Events at this location

Curated by the Mechanics’ Hall Library Committee, this group reads a mixture of fiction and non-fiction stories that “make knowledge, ideas, and arts accessible.” The salon-style discussions occur on the first Tuesday of every month (November – June) in our charming second-floor library.

The April reading selection is Notes From The Porch by Thomas Greene – Start the new year with 44 moving, tender, and humorous short true stories, designed to make the reader feel better about the world. Greene is a novelist, bar owner & Vermonter. Published 2024.

Learn more about what we’re reading and register here.

The group is free for Mechanics’ Hall Members.

Curious about the group but not a Mechanics’ Hall member? You’re invited to stop by! If you like what you hear, consider becoming a member.

Comfy seating in the library is limited. Please register in advance.

If you’re looking to begin your day by getting grounded in your body, committing to your writing practice, and coming together in community, consider joining us for a weekly drop-in yoga and writing session in the sunlit ballroom of Mechanics’ Hall, Wednesday mornings at 7:00 AM.

Sponsored by Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance in partnership with Mechanics’ Hall, this morning yoga flow, followed by a generative writing session, connects body and mind—and connects us to one another as we share these practices. Meredith McCarroll, writer and yoga teacher, will guide the class through a 45-minute yoga flow followed by a series of writing prompts with time to write for 45 minutes.

Learn more & Register Here!

At Mechanics’ Hall, we’re inspired by our founders’ vision to ignite a passion for knowledge, ideas, and the arts within our community. Our Mechanics’ Hall Crafting Group is a vibrant space for creativity and connection.

Whether you’re a knitting enthusiast, an embroidery aficionado, a paper folding master, or simply love sketching, we invite you to share your skills and ideas with fellow makers. Explore the art of textiles, paper, and more, all within the welcoming atmosphere of our library.

Learn more and register here.

Join us every first Wednesday of the month, from September to June, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., for a delightful crafting session. Each meeting will be hosted by a volunteer who shares your love for crafting, ensuring a supportive and fun environment. Bring your materials and let your creativity shine.

Who Can Join?

Our Crafting Group is open to all current members of Mechanics’ Hall. Not a member yet? No worries! Non-members are also warmly welcomed for a suggested donation of $5.00 per session. You can join us for as many—or as few—sessions as you like. Membership at Mechanics’ Hall starts at $50 and is what sustains our programming. We invite you to join here!

Strings and percussion by Brian Shankar Adler blend folk and world music – with influences from Celtic, Indian, & South American cultures.

Multidisciplinary percussionist Brian Shankar Adler and the Rasa String Quartet present Redefining Home, a concert that celebrates each artists’ musical roots.

Spanning from evocative Indian ragas and mysterious Argentine tangos to spirited Celtic fiddle tunes, this collaboration evokes the feelings of home and comfort inherent in our earliest musical memories, while also exploring the rhythmic connection across a wide array of genres.

The program culminates in the world premiere of a new work for string quartet and percussion by Brian Shankar Adler, inspired by this unique collaboration.

LEARN MORE & GET TICKETS HERE

If you’re looking to begin your day by getting grounded in your body, committing to your writing practice, and coming together in community, consider joining us for a weekly drop-in yoga and writing session in the sunlit ballroom of Mechanics’ Hall, Wednesday mornings at 7:00 AM.

Sponsored by Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance in partnership with Mechanics’ Hall, this morning yoga flow, followed by a generative writing session, connects body and mind—and connects us to one another as we share these practices. Meredith McCarroll, writer and yoga teacher, will guide the class through a 45-minute yoga flow followed by a series of writing prompts with time to write for 45 minutes.

Learn more & Register Here!

Mechanics’ Hall’s Annual Meeting is more than an Annual Meeting – it is a celebration of all that we do. Join us for a look back on a spectacular year of programming, and a look ahead to wonder, whimsy, and curiousity.

Join us as we:

• Share our 2024 highlights and exciting plans for the year ahead.
• Enjoy libations and light bites while mingling with our community of Members.
• Watch and listen to literary and musical performances while engaging in crafts like embroidery!

When: Thursday, April 10, 2025 from 5:30PM to 7:00PM

Where: Mechanics’ Hall, 519 Congress Street, Portland, ME

LEARN MORE & REGISTER HERE

This Desire is Not My Desire. A Book Launch for Kimberly Ann Priest’s tether & lung also featuring Robert Carr with Blue Memento.ft. Kimberly Ann Priest (poet), Robert Carr (poet), Evan Pillsbury (cellist)

The gendered body is a body that is always negotiating social, cultural, and political expectations.

