Reza Jalali is Executive Director of the Greater Portland Immigrant Welcome Center, named to the post in December 2021. An Iranian Kurd who has lived in Maine since 1985, Jalali has taught at the University of Southern Maine and Bangor Theological Seminary. From 2006 to 2017, Jalali coordinated the USM Office of Multicultural Student Affairs and oversaw its Multicultural Center. More recently, he served as the special adviser on equity and inclusion to the president at USM.
A writer of essays, short stories, poetry, and commentaries, his work has appeared in local and international newspapers. As a member of Amnesty International USA Board of Directors, Jalali led delegations to different refugee camps in Turkey and Bosnia. He has participated in numerous United Nations-sponsored international conferences in Korea, Japan and Austria.
Reza teaches Islam at the Bangor Theological Seminary and is the Muslim Chaplain at Bates College. A Muslim scholar, Jalali’s work includes “Moon Watchers: Shirin’s Ramadan Miracles,” a children’s book that received a Skipping Stones Honor Award for Multicultural Book. Jalali has been featured as a storyteller on NPR’s “The Moth Radio Hour.”
He has two master’s degrees, one in human services administration from Antioch New England Graduate School, and another in creative writing from the University of Southern Maine. He has served on numerous boards, and currently is a member of the Maine Arts Commission and the advisory board of the New England Arab American Organization (NEAAO) Asian American Association of Maine. He and his wife live in Falmouth.
Bits and Pieces | by Juliana L'Heureux
Paul Tully opened the August 6, 2021 meeting of 29 attendees with an invocation reflecting on the somber occasion of August 6, 1945, when General Paul Tibbets (1915-2007) piloted the Enola Gay.
“We must remember who we are in the universe. In fact, we are the only place in the universe where we know life exists. We will work, as Rotarians, to make our world a better place, and to save the planet and life.”
President Bob Martin welcomed new member Brian Nickerson, and our friend and visiting Rotarian Kirk Duffy, from Savannah GA, who reported his visitors from Georgia were feeling the chill of the unusually low Maine summer temperatures. He hoped they preferred being cool to enduring the grueling summer heat in Georgia, with July average 88-degree F temperatures and 74 percent humidity. Laura Young introduced her guest, Helen McCain.
President Bob requested that those who had not yet done so respond to the email survey regarding conducting Rotary meetings in person. “We all want to meet in person and as soon as possible, but we are not free of risk,” he said. Navigating through the risks includes: (1) concern about the resurgence of COVID in the form of the current or future variants and infecting others (2) indoor gatherings will exacerbate this risk (3) buffet service with social distancing protocols are a risk because the effectiveness of ventilation is unknown and the inclination of our members is to want to reach out to one another; (4) costs for lunches continues to increase- meeting attendance falls below the guaranteed required thereby creating a weekly deficit; (5) many members are unwilling to return to in person meetings. He said the Board will continue to evaluate the situation and appreciates everyone’s input. For now, the Portland Zoom meetings will continue and thereby allows for guest speakers to present from distant places where we would otherwise be unable to invite them.
On September 10, Portland Rotary will conduct the annual Hadlock Field meeting, and the cost will be $28 per person. Depending upon the availability of broadband, we may stream the meeting on Zoom.
Crutches for Africa project- Jan Chapman reported about the Saturday July 31 group who loaded donated assisted mobility devices into a container for shipment to Afghanistan. Volunteers included Jan Chapman and Bruce Moore. District GovernorDick Hall volunteered and proved adept at driving the heavy equipment fork life needed to load the devices. There were too many donated pieces to count, but they included walkers, crutches and orthopedic boots. Organizing and sending these donations to countries where the equipment is nearly impossible to find is a wonderful international project.
All Rotarians are invited to join the Environmental Committee, a new committee scheduled to meet at 11:15 am, on August 13 prior to the regular meeting. Past President Ellen Niewoehner is the chair of this committee. More information about Protecting the Environment focus of Rotary in Action can be read on the PDF link here.
