Related Items
First Friday Art Walk: Art in Captivity and Teen Street Art
5:00pm - 7:00pm
Location: First Friday Art Walk: Art in Captivity and Teen Street Art
Audience: Adults, Teens
Art in Captivity: Inside Out
Portland Public Library has partnered with Freedom & Captivity to create an exhibit of photographs of art created by current inmates in Maine. These photographs by Séan Alonzo Harris, Lesley MacVane and Trent Bell from inside Maine’s Correctional Facilities reveal the human necessity to create art. On view in the Congress Street windows at Portland Public Library from September 15 – October 15, 2021.
An outdoor opening reception will be held during October’s First Friday Art Walk on October 1, 2021 from 5 – 8 pm on Congress Street with Maine Youth Justice.
Maine Youth Justice is a youth-led, nonpartisan, activist organization whose goal is to close Long Creek, Maine’s youth detention facility, and create safer and stronger communities by investing in a continuum of community-based alternatives to incarceration for youth where all of Maine’s young people can not only survive, but thrive.
The vision of youth justice is a collaborative and equitable response to harm that recognizes and builds on the strengths of individuals and community.
The Youth Justice project was funded in part by a grant from the Maine Arts Commission, an independent state agency supported by the National Endowment for the Arts.
MYJ will have a table with information about the campaign to close Long Creek, how to get involved in the movement to end youth incarceration and Know Your Rights posters created by Central Maine SURJ (Showing Up For Racial Justice).
Freedom & Captivity is a state-wide public humanities initiative during Fall 2021 to bring critical perspectives from the humanities to the interrogation of incarceration. Recognizing that mass incarceration is fueled by racism and profit-generating mechanisms that tear apart communities and families, the project offers opportunities for public engagement about imagining prison abolition and the redirection of resources toward community investments, the repair of racial and gender injustice, intergenerational trauma, and eldercare for the aging population in Maine’s prisons. The project, which includes art exhibitions, workshops, webinars, a podcast, research and creative production, public education materials, and linked courses taught across Maine’s campuses, aims to cultivate opportunities for imagining freedom in an abolitionist society. The project is conceived with the participation of people in Maine directly impacted by the carceral system.
Teen Street Photography Exhibit
Street photography is a genre that spotlights candid moments in our everyday lives. Teens in PPL’s summer Street Photography Workshop studied the history and principles of the genre before taking photos of their own—often within a close walk of the Library.
This exhibition features photographs that invite Library patrons to see a familiar place with new eyes.
The program and exhibition were inspired by the work of PPL Teen Library Artist-in-Residence, Maizie Hummel-Logee.
A selection of photos from this exhibit will also be on display in the library’s Elm Street windows for September’s First Friday Art Walk.
When: September 1, 2021 — October 1, 2021
Where: Teen Library
About the Instructor
Adam Powers has been engaged with the photographic medium since developing their first roll of black and white 24 years ago. His connection with photography has remained steady, culminating in a Bachelor’s degree in photography from the University of Central Florida and an MFA in studio arts from the Maine College of Art. Adam currently resides in Portland, Maine, randomly collecting the everyday and overlooked with a digital camera.
About the Teen Mentor
Maizie Hummel-Logee is a photographer in Portland, Maine. She has been doing photography and playing with cameras since before even her camera roll remembers. She strives to document the lives and moments of people who may go unnoticed in everyday life. She is working towards social justice along with her peers and is hoping to use some of her photography to help do so.
About the Series » First Friday Art Walk at PPL
Join Portland Public Library for the First Friday Art Walk each month from 5:00-7:00pm. Each month we celebrate an exhibit in the Lewis Gallery and often have additional exhibits in the Lower Level exhibition area, performances and other programs. It’s varied each month and there’s always something new.
Click below for information about our exhibit(s) currently on display!
