Have you ever wondered what a rehearsal looks like? As New Surry Theatre prepares for their upcoming Directors' Festival, and in celebration of Word, they are opening a play rehearsal to the public! Join them Sunday, October 22, for an open rehearsal of Tennessee Williams' one-act "Talk to Me Like the Rain and Let Me Listen". Watch director Robin Jones work with actors Bryan Lescord and Johannah Blackman as they dive into the meaning of this intriguing play and join them for a discussion afterwards. Free and open to all at the Blue Hill Town Hall Theater.

Some Word authors will stick around for brunch on Sunday at Mainescape where YOU will have the opportunity to chat, get to know them more, and ask any lingering questions.  Blue Hill Heritage Trust's Mountain Poetry Board will be presented and we'll have the official reading of the created-by-one-and-all Day-Long Word 2017 Poem.

Rumor has it Duncan Hamilton, owner of the Blue Hill Inn, will be making omelettes to order. You'll need to bring your appetite for eggs as well as for words.

Hear incredible spoken word performances from story-tellers, slam poets, actors, and more, featuring performances by Catherine Weiss, born and raised in Blue Hill and Grand Slam Champion of Northampton Poetry, and by Jude Lamb, a Down East area storyteller who specializes in stories from the viewpoint of women from Maine's past - some that history overlooked, and others that time forgot.

This event is free and open to the public.

BOB QUINN has been a fisherman, lighthouse keeper and operator of the Eagle Island mail boat, traveling to nearby islands, year-round on his 38-foot lobster boat, The Last Straw. He’s been caretaker for a dozen summer cottages on the Island as well as for houses on five other islands between North Haven and Deer Isle. The Quinns have owned Eagle Island for almost 200 years. He is at home entertaining an audience by recounting stories, reciting poems and prose inspired by life with his wife on the remote and tiny, island, which lies in Penobscot Bay. If someone were to drive a tractor the length of the island it would take around fifteen minutes. The Quinns first settled Eagle Island in the 19th century. Bob is a fifth generation islander. Of his more than seven decades on the water Bob quips, “It’s like walking or breathing. With time, it’s just what you know.”

STEVE PICKERING knows a great deal about crime, and that is the subject of his novel, Bad Moon Rising (2015). He knows of what he speaks (or writes). His twenty-eight year law enforcement career took him from patrolling Washington and Hancock counties, to detective, the joint DEA-Maine State Police Anti-Smuggling Task Force, Criminal Investigation Division III, to Sergeant and supervisor of the Bangor office of CID III. Pickering retired in 2006, began and continues his second career as a private investigator. But his third, successful career is writing. According to one critic, Pickering “has mastered the craft of writing fiction, and he’s particularly good with dialogue...masterful.” His novel, Bad Moon Rising is published by North Country Press in Unity. Pickering, who is currently working on his next novel,  resides in Blue Hill, Maine with his wife, Betty; he has three sons, twelve grandchildren and a great grandchild.

JOHN DENNIS of the Eskasoni Mi’kmaq Nation is a tribal member of the Aroostook Band of Micmacs. Dennis is a musician, storyteller, and drummer who offers songs, stories and teachings that he has learned throughout his life in order to help preserve and to pass on his knowledge to the youth of the Mi’kmaq and other Wabanaki Communities. He is a former Cultural Director for the Micmac tribe and is truly a keeper of tradition.

JUDE LAMB is a storyteller who delights in portraying historic Maine women. Her story performance of her fourth-great-grandmother, Eunice Lakeman Hoar, is based on a true family story passed down orally, then recorded in several small publications. She has taken the story to the next level by researching and fleshing out the people and the times, and performing their story while dressed in period clothing. This is part of Jude’s growing series of performances featuring historic Maine women, and is told through the eyes of Eunice.

Luther and Eunice Lakeman Hoar, and their children, were the first permanent settlers on what became Rangeley Lake. Jude first heard this story at the annual Lamb Family Reunions, as a child in the mid-1950s.