It is a body whose experience within these contexts may feel wholly separate or separated from the life of the emotions, from whole personhood. In tether & lung and Blue Memento, Kimberly Ann Priest and Robert Carr examine, with unflinching precision, the complicated suffering of the emotional life when bodies are pressured by relationships, norms, and abuses. In their poetry, these trappings are experienced by all—those who conform to expectations and those who do not, those who are willing to feel and find freedom, and those who remain constrained by their gendered body.

Cello solos will be played at interludes to provide a therapeutic aura.

LEARN MORE AND GET TICKETS HERE

What does it mean for an artist to be seen, deeply seen, by a writer?

This is a question that drives the mission of a small, little known but mighty foundation, located on a quiet, side street in downtown Portland, around the corner from many of our city’s most important cultural institutions. The Dorothea and Leo Rabkin Foundation, a mystery to many locals, is known nationally for the Rabkin Prize, which celebrates the creative and intellectual contributions of today’s arts writers.

Come and hear the inspiring and little known backstory of a gem in Portland’s cultural landscape. Come and discover the story of a remarkable artist who, because of the nature of his work, and despite a long exhibition record and presence in many American museums, is not well known today.

No one knows Leo’s story better than Susan C. Larsen, who will give this lecture. Susan is the Founding and Emeritus Executive Director of the foundation. She met Dorothea and Leo in 1972. For decades, she enjoyed regular Sunday phone chats with Leo, and her close friendship with the Rabkins persisted throughout their lives.

Doors open at 6:15 PM, the event begins at 6:45 PM, approximately one-hour. Free to the public, registration is required.

LEARN MORE & REGISTER HERE

If you’re looking to begin your day by getting grounded in your body, committing to your writing practice, and coming together in community, consider joining us for a weekly drop-in yoga and writing session in the sunlit ballroom of Mechanics’ Hall, Wednesday mornings at 7:00 AM.

Sponsored by Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance in partnership with Mechanics’ Hall, this morning yoga flow, followed by a generative writing session, connects body and mind—and connects us to one another as we share these practices. Meredith McCarroll, writer and yoga teacher, will guide the class through a 45-minute yoga flow followed by a series of writing prompts with time to write for 45 minutes.

Learn more & Register Here!

Join hosts Marco Soulo and Signature MiMi for an evening where all artists and makers are welcome to share their creations and be in community with other poets, musicians, artists, crafters, and thinkers.

Monthly on the 3rd Wednesday of the Month!

“I love to celebrate the artistry of people around the world in whatever material or form they work” –Ashley Bryan

Join Mechanics’ Hall and MWPA in showcasing exciting voices in Maine’s rich literary legacy with the Ashley Bryan Fellows. In honor of award-winning writer and artist Ashley Bryan’s life, the MWPA offers the Ashley Bryan Fellowships, which support emerging Maine writers who are Black, people of color, and/or members of one of the Wabanaki Nations or other Native peoples.

Free to the public, registration is required.

LEARN MORE & REGISTER HERE

Mechanics’ Hall and Longfellow Books present a conversation between poets Andrea Ballou and Cate Marvin, to celebrate the release of Other Times, Midnight.

In Other Times, Midnight, her debut collection, Andrea Ballou explores the aftermath of loss – death, divorce, and departures – and asks the toughest questions: how do we contend with grief and remorse? Where does the spirit go to wait out trauma?

Ballou’s poems fight an “impulse to not speak,” aware that naming, and speech itself, are a matter of life and death. Their startling and often humorous images rooted in the fields, forests and domesticity of rural life are juxtaposed with oblique, at times irreverent, adaptations of Celtic and Greek myth and biblical stories.

LEARN MORE & GET TICKETS HERE

If you’re looking to begin your day by getting grounded in your body, committing to your writing practice, and coming together in community, consider joining us for a weekly drop-in yoga and writing session in the sunlit ballroom of Mechanics’ Hall, Wednesday mornings at 7:00 AM.

Sponsored by Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance in partnership with Mechanics’ Hall, this morning yoga flow, followed by a generative writing session, connects body and mind—and connects us to one another as we share these practices. Meredith McCarroll, writer and yoga teacher, will guide the class through a 45-minute yoga flow followed by a series of writing prompts with time to write for 45 minutes.

Learn more & Register Here!

But There Is This explores our journey through life and our quest for meaning, even when it remains elusive. In works by Corigliano, Mustonen, Yoshimatsu, and Shostakovich, fragments of themes and ideas emerge over time, slowly and imperfectly revealing themselves as part of a larger whole. Each piece takes us on a journey through extreme emotions which are rarely resolved, challenging us to perceive beauty in the small details that make up our lives, even when the whole remains unclear. This program reminds us, in the words of Barabara Ras, that “there is the voice you can still summon at will, like your mother’s/it will always whisper, you can’t have it all, but there is this.”

