There’s so much going on around here in early summer there’s nothing for it but to hitch up your galligaskins and head out to as many as you possibly can; that’ll be your reward for mowing the lawn yesterday when it was 88 degrees and threatening thunder.
First event up is almost two weeks away, but you may need that amount of time to get your running kit in order if you’ve let your exercise routine lapse over the winter. This is a literary as well as a fitness event: the Phillips Public Library’s first annual Readers, Writers, and Runners 5K, which will not only be a healthy run but a fun time as well.
There will be Maine authors to meet and schmooze with, including Bernd Heinrich, Helen Pepe, Lewis Robinson, Shana Youngdahl, and David Holman. There will be food, and live music from The Twisted Strings, and a post-race book sale, including a prize raffle for items such as an autographed volume from Stephen King. The five-kilometer course starts and ends at the library, and has been laid out by Library Assistant Anna Plog, herself an avid runner, to be challenging (though not mortally so) and also scenic. You can get lots more details by going to Readers, Writers and Runners 5K on Facebook, where you’ll find information and updates about the race, including a list of the prizes, and a link for the registration form.
Advance registration is $10, with day-of-the-race $15 registration from 9 to 9:45 the morning of the event. You can phone the library at 639-2665 with any questions you may have, and see you at the races!
Coming back once again to visit us, Vermont’s famed Bread and Puppet Theater will perform tonight, yep, June 5, out at the Temple Stream Theater on the Intervale Road. These startling performers have been around for decades, and if their amazing use of puppetry and prosthetics doesn’t grab you, their political message almost certainly will. There is pizza & music from 6 p.m. the performance starting at 8. If you need directions, phone 778-2513. The theater is intimate and this group always draws a huge crowd, so I suggest getting there in time for the pizza.
Moving on to the fine arts, I’m delighted to tell you that Franklin Memorial Hospital has transformed one of their looong hallways into an art gallery, at least for the month of June, when you can see Portraits of Courage, art work by Penny Hood. Penny is a local artist and mental health provider, and her work ponders the question of how survivors move through trauma.
The passionate, powerful, and inspirational portraits are on view in the Healing Garden Corridor that joins the Hospital to the Medical Arts Center; it has one long blank wall that has been crying out for an exhibition, as the opposite wall is floor-to-ceiling windows, providing the best natural light for viewing art of anyplace around. There’s a reception for the artist next Monday, June 8, from 5:15 to 6; just be careful driving through the confusing muddle of the hospital’s parking lot repaving project. Once inside the building, ask anyone with an ID badge where the exhibition is.
Down in Chesterville on Friday, June 12, some old/young friends will be tuning up for a concert at the Chesterville Center Meeting House. (By old/young I mean that they’re young, but that I’ve known them since they were little kids, making music in kitchens around town.) These would be Ellie Buckland, Isa Burke, and Mali Obomsawin, who comprise the brilliant new group called The Wiles.
The Wiles are comprised of two fiddles, two guitars, one doghouse bass, and two (sometimes three) intertwining voices. Their repertoire reaches across the breadth of American roots music, from centuries-old Appalachian ballads to classic country to contemporary Americana songwriting. At a fiddle camp in the woods of Maine, their shared home state, Ellie and Isa met as kids and began playing songs and traditional fiddle tunes together. As both young women found their way to Boston’s vibrant acoustic music scene, their electrifying musical chemistry seemed to demand an audience, and they began performing together in early 2013.
The Wiles were born when upright bassist Mali – a fellow Mainer and fiddle camper schooled in folk, jazz, and pop – joined the band a year later. They bring soul, energy, depth, and effervescent vocal harmonies to music that blends the old and the new. The Wiles have performed at One Longfellow Square, Club Passim, Fresh Grass Festival, and Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival. They were recently named the Red Line Roots “Favorite Find of 2014,” and they were awarded a grant from the Iguana Music Fund to make their debut album, coming in 2015.
The concert is scheduled for June 12th at the Chesterville Center Meeting House, which is at the corner of Zion’s Hill and Borough Roads in Chesterville. There will be an open jam at 6:30 and all are welcome. Admission is by donation, and proceeds will go to the upkeep of the meeting house.
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