Traces | Exhibition: VR Pop-up: At the Periphery | @ MECA&D
2018-10-11 18:00 - 19:00 (America/New_York) | Maine College of Art & Design, 522 Congress Street, Portland, ME, 04101, United States
Virtual reality filmmakers Daniel Quintanilla and UnitedYES, 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.

CONVERSATION: "What do I do?" Strategies for Bystanders Workshop
2018-10-11 18:30 - 20:00 | Auburn Public Library, 49 Spring St., Auburn, ME, 04210, United States
Co-hosted by Museum L-A and Green Dot L/A.
Green Dot L/A partners with a nationally recognized violence and harassment prevention program to offer bystander trainings, at no cost, to local organizations and groups. Presentations can range from short introductions to longer skill-building trainings, each tailored to the groups needs. We have all felt it...that impulse to act to protect someone nearby from a harmful act or words, but may not have known what to do. Join us for a look at how anyone can make their community a little safer by discouraging violence in flexible, practical ways. Limited capacity, please register to attend here.
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EXHIBITION: Freeing the Captive: The Work of Kifah Abdullah
2018-10-11 19:00 - 21:00 | Beth Israel Congregation, 291 Main St., Waterville, ME, 04903, United States
Painting by Kifah Abdullah

Come for an opening at 5 pm to see the work of Kifah Abdullah displayed at Beth Israel Congregation, and a night of poetry, song, and dance.

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EXHIBITION: New Mainers
2018-10-12 - 2018-11-04 | Ocean House Gallery, 299 Ocean Road, Cape Elizabeth, ME, United States
Photographs by Jan Pieter van Voorst from New Mainers: The Portrait of Our Immigrant Neighbors by Pat Nyhan andJan Pieter van Voorst, with a foreword by Reza Jalali. Hosted by Ocean House Gallery.
Opening reception Friday, October 12th, 5-7pm.
Photograph by Jan Pieter van Voorst

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EXHIBITION: Barça/Barzak: The immigrant's hope | Papa Mendy
2018-10-13 - 2018-10-18 | SPEEDWELL, 630 Forest Avenue, Portland, ME, 04101, United States
Hosted by SPEEDWELL Projects, Barça/Barzak is a pop up shop featuring furniture by Senegalese artist Papa Mendy in conjunction with Making Migration Visible: Traces, Tracks, and Pathways. Each piece is handcrafted and made one-of-a-kind from repurposed wood sourced from traditional West African boats.

The canoe is legendary.
Noah used it to save humanity.
Westerners used it for four centuries for the slave trade.
My African brothers use it for clandestine immigration to the West.
Me I turn it into furniture as a sign of hope.

La pirogue est légendaire.
Noé s’en est servi pour sauver l’humanité.
Les occidentaux s’en sont servis quatre siècle durant pour les besoins de la traite négrière.
Mes frères africains s’en servent pour immigrés clandestinement vers l’occident.
Moi je la transforme en meubles en signe d’espoir.
- Papa Mendy

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October Open House: MFA + MAT Admissions
2018-10-13 10:00 - 14:30 | Maine College of Art & Design, First Floor, 522 Congress St., Portland, ME, 04101, United States
Visit MECA&D for an Open House!
Come see first-hand why students are choosing to study in MECA&D's close-knit community and rigorous artistic programs. At an Open House, you'll have a chance to:
+ Get to know faculty and current students
+ Take a tour of our studios and res halls
+ Have your portfolio reviewed with professional artists
+ Explore the vibrant art scene in downtown Portland, Maine
This Open House is specifically designed for students interested in our MFA and MAT programs — each program will have a separate track. We'll send you more information within 48 hours of registration.
Sign up below!
If you have any questions about our Open Houses, you can contact us at admissions@meca.edu or 207.699.5026.

