Community Calendar

Great Works Regional Land Trust (GWRLT) is excited to announce the return of the Wild & Scenic Film Festival on Friday, September 19 at Wells High School – Olenn Performing Arts Center in Wells. The Festival runs from 4 – 8 pm.
This inspiring evening will feature a series of award-winning environmental and adventure films that celebrate the beauty of nature, highlight important environmental issues, and showcase stories of resilience and hope from around the world.

“The Wild & Scenic Film Festival is one of our favorite ways to bring the community together,” said Katherine Derby, Development and Outreach Coordinator of GWRLT. “The films are powerful and uplifting, and they connect people to the mission of conservation in a truly meaningful way.”
Proceeds from the event support GWRLT’s work to conserve forests, farms, and waterways across southern Maine, ensuring these landscapes remain protected for generations to come.
GWRLT would like to extend a special thank you to this year’s event sponsors: Kennebunk Savings and Eldredge Lumber & Hardware for their generous support.
Don’t miss this unforgettable night of films, community, and conservation!

One of Yankee Magazine's top five cemetery tours in New England! Walk Portland's Old Burying Ground with a trained guide. Hallowed? Not officially. Historic? Absolutely. Haunted? You decide. Visit the cemetery's unique field of underground tombs, the oldest gravemarker from 1717, the final resting place of the famed Captains of the 1813 battle between the Boxer and the Enterprise, and the interesting carvings of Portland's first stone-cutter, Bartlett Adams. Tours include early gravestone art, important local historic figures, Portland's historic events, and the landscape of this National Historic Landmark, including segregated sections for Black people, Catholics, Quakers, and strangers. Wear comfortable walking shoes, as the ground is uneven once we leave the main pathway. Tours are held unless the weather is stormy.

Join us at our weekly Local Goods Market! Celebrate local food and community while supporting small businesses! Held every Thursday from 4–7pm, the Local Goods Market features hot food, beverages, baked goods, and specialty products from Fork Food Lab members and other Maine makers. The weekly event offers the community a chance to support local businesses, discover new favorites, and connect directly with the entrepreneurs shaping the future of Maine’s food economy. The market features free & easy parking and a great community. Shop small and be part of something big!

Fork Food Lab is a nonprofit food business incubator and shared commercial kitchen in South Portland, Maine that’s home to over 80 small businesses. Our mission is to support a just, diverse, and sustainable food economy by empowering food entrepreneurs with the space, resources, and community they need to thrive. Learn more at www.forkfoodlab.com

Join Great Works Regional Land Trust (GWRLT) for an enthralling evening exploring international short films focused on the environment. These stories inspire us to contextualize our own beloved conservation land.

More than an inspiring and fun evening together, GWRLT is aiming to raise $20,000 from ticket sales, donations, and event sponsors that will make it possible for us to continue our mission of conservation "...For Everyone, Forever!"

Please comeby to see us on Friday, September 19th from 4 to 7 pm in our lovely gallery space just down the street from historic City Hall and around the corner from Front Street. Many beautiful works to peruse including new paintings, ceramics and sculpture in a variety of styles, and our member artists will be on hand! Snacks and soft beverages available. All are welcome!

FRIDAY, 5-8 PM, SEPTEMBER 19, PANEL DISCUSSION:
ASTRID REISCHWITZ, SUSAN ROSENBERG JONES, JEANNIE HUTCHINS, TARA SELLIOS, SUSAN THEODORA WHITE, CHRISTINE HIGGINS, LISA MOSSEL
Unlike other mediums, women were at the forefront of the advent of photography as makers. Because of this, they helped shape the development of the art form, and experimented with every aspect of the medium. One hundred and eighty- ish years later in Maine it’s still happening. MMPA is lucky to collaborate with quite a few contemporary innovators and experimenters; women photographers that we esteem. This exhibit runs the gamut from the traditional to the avant-Garde, and is executed with superior works in a range of contemporary and antique processes (many artists employ several all at once). The topics also have a breadth of variety; The self, the landscape, conservation, motherhood, companions (or in some cases dogs), aging, place, unconditional love, documentation, the psyche, trees, identity or cultural heritage (via food), feminism and beauty are all explored in this exhibit. Come, meditate on the medium and the great women photographers of Maine and New England. - Denise Froehlich, Director of MMPA

5:00 PM: Events begin! National Anthem by Zeny, Riverfest dedication, Sponsor Recognition

7:00 PM: Motor Booty Affair

9:00 PM: Fireworks!

Join us at Libby Library on Friday, September 19 at 5:30pm for an Author Talk with Robin Foster. She’ll be here to discuss her book Grit & Ghosts: Following the Trail of Eight Tenacious Women across a Century.

Copies of the author’s books will be available for purchase & signing at this event. This program is free, open to the public, and no registration is required.

About the book:

As a student and teacher of history, Robin Foster is well aware that humans have persisted through major hardships as long as they have existed. When faced with the anxious dread many felt at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Foster began seeking stories of tenacious women of the American West who had survived their own hardships in a world that threw the unexpected at them. During one of the most uncertain periods of her life, Foster hit the road, embarking on a journey to find these determined women of the past and finding herself along the way. Grit and Ghosts tells the stories of eight women who speak to a shared human experience of struggle, and the grit required to move through it.
Landscape and memory become deeply intertwined throughout Grit and Ghosts as Foster wanders through park ranger Marguerite Lindsley’s Yellowstone, through Mexican faith healer Teresa Urrea’s Sonoran Desert, and through author Gertrude Stein’s deeply altered Oakland. Part excavation, part resurrection, Grit and Ghosts is permeated with the individual and collective memories of Foster and her subjects, like ghosts of history.

About the author:

Robin Foster studied creative writing at Bennington Writing Seminars and has a PhD in American Studies from Rutgers University-Newark. She is the author of GRIT AND GHOSTS: FOLLOWING THE TRAIL OF EIGHT TENACIOUS WOMEN ACROSS A CENTURY (Nebraska Press Bison Books, 2024); Carl Van Doren: A Man of Ideas (National Indie Excellence Awards Finalist for 2019); and The Age of Sail in the Age of Aquarius: The South Street Seaport and the Crisis of the Sixties (2016). Her work has been published in Rooted2: The Best New Arboreal Nonfiction, Another Chicago Magazine, Goats Milk Magazine, and the Journal of Urban History.

Family friendly - stretch out and enjoy some kitty time while chillaxing with some classic movie selections.

We ask that kids under 12 are limited to two per one adult.

Join us for (one hour) Trivia in the brewhouse with our friend Megh. The questions will commence every Friday starting promptly at 6 pm. We recommend arriving early to get settled as missed questions are not repeated. Tickets are free but reservations are strongly recommended as we've been packed recently! Walk-ins are not guaranteed a seat, but we'll absolutely do our best to squeeze you in, if we can. If you are making a reservation for your team, please account for all the members of your team. Groups can be up to six players. Bite Into Maine will be here for all of your tasty dinner or snacking needs. As always we’ll have delicious beer, wine, cider, and n/a bevs flowing. We can’t wait to see you and your fantastic team names!

FYI, as our brewhouse is a food production space, sadly dogs must stay on our covered patio.

The prizes are:
First - $75 gift card
Second - Fun merch pack
Third - Rotating "prize pack"