{"id":9087,"date":"2013-10-29T19:10:34","date_gmt":"2013-10-29T23:10:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/?p=9087"},"modified":"2017-03-02T09:53:45","modified_gmt":"2017-03-02T14:53:45","slug":"ten-most-intriguing-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/ten-most-intriguing-2013\/","title":{"rendered":"Ten Most Intriguing 2013"},"content":{"rendered":"

November 2013 | view this story as a .pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

These Mainers have a gallimaufry of accomplishments but retain a remarkable humility.<\/h3>\n

1. To Russia With Love<\/h3>\n

She’s dancing all the way to St. Petersburg.<\/h3>\n

Gabriel Perkins, Ballerina<\/strong><\/p>\n

Interview by Gwen Thompson<\/p>\n

Gabrielle Perkins of Oakland may be the one resident of Vacationland who never takes a vacation. The recent graduate of the Bossov Ballet Theatre in Pittsfield touched down briefly in Portland this summer to take classes at Portland School of Ballet. She was then on her way to San Francisco Ballet\u2019s Summer Session before heading off to St. Petersburg, Russia, where she\u2019s won a coveted place at the fiercely competitive Vaganova Ballet Academy in the fall. \u201cIf I didn\u2019t take ballet classes during breaks from school, I\u2019d get bored\u2013and I\u2019d be unprepared for placement class on the first day in San Francisco. I\u2019d be so sore afterwards!\u201d<\/p>\n

In fact, ballet is never far from her mind. \u201cWhen I\u2019m in a store, I\u2019ll find myself doing pli\u00e9s<\/em> or walking en pointe<\/em>, and people are like, \u2018What\u2019s she doing?\u2019 But I don\u2019t even realize I\u2019m doing it.\u201d Especially at Christmastime, when music from The Nut<\/em>cracker<\/em> gets constant airplay, \u201cI\u2019ll start dancing in my head to the parts I hear.\u201d<\/p>\n

That kind of internalization can save the day when disaster strikes and the show must go on. \u201cOne time when I was dancing the Sugar Plum Fairy variations in The Nutcracker<\/em>, the recorded music malfunctioned and stopped right in the middle, so I just kept dancing in total silence, and when I watched the video later, after they\u2019d patched the sound back in, my steps matched up perfectly with the music.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perkins, 17, began begging her parents to let her take dancing lessons when she was four years old, and by the time she was seven knew that all she wanted to do was learn ballet. \u201cWhenever I went to the ballet, I felt like the dancers were looking right at me and I was part of the dance.\u201d Now she returns the favor when she\u2019s on stage herself, making eye contact with the audience to include them in the performance. \u201cI love seeing their reactions\u2013I love to make them happy and see them smile.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because dancers need to be versatile to perform works by different choreographers, Perkins has spent her summers studying at Pacific Northwest Ballet\u2019s Summer Course in Seattle, San Francisco Ballet\u2019s Summer Session, and New York City Ballet\u2019s School of American Ballet, where the high-speed Balanchine technique complements the more fluid Vaganova technique taught at Bossov. \u201cI wanted to audition for different companies\u2019 summer programs to see if I was good enough to be a dancer\u2013and I was.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perkins hopes studying at the Vaganova Ballet Academy in St. Petersburg will help her become a more expressive dancer like those she saw when she visited St. Petersburg on a Bossov Ballet field trip. \u201cI\u2019m still struggling with putting life into each movement, not just looking in the mirror to make my technique perfect. I need to get away from the barre<\/em> and come to life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Newsflash<\/em>: It looks like her strategy of letting life flow into her every movement has worked. Two months after Gabrielle\u2019s arrival in St. Petersburg, her excited dad Mike Perkins tells us, \u201cShe\u2019s got one of the leads in the Nutcracker<\/em> production they\u2019ve got coming up! We are texting every day, and she loves the program there. It\u2019s phenomenal<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

2. North of Everywhere<\/h3>\n

What’s the fastest way to get from Bethel to DC? Poetry.<\/h3>\n

Richard\u00a0 Blanco, Poet<\/strong><\/p>\n

Interview by David Svenson<\/p>\n

When the Presidential Inauguration Committee announced that Bethel resident Richard Blanco, 45, would read the poem at President Obama\u2019s second inauguration, newspaper headlines along the eastern seaboard quickly grabbed their maps and set Blanco within their borders: \u201cFormer CCSU [Connecticut] Professor is Inaugural Poet\u201d; \u201c\u2026Miami Poet Richard Blanco\u2026\u201d; \u201cMaine-based Richard Blanco\u2026\u201d; and \u201cMainer chosen as inaugural poet.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, to whom does this poet belong? And how does he feel about being pulled in so many directions at once?<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s cute,\u201d says Blanco, about the headlines. \u201cI am the son of Miami, that\u2019s for sure, but Bethel is my home now.\u201d<\/p>\n

You were conceived in Cuba, born in Spain, raised in New York and Miami\u2013and now Bethel, population 2,607 (2010 Census).\u00a0 What\u2019s that like?<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a time in your life when small-town rural life is right. We were living in Miami, and we\u2019d always been dreaming about having a place somewhere like New England. My life partner [Mark Neveu] had a business opportunity here as a research scientist. We decided it was a welcome change of life and pace. We said we might never get this opportunity again, and we fell in love with Bethel.<\/p>\n

Do you feel \u201cfrom away\u201d in Maine?<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve told my mother in the past that I feel more like I\u2019m in Cuba here than I do in Miami.<\/p>\n

