Lewiston-Auburn – News

Yun Garrison wins Lee Young Leadership Award from YWCA

Meredith McCarroll — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 19:25:06 +0000

Yun Garrison, assistant professor of psychology, was honored on March 8 with the Lee Young Leadership Award from the YWCA of Central Maine. The award, given for excellence in professional, community, civic, or artistic leadership, was awarded to Garrison in recognition for her community-engaged work, including the Ka Bogso initiative and her community art installation,

Assistant Professor of Psychology Yunkyoung “Yun” Garrison (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ��ý College)

Ka Bogso, which Garrison co-leads with Fowsia Musse, executive director of Maine Community Integration, uses storytelling and visual arts toward healing from traumatic events that impact refugee women. The resulting work was shown on campus at Olin Arts Center in 2024 and in Lewiston at Munka Studio.

The Lewiston is Our Hope project is a community art installation involving 400 small wood circles on which community members created art that represents hope — individual and communal. Participants ranged from age 2 to 92.

Garrison, who joined �ֲ��ý in 2020, was granted tenure this year, and received the Award for Outstanding Community Project from the Harward Center for Community Partnerships in 2025. Garrison’s work in and out of the classroom centers on psychological well-being and vocational outcomes among people of color and immigrant and refugee communities.

Garrison and Musse continue to team up for public speaking engagements, including on March 26 at the Great Falls Forum at the Lewiston Public Library. Their presentation was titled “Be Healed (Ka Bogso): Posttraumatic Healing and Growth for Somali Refugee Women.”

In the News: February 2026

�ֲ��ý News — Thu, 12 Feb 2026 20:16:32 +0000

Carrie Cushman talks Museum of Art’s Marsden Hartley Legacy Project on Maine Public

Carrie Cushman, director of the �ֲ��ý Museum of Art, spoke about the museum’s current projects .

In conversation with Heather McDougall, manager of music and people at Maine Public Classical, Cushman, who joined the museum in August 2025, discussed the excitement of arriving at �ֲ��ý. The museum is preparing to launch the Marsden Hartley Legacy Project, an online digital catalog of all known paintings and ephemera by modernist painter and Lewiston native Marsden Hartley, which has been in development since 2019.

“We’re really lucky that this is happening at �ֲ��ý, and we will be the home of it and responsible for stewarding it into the future,” Cushman told McDougall.

Carrie Cushman, director of the �ֲ��ý Museum of Art, joined �ֲ��ý in August 2025. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ��ý College)

The �ֲ��ý Museum of Art was founded because of the Marsden Hartley Memorial Collection, Cushman explained, comprising over 400 paintings and ephemera by Hartley — by far the largest collection of Hartley’s work — which Hartley’s niece donated to the college in 1955.

“We have people coming to the museum almost weekly requesting to see work from the collection, and many are artists who are looking for inspiration in this 20th century modernist who is finally getting his due,” Cushman said.

Additionally, Cushman’s exhibition The Worlds of Ilse Bing was featured in a in the online magazine What Will You Remember?.

“9 Wellington: First Floor Library with Orange Chair and View of the Livingroom” by Shelburne Thurber (Courtesy of Shellburne Thurber)

The exhibition is on view through May 24 at Wellesley College’s Davis Museum, where Cushman previously worked as the Linda Wyatt Gruber ‘66 Curatorial Fellow in Photography. Exploring Bing’s rise to prominence, coinciding with 35mm photography’s growing popularity, the exhibition “brings her work into conversation with her creative influences and with those who she influenced in the worlds of modern art.”

What Will You Remember? also included the �ֲ��ý Museum of Art’s exhibition Shellburne Thurber: Full Circle, co-curated by Thurber and �ֲ��ý assistant curator Samantha Sigmon, in its February roundup. On view through March 21, the exhibition demonstrates how Thurber’s photography has “visualized interior work that is private, domestic, psychological, or insular.”

Mara Tieken opines on rural schools, students in The Hechinger Report; Women Writers, Women’s Books

Though public school closures and consolidations are becoming increasingly common, they rarely serve their intended purpose of saving struggling school districts money, writes Professor of Education Mara Tieken in an .

For school districts with declining enrollment or decreasing state and federal funding, “school closures may seem logical,” Tieken writes. “Close schools, ‘right-size’ districts, save money. Problem solved.”

However, she explains, school closures require additional transportation and renovation costs, often leading to districts saving little to no money, while students’ test scores and future college and employment outcomes decrease.

Associate Professor of Education Mara Tieken has extensively researched and written about rural schools and their students. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ��ý College)

Tieken has extensively researched and written about rural schools and their students. On Feb. 5, she published a piece about the process of developing her latest book — Educated Out: How Rural Students Navigate Elite Colleges—And What It Costs Them — in an .

While writing the book, which explores how students from rural places experience attending a small elite college, Tieken developed an approach to research characterized by slowly developing relationships with the students she was interviewing, she writes.

“We often think of research as a one-way process, a passing of ‘data’ from ‘subject’ to ‘researcher,’” Tieken writes. “But that approach is neither ethical (in fact, it’s often quite exploitative) nor useful. So much more can be learned when the relationship is actually relational.”

The 13 years that Tieken spent researching and writing the book taught her to be a more patient teacher, she says, with an expanded awareness of the struggles that her students from rural backgrounds may be facing. The book culminates with suggestions for how academic institutions can better support rural students.

“All those recommendations that I make in the book’s final chapter?” Tieken writes. “I have to do them, too, and I feel obligated—in a really good way—to encourage others to do them, as well.”

