{"id":15451,"date":"2018-10-25T18:21:46","date_gmt":"2018-10-25T22:21:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/?p=15451"},"modified":"2020-09-29T10:12:59","modified_gmt":"2020-09-29T14:12:59","slug":"the-10-most-intriguing-people-in-maine-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/the-10-most-intriguing-people-in-maine-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"The 10 Most Intriguing People in Maine 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>November 2018 | <a href=\"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/pdf\/NOV18%2010%20Most.pdf\">view this story as a .pdf<\/a><\/p>\n<div style=\"position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; padding-top: 35px; height: 0; overflow: hidden;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%;\" src=\"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/issues\/november2018\/?page=36\" width=\"300\" height=\"150\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-15481\" src=\"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Geel-600x900.jpg\" alt=\"Geel-600x900\" width=\"275\" height=\"413\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Geel-600x900.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Geel-600x900-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Geel-600x900-233x350.jpg 233w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 275px) 100vw, 275px\" \/><\/div>\n<h3 class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><strong>1: Feeling <\/strong><em>Geel<\/em><\/span><\/h3>\n<h3 class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s2\"><strong>Artist <\/strong><\/span><span class=\"s3\"><strong>Ren\u00e9 Goddess Johnson <\/strong><\/span><span class=\"s2\"><strong>is soaring, <\/strong><\/span><span class=\"s3\"><strong>and there\u2019s no bringing her down.<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n<p class=\"p4\"><span class=\"s4\"><strong>By Diane Hudson<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p6\"><span class=\"s5\">S<\/span><span class=\"s5\">omething draws people to <strong>Ren\u00e9 Goddess Johnson<\/strong>. The South Africa-born actor, director, and choreographer has always snagged attention, at first by accident. \u201cIt started when I was a kid,\u201d Johnson says. \u201cStrangers would come up to me, sit next to me, and start a conversation. By the time I was 12, people would come up and tell me things out of the blue, like \u2018my father just died.\u2019\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s5\">Today, at 34, it\u2019s a quality she prizes\u2014\u201cturning it <em>into<\/em> something. For 27 years, I\u2019ve been fumbling and creating and somehow have become a director.\u201d She smiles. \u201cProducer. Performance artist. Educator. Dancer, choreographer, playwright, theater founder.\u201d She almost twinkles. \u201cEmbodied equity consultant.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s5\">\u201cMy goal is to get more people to be embodied equity players. Growing up, we lose the ability to play. We need to bring ourselves back to the time as children when we were using our entire body and not worrying about looking stupid.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s6\">She should know, having worked as a nanny for 17 years with no fewer than 33 babies.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s6\">Which brings us to her popular interactive one-woman show, <em>geel<\/em>. First performed at Celebration Barn Theater, <em>geel<\/em> has knocked out audiences at Congress Square Park, Colby and Bowdoin Colleges, and Bright Star World Dance. \u201cI invite and give permission for the audience to actively participate throughout the show,\u201d which includes powerful dance and song in multiple languages, including English and Afrikaans. This \u201cbrutally honest\u201d production covers themes ranging from Johnson\u2019s severe physical and emotional abuse and trauma to self-harm habits. \u201c[I love] watching people believe they are going to be scared and then listening to them talk about how much fun they had.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s5\">One standout memory is of a Portland woman in her late sixties. \u201cI watched her listening. I knew she wanted to say something, so I asked her, \u2018What\u2019s on your mind?\u2019 \u2018I listened to that young man in the audience talk about skateboarding as a way to take care of himself. It never occurred to me I could do something I <em>like<\/em> for self-care.\u2019 This is poignant,\u201d Johnson says. \u201cYou don\u2019t come to this show to find out about me. You come here to find out about yourself.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s5\">As we speak, Johnson, the founder and artistic director of the four-year-old award-winning <strong>Theater Ensemble of Color<\/strong>, is collaborating with Portland Ovations and Portland Museum of Art on the production of the Alliance Theatre adaptation of Ashley Bryan\u2019s picture book, <em>Beautiful Blackbird<\/em>. Inspired by a Zambian folk tale, the play, full of music and movement, traces Blackbird\u2019s courageous journey to share his truth that \u201ccolor on the outside is not what\u2019s on the inside,\u201d and \u201cit is important for us to understand how we can get along together in this beautiful forest. This beautiful bird is telling people it\u2019s ok to appreciate blackness, you are you and I am me.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s5\">For director Johnson, \u201cI had this book as a young black woman, and it meant so much. Someone was talking about my skin and my culture and saying it was beautiful. I wasn\u2019t hearing this from church or school. This production is not about sadness, grief or suffering. It is about happiness, black joy, love moments. People don\u2019t hear this enough about blacks. They see mostly police statistics.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-15484\" src=\"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/At-the-arena-web--1024x915.jpg\" alt=\"At the arena web\" width=\"276\" height=\"246\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/At-the-arena-web--1024x915.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/At-the-arena-web--300x268.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/At-the-arena-web--768x686.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/At-the-arena-web--200x179.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/At-the-arena-web--392x350.jpg 392w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 276px) 100vw, 276px\" \/><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"p10\"><span class=\"s1\"><strong>2: Fever Pitch<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n<h3 class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s3\"><strong>Reading a newspaper in Maine? <\/strong><\/span><span class=\"s7\"><strong>Reade Brower<\/strong><\/span><span class=\"s3\"><strong> likely owns or prints it. <\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n<p class=\"p4\"><span class=\"s4\"><strong>Interview by Colin W. Sargent<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p13\"><span class=\"s8\">A<\/span><span class=\"s5\">fter running with the bulls in Spain with his sons this past summer, Reade Brower, 62, shook Maine by the horns when he snapped up <em>The Ellsworth American<\/em> and <em>The Mount Desert Islander<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s3\">He\u2019d already collected virtually every other newspaper in Maine, from the <em>Press Herald<\/em> and <em>Maine Sunday Telegram<\/em> to Waterville\u2019s <em>Morning Sentinel<\/em>, the <em>Kennebec Journal<\/em>, the Lewiston <em>Sun Journal<\/em>, <em>Biddeford Journal Tribune<\/em>, <em>The Times Record<\/em>, <em>Portland Phoenix<\/em>, <em>The Forecaster<\/em> newspapers, Rockland\u2019s <em>The<\/em> <em>Free Press<\/em>, Belfast\u2019s <em>The Republican Journal<\/em>, and<em> The Camden Herald<\/em>. Those he doesn\u2019t have ownership interest in he probably prints, from the <em>Bangor Daily News<\/em> to <em>The Bollard<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s5\">Not for the first time, print readers wondered, who is this guy? We caught up with him just before he left for Spain. His choice of venue? \u201cLunch at Moody\u2019s Diner in Waldoboro.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p14\"><span class=\"s3\"><em>Portland Monthly<\/em>: What\u2019s on your mind this second?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p7\"><span class=\"s5\"><strong>Reade Brower:<\/strong> Right now it\u2019s clear the desk so I can pack [to go to the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona]. Sometimes I\u2019m asked for my long-range plan. I barely have a five-minute plan.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p14\"><span class=\"s3\">Sounds Quixotic. But running with the bulls seems<br \/>\nto fit in with how quickly you can jump to make a deal.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p7\"><span class=\"s5\"><em>A Moody\u2019s waitress approaches.<br \/>\n\u201cWhat would you like?\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p14\"><span class=\"s3\">I\u2019ll have what he\u2019s having.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p7\"><span class=\"s3\">No, you probably won\u2019t. I\u2019ll have<br \/>\nscrambled eggs with cheese and<br \/>\nsausage and some hot tea.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p7\"><span class=\"s9\"><em>I order a hamburger. Smoke from Brower\u2019s hot beverage curls up from the counter at Moody\u2019s.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p14\"><span class=\"s5\">Tea. Unusual for a U.S. journalist. You think of Clark Gable characters in the movies, downing cups of java. Don\u2019t you like coffee?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p7\"><span class=\"s5\">I love coffee. I love coffee so much I used to bring coffee to bed with me. But I made some rules for myself when I got Crohn\u2019s Disease. So I have a coffee allotment. I have rules. I only have coffee on Father\u2019s Day, Christmas, a floating holiday, and two personal days.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p14\"><span class=\"s3\"> Are those your rules or your wife Martha\u2019s rules?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p7\"><span class=\"s5\">My rules. I lost 40 pounds in my 40th year. I pledged I\u2019d give up coffee, alcohol, and doughnuts until I crossed various thresholds. I earned alcohol back. For 7,952 days, I\u2019ve had no doughnuts.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p14\"><span class=\"s3\">Ever have questions about competing publications being printed under the same roof? Can\u2019t they look at each other\u2019s proofs\u2014industrial espionage.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p7\"><span class=\"s5\">I rolled my eyes while you were asking that, because somebody could just be assigned to walk with [the client] and keep [the client] always in sight.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p14\"><span class=\"s3\">An elegant, low-cost solution. \u2018Typical\u2019 Reade Brower?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p7\"><span class=\"s5\">Besides, it\u2019s already printed, so how could it be espionage?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p14\"><span class=\"s3\">After you started <em>The<\/em> <em>Free Press<\/em>, some might say you went dormant for 27 years compared to your feverish recent acquisitions. Who were you then\u2014not acquiring other businesses for decades\u2014and who are you now, where you\u2019re expanding dramatically? In the movie of your life, there must have been a single, inciting incident. