Farmers’ Market launches Special Friday

     BELFAST -- Vocalist Laura Campbell will share the bill with bluesman Jim James at the first Special Friday of the Belfast Farmers’ Market series Friday, May 26.

     From 9 a.m. until 1 p.m., the block of Main Street between Post Office Square and High Street will be closed to traffic to allow pedestrians to shop for organic foods and goods produced in the area.

     Six Special Fridays are planned to run through October and will include entertainment for all ages offered by local artists from 10 a.m. to noon. A mix of acoustic musicians, storytellers, dancers and who knows what else is in line to amuse and amaze patrons as they meander among the vendors’ stalls. On each Special Friday, two acts will share the bill.

     For the first Special Friday, Campbell promises a range of vocal styles -- folk, blues and earth-centered toning -- as well as instruments. Besides acoustic guitar, she accompanies her engaging tunes with rainstick, drum and Australian didgeridoo.

     Sharing the market’s impromptu stage with Campbell will be erstwhile Liverpudlian Jim James, offering his distinctive style of laid-back British blues. Dan Wilson, who crafts his own one-of-a-kind instruments, will complement James’ guitar and vocals with an easy bass. Main Street merchant Neil Parent has offered slithery support on harmonica.

     Campbell, James and Wilson are regular contributors to the twice-monthly open mic and coffeehouse at the city’s Unitarian Universalist Church. Campbell has presented her music at numerous events throughout Maine and New England including MOFGA’s Common Ground Country Fair. As a five-piece ensemble, Jim James and Friends were a standing-room feature of the last New Year’s by the Bay.

     Next up in the Special Friday series June 23 are fiddler, songstress and raconteur Jennifer Armstrong along with flamenco artist and belly dancer Helena Melone.

Neck of the Woods in Montville

     MONTVILLE -- Tree by Leaf and the singer/songwriter duo Orson & Luckless will perform from 7 p.m.-9 p.m. Friday, May 26, at the Montville Grange on Center Road.

     Organized by band leaders Garrett Soucy and Orson, both Liberty residents, the concert will be the first in a monthly Neck of the Woods series bringing bands and singer/songwriters to this venue in the heart of Waldo County.

     “Both our bands perform regularly across the state of Maine and beyond, but local venues are rather limited, explained explains Orson, “So when Garrett came to me with the idea of having a concert at the Grange, I thought it would be a great opportunity to bring music back to our neck of the woods and also to introduce some of the best bands we have played with in Portland or other cities to this area.”

     The Montville Grange is a family-friendly venue with snacks and refreshments served. Admission will be $5 for adults, free for children younger than 12. For information and directions, call 214-6069.

‘Peter Rabbit’ at The Playhouse

     BELFAST ­ “Peter Rabbit in the Garden,” featuring the Children’s Theater Company and directed by Mary Weaver, will be presented at 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; and at 3 p.m. Sundays through June 4 at The Playhouse, 107 Church St.

     Based on the stories of Beatrix Potter, the cast of this delightful family comedy has six bunnies, two mice, a crow, a squirrel, a hedgehog, a little girl, Lucie and Mr. and Mrs. McGregor.

     Peter Rabbit and Benjamin Bunny hop into big trouble in Mr. McGregor’s garden. Soon Flopsy, Mopsy and Cotton-Tail are climbing over the wall to help along with Squirrel Nutkin and Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle. The play is suitable for anyone 3 years old and older.

     Tickets will be $5 at the door. Seating is limited; call 338-5777 for reservations.

Open mic night at Abbracci

     SEARSPORT -- Chris and Assunta Corpora, owners of Abbracci Bakery & Espresso Bar at 225 West Main St., will host another open mic night Saturday, May 27.

     The microphone will be open for drama, improv, music, poetry, songs and stand-up comedy. Sign-up will start at 6 p.m. and performances at 6:30 p.m. For information, call 548-2010.

