BELFAST — Every Thursday, a group of dedicated volunteers meets in the old Maskers Building to discuss different ideas for how to help those currently detained at, or reentering society from, the Maine Coastal Regional Reentry Center.

All are members of RAW (Restorative Art Works) 4 Change - Art in Action Project, which is sponsored by the Belfast Creative Coalition.

The Coalition is a group of connected “creative entrepreneurs, nonprofit administrators, innovative business owners, writers, bakers, dancers, singers, directors, producers, painters, blacksmiths, actors, lighting and set designers, sound technicians, poets, students, performers, soap-makers, glassblowers, quilt makers, steel and woodworkers, chefs, arts and culture enthusiasts and friends,” according to its website. 

One member of the group, Robyn Goff, who is program manager for the Maine Coastal Regional Reentry Center with Volunteers of America, also serves on the RAW 4 Change Art Project Committee. 

While the subject matter is serious, the mood in the spacious room is one of happiness, with laughter and words of gratitude and encouragement echoed by every member of the Committee. 

“We meet every Thursday for an hour and [the biggest event is happening] on November 1 and 2 [which is] around summoning the power of art to address the opioid epidemic and we do have a series of events leading up to that,” Goff said. 

Waldo County Commissioner Betty Johnson also counts herself as a committee member, though, like many of the others in the group, it is just one of the multiple committees she serves on. In her check-in, Johnson talked about an often overlooked demographic suffering from the opioid epidemic: the elderly. 

“It’s not just important to economic development, it’s important for health and numerous things,” she said. “I sit on several different boards, one of them is Aging Well in Waldo County. The elderly people also have a problem with opiates and we’re seeing more and more abuse and more and more suicide and a lot of it is isolation, which is part of it, those who have been addicted.

“It’s an eye-opener for me, but it also helps me when I go out and talk to the different communities. Talk about what is going on in your community and across the country - it’s a problem. It’s just something that’s close to my heart and whatever I can do to help out with being a part of it, that’s what I plan to do.” 

Another member, Deb Hensley spoke about feeling a shift in the way people view addiction and those struggling with it. 

“I feel like we have these ropes around our shoulders and there’s this great huge shift that I’m trying to watch and it’s a really powerful shift, and I also feel, I really do, I feel the moment. It’s like when something heavy starts to move… I can feel that happening now, and so it was Larraine [Brown’s] wonderful brainchild and it's blooming,” she said.

The first event in the series took place in April when the film “A Beautiful Boy” was screened at Colonial Theatre, followed by a community conversation. 

“This is a serious issue obviously, it takes people’s lives. What the arts can do that nothing else can do quite like it, is move the heart,” Larraine Brown, director of the Belfast Creative Coalition, said of the group. 

“You have to keep teaching, is the way I would describe it,” another member added. “ I think if you come out with it being that people can become more aware of [the opioid epidemic], and those who have been affected can speak about it more and reach out, these are accomplishments that we should feel like we’re doing, and art has a lot to do with that.”

In a check-in with those in attendance, a feeling of gratitude for being involved in the project as well as its growth and progression were a common theme. 

“I’m also really happy with how things have come together and really heartened by the part-time people and all of our help. I really thought I was over my head, it’s been 20 years since I did a lot of heavy-duty marketing for a big magazine, so we kind of made it work and it’s really turned out pretty well,” one member said. 

A different member of the group with personal experience with addiction and the struggles that go along with it is Rachelle Bell. 

“I’m really grateful that I’m allowed to be here today, being a person in recovery, I feel that this is giving back for me and it’s kind of filling my cup back up and replenishing me and it’s that resilience building, so spread the word I guess about that so that I can try to get other people in recovery onboard. A lot of people don’t know about this,” she said.

Norman Kehling, who once resided at the Reentry Center, is also a member of the group. He is currently working on a one-man play about his life and struggles. 

The Project will include a series of events, including community conversations and other events, though their biggest event won’t take place until November. 

