In this episode we welcome Nyamuon Machar 19’, Maya Williams, Brian J. Evans 23’, and Samuel James 20’, were all participants in ECHOES. This is part 2 and a continuation from season 1 finale. Echoes, Led by Black Haitian American composer, violinist and activist Daniel Bernard Romain, ECHOES was a site-responsive composition project that aims to reflect the breath, sorrow and beauty of Portland, Maine’s complex history and relationship to its Black community, utilizing live performance to mark, reclaim and celebrate a site of significance and enduring legacy. With the Abyssinian Meeting House as inspiration, Daniel Bernard Romain created an original score, to which local artists across disciplines are invited to remix and respond. In their interview, these artists reflect on the collaborative project that took place in May 2024 and their contributions.

In this episode we welcome Nyamuon Machar 19’, Maya Williams, Brian J. Evans 23’, and Samuel James 20’, were all participants in ECHOES. Led by Black Haitian American composer, violinist and activist Daniel Bernard Romain, ECHOES was a site-responsive composition project that aims to reflect the breath, sorrow and beauty of Portland, Maine’s complex history and relationship to its Black community, utilizing live performance to mark, reclaim and celebrate a site of significance and enduring legacy. With the Abyssinian Meeting House as inspiration, Daniel Bernard Romain created an original score, to which local artists across disciplines are invited to remix and respond. In their interview, these artists reflect on the collaborative project that took place in May 2024 and their contributions.

In this episode we welcome Shane Charles, who was an artist in Indigo Arts Alliance's Mentorship Residency Program in April of 2023. Shane Charles was born in Maine and creates paintings, sculptures and photographs within a process of abstraction and poetics. Charles is a direct descendent of the Penobscot Nation and is also of (colonial) British ancestry. His grandfather was a mapmaker and his father was the Penobscot tribal surveyor after the Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act of 1980. Charles received his Master of Fine Arts degree from UNC at Chapel Hill, where he focused on sculpture and performance. He previously studied painting at the University of Maine through the indigenous Wabanaki program. Charles utilizes raw and sourced material, body prints and open compositional spaces, to engage with themes of artifact, presence and continuity.