Jamie Rooney with student Gianna Cilley.

Working Waterfront

A survivor’s story: From poverty and abuse to police department chronicled in Black to Blue

Deep into her memoir Black to Blue, Jamie Rooney recounts the steady sexual abuse she endured from her 16-year-old stepbrother. At this point in the book, it’s not the first such violation she’s had to endure. “I can’t believe no one ever picked up on this,” she writes 20-plus years… SEE MORE

Suzette McAvoy in a hallway at the new Center for Maine Contemporary Art.

Working Waterfront

High visibility for contemporary art in Rockland

The idea behind the new Center for Maine Contemporary Art (CMCA) building on Winter Street just off Main Street in Rockland is to “turn a traditional museum inside out,” says executive director Suzette McAvoy. The building, which has been under construction and visible to much of Rockland’s downtown over the… SEE MORE

Near the old Portland Public Library on Congress Street.

Working Waterfront

Home: Portland in the 1960s

Note: This is the first in a three-part series recollecting the look and feel of Portland in the 1960s, '70s and '80s by a Maine writer who spent his youth there. About 5 a.m. around the first of December 1977, I was standing in streetlight shadows on the corner of… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Millennial generation key to Maine’s future

They’re the young generation and they’ve got something to say. And if Maine policy makers are smart, they’ll listen. After decades of dominating the economy, politics and culture, the baby boom generation has been eclipsed by millennials, those born in the 1980 to 1998 period. Since 2006, millennials outnumber boomers,… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Fellows explore university-industry marine partnerships

Eight students from Maine universities delved into the science and practice of marine aquaculture recently, thanks to an innovative new program developed by the University of Maine and University of Maine at Machias. Students visited sites from Walpole to Eastport under the leadership of University of Maine Darling Marine Center… SEE MORE

A sailboat and cargo ship share the waters off Searsport.

Working Waterfront

Film screened in Belfast June 16 explores conflicting ocean uses

On Thursday, June 16 the film “A New England Story for Sustaining the Sea” will be shown at the Abbott Room of the Belfast Free Library. A discussion following the film will include two panelists familiar with the needs of stakeholders working to maintain the diverse uses of the ocean.… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Small, island-town values play well in big world

Benjamin Stevens of Islesford (Little Cranberry Island) graduated this month from Maine Maritime Academy in Castine. Every year, people from Maine’s islands buy all sorts of things. We buy clothes and shoes, tools and supplies, fuel and electricity, and groceries. Every island resident knows how challenging it is to get their… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Saving community underpinnings means recognizing them

A friend of mine once wrote that fishing villages came in to existence once they began to disappear. Once seaside villages were lost to other forms of development, nostalgia over their loss emerged, giving rise to the term “fishing villages” in the early 19th century. Most of the time, it… SEE MORE

Peter Willcox in the wheelhouse of a Greenpeace ship.

Working Waterfront

The dangerous work of bringing a green peace

Greenpeace Captain Macmillan, 2016 Big whales, bigger weather, young men at sea in rickety boats as underdogs in quixotic quests. It’s the stuff of good fiction. It’s also the story of Peter Willcox, who has traveled more than 400,000 miles at the helm of Greenpeace ships, through tropical storms and… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Tales from the boatyards

Boatbuilding on Mount Desert Island By Laurie Schreiber The History Press, 2016 In a small, once-isolated Maine community like Mount Desert Island, before it became a destination resort, boatbuilding was a necessity. Everyone lived on an island; roads were few or nonexistent; water was the way to get around the… SEE MORE