All my family in Cuba is from rural areas; my parents grew up in a very rural area and rural sense of life, real salt of the earth. I feel that here. Even though it\u2019s culturally on the opposite end of the spectrum, in some ways it\u2019s emotionally very familiar.<\/p>\n

So is it the idea of poetry that\u2019s really \u201cfrom away,\u201d no matter where\u00a0 you happen to be living\u2013a lost art?<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why I hadn\u2019t come out of the poetry closet here in Bethel, because when you say to people that you\u2019re a poet, they\u2019re like, \u201cOh, my uncle wrote poems.\u201d I have to say, \u201cNo, I\u2019m a poet. I went to an MFA. I have books.\u201d And there\u2019s this look in their eyes like \u201cOh my God, there are still living poets.\u201d They think a poet\u2019s some dead white guy in a book. It\u2019s amazing. Even the smartest people, the most avid readers, don\u2019t always know that poetry\u2019s still being created every day in this country.<\/p>\n

Was Bethel the right place to write the inaugural poem?<\/p>\n

Yes, thank goodness we were here\u2026There were TV news vans all over my mom\u2019s house. The neighbors thought she\u2019d won the lotto.<\/p>\n

There wasn\u2019t that media frenzy here; I was in a quiet place to finish the poem. Even when the news was announced, I was still working on it, so I needed writing time and practice. I was glad we were here, because of the ability to feel supported by the community and not be overwhelmed in the home stretch.<\/p>\n

In your new book, For All of Us, One Today<\/em> (Beacon Press),\u00a0 you say you practiced reading to a snowman. What would it have been if you were in Miami?<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think there\u2019d be an equivalent of a snowman. Maybe I\u2019d play in the sand for a while, build a sand castle. Maybe a sandman? I probably would have read the poem walking along the shore and just read it out to the sky.<\/p>\n

You\u2019re always asked how your selection as the inaugural poet came about. And your response is nearly identical every time: You don\u2019t entirely know.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s part of what I wanted the memoir to do, to answer it for now and for the future. Not only through the factoids, but really the emotional details which are hard to get across. That whole feeling of receiving that call\u2026<\/p>\n

I wanted to document it myself so I could go back and understand exactly what had just happened and to remember it. But also there was so much that I experienced that was so much about how America responded to the poem and what happened after the reading, and I wanted to share that story, too. I wanted America to be in there. That was part of the creative drive.<\/p>\n

You must have been prepped by the inauguration committee\u2026<\/p>\n

No coaching. They didn\u2019t ask me to read it once. It was amazing to think about the trust the committee placed in me. I could have gotten up there and read Allen Ginsberg. Or I could have freaked out and had a panic attack. I never even had any kind of relationship with the president. I think each inaugural poet had some sort of relationship prior\u2013in other words there was more reason to trust them. So they did pick me out of the blue. It speaks to our democracy, and it\u2019s a very powerful statement.<\/p>\n

Your selection came with a lot of firsts for an inaugural
\npoet: first openly gay, first engineer, first Latino, first foreign-born, first Floridian, first Mainer. But how do you connect with the previous inaugural poets Frost, Angelou, Williams, and Alexander?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s like no poet understands\u2013forget about the average person. But as a poet, it\u2019s kind of alienating to explain to [poet friends of mine] when [I] don\u2019t understand [myself] what happened. This isn\u2019t fame that\u2019s happening… It\u2019s an experience that\u2019s emotional, creative, spiritual, life-changing\u2026It\u2019s hard to relate through a story or in the context of [my] life to my other poet friends. I mean it\u2019s not just a reading, guys.<\/p>\n

Take us to your Bethel house.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s all clad in pines and hemlocks. It feels like a very special retreat, like a monastic space. I\u2019m in the middle of forest basically. It\u2019s instant peace when I\u2019m here\u2013something I need these days.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s the guest cottage on our property. I thought it would be my office space, my writing space, but I can\u2019t justify heating it in the winter. I use it for friends, and I invite writers up for informal residencies.<\/p>\n

Has the pressure to write a poem for the nation overshadowed your later work?<\/p>\n

It has in the context that it\u2019s opened up a new creative pathway for me. I\u2019ve been getting commissions to write more occasional poems. I\u2019ve written poems for the Boston Strong event, for the Fragrance Foundation Awards\u2013a big to-do in Lincoln Center.<\/p>\n

Writing the inaugural poem has given me another way to solve a poem, which I\u2019ve fallen in love with: the idea of the public poem, which has gotten away from us in America. I think the tradition still exists in Latin America, certainly in my Cuban roots. My mom writes occasional poems. They call her the poet laureate of Regions Bank\u2013verses for retirement parties. It\u2019s just so much more entrenched in my culture than I realized. But I don\u2019t see it as diametrically opposite. I think I\u2019ll still always have my personal, autobiographical voice.<\/p>\n

What the inauguration did was give me permission to speak about America and subjects I felt I couldn\u2019t write about because it wasn\u2019t in my immediate realm of experience. It\u2019s really helped my writing to be more confident instead of looming over me or haunting me.<\/p>\n

Between the commissions, the Boston Strong event, and
\na list of at least 50 appearances this year since the inauguration, do you feel like a rock star?<\/p>\n

I feel more like a country singer on the bus. Sometimes I joke that I\u2019m on the poetry bus.<\/p>\n

At the May 30 Boston Strong event at TD Garden, headliners included Aerosmith, Boston, Boyz II Men, Carole King, James Taylor, and others. Were you a rock star then?<\/p>\n

