Creative Maine 4/17/25: Maple Sugaring in Maine

Producer/host: Adina Salmansohn
Other credits: Theme music written and performed by Ariel Chapman.

A monthly show exploring Maine‘s culture, art and crafts that enrich our lives and bring us joy.

This months show is about Maple sugaring-how it’s done, rules and regulations, and some backyard sugaring tips and tricks. You will also learn about what it means to be the Poet Laureate of Maine.

Guest/s:
Jason Lilley, Maple Industry Educator of the University of Maine Extension Division, [email protected]

Ron Russell, Retired Maine Representative

Julia Bouwsma, Poet Laureate of the State of Maine, [email protected]. www.juliabouwsma.com

FMI:

Home

About the Host:
Adina Salmansohn started learning to play the trombone at the age of 8.  Her undergraduate years were at the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she studied with Robert F. Boyd of the Cleveland Orchestra.  After returning to her native New York, she played freelance in the NY Metro area, including multiple orchestras, big bands, and a 17 year stint with The Soundview Brass Quintet, which she founded in 1980. In addition, she had a busy career as an arts administrator, directing and teaching in Community Arts schools, light opera companies, and season programming for other non-profit organizations. Adina founded the Hudson School of Creative Arts in inner-city Yonkers, NY.

After her second child was born, she returned to school, and earned a degree in Culinary Arts from the Culinary Institute of America. Her family then moved to the Chicagoland area, where she became Principal Trombone of the Skokie Valley Symphony Orchestra, and also served as a board member and Personnel Manager for many years.  In that time, she also taught Culinary Arts in high school.  She earned a Graduate Certificate in Museum Studies from Northern Illinois University in 2018. Upon retirement, she and her husband moved to Orland, Maine;  she came out of retirement to teach the JMG program at Bucksport High School.  She  joined the Bangor Band in 2018, where she plays euphonium.  She is in her second year as a Board Member at Large for the Bangor Band.

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Climate & Community 4/17/25: Finding Hope in New Community Connections (Part 2)

Host: Wilson Haims

Description: Climate and Community continues the conversation with Maya and Tony about their experience reading “Active Hope” with A Climate to Thrive’s book group. Both reflect on how new connections have encouraged them to grow and how a new understanding of the word “hope” has strengthened their resolve to act.

About the Host:
Wilson Haims is from Portland, Maine and earned her bachelor’s degree in Environmental Studies from Wellesley College in 2023. Upon graduating, Wilson contributed to climate and conservation-related field work, policy and community engagement work in New England and the Pacific Northwest. Now, Wilson is the Manager of Community Engagement and Resilience at A Climate to Thrive and spends her time hiking, running, making art and cooking on Mount Desert Island.
 
Johannah, Beth, Wilson, Gus, Alison and Angie are the team at A Climate to Thrive, a nonprofit working to build a model of community-driven, solutions-focused climate action. Since its origins around a potluck table as concerned neighbors gathered to take action on climate change, A Climate to Thrive, or ACTT, has been supporting solutions on Mount Desert Island and beyond since 2016. Learn more at www.aclimatetothrive.org.

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Around Town 4/17/25: Local News, Culture and Events

Host/Producer: Amy Browne

Performance poet, teacher and author Barbara Maria joins us to talk about her upcoming show, CELESTIAL EARTH: We Are Here … but when?

About the host:
Amy Browne started out at WERU as a volunteer news & public affairs producer in 2000, co-hosting/co-producing RadioActive with Meredith DeFrancesco. She joined the team of Voices producers a few years later, and has been WERU’s News & Public Affairs Manager since January, 2006. In addition to RadioActive, Voices, Maine Currents and Maine: The Way Life Could Be, Amy also produced and hosted the WERU News Report for several years. She has produced segments for national programs including Free Speech Radio News, This Way Out, Making Contact, Workers Independent News, Pacifica PeaceWatch, and Live Wire News, and has contributed to Democracy Now and the WBAI News Report. She is the recipient of the 2014 Excellence in Environmental Journalism Award from the Sierra Club of Maine, and Maine Association of Broadcasters awards for her work in 2017 and 2021.

Theme music: BreakBeat Chemists I, 2015
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International License

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Around Town 4/16/25: Local News, Culture and Events

Host/Producer: Amy Browne

Puck, Yeah Productions will present Bottom’s Midsummer Night’s Dream: The Woods Grow Queer — described as “a riotous, transformative, and celebratory theatrical production that reclaims the Shakespeare classic” at the Marsh River Theatre in Brooks, with 2 performances over the weekend of April 26th and 27th. Jae Echeverria and Buggz are here today with the details

A message from Puck, Yeah Productions:
“UPDATE: NOT ADA ACCESSIBLE. We failed to get interpreters in time for them to prepare for our show and therefore cannot provide ASL. The front row will be reserved for Deaf & Hard Of Hearing folks and their guests and we will provide printed scripts. The event is wheelchair accessible. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. For all Deaf & HOH community members and any additional disabled community members who were misled by our advertising, we’d like to show accountability by offering you a cash refund at the event and inviting you to watch the show free of charge.””

