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Articles by Zoe Bernardi
The Artist & Their Muse
Image courtesy of Kyle Mercier By: Zoe Bernardi, Community Editor As we near the end of the semester, the USM Art Gallery begins to put together the Juried Art Show.
Jordan Carey Uplifts Community with Local Fashion
By: Zoe Bernardi, Community Editor The once “same hoodie everyday kinda guy” suddenly took a leap into the fashion world, but with a little bit more of a punch. Jordan Carey graduated in 2019 from Maine College of Art (MECA) with a BFA in Textile and Fashion Design. His senior thesis was the start of the Loquat Shop, which has now become his own business located in Portland.
A night with Meddy Bemps - frenetic music and 1970s film at the Apohadion in Portland
The outside of the Apohadion in Portland // Nora Devin - Director of Photography As you drive down Hanover Street you will first notice the huge and usually busy Bayside Bowl, yet as you look around your eye will catch another interesting sight, a large maroon mural with orange flowers. The building the mural lives on is the small Portland theater: The Apohadion. This theater is one large rectangle, you walk in through a curtain, pay a fee then continue into the room.
Feeling grateful and thankful - A reflection on the fall semester
Happy Hanukkah from Zoe & her sister. Photo courtesy of her mother. This semester has brought a lot of small joys for everyone. From being able to meet people for breakfast in the dining hall, to choosing a seat in a classroom. The joys of meeting new people and reconnecting with old friends. Even studying in the library and inviting people over to hang out. These small joys are just the tip of the iceberg on what students are grateful for this semester.
The holiday season is around the corner - Local places to give back to and help out
Preble Street in Portland. Nora Devin / Director of Photography The holiday season is a mixture of many things: gift exchanges, dinner parties, fresh fallen snow, and “winter wonderland” getting stuck in your head at all hours. It is also the time to give back. Unfortunately a lot of people are not excited about the holiday season, as it might bring up harsh topics and political tension. Some might not have a safe home to stay in, or warm food to eat.
Random Acts of Kindness are Happening all Around - Upcoming Projects to Spread Joy
The Hope Garden is located at Deering and Bedford across from the Law school. Photo courtesy of Sam Perry Random acts of kindness can be the smallest thing, such as paying it forward at the coffee shop, or complimenting someone on their outfits, or even larger as planting a garden and picking up garbage on the beach. At USM, three new acts of kindness projects have been created this Fall semester.
Urban Farms Fermentory - On Capturing the Season in a Glass
As you approach the large green building, the words Urban Farms Fermentory remind you where you are. Just past the bright orange tree that is slowly losing its leaves lays a spread of picnic tables and a white fence. You enter a large space adorned with string lights and dried flowers and plants. Starting in 2010, Urban Farms Fermentory in Portland was created by owner Eli Cayer from Madawaska, ME.
The Outdoor Adventure Board - Go for a Hike, Catch Some Fish, & Hit the Slopes
One of OAB most popular trip is white water rafting. Photo courtesy of Outdoor Adventure Board Tucked in a small office within Sullivan Sports Complex lays a door adorned with various stickers from many adventures and history of the Outdoor Adventure Board, or OAB. Reborn from the original club called S’more or Southern Maine Outdoor Recreation, which was a 20 year club that was funded by the students per trip and advised by the Sullivan Sports Complex.
Jam Sessions, Jazzy Tunes & New Friends
Bailey Giles and Isla Swanson with their instruments at Blue Jazz Bar. / Nora Devin, Director of Photography By Zoe Bernardi, Community Editor The red walls and dim lighting of Blue Jazz bar in Portland are just enough to see the scattered tables adorned with flickering tea candles and people. Once you enter the space the murmur of instruments getting tuned and glasses clinking are paired together with musicians and viewers exchanging hellos and chatting about the unfolding events.