Caylin Carbonell ’12 gives public talk exploring daily life, labor dynamics in colonial New England

Caylin Carbonell ’12, an assistant professor of history at Bowdoin College, gave a public lecture about labor dynamics in colonial New England households, .

Caylin Carbonell, assistant professor of history at Bowdoin College (Courtesy of Caylin Carbonell)

The talk, entitled “Laboring Lives and Hidden Stories in Colonial New England,” was the second installment in a series of free online lectures hosted by the Lincoln County Historical Association, based in Wiscasset, Maine.

Carbonell shared insights on “the daily lives inside colonial households as the country was beginning to take shape, with a focus on laborers, often a diverse group ranging from enslaved and indentured people to hired workers, including Indigenous, African, and European women and men.”

She also discussed the challenges of uncovering the stories of 17th and 18th century laborers from incomplete or nonexistent records. Carbonell, who majored in history at �ֲ��ý, is currently working on a book manuscript that closely explores daily life in colonial New England households.

Boston Globe, Sun Journal cover MLK Day at �ֲ��ý

The held during �ֲ��ý’ Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, “From Silencing to Empowerment: Exploring Anger, Justice, and Post-traumatic Growth Among Refugee Women and Women of Color,” led by Yun Garrison, assistant professor of psychology, and Fowsia Musse from Maine Community Integration.

During the workshop, Garrison and Musse presented a framework of healing from trauma that they developed by examining the experiences of refugee women. For Musse, herself a refugee from Somalia, and other Somalian refugees and immigrants living in Lewiston, the workshop was particularly topical, the Globe reports; Musse said that anxiety caused by the Trump administration’s immigration deportation agenda led her to reflect on past trauma from her immigration experience.

Fowsia Musse (left) of Maine Community Integration and Yun Garrison, assistant professor of psychology, talk during the workshop they led, “From Silencing to Empowerment: Exploring Anger, Justice, and Post-traumatic Growth Among Refugee Women and Women of Color,” during �ֲ��ý’ MLK Day observance. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ��ý College)

“When something traumatic happens, how do we hold both anger and peace at the same time? Because sometimes they are pulling us in opposite directions,” Garrison said. “Maybe love and healing can bridge this. I do not know, but that’s what I’m sitting with right now.”

The Lewiston given by Myisha Cherry, an associate professor of philosophy at the University of California, Riverside.

Cherry’s address — “What Do We Do With All This Fear?” — explored the day’s theme of “Love, Anger and the Struggle for Justice” by closely examining and interpreting MLK’s writings and words.

The Sun Journal quoted from President Garry W. Jenkins’ introductory remarks addressing the day’s theme, sharing his interpretation of how love and anger may intersect in the pursuit of justice.

“I would rather spend my days in a space of love rather than a space of anger,” Jenkins said. “But we don’t always get to make that choice. … In linking these two, we have to wrestle with how they exist together — both in tension and in harmony.”

Myisha Cherry, an associate professor of philosophy at the University of California, Riverside gave the keynote address — “What Do We Do With All This Fear?” — to kick off �ֲ��ý’ MLK Day observance. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ��ý College)

In sharing MLK’s thoughts about fear, Cherry explained that not all fear was negative; it can, in fact, be harnessed and transformed into a powerful force for change, the Sun Journal reported.

“We should be maestros as opposed to mere masters of our normal fears … and we should transition that normal fear into courage,” Cherry said. “Courage is just not doing something in spite of your fear, it’s taking your fear and matching it up with confidence … and engaging in action.”

As the Sun Journal reported, Cherry linked this healthy fear to MLK’s nonviolent protests and actions, urging all in the audience to use their “normal” fear to advance causes they care about.

“What we should do with this fear is make something beautiful out of it,” Cherry said. “This is a time of fear for lots of us … Turning to King has been illuminating, and I find that fear doesn’t mean that we are weak, it doesn’t mean we’ve given people the upper hand. It means that we’re sensitive to injustice. It means we value the people we’re fearful for and we value the principles that we are scared we are going to lose.”

Brian Shankar Adler featured in DownBeat magazine’s cover story

Brian Shankar Adler — percussionist and �ֲ��ý instructor of drum set, tabla, and other hand percussion — and Grammy-award winning soprano saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom released their debut album once like a spark, in their February issue’s cover story, “Making music in the moment.”

The magazine used the stage at Olin Concert Hall as the setting for a photo shoot with the two musicians, who have performed extensively in Lewiston and Portland, Maine as a duo.

Grammy-award winning soprano saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom (left) and Brian Shankar Adler — percussionist and �ֲ��ý instructor of drum set, tabla, and other hand percussion — play together in Olin Arts Center. (Courtesy of John Doyle/DownBeat)

“We played each other’s compositions, and the music came alive instantly,” Adler told DownBeat. “Over the years, we built up a hefty book of tunes and a musical language with which to communicate.”

Without chorded or bass instruments, the brass-drum duo is a rare one, DownBeat reported. The combination makes for a unique, melodic sound, with roots in jazz, North Indian Hindustani, and Indonesian musical traditions.

“The way I see it, music is interconnected and has the power to communicate beyond borders,” Adler told DownBeat. “Listening to and playing jazz, it’s evident that the music has roots beyond America and arms that extend to virtually every corner of the world. When approached with open ears, curiosity and a sense of respect for the traditions, the possibilities for exchange are really limitless.”

