2026 Speakers (more to come!)
Lindie Kuzmich and Sean Hoessli: A Round-About Journey from Los Angeles to Brunswick, Maine Lindie Kuzmich and Sean Hoessli are the new owners of the Eveningstar Cinema, a cultural center of downtown Brunswick for the past 47 years. Their talk will center on their career journey that led to the ownership of the cinema and their filmmaking careers, including their upcoming Maine film. Lindie started her career in television, then [...]
Inhabiting Boundary Lines: On Crossing Ecosystems, Shorelines and Concepts Kate Cart began writing about fisheries while working on commercial fishing vessels in the Bering Sea and Gulfs of Maine and Alaska. She now lives and works in Phippsburg as an Island Institute Fellow. She will talk about how large social, ecological and economic systems overlap in Phippsburg’s intertidal zones and the role of social boundary spanning in long-term resource management. Learn [...]
“Hidden in Plain Sight - My Lichen Journey” Mary Harding completed the Maine Master Naturalist program in 2022 which was held at the Wells Reserve at Laudholm. After completing the program, she decided to take a closer look at lichen and continued an independent study of the subject as well as taking two courses at the Eagle Hill Institute in Steuben, Maine. As a Maine Master Naturalist she enjoys sharing her [...]
As the Casco Baykeeper, Ivy Frignoca is the lead advocate for Friends of Casco Bay (FoCB). She is an environmental attorney with expertise in the Clean Water Act and other environmental laws, and worked as a Senior Attorney with the Conservation Law Foundation before moving to Maine. Her leadership roles in the Maine marine community have included Co-Founder of the Maine Ocean Climate Collaborative, member of the Maine Climate Council’s Coastal [...]
The Making of a Novel: Last Night at the Disco Lisa Borders' third novel, the dark comedy Last Night at the Disco, is set largely in 1977 and narrated by a New Jersey junior high school teacher who spends her weekends at Studio 54. There, she discovers two musicians who become among the most influential artists of the 1980s – and decades later, having burned bridges with them both, she tells her [...]
Belonging isn’t always something we inherit. It’s something we search for and, hopefully, find. Author Michael Lowenthal will read from and discuss his new essay collection, Place Envy, which traces a lifelong search for identity, queer lineage, and connection across cultures, histories, and the self. Through journeys that span continents and communities, Lowenthal explores what it means to feel rooted—or unmoored—and how storytelling can bring us closer to truth. Michael [...]
Michael Delola is a nature and macro photographer who focuses on insects, spiders and other tiny arthropods like springtails and mites, as well as fungi and slime molds. He is also a forager, citizen scientist and amateur mycologist. His work aims to explore the hidden and surprising beauty of under-represented and under-appreciated organisms in the Midcoast and Southern regions of Maine, with the specific goal of highlighting local biodiversity and ecology. [...]