Healthy Peninsula and the Magic Food Bus are hosting the second Community Garden Stone Soup Gathering.
Join them for a mini garden workshop and story time to celebrate the harvest. We’ll learn about different cover crops and plant garlic while we make a delicious meal from the garden. Bring something to add to the pot if you would like!
Led by students and staff of The Telling Room, this workshop invites its participants to answer this question: "If you only had one story to tell about what matters most to you, what would it be?" Start by positing your answer as a statement you could shout from the rooftops, and grow it into a story to share.
THE TELLING ROOM is a nonprofit writing center in Portland, Maine, dedicated to the idea that children and young adults are natural storytellers. Focused on young writers ages 6 to 18, we seek to build confidence, strengthen literacy skills, and provide real audiences for our students. We believe that the power of creative expression can change our communities and prepare our youth for future success.
THE TELLING ROOM is a pioneer in youth publishing, and produces carefully edited, beautifully designed, and locally printed books of our students’ stories, poems, and personal narratives. Currently, we publish between 15-20 titles a year, and more than 30,000 Telling Room books are now in circulation. Since the printing of our first book a decade ago, in 2007, we have published more than 3,000 young authors in 125 anthologies, individual titles, and project “chapbooks," including Maine Literary Award-winner The Story I Want to Tell, and our newest release, by students in the national award-winning Young Writers & Leader's program, A Season for Building Houses.
This event is co-sponsored by BHPL and is free and open to the public.
Learn how award-winning illustrator Hazel Mitchell creates her drawings! Draw alongside as she sketches “Toby”— the dog from her book of the same name—and learn how to draw your favorite animal or pet too. No experience required. Drawing supplies provided, or bring your pencils and drawing pad. Recommended for ages 8-12.
Hazel Mitchell is a children's author and illustrator. She has created more than 20 books for children, including Toby from Candlewick Press, Imani's Moon, Where Do Fairies Go When It Snows? and Farmers Market Surprise. Her work has been recognized by Bank Street Books, Reading is Fundamental and Maine State Librarians among others. Born in Yorkshire, England, she now lives and works in midcoast Maine with her two poodles and black cat as studio mates. Find out more about her work at www.hazelmitchell.com.
This workshop is co-sponsored by BHPL and is free and open to kids age 8-12.
Join author Bundy Boit and illustrator Deb Belyea for a reading of their new book, Letter by Fairy Post, and make a fairy crown from flowers and other materials. Ages 4-8.
Penobscot resident Bundy H. Boit is a pianist, composer and writer of plays, short stories and essays. Living in rural Maine, and traveling often to the west of Ireland, she’s in tune with the possibilities and inspirations for believing in a world made more beautiful by the supernatural.
Deb Belyea is a retired art teacher and school principal living the good life in Downeast Maine. When she’s not roaming the woods and shores, she can be found in her studio catching up on the painting she always wanted to do and dreamed about while sitting in meetings.
This workshop co-sponsored by BHPL and is free and open to all kids ages 4-8.
Spoken word poetry is having a moment. Poems addressing topics like mental illness, trauma, racism, and queerness are garnering millions of views on YouTube—starting discussions, representing marginalized voices, and demanding change. This is an exciting time of revitalization for poetry as an art form, and youth poets are at the very center, doing the most vital work. Facilitated by two poets with years of experience competing in slams on a national level, this two-part workshop will guide participants though generating poetry through prompts and journaling, editing poems in a supportive environment, and helping get students ready to perform their new pieces.
Part one: Writing workshop
Friday, October 19, 12 p.m.-1:30 p.m.
Part two: Editing and performance workshop
Saturday, October 20, 12 p.m. - 1:30 p.m.
Showcase: Poetry reading for friends and family of participants.
Saturday, October 20, 4 p.m.
Memorization not required or expected!
Catherine Weiss (they/them) is a poet born and raised in Blue Hill, Maine. Currently living in Western Massachusetts, they were the 2017 Grand Slam Champion and the 2018 WOWPS rep of Northampton Poetry. Their work has been published in Freezeray Poetry, Gravel Mag, Voicemail Poems, Jersey Devil Press, Drunk in a Midnight Choir, Buck Off Mag, Noble/Gas Quarterly, and elsewhere. Their favorite hobbies include crying (Cancer Sun), starting projects (Capricorn Moon), and complaining—usually in the form of memes and subtweets (Scorpio Rising). Catherine writes about stuff like mental illness, fatness, trauma, sexuality, and adolescence. Sometimes their poems are funny.
Jasmin Roberts (they/them) is a queer, truth-telling psychologist and poet born and raised in Brooklyn, NY. They are an alumnus of Oberlin College, and hold a graduate degree from UMass Amherst. Jasmin lives in the Pioneer Valley, where they are active in the queer youth community. Jasmin has led youth workshops on intersectionality and art as activism, and was the keynote speaker at the 2016 Western Massachusetts GLSEN conference. Jasmin competes in poetry slams at the national level, and placed 4th overall at the 2017 Women of the World Poetry Slam competition.
Jasmin not only prides themself on writing hard-hitting and introspective poetry that educates and offers commentary on current world issues, but also likes to remind us not to take ourselves too seriously. Jasmin will make you laugh your ass off AND question your place in the world in the span of three minutes, and they’ll do it all sporting 4-inch heels and coveralls, just to mess with your ingrained arbitrary sense of gender.
Jasmin’s pronouns are they/them, and yes, they realize that this is usually used in instances of plurality, but they also realize that you’ll live. Jasmin swears, you really will live. It’s ok.
Workshop is free, but registration is required. GSA students should speak to Libby Edwardson, school librarian, Harbor School students should speak to English teacher, Lee Lehto. Homeschooled teens should call Blue Hill Books at 374-5632.