‘Women and the Sea’ opens Penobscot season

     SEARSPORT -- Penobscot Marine Museum will start its 2006 season Saturday, May 27, with the opening of the exhibit “Women and the Sea.”

     From the misty days of myth to today, women have played indispensable roles in the maritime world. Their work fueled the economies of port towns. They provided sound counsel as wives of merchants and captains. In the last 50 years, women have served with distinction in the world’s navies and merchant marines. They are marine biologists and elite racing sailors, matching their skills and mettle against global competition. The exhibit “Women and the Sea” tells their stirring tales.

     The exhibit uses artifacts ranging from ships’ figureheads to naval uniforms to show how women’s marine roles have changed. Letters reveal just how lonely and forlorn long voyages were for separated husbands and wives. Painted portraits and photographs give faces to women at work on the sea, whether racing yachts or fishing.

     “Women and the Sea” is a traveling exhibit developed and produced by Mariner’s Museum, Newport News, Va., and Mystic Seaport, Mystic, Conn. Penobscot Marine Museum will add items and stories from its own collections to augment the traveling show. Penobscot Marine also is sharpening the Maine focus by sponsoring a series of six evening programs by Maine women whose careers tie them to the sea. For information about the programs, visit the Web site: www.pmm-maine.org.

     The Penobscot Marine Museum was founded in 1936 and is Maine’s oldest maritime museum. Its downtown grounds comprise 13 historic buildings, including ship captains’ residences, an early town hall and a commercial structure. Eight of the buildings are on the National Register of Historic Places, and together they represent Searsport when it was a bustling port during the Age of Sail. Inside the historic structures, artifacts, exhibits and interpreters tell the stories of Maine’s seafaring past.

     The Penobscot Marine Museum is located at Route 1 and Church Street. The museum will be open daily Saturday through Oct. 29. Hours will be 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays and noon to 5 p.m. Sundays. Admission is $8 for adults and $3 for children age 7­15; admission for families (parents and children of same household) is $18. Museum members and children younger than 7 are admitted free.

     Special programs and events are featured several times a week. For information, call 548-2529 or visit the Web site.

Photojournalist speaks of the poor

     BELFAST -- Photojournalist Jim Harney will display his photos and narrate at a special Community Radio WERU-FM presentation, “Globalization and the Undocumented,” at 7 p.m. Wednesday, May 31, at Belfast Free Library, 106 High St.

     Harney works as an artist-in-residence for Posibilidad, a Bangor-based nonprofit that prioritizes engaging people in conversation about the excluded of society. He lectures and gives seminars on globalization and its negative impact on the poor.

     He recently returned from the United States-Mexico and Mexico-Guatemalan borders, where he walked with undocumented people headed to the United States to find work. In May 2005, he made a timely visit to Venezuela to explore the importance of dramatic social reforms going on in the oil-rich country that have touched the lives of the country’s poor.

     In recent years, Harney has spent time in Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Argentina. He was a member of a Voices in the Wilderness delegation to Iraq in 2003 and since has traveled around Maine, Massachusetts and Maryland with his “Faces of Iraq” presentation.

     During the 1980s, Harney lived with the poor in El Salvador; during the 1990s, he lived with the communities of Population in Resistance in the hills of Guatemala. After each journey into Central America, the photojournalist returned and gave slide presentations throughout the United States and Canada.

     Harney also will present “Globalization and the Undocumented” at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 30, at Camden Public Library.

First Fridays continues

     BELFAST -- BelfastART, a consortium of several of Belfast’s growing community galleries, will host the second First Friday Openings of the season from 5 p.m.-8 p.m. Friday, June 2.

      New works will be featured in many of the art galleries, all located within two blocks of each other. Visit all the galleries and receive a Colonial Theatre discount for a movie later that evening. While gallery hopping, catch some live music at Belfast Music.

     Light refreshments will be available at Belfast Framer and Gallery, Art Alliance Gallery, Indigo Gallery, High Street Gallery, Engraven Images, Parent Gallery, William Ryan Gallery, Working Art Gallery, First Light Gallery and Phoenix Loft and Gallery.

