Pine and Roses

09/17/2023

Two great LA lit blogs. I’m looking for a novel to translate into English. If you have recommendations, please let me know.

Busco una novela para traducir en Inglés, si tienes ideas, por favor dímelas.

Leyandolatam.com

Northernlauren.com

06/29/2022

https://pineandroses.org/featured/jane-is-calling-maine-dsa-rallies-for-reproductive-rights/

Today we are here for bodily autonomy. We are here for solidarity in protecting, saving, and revitalizing human rights that have been taken away from us and our loved ones. It is past the point of posting something on social media and emailing someone who tells you anything you want to hear for a vo...

03/07/2022

https://pineandroses.org/opinion/putin-must-not-destroy-odessa/

The seizure of Odessa would solidify President Vladimir Putin’s control of Ukraine’s Black Sea coast. Russian troops have already captured several smaller port cities, shelling civilians and destroying infrastructure along the way. An assault on this city of 1,000,000 people will place Putin’s...

03/05/2022

https://pineandroses.org/featured/portland-charter-commission-to-finalize-governance-proposal/

If you haven’t been paying close attention lately to the Portland Charter Commission’s work, now is the time to tune in. Several weeks ago, two proposals for a new power structure in City Hall were passed out of the Governance Committee for the full Commission to discuss.

02/19/2022

https://pineandroses.org/featured/can-a-good-samaritan-law-reduce-overdoses-in-maine/

More than 600 Mainers died from drug overdoses in 2021, the highest number ever. On February 9, the State Legislature’s Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee held a 4-hour public hearing on LD 1862, An Act to Strengthen Maine’s Good Samaritan Laws that would shield anyone trying to save t...

02/12/2022

https://pineandroses.org/anti-racism/review-farming-while-black/

Leah Penniman’s Farming While Black is a groundbreaking contribution to the fight for social justice in the United States. Part political manifesto, part how-to guide for new Black and Brown farmers, part meditation on the meaning of solidarity, Penniman shines a light on two central questions in ...

02/01/2022

https://pineandroses.org/anti-racism/august-mulls-new-museum-to-white-supremacy/

You may have recently heard about the Governor of Louisiana issuing a pardon to one Homer Plessy, an African American activist who dared challenge Jim Crow segregation in the 1890s in the Deep South. And you may have also read my previous article about the statue erected and still standing in August...

01/30/2022

Pine and Roses reports on 2022 Maine DSA state-wide convention.

https://pineandroses.org/featured/maine-dsa-holds-2022-statewide-convention/

How do we organize a campaign to democratize the entirety of Maine’s energy grid? Engage with local debates about national flashpoints like teaching racism in schools? Unite renters at risk of eviction at a time when neighbors talk less and less? And how does the state-wide socialist organization ...

01/22/2022

Fresh Pine and Roses from Isreal Mosley. https://pineandroses.org/anti-racism/on-hypocritical-mlk-day-observances/

Last week, we celebrated a spectacle of historic proportions. Politicians and leading figures around the country in every state did their best to go a whole 24 hours without mentioning a racist policy they’ve endorsed or supported. And the most powerful liberal and conservative politicians alike f...

01/22/2022

Fresh Pine and Roses from Sharkey, aka Paul Padillo. https://pineandroses.org/culture/review-cohens-magnificent-the-tragedy-of-macbeth/

Sharky (AKA G. Paul Padillo) is a Maineiac from Portland rambling about all things art, and music of every stripe, including rock, progressive, jazz, symphonic, Lieder… and food, too. He writes regularly at Shark on Arts. There should be no doubt in anyone’s mind that Joel Coen’s magnificent a...

01/20/2022

Fresh Pine and Roses!

https://pineandroses.org/spotlight/mofga-and-the-organic-farming-revolution/

The Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association’s aptly named anniversary volume, The Organic Farming Revolution: Past, Present, Future, offers up a collection of essays exploring the movement’s roots, its current moment in the sun, and how we might reconstruct our corporate-dominated, ecolo...

01/03/2022

https://pineandroses.org/farming-for-a-better-world/farming-for-a-better-world/

Dirigo, Maine’s motto, means “I lead.” It’s a big boast for a small state, but there’s no exaggerating Maine farmers’ role in challenging the American Industrial Food Complex.

11/13/2021

https://pineandroses.org/featured/milk-with-dignity-comes-to-maine/

On Monday afternoon, November 8, shoppers at the Back Cove Portland Hannaford looked on as a crowd of more than 200 people gathered across the lot. Busses rolled in and a coalition of Vermont farmworkers got off, waving signs and carrying megaphones.

10/09/2021

https://pineandroses.org/featured/mayor-snyders-electioneering-email-violates-city-policy/

An email sent from Portland Mayor Kate Snyder's official portlandmaine.gov email address violated the City’s policy on political activity and raises questions about government transparency, constituent privacy, and who owns the Mayor’s list.

10/02/2021

https://pineandroses.org/anti-racism/french-canadians-in-maine-they-called-them-frogs/

Andy O’Brien is the communications director for the Maine AFL-CIO, a statewide federation of 160 local unions representing 40,000 workers. He writes on live and labor in Maine for Maine Beacon, Working Waterfront, Mainer News, and the Free Press. Growing up on the coast and far away from any of th...

09/22/2021

Pine and Roses' Kate Sykes reports on copaganda in Portland.

https://pineandroses.org/featured/artist-denies-cop-collaboration-on-parkside-mural/

The Portland, Maine Police have responded to anti-racists by creating a Communications Director position to up their propaganda game, while continuing to back harmful community policing programs and performative police oversight in order to shield themselves. Perhaps even more concerning is the way....