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p7\"><span class=\"s10\">I didn\u2019t exactly go dormant. In the 1980s, I had many jobs. I did the <em>Sunshine Guides<\/em>. Eddie [Hemmingsen, who envisioned and ran the <em>Sunshine Guides<\/em> in the 1970s] had a heart attack, and I took over. [Brower owns the <em>Sunshine Guides<\/em> to this day, retitled as the <em>travelMAINE<\/em> guides]. I started <em>The<\/em> <em>Free Press<\/em> in 1985. Worked like a dog until 1989. When I had two infant sons under two, I sold it to a couple of really accomplished people. Eighteen months later, I bought it back.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p16\"><span class=\"s5\"><em>\u201cThe arrangement was for them to pay Reade 25 percent of the purchase price and then $20,000 a year for 10 years. The deal provided some breathing room. And it allowed him to put a down payment on a house in Camden where [he and his wife] still live today.\u201d<\/em>\u2013Pine Tree Watch<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p14\"><span class=\"s3\">You had to repossess it?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p7\"><span class=\"s5\">Yes. That was in 1991. Nine months later, <em>The<\/em> <em>Free Press <\/em>was back on its feet. I now had three children. I solved some distributions problems, and then came the paradigm change: I began focusing on distribution more.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s5\">I mailed to residential addresses all over the state of Maine. I started Target Marketing and the auto catalogs. At my peak I was doing 65 million auto catalogs all over the country until 2004, when <em>autotrader.com<\/em> bought both Target and the auto catalogs.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p14\"><span class=\"s5\">A terrific coup! You could have done anything you wanted and never worked again. What\u2019s intriguing is, why didn\u2019t you live a life of leisure? What did you do immediately afterward?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p7\"><span class=\"s5\">I went to Malawi to work with a friend in an orphanage and get my head where it needed to be. Just a few weeks. Then I came back to Maine. I was 48. I don\u2019t like to sail. I\u2019m a nine-hole golfer at best. I like to run, so I did some of that. I wanted to work, but I didn\u2019t want to just walk back into <em>The<\/em> <em>Free Press<\/em>. I just didn\u2019t want to ask for a job and take someone\u2019s job.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p14\"><span class=\"s3\">You really love <em>The Free Press<\/em>, the people there. It\u2019s coming to me. All of this, this giant swirl of presses and newspapers, is just an extravagant way of protecting the interests of your core publication, the <em>Free Press<\/em>!<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p7\"><span class=\"s5\">That\u2019s right. I began RFB [for Reade Francis Brower] print co-op. That brought together six presses, and I made a deal with our competition, the <em>Courier Gazette<\/em>. But yes, from 2004 to 2011, I had a pretty easy life for six or seven years. Present father, present husband.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p14\"><span class=\"s3\">The <em>Courier Gazette<\/em> was your competitor, right? Though you were printing it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p7\"><span class=\"s5\">In 2010, the <em>Courier Gazette<\/em> had to shut down their press. All of a sudden, the lights went dark. I was watching a basketball game. It was a Friday night, March 11, my mum\u2019s birthday. I knew that no one in the stands knew that their paper had gone dark, that it was lost to the community. I knew it because he owed money to me [a September 6, 2018 <em>Columbia Journalism Review<\/em> story, \u201cThe Man Behind the Unparalleled Consolidation of Local News,\u201d reports the debt to Brower at $75,000, for printing services]. At 5 p.m. there was an email. Then the website went dark. They\u2019d lost their paper of record. I got a call from the bank. They were responsible [for the <em>Courier Gazette\u2019s<\/em> financing], but they didn\u2019t want to be known as the bank that shut it down. They asked me to work it out\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p14\"><span class=\"s3\">What is the strangest 30 seconds professionally you\u2019ve had in the last five years?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p7\"><span class=\"s9\">I\u2019m not sure it\u2019s the strangest, but I was driving.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p14\"><span class=\"s3\">What kind of car?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p7\"><span class=\"s5\">A Prius. I\u2019ve had five in a row. We were trying to get the contract to print MaineToday Media (MTM). If they shuttered their presses like <em>Bangor Daily News <\/em>did, we wanted the business for our press, so my partner Chris Miles (CEO of Brower\u2019s Alliance Press in Brunswick) had gone to Connecticut to meet the front-line guy for Donald Sussman, Ophir [Barone], and he\u2019d finally gotten permission to talk to Ophir. Chris called me.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s5\">\u201cAre you sitting down?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s5\">\u201cNo, I\u2019m driving. Did we get it?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s5\">\u201cNo.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s5\">He told me that Donald Sussman couldn\u2019t really let us print the newspapers because there were union considerations with their printing work force. So [Sussman] had a different idea. We weren\u2019t there five minutes before Ophir said, \u2018Why don\u2019t you buy MaineToday Media?\u2019 I thought, \u201cOh, no. What have I done?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p14\"><span class=\"s3\">What is it you do?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p7\"><span class=\"s5\">I find ways to keep presses sustainable. I don\u2019t think of myself as artistic, but this is my paintbrush.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p14\"><span class=\"s3\">What would it take for you to wake up and say, \u201cIt\u2019s over. I don\u2019t want to own a slew of Maine and Vermont newspapers anymore. They\u2019re noisy and stress-ridden.\u201d What would you do?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p7\"><span class=\"s5\">I\u2019d find a person who would care about them.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p14\"><span class=\"s5\">Your hands-off approach to offer your [more than 30] newspapers their editorial autonomy is singular, noble. But every once in a while, do you get a phone call: \u201cI just need you to tie-break on this one. This is an exception. Just this time.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p7\"><span class=\"s5\">Never happened. The only time they\u2019ll call me is to give me a heads-up [if they think we might get] sued.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p14\"><span class=\"s5\">If you were forced to give someone a 15-minute tour of your business, where would you take him or her? If you were Guy Gannett, we probably wouldn\u2019t be here at Moody\u2019s Diner, even though he probably was a customer here. Where would you take me to say, \u201cThis is where I work\u201d?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p7\"><span class=\"s5\">I remember I went to [MTM] late at night. They wouldn\u2019t let me in at first.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p14\"><span class=\"s5\">It\u2019s an urban legend that you\u2019ve only visited the <em>Press Herald<\/em> once after you bought it. So where would you take me?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p7\">I\u2019d take you to MTM press. It\u2019s a big building, so I could ditch you in there and get away.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p14\"><span class=\"s3\">How are you different from Guy Gannett, and what do you have in common? You\u2019re both Red Sox fans, for starters.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p7\"><span class=\"s5\">I\u2019m not hands-on. I only have to make two people happy. Me and the bank.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p14\"><span class=\"s5\">You don\u2019t live in a Hearst Castle or in a Cape Elizabeth waterfront mansion like Guy Gannett. I can tell from Google Maps. How do you measure your success?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p7\"><span class=\"s5\">I like creating sustainable business models. I live in the same house I\u2019ve lived in for many years. For success, I guess I\u2019d ask myself, \u201cHow many lives have you affected in a positive way?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p14\"><span class=\"s3\">Live below the fold but accomplish things above the fold.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p7\"><span class=\"s5\">I like that.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p14\"><span class=\"s3\">How far back does that approach go for you personally? Complete this sentence:<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>In Westborough High School, you were the kid who (fill in the blank).<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p7\"><span class=\"s5\">Fell under the radar there, too.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p14\"><span class=\"s3\">Any sports, extracurricular activities at Westborough?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p7\"><span class=\"s5\">Nothing very interesting.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p14\"><span class=\"s3\">Everything\u2019s interesting. Your school colors were<br \/>\nnavy blue and cardinal.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p7\"><span class=\"s5\">The Rangers. No, I didn\u2019t have extracurricular activities. I worked as a bookkeeper for my father, Brower Engineering. I swept floors where my mother worked, King\u2019s Department Store.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p14\"><span class=\"s3\">Many of us suffer from illusions, but you don\u2019t seem to. Your email address ends with \u201crfbads.com.\u201d Is it hard work to stay down to earth?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p7\"><span class=\"s5\">[A smile.] \u2018I sell ads\u2019 is what I\u2019m all about. Newspapers have always been a labor of love. I\u2019ve never made money just publishing newspapers.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p14\"><span class=\"s11\">How does the next generation of your family react to all of these acquisitions? You know, the \u2018stewardship\u2019 thing. Does anyone in your next generation want to get into the business to guide us all toward the 22nd century?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p7\"><span class=\"s5\">No!<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p14\"><span class=\"s3\">With the <em>Seattle Times<\/em> needing cash, did the Blethen family take a $200M hit by divesting themselves in a hurry of Blethen-Maine\u2014the Portland Newspapers, etc.? If they borrowed $213M in 1998 and sold it to the Richard Connor group of investors for something less than half of that, and Donald Sussman bought 75 percent of Maine Today Media for $3.3M in March of 2012, investing $13M according to one estimate, somebody had to be devastated along the way.