Violinist Maya French and cellist Matt Smith will join us August 20 to share the story of Palaver Strings.
Palaver Strings is a musician-led string ensemble and nonprofit organization based in Portland. Founded in 2014, Palaver has established itself as a forward-thinking ensemble whose mission is to strengthen and inspire community through music. In its musician-led model, the group’s musicians share artistic and administrative leadership, guided by a passion for engaging new audiences, addressing social justice issues, and amplifying underrepresented voices. Palaver has toured widely throughout the United States, performing at the Kennedy Center and a celebration of the Lullaby Project at Carnegie Hall. The ensemble has enjoyed residencies at Rockport Music, Boston Center for the Arts, and Bay Chamber Concerts. Each year, Palaver presents 40+ live performances featuring diverse musical programming, cross-genre projects, and community collaborations. Equally committed to education, Palaver offers quality music instruction through the Palaver Music Center in Portland, currently serving over 325 students per year.
Originally from the desert of Arizona, Matt Smith has always loved classical music and got his start playing the cello through his school orchestra. In addition to playing the cello, he is the group’s Managing Director of Education, leading the Palaver Music Center programs, including partnerships with The Opportunity Alliance Head Start program, Youth and Family Outreach, and the Greater Portland Immigrant Welcome Center. Outside of Palaver, he performs in a duo with his long-term musical partner, pianist Pei Pei Song, where they are regular guest artists at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing, China.
Violinist and educator, Maya French has studied and performed at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, Kronberg Academy Violin Masterclasses, Orford Music Academy, Manchester Music Festival, Kneisel Hall, Virginia String Quartet Seminar, and Kinhaven Music School. Maya received her BMA in Violin Performance from Boston University. She currently serves as violinist, teaching faculty, and Managing Director for Palaver Strings. Additionally, Maya has worked as a Teaching Artist Fellow through the Massachusetts Cultural Council and as a teaching artist at Bridge Boston Charter School’s El Sistema-inspired strings program. She is certified in Suzuki violin teaching and Music Learning Theory, an early childhood music education method. Maya is dedicated to using classical music as a vehicle for social change and community-building.
Bits and Pieces
Katie Brown announced the winner of the quiz included in her presentation. Erik Jorgensen had the most correct answers and earned a $50 donation from Katie to the Friends of Long Creek. Here are the answers:
1. Deering Oaks Park
2. John Ford statue, intersection of Pleasant, York, Center, Fore Streets
3. Portland Boxing Club, Morrell's Corner
4. U-Haul, Marginal Way
5. Jewell Falls, in the Fore River Sanctuary
6. The old railroad tunnel on West Commercial Street, under the new SoPo bridge on-ramp as it's going up from Commercial Street
7. Flag pole (and grease pole during the Italian Bazaar) - by St. Peter's on Federal, near India Street
8. The memorial/cemetery up on the Eastern Prom, in dip to right of tennis courts. POW soldiers who died of various illnesses. Read morehere.
9. Top floor of Portland Art Museum, looking toward Holiday Inn
10. The Portland Observatory, carved into the walls tucked under one flight of stairs. (A feature on the tour.) The lower initials - EHY - are by Edward H. York, who was bestowed the Observatory from Lemuel Moody, the "LM" who built it originally.
John Curran shared news of the Rotary International Global Grant awarded to Portland Rotary and the Texcity Coimbatore Rotary Club. The $137,387 grant will provide a PSi O2 Oxygen Concentrator of 1000 LPM capacity to Government Medical College and ESI Hospital in Coimbatore, India. Members of Portland Rotary personally contributed over $16,000 to the project.
The duties of the District Governor are varied and extensive. No one knew that one requirement is the ability to drive a forklift. Here District Governor Dick Hall is shown helping load a shipping container as part of the recent Crutches for Africa event.
Immigrants and the American Dream
By Juliana L’Heureux
Reza Jalali, Executive Director of the Greater Portland Immigrant Welcome spoke to Rotary on August 13, to share the story of the immigrant experience and challenge. He expressed appreciation to the club for its past and ongoing support for the Center. He called for more collaborations to help the community meet immigrants half way. “If immigrants do well in Maine, we will all do well as a result,” he said.
President Bob Martin introduced the program speaker with quotes by the Nigerian writer, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. “Nobody is ever just a refugee,” she said in a speech on the global migrant crisis. “Nobody is ever just a single thing.” She called the plight of refugees the moral imperative of our times. Creating room for refugees is essential, she said.
Reza Jalali of Falmouth was named the Executive Director of the Immigrant Welcome Center of Greater Portland, a non-profit organization, in December, 2020. The role became vacant after the unexpected death of co-founder Alain Jean Claude Nahimana. The position was temporarily filled by Shima Kabirigi, also a co-founder.
Jalali has lived in Maine since 1985, when he arrived as a refugee. He has taught at the University of Southern Maine and at the Bangor Theological Seminary. He is a published writer and he is multilingual. “I am excited about leading our non-profit to help those who are pushed to the edge of our society,” he said. “We want to build a vision to help new immigrants to create the American dream.”
Rotary is supportive of community programs and efforts to welcome refugees as immigrants to America. Current immigrants continue the history of American immigrations, consistent with earlier groups of French-Canadians, Greeks, Italians, Irish, and others who arrived as refugees.
Immigrants tend to start businesses, Jalali said. They can help to grow new Maine businesses. When immigrants arrive, they need help and assistance. Receiving help with language continues to be essential. Language is a barrier regardless of the immigrants’ certifications or degrees. Maine is becoming the place where janitorial service workers are likely the best educated in the world, Jalali said, because language and licensing requirements prevent highly-trained people from continuing their previous professions in the United States. An important leadership role for the Center is to encourage employers to hire immigrants, teach them medical terminology or whatever they need to move beyond cleaning services. Even as they open businesses, they must also learn how to fit in and how to belong. They are learning how to run for civic offices and become engaged in good citizenship. Key principles for the Center are teaching (a) collaboration ( b) results-based accountability (c) integrity (d) inclusion, and (e) professionalism. Building trust between the immigrant communities and the greater community, at large, is a priority.
Programs supported by the Center include providing co-working space; immigrant entrepreneurship; training in citizenship; community engagement; and learning English. Jalali said many immigrant business owners did not apply for the paycheck protection PPE money because they did not know how to apply, or they did not have the required records. The Center was able to convene some local bankers to meet with the immigrant businesses to help them secure $5,000 grants, not loans. Relationships with local banks are also providing opportunities for immigrants to receive small interest free loans ranging from $1,000 to $15,000. Jalali said that the Islamic religion prohibits interest-bearing debt, so that is a challenge for some business owners.
More information is available about the Center at thislink.
Moment of Reflection
The Red Wheelbarrow
By William Carlos Williams (1883-1963)
so much depends
upon
a red wheel
barrow
glazed with rain
water
beside the white
chickens
Speaker Schedule
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 |Dick Hall, District Governor
October 15 | Henry Beck, Maine Treasurer
October 22 |Dan Brennan, Maine Housing
October 29 | Dana Eidsness, Director, North Atlantic Development Organization
November 5 | Leigh Saufley, Dean, Maine Law
December 10 | Paul Mayewski, Climate Change Institute, University of Maine
