Arts and Culture

Creative Portland is launching a new event intending to highlight the city's performing arts talent. It will take place this Sunday, Feb. 17. The show will feature music, dance, digital art. Singer JanaeSound recently relocated to Portland from St. Louis, Missouri, and will be performing on Sunday. Her song "Diamonds" has racked up more than 100,000 listeners on services like SoundCloud and Spotify. She spoke with Maine Public's Morning Edition host Irwin Gratz.

Former Maine Poet Laureate Wesley McNair delivered a new, original poem, "The Song of The Unsung," at Maine Governor Janet Mills' inauguration Wednesday evening in Augusta.

McNair spoke with Ed Morin on Maine Things Considered Monday, Dec. 31, 2019.

Maine Governor-Elect Janet Mills has asked former Maine Poet Laureate Wesley McNair to deliver an original poem written for her inauguration Wednesday evening in Augusta.

Award-winning bluegrass artist and Westbrook resident Al Hawkes has died. He was 88 years old.  Hawkes is being remembered as a musician with a style all his own.

In the 1950s and 60s, Rock Hudson was the quintessential matinee idol, with his chiseled good looks. Hudson had adoring fans and, on the surface, led the life of an A-lister, paired up onscreen with the likes of Elizabeth Taylor and Doris Day. But Hudson had a hidden life as a closeted gay man whose secret didn't become public until he was dying of AIDS. His death in 1985 at age 59 is considered a turning point in AIDS awareness. Rock Hudson's career life struggles and death are all examined and detailed by Maine author Mark Griffin and his biography, “All That Heaven Allows.” Griffin spoke with Maine Public's Ed Morin.

Given immense popularity of the radio variety show back in the so-called Golden Age of Radio, you might wonder why the appeal faded. It might be because these shows are really hard to produce, or maybe it’s because media consumers today can tap a seemingly endless universe of entertainment sources.

A beloved humorist who helped put Maine on the storytelling map has passed away. Bob Bryan of the quirky “Bert and I” duo died on Wednesday at age 87.

A neon sign that spells the phrase "dyke bar," a hand-painted fake jukebox, a TV broadcasting people sharing bar stories and an entire wall of posters, pictures and letters thanking bar owners for their years of service — these are just a few of the items that make up Macon Reed’s installation "Eulogy for the Dyke Bar," on display at the University of Southern Maine’s AREA Gallery through Dec. 7.