LEARN MORE & GET TICKETS HERE

All ages are welcome at this concert intended for youth and their caregivers.

Thursday, April 24 at 5:00 pm (doors 4:30 PM), approximately 60-minutes.

There is a $3 ticket surcharge on the day of the performance. Free for youth under 5.

Photo Credit: Titilayo Ayangade

But There Is This explores our journey through life and our quest for meaning, even when it remains elusive. In works by Corigliano, Mustonen, Yoshimatsu, and Shostakovich, fragments of themes and ideas emerge over time, slowly and imperfectly revealing themselves as part of a larger whole. Each piece takes us on a journey through extreme emotions which are rarely resolved, challenging us to perceive beauty in the small details that make up our lives, even when the whole remains unclear. This program reminds us, in the words of Barabara Ras, that “there is the voice you can still summon at will, like your mother’s/it will always whisper, you can’t have it all, but there is this.”

LEARN MORE & GET TICKETS HERE

Friday, April 25 at 7:00 pm (doors 6:30 PM), approximately 90 minutes.

There is a $3 ticket surcharge on the day of the performance.

Photo Credit: Titilayo Ayangade

If you’re looking to begin your day by getting grounded in your body, committing to your writing practice, and coming together in community, consider joining us for a weekly drop-in yoga and writing session in the sunlit ballroom of Mechanics’ Hall, Wednesday mornings at 7:00 AM.

Sponsored by Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance in partnership with Mechanics’ Hall, this morning yoga flow, followed by a generative writing session, connects body and mind—and connects us to one another as we share these practices. Meredith McCarroll, writer and yoga teacher, will guide the class through a 45-minute yoga flow followed by a series of writing prompts with time to write for 45 minutes.

Learn more & Register Here!

Join us for MECA&D’s Second Annual Animation & Film Festival, co-presented by Student Life, the Animation and Game & Art Department & Mechanics’ Hall

Featuring original film submissions from Maine College of Art & Design students from across the College and including 2D and 3D animation, experimental live-action, animatics, stop motion animation, video game playthroughs, and more, guests will watch the submissions, participate in live-voting and applaud the award winners!

Films were selected by a curatorial team comprised of Isaac Kestenbaum, Director of the Salt Institute of Documentary Studies, Carly Peruccio, Assistant Director of Joanne Waxman Library, Starr Miller, Assistant Director of Student Life – Student Engagement and Belonging, and Amelia Garretson-Persans, Animation and Game Art Faculty and Film Festival Coordinator.

LEARN MORE & GET TICKETS HERE

Fabiola Méndez is known for her unique blend of genres, including folk, jazz, and Afro-Caribbean influences. Her music takes listeners on a journey through various identities, cultures, and roots.

Fabiola’s mission has always been to share and celebrate the cuatro, folk music, and collective storytelling. In doing so, she’s had the honor of performing at venues such as the NPR Tiny Desk, Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC, Celebrity Series of Boston, New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña, among many others.

She has also collaborated with many local and international artists, including the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra, Pedro Capó, Andy Montañez, Danny Rivera, the Chicago Philharmonic, and the Boston Landmarks Orchestra.

LEARN MORE & GET TICKETS HERE

Visiting artist Fabiola Méndez will lead a free community jam session– open to all ages and abilities in our historic membership library.

The idea is an informal, hands-on, and (most importantly) fun environment to learn about Puerto Rican folk rhythms and melodies from Fabiola and her band.

Bring your own instrument, or follow along with your hands.

Free to the public, registration is required.

LEARN MORE & REGISTER HERE

Funded in part by the New England States Touring program of the New England Foundation for the Arts, made possible with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts Regional Touring Program and the six New England state arts agencies.

Curated by the Mechanics’ Hall Library Committee, this group reads a mixture of fiction and non-fiction stories that “make knowledge, ideas, and arts accessible.” The salon-style discussions occur on the first Tuesday of every month (November – June) in our charming second-floor library.

The May reading selection is Mad Honey, Jodi Picoult & Jennifer Finney Boylan – A trans girl’s murder and the trial of her boyfriend. Love, identity, and secrets; two narrators. Published 2022.

Learn more about what we’re reading and register here.

The group is free for Mechanics’ Hall Members.

Curious about the group but not a Mechanics’ Hall member? You’re invited to stop by! If you like what you hear, consider becoming a member.

Comfy seating in the library is limited. Please register in advance.