In 1817 Eunice and Luther walked the 20 miles, with their nine children (ages one to fourteen), from the valley below Rangeley, to what became Rangeley Lake. They hauled all their worldly possessions on moose sleds, up over the mountains, on the late winter snow. In the process the baby, who was bundled into the large family dough bowl and tied to the top of a loaded moose sled, went missing. They had crossed wolf tracks, and the journey would have been at night to take advantage of the frozen crust to haul their sleds. One can only imagine their frantic search!

Jude hopes that her story may inspire others to share their own family stories in creative ways. She holds a degree in Human Ecology from the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, and lives with her husband in an old Maine farmhouse in Lamoine.

AMY GRANT is best known to the Blue Hill area as owner of Peninsula Metamorphic Arts and Learning, Inc., a creative and educational resource for the rural communities of the Blue Hill Peninsula, and which offers a variety of classes, workshops, academic consulting and individual learning opportunities as well as theatrical performances so that residents and visitors to the Blue Hill Peninsula can have expanded access to quality, innovative, and affordable artistic and educational experiences.  Most recently, theater artist Grant has written and performed an original piece entitled Wading In, a show about doing it anyway. Emmett Scott accompanies her.  This is a spoken word and music piece that touches on many topics through the lens of doing the work that must be done - even when it's hard.

AMY ROEDER  is the Director of Education at Penobscot Theatre Company where she has been seen in Doctor Cerberus, Calendar Girls, and August: Osage County. As part of her work at the theatre, Amy was privileged to collaborate with members of the Penobscot Nation on Transformer Tales: Stories of the Dawnland, a world premiere. She has also spearheaded Penobscot Theatre Company’s new corporate training program, using improvisation to help businesses develop a more agile workforce. Amy has also been a company member of Bar Harbor’s ImprovAcadia for thirteen seasons. She holds her BFA from the University of Evansville, her MFA from the University of Georgia and is a certified teacher of the Michael Chekhov acting technique. Amy is a proud member of Actor’s Equity Association and SAG-AFTRA. Look for the union label!

CATHERINE WEISS was born and raised in Blue Hill. Catherine wants you to know she loves poems. And Lord of the Rings. And crying jags. Sometimes she loves them all at once. Catherine is known for her signature poetic mix of humor and heart, and definitely not for punching through walls like the Hulk when she doesn’t win a slam. Her work has been published in such journals as Voicemail Poems, Melancholy Hyperbole, Jersey Devil Press, Yellow Chair Review, and Gravel Mag. PS-Catherine lives in Western MA with her husband, two dogs, and a cat. Catherine also doesn’t know how to prioritize a bio.

Roosters crow, and you wake one morning in the green hills of Africa, sun lemon bright over eucalyptus trees full of doves...

What is a children's story based on? Come dress like the characters from the Sahara and learn about their camels and calls to prayer and the people from Africa around their fires of long ago. Join author and educator Kelly Cunnane as she takes us to Africa in words and clothes. This is a fun activity for kids of all ages.

As Kelly tells us, "During my teaching and travels, I've explored the Caribbean, Europe, South America, and China, but nowhere calls me like the continent of Africa.

I've been exploring and writing about East Africa since 1979, teaching in the Secondary School of a Kalenjin village, 9000 feet high on the Great Rift Valley. I have an MA in English with emphasis on Creative Nonfiction - which I published for many years in various anthologies and magazines (Down East, Christian Science Monitor, various anthologies, children's picture books with Simon & Schuster, Random House, and Heinemann International), all the while teaching K-8 art and culture, English at the high school and university, and writing in the community.

This event is free and open to the public.

Led by students and staff of The Telling Room, this workshop invites its participants to answer this question: "If you only had one story to tell about what matters most to you, what would it be?" Start by positing your answer as a statement you could shout from the rooftops, and grow it into a story to share.

THE TELLING ROOM is a nonprofit writing center in Portland, Maine, dedicated to the idea that children and young adults are natural storytellers. Focused on young writers ages 6 to 18, we seek to build confidence, strengthen literacy skills, and provide real audiences for our students. We believe that the power of creative expression can change our communities and prepare our youth for future success.

