May Events Recap
Photos from MIO performances at King Middle School, banner making with ARRT for the June 19 festival parade, MIO’s creative ensemble creating a new play, and the community Open Mic at L/A Arts on May 22. Photographs by Caroline Burns and Jen Hoffer.
Maine Inside Out’s performance season is in full swing!
MIO’s groups at King Middle School performed 8 times this month for audiences of peers, teachers, and family members… and went on tour to perform for students at Westbrook Middle School!
In Lewiston, MIO’s community group hosted an Open Mic “Streets & Heartbeats” at L/A Arts featuring performances by MIO’s statewide artist community and local performers.
The festival project team is getting ready for the festival day on June 19 by creating a new performance and planning for the parade & block party.
This Friday, June 7, a group of incarcerated artists at Mountain View Correctional Facility will perform a new play “Life Lost in the Streets” for audiences of facility residents, staff, and the public. This project is supported by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Maine Justice Foundation.
Join us for our final event of the Spring on Wednesday, June 19, for “The City That Carries Us: Pain, Streets, and Heartbeats” a Juneteenth festival featuring a parade, performances, and block party. The festival will feature performances by Maine Inside Out, Glen David Andrews Band, Kenya Hall, Samuel James, DJ Dane Morgan, and Andre Hicks and original visual artwork by Yssolo Serafim, Maine Inside Out, and community partners. The festival is presented in partnership with the City of Lewiston and with support from the National Endowment for the Arts and other local coalition partners.
King Middle School
Photographs of King Middle School performances on May 13 and May 15 by Caroline Burns and Jen Hoffer.
MIO’s two Spring plays by students at King Middle School, “Stressful Situations” and “Break the Pattern Today or the Loop Will Continue,” featured scenes about friendship, trust, peer pressure, fights, being a bystander, and more. The plays connected deeply with student audiences at KMS and Westbrook Middle School as well as with teachers, family members, and members of the public. Shout out to the incredible young artists who created the plays to courageously share the challenges they are facing.
Thank you to the administration and staff at King Middle School for supporting this collaboration, thank you to our donors and funders for making this possible, and thank you to everyone who showed up to a performance to be in dialogue and community with the MIO youth artists.
“Streets & Heartbeats” Open Mic
Thank you to everyone who performed at and joined us for “Streets & Heartbeats” at L/A Arts on May 22. Isha Abdullahi, Hassan Hassan, and Bashir Matan hosted the event headlined by featured artist Andre Hicks. It was a powerful evening of poetry, music, and community. Thank you to the National Endowment for the Arts, which is funding MIO’s Open Mics in Lewiston this year to support art for healing after the devastating mass shooting.