What’s the Word on Maine Street? 3/22/25

What’s the Word on Maine Street?, hosted by Sarah Pebworth, is a weekly short feature Saturdays at 9:30am looking at local literary and visual arts events and offerings!

FMI:
Look for your local library’s children literacy programs: maine.gov/msl/libs/directories/public.shtml

About the host:
Sarah Pebworth leads the steering committee for Word—a Blue Hill Literary Arts Festival, founded in 2017 and held each October. She serves on the boards of the Cultural Alliance of Maine and Lawrence Family Fitness Center YMCA. Since February 2023 Sarah has written “Shared Seas and Common Grounds,” a column published in the Penobscot Bay Press’s Weekly Packet. She and her wife Julie Jo Fehrle live in Blue Hill.

Theme music: Ross Gallagher is a bassist who grew up in East Blue Hill, ME, and currently lives between Bath, ME and Brooklyn, NY, where he works with a wide variety of musical artists. Infinite Blues is a cut from his recently released neon night, an excursion into an ambient/electronic musical world built around rhythmic bass ostinatos, clouds of processed looping electronic atmospheres, and melody. By turns both subtle and unapologetically noisy, the songs are a collection of luminous constellations, roved between by a band of texturally minded instrumental improvisers.

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Earthwise 3/22/25: The Phoenix

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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Democracy Forum 3/21/25: Constitutional Crisis: How to Stand Up, Speak Up, Push Back

Host: Ann Luther, League of Women Voters of Maine
Production Assistance: Linda Washburn, Joel Mann

Democracy Forum: Participatory Democracy, encouraging citizens to take an active role in government and politics.

This month:
This month we’ll talk about civil resistance and how civil disobedience have succeeded or failed historically, seeking context for our current moment. What worked in the past, and what do we need now: protests, boycotts, tax resistance? What roles do institutions play: colleges and universities, the media, the business community? And what does the moment demand? What strategies and tactics work?

Guest/s:
Graham Platner, lead organizer for Acadia Action, Hancock County branch of 16 Counties for Courage
Alex Newell Taylor, Co-founder, Sweet Fern MDI; Distributed Organizer for National Nurses United; former Deputy Director of Voter Engagement at Second Chances Florida
Vanessa Williamson, Senior Fellow in Governance Studies at Brookings

To learn Amore about this topic:
Visit LWVME.org

About the host:
Ann Luther currently serves as Treasurer of the League of Women Voters of Maine and leads the LWVME Advocacy Team. She served as President of LWVME from 2003 to 2007 and as co-president from 2007-2009.

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Creative Maine 3/20/25

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.
 
Guest/s:
From Bangor Maker Space:
Eric Lovejoy, Director
Justin Hughes, President
Brandon Lieberthal, Director
From Waterfall Arts:
Katherine Devereux, Marketing ManagerFrom IMRC Center:
Drew Hooke, Operations Manager

FMI:
Bangormakerspace.org
Waterfallarts.org
imrccenter.umaine.edu

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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Around Town 3/20/25: Local News, Culture and Events

Host/Producer: Amy Browne

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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Climate & Community 3/20/25: Youth Climate Activism in the Foothills of Western Maine (Part 2)

Host: Wilson Haims

Description: Climate and Community continues our conversation with Maya and Phoebe from the Franklin County Sunrise Movement hub. In the latter half of our conversation, we focus on the youth perspective on climate change and how involvement in the movement can assuage feelings of disempowerment and form strong social networks. We discuss what messages ring true for Mainers when it comes to climate change and what a good future would look like for the Franklin County Sunrise Hub. Learn more about the Sunrise Movement at: www.sunrisemovement.org/hubs/

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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World Ocean Radio 3/19/25: World Water Day is March 22nd

Host: Peter Neill
Producer: Trisha Badger

ABOUT THIS EPISODE
March 22nd is World Water Day, a celebration of what Cousteau called The Great Hydrosphere, expanded beyond Ocean to include the entirety of the water cycle: the one natural system that controls our planet’s utility. From mountaintop to abyssal plain, water is the great circulatory system that connects all things. This week on World Ocean Radio we pay homage to water, without which we would not exist. Think about it: where and when is water not present in our lives?

WORLD OCEAN RADIO
5-minute weekly insights dive into ocean science, advocacy and education hosted by Peter Neill, lifelong ocean advocate and maritime expert. A catalog of more than 700 episodes offer perspectives on global ocean issues and viable solutions, and celebrate exemplary projects. Available for RSS feed and for broadcast by college and community radio stations worldwide. You will also find this week’s World Ocean Radio episode at Exchange.prx.org, at Audioport.org, WorldOceanObservatory.org where the full catalog of episodes is searchable by theme, and wherever you listen to podcasts.

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