Reminder! Members are asked to please send their Committee preferences to President Bob as soon as possible.
Good news from the Portland Rotary’s Emerging Satellite Club, under the leadership of Megan Peabody. A small District Grant was awarded to the club in the second round of funding. The club considers the $492.48 to be “seed money”, to be built upon and used to create a traveling library in Guatemala. Other clubs are responding to the request to build the seed money and the Portland Rotary will help.
Amy Chipman met up in Portland with Rotarians Patty Erikson, Terri St. Angelo, and they ran into Rob Chatfield and John Curran during a dinner out. Everyone sent greetings to our Portland Rotarians.
Katie Brown: Documenting the Hidden Beauty of Portland
by Erik Jorgensen
The 20th century French street photographer, Henri Cartier-Bresson, earned a reputation for capturing the “decisive moment”—the instant when things came together before him on the street, when every one of the changing elements in a scene were in perfect balance.
Portland Rotary’s own Katie Brown practices a similar style of photography and has a similar mastery for capturing that critical fleeting instant. Whether in the beautiful images here of Queen Anne’s Lace, with Portland’s skyline blurred in the distance and a wasp flying exactly between two flowers; or a geometric tableau of a food truck, traffic lights and the edge of Merrill’s Marine Terminal under a cloudless sky, Katie’s images are mostly shot with a cell phone. They are a reminder of the amazing creative tools that our phones can be.
Kate dazzled us on Friday with her wide-ranging eye – her remarkable photographs of Portland went from micro-landscapes of sections of pavement with random tiny objects found together, to images of street characters and neighbors, to seascapes and sweeping views. She noted that what she has found through her pictures is the “depth of love found in Portland”. Each shot shows the patterns and beauty of life in our city.
A resident of Munjoy Hill for the past several decades, Katie reported that she shoots, on average, 78 photos per day while she walks, while she drives (though she does make an effort to stop before shooting) and while she visits with friends. Many of the photos are infused with a sense of humor, and this reporter, at least, found himself laughing at his monitor.
She concluded the program with a quiz- a series of disguised images and snippets, all taken at different locations in the city, with the winner to have a gift made in their name to the Friends of Long Creek.
Moment of Reflection
Late Summer
By Jennifer Grotz
Before the moths have even appeared
to orbit around them, the streetlamps come on,
a long row of them glowing uselessly
along the ring of garden that circles the city center,
where your steps count down the dulling of daylight.
At your feet, a bee crawls in small circles like a toy unwinding.
Summer specializes in time, slows it down almost to dream.
And the noisy day goes so quiet you can hear
the bedraggled man who visits each trash receptacle
mutter in disbelief: Everything in the world is being thrown away!
Summer lingers, but it’s about ending. It’s about how things
redden and ripen and burst and come down. It’s when
city workers cut down trees, demolishing
one limb at a time, spilling the crumbs
of twigs and leaves all over the tablecloth of street.
Sunglasses! the man softly exclaims
while beside him blooms a large gray rose of pigeons
August 13 | Reza Jalali, Greater Portland Immigrant Welcome Center
August 20 | Palaver Strings
August 27 | Tom Andrews, UN Special Rapporteur on Myanmar
September 3 | NO MEETING
September 10 | Hadlock Field: In-person NO ZOOM
September 17 | Blaine Grimes, Chief Venture Officer, GMRI
September 24 | Rita Heimes, Chief Privacy Officer, IAPP
October 1 | Emily Isaacson, conductor
October 8 | TBD
October 15 | Henry Beck, Maine Treasurer
October 22 | TBD
October 29 | Dana Eidsness, Director, North Atlantic Development Organization
November 5 | Leigh Saufley, Dean, Maine Law
Jalali has taught at the University of Southern Maine and Bangor Theological Seminary. From 2006 to 2017, Jalali coordinated the USM Office of Multicultural Student Affairs and oversaw its Multicultural Center. More recently, he served as the special adviser on equity and inclusion to the president at USM.