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p7\"><span class=\"s5\">Donald\u2019s $13M investment, to my knowledge, is accurate. He updated the infrastructure. He turned over a publication that was very nearly breaking even. The only problem was the print problem, and he had the unions. He couldn\u2019t just contract the printing to me because of the print unions. The severance package [Sussman would have had to offer the union printers] was too expensive.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p14\"><span class=\"s3\">To get the savings you were offering, he\u2019d have to sell everything to you.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p7\"><span class=\"s5\">Yes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p14\"><span class=\"s3\">But you had a plan.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p7\"><span class=\"s5\">I took over the assets and some bank debt, and then I sold the [171,000-square-foot] MaineToday press building in South Portland [in early 2016, to J. B. Brown &amp; Co., with CBRE\/The Boulos Co. as broker, for $4.9M, including a 21-acre campus] and took a [10-year] lease [with renewal options] back. That was the money we used to buy the new press! Owning a building is not my core competency. With the new press, we\u2019re saving $800,000 per year. It makes a red number slightly black.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p7\"><span class=\"s5\"><em>Since then, much of the MTM editorial staff has moved from its rented headquarters at One City Center in downtown Portland to share space with the rest of MTM at Gannett Drive in South Portland:<br \/>\n<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p16\"><span class=\"s3\"><em>\u201c<\/em>Most employees have been moved there from One City Center in Portland \u2013 where the company was paying $40,000 a month for rent and $100,000 a year for parking. Alliance will relocate to the South Portland plant in February\u2013the Brunswick building was sold\u2013and additional presses are being installed to produce the Alliance work.\u201d\u2013<em>Pine Tree Watch<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p14\"><span class=\"s3\">How do you feel about Canadian paper, and what are the purchasing trends?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p7\"><span class=\"s5\">The real challenge is the tariffs on Canadian newsprint. I can\u2019t speak for the West Coast, but I do know in the East Coast, all newspapers use Canadian newsprint. All the U.S. [newsprint providers] are at capacity. It\u2019s such an unnecessary thing. Pacific Northern is owned by a venture capitalist, [so why not work for self-interest and] leave the industry in the wreckage if the tariffs are not rescinded.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p14\"><span class=\"s3\">How have the tariffs affected your presses and publications in Maine, and what adjustments will you make?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p7\"><span class=\"s6\">Newsprint is the second-biggest expense outside of labor. It\u2019s already been a challenge.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p14\"><span class=\"s3\">Geography aside, where\u2019s the center of your business? <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p7\"><span class=\"s5\">It\u2019s close to wherever my minority partner Chris Miles is. He\u2019s been running presses since he was a teenager.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p14\"><span class=\"s3\">You grew up a Red Sox fan. When The <em>New York Times<\/em> interviewed you and implied you were the \u2018last man standing\u2019 in a desolate world that was running from print, you made sure you were pictured in a Red Sox cap. Were you thinking \u201cYankees Fans?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p7\"><span class=\"s5\">I didn\u2019t realize the interview was about me. I thought he was going to be talking about [trends in print and publishing consortiums, consolidation].<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p14\"><span class=\"s3\">Even though you control an electronic media empire as well, you seem a champion of print.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p7\"><span class=\"s5\">Now more than ever. I\u2019m still the same person. I bowl on Tuesday nights. I\u2019ve lived in the same house in Camden since 1989. With authority comes responsibility.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p14\"><span class=\"s5\">You\u2019re pragmatic but sentimental. Or else you and Martha would never have started <em>The<\/em> <em>Free Press<\/em> on your wedding anniversary.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p7\"><span class=\"s3\">I know that\u2019s been published, but it isn\u2019t true.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p14\"><span class=\"s5\">It\u2019s fair to say you\u2019re working things out on a larger scale, then. It figures into your going to Pamplona. You could have shared some adventure with your sons in Maine. But this time around you needed a bigger canvas. There\u2019s some searching.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p7\"><span class=\"s5\">For our 25th anniversary, Martha and I walked the Camino de Santiago. I\u2019ve checked into some Zen concepts, read some Bertrand Russell.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p14\"><span class=\"s5\">It\u2019s occurred to me that you can\u2019t possibly receive all your newspapers daily or weekly and display them on a coffee table. When execs from your newspapers visit you, do you catch them looking anxiously for their title on your coffee table?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p7\"><span class=\"s5\">Nobody ever sees my coffee table.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p14\"><span class=\"s3\">What else do you like to, um, Reade?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p7\"><span class=\"s5\">I got the Al Franken book, but it was hard to finish. I liked <em>Girl With A Dragon Tattoo<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p14\"><span class=\"s3\">It must be rewarding to have your dad living nearby.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p7\"><span class=\"s9\">I wouldn\u2019t call it rewarding. I\u2019d call it full circle.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p14\"><span class=\"s3\">Now that sounds like <em>Girl With A Dragon Tattoo<\/em>. If this were the <em>Millennium Magazine<\/em> interview, I\u2019d query about your name, Reade. Sounds like a family name. How far back does it go?\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p7\">It\u2019s German, like Brower, my surname. I\u2019m adopted.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p14\"><span class=\"s3\">How did you and your wife meet? It\u2019s a romantic story<br \/>\nthat you followed her to Maine.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p7\">It\u2019s not accurate. I met Martha at a Christmas party in Watertown, Massachusetts. [After having graduated from UMass Amherst, with a degree in marketing] I\u2019d been living with my dad in Martha\u2019s Vineyard for six months, and my next-door neighbor Renee invited me. The party was on Saturday night, December 20, 1980. I\u2019d been doing some repairs\u2013some spackling with my dad. We stopped for dinner. He looked up. \u201cI thought you were going to a party. Eat your pizza. Drink your beer. Go to the party.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s3\">I put on a pink shirt, made an origami bird, walked to Renee\u2019s, and put the bird on the Christmas tree when I came in. Martha asked Renee, who put the bird up there? She was a first-year art teacher at Waltham High. When Proposition 2.5 happened, the school lost three art teachers, including Martha. Martha got a job in Thomaston after seeing an ad for the position in the <em>Boston Globe<\/em>. She was chosen out of 75 applicants as an art teacher.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p14\">Just fact checking. We\u2019re in the 1980s. That was<br \/>\na pink shirt?<\/p>\n<p class=\"p7\"><span class=\"s5\">Martha later made an artwork of it, in pink gesso. It hangs in our hallway: December 20, 1980.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p14\"><span class=\"s3\">What were you driving when you came to Maine?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p7\"><span class=\"s9\">A red early 1970s Toyota Corolla with some rust.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p14\"><span class=\"s11\">You\u2019re an eye collector, working on a scale few can imagine. You\u2019ve mentioned Martha\u2019s image of your trying to put the pieces of a giant puzzle together before. But nobody\u2019s ever wondered to ask you what the picture on the puzzle is. Do you have any idea of what the puzzle will look like when you\u2019re finished?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p7\"><span class=\"s5\">I have no idea what the puzzle looks like. It would spoil it for me to see it. That\u2019s the last thing I\u2019d want to see.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p18\"><span class=\"s5\">For a list of Brower\u2019s newspapers and printing clients, visit<\/span> <span class=\"s5\">http:\/\/bit.ly\/BrowerPortlandMonthly.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p18\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-15485\" src=\"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/june-web.jpg\" alt=\"june web\" width=\"900\" height=\"616\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/june-web.jpg 900w, https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/june-web-300x205.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/june-web-768x526.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/june-web-200x137.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/june-web-511x350.jpg 511w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"p21\"><span class=\"s1\"><strong>3: Stitch in Time<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n<h3 class=\"p22\"><span class=\"s14\"><strong>June Ranco, <\/strong><\/span><span class=\"s3\"><strong>a member of the Penobscot Nation, guides her family\u2019s 68-year-old Indian Moccasin Shop in Wells into the future.<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n<p class=\"p4\"><span class=\"s4\"><strong>By Mihku Paul<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p7\"><span class=\"s15\">T<\/span><span class=\"s11\">he Indian Moccasin Shop is still run by original family member <strong>June Ranco<\/strong>, who says, \u201cWe haven\u2019t changed one bit. I think that\u2019s why people like us so much.\u201d It\u2019s a small wood-framed storefront attached to a house on Post Road. Daylilies and irises grow alongside the worn front steps flanked by picture windows filled with Native American wares and souvenir items. A parking lot to the right features a handmade sign with blue lettering that reads \u201cParking for Indian Shop ONLY. Police take notice.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s5\">As soon as you step inside, you\u2019re enveloped in a delightful slice of Maine history. Glass cases filled with jewelry, statues, and bits and bobs fill every available space. Countertop displays feature bead strands and pouches as well as toys for children. Most of the countertop space to the right is filled with moccasins of all shapes and sizes. Some are clearly handmade while others are from a well-known artisanal moccasin maker in Minnesota. