Poetry of the Middle East, Perspectives on the Gulf States, and a Portrait of Pre-Revolutionary Iran Coming Up in October Library Talks

The first full month of this season’s Camden Conference Community Events Series gets rolling in October with poetry, an expatriate’s perspectives on the Arab Gulf States and beyond, and a prose portrait of an era in Iran. These free public talks are hosted by our Maine Public Library partners.

On October 15, Rockport Library will present Arthur Levin on An Expatriate’s Perspective on Living in the Middle East, where he and his wife Joan Pew lived from 2012-15, some of that time in Abu Dhabi. He most recently served as Senior Security Specialist and Regional Lead with Chemonics International, one of USAID’s largest implementation partners. In 2014, he collaborated with the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Middle East.

Afarin Bellisario opens Camden Library’s series of talks on October 23 with a book talk and discussion on her novel Silenced Whispers, set in Iran in the early twentieth century and focusing on the struggles of a young woman and events leading up to World War I.

Returning again to Cushing on October 26 is the reading of poetry related to the theme of the Camden Conference, this year titled The Shared World: Poems for a New Middle East and hosted by poet and Cushing resident Ellen Goldsmith. Multiple presenters will read and respond to poems by writers with Middle Eastern origins to bring the insights of poetry to the topic, foster connections, evoke new thoughts and feelings, and deepen understanding.

Also coming are two film showings and discussions in Yarmouth: Children of Heaven from Iran on October 8 and from Palestine, Golden Globe-winning Paradise Now on October 29.

Much more to come through the fall and early winter.

Image: “Junction” by Vic Goldsmith