2019 So Near & So Far

Joanna Breen General

 

So Near & So Far: An Exploration of Cuban Literature

Havana Red coverExplore Cuban culture and history through the voices of talented Cuban authors. The writing in this series is lyrical, compelling, and poetic.
  • Biography of a Runaway Slave (Esteban Montejo) by Miguel Barnet
  • The Chase by Alejo Carpentier
  • Dreaming in Cuban by Cristina Garcia
  • In the Cold of the Malecon & Other Stories by Antonio Jose Ponte
  • Havana Red by Leonardo Padura Fuentes

So Near and So Far: Cuba Through Its Literature

Developed by Pilar del Carmen Tirado, Ph.D.

Cuba is intriguing, it’s mysterious, it’s rich in cultural tradition, it’s just 90 miles off the tip of Florida, and…. it’s forbidden. The five books of the series explore the history, romance, political turmoil, spirit and cultural riches of Cuba. Readers will come to see how much Cubans and Americans have in common, and how the two societies differ. Cuba and the United States are connected in so many ways. There are family ties, historical links, geographic closeness, and a shared love of freedom. Interestingly, Maine and the Cuban city of Trinidad have a special connection extending as far back as the 19th century, when Maine ships carried lumber, ice and potatoes to Trinidad to exchange for sugar, salt and rum. Granite blocks used as ballast in the ships were left in Trinidad, and the streets in Trinidad are paved with Maine granite. Maine’s trade with Trinidad was so important that the state established a consular post there, and there’s even more, now that the State of Maine is engaged in commerce with the island! Here’s a brief summary of the books in the series:

Biography of a Runaway Slave by Miguel Barnet
In this remarkable testimony, Cuban novelist and anthropologist Miguel Barnet presents the narrative of 105-year-old Esteban Montejo, who lived as a slave in the sugar fields, as a fugitive in the wilderness, and as a soldier in the Cuban War of Independence, and who ultimately lived to see the Cuban revolution’s promise of education and medical care, including a nursing home where he was being interviewed. This book was chosen for the series because the runaway slave’s life story is uniquely interesting since introduces the reader to multidimensional cultural details about slavery and slave populations erased in general discussions of slavery. Furthermore, it is one of the few accounts that exist of Latin American slavery from the point of view of the slaves.

In the Cold of the Malecon by Antonio Jose Ponte
In these short stories, set in 1990s Cuba during the hard times following the collapse of the Soviet Union, people go to work only to find that their jobs no longer exist. They joke and tell stories from the past, live aimlessly, uncertain about what the future holds. While living in this state of suspension, Ponte’s dynamic characters create their own startling worlds. This book was selected because it departs from both the utopian-political and the romantic-baroque styles of past Cuban literature, and deftly sketches a picture of a contemporary Cuba that is very different from the stereotype of Caribbean life, full of music and dance and colorful celebration.

The Chase by Alejo Carpentier
A thrilling tale written in 1958, told against the backdrop of Havana in the era of Batista’s violent tyranny. It tells the story of how two men (a student on the run and a ticket seller at a concert hall) find their lives and fates intertwined. Attention to details that are constant variants on preceding detail build the tension to a stunning climax. An anonymous student flees a team of shadowy, relentless political assassins, and ultimately takes refuge in a symphony hall during a performance of Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony. This nightmarish novella does not tell a story so much as map the secret political infrastructure of cities, governments, churches, music, and bodies. It was chosen for the series due to its extraordinary ability to convey the claustrophobia and frustrations under the Batista regime and as an allegory for any tyrannical regime.

Dreaming in Cuban by Christina Garcia
A superb novel that delves into the themes of family, history, culture, and self-definition. A patchwork of incident, memory, letters, dreams and visions provides glimpses of a Cuban family at home and in exile in the ’70’s and ’80’s. This book was chosen because it captures the hard lives of those in Cuba and of those who are dedicated to the ideals of the revolution, yet also presents the vivid picture of those who have left Cuba and carry a profound bitterness against the revolution. Cristina Garcia presents the lives of all these people, their hardships, triumphs, doubts, personal weaknesses and strengths without much comment. Her considerable ability as a writer seems to be in creating well-rounded believable characters who reveal so much of the times and situations in which history has thrust them.

Havana Red by Leonardo Padura Fuentes
This magnificent innovative detective story is haunted by the tragic story and passion of its characters. A best seller in Cuba today, it is the first of a series of four books featuring inspector Mario Conde. A young man in a beautiful red dress is found strangled in a Havana park. Conde’s investigation into a violent murder exposes a stifling, corrupt society, a Cuban reality where nothing is what it seems. A dark and fascinating world of men and women born in the revolution who live without dreaming of exile and seek their identity in the midst of disaster. A true page-turner!

