant Welcome Center, 24 Preble St. 4th Floor, Portland, ME, 04101, United States
The Greater Portland Immigrant Welcome Center believes in the Power of We. By working together, we can make great things happen. It is in this spirit that the Center showcases its expansion and launch of English language programming with an evening of music, art and conversation. Representatives from the business, non-profit and political sectors will participate in a ribbon cutting officially opening the new space which houses the highly anticipated digital language lab.

Musicians from Palaver Strings will collaborate with Portland based Iraqi immigrants, Kifah Abdulla and Jawad Al-Fatlawi, to showcase the experiences of Iraqi immigrants in Maine. Kifah Abdulla, a poet and artist will share his personal narrative through spoken word, and Jawad Al-Fatlawi, an oud player, composer, and oud maker, will present his story through music. Palaver musicians will support the two performances with new arrangements of Iraqi songs and improvisational accompaniment. At a time when immigration policy is at the forefront of our national politics, Palaver Strings humanizes the conversation by providing an artistic platform for the stories of immigrants in Maine, emphasizing the uniqueness of each person’s journey as well as the connections and commonalities we all share.

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LECTURE: Fierce Compassion, Well-Being, and the Reclamation of our Shared Humanity | Dr. Kamilah Majied
2018-10-26 17:30 - 19:30 | USM Glickman Library, University Events Room, 7th floor, 314 Forest Ave., Portland, ME, 04103, United States
The Bertha Crosley Ball Center for Compassion hosts a public lecture by Dr. Kamilah Majied, Howard University, Department of Social Work.
This colloquy will offer participants the opportunity to learn about and practice cultivating fierce compassion through contemplative practice. The goal is to develop sustainability in our efforts to ground our day to day to day perceptions and actions as well as institutions such the academy, health and human services and social justice organizations in an enlightened vision of our shared humanity. We will reflect on the meaning of world citizenship and examine how U.S. imperialism and racism compromise our capacity to welcome people and be welcomed everywhere in the world.

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EXHIBITION: Peter Turnley: Refugees | Bates College Museum of Art
2018-10-27 10:00 - 2019-03-23 17:00 | Olin Arts Center, Bates College, 75 Russell St., Lewiston, ME, 04240, United States
Peter Turnley (American, b. 1955) is a photojournalist known for documenting the human condition and current events. Over the last thirty years, Turnley has photographed some of the world’s most significant conflicts including the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the 2003 war in Iraq. This exhibition, which is drawn from the permanent collection, focuses on one of his ongoing subjects: refugee populations around the world. Turnley’s work draws attention to the suffering and injustices that exist while also highlighting moments of inspiration and beauty. His photographs have been featured in photo essay form and as cover images in numerous publications around the world including Newsweek, The London Sunday Times, Le Monde, and National Geographic.
Curatorial assistance by Museum Intern Emerson Krull ’19
For more information about the exhibition, visit Bates College Museum of Art.

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MUSIC: Hiroya Tsukamoto
2018-10-27 19:30 - 21:30 | Mayo Street Arts, 10 Mayo Street, Portland, ME, 04101, United States
Hiroya Tsukamoto is a one of a kind composer, guitarist and singer-songwriter from Kyoto, Japan. Hiroya takes you on an innovative, impressionistic journey filled with earthy, organic soundscapes that impart a mood of peace and tranquility. Tickets available here.

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PANEL: Welcoming the Stranger in Maine and in the Jewish Culture
2018-10-28 16:00 - 18:00 | Maine Jewish Museum, 267 Congress Street, Portland, ME, 04101, United States
The discussion will relate to the history of Jews welcoming the stranger, giving refuge to immigrants as an act of love. The topic will be: "Why give refuge? Why is welcoming the stranger a time honored practice, and what are the costs and benefits?" The panel discussion will be followed by a reception.
Hosted by the Maine Jewish Museum.