Art New England reviews current exhibition at the �ֲ��ý Museum of Art

On Feb. 5, of “Precision and Expression: American Studio Ceramics from the E. John Bullard Collection,” the current show at the �ֲ��ý Museum of Art, co-curated by Assistant Curator Samantha Sigmon and Lecturer in Art and Visual Culture Susan Dewsnap. “…Bullard sought diversity and individuality in his acquisitions,” Little writes. “He also embraced humor and joy: many of the pieces will prompt a smile.”

Roberto Lugo, Fighting Shirley Cup, 2023, is currently on display at the �ֲ��ý Museum of Art.

Calling it an “entertaining and enlightening exhibition,” Little highlighted an “exquisite vessel” by Mark Bell, “Spherical Vase,” ca. 2011, which he said “exemplifies the Blue Hill, Maine, artist’s seamless style.”

Little also explained the motivation behind Bullard’s generous gift to the museum. “The collector’s longtime ties to Haystack and the Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts in Newcastle, Maine, inspired his gift, as did the college’s ceramics program led by Susan Dewsnap, who co-curated the exhibition and accompanying catalogue,” Little writes. “Bullard envisions future students exploring and learning from these singular objects. That vision is already happening: interns at the �ֲ��ý Museum researched artists for the catalogue and labels.”

A welcoming bus stop and bird-safe windows are among 2024 Green Grant initiatives

Deirdre Stires — Fri, 31 May 2024 17:18:00 +0000

When Alan Wang ’24 studied abroad in Kyoto, Japan, as a junior, he relished the seamless transportation options — bicycle, bus, train — that delivered him to classes at Doshisha University.

But when Wang worked for the Maine Secretary of State’s Office last summer, he had to drive from Lewiston to Augusta, and it was a different experience. “Exhausting,” he said.

The following semester, Wang read Better Buses, Better Cities. “One of the takeaways is people don’t use buses because buses don’t make themselves known to people,” said Wang. “A lot of students don’t even know the bus stop at �ֲ��ý exists. Building a bus shelter is the best way to remind them.”

Alan Wang ’24 of Jiaozuo, China, hopes the seed money he was awarded from the Green Grant program will be used to land more state and federal grants to build a more substantial bus stop at �ֲ��ý near Gomes Chapel. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ��ý College).

Those experiences sparked an interest in public transportation advocacy, so he went to work, doing research and turning to the college’s Green Innovation Grant program, which awards funds to �ֲ��ý community members for projects that make �ֲ��ý and the community more environmentally sustainable.

In the spring, Wang received a $2,000 Green Grant — one of four grants totalling $8,000 dispersed from the program this year — to help fund the construction of a more prominent and welcoming bus stop for the new Portland–Lewiston commuter bus line . The project was one of four Green Grant projects funded this year.

The enclosed bus stop will be built near Gomes Chapel by the Maine Department of Transportation in conjunction with the Lewiston-Auburn Transit Committee. While the $2,000 grant will pay for a fraction of the final cost — around $40,000 to $50,000 — of the new �ֲ��ý bus stop, the private funding from the college also will help secure other matching state or federal transportation funds.

Wang has met with community leaders in Lewiston and Auburn in his effort to bring an attractive public bus stop to campus, one of several new enclosed bus shelters in the two cities.

Alan Wang ’24 of Jiaozuo, China, used his $2,000 Green Grant — one of four grants totalling $8,000 dispersed from the program this year — to help fund the construction of a more prominent and welcoming bus stop for the new Portland–Lewiston commuter bus line slated to come online in 2024.

”His advocacy for transit is strong,” said Larry Allen, the Lewiston-Auburn Transit Committee director. “Alan espoused the benefits of consolidating transit activities between the two lines at one location on campus. This eliminates confusion and allows for the bundling of resources, such as infrastructure and capital resources.”

With a �ֲ��ý politics degree now in hand, Wang, who is from Jiaozuo, China, will test his new interest in urban planning this summer in the Lincoln (Maine) County Regional Planning Department as a transportation planning assistant. “This internship will give me a great lens on if I actually want to pursue this as my career,” he said.

A second funded proposal from Gianluca Yornet de Rosas ’24 of Mendoza, Argentina, who used his Green Grant to team up with Facility Services to add the first bird-safe window treatment at �ֲ��ý. The idea came after he witnessed bird fatalities from strikes on the windows of his residence.

Gianluca Yornet de Rosas ’24 of Mendoza, Argentina, used his $2,000 Green Grant to team up with Facility Services to add the first bird-safe window treatment at �ֲ��ý. The idea came after he witnessed bird fatalities from strikes on the large windows of his residence. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ��ý College)

Yornet, who hopes to go into environmental conservation work, grew up in the South American region around the Andes Mountains, where he was fascinated by the Andean Condor, the largest raptor in the world. The environmental studies major also knew that bird strikes on windows are a leading cause of avian mortality — resulting in up to an estimated 1 billion bird fatalities annually, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Because of the reflective and mirror qualities of window panes, birds often can’t detect the glass barrier. Yornet’s $2,000 grant funded the purchase and installation of several adhesive bird-safe window treatments that use tiny patterns to alert birds to the window.

He hopes it’s a good start. “Maybe if it stops the birds from colliding with the windows and dying, other students might continue the project, or this will be adopted into other buildings. I wanted to make sure it got done, even if it doesn’t solve the whole issue.”