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p24\"><span class=\"s3\">Can you tell me how the shop started? <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p7\"><span class=\"s5\">\u201cMy father and mother were in Ogunquit. That was about 1949. They were down there two summers, and then they decided they wanted something more permanent, you know, so they discovered this place. I believe they came here in 1951. When they found it, it was just that one room. It was a fish store, and guys from Massachusetts owned it. So they bought that and added this [storefront] on. They added their apartment on the back.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p24\"><span class=\"s5\">Has your family always owned the shop? <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p7\"><span class=\"s5\">\u201cYes, my father started it. They called him Chief Tomekin. He wasn\u2019t really a chief, but that\u2019s what people called him. He was Penobscot.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s3\">June hands me a postcard with a group portrait of four family members in pan-Indian pageantry dress from an early era. I\u2019m reminded of my own grandfather, who traveled in a Wild West show back in those days with Bruce Poolaw, a Kiowa who lived on Indian Island and had a souvenir shop there.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s5\">\u201cThis is my father, Leslie Ranco. That\u2019s my grandfather, Joseph, and here is my grandmother and my aunt, who was called Princess Goldenrod. My mom\u2019s picture is right here over the door. Her English name was Valentine Ranco, but her Indian name was Little Deer. My father made all the moccasins back then.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s5\">Today, a Pow wow is held\u2014the annual Val Ranco Pow Wow\u2014each year in honor of June\u2019s mother, Valentine, named for the holiday. This is the 16th year of the event, which started in 2008, the year Val Ranco passed. She was ninety-six, the oldest living Penobscot at that time. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s5\">At a recent clambake on Hermit Island, I learned from the campground owner that Princess Goldenrod used to come there each summer to sell her wares. June verifies this practice of summering in tourist areas along the Maine coast to sell Native crafts, which was common for the tribes in Maine back then. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p24\"><span class=\"s3\">Where do you get your moccasins from now?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p7\"><span class=\"s5\">\u201cWell, I get some from Canada, you know. This here is Norwegian elk, and the leather has skyrocketed. My last guy told me, he says, \u2018I don\u2019t think I\u2019m gonna be able to do this anymore because the leather is so expensive.\u2019 And then he passed away anyway, so. So now I don\u2019t have anybody, and I only have maybe one pair of these left now.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p24\"><span class=\"s5\">Did you acquire any skills growing up, for beading and basketry? <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p7\"><span class=\"s5\">\u201cI used to make baskets, you know, and bookmarks and things. And I have a collection of small baskets that were made by different people years ago. This is sweetgrass right here. You know you can refresh that\u2026just soak it in some warm water for a little bit. Did I tell you how they braided their sweetgrass? They\u2019d go \u2019round by Skowhegan and that area and pick sweetgrass all day. Then they\u2019d bring it home, and all the women would have their own sweetgrass, you know. But it would be all loose, so what they did was, one night they\u2019d go to this person\u2019s house. Everybody would braid sweetgrass for her. They\u2019d have a little lunch, and then they\u2019d make it a night. They\u2019d braid a hundred yards of sweetgrass that one night. Then the next week they\u2019d go to somebody else\u2019s house, and then she\u2019d give them a lunch and they\u2019d braid all her sweetgrass. Everybody helped. Everybody got their grass braided.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p24\"><span class=\"s5\">Have you heard before of the Indian Arts and Crafts Act? I wondered what you might have thought about it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p7\"><span class=\"s5\">\u201cWell, I don\u2019t know. It\u2019s hard for me to say. Because I have people coming in here every day of the week, telling me that they have\u2026whatever blood. Cherokee or whatever. I say, well, that\u2019s nice. But when it comes down to that, like you say, with this arts thing&#8230; I don\u2019t know, I think they should be registered or connected with a tribe somewhere.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p24\"><span class=\"s5\">You always told me if something wasn\u2019t local, you knew where it came from.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p7\"><span class=\"s5\">\u201cRight, yes. I try to avoid that kind of stuff, you know, if I can. It\u2019s so darn hard today. But most of my stuff, I try to get natural made stuff made by Natives, you know? If possible. And I get a lot of stuff made by Mohawks up in St. Regis. And now I\u2019m getting these from Canada. From the tribe up there. Anyway, I try to get Native American stuff made by Native Americans. And some things we make right here. Like those dreamcatchers.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p24\"><span class=\"s3\">Are you planning to retire at some point?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p7\"><span class=\"s3\">\u201cWhen it comes to that time, which will probably be next year or the year after, something like that, I will be here still to help my daughter get acclimated and everything.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p24\"><span class=\"s3\">It just wouldn\u2019t be the same without you here to tell the stories.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p7\"><span class=\"s5\">\u201cThat\u2019s what everybody tells me. They just thank me for talking to them. And I enjoy talking to \u2019em. Just like my dad. He\u2019d stand right there, making his moccasins, and customers would come in here and talk, talk, talk. They\u2019d talk for hours. And sometimes they don\u2019t buy anything. He didn\u2019t care. He says, \u2018I just like to talk with them.\u2019 So I guess I must take after him.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s5\">At a spritely 88, June Ranco carries the stories that transcend across generations of Maine. It you\u2019re willing to listen, she\u2019s willing to tell them. \u201cThey love it,\u201d June says, \u201cand they\u2019ll ask me questions, and I\u2019ll answer their questions, you know. And sometimes they buy something, which is fine. But they keep coming back, you know? They keep coming back. So that\u2019s good.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-15477\" src=\"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/NOV18-10-Most.jpg\" alt=\"NOV18-10-Most\" width=\"350\" height=\"233\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/NOV18-10-Most.jpg 350w, https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/NOV18-10-Most-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/NOV18-10-Most-200x133.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"p26\"><span class=\"s1\"><strong>4: Skill Set<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n<h3 class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s14\"><strong>Ben Severance<\/strong><\/span><span class=\"s3\"><strong> has real Maine stories to tell.<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n<p class=\"p4\"><span class=\"s4\"><strong>By Olivia Gunn Kotsishevskaya<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p7\"><span class=\"s3\">While artists of his ilk are leaving the state for New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta, even Austin\u2014<strong>Ben Severance<\/strong>, 30, has chosen a long-term relationship with the Forest City, where he lives in a shared apartment on Howard Street on Munjoy Hill. It overlooks a tangled garden and firepit where you\u2019re sure to find a crew of Portland\u2019s gaffers, producers, photographers, writers, and cinematographers talking shop on a warm night. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s5\">Being handed his father\u2019s vintage Pentax camera presented an outlet for Severance growing up in Wilmot Flat, New Hampshire. It would lead to travel and work for organizations including the United Nations, Swarovski, and Habitat for Humanity. \u201cI didn\u2019t want to be in New York. I don\u2019t like it,\u201d he says over a beer at Brian Boru, the watering hole across from his office on Center Street. \u201cAnd I\u2019m from small-town New England. You don\u2019t really look at Boston and dream of it. Portland feels, in some ways, like a West Coast city. We\u2019re close to the mountains, the coast. People here value the things I value.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s5\">Severance pursued photojournalism at Western Kentucky, where he met some of those whose famous photos hung on the walls of his childhood bedroom, including Sam Abell and David Alan Harvey. But it wasn\u2019t all quite what he\u2019d imagined. Focused on what he calls \u201ccause-based photography,\u201d he admits he became a bit disillusioned at one point. \u201cThey say you shouldn\u2019t meet your heroes. Some were egomaniacs. And presenters would come to the school and say, \u2018I don\u2019t know why you all are in this.\u2019\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s5\">None of which kept Severance from getting noticed. \u201cThere was some validation years later, after I\u2019d sort of given up photo. Friends pushed me to submit to Eddie Adams Photo Workshop,\u201d a creative mecca that accepts around 100 participants. \u201cAt the end, Santiago Lyon, my mentor throughout and head of the Associated Press, said I could go anywhere in the world, some foreign city, and just start working. That made me feel like I could put photo to rest because at that point, I was already hooked on video.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\">He launched Timber and Frame in 2012 and started working with a non-profit in Ohio before he snagged his first commercial gig for Country Crock. \u201cThat was an existential crisis\u2013whether I was going to do that or not. But, we ended up doing it. That launched us into a world of New York ad agencies.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s5\">Now in Portland, Severance leads a team of Maine freelancers\u2014\u201cas good as any out of New York or the West Coast. There\u2019s a stigma that good creative in our field\u2013video and commercial production\u2013has to come out of New York, L.A. That\u2019s absolute bullshit. With the internet, you can have amazing creative coming out of anywhere in America. I challenge anyone on that fact. I face [that misconception] when I interact with clients in L.A. and New York. \u2018Why are you in Portland, Maine?\u2019 Well, young people like myself don\u2019t want to live in New York. I have so many friends in New York looking out windows dreaming of living here.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s5\">Big-city mindsets aren\u2019t the only challenges Severance is taking on. \u201cWhen working with local organizations, we\u2019re working really hard to bring diversity in all forms to our work when maybe clients aren\u2019t calling for it or aren\u2019t even aware that it\u2019s something they should be considering. We\u2019ll tell them that\u2019s a problem. I\u2019ve had clients say, \u2018That represents the demographic of Maine,\u2019 but I don\u2019t think that\u2019s an [acceptable] excuse, and it\u2019s definitely not an excuse for traditional gender stereotypes. We want to show it\u2019s not just white people here. When we filmed for the United Nations in Portland, people who\u2019d come from all over\u2014Somalia, Sudan, Iraq\u2014they\u2019d grown up in these communities such as East Bayside and have said things like \u2018I\u2019m a Mainer. Portland is diverse.