The Sunday Afternoons at the EAC series, a winter offering of informal and interactive programs every Sunday at 3 pm at Eastport Arts Center, will continue on February 11 with a reading from 3 Nations Anthology: Native, Canadian & New England Writers by Valerie Lawson and friends. 3 Nations explores the northeast, where Canada and New England share borders, boundaries, blood, and heritage and tribal lands reside within their borders. The poems, essays, and short stories in book tell of the things that divide, the bridges between, and the intense love of this rugged region the people who live here hold in common.

Readers will include Michael Brown, a writer and educator from Robbinston; Stephanie Gough, a creative non-fiction writer from Campobello Island, NB; Sharon Mack, a retired journalist and prose writer from Machias; and Sarah Murphy, an activist, author, interpreter and performance, visual and spoken word artist from Bocabec, NB. 3 Nations Anthology was edited by Valerie Lawson for Resolute Bear Press. Lawson is an award-winning poet and teacher on writing and performance who recently graduated from the University of Maine at Machias with a degree in Electronic Publishing. Additional information about the readers follows.

Joseph Bruchac, winner of the Writer and Storyteller of the Year Awards from the Native Writers Circle of the Americas and founder of the Greenfield Review Literary Center writes, “In many ways, the 3 Nations Anthology is a breath of fresh air. The idea of bringing together Canadian, Native, and New England writers is, in itself, a refreshing change from the literary and cultural barriers that we all too often allow to come between us. …let me just quote these lines from a piece by Dan Crowfeather McIsaac that catch the spirit of this collection: “My brothers and sisters, the walls are everywhere and they are very high indeed. But they are not too high if we work together. Come—give me your hand….’”

An offshoot of the center’s summer Concert Series, the Sunday series began in 2009 and has been going strong with diverse programs offered in a casual and cozy atmosphere downstairs at the EAC. The programs are free and open to the public, and take place each Sunday (except Easter Sunday) at 3 pm. Hot drinks and refreshments are offered; donations are accepted. For more information, please visit www.eastportartscenter.org or call (207) 853-4650. The Eastport Arts Center is at 36 Washington Street, Eastport, and is handicapped-accessible.

Subsequent presentations in the series are as follows:  February 18, Gregory Biss’ annual harpsichord hour; February 25, Jon Calame on “Heirs to the Ethnic Ghetto System: Italy’s Roma Minority”; March 4, Shead High School Music Program with jazz and rock music and a discussion; March 11, Stage East staged reading; March 18, art talk by Richard Van Buren and Anna Hepler; March 25, David Greenham on “The Immigrant Experience in Maine”; April 8, workshop performance of the opera Brundibar by EAC Children’s Theater Workshop and PBSO members; April 15 program TBA; April 22, Mark DeVoto with an illustrated talk on Beethoven’s Fidelio. April 29 is reserved as a snow date for any program that needs to be rescheduled.

Reader information:

Michael Brown began teaching in 1962, and he began writing then. He has had four books of poetry published, and numerous other articles, essays, and pieces of journalism. Right now, he is College Transitions Instructor at Axiom where he is helping young people earn their high school credentials. He also helps older writers get their books and articles published. He and his partner live in Downeast Maine where they have a lovely estate and take in retired sled dogs.

Stephanie S. Gough is a creative non-fiction writer from Campobello Island, New Brunswick. She comes from a long line of pirates and smugglers, and currently holds three passports.

Sharon Mack is a retired journalist living on the bold coast of Downeast Maine. After 35 years of telling other people’s stories, she is now telling her own. She has been previously published in Left Hook, The Feminine Collective, Working Waterfront and The Bangor Daily News. She won the 2017 Prize in Prose Award from five80split literary and arts journal.

Sarah Xerar Murphy: Interpreter, translator, community activist, award winning author; performance, visual and spoken word artist, Sarah Xerar Murphy has published, performed, shown, and toured in Mexico, Spain, the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada. Winner of Canada’s Golden Beret Award as well as an Arts Council England International Artist’s fellowship, Murphy has eight books and one sound art/spoken word CD to her credit. Of Choctaw, Irish, English, German, and Latino heritage, Murphy was encouraged from childhood by her Choctaw father, William D. Sherar to view our Turtle Island as one world. Brought up in Brooklyn, she has spent her adult life in Mexico and Canada, and currently in Bocabec, New Brunswick. Her work as a refugee advocate and worries about our world’s turn toward xenophobia, as well as her love of her new home, are reflected in her piece.