At Mechanics’ Hall, we’re inspired by our founders’ vision to ignite a passion for knowledge, ideas, and the arts within our community. Our Mechanics’ Hall Crafting Group is a vibrant space for creativity and connection.

Whether you’re a knitting enthusiast, an embroidery aficionado, a paper folding master, or simply love sketching, we invite you to share your skills and ideas with fellow makers. Explore the art of textiles, paper, and more, all within the welcoming atmosphere of our library.

Learn more and register here.

Join us every first Wednesday of the month, from September to June, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., for a delightful crafting session. Each meeting will be hosted by a volunteer who shares your love for crafting, ensuring a supportive and fun environment. Bring your materials and let your creativity shine.

Who Can Join?

Our Crafting Group is open to all current members of Mechanics’ Hall. Not a member yet? No worries! Non-members are also warmly welcomed for a suggested donation of $5.00 per session. You can join us for as many—or as few—sessions as you like. Membership at Mechanics’ Hall starts at $50 and is what sustains our programming. We invite you to join here!

Who am I to tell my story? And how can we grant ourselves permission to write the stories we’re compelled to tell when we’ve been told we shouldn’t?

After writing three critically acclaimed memoirs and a decade of teaching memoir workshops at every level, Elissa Altman has helped students face the elephant in every writer’s room: how to craft the stories that are most vital to them despite the voices that have told them not to. Permission is a master course, not only on how to craft memoir, but how to begin and keep going when you’ve been told you can’t, and how to give yourself permission to transcend the fear that keeps vital stories from being written.

LEARN MORE & GET TICKETS HERE

Mechanics’ Hall and PRINT: A Bookstore team up to present a conversation between New Yorker regular, Harry Bliss and local cartoonist Caite McNeil.

YOU CAN NEVER DIE is a graphic memoir from Harry Bliss, renowned New Yorker cartoonist, and eight-time New York Times bestselling illustrator (most recently for the bestsellers A Wealth of Pigeons and Number One is Walking, illustrated alongside Steve Martin).

In his first memoir, Bliss delves into his childhood, family life, and coveted career as a New Yorker cover artist. He tells his story through cartoons and prose essays about the loss of his beloved dog, Penny (who has been featured in his New Yorker cartoons for years), and the people and animals who have shaped the course of his life — including his immediate family, friends, and artists Maurice Sendak, Andrew Wyeth, Ed Koren, Steve Martin, James Gandolni and many more.

You Can Never Die is an ode to both a treasured canine companion and the author’s past, featuring never-before-seen sketches from Bliss’ career. It is vulnerable, funny, sad, and hopeful in the most beautiful way.

LEARN MORE & GET TICKETS HERE

Join hosts Marco Soulo and Signature MiMi for an evening where all artists and makers are welcome to share their creations and be in community with other poets, musicians, artists, crafters, and thinkers.

Monthly on the 3rd Wednesday of the Month!

Mechanics’ Hall and Back Cove Books welcome authors Lynn Steger Strong and Rebecca Traister for a conversation, centering around Steger Strong’s latest book, The Float Test.

Lynn Steger Strong is the critically acclaimed author of Flight, a sophisticated and layered novel about sisters, betrayal, love, and climate change. The Float Test is for readers of The Dutch House and The Most Fun We Ever Had.

The event begins at 6:00 PM (doors 5:30 PM), the event will be approximately 75-minutes, followed by a Q&A.

LEARN MORE & GET TICKETS HERE

little house is proud to restage two feminist dance performances, presented by Mechanics’ Hall.

they have taken nothing (2017) explores the space between giving in and holding on. Three dancers seize pieces of each other, creating tension and submission through charged moments of contact and release. they have taken nothing is a deeply feminine work that comments on our ability to withstand something in order to take what we need.

to quiet the marks II (2023) considers how Western healthcare systems require women and individuals with vulvas to absorb and dismiss physical trauma within a medical context. The work takes its influence from the contrast between the stark coldness and inherent violence of gynecological procedures and the warmth, sensitivity, and tenderness of human flesh. The performance of to quiet the marks II explores states of effort, control, and relief as a way of excavating layers of medical trauma in order to reclaim ownership of the body.

LEARN MORE & GET TICKETS HERE

little house is proud to restage two feminist dance performances, presented by Mechanics’ Hall.

they have taken nothing (2017) explores the space between giving in and holding on. Three dancers seize pieces of each other, creating tension and submission through charged moments of contact and release. they have taken nothing is a deeply feminine work that comments on our ability to withstand something in order to take what we need.

to quiet the marks II (2023) considers how Western healthcare systems require women and individuals with vulvas to absorb and dismiss physical trauma within a medical context. The work takes its influence from the contrast between the stark coldness and inherent violence of gynecological procedures and the warmth, sensitivity, and tenderness of human flesh. The performance of to quiet the marks II explores states of effort, control, and relief as a way of excavating layers of medical trauma in order to reclaim ownership of the body.

