Shop local! Shop small! While drinking delicious BEER! Ten different Fork Food Lab members will have tables and be selling their delicious treats. Every week will have a large variety of member goods for sale. Both ready to eat and packaged goods available. Participating Members: Resurgam Hot Sauce, Mill Cove Baking Co, Mama Mo's, Suga Suga, Niyat Catering, Joyful Spirit, Hi Bar Bakery, Silver Child Confectionaries, Empanada Club

Book paper and steel are placed in different contexts in our lives. The book is appreciated as an object of education, growth, and escape. Whereas steel is often invisible, even though it is a primary structure of our constructed environment. I strive to level the playing field between these disparate perceptions and materials. I search for harmony between paper and steel that in so many ways possess similar attributes: flexibility, history, mass, and density. Unbound blocks of text lose their original meaning when I cut the pages from their bindings. This allows me to respond to the shape and texture of the paper and give new meaning. Introducing metal to the process gives structure and support to the loose pages, and elevates the steel - a familiar material in industry and architecture - to the level of the book - an object for contemplation. Alongside the paper, the steel becomes graceful, its subtle colors and surface heightened. Bound together, the pages and steel become something new and unified. No longer a book on a shelf, but a unique object with its own strength and story. Opening Reception is Thursday May 2nd, 2019 6:00pm to 8:00pm open to the public On View: Until June 23rd

MECHANICS’ HALL TO BEGIN FIRST FRIDAY PERFORMANCE SERIES IN MAY Each month will feature 5 performers from a variety of genres in an hour-long show. Mechanics’ Hall is pleased to announce a new First Friday performance series called Various! which will be formatted in the spirit of the art walk such that guests can come and go or stay for the entire hour. Set in the Grand Ballroom, Various! will increase exposure for Maine’s many talented performers while providing members of the public with a new art walk destination. “We are overjoyed to begin this series which highlights our mission to support creativity in our spaces,” says Hall Superintendent Tom Blackburn, “Performing artists support our economy immensely and Various! is just the beginning of a new creative programming initiative at Mechanics’ Hall.” In 1815, the Maine Charitable Mechanic Association was the fellowship for Portland’s creative community: the blacksmiths, coopers, carpenters, and more. Today, the Hall is working to connect that rich history to the modern makers movement with its mission to inspire and enrich the community by promoting ingenuity, creativity, innovation, and the diffusion of useful knowledge. May 3rd, 2019 Performers: The Shank Painters will present Sea Shanties from the High Seas featuring several traditional sea shanties from seafaring culture here and beyond. The Painters are a pirate-themed folk music trio based in Portland, Maine. Ballet Bloom Project offers The Shape of Relativity, a contemporary ballet duet performed to recorded berimbau music and choreographed by Rose Hutchins. The Good Guys perform four of their original tunes to make you laugh, dance, and sing along. This duo hails from Rockland, Maine. Janoah Bailin’s juggling and performance acts are always inventive with props and very attentive to the audience. Bailin performs variety arts and unicycling for festivals, parades and on stages all over New England, leaving behind a wake of tumbled juggling props! Brie Hinman’s Mourning Glory is an other-worldly modern-contemporary piece, performed by 16 dancers, which will explore the relationship between dreaming and memory. EVENT DETAILS What: Various! A First Friday variety show When: Friday, May 3rd at 6pm Where: Mechanics’ Hall, 519 Congress St. Portland How Much: Free with a $10 suggested donation Press Inquiries: Mike Levine - firstfriday@mainemechanics.org Website: www.mainemechanics.org