About this Event
Join Stonecoast faculty member and writer Susan Conley, author Chelsea Conaboy, and actress and writer Victoria Rowell for a thoughtful conversation exploring the many dimensions of motherhood and womanhood.
Together, they will consider how motherhood is inherited, reimagined, and experienced across generations and cultures, and how identity, belonging, caregiving, creativity, work, and relationships shape our understanding of what it means to be a mother. They will also explore how writers and artists draw upon these experiences to make sense of their lives and tell stories that challenge and expand traditional narratives.
Moving beyond conventional ideas of motherhood, the conversation will explore the complexities and contradictions of care—including foster care, elder caregiving, grandparenting, and blended families—and the ways women navigate, redefine, and sometimes resist the expectations placed upon them. Through the lens of creative writing and storytelling, we’ll consider how personal experience becomes art, whose stories get told, and how writing can help us examine, question, and reshape our understanding of motherhood, womanhood, and ourselves.
Thursday, November 12 at 7:30 p.m. (doors open to the public at 7:00 p.m.). The event is $7 for Mechanics' Hall members, and $10 for General Admission. No one is turned away for lack of funds at the door.
ABOUT THE WRITERS
Victoria Rowell is an award-winning actress, New York Times bestselling author, international lecturer, teacher, advocate, mother, and foster youth advocate and sponsor. She holds two honorary doctorates and has been recognized by 193 members of Congress for her advocacy on behalf of education, the arts, foster and adoptive youth and parents, and diversity initiatives.
Her critically acclaimed memoir, 'The Women Who Raised Me,' published by HarperCollins, became a New York Times bestseller. This book is the basis for an upcoming possible movie and/or series. It is like nothing of its kind.
Rowell is an Emmy-nominated and NAACP Award-winning actress best known for co-starring opposite Dick Van Dyke in the long-running television series Diagnosis: M**der for eight seasons, as well as for her acclaimed work in daytime television as a long-time cast member on The Young and the Restless. She also earned Golden Globe consideration for her performance opposite Samuel L. Jackson in Home of the Brave.
Additional credits include Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, the holiday film Marry Me for Christmas, and the feature What Love Will Make You Do. Throughout her career, she has appeared alongside acclaimed actors including Jim Carrey, Eddie Murphy, Will Smith, Jeff Bridges, Samuel L. Jackson, Beau Bridges, and Forest Whitaker.
Victoria recently performed to astounding reviews in “Jason’s Lyric: Live”. This hit musical was the stage adaptation of Bobby Smith Jr.’s 1994 film widely regarded as a classic in Black homes, Rowell will star as Gloria, the maternal role originally played by the late Suzzanne Douglas.
Born in Maine, Rowell was raised on a 60-acre working farm, where she taught herself classical ballet from a book before eventually becoming a professional dancer. She performed with American Ballet Theatre II and several other professional ballet companies.
Rowell is the proud mother of two adult children, Maya and Jasper.
Susan Conley is the author of five critically acclaimed books, including her newest, best-selling novel Landslide, named a New York Times Book Review “Editor’s Choice,” a TODAY Show “Summer Read,” and a “Best Book” by Good Morning America, The New York Post, Medium, Bustle, Biblio Lifestyle and others. Her previous, best-selling novel, Elsey Come Home, was a “Best Book” at Oprah Magazine, Marie Claire, Pop Sugar, Huffington Post, Southern Living, Fodors and others, and was also an “Editor’s Choice” pick at Amazon. Her writing has appeared in magazines and journals including The New York Times Magazine, The Paris Review, Lithub, The Virginia Quarterly Review, and The Harvard Review. She’s been awarded multiple fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, as well as fellowships from the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, The Maine Arts Commission, and the Massachusetts Arts Council. She’s won the Maine Book Award and the Maine Award for Publishing Excellence and has been a featured Tedx Speaker, where her talk the “Power of Story,” has been viewed widely. She’s taught at colleges and international art-residencies including Emerson College, Colby College, The University of Massachusetts, as the Jack Kerouac Visiting Fellow, The Haystack School, The Spannochia Foundation, La Napoule Foundation, and The Beijing Hutong.
She lives in Portland, Maine, where she is the co-founder and prior executive director of the Telling Room, a youth creative writing lab that believes in the power of story to change lives and communities.
Chelsea Conaboy is a health and science journalist who started her career at the small but mighty Concord Monitor in New Hampshire, where she discovered her love for narrative writing. She wrote about health care at the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Boston Globe, and was part of the Globe staff that won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for breaking news, for coverage of the Boston Marathon bombings.
For three years, she led the features report at the Portland Press Herald in Maine, where she edited weekly sections on arts and entertainment, books, food, and sustainable living. Her writing also has been published by The New York Times, Mother Jones, Politico, the Boston Sunday Globe magazine, National Journal, The Week, ParentMap, and WBUR. She has been a fellow with the Poynter Institute, the National Library of Medicine, and the Health Coverage Fellowship led by writer Larry Tye.
'Mother Brain: How Neuroscience Is Rewriting the Story of Parenthood,' published by Henry Holt & Co., is her first book. The writing and reporting of Mother Brain was supported by a generous grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation’s Public Understanding of Science and Technology Program. Parts of Mother Brain were written in the cabins of the Hewnoaks Artist Residency. Chelsea lives in a 1920s bungalow near the ocean in Maine, where she gardens poorly and serves as a board member of the Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance. She especially enjoys assignments that allow me to work with her husband, the extremely talented photographer Yoon S. Byun.
PARKING & TRANSPORTATION
The Greater Portland Metro’s Congress & Casco Street Stop is directly in front of our building, served by routes 1, 7, 8, and 9B.
Street Parking: Available on Congress, Casco, Cumberland, Free Street, and nearby streets. Pay by meter or the Passport Parking App. Free after 6 PM, on Sundays, and between Parris and Alder Street. Some blocks may vary — look for posted signs.
Garages: The Arts District Garage (41 Brown St) has 250+ spaces, is open 24/7, and accepts credit card only, with entrances on Brown, Cumberland, and Casco. The Elm Street Garage (21 Elm St) is conveniently near the Portland Library. The Spring Street Garage is three blocks away at 45 Spring St.
ACCESSIBILITY
To enter our building, patrons will need to navigate a single step or use a modular ramp. Please note that the wheelchair ramp has a steep incline.
A wheelchair-accessible elevator is available. The elevator is 60" deep, 48" wide, with a 32" door opening. There are four wheelchair-accessible bathrooms on the third-floor level, adjacent to the Ballroom.
If you have a wheelchair or need accessibility accommodations/questions, please contact us at [email protected] or 207-773-8396.
Event venue & nearby stays
Mechanics' Hall, 519 Congress Street, Portland, United States
Concerts, fests, parties, meetups — all the happenings, one place.