\u2019 Their experience is so different from what the outward appearance of Maine is.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s5\">Those shallow conclusions from the outside is the fuel Severance is burning on. \u201cWe have a place of power. I can influence the actors, talent, scenarios that go into the commercials that people watch on TV that represent Maine. I can push for that imagery to undermine a lot of stereotypes. And we want to work with organizations that value the fact that when we\u2019re filming and need someone working with a chainsaw, it should be a young woman. \u2018Oh, we need someone on a mountain looking out longingly.\u2019 Great. That person should be a man.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s5\">On top of changing the composition, Severance has his ear to the ground for real Maine stories. \u201cWe were brought on to do a commercial for a hospital system that spanned the entire state. Every visual they wanted to shoot was on the coast\u2014sea kayaking, sailing, lobster boats, lighthouses. I said, \u2018Guys, this isn\u2019t Maine.\u2019 Mainers aren\u2019t getting together in groups and sea kayaking around! Let\u2019s get real. If you\u2019re marketing to Mainers in interior Maine, then you probably want to show four-wheeling. But hikers on the coast hate four-wheelers. If you show sailing, Millinocket will groan. There\u2019s this balance, right? How do you walk that line and show what the core of Maine is about and cross that divide? When we\u2019re talking about diversity of race and gender, diversity of class is equally as important. The people of interior Maine don\u2019t get represented. I\u2019m from a small town\u2014not in Maine\u2014but New Hampshire. My dad was a carpenter. I get it. If you\u2019re talking to Mainers, you\u2019ve got to get into what those people value and it\u2019s very different. Those are battles.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s5\">While agencies already have their pick of filmmakers, writers, and artists in bigger cities, Severance wants the Portland brainpower to stay right here. \u201cThe only way young, homegrown talent can stay is if there is enough of an economy here to work as a freelancer. One way I combat the brain drain is by hiring a crew here and taking them down to New York. That way the money is going back to the merry men up here in Sherwood Forest, and we\u2019re just stealing it from down there in New York. And that\u2019s what gets me through those awful days in New York.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s5\">As for the work, Severance is busy producing videos like \u201cFisherman,\u201d a two-minute PSA telling the story of a third generation lobsterman for The Nature Conservancy. Last year, he was hired by the United Nations to film \u201cAnother Silent Night,\u201d depicting the stories of refugees. Much of that was filmed right here in Portland. Other projects include videos for Friends of Acadia, Motorola, and the Blanchard River Watershed Partnership in Ohio, a PSA that won a 2014 EMMY. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s6\">It\u2019s hard not to get behind this Robin Hood. Severance is in for the good fight and has a vision many in Maine are seeing clearly\u2014one that extends beyond the screen.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-15486\" src=\"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/abdi-web.jpg\" alt=\"abdi web\" width=\"700\" height=\"587\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/abdi-web.jpg 700w, https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/abdi-web-300x252.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/abdi-web-200x168.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/abdi-web-417x350.jpg 417w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><\/p>\n<h5 class=\"p28\"><span class=\"s1\"><strong>5. Embedded in Maine<\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n<h5 class=\"p29\"><span class=\"s14\"><strong>Abdi Nor Iftin <\/strong><\/span><span class=\"s3\"><strong>has everyone talking.<\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n<p class=\"p4\"><span class=\"s4\"><strong>By Olivia Gunn Kotsishevskaya<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p7\"><span class=\"s5\">In <em>Call Me American<\/em> (Alfred A. Knopf, 2018), Abdi Nor Iftin, 33, chronicles his life in war-torn Somalia from his childhood to his immigration to the United States. It\u2019s a harrowing reality that few U.S.-born citizens can fathom. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p30\"><span class=\"s5\">\u201cMogadishu had become a city of women and children, a city of graves. The streets were littered with bullet casings and unexploded bombs. Exhausted militiamen roamed the empty neighborhoods, roofs and doors gone, carrying the goods they looted going from house to house, leaving nothing behind. The great capital city of the nation had become the valley of death.\u201d \u2014<em>Call Me American<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s5\">\u201cIt\u2019s important that we share these stories with the entire world so they know,\u201d says Iftin, who first began telling his story as a correspondent for the BBC and NPR in 2009 via secret cell phone recordings after meeting Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Paul Salopek in Mogadishu. Salopek was there covering the U.S.-backed Ethiopian occupation. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s5\">At the time, Iftin was 22, had witnessed more death as a child than most adults, had buried his infant sister, had lived on the streets, and was threatened with a gun to his head. Each day, for most of his life, presented a thin line between life or death. \u201cLiving with violence was the only thing I knew,\u201d Iftin says. From avoiding the militant group al-Shabaab and navigating the sheer chaos around him, it seemed there was no escape. Well-known as \u201cAbdi American\u201d for his obsession with Western culture, he was watched closely by the group. Iftin learned English from Hollywood movies starring Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger screened in a neighbor\u2019s home. It was an escape as much as an opportunity. \u201cIn the movies, there are good guys and bad guys. Where I lived, there were no good guys.\u201d With a Madonna poster hanging in his bedroom and rap music playing, Iftin could tell his mother was at a loss. \u201cShe had never seen someone so obsessed with Western culture.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s5\">On top of it all, Iftin was teaching English to others, drawing more attention to himself. \u201cThey [al-Shabaab] were trying to recruit me. I hid in an area al-Shabaab was not controlling at the time, and, luckily, I met Paul. He listened to me. I was so frustrated, and I unleashed all the frustration and anger I had. I told him, \u2018Life here sucks. I can die anytime any moment.\u2019\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s5\">Salopek brought the accounts back to the U.S., writing a piece for <em>The Atlantic<\/em>, \u201cThe War Is Bitter and Nasty.\u201d It was the inciting incident in Iftin\u2019s trek to the U.S. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s5\">With the help of the NPR team and the McDonnell family from Maine\u2014who\u2019d listened with rapt attention to Iftin\u2019s story on the airwaves, Iftin escaped to Kenya, where he entered the lottery for a green card and was selected to immigrate to the States. Arriving in Boston, where Yarmouth\u2019s Sharon McDonnell and her daughter Natalya were there to greet him, Iftin recalls seeing headlines on Michael Brown on the televisions at the airport. Having finally made it to Maine, Iftin spent his first night with the McDonnells in Yarmouth. \u201cThe next day [in Yarmouth] they took me around the neighborhood\u2026it\u2019s really, really less diverse. Basically, we went to the neighbors and we told them, \u2018Please, don\u2019t call 911, I am a local who just came. I am not a troublemaker, and I\u2019m so excited to be here.\u2019 So, that was my introduction to America, unfortunately.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s5\">\u201cMaine did not look like the America I had imagined. In Yarmouth, people have horses, chickens\u2014there are deer, turkeys. I thought, \u2018Why does this look like the scary movies?\u2019 Two years into Maine\u2014once I got my car, a job, and I met some friends\u2014I moved into Portland. I\u2019m going to the ocean in the warm weather. In the winter, I had people show me how to do ice skating, and I got snowshoes\u2014everything many Mainers do.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s5\">Though he\u2019d been sending ground reports and recounting his daily survival, Iftin says it was tough to invoke those dark childhood memories for the book written with Max Alexander. \u201cIt was difficult writing those things,\u201d he says. \u201cMy mother is in Somalia, and my brother is a refugee in Kenya. It was difficult because I called my mother and asked her to describe what it was like in the civil war. I asked her about the survival, her strength, her nomadic skills she used, and we\u2019d cry. She just wanted to forget it and focus on surviving. I could feel the nightmares. They felt like fresh memories. My mother felt the same way. But this was my memoir, and I wanted to write down these things so the whole world had to read about what it is like to grow up in civil war Somalia\u2014how easy it was to bring down a government, how easy it was to get into a civil war, but how hard it is to get out of it.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\">Today, Iftin works as a translator; as an author, he\u2019s touring the country he\u2019d dreamt of as a boy, though the widespread attention hasn\u2019t only brought praise. Iftin\u2019s Seattle appearance was cancelled this fall following controversy within Maine\u2019s Somali community. According to the <em>Press Herald<\/em>, former roommates Yusuf Yusuf, Mohamed Awil, and Abdullahi Ali dispute what Iftin wrote about them in Chapter 16 of the memoir, which describes his life in Portland, and many are displeased by the way the Somali community as a whole is portrayed:<\/p>\n<p class=\"p30\"><span class=\"s3\">\u201cMy roommates had all been in Maine over ten years, making me the new guy in town. But I was surprised how little American culture they had absorbed\u2026No one except me had a passion for America. Abdul was the only one who had even bothered learning English, which he needed for his work. In their jobs stocking shelves at Walmart and Shaw\u2019s, Yussuf and Awil didn\u2019t really need to speak English.\u201d \u2014<em>Call Me American<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s5\">In an email to <em>Portland Monthly<\/em> Ali writes, \u201cThe part of the book about Maine is mostly fabricated and plays to the general negative stereotypes to refugees\/immigrants, Muslims, or people of color (lazy, uneducated, unwilling to integrate, hates America, care [for] their home countries more than the U.S.A. and not interested in becoming a part of the American society). These are the talking points of the far-right, anti-immigrant fanatics. What is more disappointing is that the examples used to justify these are made up or completely false.