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THEATER: Refuge Malja ملجأ
2018-10-30 - 2018-11-17 | Portland Stage, 25 Forest Ave., Portland, ME, 04101, United States
When a Jewish-American war photographer feels compelled to assist a young refugee who steps in front her camera, she calls an old friend to translate but hesitates to reveal why she is so drawn to the boy. This poetic, decade-spanning drama explores how we each define and find our own malja (refuge). Written by Bess Welden, with Arabic translations by Ali Al Mshakheel. Directed by Kareem Fahmy.
Click here to purchase tickets.

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Migrations: Poetry at SPACE
2018-10-30 18:30 - 20:30 | SPACE Gallery, 538 Congress St., Portland, ME, 04103, United States
A diverse collection of poets who live in Maine read and perform work that tracks the traces, paths, and pathways of various kinds of migration. All of the participating poets have been featured in Deep Water, a weekly poetry column in the Maine Sunday Telegram.
Hosted by SPACE. Doors open at 6:30, event begins at 7. $5-$10 donation suggested.
Participating poets include:
o Kifah Abdulla, who is poet, visual artist, and teacher and was a prisoner of war in Iran for more than eight years;o Linda Aldrich, Portland’s newest Poet Laureate;o Samaa Abdurraqib, who, among many community projects, works with the For Us, By Us Fund, which builds capacity for people of color in Maine;o Colin Cheney, who teaches at the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies at the Maine College of Art & Design and co-hosts the podcast Poet in Bangkok;o LaLa Drew, who runs a poetry night for Queer and Femme People of Color and writes for Black Girl in Maine and the Phoenix;o Dawn Potter, who directs the Frost Place Conference on Poetry and Teaching and is the author of eight books of prose and poetry;o and Lee Sharkey, who is the author of eleven books of poems and whose work has won many awards.

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LECTURE: Piro Rexhepi | Colby College
2018-10-30 19:00 - 20:00 | Diamond 343, Colby College, 4000 Mayflower Hill, Waterville, ME, 04901, United States
Piro Rexhepi | Geopolitical Whiteness: Euro-Atlantic Integration and the Postsocialist Assembling of Race and Sexuality to Control Migration in the Balkans
As the final integration of the Western Balkans into the EU and NATO security structures completes the legal and political infrastructure of sealing the Euro-Atlantic geopolitical borders along the Balkans Refugee Route, overlapping national and post-national governing processes have normalized racialized border regimes, where the separation of post-socialist ‘Balkans’ from the post-colonial ‘Middle East’ has come to influence new everyday politics and infrastructures of life. Geopolitical Whiteness examines the post-socialist recalibration of European colonial race-making in the contemporary Euro-Atlantic bordering processes in the Balkans. Moving beyond the presentist critique of post-socialist neoliberalism in Cold War Area Studies epistemic infrastructures, it provides an interdisciplinary analysis of the ways in which Euro-Atlantic integration of the post-socialist peripheries has revitalized and redesigned a longer European commitment of racialized imperial statecraft at its eastern and southeastern geopolitical borders. Focusing on the Balkans as a locale of multiple and overlapping territorial regimes and as an object of global governance, I look at the mobilization of memory, migration, race, gender and sexuality in the sealing of the Balkan refugee passage and the simultaneous deployment of that process towards the racial rearticulation of the Balkans as Euro-Atlantic geography.
Piro Rexhepi holds a PhD in Politics from the University of Strathclyde and has held research fellowships at the Centre for Southeast European Studies at University of Graz, the Center for Advanced Studies of Southeastern Europe at the University of Rijeka, and teaching positions at the State University of New York, City University of New York and New York University. His research focuses on the politics of religion, sexuality and coloniality in international relations, with a particular focus on the relationship between the Balkans and the Middle East. Previously, his work has examined the intersection of EU enlargement politics with sexual rights, exploring the production of Islamophobia in Muslim-majority countries in the Balkans. His research at MPI-MMG interrogated the ways in which the politics of preservation in Sarajevo and Salonika fuel urban renewal, gentrification, and Europeanization, having drastic effects on the lives of migrant and marginalized urban communities.

