Maine author Colin Woodard will describe four hundred years of  lives and livelihoods in coastal Maine on Sunday, September 16, 2018 at 3:00 pm in the Esther Wood room at George Stevens Academy in Blue Hill. This event is hosted by Colloquy Downeast in collaboration with: The Brooklin Keeping Society, The Ellsworth American, George Stevens Academy, Maine Center for Coastal Fisheries, Sedgwick-Brooklin Historical Society and the Wilson Museum. Everyone is invited to attend. Suggested donation of $5.00 at the door.

Woodard is the author of The Lobster Coast: Rebels, Rusticators & the Struggle for a Forgotten Frontier. To explain current lives and livelihoods, he explores the social history of Maine and its fisheries. Lobstering in particular has been the Rosetta Stone for understanding coastal Maine, Maine culture, and the political, cultural, and economic divisions that drive policy decisions to this day.  He will describe Maine’s unusual history, its complicated relationship to Massachusetts, and the marine environment that shaped so much of its character.

Nearly a decade before the pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock, European settlers were eking out a living on the rocky coast of Maine. Their descendants fended off aggrieved Indians, French raiders, English lords, and greedy land speculators to found one of America’s most iconic and compelling cultures: the lobstering communities of coastal Maine. What does this unique social history imply for future lives and livelihoods?

Colloquy Downeast welcomes Colin Woodard to Blue Hill. Following the talk, all attendees are invited to a reception hosted by George Stevens Academy.   For further information contact Peter Sly at (207) 460-2321.