Working Waterfront Festival Celebrates 10th Anniversary with 2 FREE Events!

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Cultural Mosaic
May Programming Explores the Cultural Mosaic of the Working Port

In September 2013, the Working Waterfront Festival will mark its’ tenth anniversary. To celebrate, they 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 May explores the Cultural Mosaic of the Working Port.

Friday May 17 – Film Screening: In Altro Mare
National Park Theater, 7:00 PM, FREE

Gloucester, Massachusetts is home to over 6,000 residents of Sicilian origin, many of them from the town of Terrasini, near Palermo. In Altro Mare looks at fishermen, their families, and the community established by the Italian Americans of Gloucester. Director and anthropologist Franco La Cecla interweaves the stories of Gloucester Sicilians with those of immigrants who returned to live and work in Terrasini, suggesting a diasporic experience of being caught between two worlds. The film pays particular attention to changes in the fishing industry that have challenged the viability of smaller-scale independent fishing in Gloucester, such as environmental regulation and globalization. The film will be followed by a discussion about the historical and present role of immigrants on the New Bedford waterfront.

Thursday, May 30 – Cultures of the Port in Song and Story
New Bedford Art Museum, 7:00 PM, FREE

The Port of New Bedford is dominated by fishing families who emigrated from Portugal and Norway. Join us for an evening of music and conversation with Ana Vinagre (Portuguese fado singer) and Luana Josvold (Norwegian accordion) who will share songs and tunes from their homelands, and retired fishermen Reidar Bendiksen and Manny Vinagre who will talk about fishing in the old country.

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.

Portholes Poster
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About Michael Silvia

Served 20 years in the United States Air Force. Owner of New Bedford Guide.

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