Please note: This event has been postponed until next week due to reports of messy commutes in the Portland area and throughout the state. If you have signed up for this event, you should receive updates via email. You can also check back in here and on social media for more details to come. We apologize for the frustration and disappointment of this last-minute decision. We just want everyone to stay safe.

LORE is a space for the BIPOC community to connect, create, and collaborate.

In honor of the priceless and intangible legacy left to us by the beloved ancestor Ashley Bryan (left) and upheld by so many BIPOC creatives, our next LORE event will be a reading and discussion, cohosted by our partners at Indigo Arts Alliance and featuring (clockwise from top left) Dania Bowie, Kendric Chua, Liz Iversen, Minquansis Sapiel, and Stacey Tran. These Fellows will be sharing their original writing with us and connecting with each other and with our community though conversation about their work and approaches to writing in these uncertain times.

Please note: This event is open to the public, and all who celebrate our diverse creative community are welcome and invited to attend.

This event is free to the public, but seating is limited, and we ask that you RSVP by clicking on the button below.

For more about the Ashley Bryan Fellowship Program, please find our history and values statement.

POSTEPONED

Please note: This event has been postponed until next week due to reports of messy commutes in the Portland area and throughout the state. If you have signed up for this event, you should receive updates via email. You can also check back in here and on social media for more details to come. We apologize for the frustration and disappointment of this last-minute decision. We just want everyone to stay safe.

LORE is a space for the BIPOC community to connect, create, and collaborate.

In honor of the priceless and intangible legacy left to us by the beloved ancestor Ashley Bryan (left) and upheld by so many BIPOC creatives, our next LORE event will be a reading and discussion, cohosted by our partners at Indigo Arts Alliance and featuring (clockwise from top left) Dania Bowie, Kendric Chua, Liz Iversen, Johan Alexander F, Minquansis Sapiel, and Stacey Tran. These Fellows will be sharing their original writing with us and connecting with each other and with our community though conversation about their work and approaches to writing in these uncertain times.

Please note: This event is open to the public, and all who celebrate our diverse creative community are welcome and invited to attend.

This event is free to the public, but seating is limited, and we ask that you RSVP by clicking on the button below.

For more about the Ashley Bryan Fellowship Program, please find our history and values statement.

LORE is a space for the BIPOC community to connect, create, and collaborate.

Ashley Bryan Fellow Stacey Tran invites local Writers of Color to come together and create in a new, safe-space writing group.

"I'm imagining a long table where we can all sit together quietly to write and talk about writing over tea, snacks, gentle music in the background...If this kind of atmosphere is enticing to you, and if you'd like to have a communal writing space to connect with fellow writers of color in the area in person or on Zoom, I'd love to invite you to (the second of these) meetups on Tuesday, March 5, 6-8pm at Indigo Arts Alliance in Portland, ME. If you know someone who would appreciate a space like this, please feel free to invite them, as well."

RSVP to join this group and to receive updates.

Time: 6:00 PM

Date: Tuesday, March 5

Location: Indigo Arts Alliance (60 Cove St, Portland, ME 04101) AND online. Please email Stacey for the join link: stactran@gmail.com.

There will be light refreshments and time for connecting with each other and quiet writing.

Questions about this event and other LORE happenings can be addressed to Samara Cole Doyon at samara@mainewriters.org.

For more about the Ashley Bryan Fellowship Program, please find our history and values statement.

LORE is a space for the BIPOC community to connect, create, and collaborate.

Ashley Bryan Fellow Stacey Tran invites local Writers of Color to come together and create in a new, safe-space writing group.

"I'm imagining a long table where we can all sit together quietly to write and talk about writing over tea, snacks, gentle music in the background...If this kind of atmosphere is enticing to you, and if you'd like to have a communal writing space to connect with fellow writers of color in the area in person or on Zoom, I'd love to invite you to the first of these meetups on Thursday, January 25, 6-8pm at Indigo Arts Alliance in Portland, ME. If you know someone who would appreciate a space like this, please feel free to invite them, as well."

RSVP to join this group and to receive updates.

Time: 6:00 PM

Date: Thursday, January 25

Location: Indigo Arts Alliance (60 Cove St, Portland, ME 04101) AND online. Please email Stacey for the join link: stactran@gmail.com.

Questions about this event and other LORE happenings can be addressed to Samara Cole Doyon at samara@mainewriters.org.

For more about the Ashley Bryan Fellowship Program, please find our history and values statement.

Please join MWPA & Mechanics' Hall in showcasing exciting voices in Maine's rich literary legacy with six of MWPA’s Ashley Bryan Fellows. This night’s featured readers include Linda Ashe-Ford, Johan Alexander F, Liz Iverson, Coco McCracken, Leila Christine Nadir, and Minquansis Sapiel.

In honor of award-winning writer and artist Ashley Bryan’s life, the MWPA offers the Ashley Bryan Fellowships, which support emerging Maine writers who are Black, people of color, and/or members of one of the Wabanaki Nations or other Native peoples.

“I love to celebrate the artistry of people around the world in whatever material or form they work” —Ashley Bryan

For more information about the Ashley Bryan Fellowship, visit here.

Please RSVP for this free event by clicking on the button below.

Linda Ashe-Ford is a veteran in the early education field and was a classroom teacher for over 45 years. She is a past president of the Maine Association for the Education of Young Children as well as a past treasurer of the New England Association for the Education Of Young Children. Linda holds a Master’s in Education from Antioch New England Graduate School and a BA in Theater and Communications from the University of Hartford. Using her background in theater, she has written, produced and performed both original and scripted materials on various topics. Linda is a storyteller who brings the history and folktales of people of color to life. She believes that through story we can begin to deepen our understanding of each other.