1/26/19: Writing Place: Landscape, People, and the Natural World

Joanna Breen General
29 best images about Maine Writers & Books on Pinterest ...
Illustration by Christine Mitchell Adams from: https://downeast.com/fish-story/

“Writing Place: Landscape, People, and the Natural World”

Workshop: Saturday January, 26, 11:00 – 3:30 p.m. 

A reading and writing workshop with Belfast Poet and Writer Linda Buckmaster.

Writing about place involves working with the elements that make a specific place unique. This may include the layers of history, the natural world, culture, and the built environment across time to bring us to the present moment. Writers might be advocates, critics, or lovers of a place but either way, a sense of place helps us ground our writing on any topic.

We will begin our writing process with a Reading Packet of other place-based contemporary and historical writers of prose and poetry. We will “read like a writer,” to paraphrase Francine Prose, unpacking the tools the authors have used in their work such as image, voice, language, and structure.

No previous writing experience is necessary, and the first hour of the workshop is open to those who are readers only. After lunch break, the balance of the workshop is open to writers of all levels and suitable for writers of poetry, prose, or other genre. By developing the craft of writing about place, participants will discover more about their subjects, allowing them to better understand and present their world and experiences.

Pick up reading materials at the Boothbay Harbor Memorial Library starting January 14, then:

Saturday January, 26, 11:00 – 3:30 p.m. (with lunch break). The first hour of the workshop will be devoted to discussion of the Readings to include those readers who are not interested in the writing module. After lunch, the afternoon will be focused on using the readings and writing prompts to create new work.

This program was made possible by a grant from the Maine Humanities Council.

About Linda Buckmaster:

CLICK to visit Linda’s website.

Linda Buckmaster  has over 20 years of experience teaching adults at the university level and in community settings. Her community-based writing workshops have been held in public libraries, arts centers, and gardens; on islands and at Senior College. Her program, “Writing Place. Landscape, People and the Natural World” and its variations have been particularly popular. Many Maine writers, established and beginners, are inspired by our place in the state.

Linda always uses as models the work of other published authors. The writing workshop is appropriate for beginners and published writers, each of whom will write at their own level of competence.

To paraphrase the late poet and teacher Constance Hunting, editor of “Puckerbrush Review,” we will “pull back the curtain” on a piece of writing to see how the gears and pulleys are worked to effect. As Constance would say, “And you can do that, too.”

Participants will gain confidence that they can indeed do that too in their own voices. Linda maintains a safe, nonjudgmental atmosphere so that participants can feel comfortable trying new things and sharing their work. The goal is that each participant will leave with a “keeper” – a beginning or scrap that they can expand upon after the workshop. For the more experienced, they may gain insights for a piece they are already working on.

 

BHML Awarded Tax Check Off Grant

Joanna Breen General

Have you ever heard of Maine Public Library Fund State Income Tax Check-off program?  It allows you to easily support Maine Libraries when you file your state taxes.

Why would you do this?  Where do the funds go?  They go all over the state, and this year, they came to us! On November 19 the Maine State Library announced this year’s recipients:

Boothbay Harbor Memorial Library was awarded $2,500 to support our senior book group Books & Bites!

This grant award was made possible by every Mainer who ticked the box to support Maine Libraries.  Thank you to everyone who supported the Maine Public Library Fund Last year! Let’s pay it forward, and tick the box this tax season to keep valuable programs funded for communities around the state.

More about Books & Bites:

Books and Bites is a large print book group run by our Circulation Coordinator, Meg Donaldson.  She travels to St. Andrew’s Village once a month to facilitate a book discussion of the selected large print title.  Now, through the support from the Maine Public Library Fund, BHML will be able to build more large print book group kits, and add new locations for more book groups!  Stay tuned for where Books & Bites might pop up next; for information on the current group at St. Andrew’s Village, contact Meg at 207-633-3112 or email her at meg@bbhlibrary.org.

10/24: NaNoWriMo with Elisa Lorello

Joanna Breen General

Wednesday, October 24, at 5:30 p.m.

Get Ready for National Novel Writing Month with Elisa Lorello

“NaNoWriMo” stands for National Novel Writing Month. During the entire month of November, people from coast to coast accept the challenge to write 50,000 words of a novel in those 30 days. If you’ve always wanted to write a novel, now’s your chance! If you’ve written several and want to challenge yourself, now’s your chance! Since 2005, I’ve participated in NaNoWriMo three times—this year will mark my fourth.

Come join me at Boothbay Harbor Regional Library on Wednesday, October 24, at 5:30 p.m. for a “pre-planning” session. There we’ll set goals and discuss strategies to meet your daily word count, as well as answer questions about the NaNoWriMo rules.

