LEWISTON – Photography and poetry by Lillian Baker Kennedy are being showcased at Willy Beans Café and Bistro, courtesy of L/A Arts. The show, titled “Homing the Light,” after a featured poem, will be up for several weeks.
An artist’s reception will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday, May 23, with a poetry reading at 7 p.m. Willy Beans is at Mill No. 6, 70 Lincoln St.
Kennedy is a part-time instructor at the University of Southern Maine at Lewiston-Auburn, where she teaches the course “Thinking About the Arts: Thinking Through the Arts.” She has been a volunteer poet curator for poetry/art exhibits at the Atrium Gallery and is an avid photographer.
Possibly one of the most obvious qualities of Kennedy’s photography is her sense of light – the play of light and shadow, the vagaries of distance, of fog, the play of sunlight and color. In her words, “Photography, as an alternative medium, allows for further exploration of silence and light.”
Images of Ireland and New Orleans, not focused on Hurricane Katrina, will hang in the front section of the café, while smaller images of various locations will adorn the wall of the newly opened back room.
“The space has clean lines with large windows, brick walls and bright, mustard-colored walls. Willy Bean’s offers the opportunity for different lines of sight for the photos,” Kennedy said. “The nature of the architecture is such that it should tolerate more abstract art and more diversity in the exhibit.”
“We’ve never had an artist so aware of the space before,” said Cheri Donahue, L/A Arts marketing director. “When Lillian suggested including two mounted poems, along with her photographs for the exhibit, it was an obvious step to invite her to do a poetry reading at the artist’s reception.”
Kennedy, author of “Tomorrow After Night” (Bay River Press, 2003) and “Notions” (Pudding House, 2004), practices law and lives in an old cape bordered by wild roses in Auburn.
In 2005, Cider Press Review nominated her poem “The Red Radio-Flyer Wagon” for a Pushcart. Her poetry has been anthologized, exhibited and published in numerous small print presses nationwide. She co-edited and co-published “A Sense of Place, Collected Maine Poems” (Bay River Press 2002).
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