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Julia Maria Künnap: Windgate Visiting Artist Lecture
2018-11-01 12:00 - 13:00 | Osher Hall, Maine College of Art & Design, 2nd Floor, 522 Congress St., Portland, ME, 04101, United States
Julia Maria Künnap: Windgate Visiting Artist Lecture
Thursday November 1, 2018. 12–1pm
Porteous Building, Osher Hall, Second Floor
Julia Maria Künnap graduated in 2004 from the Estonian Academy of Arts, Jewellery Art Department under Prof Kadri Mälk. Before this she studied at Konstfack, Stockholm and in 2006 was the Artist in Residence at Alchimia School of Contemporary Jewellery in Florence. She has exhibited in various group exhibitions throughout Europe and in 2013 presented her first solo exhibition in the Emerging Artist Platform at Sienna Patti.

I am inspired by imperfection. It is a strong source of motivation. If I see a perfect thing—an artwork, a poem—I just breathe in and breathe out. It just comes and then goes. But if I see something that irritates me, I start analyzing. Why am I irritated? Why isn’t it perfect? Where is the ‘mistake’ made? Usually, once I have deconstructed the whole piece in my mind, I already have so many good ideas. In the end, these ideas don’t have much to do with the source of inspiration.
Read interview between Aaron Decker '12 and Julia Maria Künnap at Art Jewelry Forum

Funded through the generous support of the Windgate Charitable Foundation.
Header Photography: Courtesy of the artist

RECEPTION: Open Studios at Monson Arts Center
2018-11-01 15:00 - 17:00 | Monson Arts Center, N Main St., Monson, ME, 04464, United States
Stop by the Monson Arts Center from 3-5PM to see what’s been happening in the studios during the October residency session. Making Migration Visible: Traces, Tracks & Pathways featured artist Maria Patricia Tinajero will be a resident artist at the Center, and will be on site showcasing work produced during her residency.

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Eric Gottesman: Visiting Artist Lecture
2018-11-01 18:00 - 19:00 | Osher Hall, Maine College of Art & Design, 2nd Floor, 522 Congress St., Portland, ME, 04101, United States
Eric Gottesman: Visiting Artist Lecture
Thursday, November 1, 2018; 6–7pm
Porteous Building, Osher Hall, Second Floor
Free and open to the public
Eric Gottesman, For Freedoms Super PAC
Eric Gottesman is a photographic artist, teacher, and activist. Since 1999 he has been working in and around the Middle East and Africa collaborating with communities to produce photographs and videos that often challenge preexisting images and perceptions of a culture and/or place as well as the concept of singular artistic authorship.
His current collaborative project For Freedoms, is the first artist-run Super PAC. Starting in January 2016 with Gottesman’s co-founder Hank Willis Thomas to encourage new forms of public critical discourse. The medium for this project is American democracy, the "readymade" is the Super PAC (a federal designation for organizations that raise money for "political speech"), and the mission is to forge more transparent and representative forms of political discourse.

EXHIBITION: A Nation of Immigrants: Home Lost, Home Found
2018-11-02 - 2018-11-24 | Harlow Gallery, 100 Water Street, Hallowell, ME, 04347, United States
This is a raw and fraught time in the world as we struggle to respond to the fact that 65 million people have been displaced from their homes. What is the experience of those newly arrived and those who may have come long ago? What has been gained, what has been lost? What does it mean to be a “Nation of Immigrants”?
Opening reception (potluck! Please bring a dish or beverage to share) November 2nd, 5-7 pm.

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Traces | SYMPOSIUM: Art + Politics | @ MECA&D
2018-11-02 09:30 - 17:30 | Maine College of Art & Design, 522 Congress Street, Portland, ME, 04101, United States

SYMPOSIUM: Art + Politics | Maine College of Art & Design
2018-11-02 10:00 - 19:00 | Maine College of Art & Design, 522 Congress Street, Portland, ME, 04101, United States
Leaders in the art community will speak on the role of art in cultivating spaces for civic engagement on controversial topics and sparking social change. Break-out groups led by local experts will explore specific topics, ranging from Wabanaki perspectives on mobilities, borders, and sustainability to artists's political action. The symposium culminates in a keynote address and a closing reception. Registration is free. Due to limited seating, please complete the RSVP Form found on the Symposium Website.

