Downeast Diversity Project
In July 2021, Downeast Diversity Project launched a monthly podcast entitled, “Downeast Diversity: Stories of People and Culture.” The platform provides an opportunity for the Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) Community in Maine, with a focus on Hancock and Washington counties, to do their own storytelling. This collection of stories will also serve as a record of the BIPOC community’s contributions to Maine Culture for generations to come.
Executive Producer Alyne Cistone Downeast Diversity builds each podcast episode around conversations and interviews that explore some of the challenges of minority experience, ways of finding, creating, and preserving community, and ultimately, how the presence and contributions of diverse peoples and cultures strengthen and enrich Maine.
By creating a space for Maine’s BIPOC community to share their stories, Cistone hopes that the podcast will serve as a document of a moment of Maine culture in transition: “…From ‘not knowing what we don’t know,’ to understanding that curiosity, empathy, and humility are part of a necessary path for healing and creating inclusive communities. Ultimately, the podcast is about listening and learning, asking questions, and recognizing the beauty of diversity in Maine.”
The podcast is hosted by Alyne Cistone, Founder and CEO of Global Tides Consulting, a Maine based Consulting Firm specializing in strategic support for the multicultural workspace for businesses and organizations, with co-host and associate producer Jacques Newell-Taylor, Founder of The Exercise Design Lab and developer of Neuro-Logic Training (N-LT).
Additional Downeast Diversity Project collaborators include Clara Baker, Community Outreach Consultant; Luke Labree, Creative Consultant and Associate Producer; and Charlie Parker, Project Fellow.
The Downeast Diversity Project was awarded a $5,000 startup grant in 2021 from the Maine Justice Foundation to support the initial launch of the podcast. Healthy Acadia serves as the 501(c)3 non-profit home for the project. With generous community support, we can continue to provide the opportunity for Maine’s BIPOC Community to share their stories.
Click here to donate to Downeast Diversity.
Learn more about the Downeast Diversity Project at www.downeastdiversity.com.
To contact Alyne Cistone, email alyne.cistone@healthyacadia.org.
Click here to listen to previous Downeast Diversity episodes
Downeast Diversity can also be heard on WERU Community Radio on the third Tuesday of each month, beginning at 4 p.m. during the News and Public Affairs hour. Click here
Community Events
Special thanks to Jason Brown and Donna Decontie Brown for helping to support the Downeast Diversity Project with “Indigenous 2021 with Firefly,” a live event held on October 10, 2021 at Neighborhood House in Northeast Harbor. Attendees and online viewers enjoyed creative and authentic visual and audio performances while learning more about Maine indigenous peoples and culture.
Missed this event? CLICK HERE view the recording.