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Hello and welcome to our newsletter for 8/25/20
Raise your hand if you want a refund on 2020. I do.

I spent much of the winter planning a motorcycle adventure that was to take me from Maine, across the US and back through Canada, primarily off-road. There are few things that I have been as excited about in my life. I poured a lot of energy into the logistics and preparation, something I really enjoy, and got my ducks lined up in a row at work. 

As the saying goes, “man plans while God laughs.” I was to leave on April 30. The library closed on March 17. You know the rest.

But earlier in the summer there was still a little light at the end of the tunnel, a possible plan B: do the same trip in reverse order starting about now. 

Now, just as in April, leaving work in this time of uncertainty just doesn’t seem like the responsible thing. Of all the COVID disruptions, mine definitely ranks as a “First World problem.”

Even if I wasn’t able to take a bucket list dream tour, I have been able to ride and camp around Maine. I have gotten into the woods quite a bit and have also taken some time off work to do so. Going a few days without COVID-19 news, reading a novel by headlamp in a tent, and just being outside does wonders for my attitude.

Last Monday I was heading towards Moosehead Lake feeling pretty lucky to be goofing off on two wheels. I stopped for a construction zone and just after a road flagger waved me through, as I accelerated …CLUNK….nothing. The bike completely died. Sigh.

AAA paid for itself that day. I got towed from Dexter to home and later tore into the bike with my limited mechanical skills. Diagnosis: the top end was cooked. Double sigh. My wrenching skills are possibly, but not most assuredly up to the fix. But since riding has been my one big sanity outlet for 2020, well we’ll just have to see.

At least I have had a little more reading time recently, though it’s been in my living room rather than in a tent.

2020, I hope you’re done laughing at me.

See you at the library,
Rich Boulet, Library Director
The Latest
Live Online: Authentic Dialogue about Race
As part of the library's Robert K. & Linda B. Slaven Lecture Series, Shay Stewart-Bouley, activist and author of the popular blog "Black Girl in Maine," will present an online lecture about having authentic dialogue about race.

Shay's remarks will draw from current events and be followed by time for the audience to move into small groups and discuss, before coming back together for a larger Q&A. Participants will deepen their knowledge of racism in 2020, examine their own biases, and learn techniques for starting conversations on racism and for being an effective ally.
Born and raised on a combination of big city attitude and Midwestern sensibility as a Chicago native, Shay Stewart-Bouley, also known as Black Girl in Maine (or BGIM), had to learn a bit of Yankee ingenuity when she relocated to Maine in 2002. After a brief foray into education, Shay bridged her socially minded work from Chicago (working with the homeless) to Maine by working with low-income and at-risk youth in Southern Maine, and she is currently the Executive Director of Community Change Inc., a 50-year-old anti-racism organization based in Boston that organizes and educates for racial equity with a specific focus on working with white people.

Shay has been blogging since 2008 (frequently on matters of social justice and systemic racism) through her Black Girl In Maine website and, in 2011, she won a New England Press Association Award for her writing in the Portland Phoenix on race and diversity. Shay’s writing also has been featured in a variety of Maine and national publications as well as several anthologies. In November 2016, Shay gave a TEDx talk entitled "Inequity, Injustice... Infection." Shay is a graduate of both DePaul University and Antioch University New England and, even though she works in Boston now, she is indeed still BGIM, continuing to reside in Maine.

The Robert K. & Linda B. Slaven Lecture Series seeks to bring distinguished speakers with expertise in a wide array of subjects to Blue Hill, to share their knowledge on topics of importance to the community and the world. It is supported by a generous gift from the Anahata Foundation.

This event is free and open to everyone. Advance registration is required to receive the link to join, using the library's calendar or calling the library at 374-5515.
Help Wanted
Help wanted: BHPL has an opening for a Development and Communications Associate. You can learn more about the position here.
Art Show: Reflections: Only a Few More Days
We are already into the last week of our marvelous August Art Show, Reflections, which features work by amazing local artists, and is curated by Marcia Stremlau and Jennifer Mitchell-Nevin. The proceeds of sales of the artwork are shared with the library and we are very pleased that many pieces have sold! We are very grateful for the generosity of these fine artists and the support of those who have made purchases.

There is something for everyone in this show, with a range of prices and a variety of media, and if you've not seen it yet, we hope you can come by soon, or perhaps enjoy the exhibit online. This Saturday, August 29th will be the last day of the show.

(At right, Island Tansy, by Louise Bourne).
Wild Sun Catchers Tomorrow: Blueberries!
Kids are invited to an online program about blueberries and their pollinators with Wild Sun Catchers tomorrow, Wednesday, August 26th at 2:00 PM. It will be posted here on the library's YouTube channel.

Wild Sun Catchers is a monthly program for kids and families that celebrates the wild plants of the Blue Hill Peninsula, with focus on a different plant each month. This program is free and is co-sponsored by the library and Blue Hill Heritage Trust. For more information, email Claire at claire.malina@bhpl.net.
Author Event: Poetic License
Brooksville summer resident and author Gretchen Cherington will share from her new memoir Poetic License in an online book launch event this Friday, August 28th at 7:00 PM.

In this powerful memoir, Cherington candidly and courageously retraces her past to make sense of her father and herself, and the unbearable truth that her generous and kind father had sexually violated her. Her eventual decision to speak publicly in the formative months of #MeToo, Poetic License is one woman’s story of speaking truth in a world where, too often, men still call the shots.

