Join us for a relaxing Saturday morning with free coffee, donuts, and live jazz music featuring Greg Snakard on piano accompanied by Matt Harkins on saxophone. Donut forget to mark your calendars!

After graduating from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro with a degree in Jazz Piano Performance, Greg Snakard was well known in the area for performing at weddings, galas, hosting the local Saturday morning jazz jam, playing in bands (most fondly with Mystic Syndicate), and teaching private lessons. After changing careers to pursue carpentry, Greg moved to MDI, where he connected with local musicians over the idea of fostering jazz performance on the island. Greg draws inspiration from some of the great jazz pianists such as Bill Evans, Red Garland, Errol Garner, Herbie Handcock, and Barry Harris.

Registration is encouraged but not required.

Repin, Caravaggio, Velasquez to McKnight, Manet to the Wyeths, Rockwell to Hockney, Fischl and many more past and present figurative and narrative artists have used their neighbors and contemporaries as their models. They have also hired professional models.

MDI-based painter and educator Judy Taylor will discuss some of these works and talk about what she looks for in a model and how she uses many of our Mount Desert Island neighbors and other subjects from her travels in her work. She will also show works from some of the women of the WPA and those who painted in the hospitals during the two world wars.

Judy’s work consists of figurative and narrative paintings, labor-focused work, landscapes and portraiture. Her scenes of workers and nature found on the Island often incorporate island residents as models. Prior to coming to Maine she lived in New York City, transferring there from Chicago to study figurative art. She was accepted into New York Academy of Art on full scholarship and received her Masters certificate in their pilot program. She went on to study painting at the National Academy of Design with Harvey Dinnerstein and Ron Sherr. In 1996 she relocated to Maine and was an Artist-in- Residence at Acadia National Park. Since 2002 she has resided full time in Maine where she maintains her studio and teaches there and at workshops in Austin, New York, Italy and France. In 2007 she was awarded the commission to paint the History of Labor in Maine which took a full year to complete.

Registration is requested but not required.

Join friends, enthusiasts, and local poets for a night of camaraderie and poetry sharing. An evening to celebrate each other, the Gathering will be an open-mic format with ample time to sign up at the start of the event. Bring your original elegies, favorite free-verse, silly limericks and more. Time on the mic will depend on turnout, but we recommend preparing 5 - 7 minutes of material if you plan to read. And many thanks to our MCs for the evening, writers Megan and Chrissy of the new Acadia Writing Center.

This event is a collaboration of the Northeast Harbor Library and Southwest Harbor Public Library. Light refreshments will be served, no registration required.

The Romantic Poets of the eighteenth century are known not only for their departure from the historically rigid notion of poetry but also for their appreciation of the sublime.  Collectively, they focused on Beauty and often found great meaning in our relationship with nature, at times seeing this as transcendent.  For those of us alive in the 1960’s and 70’s, it is almost as though their collective vision anticipated some form of the “new” ideas that were attractive in America with youth at this time.

Richard Parker will be teaching a course at the library on the Romantic Poets on six Saturdays from 9:30-11:00 am beginning on October 19th, skipping 10/26 and 11/30 and ending on 12/7. The final class on 12/7 will be held via Zoom. This class will be both in person for local students and on zoom for those who live away.  Richard will lead a deep analysis of the following classic poems: Coleridge: "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" and "Kubla Khan"; Blake: "Tyger"; Wordsworth: "Lines Composed a Few Miles From Tintern Abbey"; Keats: "An Ode on a Grecian Urn"; and Shelley's "Ozymandias." 

Please note that now that the pandemic has passed there will not be a zoom option for folks who live locally, unless the prevalence of Covid is high on the island.  In these times of increased social isolation, coming together in person simply makes us better!  Exceptions will be for inclement weather or zoom links for someone who is traveling.  Last winter for "Moby Dick," there was a large in-person group.  Some felt more comfortable masking which is always fine. 

There is no fee for this class, but a donation to the library will be encouraged.  To register, please email Richard at rlparker78@gmail.com.

About the instructor:  Richard Parker has taught literature, religion, and spirituality since 1977 and holds a Doctorate in Education from the University of Pennsylvania.