EXHIBITION: VR Pop-up: A Shared Space | Lewiston | Daniel Quintanilla + UnitedYES
2018-10-13 13:00 - 16:00 | Center for Maine Contemporary Art, 21 Winter St., Rockland, ME, 04841, United States
A Shared Space | Lewiston by Daniel Quintanilla, Shuab Ahmed Mahat, and Hilowle Aden is a pop-up immersive 360° virtual reality experience inviting all of us to ask questions about the physical and social spaces we inhabit and what we lose when we are out of contact with one another. A Shared Space tells the story of friends Hilowle and Shuab, who grew up in Dadaab, Kenya– the largest refugee camp in the world. Today, both have started families and call Lewiston, Maine home. Raising children in the country’s least diverse state in the wake of Trump’s Muslim Ban and rising nationalist sentiments has created challenges neither expected. Hosted in Rockland at the Center for Maine Contemporary Art.

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FOOD: Community Garden Potluck
2018-10-13 16:00 - 18:00 | Boyd Street Urban Farm, 5 Boyd Street, Portland, ME, 04101, United States
Please join Sister Makings & Cultivating Community for a community potluck in one of the most creative and diverse growing spaces in Portland. All are welcome, please bring a dish that you love, or from your cultural heritage to share. Sister Makings seeks to co-create sanctuary that promotes equitably shared learning experiences, we co-create space for local and new neighbor sisters and their families to gather regularly around conversation, food, service, and craft.

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RECEPTION: Barça/Barzak: The immigrant's hope | Papa Mendy
2018-10-13 18:00 - 20:00 | SPEEDWELL, 630 Forest Avenue, Portland, ME, 04101, United States
Barça/Barzak: The immigrant's hope | Papa Mendy
Exhibition On View: October 13 - 21, 2018
Opening Reception: Saturday, October 13, 6-8PM
Hosted by SPEEDWELL Projects, Barça/Barzak is a pop up shop featuring furniture by Senegalese artist Papa Mendy in conjunction with Making Migration Visible: Traces, Tracks, and Pathways. Each piece is handcrafted and made one-of-a-kind from repurposed wood sourced from traditional West African boats.

The canoe is legendary.
Noah used it to save humanity.
Westerners used it for four centuries for the slave trade.
My African brothers use it for clandestine immigration to the West.
Me I turn it into furniture as a sign of hope.

La pirogue est légendaire.
Noé s’en est servi pour sauver l’humanité.
Les occidentaux s’en sont servis quatre siècle durant pour les besoins de la traite négrière.
Mes frères africains s’en servent pour immigrés clandestinement vers l’occident.
Moi je la transforme en meubles en signe d’espoir.
- Papa Mendy

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MUSIC: Okbari Middle Eastern Ensemble
2018-10-13 19:30 - 21:30 | Mayo Street Arts, 10 Mayo Street, Portland, ME, 04101, United States
The Okbari Middle Eastern Ensemble presents music from the richly varied contemporary and historic cultural traditions of the Middle East including Ottoman Turkish Classical compositions, rural Turkish folk and devotional songs, Arabic classical and folk music, and dance music from the Armenian and Turkish immigrant diasporas. Tickets are available here.

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EXHIBITION: Seeing Otherwise
2018-10-16 - 2018-11-03 | Colby College Museum of Art, 5600 Mayflower Hill Drive, Waterville, ME, 04901, United States
Exhibition that confronts and explores representations of mobility in art. Curated by Catherine Besteman, Chloé Powers, and Caroline Webb.

Featuring work by: Romare Bearden, Phong Bui, Lalla Essaydi, Whitfield Lovell, Meleko Mokgosi, Richard Mosse, Fred Wilson, Leo Rubinfien, and Alfred Stieglitz.
Gallery talk by co-curator Caroline Webb at 12 noon on Thursday, October 25th in the Landay Teaching Alcove.

