The Short of It:

The Details

Here are the basics, borrowed from the press release that’s going out today (🤞):

On the heels of the success of their facilitation of StoryCorps’ One Small Step program for WERU radio, local storytellers and community organizers Chris Battaglia and Michele Christle of Torchlight Media announce a weekend of events including a community supper on Saturday, March 2 from 6–8 p.m. followed by an informal coffee hour on Sunday, March 3, from 10 a.m.–12 p.m. Both events will be held at the Belfast American Legion Hall and are open to veterans, their families, friends, and the general public.

Inspired by the unlikely yet successful collaborations of cultural/community center and social experiment, The Civic Standard, and American Legion Post #7 in Hardwick, VT (a community-led murder mystery dinner theater, flood relief, etc.) as well as their work facilitating one-on-one conversations with strangers from across political divides through One Small Step, Battaglia and Christle were moved to host an event that allows for human-to-human connection between individuals who might not find themselves face-to-face otherwise. 

Community Supper

Saturday, March 2
6–8 p.m.
Belfast American Legion (143 Church Street, Belfast, ME)
$10—no one turned away for lack of funds

This Community Supper is open to veterans, families, friends, as well as the general public. It will be an opportunity for members of the Belfast American Legion to meet members of the Hardwick, Vermont American Legion as well as for community members to meet the veterans in their communities who operate one of Waldo County's largest community gathering halls. Supper will be served for $10 a plate. Community members are invited to come enjoy a meal, play pool, spin a tune on the jukebox, and meet people from their community. (Cash bar available at the canteen down the hall)

Unlikely Collaborations: Coffee Hour for People Interested in Building Community in Rural Places

Sunday, March 3
10 a.m.–12 p.m.
Belfast American Legion (143 Church Street, Belfast, ME)
Free

The informal coffee hour on Sunday morning, Unlikely Collaborations: Coffee Hour for People Interested in Building Community in Rural Places, will feature community organizers Tara Reese and Rose Friedman from the Civic Standard in Hardwick, Vermont, Ashton Allen and Phil Mercier from Hardwick American Legion Post #7, Dale Rowley from Waldo County Emergency Management Agency, and Battaglia and Christle for an informal interactive discussion about unlikely/unusual collaborations in small towns/rural places. Coffee/tea and pastries/fruit will be provided.

The content of this informal, interactive coffee hour will depend on the interests/curiosities of the people who come. Topics might include:

• What does community building in rural places look like?
• How can cultural and community organizations partner/collaborate during good times and bad (natural/human-made disasters, highly polarized election years) to create and sustain more resilient communities?
• How do we build trust in each other when we don’t agree about politics?
• How/can talking to our neighbors help prevent/mitigate conflict?
• How can we move beyond national political rhetoric to better serve our communities while staying true to our values/beliefs? (Is that even possible?!)

We expect this event to be attended a number of folks who have a lot of wisdom, experience, and enthusiasm around rural community organizing (in addition to our special guests), and looking forward to it being highly interactive and engaging.

Think you might come to one or both of these events? Let us know by commenting below or sending us an email at torchlightmaine@gmail.com. (This is not a formal RSVP, we’re just trying to get a rough sense of numbers.)

The Long of It—A Genesis of This Particular Unlikely Collaboration

Have you ever listened to an episode of Erica Heilman’s podcast Rumble Strip? It is so good.

From the Rumble Strip website:

Erica Heilman invites herself into people's homes to find out what they know, hate, love, what they’re afraid of, and what makes them more like you than you'd realized. These are messy, obsessively crafted stories of the everyday.

From Sarah Larson, The New Yorker, 2022

Rumble Strip feels like an antidote to “For who? For what?”—the rare kind of documentary art that connects and edifies without bumming us out.

It was through a Rumble Strip episode that I first learned about the unusual collaborations happening between The Civic Standard (which Rumble Strip creator Erica Heilman is a founder of) and the Legion Hall Post #7. That episode is here.1

Somehow (I’ll let tell you via his Substack, Budsport, which I recommend subscribing to), Chris got to talking with Rose Friedman and Tara Reese from The Civic Standard. We discussed going to Hardick, Vermont to learn more about what they’re up to and how they do what they do. But we also talked about them coming here. And now, it’s happening! Next week!

The best part about what The Civic Standard has referred to as this “totally intriguing collaboration” is that two core members of the Hardwick American Legion Post #7 Gateway Riders, Ashton Allen and Phil Mercier, are coming too. These four folks will be special guests at the Community Supper we’re putting on in partnership with our local American Legion in Belfast, thanks to the support and enthusiasm of Commander Nick Morse.

The following morning, we’ll be hosting the informal, interactive coffee hour mentioned above, also at the Legion Hall. In addition to the aforementioned folks, Dale Rowley, from Waldo County Emergency Management Agency/Waldo County Civil Defense Association will also be part of this conversation.2

This is an experiment.

We don’t know what it will result in but we’re excited to eat spaghetti with you. It feels like a growing nest of “yesses” is forming from everyone we’ve talked to about these events and the intention they’re infused with. We’re excited to see where this goes and to reflect on it afterward.

Though we have some funding to support this event, we are soliciting additional support to help cover the following:

• Gas money for our special guests from Vermont
• Renting the Legion Hall
• Honorarium/stipend for Hardwick folks
• Paying community supper cooks
• Printing flyers
• Incidentals

As this is a Torchlight Media event, we’re able to accept tax-deductible donations through our fiscal sponsor, WBFY Belfast Community Radio. Donations of any size are welcome and may be made by mail, online with PayPal, or in person during business hours: Monday – Thursday at Belfast City Hall or Tuesday – Friday at Waterfall Arts.

IMPORTANT: Please ensure that “Torchlight Media c/o Belfast Community Radio” is noted when you’re donating. *If* you are able to make a donation, please drop us a line at torchlightmaine@gmail.com to let us know—time is short, and knowing this helps us plan. Thank you!

Thank you for being curious, sharing this event with your communities, putting up flyers, volunteering with us, showing up, and being open to this grand experiment.

PS Soup + Circles + Serendipity

Soup + Circle with Two Veterans of Recent Conflicts
Tuesday, March 5
12–1:30 p.m.
@ Restorative Justice Project Maine
132 High Street, Belfast, ME
(Dorothy says to come a bit before noon to get settled with your soup)

Eighty-eight-year-old Dorothy Odell says that fun, hand-drawn signs and soup awkwardly eaten while sitting in a circle of people talking about a thing, a curious thing, is what Restorative Justice Project Maine’s “Soup and Circles” is all about.

I had the honor of being a special guest at this week’s circle, talking about the work I’ve been engaged in this past year, facilitating conversation and connections across divides (and anything the curious fellow soup-eaters asked me).

The soup was delicious—a traditional vegetable soup Dorothy made with bouquet garni. The questions were compelling—simultaneously keeping me humble, turning me red, and causing me to tear up when an older journalist talked about the demise of local newspapers and if I thought of this work functioning as “a little newspaper” (what an honor for this work to be thought of in this way).

Anyway, Dorothy asked me to facilitate the next Soup + Circle, on Tuesday, March 4, at noon—a conversation with two veterans who served in recent conflicts. This is all the info I have at the time of this writing. More information coming soon. I hope you can come.

PPS Turns out I really like public speaking, leading workshops, facilitating conversations, etc. Contact me if you’d like to hire me for such a thing.