Gianluca Yornet de Rosas ’24 enjoys watching the ducks in Lake Andrews, just as he used to watch the native birds around his home in Argentina, including the great Andean Condor. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ��ý College)

Another Green Grant grant will fund the installation of signage aimed at lessening contamination in recycling in residences. The idea was the brainchild of Caroline Mayer ’26 of Wolfeboro, N.H., and Sarah Smith ’26 of Severna Park, Md., two EcoReps who worked the past year on improving recycling habits around campus.

The signage will be placed right where students live: their rooms. “We have good signage in all of the trash and recycling rooms, but the sorting is happening in the dorm room, not once you’re down in the trash room,” said Tom Twist, assistant director of sustainability at �ֲ��ý. “By then, it’s already done.”

The signs, affixed to the back doors of rooms, spell out the recyclable material — cardboard, plastic, paper containers, glass, and metal — and that all other items should go to the landfill. “When in doubt, throw it out,” say the signs designed by Smith and Mayer, who plan to target first-year residences to instill good recycling practices at the start of their time at �ֲ��ý.

Liza Bell ’26 of Putney, Vt., won a GIG to resupply tools for the �ֲ��ý bike shop, a much needed purchase after a theft last summer depleted the supply.

The grant helped fund 30 new tools as well as a new lock system for the nine loaner bikes available to students. In addition, Bell said the grant helped keep those loaners in the Ladd Library gear library in good working order. As a result, usage increased this spring, with all nine bikes checked out much of the time.

“This project will contribute to the school’s green bike share program which makes biking on campus more accessible. By having the necessary tools and locks we will be able to continue to expand and improve the program,” Bell explained in her proposal.

This story was updated on November 3, 2025 to reflect more recent information on the number of birds killed each year from window strikes.

Generosity, care, and kindness remind us ‘to hold onto hope’ in the wake of tragedy

Deirdre Stires and Mary Pols — Fri, 03 Nov 2023 14:25:33 +0000

With students, faculty, and staff sitting shoulder to shoulder late Wednesday afternoon in Gomes Chapel, President Garry W. Jenkins reminded the �ֲ��ý community of the capacity for human acts to help lift the darkness left in the wake of the Oct. 25 shootings in Lewiston that resulted in the deaths of 18 people.

The Vigil for Grief and Remembrance was held in Gomes Chapel on Nov. 1, the one-week anniversary of the Lewiston shootings. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ��ý College)

“The brightness that shines through the dark of a tragedy such as we have suffered here in Lewiston, our home, is what it always is in times like these: the immense capacity of our shared humanity,” Jenkins said. He called on those gathered — filling the chapel — to continue to support each other.

The Vigil for Grief and Remembrance, presented by the college’s Multifaith Chaplaincy, was held on Nov. 1, the one-week anniversary of the Lewiston shootings. Many �ֲ��ý students had attended a large vigil three days before in downtown Lewiston at the Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul, but the on-campus vigil offered an opportunity for the �ֲ��ý campus community to grieve and reflect together.

The mood in the chapel full of students, faculty, and staff was somber. A few held hands. Some in attendance dabbed at their eyes.

The Rev. Brittany Longsdorf, �ֲ��ý’ multifaith chaplain, lights a student’s candle during the campus vigil in Gomes chapel on Nov. 1, 2023. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ��ý College)

“Let us be a loving community and carry all the things we are feeling and sifting through together,” said the Rev. Brittany Longsdorf, �ֲ��ý’ multifaith chaplain, speaking from the pulpit to the chapel as daylight started to fade.

People have gathered to grieve for centuries because it’s vital in the healing process, Longsdorf said as she prepared for the vigil earlier in the day. She said this simple, human act of coming together binds us — and also frees us of the guilt that can follow a horrific tragedy.

President Garry W. Jenkins, flanked by Longsdorf (left) and his husband, Jon Lee, called upon the “immense capacity of our shared humanity” during his remarks at the vigil. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ��ý College)

“Grieving together is essential to come out of this hard moment. That’s why societies have done things like this vigil for thousands of years,” said Longsdorf. “When you see other people in that space, it helps us lean into it in a special way. I think doing it together, it’s why at �ֲ��ý we love Lewiston, and why Lewiston loves on us. We love this city that is our home.”

In his remarks, �ֲ��ý’ new president also offered his vision for the way forward — a journey made together that is guided by love:

“Generosity and care and eagerness to help, to support, to embrace have emanated from every corner of this city and this college community like a beacon of light, filling our hearts and mending our souls,” Jenkins said. “They remind us of human goodness. They remind us to hold onto hope. They remind us that together, over time, we will recover and heal. In that, I have faith.”

�ֲ��ý seniors Alexa Bowerfind of Portland, Ore., and Phoebe Stern of Nashville, Tenn., comfort one another during the campus vigil in Gomes chapel on Nov. 1, 2023. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ��ý College)

Lewiston mayor Carl Sheline echoed that oath of togetherness. Sheline, who said he was on campus by chance on Oct. 25 when the shootings occurred, promised those gathered: “We will rise together.”

“Most of you, like me, are from away, but while you are here, you belong to us. Lewiston is your city, just as we are sharing in this tragedy,” Sheline said. “We are not going through separate events, but the same dark time.”

The Lewiston community and �ֲ��ý students “will stand shoulder to shoulder” Sheline said, as the area works to heal.

Watch the full video of the Vigil for Grief and Remembrance at the Gomes Chapel on Nov. 1:

In her remarks in the chapel, Longsdorf spoke of the power of sharing grief as a community.