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s5\">Ali was unable to discuss a lawsuit they are working on but sent a long list of disputed content. \u201cWe are not writing this to shame Abdi,\u201d he writes, \u201cbut to point out misconceptions created by this falsified \u2018memoir.\u2019 As we have already indicated to him, we welcome a sit down with him, so that we may set the record straight and hopefully show him that he did not have to be creative with the truth or insult his origin[s] to sell a book.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s5\">\u201cThe roommate [Ali] feels like I exposed some untold stories that would stay within us,\u201d Iftin says. \u201cBut I decided to change his name because he does not want it in the book. My publisher is working on that.\u201d Paul Boagaards, head of publicity for Penguin Random House, told the <em>Press Herald<\/em> that \u201ca handful of changes, including names and text\u201d would be changed in the electronic version and future prints. <\/span><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"p31\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-15493\" src=\"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/10-Most-6.png\" alt=\"10 Most 6\" width=\"750\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/10-Most-6.png 750w, https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/10-Most-6-300x240.png 300w, https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/10-Most-6-200x160.png 200w, https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/10-Most-6-438x350.png 438w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px\" \/><\/h3>\n<h3 class=\"p31\"><span class=\"s1\"><strong>6: River Queen<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n<h3 class=\"p29\"><span class=\"s3\"><strong>Kayaking helps <\/strong><\/span><span class=\"s16\"><strong>Kimberlee Bennett<\/strong><\/span><span class=\"s3\"><strong> ply new frontiers.<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n<p class=\"p4\"><span class=\"s4\"><strong>By Olivia Gunn Kotsishevskaya<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p7\"><span class=\"s17\">T<\/span><span class=\"s5\">he water, glass-like, reflecting fall\u2019s beauty, shatters as the tip of Westbrook resident <strong>Kimberlee Bennett\u2019s<\/strong> Old Town Loon kayak glides from the shore. We\u2019re on Lower Range Pond in Poland, which, other than two fishermen in a small row boat, we have to ourselves. Gladys, Bennett\u2019s canine travel companion, pouts over the edge of the kayak, disappointed in our lack of enthusiasm for a swim. With no solid plans or schedule dictating our route, we follow Maine Kayak Girl into deeper water. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\">\u201cThe first time I kayaked alone after I lost my mom was on the Penobscot,\u201d Bennett, 43, says as we paddle past an island screeching with bald eagles. \u201cIt was something we\u2019d always done together. I didn\u2019t know if it would mean the same to me without her.\u201d Bennett\u2019s mother died in 2009, but her love for Maine\u2019s outdoors still speaks to Bennett, whose blog, R<em>ecreational Kayaking in Maine<\/em>, has gained a monumental following among adventurers looking for straight-forward info on the state\u2019s waterways.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s3\">\u201cI really started the blog as a way to keep track of my own trips,\u201d says Bennett, an assistant principal at South Portland High School who, at six-foot six, says she loves being recognized for something other than her height. \u201cI grew up in Lincoln, a small town, and I played basketball, so I was always known for being tall. After starting the blog, I remember being out [kayaking] alone and joining some other kayakers under a bridge. One of the women started talking about this blog she\u2019d been following, and I just kind of nodded. Then she started looking at me and said, \u2018Wait\u2014are you&#8230;?\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s3\">After her blog took off, Bennett was asked by friend and former registered Maine guide Sandy Moore to co-write and photograph for a book for kayakers, canoers, and SUPers. <em>Paddling Southern Maine<\/em> (Mountaineers Books, 2017) contains 54 adventures from lakes to coves and tidal rivers. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s5\">Though she\u2019s spent time as an interstate toll collector while working three other jobs, Bennett now loves working to get kids at South Portland High accustomed to the waterways that make up their home state. \u201cWe have native Mainers and so many kids who are new to Maine\u2014from other states, other countries\u2014who haven\u2019t yet experienced the beauty\u201d of kayaking through time and silence. \u201cNavigating is something they deserve to have. We\u2019re hoping to plan a trip next spring. It helps build that confidence in kids to know they have the strength and ability to guide themselves and keep themselves afloat. It\u2019s empowering for both young men and young women.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s5\">Heading back to shore, our conversation slowly dissolves into the sound of our paddles in the water. I ask Bennett what\u2019s on her mind when she loses herself in moments like these.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s5\"> \u201cHonestly, this is the one place I don\u2019t have to think about too much.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"p21\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-15494\" src=\"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/10-Most-7.png\" alt=\"10 Most 7\" width=\"750\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/10-Most-7.png 750w, https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/10-Most-7-300x240.png 300w, https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/10-Most-7-200x160.png 200w, https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/10-Most-7-438x350.png 438w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px\" \/><\/h3>\n<h3 class=\"p21\"><span class=\"s1\"><strong>7: Babe on Beat<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n<h3 class=\"p32\"><span class=\"s3\"><strong>She\u2019s drummed with the legends of rock. Now <\/strong><\/span><span class=\"s16\"><strong>Ginger Cote<\/strong><\/span><span class=\"s3\"><strong> is front and center as she transforms the former Griffin Club in South Portland.<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n<p class=\"p4\"><span class=\"s4\"><strong>By Sarah Moore<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p7\"><span class=\"s5\">As contractors break ground on Big Babe\u2019s tavern this month, owner and acclaimed musician Ginger Cote prepares to switch drum kits for draft lists. On the former site of The Griffin Club, she plans to establish a neighborhood music venue\u2014her blueprint for the place an amalgam of the hundreds of clubs and concerts halls she\u2019s played over her four-decade long career as a session, rock, and country drummer. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s5\">Born in Limestone, Aroostook County, Cote\u2019s first brush with fate occurred while playing with a childhood friend and son of local drummer George Derrah in the family basement, complete with pinball table and two old Ludwig Sparkle drum sets. \u201cI was pulled to them like a magnet. I picked up some sticks aged six, sat behind the Blue Sparkle, and without a clue what I was doing, began to play a beat. That was it\u2013I was bitten by the drumming bug. George Derrah offered to sell my family the set. We didn\u2019t have any money, so my parents bought it for me piece-by-piece. They must\u2019ve been real gluttons for punishment.\u201d From then on, Cote\u2019s every spare moment would be spent in her bedroom, headphones glued to her ears and tuned into FM radio. Every song that came on, Cote would hit along until she found the beat. \u201cThis was the 1970s, so I was playing disco and Led Zeppelin.\u201d Cote\u2019s mother, an amateur singer, would be downstairs with Carole King and Clapton\u2019s <em>Slowhand<\/em> on the hifi. Her father\u2019s affinity for Merle Haggard and old-time country rounded out her musical palette. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s5\">The sight of a diminutive 11-year-old Cote wielding drumsticks on stage at a local club was a regular occurrence in Limestone in 1974, then a thriving nightlife scene fueled with crowds from nearby Loring Air Force base. \u201cI\u2019d play at the base and bars and clubs around town as a school kid, my mom standing at the back as my chaperone. Some weeks I\u2019d play three to four shows on a school night. I\u2019d be half-asleep in class the next day.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s5\">After a year spent gigging in Montreal with the band Shadowfax post-graduation, Cote moved to Portland in 1986 with dreams of a career in music and only $50 in her pocket. \u201cI slept in Deering Oaks for the first three nights before I got a spot at the YWCA. It was a very different town back then.\u201d A job making sandwiches at Amato\u2019s and a spot playing drums for The Brood at Geno\u2019s (then on Free Street), Raoul\u2019s, Free Street Taverna, and The Rat in Boston helped Cote establish herself as a force of the local music scene. \u201cI was hanging out with Bebe Buell and The Gargoyles and Darien Brahms, playing music and drinking around town. It was a wild scene back then.\u201d Cote\u2019s big break came when Brahms introduced her to Cidny Bullens, the Maine talent famous for singing backup for the likes of Elton John and Rod Stewart. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s5\">Through raw talent and years of dedication, by 1999 Cote was living in Nashville and working as an A-session drummer, sharing stages and tequilas with Bonnie Raitt and Lucinda Williams. \u201cMy most memorable rock and roll moment? When Bonnie Raitt poured me a shot and helped carry my drum kit on stage.\u201d She performed five shows in California with Emmylou Harris. She met Ryan Adams and spent days in the legendary local recording studios, \u201cback before Nashville became the Walmart of music cities.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s5\">Cote\u2019s rise to the big leagues of session drumming in Nashville was especially impressive given the instrument\u2019s assertively male-dominated reputation. \u201cYou really slipped through the cracks to get in here,\u201d said one bass player with a sneer. Perhaps Nashville\u2019s macho atmosphere drew her closer to those feminine forces of nature with whom she toured. \u201cI spent one unforgettable night at the Exit Inn and Bluebird Cafe with Lucinda Williams\u2014we probably had more than one or two drinks\u2014as she unleashed a tirade against the white male rigidity of Nashville.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s3\">Decades of hauling drumkits out of clubs at 2 a.m. has tempered Cote\u2019s appetite for performing in recent years. A connoisseur of clubs, the idea of opening a music venue had been brewing for some time when she heard rumor that the former Griffin Club building at 60 Ocean Avenue was for sale. \u201cI spent two weeks going there every night to really consider the atmosphere of the place. I got the feeling\u2014this was the spot.