About MHC | Maine Humanities Council

Mission & Vision

Mission

The Maine Humanities Council, a statewide non-profit organization, uses the humanities—literature, history, philosophy, and culture—as a tool for positive change in Maine communities. Our programs and grants encourage critical thinking and conversations across social, economic, and cultural boundaries.

Vision

Maine communities transformed by the power and pleasure of ideas.

Equity & Inclusion

The Maine Humanities Council acknowledges that the humanities often privilege some groups over others, reflect our society’s structural racism, and define the contours of humanity in exclusionary ways.

The MHC has shifted our priorities in an effort to acknowledge and address the marginalization that exists in our culture and within the humanities. It is our hope that our shifts can begin to make amends for the ways we have knowingly or unknowingly reinforced oppressive systems and exclusion.

Read full Statement on Equity & Inclusion

Harriet P. Henry Center for the Book

An Affiliate of the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress

The Library of Congress (LOC) Center for the Book was established in 1977 to promote books, reading, libraries, and literacy. In 1997, the Maine Humanities Council established the Maine Center for the Book as a state affiliate of that program. It was renamed the Harriet P. Henry Center for the Book in 2003, in honor of Maine’s first female judge, a former Board chair of MHC and a longtime supporter of the humanities.

Learn More

public humanities prize holders

The Constance H. Carlson Public Humanities Prize is awarded to a Maine resident who has connected and empowered people in Maine through the public humanities.

Maya Williams

Portland Poet Laureate

For their powerful creation of safe spaces for discussion and art, whose leadership ensure that people engage with empathy, community, and understanding. 

Myron M. Beasley, PhD

Associate Professor, Bates College

For his innovative leadership in conversations around art, his care in connecting audiences, and the breadth and depth he brings to his creative projects. 

Staff

Samaa Abdurraqib

Executive Director
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Harper Batsford

Program Coordinator
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Genius Black

Digital Media Coordinator
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Karen Brown

Office Manager
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Diane Magras

Director of Development
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Marcela Peres

Operations Manager & Program Specialist
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Nicole Rancourt

Program Manager
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Meghan Reedy

Program Coordinator
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Lizz Sinclair

Program Coordinator
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Sampson Spadafore

Social Media Manager
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Kyle Volland

Program Coordinator
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Ian Watkins

Communications Manager
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Board of Directors

Paul Buck

Board Chair
St. Agatha

Martha Tod Dudman

Vice Chair
Northeast Harbor

Brendon Reay

Treasurer
Blue Hill

Joseph M. Hall

Secretary
Lewiston

Lucie Estabrook

Bangor

Ayesha Hall

Saco

Tam Thanh T. Huynh

Augusta

Ryan Lolar

Portland

Camden Martin

Auburn

John P. Moore

Yarmouth

Rosalani Moore

Verona Island

Mouhamédoul Niang