I got to meet them all backstage. But it was crazy hectic\u2013just pleasantries. But it was neat to meet them. But again, why not? Why can\u2019t poetry open every rock concert? This was a very special one, and it went off amazingly. It started really solemn but then was a celebration, like \u201cLet the music begin.\u201d<\/p>\n

With so much exposure and travel, what keeps you here?<\/p>\n

We love Portland. When we first moved here we thought we\u2019d be going to Boston, but we realized that with Portland there\u2019s no need to go outside the state. There\u2019s great food and an incredible art scene, and now that we actually have friends in Portland, when before we went out anonymously, there\u2019s an emotional connection.<\/p>\n

And the mid-coast: Camden, Rockland, Belfast. We keep going back there; we\u2019ve always loved it. It\u2019s a lot like Miami was back in the day. Miami was a much smaller community before the big explosion. The mid-coast reminds me of that seaside feeling, and it has an incredible sense of community.<\/p>\n

And the lobster?<\/p>\n

Yes, certainly. But I like lazy lobster, already out of the shell. I like my lobster roll. I haven\u2019t mastered the whole lobster.<\/p>\n

If both Florida and Maine both offered you their state poet laureate titles at the same time, what would you do?<\/p>\n

I guess I\u2019d have to choose Maine.<\/p>\n

3. & 4.\u00a0 Greenpeace Romance<\/h3>\n

The lifelong activist’s latest challenge is a Murmansk jail after arrest for protesting Arctic drilling. The other side of the crisis is experienced by his newspaper publisher wife back home in Islesboro, separated by world events from the one she loves.<\/p>\n

Peter Willcox, Captain<\/strong><\/p>\n

Maggy Willcox, Publisher<\/strong><\/p>\n

Interview by Colin S. Sargent<\/p>\n

\u00a0“We are being boarded. Everybody OK<\/em>.\u201d Peter Willcox, captain of the Greenpeace-owned ship MV Arctic Sunrise<\/em>, managed to dash off this email to the Greenpeace office, seizing a second to cc his wife, Islesboro resident Maggy Willcox, editor and publisher of the Islesboro Island News<\/em>. It was September 19, 2013. The day before, screaming across the icy waves in Zodiacs, the captain, 60, had led his crew, under the watchful cameras of journalists on board, in an unarmed attempt to grapple up the side of the Prirazlomnaya<\/em> drilling platform in the face of automatic fire slashing around them as warning shots. Owned by Gazprom, Russia\u2019s largest oil company, the high-tech rig is not only the first ice-proof drilling model in the Pechora Sea, it\u2019s the first above the Arctic Circle anywhere in the world\u2013and if the first is successful, surely many more will follow.<\/p>\n

For Greenpeace, the opportunity to stop a fossil-fuel Manhattan Project is worth risking one of the privately funded organization\u2019s ships and their most experienced captain. Now, the Arctic Sunrise<\/em> had been halted by warning shots from the blue-and-white cutter parked a couple hundred meters away, while FSB (Federal Security) agents embedded with coast guard boarders arrived to apprehend her crew.<\/p>\n

The response to the Greenpeace crew\u2019s direct action has led to charges of piracy filed by the Investigative Committee of Russia, despite Russian President Vladimir Putin\u2019s dismissal that \u201cobviously, they are not pirates.\u201d But behind, and indeed, part of the personal support structure of Captain Peter Willcox is a salt-sprayed New England romance between sea captain and island girl that is both immediately current and reminiscent of maritime dramas that have been reenacted for nearly 400 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was captain and I was the cook,\u201d explains newlywed Maggy of her first-blush encounter with Peter in the \u201870s. They were both aboard Pete Seeger\u2019s Maine-built sloop Clearwater<\/em>, the heart and floating classroom of environmental education and advocacy group Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, Inc. \u201cHe just made\u2026he makes\u2026my knees weak. He\u2019s just really a nice-looking man. I remember thinking, \u2018Oh my God, what a hunk!\u2019 But working with him was what really did it for me. Even at that young age\u2013he was 23 when he was captain of the Clearwater<\/em>\u2013he was just an extraordinarily capable and calm person. Unflappable. His demeanor made him seem so wise. He\u2019s one of the most innately confident people I\u2019ve ever met. He\u2019s been sailing all his life, so he has this assuredness without any swagger.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe other thing that really impacted me at the time was that it was the era where women were coming into their own. For whatever reason, there was nothing \u2018put on\u2019 about Peter when he encouraged women to take part in the responsibilities of the ship. He not only showed his own confidence, he gave confidence to others, and cared to do so for women. For example, in a time when a lot of captains wouldn\u2019t have even thought it, he paved the way for the first female captain on the Clearwater<\/em>, whom he tutored and who took over from him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve worked under captains and chefs who exert their authority like children\u2026all shouting and anger and ego. Peter doesn\u2019t have anything like that, and that\u2019s what makes the crews lay down their lives for what he believes in. And he\u2019s shown incredible commitment to his cause: he\u2019s been doing this since his twenties.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo of course I fell madly in love with him, but he had a planet to save. Though we married others, and I married a second time, we\u2019d see each other and I always felt the same, but the circumstances were never right.\u201d In February 2013, \u201cwe\u2019d finally both drifted into freedom, the stars all aligned, and he just called me up and said he was delivering a boat. Maggy closed her eyes. \u201c\u2018Yes! I can come meet you in Buck\u2019s Harbor!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