\u201d Tough research. While Cote hoped to restore the bones of the place, structural engineers advised her she\u2019d be wasting her money. Instead she\u2019ll rebuild the space, complete with soundproofing and two second-storey rooms for rent. The vision is for a down-to-earth tavern for music lovers and locals, with live sets Thursday through Sunday until 11:30 p.m. The legacy of The Griffin Club has left a rub of acrimony among certain diehards. \u201cI\u2019ve heard so much hurtful shit from people who are against it, but I know how much musical talent there is in Portland. SoPo is crying out for a venue, and I\u2019ve gathered ideas from every club I\u2019ve played in over the decades.\u201d Can we hope to see her on stage some night? \u201cI don\u2019t know\u2014we\u2019ll see if I get a chance,\u201d she says. Sounds like a promise to us. <\/span><\/p>\n<h3><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-15495\" src=\"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/10-most-8.png\" alt=\"10 most 8\" width=\"750\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/10-most-8.png 750w, https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/10-most-8-300x240.png 300w, https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/10-most-8-200x160.png 200w, https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/10-most-8-438x350.png 438w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px\" \/><\/h3>\n<h3><span class=\"s1\"><strong>8: Mystic<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n<h3><span class=\"s16\"><strong>Vicki Monroe<\/strong><\/span><span class=\"s3\"><strong> offers more than we bargained for.<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n<p class=\"p4\"><span class=\"s4\"><strong>By Sofia Voltin<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p7\"><span class=\"s17\">T<\/span><span class=\"s5\">he psychic is finishing up a session with a client while I wait in the lobby of the Kennebunk Inn. <em>She knows what\u2019s going to happen, but I don\u2019t. <\/em>The dining room is closed, so we have the space to ourselves, the overcast day providing just enough gray light through the windows. No candles, long robes, incense, or crystal balls are in sight. Vicki Monroe, 56, is wearing jeans and a lime shirt, her red curly hair pinned away from her face without much fuss. She greets me warmly, and we take our conversation to the empty dining room. Still, no candles. Rather, the interview and subsequent reading seems more like a lunch date. But in place of small talk about the weather, we circle topics of death, spirits, ghosts, the afterlife\u2026 You know, the typical pleasantries when meeting a psychic medium.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s3\">Monroe has been featured on radio and television shows, including <em>Psychic Detective<\/em>, using her gifts to help solve cold and active police investigations. During the high-profile Amy St. Laurent case, Portland police sourced Vicki for help, and she revealed information that head detective Joseph Loughlin told local media was \u201cuncanny.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s5\">\u201cI was the last one of the day to go up for my baptism,\u201d she says of her first spirit sighting. She was just four years old. \u201cI walked up steps that were covered in a red rug, and when I hit the bottom step, it turned to stone. It became very cool in there. I could hear water dripping, and I\u2019m thinking, \u2018This is a ride!\u2019 I\u2019d just gone to Disneyland for the first time, so I\u2019m thinking it\u2019s like Pirates of the Caribbean, that kind of thing, right? I step up, and there\u2019s this man, and all I can tell you is that he looked like Friar Tuck from Robin Hood. [He had] the bluest eyes I ever saw.\u201d From that day on, Vicki would continue to see odd things every now and then. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s5\">Many years later, when Vicki lived in Germany, her sister Heather surprised her with a visit. \u201cWhen I saw her, I said, \u2018What\u2019re you doing here?\u2019 She said, \u2018You\u2019re going to get some news. It\u2019s not the best, but I\u2019ve got to tell you. Look at me now.\u2019 I thought she looked amazing. I asked her, \u2018Where\u2019s Tom?\u2019 Heather said, \u2018He\u2019s late. They\u2019re working on him.\u2019\u201d That\u2019s when Vicki realized her sister was dead. She received the call from her father later informing her of the car accident that\u2019d killed both Heather and her husband, Tom. \u201cAfter that, I was seeing things all the time. Not just random, little things. It was constant.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s5\">As Vicki speaks, her gaze flicks away\u2013only for a quick second\u2013into the space beyond my left shoulder. I turn around, wondering if someone has entered the room. \u201cFor me, it comes like a wave. I\u2019ll just hear them say this name, then this name. Sometimes, it resonates with somebody, and other times it doesn\u2019t resonate until they get home. It just depends. I have to explain how this works to people, and how [spirits] will mention people who are living in your life. Friends, family, coworkers, people you like, people you don\u2019t like. They want you to know they\u2019re watching over you. No matter what\u2019s going on, significant or insignificant, they need you to know that somebody who loves you is watching you.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s5\">\u201cDon\u2019t you want to know who\u2019s around you?\u201d Vicki asks me, looking up and over my left shoulder again. \u201cIs it your grandmother? I\u2019m hearing the name Mary.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s5\">Sure, it\u2019s a common name, but one that just so happens to be the birth name of my mother\u2014a name very few people know was her given name by her mother. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s5\">\u201cDo twins run in your family?\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s5\">I\u2019m lost. No twins that I know of. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s5\">Vicki leans closer. \u201cShe says, for you, she agrees. She thinks you\u2019ll be one and done with twins.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s5\">It clicks. Only two days ago, I\u2019d met with my two oldest friends over coffee, one of whom has just become an aunt. I\u2019d mentioned offhandedly that I don\u2019t think I\u2019d want to be pregnant more than once, so it had better be twins. It was such a little thing, but hard to brush off as a coincidence on something this specific. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\">Could any of us become psychics? Can anyone see and hear the same things Vicki does? Now the questions are flooding my mind.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s5\">\u201cEverybody has something. You\u2019re born with it, no matter what. Not everybody is psychic, or a medium. Someone may be more in tune to animals or have more extra-sensory perception.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s5\">Can you grow what you were born with? <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s5\">\u201cAbsolutely. I love helping people figure out their gifts. For me, it was usually visual, and I hear them. But for you, for example, maybe it\u2019s a sense of smell, things that move out of the corner of your eye. The signs are there, always. It\u2019s just, do we know what to look for? It\u2019s an amazing thing. We can all be in touch with our gifts if we want to be. All we have to do is be open to the process.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p18\"><span class=\"s5\">Catch Monroe at Jonathan\u2019s Ogunquit on November 9.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"p35\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-15496\" src=\"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/10-most-9-.png\" alt=\"10 most 9\" width=\"750\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/10-most-9-.png 750w, https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/10-most-9--300x240.png 300w, https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/10-most-9--200x160.png 200w, https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/10-most-9--438x350.png 438w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px\" \/><\/h3>\n<h3 class=\"p35\"><span class=\"s1\"><strong>9: Contrarian<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n<h3 class=\"p36\"><span class=\"s16\"><strong>Kenneth A. Capron<\/strong><\/span><span class=\"s3\"><strong> has A Modest Proposal* for a Cruise-Ship-Sized Problem.<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n<p class=\"p4\"><span class=\"s4\"><strong>By Colin S. Sargent<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p7\"><span class=\"s17\">A<\/span><span class=\"s5\">ctivist founder of MemoryWorks and self-confessed contrarian, Ken Capron, 67, was born in Eastport and is a retired CPA and Microsoft engineer. A former director of accounting at Maine Medical Center, Capron recently proposed plans for the Hope Harbor Project. His vision is to purchase and reconfigure a used cruise ship to provide services and housing capacity to take a direct step toward eliminating homelessness in Maine. We caught up with Capron to get some insight on his approach, because it seems that whatever one thinks of the idea, he\u2019s unquestionably gotten people talking about it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s5\"><em>I would describe myself as a contrarian, an out-of-the-box thinker, and a creative innovator. That\u2019s a challenge no matter where you are, but in Maine as in anywhere it can sometimes be hard to get people to listen.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s3\"><em>While working with seniors with dementia, it became obvious to me that there\u2019s a shortage of housing for seniors, especially assisted housing. That affects all seniors, whether they\u2019re healthy or not. It got more and more frustrating to keep running into this issue, so I started to look for alternatives.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s3\"><em>The people I met through the dementia program have really given me a heads-up when it comes to homelessness. Many of the problems are similar, and many problems overlap. People in the homeless community might be suffering from dementia\u2014and certainly do at higher rates than the average population. Statewide, there are probably 1,200 people on any given night who need housing and who might not be able to get it: There\u2019s a lack of women\u2019s shelters, youth shelters, and shelters for immigrant populations.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s5\"><em>My approach is to always have an alternative solution. The way we\u2019re doing things right now is not working. We keep looking back at the old ways. We have to get rid of that knee-jerk reaction of \u2018If it ain\u2019t broke, don\u2019t fix it.\u2019 We have to think in new ways about these old problems.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s3\"><em>So, when I say that I\u2019m a contrarian, what I want you to understand is that ANYTHING would be better than leaving things as they are, or paring them down even further. Why haven\u2019t the resources been found yet to fix these problems? People have to remember your problem, the issue you\u2019re working at. In order to break out of the comfort of the status quo, we need to consider the kind of big ideas that will stick in your mind.