MyMaine Media

arts & culture

How courage and laughter can strengthen community

The tattooed woman took another swig of beer and fiddled with her pencil. The grandma giggled. The pre-teens mouthed lyrics to each other with the authority of true believers. A low hum buzzed around the steel brewing tanks—was that fermentation, or singing?

Both, as it turned out.

feast & toast

Summer recipes by a fifth-generation chicken keeper

Moving to Maine ten years ago from Virginia necessitated my re-learning how to garden in a cold climate where there could be snow on the ground six months of the year. 

Cape Neddick’s Nubble Lighthouse is one of the most famous lighthouses in Maine and is well preserved, thanks to its keeper for whom each task is a labor of love.

The lighthouse wakes up. Canadian Geese circle and sometimes land. I keep my fingers crossed that they keep moving. A nesting pair means six weeks of being chased and hissed at while I try to work.

literature

Poetry by Melissa Crowe

Say I’m clover and Queen Anne’s 

lace, devil’s paintbrush and lupine. 

I’m a yard of junked cars, each 

with its corona of broken glass 

fashion statement

Josephine staples to go from desk to dock 

Working from a home office has a way of softening the edges of personal style—long hours at the computer can slip into a rotation of uninspired staples: slouchy knits, well-worn sweatpants, comfort over intention. At least, that’s where Karen and I found ourselves after a year of building MyMaine from the ground up.

As women who have always found joy in the ritual of getting dressed, we felt called to mark this milestone with a sartorial reset—packing away the overly casual and reintroducing pieces that reflect both who we are and where we’re going.

With an eye toward refinement and ease, we turned to Janet Kooyenga, owner of Josephine at the Shops at Falmouth Square, to curate looks that move effortlessly from daytime meetings to evening gatherings with friends—each ensemble capturing that luminous, golden-hour energy that defines a Maine summer.

arts & culture

At Hogfish in Cape Elizabeth, artists gather to create work that restores connection—to themselves, to each other, and to the world around them.

Regenerative arts—inspired by regenerative agriculture and indigenous wisdom to restore, revitalize, and heal ecological and social systems—began in the 1970s but gained momentum in the 2010s. Maine’s Hogfish in Cape Elizabeth has emerged