Photo Credit: Sam Bullard
Images of some of the chalking and attendees at the vigil on March 25th.
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Thank you to all who were able to attend our Stop Asian Hate Vigil yesterday. We had a group of around 40 people who joined us, including some activists from Bucksport. The vigil began with writing messages of solidarity in the square and a powerful statement from Blue Hellwig, a member of the AAPI community and volunteer for Needlepoint Sanctuary and Greater Bangor Housing Coalition. This was followed by a moment of silence and then an open mic for anyone wishing to speak. The community members that came forward spoke eloquently and emphasized why it is so important that we care about these issues.
The vigil itself was successful, but the work to stop these acts of violence against our community members is far from over. Let's continue to do the work to fight white supremacy and the systemic structures that allow hate to persist. Lastly, don't forget to check in with the people in your life; a simple check in can mean a lot to people when faced with these violent occurrences.
Here is an article with resources to support our AAPI community. |
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Art Night with Sam & Anthony
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Photo Credit: Sam Bullard
Some stills from the Art Night with Sam and Anthony. The bottom right is a drawing Sam created and used as a reference for her painting.
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On March 31st our Co-Program Directors, Sam and Anthony, hosted an Art Night in celebration of Women's History Month. This event was meant to bring the community together through fun conversation about feminist topics and creating art with each other. This event featured Sam Bullard, who is a local artist from Bangor on top of being a Co-Program Director for P&JC. You can check out her work here: https://linktr.ee/samanthabfineartist
Around ten people attended and there was much stimulating conversation related to feminism, intersectionality, and allyship. It was nice to be among other creative minds with similar interests. Sam has yet to finish her artwork, but we will share it when she completes it.
We appreciate all who were able to attend! If you want to support more of this work, you can donate to us using our Donorbox here. We hope to do more of these events in the future. |
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Photo Credit: Sam Bullard
An example of the food boxes provided to us by the Ecumenical Food Cupboard.
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We are still taking nominations for our community food effort! We are looking to sponsor 10-20 local families in need to deliver food weekly to, and we hope to do so for at least half the year. You can anonymously nominate a family (including your own) here on our Google Form here.
Our deliveries are now in full swing as we provide weekly boxes to ten families. Thanks to the efforts of many, we have been able to consistently provide these families with food all month. The Ecumenical Food Cupboard has been doing the box arrangements and will continue doing so for us in the coming months.
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We also still welcome volunteers for our delivery drivers. Please let us know if you want to volunteer with us on our food pantry efforts too!
Thanks for your support, and please be sure to share our form so we can help out our community!
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Greater Bangor Housing Coalition
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The Greater Bangor Housing Coalition (GBHC) made some great strides this month on many fronts! We pushed to Bangor advertise and install more needle deposit boxes around downtown after our members brought forth the lack of boxes as an issue. Also with months of hard work and amazing volunteers GBHC was able to present their bathroom proposal to Bangor City Council.
The following is just a piece of the many statements GBHC made to the council on the bathroom issue:
"After in-depth discussions with our neighbors without walls, it became clear that the lack of restrooms available is a gross oversight in providing basic human necessities to our Bangor citizens. Our city currently has a bus terminal with no public access to toilets. This not only affects our unhoused population but those who use public transportation. We have heard of plans for the renovation of this location, but have yet to see an immediate action plan to resolve this issue. Outside the bus terminal, there are few if any appropriate places for a person to relieve themselves. This negligence forces people into humiliating and unsanitary positions that are not healthy, or good for any person in our city. We ask you to consider our proposal and respect the humanity of our entire community by simply providing safe clean places to use the bathroom."
You can read GBHC's bathroom proposal here. If you wish to support this initiative, come to the next GBHC meeting or voice your support at the City Council Workshop and Meeting on April 12th. Here are some talking points to bring up during the meetings.
The group meets every Saturday at ~1PM in the Unitarian Universalist Church and Pickering Square. If you want to be part of this vital work you are welcome to join us at either location or virtually. Email us at peacectr@gmail.com if you want the link, and follow the group’s progress on their Facebook group page.
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No Penobscot County Jail Expansion
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Portrait of Breann by Zeraph Dylan Moore
Taken from No Penobscot County Jail Expansion Groups' Facebook Page. Breann is one of their people featured in the PCJ Storytelling Project.
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The No Penobscot County Jail Expansion has embarked on a storytelling project to gather the stories of community members who have spent time in Penobscot County Jail from 2018 to the present. Each participant also has the opportunity to have their portrait painted by a Maine artist. The group will be sharing these stories and portraits in a variety of ways to help create change inside the Penobscot County Jail and in the community. To read more about the project, check out this Maine Beacon article they helped write.
People who have spent time in PCJ and are willing to tell their story are invited to contact storytelling project organizer Dylan Moore at zeraph.moore@gmail.com. Participants can be anonymous if desired. For more information on the project, check out this Google Doc here. |
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Freedom & Captivity: Art on Abolition
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For those of you with a creative mind, you may be excited to hear about this opportunity to share your art! The Freedom & Captivity Coalition and other orgs are in search of visual artists, writers, and musicians for their upcoming show, "Freedom & Captivity: Art on Abolition." This exhibit focuses on the theme of abolition and a reimagining of the world through this lens.
This group understands abolition as the "tearing down of racist systems of policing, detention, captivity, and monitoring" and replacing it with "community-led systems of caring for people and harm reduction." This exhibit is an open call that especially welcomes those who are incarcerated or have been incarcerated to participate, as well as anyone in the community that cares about this issue. The exhibit launches on August 2nd, with existing work submissions due June 1st.
For more information on this exhibit and how to apply, check out this flyer as well as this website here. We hope to see some of your work there! |
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Peace Vigils
Tuesdays at 12:00PM
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Looking to get involved again in a safe, socially distanced way? Kevin continues to meet every Tuesday at noon with other activists for the weekly Peace Vigil. The group meets across the street from the Peace & Justice Center on the corner of Harlow and Central Street. We hope to see you there masked up and ready to demonstrate!
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THANK YOU TO ALL OF OUR COMMUNITY MEMBERS!
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