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s5\"><em>I like to think of myself as a systems analyst. After all, my prior careers were as a CPA and Microsoft engineer, so I am trying to analyze the problem of what is going wrong, why our system doesn\u2019t make new solutions. I see how there are bottlenecks that pop up. How do we break through institutional and personal patterns of thinking (as institutions are made out of people)?<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s5\"><em>If you want to fix an airplane, you don\u2019t do it with a band-aid. You need something much more complex. Housing is a cruise-ship-sized problem. We need an idea on the <\/em><\/span><span class=\"s18\"><em>scale of a cruise ship to address it!<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p37\"><span class=\"s5\"><em>I was impressed, however, to find out there\u2019s a little bit of room for new ideas here in Maine. For example, new thinking has shifted resources away from newcomers to the long-stayers, the cases who they see repeatedly. We want to take this model and expand it so that we can focus on the outcome of turning that number of 1,200 who can\u2019t find housing into zero, over time.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p37\"><span class=\"s5\"><em>What we want people to understand about our project is that this would be a nearly ready-to-go solution that would be easily refitted into office space, worker housing, homeless housing, and emergency overflow for other underserved populations as we\u2019d need. It\u2019d help us avoid the NIMBY [Not In My Backyard] problem, help us avoid the need to find, get approval, and build a facility on land that might receive understandable protests from those in the immediate vicinity. A converted cruise ship is not unprecedented: emergency temporary refugee housing on ferries and cruise ships is being employed in Europe. <\/em>[We even sent the <em>Scotia Prince<\/em> to New Orleans for hurricane relief.]<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p37\"><span class=\"s3\"><em>The number one thing we want people to know about this is that this idea is not a ship of shelter housing, but would instead be an immediate and available set of social service offices including housing that we could rapidly reconfigure. We want to create a one-stop shop for services so that we\u2019d be able to have the greatest impact possible on any residents.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p37\"><span class=\"s5\">Without external funding, Capron co-founded MemoryWorks with Donna Beveridge out of the desire to create peer-to-peer support networks, based on his concept of \u2018memory cafes\u2019 that could supplement the services they experienced after their own diagnoses. Based at 1375 Forest Avenue in Portland, MemoryWorks has grown from a few meetings of volunteer time to a homegrown charity that provides memory screenings and a comfortable entry point for people who, for example, may be undiagnosed but have been having terrifying moments.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p37\"><span class=\"s3\">Capron has proposed that the ship be docked at the International Marine Terminal. And he challenges every one of us to come up with a better idea that, like his cruise ship, matches the scale of the problem.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p38\"><span class=\"s3\">* To read Jonathan Swifts\u2019s \u201c<\/span><span class=\"s5\">A Modest Proposal,\u201d<br \/>\nsee http:\/\/bit.ly\/AModestProposalSwift<\/span><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"p40\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-15497\" src=\"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/10-most-10.png\" alt=\"10 most 10\" width=\"750\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/10-most-10.png 750w, https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/10-most-10-300x240.png 300w, https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/10-most-10-200x160.png 200w, https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/10-most-10-438x350.png 438w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px\" \/><\/h3>\n<h3 class=\"p40\"><span class=\"s1\"><strong>10: Style &amp; Stables<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n<h3 class=\"p29\"><span class=\"s3\"><strong>As the world beckons, <\/strong><\/span><span class=\"s16\"><strong>Ariana Rockefeller Bucklin <\/strong><\/span><span class=\"s3\"><strong>treasures her ties to Mount Desert.<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n<p class=\"p4\"><span class=\"s4\"><strong>By Sarah Moore<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p7\"><span class=\"s5\">While the Rockefeller name holds international currency, it carries more personal cach\u00e9 in Mount Desert Island, where her family has carved its mark into the physical and cultural landscape. For Ariana Rockefeller Bucklin, granddaughter to Chase Manhattan CEO David Rockefeller (1915-2017) and great-great-granddaughter to patriarch John. D Rockefeller (1839-1937), these shores represent the convergence of families and a love story\u2013she married Colby grad Matthew Bucklin (of Northeast Harbor\u2019s C.E. Bucklin &amp; Sons family business) after a lifetime of shared summers. Ariana and Matthew\u2019s wedding ceremony took place in Abby Aldrich\u2019s historic garden in Seal Harbor. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s5\">But after you\u2019ve interned in the office of the secretary general of the United Nations, started your own handbag brand, and competed on the world stage as an equestrian athlete, and grieved for your grandfather who meant the world to you, what do you do? What does it mean to stand on the shoulders of some of the nation\u2019s most prolific entrepreneurs? \u201cI\u2019m at once a member of my family and my own person,\u201d Rockefeller says. \u201cI\u2019ve always considered my heritage both a privilege and an honor.\u201d The Columbia graduate has spent periods of time abroad, in Hawaii and Brazil, perhaps testing the outer reach of her family ties. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s5\">Now 35, she divides her time between training as an equestrian show jumper in England and Palm Springs and designing handbags in New York. She insists that the dichotomy of farm life and a cosmopolitan role in fashion are symbiotic. \u201cI have to prioritize and plan out my time in the city between competitions, so I\u2019m always very productive and organized in a short amount of time. In England, I can work on emails before the U.S. wakes up, and before I go to the farm. In the afternoons I\u2019ll schedule calls in for my business [arianrockefeller.com], work until dinnertime, and then early to bed. Technology is certainly helpful!\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s5\">Her life of style and stables overlapped earlier this year, \u201cwhen I was given the chance to design a handbag for the inaugural Longines Masters of New York show jumping competition.\u201d Heir to the Rockefeller success machine, Ariana has a measured view of failure. \u201cYou learn through mistakes made and corrected. I\u2019ve learned so much over the years growing my brand and committing myself to an athletic career.\u201d She even adapts a Teddy Roosevelt quote from <em>Man in the Arena<\/em>: \u201c[S]he who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if [s]he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that [her] place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat.\u201d This quote hopefully doesn\u2019t relate to the thorough investigation Roosevelt ordered on Rockefeller\u2019s Standard Oil in 1904.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s5\">Over 110 years since John Davidson Rockefeller first fell for Mount Desert, Ariana feels the tug of Maine like a homing call. \u201cI\u2019ve spent every summer and almost every Christmas in Maine since I was first brought there at two months old.\u201d Christmas Eve meals on Mount Desert are a Rockefeller tradition that spans generations. The carriage roads that John D. Jr. designed and built between 1913 and 1940 would later ignite his great-granddaughter\u2019s love of horses. \u201cI learned to ride on those trails. My grandfather drove a carriage almost every day during the summer, as did his father. I always loved driving on the carriage roads with Grandpa. I even learned a bit about the sport from Grandpa\u2019s head coachman, Sem Groenewoud, when I wasn\u2019t training with my show jumpers. My Aunt Eileen continues the tradition with her Morgan horses.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s5\">When David Rockefeller passed away last year, the billionaire (whose fortune was estimated at $3.3B) passed a baton of philanthropy down to the younger generation. The Collection of Peggy and David Rockefeller sold in its entirety at a charity auction at Christie\u2019s New York for $832.6M, a record-breaking total for a single auction. Ringing Point estate on MDI sold for $19M to charity. Ariana was allowed to choose one keepsake. She picked a bracelet David had once bought for Peggy McGrath. \u201cLosing such a wonderful leader and devoted grandfather was the most difficult change and loss. In terms of material objects, the plan to have the collection and properties go to auction for charity was always part of the family dialogue, so we were well prepared and enthusiastic for those changes.\u201d The young heiress\u2019s own philanthropic passions center on healthy horses and the justice system. \u201cI care a great deal about equine welfare and often work with the Humane Society of the U.S. on equine welfare programs. On a humanitarian level, our family foundation, the David Rockefeller Fund, works extensively in the area of criminal justice. I see this as one of the most important issues facing the United States at this time, one in which we must see policy change.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s5\"><em>What\u2019s the big deal about Acadia?<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s5\">The close proximity of the mountains to the ocean and granite shores is particularly special. It\u2019s the combination of spruce trees and ocean air that is the most wonderful smell. Of course jumping off the dock into the ocean takes your breath away but then there is nothing more refreshing. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>November 2018<br \/>\nThe 10 Most  Intriguing People in Maine 2018<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15478,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,955],"tags":[307,290,309,289,297,292,306,299,296,295,308,288,294,304,302,291,313,293,305,310,230,301,303,287,286,311,312,298,300],"class_list":["post-15451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-most-intriguing-mainers","tag-a-modest-proposal","tag-abdi-nor-iftin","tag-ariana-rockefeller-bucklin","tag-ben-severance","tag-big-babes-tavern","tag-dog","tag-donna-beveridge","tag-drummer","tag-ginger-cote","tag-griffin-club","tag-jonathan-swift","tag-june-ranco","tag-kayaking","tag-kenneth-a-capron","tag-kenneunk-inn","tag-kimberlee-bennett","tag-longines-masters-of-new-york","tag-lower-range-pond","tag-memoryworks","tag-mount-desert","tag-november-2018","tag-psychic","tag-psychic-detective","tag-reade-brower","tag-rene-goddess-johnson","tag-rockefeller","tag-seal-harbor","tag-south-portland","tag-vicki-monroe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15451"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15451\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15480,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15451\/revisions\/15480"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}