As part of the library's Robert K. & Linda B. Slaven Lecture Series, the library will hold a presentation and panel discussion on the subject "Race in Small-Town America." The program will feature a short reading from novelist Alice Lichtenstein from her new book The Crime of Being, which deals with a fictionalized racist incident in upstate New York, as well as a short presentation from Raney Bench of the MDI Historical Society on the history of the KKK in Maine, and comments from Samuela Manages and Sirohi Kumar, among others, about their experiences living as people of color in small-town Maine. Panelists will then hold a discussion with questions from participants.

Alice Lichtenstein is a seasonal resident of Surry. She teaches  fiction-writing at Hartwick College in Oneonta, New York, and her new novel The Crime of Being was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. In the book, on a Good Friday in a picturesque village in Upstate New York, the spring weather is unusually warm and school is closed. It's an ideal day for tanning and partying in the park until Shawnee Padrushky, age 17, drives up in his dad's new pick-up and comes out shooting with one victim in mind--Gunther Smith--the only black student in Shawnee's class, the adopted son of white parents.

Raney Bench is Executive Director for the Mount Desert Island Historical Society and author of Maine's Gone Mad: The Rise and Fall of the KKK. She has a BA in Native American History and a MA in Museum Studies and has spent her career working in small museums in Maine and Vermont. She lives in Southwest Harbor. 

Panelist Samuela Manages, born and raised in Sierra Leone, West Africa, is currently living and practicing Family Medicine in Van Buren, Maine, working for the past 12 years at Pines Health Services, community health center.

Panelist Sirohi Kumar, 16, is a climate and racial justice activist from Bar Harbor, Maine. She co-organized the series of rallies in solidarity with the BLM movement during the summer of 2020. She also directly contributed to the formation of the AOS 91 Anti-Racism Task Force, upon which she currently serves as a student representative.

This will be an online event held via Zoom. Please register using the library's web calendar to receive the link to join. Everyone is welcome, but advance registration is required.

The Robert K. & Linda B. Slaven Lecture Series seeks to bring distinguished speakers with expertise in a wide array of subjects to the Blue Hill community, to share their knowledge on topics of importance to the community and the world. It is supported by a generous gift from the Anahata Foundation.