She raced to the marina. \u201cIn order to get there you park in the lot at the top of this steep hill. Walking over, I heard him laugh. It had been 10 years, but I just started crying at the sound of him.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis arms were full, but he just dropped everything to the ground. We took one look at each other and realized this is our time at last. He asked me to marry him, and he asked me to do it Right Now. Just weeks later we were here in Islesboro, in front of a little stone pulpit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Captain Willcox delights in Maine, finds it calm and relaxing, especially after decades of fierce excitement. \u201cWe\u2019ve never really talked out his stories, when he was in danger, because he has to relive it for countless interviews,\u201d Maggy says. Peter was a world newsmaker at a young age when, as captain of Greenpeace\u2019s ship Rainbow Warrior<\/em>, on the eve of sailing into a South Pacific danger zone in protest of French nuclear testing in the 1985, his ship was bombed in Auckland harbor by French agents of the Direction G\u00e9n\u00e9rale de la S\u00e9curit\u00e9 Ext\u00e9rieure, sinking and killing photographer Fernando Pereira.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo when he\u2019s up here, it\u2019s vacation time for him,\u201d Maggy continues. \u201cHe loves island life. We spend a lot of time as people do, going to dinner at each others\u2019 houses on the island. With no restaurants up here, we all spend a lot of time in a dinner circle, taking the chance to watch every sunset we can. We love watching baseball together, but since he grew up in Connecticut, I have to put up with his Yankees hat. He doesn\u2019t eat meat, so he loves seafood. And he\u2019s always found lobster is the king of seafood.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for the future, \u201cPeter wants to retire up here, to Islesboro\u2013his idea,\u201d Maggy says. \u201cThere\u2019s too much traffic around the community where he grew up, and now his youngest daughter\u2019s off to college. We\u2019ve only been able to be together twelve weeks, but\u2026I know he\u2019ll be OK. What scares me, though, is I don\u2019t see how he can get out of this situation without anybody being humiliated. Drilling up in the Arctic, it\u2019s been a dream of Russian and Soviet governments since Stalin to get at that oil up there. Now that the ice has melted, they can finally do it. And Putin\u2019s not the only powerful person in Russia\u2026there\u2019s opposition folks who want to embarrass him. I just worry when I think that Peter and the others who are imprisoned are now at the mercy of forces beyond anyone\u2019s control. But he\u2019s stalwart, a man of strong convictions. And there\u2019s no one better to help the other 29 people on his ship through this.\u201d<\/p>\n

The couple\u2019s buoyant sense of humor keeps them afloat. Maggy recently confided to the Huffington Post<\/em> that while she and he were tough enough to endure a \u201clong-distance relationship\u201d that included extended separations, she\u2019d recently gotten word to him that, \u201c\u2019You know, honey, I wasn\u2019t thinking of a gulag in Russia.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Detained in Murmansk while the world holds its breath, Willcox, along with his crew and journalist passengers of the Arctic Sunrise<\/em>, face charges that could lead to 15 years in Russian prison, even as state-friendly Russian media organizations have been voicing protests of the government\u2019s charges. Here\u2019s hoping Arctic Sunrise <\/em>breaks through the ice so that President Putin can pardon them with ostentatious magnanimity.<\/p>\n

5. Lucky Guy<\/h3>\n

Experiences, even the worst kind, open doors.<\/h3>\n

Steven Callahan, Sailor and writer<\/strong><\/p>\n

Interview by Claire Z. Cramer<\/p>\n

I spent my 30th birthday in a life raft, and my 60th birthday riding a hospital bed!\u201d says Steve Callahan, 61, of Lamoine. \u201cI\u2019m very lucky. This life doesn\u2019t owe me a thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 1981, Callahan sailed his 21-foot sloop, Napoleon Solo<\/em>, which he\u2019d designed and built himself, from Newport, Rhode Island, to England. In 1982, sailing alone on a stormy night a week out from the Canary Islands and bound for Antigua, Callahan\u2019s vessel collided with an unknown object and began taking on water. He inflated his life raft and stocked it with what\u00a0 he was able to grab from the boat before watching her sink. He spent the next 76 days in a 6-foot, tented Avon raft learning survival in real time\u2013saving rainwater, patching raft punctures, catching and eating fish and sea birds\u2013as he drifted west with the current and trade winds, finally to be rescued by fishermen within sight of the Caribbean island Maria Galante near Guadeloupe. Adrift<\/em>, his 1986 recreation of the experience, spent 36 weeks on the New York Times<\/em> bestseller list.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 2010, [film director] Ang Lee\u2019s assistant called me out of the blue to say Ang wanted to talk to me because I was mentioned in the novel Life of Pi<\/em> [Yann Martel\u2019s 2001 bestselling adventure novel about a boy surviving more than 200 days at sea after a shipwreck]. They came to Maine, and we talked about all kinds of stuff,\u201d says Callahan. \u201cI was hired to \u2018lend authenticity.\u2019 Making a movie is like creating a whole business for one product.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lee\u2019s Life of Pi<\/em> went on to win Academy Awards in 2013 for best director, cinematographer, visual effects, and original musical score.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce something works, everyone jumps on the bandwagon. Since Pi<\/em>, there are now a handful of movies in production that are about shipwrecks. I made a mental list of about 12 things in the Robert Redford movie [All is Lost<\/em>] just based on seeing the trailer\u201d that didn\u2019t look realistic. \u201cBut it\u2019s such a challenge to make a movie on the water, even with Life of Pi<\/em>, where we had more fluid standards of what was real.\u201d<\/p>\n

