Chris Busby

RISE OF THE LOCALS The Holy Donut’s workers want a livable wage, safety and respect. Ownership wants to them to shut up By all outward appearances, The Holy Donut on Park Avenue in Portland checks every box for an acceptable eatery in a liberal East Coast town that the New York Times recently named one of the nation’s 10 “Best Small Cities for Big Careers.” Formerly charmless cinderblock building remodeled into a hip bakery? Check.

One thing that got me was the way 23-year-old Alma June’s hands fidgeted in the YouTube video while she sat in a control room and described how she fell in love with music as a lonely teen and got the chance to record her debut album with her band, The Persian Cats, in a professional recording studio in Falmouth last year. That this young woman from Portland was a little nervous was touching, because Alma June has the world at her feet and she doesn’t know it yet.

A Mainer who fled violence in Africa reflects on his abduction by ICE Paul is an asylum seeker who lives and works in Maine. His name is not Paul, but he wants to tell us his story, to warn us about what he’s experienced. Paul fears for his safety — here in Maine and, were he to be deported, in his home country — so his name and other identifying details, such as his nation of origin, have been omitted from this article.