“Some may think that grieving is weak, or a form of surrender. But I believe that grief is a form of rest and a method of love. When we grieve together like this, in community, we powerfully hold each other and are held. When we grieve, we continue loving amidst loss. When we remember, we root to purpose and commit to change. When we remember, we connect the threads of the dead to how we still want to live our one precious life.”

The vigil continued as Longsdorf, with a suede-covered mallet, rimmed a singing bowl, creating a continuous and harmonious sound to open up space for those in attendance to turn to each other and share a few words about how they were feeling. For many, the fear and shock had passed, to be replaced with sorrow, exhaustion, and gratitude for being in community. And safe.

Then, following a musical interlude, the Rev. Raymond Clothier, associate multifaith chaplain, read the names of the 18 people killed in the shooting, pausing between each name, while Longsdorf lightly struck the suede-covered mallet on the singing bowl’s rim, creating a single sustained musical note for each.

Longsdorf rims a singing bowl to begin a moment of sharing during the vigil. She invited the attendees “to breath deep, and share with a companion a word or two that speaks to the state of your heart this last week. What words float to the surface for you?” (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ��ý College)

Behind Clothier and Longsdorf, displayed on a table covered with a white cloth, were framed photos of the victims.

Tricia C. Asselin.

Peyton Brewer-Ross.

William Frank Brackett.

Thomas Ryan Conrad.

Michael R. Deslauriers.

Maxx A. Hathaway.

Bryan M. McFarlane.

Keith D. Macnear.

Ronald G. Morin.

Joshua A. Seal.

Arthur Fred Strout.

Stephen M. Vozzella.

Lucille M. Violette.

Robert E. Violette.

Joseph Lawrence Walker.

Jason Adam Walker.

William A. Young.

Aaron Young.

It took nearly four minutes to read all the names. Then Clothier asked the gathered crowd to hold a minute of silence, for these “beloveds” and those injured or left behind. “May their memories guide us forward in love,” he said.

On the way into Gomes, attendees had been given unlit candles to hold. Longsdorf brought a flame from the candles of remembrance on the altar to the first row, and participants in the front row passed it back, the light spreading quickly.

�ֲ��ý students hold lit candles during the campus vigil in Gomes chapel on Nov. 1, 2023, the one-week anniversary of the Lewiston shootings. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ��ý College)

The vigil included two songs performed by singer-guitarists Barry Kilmister ’24 of Poway, Calif., and Levi Mindlin ’24 of Portland, Ore., and, later, haunting music played by student cellist Eli Kushner ’24 of Philadelphia. Eight others read prayers, palms, and poems.

Aneeza Ahmad ’25 of Sharon, Mass., and Alaina Rauf ’25 of Yarmouth, Maine, who are both members of the �ֲ��ý Muslim Student Association, read prayers from the Islamic faith to offer hope and solace.

“Like all of you, we are so saddened and heartbroken about the recent events that have taken place in our home of Lewiston,” Ahmad began. “At the same time, we are so, so grateful to have a community and to be part of a community that has held each other’s hands and endured this really difficult moment together.”

“This fear will not resolve soon, nor will the emotions subside. That is the burden of our generation. And yet we continue the fight, and we will continue to respond.”
Ethan Baker ’24 reading his poem “The North Star of Maine”

Candlelight filled Gomes by the time the venerable Tenzin Dasel ’88, a volunteer spiritual advisor to the �ֲ��ý community and the founder of the Maine Mindfulness Project, welcomed those gathered, calling them “precious �ֲ��ý and Lewiston community.” She read from the Dalai Lama’s daily prayer, which reverberated with images of hope and prayers for peace everywhere.

Students, staff, and faculty cradled their candles as Ethan Baker ’24 of Jackson, N.H., walked to the podium and offered a personal prayer in the form of a poem he wrote the morning after the shootings, after he experienced the aftermath as a first responder with the �ֲ��ý Emergency Medical Services.

Baker was still on duty when he wrote a poem he titled “The North Star of Maine.” The poem concluded:

This fear will not resolve soon, nor will the emotions subside. That is the burden of our generation. And yet we continue the fight, and we will continue to respond.

May the power of patience, kindness, and love allow us to find peace in ourselves, in our community, and together we remember those souls who left us for the North Star of Maine.

What’s in a Name: Montello

Jay Burns — Fri, 17 Jun 2022 20:12:31 +0000

A residential area just north of campus, Montello is the name of a street, a rise of land (familiar to generations of �ֲ��ý joggers), an elementary school, a former reservoir, and an assisted living center.

Street wise

One of Lewiston’s oldest streets, Montello Street connects Main Street on the west side of town with Sabattus Street to the east.

Naming rights

Other Montello-named places in the U.S. include a neighborhood in Brockton, Mass.; a canyon and creek in Nevada; and a town in Wisconsin.

Some sources suggest “Montello” is based on the French, “mont et l’eau,” meaning “hill and water,” which seems fanciful. More likely, the name is borrowed from the hill of the same name in northern Italy.

New heights

Since the 1800s, the area around Montello Street has been known as Montello Heights. The street rises and falls about 150 feet through the heights, crossing College Street. North of the street, the land is still mostly undeveloped woodland, including Thorncrag, rising another 150 feet.

Spring has sprung

As bottled water became popular in the 1800s, commercial bottlers like Poland Spring sprang up throughout Maine, including two in Montello Heights whose water was once sold nationally: Windsor Spring was on the west side, and Highland Spring was on the east side, on land that became the Thorncrag Nature Sanctuary.