Johan Alexander F has been an Ashley Bryan Fellow in 2021, and was a Maine Lit Fest Fellow in 2022. His writing has also received support from the Periplus Collective and Anaphora Arts Writing Residencies, both national organizations supporting BIPOC writers. His short stories have been published in various places, with his last three works appearing in LatineLit Journal Winter '24 (forthcoming), Eunoia Review, and the Periplus Anthology '23. Born in Medellin, Colombia, he lives in Portland, where he mentors Young Writers and Leaders at the Telling Room.

Liz Iversen was born in the Philippines and grew up in South Dakota. Her writing has appeared or is forthcoming in Creative Nonfiction, Passages North, Room, and J Journal: New Writing on Justice. She has received support from Tin House and the Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance. Currently based in Portland, she is a copywriter for a radio and podcast advertising agency. You can find her online at liziversen.com.

Coco McCracken is a Chinese-Canadian author living in Portland. Her chapbook, The Rabbit, was selected by bestselling author Melissa Febos as the winner of the Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance’s 2021 Maine Chapbook Series. She is a 2022 Ashley Bryan Fellow and was named a Lit Fest Fellow by the MWPA, in which capacity she helped organize the state’s first inaugural Maine Lit Fest. She also serves on the Community Advisory Board for the MWPA. She was accepted for a residency for the 2022 summer season at Hewnoaks, where she was additionally awarded a grant from the Maine Arts Commission to complete her first manuscript. In 2023, she was chosen to be on the jury for the Maine Literary Awards.

Leila Christine Nadir is an Afghan-American artist and writer whose work appears in literary and scholarly journals, in museums and galleries, and in forests, classrooms, and kitchens. Her writing has appeared in Michigan Quarterly Review, Khôra, Black Warrior Review, North American Review, ASAP, and Aster(ix), and has been supported by awards and fellowships from MacDowell, Hedgebrook, Bread Loaf, Tin House, the de Groot Foundation, and Aspen Words. More info: https://leilanadir.xyz/. Instagram: @afghan_vegan.

Minquansis Sapiel is a Passamaquoddy TribaI member, mother of three daughters and has a Masters in Social Work. Her daughter also illustrated the children’s book she wrote Little People of the Dawn. She grew up on the Sipayik Reservation and moved off to go to college at the University of Maine. She also has her Captain’s license and offers whale watching tours.

LORE is a space for the BIPOC community to connect, create, and collaborate.

Our next LORE event will be a community reading, hosted by our partners at Port Veritas and The Equality Community Center, featuring 2021 Ashley Bryan Fellow Coco McCracken and 2022 Ashley Bryan Fellows Maya Williams and Ian-Khara Ellasante. These gifted writers will be sharing offerings from their respective crafts of memoir and poetry. Please note: This event is open to the public and may be attended virtually OR in person, and all who celebrate our diverse creative community are welcome and invited to attend.

Time: 8 pm

Date: Tuesday, June 27

Location: Equality Community Center [15 Casco St, Portland] AND online at https://us04web.zoom.us/j/893705103

Questions about this event and other LORE happenings can be addressed to Samara Cole Doyon at samara@mainewriters.org.

For more about the Ashley Bryan Fellowship Program, please find our history and values statement.

LORE is a space for the BIPOC community to connect, create, and collaborate.

PLEASE NOTE: The LORE Breakfast event in Lewiston has been cancelled due to a minor emergency. Check back in next week, however, for information about an open mic event with MWPA’s Ashley Bryan Fellows and Port Veritas.

LORE is a space for the BIPOC community to connect, create, and collaborate.

In honor of the priceless and intangible legacy left to us by the beloved ancestor Ashley Bryan (top left) and upheld by so many BIPOC creatives, our next LORE event will be a reading and discussion, cohosted by our partners at Indigo Arts Alliance and featuring (clockwise from top center) 2021 Bryan Fellows Liz Iversen, Christina Richardson, and Ning Sullivan, and 2022 Bryan Fellows Wendy Newell Dyer and Maya Williams. These Fellows will be sharing their original writing with us and connecting with each other and our with community though conversation about their work and approaches to writing in these uncertain times. Please note: This event is open to the public, and all who celebrate our diverse creative community are welcome and invited to attend.

Time: 6 pm

Host: Indigo Arts Alliance in collaboration with MWPA’s Samara Cole Doyon (samara@mainewriters.org).

This event is free to the public, but seating is limited, and we ask that you RSVP by clicking on the button below.

For more about the Ashley Bryan Fellowship Program, please find our history and values statement.

LORE is a space for the BIPOC community to connect, create, and collaborate.

Our next event will be a BIPOC lunch date on November 12, at MAIZ in Portland.

Time: 12 pm

Host: Samara Cole Doyon (samara@mainewriters.org)

Address: 621 Forest Ave, Portland, ME 04101

If you identify as Black, Indigenous, or a person of color, please sign up here to receive updates about this event and / or future LORE happenings.

About LORE:

MWPA and the current Ashley Bryan Fellows are pleased to now offer Lore--a series of social meetups for writers and friends who identify as Black, Indigenous, and/or People of Color. Lore is a chance to make connections and talk with other literary and creative people about navigating both institutional and informal settings within the world of writing and publishing.

There is no set agenda for LORE meetings, other than enjoying each other’s company, sharing real-life experiences and aspirations, and supporting each other as a creative community. This may look like:

• Online soirees and in-person events

• Vent sessions about racism within the literary world and our communities as a whole

• Ongoing discussions about where to find the right fit in publishers, agents, etc.

• Work sharing and open mic events

Lore is free to attend, and everyone who identifies as BIPOC is welcome. We look forward to growing our community with you.