In January of 2012, Callahan was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia. He was given a dismal prognosis so he elected to undergo an experimental stem-cell transplant \u201cto raise my odds to maybe 50-50. It\u2019s a complete replacement of your immune system with donor stem cells\u2013I\u2019m actually part female now. I haven\u2019t done much of anything for 20 months\u2013it was life in a bubble,\u201d restoring his immune system. \u201cI try to take things as they come. You don\u2019t go through these things without being scarred. But did I ever feel sorry for myself? Absolutely not. I\u2019ll tell you, there\u2019s nothing like going into a hospital to make you realize how much worse so many other people have it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Too weak to attend the Oscars in February, Callahan flew to England in September to contribute \u201ca little input, not as much as Life of Pi<\/em>,\u201d to the shipboard authenticity in Ron Howard\u2019s forthcoming film based on Nathaniel Philbrick\u2019s 2000 National Book Award winner, In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship <\/em>Essex. \u201cIt\u2019s the so-called true story Moby Dick<\/em> was based on,\u201d says Callahan. \u201cA cabin boy from Nantucket survives a shipwreck in the Pacific in 1820 and years later writes an account,\u201d which Melville read.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s funny, back when I wrote Adrift<\/em>, people told me, \u2018You can\u2019t really make a movie about one guy<\/em> cast away on the ocean.\u2019\u201d Callahan pauses, smiles. \u201cBut then came Tom Hanks in Cast Away<\/em> and Life of Pi<\/em> and Redford and Ron Howard\u2026The movies certainly pay better, but I like doing books and articles, too. Still, movies are today\u2019s most powerful form of storytelling, they reach the most people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Callahan and his wife Kathy Massimini\u00a0 live in Lamoine and have since the \u201880s\u2013when they\u2019re not sailing. On his website, he states simply that \u201cbooks by sailors like Robert Manry, Eric Hiscock, Bernard Moitessier, William Willis, and many others helped me discover that a life of adventure and personal fulfillment is open to anyone.\u201d He\u2019s a naval architect, boatbuilder, marine consultant, writer, photographer, and artist\u2013a marine jack of all trades who adores sailboats, no matter how many hulls they have. \u201cI never took sides back in the \u201870s when multihulls were sort of maligned by monohull sailors. I\u2019ve sailed, built, and owned both. I like both. Our last boat was a 40-foot tri\u2013we sold it in Australia. I try to take things as they come. I feel like my life is always flowing down the river, and it\u2019s always led to cool things.\u201d<\/p>\n

6.\u00a0 Put Me In<\/h3>\n

South Portland native is tapped to lead the Philadelphia 76ers.<\/h3>\n

Brett Brown, NBA Coach<\/strong><\/p>\n

Interview by Frances Killea<\/p>\n

From Downeast to Down Under to downtown Philadelphia: South Portland\u2019s Brett Brown has the court covered.<\/p>\n

As the new head coach of the Philadelphia 76ers (the team\u2019s eighth coach in 10 years), his challenge is to rebuild a team that finished 34-48 last season.<\/p>\n

But Brown, 52, doesn\u2019t shy from a challenge. \u201cThat\u2019s how I was raised,\u201d he says of his boyhood as the basketball-star son of legendary South Portland High coach Bob Brown.<\/p>\n

Brett was point guard on the team that won South Portland the 1979 Class A state championship, a game his dad remembers with awe: \u201cAfter the game, we spent the night in Bangor, but were we ever surprised on the way home. Our team bus was met at the turnpike entrance, and there were cars and people lined all the way to the high school. You go out and get off the turnpike at the South Portland exit and see how far that is,\u201d Bob says. \u201cA red and white wall all the way down the stretch.\u201d<\/p>\n

What Brett learned on the court at SPHS he carried to Boston University, where teammates like Dan Harwood immediately felt the young Mainer\u2019s love for the game, which came in handy when the two were playing for an even bigger legend, coach Rick Pitino. They took the Terriers to the NCAA tournament in 1983, the first time they\u2019d made it to the show in 24 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe didn\u2019t always look it\u2013he was a cute kid who was like 5’11″\u2013but he was a tough player.\u201d Harwood explains of Brett\u2019s edgy verve. \u201cOut of all the guys on our team, Brett had probably played for the most demanding high school coach.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d go up there [to Maine] in the summer, and I got to know his dad through some basketball camps,\u201d Harwood says. \u201cI realized [Brett] got his competitive streak from his dad\u2026and his sense of humor from his mom.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both qualities have directed Brett\u2019s career since the late 1980s. After quitting his first real post-college job with AT&T (\u201cI didn\u2019t want to wear a suit every day, work nine to five every day\u201d), he moved to Australia, where, his father says, \u201cthe coaching bug got to him, and that\u2019s all he wanted to do.\u201d Brown coached in Melbourne and Sydney before accepting a position as an assistant to San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, where he\u2019s been since 2007. In 2012, he took a hiatus to coach the Australian National Team at the 2012 London Olympics. (They made it to the quarterfinals, losing there to Team USA.)<\/p>\n

