Black Cat Book Fair & Skillshare

For decades, this model of book fair has gathered writers and activists, artists, zine makers (and their corollary, zine ‘distros’), book publishers and newspapers, all with a leftist bent, to create a community space where radical values can be explored and ideas exchanged. We handful of organizers include writers, poets, farmers, booksellers, two kinds of mill workers (woolen and saw), artists, arborists, editors, boatbuilders, activists, musicians and one arts administrator — all avid readers — living in Waldo County. The idea of a book fair came to us in the dark of a February as a place we might gather with others who share both our anti-authoritarian ideals and love of books. We wanted this book fair to highlight what is unique to life in Midcoast Maine; what the struggles for equality look like here, a rural region with stark wealth disparities, food and housing insecurity; and the racial marginalization of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) folks in what journalist Samuel James calls ‘the deliberate creation of the whitest state in the nation,’ where there has been a sharp 50% increase in ICE arrests. Also, we wanted to beat Portland to it.”