Water from the Windsor Spring, located in Montello Heights, was sold during the late 1800s in bottles like this, featuring a stereotypical scene of indigenous peoples drinking from a spring.

The New York Daily Tribune in 1900 praised Highland Spring water as “a delicious, pure, natural spring water, which wells forth from a never-failing mountain spring in Androscoggin County, Maine.” The paper said “several carloads of this water were shipped South for the use of Red Cross nurses in Cuba and in the infected camps of the South during the [Spanish-American] war.”

It was endorsed by none other than leading Lewiston citizen Alonzo Garcelon, a physician who said that he “never knew of a case of malarial fever to originate in that state — a very important consideration in the selection of a drinking water.”

An 1887 advertisement for Windsor Mineral Springs in the Lewiston–Auburn business directory proclaims that the water, sourced at Montello Heights, is good for any “general debility.”

Water Works

Built in 1951, Montello Heights Reservoir was closed as a public water source in the 1980s after the city improved its pumping stations. All public water now comes from Lake Auburn.

Happy Trampers

In the early 1900s, north of campus was mostly farmland. In 1918, The �ֲ��ý Student reported that seniors in a zoology course trekked to a Montello Heights farmhouse for a snowshoe party. “The trampers enjoyed an oyster stew, apple pie with whipped cream, coffee, apples, and pop-corn.”

Montello Street is now part of a traditional three-mile jogging loop: out College Street; right on Montello; right on East Avenue, and back to campus.

What’s in a Lewiston Name: Thorne

Jay Burns — Thu, 21 Oct 2021 16:20:02 +0000

Benjamin Thorne was a Lewiston farmer and Freewill Baptist preacher in the early 1800s whose surname provides half the name of the popular and well-known Thorncrag Nature Sanctuary, about 1.3 miles from campus managed by the Stanton Bird Club.

‘Saintly Mother’

Thorne was born in March 1779 (exact date unknown) and died Dec. 4, 1864, at age 85.

Thorne’s mother, Eliza, is credited with helping to organize a branch of Freewill Baptists in Lewiston. “Several times [Eliza] walked from Lewiston to Westport, a distance of 30 miles, to attend Quarterly and Yearly Meetings,” according to The Centennial Record of Freewill Baptists: 1780–1880.

Benjamin was inspired by his “saintly mother,” according to Memoirs of Eminent Preachers in the Free Will Baptist Denomination. As a teenager, he began making similar journeys “through an almost unbroken wilderness” to attend Freewill Baptist meetings.

A detail of Benjamin Thorne’s gravestone in Herrick Cemetery, just north of campus. (Jay Burns/�ֲ��ý College)

Deep Thinker

Despite only a few months of formal schooling, Thorne on his own acquired “a commendable knowledge of the Latin and Greek languages, knew something of Hebrew, and mastered the French after he had passed his 80th birthday,” according to Memoirs of Eminent Preachers.

“While others were asleep or too stupid for thought, his mind labored with an unwearied and most patient devotion.”

Thorny Question

While various Freewill Baptist histories spell his last name as “Thorn,” the gravestones for Benjamin and his wife, Alice, in Herrick Cemetery spell the name “Thorne.”

The gravestones of Benjamin Thorne and his wife, Alice Thorne, are located in Herrick Cemetery, just north of campus. (Jay Burns/�ֲ��ý College)

‘Retired and Unknown’

Thorne was one of the “best and most talented ministers of his time,” according to Memoirs of Eminent Preachers. Still, he was humble about it, “his position…somewhat retired and unknown. ”

Indeed, Thorne’s preaching power was well hidden, only displayed on “special occasion[s].” One such occasion was a five-day religious debate with a Universalist minister that ended when his opponent “begged leave to withdraw.”

When Thorne died at age 85, he was Lewiston’s oldest citizen. In his 80s, “he appeared more like a man of 65,” so great was “his vigor of mind and body.”

From �ֲ��ý’ Beginning

Thorne “hailed the birth and location of the Maine State Seminary as a harbinger of good.” On June 26, 1856, he delivered the prayer of invocation at the laying of the cornerstone of Hathorn Hall. (Another “Thorn”?)

Thirty-three years earlier, says Professor Emeritus Doug Hodgkin, whose family history dates to Lewiston’s earliest years, Thorne spoke at the 1823 dedication of the first bridge between Lewiston and what is now Auburn, the latter not incorporated until 1842.

The Anthony Fireplace at Thorncrag is a memorial to Kate J. Anthony, donated
by her brother Alfred in 1932. Alfred Anthony donated the initial parcels of land to the Stanton Bird Club in the early 1900s. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ��ý College)

Patriot

Born during the Revolutionary War, Thorne “imbibed its patriotism” — his five grandsons all fought in the Civil War “sustained by the deepest sympathies and prayers of their aged veteran sire.”

One and Only (Almost)

As far as we can tell, the only other instance of “Thorncrag” used as a place name is Thorncrag Lane in Midlothian, Va.

Thorn + Crag

In the 1900s, some of the Thorne farmland was bought by Alfred Anthony, a �ֲ��ý professor and trustee who wrote the college history �ֲ��ý College and Its Background.

Anthony dubbed his new spread “Thorncrag,” with “crag” describing the granite ledges and outcroppings near the property’s 500-foot hill. He gave his land to the Stanton Bird Club when he retired to New York City around 1918.

Today, Thorncrag Nature Sanctuary offers both recreation and research opportunities for the �ֲ��ý community.