As for his fast break from Maine, \u201cThe older I get, the more I travel, the more I appreciate just how special the state is,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s how the people are, it\u2019s the landscape, it\u2019s the four seasons\u2026\u201d For Brown in particular, it\u2019s also the ocean.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of my favorite places were always\u2026the beaches,\u201d he says. \u201cThe majority of my life has been around the ocean,\u201d from Scarborough Beach to Scarborough, Western Australia. \u201cThere\u2019s something people who haven\u2019t been around an ocean don\u2019t really understand\u2026I feel the need to be around the ocean.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maine may be the only coast button Brett will be allowed to push during his trial by fire in Philadelphia as leader of the Sixers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis\u2019ll be a big test for him,\u201d says Harwood. \u201cBut Brett has his infectious personality, his ability to relate to players. The biggest part of coaching is the people business.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a07. Space Cadet<\/h3>\n

Caribou native hits new heights.<\/h3>\n

Dr. Jessica Meir, Astronaut<\/strong><\/p>\n

Interview by Adam Purple<\/p>\n

Caribou native Dr. Jessica Meir was recently named as one of eight people to join NASA\u2019s latest class of astronauts. Valedictorian of her high school class, she earned a bachelor\u2019s degree from Brown University, a master\u2019s degree in space science at the International Space University in France, and a Ph.D. from the Scripps Institute of Oceanography. Among her specialties: the physiology of animals subjected to extreme, low-oxygen environments, whether at the top of the Himalayas, or in the frigid depths beneath ice sheets in the Antarctic. She most recently worked as an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School before her move to Texas this summer to begin astronaut training.<\/p>\n

You\u2019re not the first astronaut to come from Maine (Christopher Cassidy from York earned headlines on the International Space Station), but it seems likely you\u2019re the first and only from Caribou. Did your friends and family see this coming?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve wanted to be an astronaut since I was about five years old, so yes, anyone who knew me well in Caribou growing up (family, friends, teachers, and classmates) has heard me talk about this for a very long time. I\u2019d forgotten about it until someone mentioned it the other day, but I listed \u201cGoing for a space walk\u201d as my \u201cfuture plans\u201d in our Caribou High School yearbook. It\u2019s shocking to me that I\u2019m finally beginning to step toward that now.<\/p>\n

What sparked your interest in science, biology,
\nand physiology?<\/p>\n

I\u2019m sure my Caribou science teachers had something to do with it. Beyond watching Wild Kingdom<\/em> with my family, I distinctly remember watching episodes of George Page\u2019s Nature<\/em> show in Mr. Thibodeau\u2019s class in middle school and my freshman-year biology projects with Mrs. Thibodeau. When I got to Brown and took the introductory biology course with Dr. Ken Miller, I was absolutely hooked and knew I wanted to pursue biology. That quickly evolved into an interest in physiology, which perhaps was also there all along, growing up with my father as a physician and watching episodes of Doctor\u2019s Sunday<\/em> showing surgical procedures over breakfast.<\/p>\n

The Mercury astronauts were military pilots. How would you describe your peers?<\/p>\n

Astronauts have to be very well rounded in their skill sets and training these days, as tasks on the International Space Station can range from in-flight maintenance to participation in a wide variety of science experiments, robotics tasks, and space walks. All eight of us in the new astronaut candidate class will go through the same sort of diverse training program, with the exception that only those of us without military flight training experience will head to Pensacola for flight school. I do have my private pilot\u2019s license, but I\u2019m extremely excited to step it up a level with that training!<\/p>\n

Not that birds and \u201cextreme\u201d migrations aren\u2019t fascinating.<\/p>\n

I pursued this while a post-doctoral researcher at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver (2009-2012). We are interested in the bar-headed goose because of the extraordinary migration this bird makes over the tallest mountains on the planet, the Himalayas. These birds are capable of conducting sustained, flapping flight, which has a very high oxygen requirement, at altitudes where there is only one-half to one-third the amount of oxygen we have here at sea-level.<\/p>\n

We know these birds have several physiological responses and adaptations that assist in their performance at these altitudes, but there\u2019s been little work done on obtaining physiological measurements from these birds during flight, and no existing data from these birds while they are flying in low levels of oxygen.<\/p>\n

To tackle that question, we decided to fly the birds in a wind tunnel, providing a controlled environment in which we could obtain several measurements of various aspects of their physiology. To facilitate this, I had bar-headed geese imprint upon me, meaning I had them from the moment they hatched from the egg, becoming a modern day Mother Goose. Since the geese think that I\u2019m their parent and are comfortable with me, we could more easily train them and familiarize them with the equipment needed to obtain our measurements.<\/p>\n

Of course I didn\u2019t need to train them how to fly, they know how to do that by instinct alone. But it did take quite a bit of work and patience to get them successfully flying in place in a wind tunnel.<\/p>\n

During that period, I enrolled them in my own sort of \u201cflight training\u201d program, which consisted of them following next to me as I sped down the road on a scooter. Since the birds thought I was mom and didn\u2019t want to be left behind, as soon as I took off on the scooter, they\u2019d follow. It was truly an incredible feeling, with my goose sometimes so close that its wing tip was brushing my shoulder.<\/p>\n

What kind of diving partners are Antarctic penguins?<\/p>\n

During my Ph.D. I studied diving physiology, trying to understand how animals that are elite divers, like emperor penguins and elephant seals, are able to dive so deep and for so long. These animals are air-breathing, breath-hold divers just like us, yet an emperor penguin can dive for almost 30 minutes, and an elephant seal can dive for 2 hours on a single breath!<\/p>\n