Throughout the month of November, we’ll meet once a week to check in, cheer each other on, and write. I’m looking forward to seeing and writing with you!

About Elisa: To date, Elisa Lorello has written and published ten novels, a memoir about her lifelong love for the band Duran Duran, and The Writer’s Habit, which inspired a blog and website, and workshops in storytelling, writing process, and rhetoric.  Read more about Elisa on her website

10/10: The Defiant Woman

Joanna Breen General

***CLICK HERE to listen to the audio recording from this program (link brings you to Soundcloud.com)***

 

The Defiant Woman

A Book Talk with Florence Rosenberg, the daughter of Françoise Pène.

Wednesday, October 10, 4:30 PM, Great Room

Please join us in the Great Room for a talk with Florence Rosenberg, the daughter of Françoise Pène, whose memoirs were recently translated from their original French and published in English.

Her fascinating life spanned the 20th century. Born in 1904, she lived through both World Wars and then well into modern times, until her death in 1997. Hear Florence discuss her mother’s unique life.

Books are currently available for sale at the library.  All proceeds will be generously donated to the Library.  One book is available for checkout.

9/26: Finding the Path to Sustainability and Resiliency on an Oyster Farm

Joanna Breen General

Finding the Path to Sustainability and Resiliency on an Oyster Farm: The Intersection of Business and Science

Wednesday, September 26, 6:00 PM, Great Room

Join Bill Mook, owner of Mook Sea Farm for a discussion on the intersection between business and science as it applies to aquaculture and climate change.

Mr. Mook will explain how Mook Sea Farm grows their oysters from egg to market size; and he will also discuss the environmental changes that cost farmers now and threaten our future.   He will describe the steps Mook Sea Farm is taking to avoid risk, take advantage of business opportunities afforded to us by climate change, and help push America towards a clean energy future.

Bill’s will educate attendees about the effects of ocean acidification; his expertise inspired when he discovered a troubling link between productivity losses and precipitation events at his farm. He educated himself on coastal acidification and became a resource for other shellfish hatchery and farm operators in the U.S. and abroad.

There will be time for questions and discussion at the end of his talk.

Two Talks with Mark Alan Leslie

Joanna Breen General

Maine Burning: The Ku Klux Klan Invasion
Wednesday, September 19, 6:00 PM in the Great Room

The State of Maine and the Ku Klux Klan. Improbable as it sounds, the KKK took root in Maine in the 1920s, reaching such heights that it helped elect Governor Ralph Owen Brewster, the mayors of Rockland, Bath, Saco and Westbrook and many others.

This shocking time in Maine’s history, omitted from history textbooks for nearly 100 years, will be explored and discussed by author Mark Alan Leslie.

Maine Tracks: The Underground Railroad in Maine
Wednesday, October 3, 6:00 PM in the Great Room

Maine’s connection to the famous Underground Railroad that helped free runaway slaves in the mid-1800s does not begin and end with Harriet Beecher Stowe. Indeed, from Kittery to Fort Fairfield, Mainers conspired together to break the law — the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 — forming a network of “safe houses,” hiding slaves from slave hunters and scurrying them to Canada.

At the at Boothbay Harbor Public Library at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 3, author Mark Alan Leslie will weave the tale of the brave families, including those from Augusta eastward, who housed and fed slaves in hidden rooms, attics and elsewhere en route to the next secret “way station” in the “railroad.”

READ MORE ABOUT THE TALKS:

Maine Burning: The Ku Klux Klan Invasion
Wednesday, September 19, 6:00 PM in the Great Room

The State of Maine and the Ku Klux Klan. Improbable as it sounds, the KKK took root in Maine in the 1920s, reaching such heights that it helped elect Governor Ralph Owen Brewster, the mayors of Rockland, Bath, Saco and Westbrook and many others.

This shocking time in Maine’s history, omitted from history textbooks for nearly 100 years, will be explored and discussed by author Mark Alan Leslie.

“While African-Americans were few in Maine at that time, the KKK’s targets were French-Canadians, Catholics and Irish and Polish immigrants as well as Jews,” says Leslie. “And were they effective! The Klan’s Maine membership reached a reported 150,000, nearly 20 percent of the state’s population of 790,000, in 1923-25. When the KKK held its first state conclave in a forest outside Waterville in 1923, nearly 15,000 attended.”

The Midcoast area was not immune to the Klan’s recruitment.

Hodgdon Buzzell, president of the Maine State Senate, was a proud member of the Belfast KKK klavern and Rockland’s citizens elected Carlton Snow, who was endorsed by the Klan. Meanwhile, Rev. E.V. Allen of Rockland was one of the first to join the Rockland Klan and in respect for his diligent service the Klan officials elevated him to the office of Grand Klaliff, State of Maine.