Sebastian Leon Fallas ’24 (left) of Perez Zeledon, Costa Rica, and Henry Hardy ’22 of Gloucester, Mass., do fieldwork in a meadow at Thorncrag Nature Sanctuary on July 22, 2021. Under the supervision of Associate Professor of Biology Carla Essenberg, they were studying the area’s pollen environment. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ��ý College)

What’s in a Lewiston Name: Sabattus

Jay Burns — Fri, 13 Aug 2021 14:47:07 +0000

An occasional �ֲ��ýNews feature, “What’s in a Lewiston Name” explores the stories, facts, and figments behind common place names in the Lewiston-Auburn area.

Sabattus: It’s the name of a street in Lewiston, a neighboring town, and other places.

Sounds Like…

Not related to the word “Sabbath,” the name “Sabattus” is an alternative ,” a common Christian name given to Native Americans by French missionaries. Other spelling variations are “Sabattis,” “Sebattis,” and “Sabatis.”

Crossing Sabattus

If you’ve been to the Blue Goose or Luiggi’s, two famed student haunts a short walk from campus, then you’ve crossed Sabattus Street, which begins at Main Street and extends eastward to the town of Sabattus.

More Sabatti?

According to the U.S. Geologic Survey, there’s a Sabattus Pond, Sabattus River, Sabattus River Reservoir, Little Sabattus Mountain, and two Sabattus mountains, one locally, and one in the western Maine town of North Waterford.

Sabattus Cabin

In the mid-1920s, the �ֲ��ý Outing Club built a cabin on the southern slope of Sabattus Mountain in nearby Wales. (“Sabattus” is also the name of a nearby pond and river.) By 1974, the cabin had been damaged by vandals. That October, in the spirit of leaving no trace, an Outing Club work group dismantled the cabin, removing all shingles, bricks, and other material from the site.

Circa 1934, Burt Dunfield ’34 and and Ted Lynch ’36 pose outside the �ֲ��ý Outing Club cabin on Sabattus Mountain in nearby Wales. (Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library)

According to Webster

The town adjacent to Lewiston, originally named Webster after the orator and statesman, was incorporated in 1788.

It was renamed Sabattus in 1971 to honor an 18th-century Native American tribal leader who, it is said, guided Benedict Arnold as he ascended the Kennebec River to attack the British in Québec in 1775, during the Revolutionary War.

Ring My Bell

The oldest standing structure in the town of Sabattus is a former tavern, once part of a farm, owned by the Davis family. In 1857, family member Jonathan Davis gave $400 to the Maine State Seminary to purchase a bell for the Hathorn Hall cupola, which was installed shortly after the seminary opened in September 1857.

This undated photo shows the Hathorn Hall bell, manufactured by the famed Henry N. Hooper Co. of Boston and given to �ֲ��ý by Jonathan Davis of the town of Sabattus, then Webster. (Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library)

The bell’s inscription includes “Presented by Jonathan Davis of Webster.” It was manufactured by the famed Henry N. Hooper & Co. of Boston, whose bells can be found in churches as far away as Hawaii’s Wananalua Congregational Church.

Bottled Up

As bottled water became popular in the 1800s, commercial bottlers like Poland Spring sprang up throughout Maine, including Sabattus Mineral Springs, in the town of Wales, adjacent to Sabattus.

Uncertain Seal

The current Sabattus town seal depicts a Native American leader wearing a feathered war bonnet. However, such bonnets were worn by tribes of the Great Plains, not the Northeast. The seal typifies the broad brush with which American culture has painted Indigenous history.

Name That Band

“Sabattis” was the name of a circa 1970 hard rock band that never quite made it big. Their demo album, .

What’s in a Lewiston name: Luiggi’s

Jay Burns — Thu, 25 Feb 2021 14:34:17 +0000

A �ֲ��ý haunt since the 1950s, Luiggi’s Pizzeria, next door to the Blue Goose on the corner of Sabattus and Horton streets, is named for its founder, Luiggi Carmino Talarico.

From Albi to Lewiston

Luiggi “Louis” Talarico was born in 1922 in Albi, Italy. After immigrating to America and settling in Lewiston, he and his wife, Annis, founded the pizzeria at the corner of Horton and Sabattus streets in 1953. A former deputy chief of the Lewiston Fire Department, he died in 1992.

His brother Frank, born in Lewiston 14 years later, was the well-known public face of the family business for years.

Luiggi’s is now owned by several partners, including the St. Hilaire family, who also owns the Blue Goose pub next door. “�ֲ��ý alumni know us pretty well,” says co-owner Angie St. Hilaire.

Luiggi’s restaurant in Lewiston, “Home of the Fergy.” (Jay Burns/�ֲ��ý College)

‘Two with Onions’

The 1955 Mirror published photos and comments about five popular hangouts:

Luiggi’s: “two with onions!”
Blue Goose: “pre-exam paradise”
Steckino’s: “rolls and real butter”
Kenmore Hotel: “Saturday p.m. jazz sessions”
Ye Olde Hobby Shoppe: “Mike and the gang,” a nod to Mike Buccigross ’41, who owned the popular, 1950s-style malt shop.

The latter three are long gone, and the Hobby Shoppe building is now headquarters for �ֲ��ý Campus Safety.

The first mention of Luiggi’s in The �ֲ��ý Student was in March 1954. The restaurant’s phone number is still the same, 782-0701.

The Fergy

Created in the 1960s, Luiggi’s signature sandwich, the Fergy, is named for Lewiston police officer Arthur Ferguson, a friend of the Talarico family, who “should receive a pension for conceiving it,” noted The �ֲ��ý Student in 1974.

