Freeport Folio

Some evenings stay with you. On April 30 at Meetinghouse Arts in Freeport, the room held three decades of Maine's Poet Laureate tradition.

Together on the same stage for the first time were Maine Poets Laureate Betsy Sholl, Wesley McNair, Stuart Kestenbaum, the current Maine Poet Laureate Julia Bouwsma and Maine Poet Laureate Elect Dawn Potter (who will assume the role in July 2026). Kate Barnes and Baron Wormser were honored with a candle lighting and readings of their work.

The poems carried us through marriage and grief, rhubarb and beauty salons. A letter to a Maine still one hundred years away. Cow faces pressed to farmhouse screens, the moon compared to a deadbeat roommate and a violinist who played through her own brain surgery.

In the conversation which followed, Betsy Sholl told us about the poetry teacher who refused to give her permission or take it away. When she asked him, "Can I write?" he said, "I don't know. Can you? Don't ever give that power to anyone else."

This evening was a shared dream of Khristina Kurasz of the Maine Arts Commission and Freeport Folio Co-founder Jonas Werner. It was brought to life by the Maine Arts Commission, Freeport Folio, Gibson Fay-LeBlanc of the Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance, Professor Noel Thistle Tague of the University of Maine at Augusta and Maya Williams, former Portland Poet Laureate and 2025-2026 Maine Poetry Out Loud Coordinator.

The recording is now on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_51i0rCd2c Skip to any poet in the description on YouTube.

With thanks to:
Event Sponsor: Kennebec Savings Bank
Media Sponsor: Down East Magazine
Venue Sponsor: Meetinghouse Arts

Special thanks to Tom Pierce and the team at the Town of Freeport’s TV3 for filming, live streaming and brilliantly editing the event video.



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Note: Recording of the event was lightly edited for content.

❤️🙏🏻

Thank you Lynn(e) Schmidt ❤️

Let poetry cleanse your soiled soul on January 17th at
Freeport Folio’s quarterly Open Mic with Featured Poet Carol Willette Bachofner.
Freeport Community Center 1:00 PM
Seating limited. Free tickets still available (https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1860382356709?aff=oddtdtcreator).

JFK on Poetry “When power corrupts, poetry cleanses.”In October 1963, JFK spoke about the role of the poet and poetry at the dedication of the Robert Frost Library at Amhe...

Freeport Folio is proud to announce the return of its quarterly Open Mic Poetry Series with Featured Poet artist, educator and Rockland Poet Laureate Emerita Carol Willette Bachofner. She is a poet of Scottish and Abenaki descent and her work has been featured in Dawnland Voices- Indigenous Writing From New England and the Northeast (https://dawnlandvoices.org/carol-bachofner-issue-2/)

The event will take place Saturday, January 17th from 1:00 - 2:30 PM in the Bradley Room at Freeport Community Center, 53 Depot Street, Freeport. The event is free and open to the public with open mic sign-ups available at the door. We welcome students, seasoned poets, first-time readers, and those who want to bask in the power of poetry and the spoken word. Seats are limited and can be reserved here--> https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1860382356709?aff=oddtdtcreator