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Marcela Peres

Lewiston Public Library

Tell us a bit about yourself, the organization you represent, and the work you do.

My name is Marcela Peres and I am the Library Director at the Lewiston Public Library in Lewiston, ME. We are a department of the City of Lewiston, the second-largest municipality in the state of Maine. The Library’s mission is “Preserving our history, connecting our community, and enriching the life of the mind.” To that end, we work to make LPL the heart of our community, a place where everyone is welcome to learn and grow from a variety of resources: physical and digital materials, vibrant programming, and in conversation with their neighbors.

Tell us about your community/the communities you serve, and your part of the country.

The Lewiston Public Library serves the cities of Lewiston and Auburn through a shared library card agreement with the Auburn Public Library. All told, the area is home to almost 60,000 residents and is a large service center for the state of Maine. Lewiston and Auburn are home to several hospitals, transportation centers, and multiple institutions of higher learning. There is also a long, proud history of immigration here, from 19th century Irish and French-Canadian laborers whose descendants still call Lewiston home, to most recently, immigrants from a number of African nations, including Somalia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Angola, among other countries of origin.

What did it mean to you and your community to host the U.S. Poet Laureate?

Lewiston is situated 45 minutes north of Portland, Maine’s largest city and a major metropolitan center for culture and arts especially. This can make it difficult for us to attract nationally renowned artists and writers, who sometimes make Portland their one stop in Maine (I should point out that many Lewiston organizations work hard to buck this trend, notably the Bates Dance Festival and our local arts organization, L/A Arts, among many other hardworking arts and culture groups). Poetry is extremely popular in Lewiston, which has a recent history of many well-attended poetry readings, amateur poetry slams, workshops for local youth, and more. I knew there would be an audience here for the U.S. Poet Laureate, and I was thrilled when presented with the opportunity to host. I also knew it would be a wonderful chance to showcase our unique and vibrant community with its own talented artists, poets, and voices.

Can you share any feedback you received from event attendees/participants?

Feedback was 100% positive, with attendees praising Tracy’s impressive talent as well as the format of the program and the fantastic new anthology. Several commented that they sometimes got bored during poetry readings, but that the American Conversations experience was so varied and interactive that their only critique is that they wish it had been longer! Especially well-received was Tracy’s decision to ask for a second reader from the crowd for each poem to allow the audience to hear how poetry could feel and sound different simply based on what the reader brought to the words.

What, if any, type of literary programming do you present in your community? How did this program fit in?

Our primary objective when it comes to programming is to present with the community rather than to it. As librarians, we do not see ourselves as gatekeepers of “quality” literature to share with our communities; rather, we embed ourselves within the community to understand its needs and interests so that we can use our expertise to draw in programming that will best serve our patrons. This can range from local author talks to themed book clubs to NaNoWriMo write-ins or hosting teen poetry slams. I also receive requests to hear from writers “beyond novelists,” and so in recent years, we’ve hosted local historians, graphic novel writers, and several poets, among others. This program allowed us to showcase a writing format that has been increasing in popularity locally, and our completely full event space showed that the interest was certainly here all along!

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