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CONVERSATION: Positive Proof: Contributions from our Immigrant Community
2018-11-03 17:30 - 19:00 | Portland Stage, 25 Forest Ave., Portland, ME, 04101, United States
A discussion with members of the immigrant community from entrepreneurs to teachers. Following the 4pm matinee of Refuge Malja ملجأ at Portland Stage.

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CONVERSATION: Children of War: The Young Refugee Experience
2018-11-04 15:30 - 17:00 | Portland Stage, 25 Forest Ave., Portland, ME, 04101, United States
Artistic Perspective discussion following the 2pm matinee of Refuge Malja ملجأ at Portland Stage inviting immigrant community members to talk about what they left behind.

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FILM: El Mar La Mar
2018-11-04 18:30 - 20:30 | SPACE Gallery, 538 Congress St., Portland, ME, 04103, United States
An immersive and enthralling journey through the Sonoran Desert on the U.S.-Mexico border, EL MAR LA MAR weaves together harrowing oral histories from the area with hand-processed 16mm images of flora, fauna and items left behind by travelers. Emerging from the ethos of Harvard's Sensory Ethnography Lab, J.P. Sniadecki's attentive documentary approach mixes perfectly with Joshua Bonnetta's meditations on the materiality of film.
Screening begins at 7, doors open at 6:30. For more information contact Jon Courtney at jon@space538.org
www.space538.org/events/el-mar-la-mar

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LECTURE: The Immigration Debate in Maine | Catherine Besteman
2018-11-05 17:00 - 19:00 | Center for Global Humanities, UNE Portland Campus, 716 Stevens Ave., Portland, ME, 04103, United States
The Center for Global Humanities at the University of New England will be hosting Anthropologist and Colby College Professor Catherine Besteman who will be speaking on the immigration debate in Maine. Reception at 5 pm in the UNE Art Gallery, followed by the lecture at 6 pm in the WCHP Lecture Hall in Parker Pavilion.

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POETRY: Reading by Chen Chen
2018-11-07 17:00 - 18:30 | Miller Library, Colby College, 5100 Mayflower Hill Dr, Waterville, ME, 04901, United States
Chen Chen is the author of When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities, which was longlisted for the National Book Award and won the A. Poulin, Jr. Poetry Prize, the GLCA New Writers Award, and the Thom Gunn Award for Gay Poetry. His work appears in many publications, including Poetry, Tin House, The New York Times Magazine, The Best American Poetry, and The Best American Nonrequired Reading. He is the 2018-2020 Jacob Ziskind Poet-in-Residence at Brandeis University. He lives with his partner and their pug dog, Mr. Rupert Giles.
Part of the Colby College Visiting Writers Series. Chen appears as the Kristina Stahl Writer-in-Residence.

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PANEL: IXNOS Artists Discussion
2018-11-07 17:30 - 19:00 | USM Glickman Library, Room 423/4, 314 Forest Ave., Portland, ME, 04101, United States
IXNOS (which means “trace” in Greek) will focus on Lesvos, one of the most significant locations involved in the current worldwide movement of migrants and refugees. This year Portland celebrates its 15 year anniversary of its sister-city relationship with Mytilene, Lesvos. The island is also a major world center for bird migration. The exhibit will consist of photographs, art work, portfolio books, texts and artifacts relating to these paths of migration through the island. In addition to work by Allen-Efstathiou and Snell, featured will be photographs by Michael Honegger of Nice, France; maps by Dr. Irwin Novak, plus work by Jeff and Lydia Badger, and members of the Peregrine Press -- Jessyca Broekman, Kate Chappell, Delphine Sherin, Kit Browne Pike, Susan Amons, Debbie Schmitt, Kate Katomski and others.
Hosted by the Hellenic Society of Maine with support from Peregrine Press.
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