UUCB has collaborated with the Maine Humanities Council to offer its Poetry Express Program. The mission of Poetry Express is to connect communities through poetry and performance as a catalyst for deeper engagement with poetry. Seven local participants were selected to take part in two workshops at the UU Church with Portland Poet Laureate Maya Williams, who guided them in writing and performing their own poems.
Maya Williams is a Black nonbinary person, suicide survivor and poet residing in Portland. They currently serve as MaineTransNet’s Sexual Assault Program coordinator, where they develop peer support groups for trans survivors and educational material on trauma informed trans competency for advocates. They also serve as co-host of the video series “Dying/Laughing,” which analyzes the representation of suicide and mental health in television and film. Maya has published poetry in “glitterMOB,” “Occulum,” The Portland Press Herald, Littoral Books, “FreezeRay,” and more.
The participants in the Poetry Express workshop were Arrow Andrews, Sam Caswell, Jane Danielson, Peg Dunstan, Michael Greene, Jazmyne Peebles, Libby Riggs. The theme of their poetry is “resistance.”
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