     For information about the BelfastART galleries, visit www.belfastarts.com.

‘Bookmarkings’ at library

     BELFAST -- “Bookmarkings,” a mixed media exhibit by artist Arlyss Becker will hang in the Kramer Gallery of Belfast Free Library for the month of June.

     Becker is a painter, printmaker and mixed media artist who lives in Lamoine. Her work includes landscapes, figurative work, semi-abstract and abstract paintings and prints, theme-based visualizations and experimental art pieces using a wide variety of materials. Most of her work is done in and around her home in Lamoine, but she also spends time in Colorado and there concentrates on work that is inspired by the mountain landscapes in and around Summit County.

     Currently, Becker is working on a series of book-inspired paintings and monotype prints that focus on the experiences one has when opening a book and exploring the contents. This work has been shown in four libraries in Maine during 2005. It also will be shown in the Bangor and Southwest Harbor libraries during the months of September and November this year.

     Becker was born and raised in Minnesota and graduated with honors as an art major from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn. She taught art for 28 years in four states and overseas. Since retiring from teaching, she has been painting and doing other artwork nearly full time. Arlyss has had one person shows in art centers, libraries, and churches in Massachusetts, Maine and Colorado.

     Her focus now is to continue her “Bookmarkings” series and explore many alternative ways to express her regard and interest in the written word. She has found inspiration from many sources such as her own drawings of book centered still lives; writings by many authors; scientific literature; historical philosophical and religious writings; music, poetry, and other sources of wonder, wit, and wisdom.

     The library is located on High Street.

Walk in the Elfin Forest

     SEARSMONT -- Bring a hand lens to get up close and personal with the moss and lichen in the Elfin Forest of the Georges River Land Trust’s Gibson Preserve Saturday, June 3. Naturalist Fred Olday will introduce participants to the moss and lichen that is characteristic of Maine’s coastal spruce-fir forests. Meet at 10 a.m. at the entrance road to the preserve on Route 173, two miles west of the center of Searsmont. Wear comfortable shoes and bring water, a snack and a hand lens if possible.

     Dr. Olday, a long-time Downeast resident and adjunct faculty member in botany at College of the Atlantic, presently teaches courses in bryology and lichenology. Olday also is affiliated with the Humboldt Field Research Institute in Steuben, where he serves as book review editor of the Northeastern Naturalist and teaches an introductory-level summer course, “Lichens for Naturalists.”

     This event is part of the Georges River Land Trust’s 2006 Walks & Talks series, featuring hikes on the Georges Highland Path, canoeing and kayaking on the St. George River, biking, plein-air painting, lectures on flora and fauna and the garden tour. All activities demonstrate the natural resources and traditional character of the 225-square-mile Georges River watershed and surrounding areas, which the Georges River Land Trust dedicates itself to conserve and protect for the public benefit.

     On June 8 GRLT will offer a lecture by Kelly Jackson, assistant curator at the Center for Maine Contemporary Art, titled “Cushing Artists: Inspired by the Land.” This talk is co-sponsored by and held at the Cushing Historical Society.

     On June 10, GRLT will lead a paddle to explore the St. George River in Warren.

     For information on the Georges River Land Trust and its activities, visit www.grlt.org, e-mail at info@grlt.org or call 594-5166.

Vaudeville Revue revs up for June

     BELFAST -- A New Vaudeville Revue will stage its third monthly show at 3:30 p.m. Sunday, June 4, at the Colonial Theatre on High Street.

     Tickets are on sale now for the popular monthly showcase of local comedy, music, skits, poetry and general mayhem. Lindsey Batchelder on piano and vocals will perform her lovely songs, local poet of the month Mandi Locke will speak to the heart and Appalachian-style storyteller Gussie Vaughn will spin charming yarns.

     Tickets, $10, are on sale at the Colonial Theatre box office and the downtown Zoe’s Bakery. For information, call Ando Anderson at 322-7123.