AUGUST 2022.VOL. 22, NO. 08. PORTLAND, MAINE.
WATER IS LIFE Do Your Bit to Take Care of It By Rosanne Graef
PORTLAND’S COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER. FREE!
NAMORY KEITA
Portland Fine Celebrating Life with Music Craft Show Returns August 27th Presented by Shop Maine Craft, the Portland Fine Craft Show returns for its seventh annual event; a festive, one-day, outdoor juried fine craft show in downtown Portland on Saturday, August 27th from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The show is in the heart of Portland’s Arts District in the large parking area at 120 Free Street.
-Photo courtesy of Rosanne Graef
FLOWS TO CASCO BAY DON’T DUMP KEEP WATER CLEAN If you’ve walked around the West End lately, you may have noticed the above message stenciled on the pavement next to storm drains. The West End Neighborhood Association (WENA) aims to stencil all the drains in our area by the end of September. WENA was looking for a way to get neighbors together by doing something outdoors. Storm drain stenciling fits the bill—it’s constructive, social, and fun!
Namory Keita (pictured above on the right) is a Guinean master drummer who received a Traditoinal Arts Network (TAN) grant. -Photo courtesy of Namory Keita
Every month PelotonLabs co-founder Liz Trice interviews a community member. For the August Arts Edition, Liz caught up with Namory Keita, a Guinean master drummer who is one of eight traditional artists and ensembles that received a micro-grant from the Traditional Arts Network (TAN) Fund.
The project originated with the Friends of Casco Bay and the City of Portland’s Water Resources Department. Doug Roncarati, Portland’s Stormwater Program Coordinator, trained a group of volunteers in late June and we got under- Congratulations! way on July 8th. Thank you. I’m glad to be in Maine I know I have trouble following the here and share my culture and help create massive amount of construction that’s a community in Maine. been happening the past few years with projects related to stormwater runoff, When did you come to Maine? What combined sewage, the East End Treatment was your life like in Guinea? Plant... I decided to take the opportunity I came to New Hampshire in 2010 to ask Doug some questions. His {lightly and moved to Maine in 2015. edited} responses on Page 3 are enlightening and thought-provoking. In Guinea, in the village I am from, before I left it was about 2,500 people. My Cont'd on Pg. 3 parents worked in traditional agriculture
- farming for our own food. Many of the activities are “hand work”: growing food, cutting trees, fishing, blacksmithing, carving drums. And the work, everything is collective. It was just me and my brother, and my parents were not happy in me going to school because they wanted me to be a farmer, so I didn’t start school until I was nine years old. In my village we celebrated life with music. So, I learned how to play drums from childhood - even if we didn’t have enough to eat, we were joyful with our music and our singing, and imitating our parents drumming - even on a tomato can. At school we weren’t allowed to play, but then after school we joined the kids in the village drumming.
Cont'd on Pg. 5
-Photo by Tony Zeli (2021)
The show features over one hundred artists from all over Maine and the greater Northeast exhibiting in basketry, ceramics, decorative and wearable fiber, furniture, glass, jewelry, leather, metal, mixed media, paper, printmaking, stone, and wood as well as several outreach booths from Maine arts organizations and sponsors. The show remains one of the only Maine craft shows open to New England artists beyond Maine and is renowned for its exceptional quality and high attendance. Established and formerly produced by the Maine Crafts Association, the Portland Fine Craft Show will now be produced by its new sibling organization, Shop Maine Craft. Shop Maine Craft is a hub of craft artists’ resources, retail sales, and special events designed to create income opportunities for craft artists. For more information, check out the Portland Fine Craft Show Guide with map of exhibitors inserted in this issue.
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Help WENA stencil storm drains! See Community Events on Pg. 4...
Kids Summer Safety Tips By Dr. Lisa Ryan
Maine Sweet Corn & Shrimp Chowder Recipe by Billy Doukas
Movies in Maine Trivia, Crossword, and Sudoku