LEARN MORE & GET TICKETS HERE

little house dance‘s 5th Creation Lab will take place over a two week period, for the very first time!

Participants can choose to do one week or both. In both weeks, you will learn about their working methodologies and experience their creative process and studio environment. Creation Lab is led by director Heather Stewart alongside other collaborators and dancers. Creation lab takes place in the historic Maine Mechanics’ Hall Ballroom.

REGISTER & LEARN MORE HERE

Week One: Repertoire & Restaging |  June 3rd – 7th

Week Two: Deep Dive into Creation & Process| June 10th – 14th

Curated by the Mechanics’ Hall Library Committee, this group reads a mixture of fiction and non-fiction stories that “make knowledge, ideas, and arts accessible.” The salon-style discussions occur on the first Tuesday of every month (November – June) in our charming second-floor library.

The June reading selection is A Map of Future Ruins by Lauren Markham – A mesmerizing, trailblazing synthesis of reporting, history, and memoir. The stories we tell about migration don’t just explain what happened but what will happen. Published 2024.

Learn more about what we’re reading and register here.

The group is free for Mechanics’ Hall Members.

Curious about the group but not a Mechanics’ Hall member? You’re invited to stop by! If you like what you hear, consider becoming a member.

Comfy seating in the library is limited. Please register in advance.

At Mechanics’ Hall, we’re inspired by our founders’ vision to ignite a passion for knowledge, ideas, and the arts within our community. Our Mechanics’ Hall Crafting Group is a vibrant space for creativity and connection.

Whether you’re a knitting enthusiast, an embroidery aficionado, a paper folding master, or simply love sketching, we invite you to share your skills and ideas with fellow makers. Explore the art of textiles, paper, and more, all within the welcoming atmosphere of our library.

Learn more and register here.

Join us every first Wednesday of the month, from September to June, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., for a delightful crafting session. Each meeting will be hosted by a volunteer who shares your love for crafting, ensuring a supportive and fun environment. Bring your materials and let your creativity shine.

Who Can Join?

Our Crafting Group is open to all current members of Mechanics’ Hall. Not a member yet? No worries! Non-members are also warmly welcomed for a suggested donation of $5.00 per session. You can join us for as many—or as few—sessions as you like. Membership at Mechanics’ Hall starts at $50 and is what sustains our programming. We invite you to join here!

little house dance‘s 5th Creation Lab will take place over a two week period, for the very first time!

Participants can choose to do one week or both. In both weeks, you will learn about their working methodologies and experience their creative process and studio environment. Creation Lab is led by director Heather Stewart alongside other collaborators and dancers. Creation lab takes place in the historic Maine Mechanics’ Hall Ballroom.

REGISTER & LEARN MORE HERE

Week One: Repertoire & Restaging |  June 3rd – 7th

Week Two: Deep Dive into Creation & Process| June 10th – 14th

Mechanics’ Hall & Back Cove Books present a conversation centered on janan alexandra’s debut poetry collection

In her debut poetry collection, COME FROM, janan alexandra weaves from English into Arabic, exploring the joint projects of longing and belonging. Part love song for the speaker’s mother, part grief song for ongoing postcolonial loss, this book reaches for, around, underneath, and through language—feeling for its limits and possibilities.

Drawing on both narrative and lyric impulses, alexandra invites readers into a world bristling with family, memory, home, and inheritance—all in the wake of dislocation and fracture. In one section of the book, we follow the speaker “back home” after years of separation; later, we encounter a series of parables in the form of an Arabic abecedarian, through which the speaker recovers parts of her mother tongue. Here, alexandra probes the gifts and wounds of language, invoking personal and communal histories marked with the longue durée of empire.

LEARN MORE AND GET TICKETS HERE

Join hosts Marco Soulo and Signature MiMi for an evening where all artists and makers are welcome to share their creations and be in community with other poets, musicians, artists, crafters, and thinkers.

Monthly on the 3rd Wednesday of the Month!

The most anticipated event of the season! We’re returning to where it all began in 2015, Mechanics Hall, the original venue of Portland is Burning — the first vogue ball in Portland, Maine.

In celebration of Black Pride, Vogue Ballroom, and QTBIPOC artistry, Aquarius Funkk is joined by the Duchess of Casco Bay herself, Chartreuse Money, to host the most anticipated event of the season! Show up and show out, radiate in your truest colors, and bring your brightest light to the runway.

LEARN MORE AND GET TICKETS HERE