Poetry Express Performance: Pieces of Resistance

Saturday, April 22

6:00 – 8:00 pm

UU Church of Brunswick

1 Middle Street, Brunswick

For National Poetry Month, the Unitarian Universalist Church of Brunswick is exploring the way that poetry is used in resistance. How have you resisted the soul-destroying divisiveness of our world? Resisted apathy and pessimism? Resisted racism and capitalism and the status quo? We invite those inspired by resistance to join us for a night of poems and perspectives.

UUCB has collaborated with the Maine Humanities Council to offer their Poetry Express Program. The mission of Poetry Express is to connect communities through poetry and performance as a catalyst for deeper engagement with poetry. Seven local participants were selected to take part in two workshops at the UU Church with Portland Poet Laureate, Maya Williams, who guided them in writing and performing their own poems. On Saturday, April 22 at 6 pm, The Poetry Express Program culminates with participants putting on a performance of their poetry at the Unitarian Church of Brunswick.

Maya Williams (ey/they/she) is a Black Mixed Race queer nonbinary person, suicide survivor, and poet residing in Portland, Maine. They currently serve as MaineTransNet’s Sexual Assault Program Coordinator, where they develop peer support groups for trans survivors and educational material on trauma informed trans competency for advocates. They also serve as co-host of the video series Dying/Laughing, which analyzes the representation of suicide and mental health in TV and film. Maya has published poetry in glitterMOB, Occulum, The Portland Press Herald, Littoral Books, FreezeRay, and more.

The participants in the Poetry Express workshop were Arrow Andrews, Sam Caswell, Jane Danielson, Peg Dunstan, Michael Greene, Jazmyne Peebles, Libby Riggs. The theme of their poetry is “resistance.”  This event is free and open to the public, also available via live streaming:

https://youtube.com/live/Zom8uZXFbBE?feature=share