ABOUT
Second Season
The second season of our Freeport Speech Speaker Series promises to be extraordinary:
April 25, 2023: speak with a panel of asylum seekers, refugees fleeing hardship at home, who will share their experiences leaving home to resettle in this corner of the world called Maine;
May 30, 2023: revisit the war in Ukraine, ten months after we first addressed the conflict, with our state department and military experts;
August 22, 2023: reflect on the potential impact of the Supreme Court’s upcoming decision on affirmative action in college admissions with then past presidents of Bowdoin, Bates and Colby;
July 18th, 2023: hear global stories of resilience from the former NBC News Tel Aviv Bureau Chief;
September 19, 2023: hear from accomplished Maine authors Lily King and Susan Conley, on the creative process and the future of reading; and
October 10, 2023: hear both sides of the debate on public vs. private ownership of Maine's power company.
And we have other similarly topical and relevant events in the works.
We are thankful to our growing group of season supporters. We are also proud to recognize our event sponsors who enable contributions to local charitable organizations selected in conjunction with the speakers for each event. While the world seems to be foundering in search of its lost community spirit, we look forward to continuing important conversations in an open manner on our Meetinghouse Arts stage. We encourage you to take a look at our prior six events, all of which have video recordings to enable access to those who aren’t able to attend in person.
First Season
We began our series with our inaugural speaker, Heather Cox-Richardson, speaking about "Arts and Agency in History." Maine Senator Angus King spoke in May about "The Art of Politics." Also coming in our series is Dr. Nirav Shah and Prof. Kara Palamountain, who will talk about global health in a pandemic world; Admiral Gregory Johnson and Diplomat Susan Thornton, who will give their views on the Ukraine from a Pentagon and State Department perspective; Drs Iain Kerr and Susana Hancock and Don Perkins talking about the battle to protect our environment; and Colin Woodard, a New York Times bestselling historian. We will update this website with additional details about these and other speakers as details become available.