FMI:
events.humanitix.com/midsummernightsdream
@QueerlyMaine on Instagram and Facebook

About the host:
Amy Browne started out at WERU as a volunteer news & public affairs producer in 2000, co-hosting/co-producing RadioActive with Meredith DeFrancesco. She joined the team of Voices producers a few years later, and has been WERU’s News & Public Affairs Manager since January, 2006. In addition to RadioActive, Voices, Maine Currents and Maine: The Way Life Could Be, Amy also produced and hosted the WERU News Report for several years. She has produced segments for national programs including Free Speech Radio News, This Way Out, Making Contact, Workers Independent News, Pacifica PeaceWatch, and Live Wire News, and has contributed to Democracy Now and the WBAI News Report. She is the recipient of the 2014 Excellence in Environmental Journalism Award from the Sierra Club of Maine, and Maine Association of Broadcasters awards for her work in 2017 and 2021.

Theme music: BreakBeat Chemists I, 2015
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International License

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Relationship Rewind 4/15/25: After We Fell

Host: Carrie Clark at NextStep Domestic Violence Project. NextStep 24/7 Helpline: 1(800) 315-5579
Theme Music for the show donated by local musicians Megan Light and Nathan Spears.

Relationship Rewind: Rewinding relationships in popular media and breaking down behaviors based in power, control, and abuse.

This episode:
1. Discussing unhealthy behaviors in the film After we Fell
2. Discussing how media normalizes these behaviors
3. Discussing the impacts of these messages about these relationships and people, on young people in real life

Guest/s: Bri, local high school student

FMI:
www.nextstepdvproject.org

About the hosts:
Alli Williamson is the youth educator and advocate for NextStep Domestic Violence Project based in Hancock and Washington County, ME. She teaches young people from Kindergarten to College about what power and control looks like in friendships and relationships, what resources are available to support those experiencing this, and how we can work to make our schools and communities safer and more equal spaces where abuse may be less likely to happen.

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Around Town 4/15/25: Local News, Culture and Events

Host/Producer: Amy Browne

Joe Neimczura with an invitation to join the band playing at the “Stand Up for Democracy” rally next Saturday at Steamboat Landing Park in Belfast. Musicians with instruments should arrive at 10 and check in with Joe (he says you’ll hear them) to prep for the rally (noon – 2pm). This is part of a national day of action.

FMI: www.activatemaine.com/calendar *

*As of when this program was produced, the time and location of the rally in Belfast had not been updated on the website. INDIVISIBLE Waldo County’s poster reads: “THIS SATURDAY, APRIL 19, 12-2:00 Meet at Steamboat Landing for a peaceful protest. Stand up for Democracy. There will be a brass band. Bring drums or pots and pans! We will walk to the Pedestrian Bridge Marshalls, peacekeepers and medics on hand. Please cooperate for everyone’s safety and to protect private property. See you there.”

About the host:
Amy Browne started out at WERU as a volunteer news & public affairs producer in 2000, co-hosting/co-producing RadioActive with Meredith DeFrancesco. She joined the team of Voices producers a few years later, and has been WERU’s News & Public Affairs Manager since January, 2006. In addition to RadioActive, Voices, Maine Currents and Maine: The Way Life Could Be, Amy also produced and hosted the WERU News Report for several years. She has produced segments for national programs including Free Speech Radio News, This Way Out, Making Contact, Workers Independent News, Pacifica PeaceWatch, and Live Wire News, and has contributed to Democracy Now and the WBAI News Report. She is the recipient of the 2014 Excellence in Environmental Journalism Award from the Sierra Club of Maine, and Maine Association of Broadcasters awards for her work in 2017 and 2021.

Theme music: BreakBeat Chemists I, 2015
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International License

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Earthwise 4/19/25: Easter’s Ancient Roots

Producer/Host: Anu Dudley

About the host: Rev. Dr. Anu Dudley is an ordained Pagan minister and a retired history professor. She continues to teach classes, including the three-year ordination curriculum at the Temple of the Feminine Divine, and others such as History of the Goddess, Paganism 101, Ethical Magic, and Introduction to the Runes. Currently she is writing a book about how to cast the runes using their original Goddess meanings. She lives in the woods off-grid in a small homesteading community in Central Maine.

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Around Town 4/14/25: Local News, Culture and Events

Host/Producer: Amy Browne

A look at some of the proposed legislation being presented at legislative committee public hearings in Augusta today – and how you can participate

FMI: www.legislature.maine.gov

About the host:
Amy Browne started out at WERU as a volunteer news & public affairs producer in 2000, co-hosting/co-producing RadioActive with Meredith DeFrancesco. She joined the team of Voices producers a few years later, and has been WERU’s News & Public Affairs Manager since January, 2006. In addition to RadioActive, Voices, Maine Currents and Maine: The Way Life Could Be, Amy also produced and hosted the WERU News Report for several years. She has produced segments for national programs including Free Speech Radio News, This Way Out, Making Contact, Workers Independent News, Pacifica PeaceWatch, and Live Wire News, and has contributed to Democracy Now and the WBAI News Report. She is the recipient of the 2014 Excellence in Environmental Journalism Award from the Sierra Club of Maine, and Maine Association of Broadcasters awards for her work in 2017 and 2021.

Theme music: BreakBeat Chemists I, 2015
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International License

Podcast: Play in new window | Download