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CONVERSATION: Page to Stage at the Portland Public Library
2018-10-16 12:00 - 13:00 | Rhines Auditorium, Portland Public Library, 5 Monument Way, Portland, ME, 04101, United States
A brown bag lunch and discussion of the themes and ideas addressed in Refuge Malja ملجأ, moderated by Portland Stage. Page to Stage is a discussion series run like a book group and hosted in collaboration between the Portland Public Library and Portland Stage. Scripts will be available to read prior to the discussion, contact Raminta Moore at moore@portlandpubliclibrary.org or for more information, tbackus@portlandstage.org.

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FILM: Help Wanted? Immigration and Work
2018-10-16 18:00 - 20:00 | Museum L-A, 35 Canal St., Lewiston, ME, 04240, United States
Screening of Destination America Episode 1: The Golden Door by Stephen Stept and David Grubin. In this first episode from the acclaimed four-part series on immigration, historians Donna Gabaccia and Janet Nolan, among others, provide a historical context for America’s longstanding and sometimes conflicted relationship with immigrant labor. Reflecting that “once, there was no such thing as an illegal immigrant. If you could get here, you could stay,” Prof. Gabaccia notes that, from the start of U.S. history, immigrants were recognized as necessary to the country’s economic growth. The film focuses on three groups’ histories of immigration to America, looking at their reasons for emigrating, where they settled, and what kinds of work they contributed.
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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READING: Refuge Malja ملجأ | hosted by Maine College of Art & Design
2018-10-18 17:00 - 17:30 | Maine College of Art & Design, 522 Congress Street, Portland, ME, 04101, United States
A reading from Refuge Malja ملجأ by Bess Welden with Arabic translation by Ali Al
Mshakheel. A scene from the play Refuge Malja ملجأ will be read in English and Arabic.
Portland Stage will present Refuge Malja ملجأ as a full lenth production October 30 –
November 18, 2018. Short discussion regarding the play to follow.
This reading will be hosted by the Institute of Contemporary Art at MECA&D.

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Traces | READING: Refuge Malja ملجأ | @ MECA&D
2018-10-18 17:00 - 17:30 | Maine College of Art & Design, 522 Congress Street, Portland, ME, 04101, United States

CONVERSATION: The Stories We Carry
2018-10-18 17:30 - 20:00 | USM Glickman Library, Special Events Room, 7th floor, 314 Forest Ave., Portland, ME, 04103, United States
This interactive literary event will help the audience to explore some of the ways in which storytelling and oral histories preserve our cultures and connect us to our origin. A diverse slate of voices will tell the stories that they carry. Which stories does your family carry? We invite community members to come, share, and listen to a wide array of these stories. Community discussion and reception to follow.
Hosted by Stonecoast MFA in Creative Writing

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FILM: To Light a Candle
2018-10-18 18:00 - 20:00 | Shettleworth Lecture Hall, Maine Historical Society, 489 Congress St., Portland, ME, 04101, United States
Screening of To Light a Candle by Maziar Bahari. Through personal stories and dramatic archive footage, To Light a Candle gives a powerful account of the Baha’i people in Iran, a religious minority that builds solidarity, resilience and pride among its people through its passion for education. With the establishment of the underground Baha’i Higher Institute of Education (BIHE) in 1987, the Baha’i faith – which has its roots in Iran – has championed equality and non-violence and garnered support from educationalists around the world to further its aim. Forbidden from attending or teaching at universities in Iran after the 1979 Islamic revolution, the students and teachers face enormous obstacles: classes are held at people’s houses in secret, with the threat of arrest part of everyday life.
Hosted by the Maine Historical Society.

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FILM + PANEL: There is My Home
2018-10-18 19:00 - 21:00 | Bailey Hall, USM Gorham Campus, 16 University Way, Gorham, ME, 04038, 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.

Panel discussion to follow screening. Sponsored by the University of Southern Maine Food Studies Program.