Ferguson “was like 6-4 and took no crap,” says a reviewer on Yelp!, where the restaurant garners four stars out of five. “He worked with another officer named Murphy, and when Murphy and Ferguson were on the beat down on Lisbon Street all was quiet. Those guys were tough as nails.”

Ingredients for a Fergy: ham, American cheese, tomato, onion, lettuce, and mayo on Italian bread.

Luiggi’s in the 1980s with its bygone rooftop sign. (Photograph courtesy of Sean Carlos ’86)

Rule of Three

The distance from the steps of Hathorn Hall to the front door of Luiggi’s is exactly 3,000 feet.

Dogging It

By virtue of its meals being available for takeout, Luiggi’s is included in Dog-Friendly New England: A Traveler’s Companion.

Meat Me There

Iconic eateries have their quirks, and this is Luiggi’s’: All their pizzas, even a “plain” cheese pizza, have meat on them, a kind of luncheon meat.

Taken in 2012, this image shows the famous quirk of Luiggi’s pizza: They all have meat. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ��ý College)

Video: Lewiston’s Matt Charest is a Bobcat for life

Aaron Morse — Fri, 07 Feb 2020 16:06:05 +0000

Peter Casares has been the head coach of the �ֲ��ý swimming and diving program for 13 years.

One of the first things he did after his hiring was offer lessons for schoolchildren in the community. One of his first pupils was 9-year-old of Lewiston.

“Matt would come in on Sundays two or three times a month to work with me one-on-one,” Casares said. “And when we decided to run a swim camp, I mentioned to him, as a 9-year old, ‘You know, you’re a good swimmer, you learn really well, I can tell this matters to you. So maybe you should look into this swim camp we have.’”

Video by Aaron Morse.

Charest attended that swim camp and immediately fell in love with it.

“Getting to stay overnight really got me interested in �ֲ��ý,” Charest said. “Getting to have food at the dining halls was amazing for me as a kid, getting ice cream all the time.”

The now-senior captain of the �ֲ��ý men’s swimming and diving team returned every summer, first as a camper and then as a counselor, becoming a Bobcat for life.

Matt Charest as a young boy at the �ֲ��ý swim camp. (Photograph courtesy the Charest family)

“The thing about Matt is that he is an extraordinary leader by example,” said of Augusta, Maine.

“All the way up from being swim campers together and doing morning practices when we were counselors together. And now, seeing him in practice every day, I look over and he’s kicking really hard, and he’s moving, and I’m like, ‘Man, I can’t lose to Charest!’”

Next up for Charest and his team are the NESCAC Championships, Feb. 20–23 in Williamstown, Mass., where his goal is to qualify for NCAAs in March, in a relay event.

Matt Charest ’20 is an “extraordinary leader by example,” says teammate Nathan Berry ’23 of Augusta, Maine. (Brewster Burns for �ֲ��ý College)

Graduation is just a few months away, but the past 13 years have given Charest, who hopes to coach his own swim team one day, a proud connection to �ֲ��ý that few others can claim.

“It will always be a part of me,” Charest said. “And I can’t thank this pool enough and everybody that’s supported me enough. So, it’s bittersweet, but I’m excited for the future.”

Video: Sankofa on MLK Day, where ‘reality isn’t a one-way street’

�ֲ��ý News — Fri, 24 Jan 2020 17:04:51 +0000

The opening scene of this year’s Sankofa show, staged on the evening of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, was set in a classroom at mythical Mays College, the name being an intentional allusion to Benjamin Mays, Class of 1920.

Among the students in the class was Safiya, played by Imti Hassan ’23 of Portland, Maine. “Safiya is determined,” says Hassan. “She’s taking college courses at Mays College while being a high school senior. She has a lot of big dreams that I feel she will accomplish because she’s so driven.”

However, some adults in her life, such as her boss at a fast-food restaurant, are dragging her down. “Adults should be there to uplift teenagers and be their mentors,” says Hassan.

Video by Theophil Syslo.

The role was important to Hassan because, she says, she is a Somali American, a group that in Lewiston comprises approximately 20 percent of the city’s population.

“I have never seen a Somali lead character in theater, or movies, or shows,” says Hassan. “So for me, I wanted to have an opportunity to give other people a chance to see that type of character played out on a big stage.”

“Reality isn’t a one-way street. It’s multiple outlooks.”

Continuing the theme of sophomores taking the lead with Sankofa, Abdulwahab Mohamed ’22 of Lewiston was this year’s organizer, while Losseni Barry ’22 of New York City was the scriptwriter and director. The theme, “Invisible Women,” featured stories of women of color at �ֲ��ý and in Lewiston.

Areohn Harrison ’20 of Rockville, Md., plays a Mays College professor who leads his class in a wide-ranging discussion, starting with women in the civil rights movement and continuing to “how you assess value to a person in a society with varying levels of stratification based on race or gender.”

Areohn Harrison ’20 of Rockville, Md., playing a professor at mythical Mays College, leads his class in a discussion of race and gender during Sankofa’s 2020 MLK Day performance. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ��ý College)

Hassan notes how black women of the civil rights movement have been historically been “overshadowed, in a way, unfortunately. We know about Rosa Parks, but less about Ella Baker, Gwendolyn Simmons, or Doris Derby.”

“So this play is an opportunity to give another perspective, another lens for people to see, because reality isn’t a one-way street,” she says. “It’s multiple outlooks.”