Dreamers, Dreams and Tall Tales: Malaga and Maine's "Unspoken" History

Description

Join the MDI Racial Equity Working Group for the second talk in their Winter Speaker Series on Wednesday, March 18 at 7 p.m. with Myron M. Beasley at the Jesup Memorial Library. Beasley, an Associate Professor of American Studies at Bates College, will speak about Malaga Island, focusing on the question, “why might some narratives persist and others remain hidden or erased from the historical record?”
 
Malaga Island is an island at the mouth of the New Meadows River in Casco Bay, Maine. From the 1860s until 1912 when the residents of the island were forcibly evicted by the state of Maine, the island was home to an interracial community. Beasley’s talk will draw from his work on the topic of Malaga Island and he will interrogate the cultural politics of the historical narrative.
 
Beasley’s ethnographic research includes exploring the intersection of cultural politics, material culture and social change. He has been awarded fellowships and grants by the Andy Warhol Foundation, the Whiting Foundation, the Mellon Foundation, National Endowment for the Humanities, and most recently the Ruth Landes Award from the Reed Foundation. His writing about Africana Cultural Politics, Contemporary Art, Material Culture and cultural engagement has appeared in many academic journals including “Text and Performance Quarterly,” “Gastronomica: The Journal of Food and Culture,” “The Journal of Poverty, Museum & Social Issues,” “The Journal of Curatorial Studies, Food and Foodways” and “Performance Research”.
 
The last event in this series is on Wednesday, April 15 at 7 p.m. with Abdi Nor Iftin, the author of “Call Me American.” The talk is co-sponsored by the YWCA MDI and Acacia House Inn. For more information on either talk, contact the YWCA at 207-288-5008.