July is a month for gratitude, reflection, and rest at Maine Inside Out. We are celebrating the incredible people who make this work possible: the MIO team, our partners, our supporters, and our entire community - you! What an incredible first 6 months of the year. Thank you for being a part of MIO’s vision to build connection and leadership across boundaries, identities, and generations. 

MIO’s Juneteenth Festival “The City That Carries Us: Pain, Streets and Heartbeats” was a beautiful celebration of community, love, and joy.

Join us on June 19 for “The City That Carries Us: Pain, Streets, and Heartbeats” a Juneteenth festival in Lewiston featuring public art, community parade, performances, and a block party. Maine Inside Out is honored to host this free event in partnership with the City of Lewiston with incredible community partners and local artists. 

Maine Inside Out’s performance season is in full swing!

“Streets & Heartbeats” is the first event in our Spring festival series “The City That Carries Us: Pain, Streets, and Heartbeats! The festival honors community, joy, and grief through public art events and performances culminating with a parade and block party on Juneteenth. 

Please join us for “Life Lost in the Streets” an original performance created and performed by currently incarcerated artists. The performance will be followed by a dialogue with the play creators and a dinner reception. 

Spring is here and MIO’s creative process is in full swing. These are the moments when groups of artists and collaborators turn to face each other in deep connection and trust for one another and for the creative process that is unfolding between them. Soon these circles will open up into performances, street parades, and block parties. You are invited to join us in these magical, live moments when performers and audience members meet as co-creators of an encounter that can only happen once.

Since February, two groups of 7th grade artists at King Middle School have been collaborating to create two new performances. Join us for the original play premieres on May 13 and May 15 at 5pm at King Middle School 92 Deering Avenue in Portland! 

Co-Executive Director Announcement; “Pieces of Hope” Open Mic Night; “The City That Carries Us: Pain, Streets, and Heartbeats”; The Parable Path; and Mountain View Theater Project News

Maine Inside Out would not be possible without the support, care, and partnership of our community. We are grateful for all the ways you’ve shown up to engage with our workshops and performances, partner on projects, and support our work. 

Join us for our last open mic night of 2023! This event will be a place to say farewell to Bruce & Margot, MIO’s Co-Executive Directors.

Our film features our work this past year with artists at Lewiston Middle School, King Middle School in Portland, and Mountain View Correctional Facility; the most recent Mountain View performance & our October Open Mic Night

Our work facilitated by MIO’s talented theater team is made possible by our supporters (like you!) who are building a world of courage, trust, and connection that attends to the systemic roots of harm. In this time of immense grief here in Lewiston and beyond, MIO’s approach shifts power and inspires new perspectives, creating openings for change and healing. Our model is built on supporting system-impacted leaders and artists with peer support, leadership development, and mutual aid. 

The end of 2023 marks our last day as Co-Executive Directors at MIO. It has been a beautiful journey in our shared role, learning and growing over the past 3 years together. Bruce will leave the role after 8 years at MIO - 3 years in the Co-Executive Director role and 5 years on the MIO board - and Margot will leave the role with 15 years at MIO as co-founder and in various staff roles over the years and most recently 3 years as the Co-Executive Director, alongside Bruce. We thrived as a leadership team and are now leaving the role to the next team of leaders. 

We are here and have been on the ground with our MIO community and Lewiston friends, family, and partners today, supporting each other as we continue to receive news and updates as the tragedies continue to unfold

MIO’s October 2023 Open Mic Night, New performance & Film Debut in November, RCOM partnership spotlight, and the Prison Pod episode featuring Joseph Jackson & Bruce King

Maine Inside Out was on tour this August offering Theater of the Oppressed workshops across the state. 

Check out the upcoming September 2023 Events!

What or who is in need of your courage right now? What does it look like for us all to step into “heart-time” and meet the challenges of this moment with “courage beyond control” ? 

In May, MIO’s two groups at Lewiston Middle School and two groups at King Middle School premiered four new original plays for over 1,000 audience members of youth, school staff, families, and community members. The plays were created by the groups over 12 weeks and portrayed themes of friendship, peer pressure, false accusations, trust, bullying, domestic violence, drug addiction, gun violence, loss, and more.