Books are available for sale at Blue Hill Books, in store as well as for porch pickup or shipping.

This event is free and open to everyone. Advance registration is required to receive the link to join, using the library's calendar or calling the library at 374-5515.
September Art: The Finsen Sisters
September’s exhibit, New Territory, in the library’s Britton Gallery and Howard Room showcases eclectic images from sisters whose work is diverse although their individual processes are clearly from the same gene pool. Maine’s coastline beckons; its iconic islands and lakes speak with various edges that captivate. Here Jill Finsen and Susan Finsen chart new territories using abstraction to familiar imagery, to surprise the viewer.

Jill Finsen says that her paintings depict the interplay of familiarity and the imagined. At times awkward and quirky, they celebrate emotional responses to objects and places she portrays. Rather than realistic hues and forms, she uses bold color, flattened planes and varying paint texture to invite the observer to engage: it is irrelevant whether the viewer is familiar with a depiction of a particular cove in Maine, specific home or garlic scape. Painting from observation or memory, she creates exaggerated objects and anchors unresolved details in an imagined space. Viewers can roam the image for themselves, entering where they will and exiting with an experience that is both aesthetic and affecting.
Susan Finsen’s painting process is a combination of intuitive drawing, conscious shaping and layering, and the search for her spontaneous 5-year old self; marks are made and covered up; imagery is created, erased, continuously re-imagined. She says that color, line, shape, plane and found or created collage materials arrange themselves to express what she sees, remembers and invents. She has no idea what the painting will be at the start. Each begins with crayon/paint marks, and then a conversation between her arm, eyes, feelings, thoughts, and the painting takes over.

As a photographer, Susan’s eye selects views, structures and angles. Once captured, she modifies the image using editing software as drawing tools. Susan plays with the shapes and lines, and alters exposure, color, contrast, surface, light and other elements to find the mood, energy and connection with the viewer she wants.

Jill Finsen and Susan Finsen create their own wakes and share currents and tides that offer diverse encounters. They continuously find renewed inspiration in their Maine coastal sojourns. Their work is generated by a certain unpackaged spirit that delivers an itch of awakening, asking one to ponder and ultimately, smile.

The show will be available for viewing during library hours through the end of the month.
Uppermost: On the Way, oil on linen by Jill Finsen: next down: Planning Escape, mixed media on board, by Susan Finsen; next down: View from Trudy's No. Four, oil on canvas, by Jill Finsen, lowermost: Picnic Cove 2, altered photograph on archival paper, by Susan Finsen.
Exhibit: Surry Potters
Surry Potters will be the focus of a new art exhibit in the Blue Hill Public Library’s Howard Room glass cases during September. Five potters from Surry will show their work and pieces will be for sale with a portion of the proceeds going to support the library.



Vivian Pyle works primarily in porcelain, mixing her own glazes, and firing in an electric kiln. She says she enjoys creating a variety of repeatable signature tableware and also one of a kind pieces including lamps, vases and trays. Venues include studio sales, collaborative shows, the Blue Hill Farmers Market and experimental gallery shows in the U.S. and Russia.



A potter for nearly 50 years, Dennis Riley has had studios in Jackson, N.H., Castine, Orland, and Surry. He has exhibited at craft shows up and down the East Coast, and has been working at his home in Surry for 35 years. He works in low fire stoneware and traditional shapes.

Ellen Sedgwick has been making pots since 1998 and apprenticed with a few woodfire potters along the way. She has studied at both Penland and Haystack and taken various workshops over the years. She says that early on she was influenced by Hamada and Leach, and something of that essence seems to have remained to this day. Her dream to build an anagama kiln and become a full-time studio potter has been in the works for a long time. These days she keeps busy with her 3 children and throws pots and lays bricks for her kiln when she can.



Elise Teixido and Codey Stange built a wood-fired kiln in East blue in 2013 and have been enjoying living and making ceramics there ever since. Together they make detail oriented, functional pottery. They single fire for 72 hours around the clock using wood as their sole fuel source. This labor intensive style of firing creates one of a kind surfaces as the pots are decorated by the flame and ash. Together they strive to change the way people interact with everyday objects by creating thoughtful objects to last a lifetime.
Online Storytime with Claire
This week we have two more installments of our video series, Online Storytime with Claire. Watch Youth Services Librarian Claire Malina read the stories, Summer Song by Kevin Henkes and illustrated by Laura Dronzek on the left below, posted on Thursday 8/20), and Atlantic by Brian Karas (on the right, below, posted today, Tuesday, 8/25).

Watch for Claire to be photobombed by a squirrel in the Summer Song video!

Each storytime starts with a special song and kids can sing along. The stories will each be available for one week, and more stories will be added each Tuesday and Thursday. These installments of Online Storytime with Claire are also available for viewing on our Children's Services page. Enjoy!
Two-Tone Citroen with BHPL Sticker
We feel honored to have our "I heart Blue Hill Library" sticker on such a sporty car-about-town!
August Art: Reflections
Pilgrimage, acrylic on canvas by Heidi Daub

Moving On, carved mahogany painted with acrylic and tinted wax, by Rebekah Raye.

Clouds Touching, oil on canvas, by William Irvine