We learned that emperor penguins drop their heart rates dramatically during diving, at times as low as six beats per minute sustained over a five-minute period! Remember, these birds are actively swimming around, exercising and pursuing and catching fish while they\u2019re under water. We also learned that both emperor penguins and elephant seals are extremely efficient in how they manage their oxygen stores and that they can tolerate much lower levels of oxygen than humans or other terrestrial animals can.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve also been lucky enough to scuba dive beneath the sea ice while in the Antarctic. The Antarctic is an exceptional place\u2026on the surface so pristine and austere and dramatic, and almost devoid of any color other than white. But then when you plunge into the water, you can see for hundreds of feet; there\u2019s such astonishing visibility that it plays tricks with your mind. You feel as if you\u2019re looking through air, not water, and finally you realize where all the color is. The sunlight comes through the holes and cracks in the ice, shooting its rays toward the sea floor, which is teeming with life. Bright red sea stars, yellow sea spiders, big piles of multi-colored ribbon worms, giant white sponges, not to mention the occasional Weddell seal cruising by. The view is simply astounding.<\/p>\n

How do you think you will adapt to the rigors of space?<\/p>\n

The critical thinking and operational experience I gained conducting scientific experiments in a harsh, logistically challenging environment may be applicable to my training at NASA. In addition, the principles of diving physiology are relevant to avoidance of decompression sickness, which is also a potential problem in space since the suits used for space-walks operate at a different pressure than the space station.<\/p>\n

The STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) are a hot topic in education now. Based on your experience in Maine, do you think that small or rural communities face particular challenges in STEM education?<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been very passionate about scientific outreach and education through my past research and am thrilled to have another avenue to help inspire the next generation of scientists and explorers. I can\u2019t speak to specific programs in small, rural communities, but I do know the education I received in Caribou certainly served me well. I do hope that efforts continue to emphasize the STEM fields, and, of course, I\u2019ll do whatever I can to help!<\/p>\n

Your work has taken you to the end of the earth and beyond. Have you found time to return to Maine for a visit?<\/p>\n

Yes, of course! I return to Maine whenever possible. My parents moved to southern Maine when I went to college\u2013I usually end up in the Portland area a few times a year, much more frequently since I\u2019ve been back in Boston. I definitely need to fit in a visit back up to Caribou at some point as well.<\/p>\n

When can we expect to see you headed into space?<\/p>\n

At this point, I\u2019m simply incredibly excited to play a role in NASA\u2019s human spaceflight program. Members of our class will be training for possible long-duration missions to the International Space Station, and helping NASA prepare for exploration of asteroids and Mars. I would be thrilled to play a role in any of those missions.<\/p>\n

8. Azande Activist<\/h3>\n

Making a difference is accomplished by doing what must be done.<\/h3>\n

Bakhita Sabino,\u00a0Community organizer<\/strong><\/p>\n

Interview by Claire Z. Cramer<\/p>\n

“We are trying to help the women back home,\u201d says Bakhita Sabino, 36, of Portland, speaking of her former friends, family, and neighbors in the South Sudanese village of Azande. \u201cI just came back from six\u00a0 weeks in Azande. The women there need so much. The goal is to find them training, but also just to bring them basic things, diapers. Girls marry too young there. We\u2019re losing a lot of women to pregnancy; there aren\u2019t enough hospitals.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sabino and her husband Mekki arrived in Portland 14 years ago; they have four children, ages 17 to 8. She arrives at the interview after work as an Ed Tech at Portland\u2019s Riverton Elementary School accompanied by her daughter Lodia, 15, a Cheverus sophomore. Sabino has just completed her bachelor\u2019s degree, a step toward her goal to become a teacher. In September, she was elected chairman of Azande Community, a Portland group that raises funds for their village in Sudan. \u201cThe Sudanese community here is a big umbrella. There are a lot of Azande here. We have an Azande women\u2019s group, too. I\u2019m the financial officer. We meet once a month, usually at church, and everyone pays 10 dollars, or five. We\u2019ve applied for non-profit status. When we can find training programs for women here, or someone has a financial problem, we meet and vote on what we can contribute. I get a lot of training in my work, but not everyone is this lucky.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Republic of South Sudan achieved independence in 2011. In October of 2012, the new vice president, Riek Machar, visited Portland, met with Mayor Brennan, and spoke to hundreds of Maine\u2019s Sudanese residents at South Portland High School. Sabino provided coordination, translation from Arabic, and transcription services for the event. \u201cNow when people come from anywhere, I interpret.\u201d Sabino was in South Sudan in August when Governor Lepage came to Portland to meet with local Sudanese community leaders; the secretary of the Azande women\u2019s group, Esta Beri, attended instead.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m also in My Sister\u2019s Keeper for Peace, in Boston,\u201d she says. \u201cA friend of mine is in the leadership, and she suggested I come to a meeting, so I did.\u201d This women-led, women-focused organization has sent volunteers yearly since 2002 to South Sudan to provide resources to women in need. \u201cIn 2010 [in anticipation of the independence], some of us trained in Boston, and then we went there to teach women how to vote, and to hold workshops.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWomen in Juba [South Sudan\u2019s capital] make up about 25 percent of the work force, and our voice is considered 25 percent. Here it\u2019s different\u2013that\u2019s why we\u2019re pushing to get attention. Because we can.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet whenever Maine\u2019s Sudanese community leaders appear in the media, they seem to be exclusively male. \u201cWe don\u2019t have a lot of women available. In our culture, the men make all the decisions for the family. And here all the women work. After work, they come home and care for the children and cook, so it\u2019s the men who are free to attend meetings.\u201d So how is it that she is the activist and not her husband?<\/p>\n