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CONFERENCE: Meeting the Mental & Physical Needs of Immigrants, Refugees & Asylum Seekers
2018-10-19 07:30 - 17:00 | DoubleTree by Hilton, 363 Maine Mall Rd, South Portland, ME, 04106, United States
For Immigrants, refugees, or asylum seekers, leaving their country is only the beginning of their struggles. For mental health and medical providers to be effective, we need to understand the mental and physical stressors that arose from their displacement and beyond. This program will give participants a greater understanding of the challenges these groups face, and provide guidance for how best to care for this unique population.
Please join us on October 19, 2018 for MAPP's Annual Fall Program which will be held at the DoubleTree by Hilton in South Portland.
Click here to download the Program Brochure

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Closing Reception | Tim Bavington: Rock & Roll Abstraction
2018-10-19 17:00 - 19:00 | ME
Closing Reception: Tim Bavington: Rock & Roll Abstraction Oct. 19, 5–7pm
Abstract painter translates Rolling Stones, Beatles, Cream, and Jimi Hendrix songs into visual experiences
Dedicated to using music and art as a gateway to learning, the Bob Crewe Gallery at Maine College of Art & Design (MECA&D) is exhibiting Tim Bavington: Rock & Roll Abstraction July 13 through October 19. The pieces are on loan from the artist and Morgan Lehman Gallery in New York.
British-born, Las Vegas-based Bavington uses a unique system of pairing musical notes with specific hues of color to represent some of his favorite rock and roll songs of the sixties and seventies. Music by the Rolling Stones, Cream, the Beatles, and Jimi Hendrix form the foundation of his work. Among the songs depicted in the exhibition are “Hey Joe” by Jimi Hendrix, “Kansas City” by the Beatles, “A Kind of Magic” by Queen, “Secret Agent” by Chick Corea, “(back to) Black (addicted)” by Amy Winehouse, and “Let My Love Open The Door” by Pete Townsend.
“Tim Bavington’s work offers an innovative way to deconstruct music into color and form,” said guest curator Jaime DeSimone. “He uses bright, vividly colored stripes to represent the musical notes in the base lines, rhythms, and string solos of each song.” DeSimone previously organized Synthesize: Art + Music for the Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville.
“Bridging the disciplines of both art and music, Tim Bavington’s intimate drawings alongside large-scale abstract paintings help to cultivate creativity, critical thinking, and self-expression, all goals of the Bob Crewe Gallery,” said Erin Hutton, Director of Exhibitions and Special Projects, MECA&D.
Free and open to the public. A closing reception and opportunity to meet the artist will be held on Friday, October 19 at 5–7pm.

About the Bob Crewe Gallery at Maine College of Art & Design
Named after the legendary record producer, songwriter and artist Bob Crewe (1930-2014), the Bob Crewe Gallery at Maine College of Art & Design presents the work of Bob Crewe and explores the connections between music and visual arts by contemporary local, national and international artists.
Contact
Sue McGovern
​smcgovern@meca.edu
(781) 315-3400

2018 Dorothy Schwartz Forum: who is we?
2018-10-20 17:00 - 21:00 | Congregation Bet Ha’am, 81 Westbrook St., South Portland, ME, 04106, United States
(Above) Schwartz Forum installation sketch by Lisa Pixley.
The Schwartz Forum brings people together with expert guides to grapple with a big question.
This year’s question – who is we? – arises any time we say or hear or read a thing like we live here … or we are thrilled to announce … or we know that on Mars … or we breathe oxygen …. Whenever we are called upon – or choose – or are compelled to do a thing together … who is we?
Expert guides will point us towards more questions: Are we ever really we? Are we ever really not? How does a place and everything that lives there shape our answer? How do we answer in the light of the stars, in the infinite vastness of space? How might we look as art? When we get together to ask ourselves the question who is we? … then who is we?
Let’s spend an evening, share a meal, and grapple with this question together.
Tickets pay-as-you-will: $9-$49. Supper (vegan) and dessert included. Please register at mainehumanities.org.

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PANEL: Printers Without Margins: A Fellowship for Change
2018-10-20 18:00 - 20:00 | 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.

>> Click here to return to Exhibition Affiliated Events Calendar <<

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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