New Bedford Guide Your Guide to New Bedford and South Coast, MA
June Portholes programs consider the importance of preserving the working port
In September 2013, the Working Waterfront Festival will mark its’ tenth anniversary. To celebrate, we are presenting Portholes, a series of free, monthly programs designed to engage residents and members of the commercial fishing industry in conversations about critical issues facing the working waterfront. Each month’s programming centers around a theme. Programming during the month of June considers the importance of preserving the working waterfront. Partial funding for the Portholes Project is provided by Mass Humanities. The New Bedford Whaling Museum is the sponsor of our June programs.
Thursday, June 13 (AHA NIGHT)
Dock Walk, Whaling Museum Plaza 7:00 PM, FREE
Learn about the shoreside businesses, workboats, and historic landmarks that are part of our port. The 45 minute tour will depart from the Whaling Museum Plaza.
Talk: New Bedford: A Designated Port
Whaling Museum Theater 8:00 PM, FREE
Find out how and why New Bedford became a “designated port”, what that means, and what lies in store for our working waterfront in the years to come. Fishing industry veterans, John Linehan and Rodney Avila, and Port Director, Jeffery Stieb will share perspectives on the past, present, and future of the port.
Friday June 21 – Film Screening: No Pretty Prayer
National Park Theater, 7:00 PM, FREE
No Pretty Prayer explores the gritty character of an old seaside neighborhood in the oldest seaport in America. Known locally as the Fort, the enclave has long served as the working heart of Gloucester, Massachusetts’ marine industrial economy and as home to the city’s Sicilian community. The film examines how this mix of industry and culture has fused the character of this place and its people over the past one hundred years. With the threat of neighborhood gentrification as a haunting backdrop, the film invites viewers to contemplate what it means to sustain cherished roots to a humble place that the broader world threatens to erase and forget in time. Film maker, Sal Zerilli, and long time Gloucester resident, Jimmy Tarantino, will lead a discussion following the screening.
The Working Waterfront Festival is a project of the Community Economic Development Center of Southeastern MA, a non-profit organization. The FREE festival, a family friendly, educational celebration of New England’s commercial fishing industry, features live maritime and ethnic music, fishermen’s contests, fresh seafood, vessel tours, author readings, cooking demonstrations, kid’s activities and more. It all takes place in New Bedford, MA, America’s #1 fishing port, on the last full weekend of September. Navigate to us at www.workingwaterfrontfestival.org.
