Select Work
In my nine years as a reporter, this is the work I am most proud of; the work I think speaks to who I am as a storyteller.
They will survive: the community behind one of Maine’s last gay bars
Photo by Brianna Soukup
Beneath 20 disco balls, in the thick of fog and a crowd of sequins, rainbows, shimmer, ripped jeans and septum rings, Portland’s LGBTQ+ community celebrated the queer-bar Cocktail Mary’s last days at the base of Munjoy Hill.
Now, once again, a no-frills, warm, worn-in spot on the other side of town is the last capital-g Gay Bar in Portland — and among the last in the state.
The marquee signs from five of the city’s former gay bars line Blackstone’s walls and quietly tell the story of what Portland’s queer community has been through.
But how has Blackstones avoided what seems to be an inevitable fate?
“Blackstones is a second home for people who don’t have families of their own,” said longtime bartender Keith Bennett, eyes welling up with tears.
That’s the gas in the engine.
An unexpected protest
with a ‘moral of the story’
“UMaine-Farmington students block road to protest town’s fossil-fuel emissions,” Sun Journal, 2021.
Coverage of a protest at the local university, where four students blocked off one of Farmington's busier roads and thoroughfares to protest climate change and the town's fossil fuel emissions. The sit-in ended when police intervened after 15 minutes.
The sit-in raised discussion between participants, bystanders and other local activists about the most impactful ways to protest and instigate change.
An uninformed purchase
”Help! I bought a very large kayak and I have a very small car,” Village Soup, 2020.
First-person reporting, laced with humor and reflection, on the naivety that led to the purchase of a monstrous kayak way above my pay grade.