In a printout about the Project, the group wrote that “Art moves the heart, body, and soul. Activism moves the material world. 

Art Activism is a dynamic practice combining the creative power of the arts to move us emotionally with the strategic planning of activism necessary to bring about social change.” 

November event

The first annual RAW 4 Change Event will take place over the weekend of Nov. 1 and 2, and will bring together a large array of participants in an effort to explore different ways to bring awareness to those affected by addiction and bring awareness to other social justice issues. 

The event will include national and local leaders in the arts advocate movement, community leaders, writers, musicians, health professionals, artists, and educators, though there is one attendee in particular, whose presence is perhaps the most highly anticipated. 

Artist and Social Justice Activist Vijay Gupta, an internationally renowned violinist, TED Senior Fellow, and MacArthur Fellow, is the keynote speaker Nov. 1. 

The MacArthur Fellowship, which is commonly referred to as the “Genius Grant,” is “a $625,000, no-strings-attached award to extraordinarily talented and creative individuals as an investment in their potential,” according to the MacArthur Foundation. 

Gupta provides “musical enrichment and valuable human connection to the homeless, incarcerated, and other under-resourced communities in Los Angeles. After joining the Los Angeles Philharmonic as a young violinist, Gupta began to give lessons to Nathaniel Ayers, a Juilliard-trained musician whose mental illness led to homelessness. This experience motivated him to play for the homeless and mentally ill living on Skid Row, an area of concentrated poverty and homelessness in downtown Los Angeles and, eventually, to cofound the not-for-profit Street Symphony” according to his profile on the Foundation’s site.

Gupta will perform and share his vision and work, and his appearance, like the rest of the event, is open to the public.

On Saturday, Nov. 2, there will be classes held with leaders in the artist-activist movement “confronting addiction and justice.” These classes have limited space. 

Other presenters include Natasha Mayers of the Artists Rapid Response Team, International Facilitator Gail Burton, Theater of the Oppressed, Justice Advocate Joseph Jackson, who is also the Youth Community Liaison at Maine Inside Out, among others. 

While some of those in attendance may be more known, there are no prerequisites to being a part of the event, and all are welcome. 

According to a release for the event, “if you have been touched in any way by addiction this project is for you. If you are a working artist this project is for you. If you are a social justice advocate this project is also for you.

“Together we will re-discover the power and beauty of art, through stories of connectedness and transcendence and the old remedies of music, words, and theater.”

Upcoming events

Though RAW 4 Change’s November event may be their main event, there will be monthly community conversation events taking place in the meantime, which are free and open to the public. 

The ongoing series of conversations and November event is sponsored by the Maine Community Foundation, the Waldo County Commissioners Office, Volunteers of America, and the Belfast Creative Coalition. Chief Deputy Jason Trundy, of the Waldo County Sheriff’s Office, is also involved with the group. 

The next event in the series takes place at the Maskers Building this Saturday, June 29, from 9-11 a.m. The RAW 4 Change Theater will perform a skit at the event before the conversation portion opens. 

The actors in the group are made up of currently and formerly incarcerated men, in addition to interested community actors. 

While this Saturday is the nearest calendar event, RAW’s next bigger event will take place in July, when the movie Lost in Woonsocket will be played at the Crosby Center, followed by a community conversation. According to Goff, the movie is about homelessness and addiction. 

“One of the gentlemen in the movie is actually flying out here to speak after it,” Goff said. 

“We’re hoping for a good turnout for that,” a fellow committee member added. 

“So that’s kind of the plan with our events leading up to the project is to build momentum and some sense of what we’re trying to do. The idea really is to inspire a community with this November event that we would continue on helping the community heal with different forms of art, whatever that may look like. Maybe it’s a class at the Reentry Center, maybe it’s something Waterfall Arts does, the community or individuals...” Goff said. 

Anyone interested in sponsorship can contact Larraine Brown for additional information at 218-1144. 

For tickets to the November event.

Erica Thoms can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com