Meanwhile, parades were held in Portland, Gardiner, Milo, Dexter, Brewer and elsewhere.

Leslie will tell the tale of the rise and fall of this organization which, now and again, still makes headlines in Maine today.

The Monmouth resident’s fictional novel, The Crossing, is a sweeping — and ultimately uplifting — look at the KKK’s impact on a small western Maine town in 1923.

Called “a seasoned wordsmith…in the class of John Grisham” by the American Family Association’s AFA Journal, Leslie burst onto the scene in 2008 with Midnight Rider for the Morning Star, then earned Featured Book status from Publishers Weekly for his 2015 novel, True North: Tice’s Story, about the Underground Railroad in Maine.

After his talk, Leslie will be available to sign his novels, including three contemporary action/adventures, the latest being The Last Aliyah, published this spring.

More about the author: https://www.markalanleslie.com/

Maine Tracks: The Underground Railroad in Maine
Wednesday, October 3, 6:00 PM in the Great Room

Maine’s connection to the famous Underground Railroad that helped free runaway slaves in the mid-1800s does not begin and end with Harriet Beecher Stowe. Indeed, from Kittery to Fort Fairfield, Mainers conspired together to break the law — the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 — forming a network of “safe houses,” hiding slaves from slave hunters and scurrying them to Canada.

At the at Boothbay Harbor Public Library at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 3, author Mark Alan Leslie will weave the tale of the brave families, including those from Augusta eastward, who housed and fed slaves in hidden rooms, attics and elsewhere en route to the next secret “way station” in the “railroad.”

“Some called slavery ‘the absolute power of one person over another — the vilest human behavior and institution,’” said Leslie. “Others called it ‘essential to our economy and prosperity’ and even ‘a humane institution which provided food, shelter and family’ to the African race.”

“Slavery was the one issue that has been able to tear America apart,” he added, “the fight to preserve it and the battle to undo its suffocating hold on the South.”

And slavery remains in the news. The Treasury Department plans to add Harriet Tubman, a heroine of the Underground Railroad, to the $20 bill. Also, the Brunswick home of Harriet Beecher Stowe, a National Historic Landmark since 1962, was placed on the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom. The former parlor room, where it is believed she wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin, is open to the public as “Harriet’s Writing Room.”

President Abraham Lincoln once said to Mrs. Stowe, “So you’re the little lady who began all this.”

“Uncle Tom’s Cabin was instrumental in raising awareness of the scourge of slavery, but it took scores of people here in Maine to make the dream of escape a reality,” Leslie said.

Everywhere, anyone who helped slaves escape could be jailed and fined — as much as $9,000 — if caught in the act. So they were putting their lives and fortunes in jeopardy.

Some African-American families in Maine have relatives in the Maritimes as a result of surreptitious activities among the approximately 75 homes, churches and other sites recognized as likely stops along the Underground Railroad in Portland, Brunswick, Vassalboro, Augusta, Eastport, Auburn, Biddeford, Orono, Fort Fairfield and elsewhere.

Leslie, a longtime journalist, first burst on the literary scene with his novel Midnight Rider for the Morning Star, based on the life of Francis Asbury, America’s first circuit-riding preacher.

The Monmouth resident’s fictional novel, True North: Tice’s Story, is a rousing adventure, following a slave’s escape rom Kentucky on the Underground Railroad through Maine to Canada. Publisher’s Weekly selected True North as a Featured Book when it was released in 2016.

Space Feedback

Joanna Breen General

Renovation Feedback

It's hard to believe it's been 3 years since the first phase of the library renovation. Please provide your feedback about the Library's current space to aid our process moving forward.

8/15: SAT Practice Test

Desireé Scorcia General

Are you taking the SAT on August 25? The library is hosting a free, full-length, timed SAT practice test from 3:30 – 7:00 PM on Wednesday, August 15. Bring pencils, a calculator, and your college board account login information (so we can score the test) and we’ll provide the rest!

Mango Languages – Ends August 30

Joanna Breen General

Dear Users of Mango Languages,

BHML will discontinue Mango Languages on August 30, 2018.

The Maine State Library recently added Pronunciator Language Learning; which is an online language learning tool similar to Mango Languages.  Users can download the app, or take lessons from a laptop or desktop.

Where we have been subscribing to Mango with library funds, access to Pronunciator Language Learning is free. By discontinuing Mango, the Library is able to maximize its budget, and still provide free online access to language learning.  We hope the dedicated users of Mango Languages will understand!

If you need any assistance setting up your Pronunciator Language Learning account, please don’t hesitate to call or visit the Library.

Yours Sincerely,
Joanna Breen
Executive Director