Everyone is invited to the library’s Pearson Room on Wednesday, November 13 at 6:30 for a special presentation of Blue Hill Peninsula Stories, a series of oral history interviews conducted by George Stevens Academy audio production students, led by Phelan Gallagher and Galen Koch. This first year’s theme is Blue Hill Mountain and students will present their audio interviews with local residents who have unique knowledge of the area, and talk about the history of use and conservation of the mountain. There will also be visual displays, time for Q&A, and the opportunity for attendees to visit different stations to listen to different interviews on their own.

Blue Hill Peninsula Stories is a series of oral history interviews conducted by students in the George Stevens Academy "Audio Production 1" course. Participants interview local residents gathering stories about significant places and natural resources unique to the Blue Hill Peninsula community. Each year, a theme will be identified to focus the stories and create cohesive narratives around important local issues such as sea level rise, food scarcity, changing weather patterns, and access to the working waterfront. 

Each student in the project prepares a series of questions based on research about the topic, conducts a 1-2 hour long interview with a local resident, transcribes the interview, and finally, edits the audio for clarity and conciseness.The finished audio pieces will be published online at Maine Sound and Story for the community to enjoy and to provide a digital archive of stories and local history.

This program is co-sponsored by the library, George Stevens Academy, Blue Hill Heritage Trust, and Maine Sound + Story, and was funded through a generous grant from the Maine Community Foundation. If you have any questions please contact Teen Services Librarian Kendall at kendall.chapman@bhpl.net or by calling the library at 374-5515.

Phelan Gallagher teaches music and production at George Stevens Academy.  He received his BM in Jazz Saxophone from Loyola University, New Orleans in 2006 and his MA in Teaching Music from Hunter College in New York in 2010.  Since then, he has taught in a range of music and technology settings including an arts magnet high school in NYC, a public high school in rural Vermont, and a project-based charter school in Harpswell, Maine.  He has also served as Technology Director at several schools and worked as a consultant with the Maine Math and Science Alliance designing and implementing STEM projects around the state of Maine.  As a saxophonist and musician he has performed around the United States, as well as South America and Europe.

Galen Koch is an audio producer, sound artist, and educator based in Portland, Maine. After graduating from Skidmore College and the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies in 2014, she worked as a freelance journalist, producing podcasts and stories for national and international outlets. In 2017, Koch founded the community storytelling project The First Coast and began documenting the lives of coastal Maine residents. This ongoing project led to many partnerships and, in 2023, Koch became the "Coastal Community Engagement Program Lead and Researcher" at College of the Atlantic (COA) and Island Institute. In this position, she teaches audio storytelling and community engaged art courses at COA, produces Island Institute's podcast From the Sea Up, and continues to create immersive multimedia exhibits in Maine towns for The First Coast project. Galen is one of the cofounders of Maine Sound + Story, an online database of Maine oral histories, and co-leads the Mapping Ocean Stories project at College of the Atlantic.