THE TELLING ROOM is a pioneer in youth publishing, and produces carefully edited, beautifully designed, and locally printed books of our students’ stories, poems, and personal narratives. Currently, we publish between 15-20 titles a year, and more than 30,000 Telling Room books are now in circulation. Since the printing of our first book a decade ago, in 2007, we have published more than 3,000 young authors in 125 anthologies, individual titles, and project “chapbooks," including Maine Literary Award-winner The Story I Want to Tell, and our newest release, by students in the national award-winning Young Writers & Leader's program, A Season for Building Houses.

This event is free and open to the public.

Book signings, word-related merchandise and swag, mini readings and workshops, delicious conversations, delicious food, and so much more.

Have you wondered if there are any good book groups in the area? Are you looking for a stack of books for Christmas giving? Have you wondered how to take your writing to the next level? Have you wondered where to eat lunch on Sat., Oct. 21? Do you want your copy of Motherless Brooklyn signed by Jonathan Lethem? Are you looking for a book bag to haul away your purchases?

All this and more, at the Literary Marketplace, American Legion Hall and First Congregational Church of Blue Hill.

Food (Jonathan Fisher Hall, Congregational Church)

Food will be available for sale all day in the marketplace, with lunch featuring El El Frijoles burritos. After the marketplace closes at 5 pm, the room will be transformed into a cafe, and dinner--chowder and chili for a suggested donation of $10--will be served at 6pm, directly following the poetry reading in the sanctuary upstairs.

Poets from the Poetry Crawl will be available to sign books at the Blue Hill Books table. At 7pm, everyone is invited upstairs again for Spoken Words!

Vendors (Jonathan Fisher Hall, Congregational Church)

∙ Blue Hill Books—works by all festival authors, who will be there at specified hours to sign them.

Signing schedule: 11 am, Kim Ridley; 11:30 am Cynthia Lord; 12:30 pm Jonathan Lethem; 1 pm Steve Pickering; 1:30 pm Deborah Joy Corey; 2:30 pm Megan Frazer Blakemore, Ellen Booraem, Maria Padian; 6-7 pm, all Poetry Crawl participants.

∙ Word will have its own table, where you can buy book-bags and clothing with the Word. logo, or design and print your own Word keepsake.

∙ The Telling Room, Portland— books written by students in the organization’s workshops for kids ages 6-18.

∙ Michele Levesque, Sargentville—artwork made from books.

∙ Gigi Sarsfield, Brooklin—handmade paper

∙ Katie Greene, Brooklin—handcrafted books.

∙ Self-published authors will be there to sell and sign their books.

∙ Nonprofit organizations will hand out information and answer questions. They include: East Blue Hill Library, The Gatherings (Surry), The Harbor School (Blue Hill), The Millay House (Rockland), Oral History and Folklife Research, Inc., and community radio station WERU-FM (Orland).

Activities for all ages (Legion Hall)

∙ What does Blue Hill Mountain mean to you and your community? Tell us, in three words or less, on the Blue Hill Mountain Word Board, courtesy of Blue Hill Heritage Trust.

∙ We are poets! Write a line or two on the Day-Long Poem, set up with a Word volunteer to guide you.

∙ Dress up! Between 2-4 pm, local teacher, children’s book author, and world traveler Kelly Cunnane will offer an interactive workshop with African artifacts and clothing to make her books come alive. She’ll show you how to dress like one of her characters.

Readings and discussion (Dolly Fisher Room, Congregational Church)

∙ 10:30 a.m. Self-published author Paul Newlin will read from his book, The Adventures of Jack Armstron: The Not-Quite All-American Boy, followed by a discussion of the publishing difficulties faced by older writers. 

∙ Noon. Peg Cruikshank will join Paul to continue the discussion of elder writers.  Cruikshank is a retired women’s studies professor from the University of Maine and an associate of the university’s Cetner on Aging. She is the author of Fierce with Reality: Literature on Aging.

∙ 1 pm Generation shift! Open mic reading by young-adult poets, hosted by Blue Hill Harbor School Poets.  

∙ 3:30 pm Lacey Leach, Blue Hill, will share her experiences writing and publishing her young-adult fantasy novel In My Brother’s Shadow.