\u201cI decided this is what I want to do. And this is why I really <\/em>appreciate him,\u201dsays Bakhita, smiling and closing her eyes.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mother is the only one here who goes back to Sudan,\u201dsays Lodia. \u201cThe men don\u2019t go. I went once with her when I was in sixth grade, just the two of us. It took two days to get there! I wanted to see what it\u2019s like. There\u2019s no point in us being here if we don\u2019t go back to help.\u201d<\/p>\n

How does Bakhita Sabino find the hours in the day to\u00a0 work full time, serve in a minimum of three organizations a month, and keep a family of six running successfully?<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no time. It\u2019s just about commitment. I try so hard to take classes online at night, to get this done. I feel like I have to help; it\u2019s what God gave me.\u201d<\/p>\n

9. Hollywood Polymath<\/h3>\n

What hasn’t<\/em> he done?<\/h3>\n

J.J. Abrams, Actor, Composer, Writer, Director, Producer<\/strong><\/p>\n

From staff & wire reports<\/p>\n

What does Star Wars<\/em> have to do with Maine, Obi-Wan?<\/p>\n

Now that Disney has bought up the rights to Star Wars<\/em> from Lucasfilm, they\u2019re going to ride it hard and hang it up wet. A new Star Wars<\/em> feature film will relentlessly come out every year until further notice. Directing the first effort, Star Wars Episode VII<\/em>, is J.J. Abrams, who is well known for enjoying his summer place on a lake near Camden. Rumored stars for Abrams\u2019s guaranteed hit are: Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Billy Dee Williams, and Anthony Daniels.<\/p>\n

Born in 1966, Jeffrey Jacob Abrams\u2019s feverish rise to Hollywood power includes his Emmy-winning production of Alias <\/em>(featuring Jennifer Garner and Maine native Rachel Nichols), as well as Lost<\/em>. Today on the small screen, he\u2019s at the helm of Revolution <\/em>and Person of Interest<\/em>. Movies include Mission Impossible 3<\/em>, Star Trek<\/em> (where Nichols appears again, as the Green Girl), Star Trek into Darkness<\/em>, Star Trek Ghost Protocol<\/em>, and on and on. One of Abrams\u2019s earliest appearances on film was as Doug in Six Degrees of Separation<\/em>, which starred Stockard Channing, who lives in Georgetown, Maine.<\/p>\n

One early foray for Abrams into this state occurred in 2006, when Stephen King invited him here for a \u201cpanel discussion on creativity,\u201d according to the Bangor Daily News<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Abrams\u2019s Maine retreat is a 60-acre lakefront mansion. When he purchased the place through Edward Libby of Real Maine Real Estate in Yarmouth, he emailed the following enthusiastic note, according to realmaine.net. \u201cHoly Shnikies! You\u2019re a Genius! Amazing Work With The Price. THANK YOU! Huge Thank You. I Know You Worked Hard (And Brilliantly) To Make This Happen. Katie And I Really Appreciate It.\u201d<\/p>\n

Abrams\u2019s wife, Katie McGrath, is a 1986 graduate of Brewer High School. At press time, Abrams had no fewer than 28 projects in development, two in production.<\/p>\n

10. Leading Lady<\/h3>\n

Charity begins with a skilled administrator on a mission.<\/h3>\n

Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, CEO, Goodwill Industries of Northern New England<\/strong><\/p>\n

Interview by Donna Stuart<\/p>\n

“Life\u00a0 isn\u2019t siloed; it\u2019s all connected,\u201d says Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, 65. \u201cThat\u2019s the way I look at everything I do, not as a one-off, but as something that leverages something else and has a greater impact because of the connective tissue between things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Called Anne, but named for, and the image of, her grandmother (yes, that<\/em> Eleanor Roosevelt), the Stanford-educated Roosevelt continues, \u201cMy work at Goodwill actually informs the work [I do on the board of the] Maine Charitable Foundation, the Roosevelt Institute, and Net Impact. It\u2019s a wonderful addition to what I can offer those organizations and vice versa.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is a common thread that runs through her professional and philanthropic work: the development of progressive ideas and leadership, whether accomplished by empowering students and professional leaders around the globe as Net Impact does, or by crafting a New Deal for the 21st century, a goal of the Roosevelt Institute.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s accustomed to high visibility, and grace under pressure comes easily to her. She\u2019s worked for the Democratic National Committee, and for Senator Paul Simon of Illinois. In 2001 she became Boeing\u2019s director of community education, and eventually rose to vice president of global corporate citizenship for the aerospace giant.<\/p>\n

Through it all, her family legacy has accompanied her like a shining dream. When you\u2019re a Roosevelt, you learn about civic duty young. \u201cThe reference point for us was: How does this square with what FDR and Grand-m\u00e8re thought and did and advocated for.\u201d No doubt, they\u2019d be proud.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never went to Campobello with my grandmother.\u201d (She was 13 when the first Eleanor Roosevelt died in 1962.)\u00a0 Sensitive to Campobello\u2019s magic, \u201cI have had several wonderful visits to the International Park, but it\u2019s been a few years since I drove up there\u2026My home is in Somerset County; I work out of Portland.\u201d She\u2019s a mother of two and grandmother of four (soon to be five), including a granddaughter named Eleanor.<\/p>\n

Does she shop at Goodwill? \u201cOf course!\u201d Has she ever found one of those little black dresses that Goodwill has cleverly adopted to add style to the organization\u2019s image? \u201cThere are certainly little black dresses there\u2013some of mine are somewhere in the system!\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

November 2013
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