A Piece of Home - Making the Dorm Room Your Own
Gabby Martin & her leopard plush, gifted to her by her boyfriend. Kyle Mercier / Staff Photographer This Fall semester will be the first time that many students have the opportunity to have roommates and be on campus, even as second years. Last year, students spent the majority of their time in their dorm rooms. They acted as kitchens, study rooms, classrooms and places to relax and sleep.
Big Cryer - being strong can involve some tears
Everyone needs a good cry every once in awhile / Kelly Ledsworth Design Director As I entered my senior year and final fall semester, I found myself grunting as I saw the email notification on my phone to see that my professor in my Honors capstone class had assigned homework before the first class. The true sign that the year has started and to bust out the planner and dust off google docs, as I should probably restart my organizational skills.
What are ya bored? - Places to go & people to see : off campus events
So much more to do and see now that we are able to leave campus. / Kelly Ledsworth, Design Director Now that we are back on campus and finding the rhythm of actually having to go to class rather than rolling out of bed, we want to do things again. Such as going off campus seeing things outside of our bedroom walls. So below, a list has been constructed. Things to see, people to meet and places to eat. So rather than fiddling around and twirling those thumbs, go out and live again.
Reflecting on the best classes of past semesters - The class of 2021 take a glance back
Take a glance back on all of your past semesters / Kelly Ledsworth, Design Director As we creep up to the last moments of this 2020-2021 school year, we push as we finish up the last of our assignments, click “join zoom” for the final times and begin to cross off the projects, tests, and finals we have listed on our planners. The burnout feeling has been lingering for just a tad too long.
Earth Day should be Everyday - A brief history + current events on 2021 Earth Day
Happy Earth Day! Kelly Ledsworth / Design Director Today, April 22, is Earth Day. The day on which our Instagram feed is filled with images of the best sunsets, hikes, and waterfalls that we keep in our camera rolls. The day where we choose to eat vegan and bike to work. The day we all try our very best to be kinder to the earth.
Checking out the Feminist Bookshelf - Past Newsletters, Papers, and Organizations Giving Voices to the Feminist Movement
Mi’maq Rosie the riveter. Kelly Ledsworth / Design Director Happy Women’s History Month. As we enter the month to honor the bold, powerful women of the 21st century, it is important to feature stories and platforms that showcase women of color, the queer community, and anyone who identifies as a woman.
Small Space Depression - Break the Funk, Go for a Walk & Clean your Room
Welcome to the first third of the semester, as students enter their seventh week of the Spring semester, we all sort of fall into this funk. Winter is straggling on, despite what the groundhog said, and the cool winds of Maine make it bitter to be outside. This causes students to be stuck inside their rooms, dorms, apartments, and family homes for days and days on end.
From the Civil Rights Movement to Black Lives Matter - How Nicole d’Entremont time in the Selma Marches changed her outlook
Nicole d’Entremont in the Lower East side NYC circa 1960s / Photos curtesy of Nicole d’Entremont The month of February is filled with many celebrations and events, however, all 28 days are notably commendable for Black History Month. The month is a platform for educating, celebrating, remembering, and honoring the African American community. With the current political movement that is Black Lives Matter (BLM), it is even more important to come together and educate yourself.
Checking in on the Freshman - what are their goals and expectations of this Spring semester?
Atwood & Belanger in Portland. Photo curtesy of Bri Atwood. Welcome to the end of the third week of our COVID-19 Spring semester, where many students are still hunkering down and creating a new schedule and routine for themselves. Seniors are probably freaking out about it being three months until graduation, the juniors are hoping the vaccine saves their senior year, and the sophomores are getting deja vu as we also hit the one year anniversary of the pandemic beginning.
Will you be my Valentine? How COVID-19 has changed dating and the celebration of lovers’ day.
Happy Valentine's Day! On the left is Karalyn & her boyfriend Dean, and on the right is Johana & her boyfriend Marcos! As the stores fill up with bags of pink and red candy, and flower sales are increasing we enter our next big holiday after Groundhog’s Day. Give a round of applause for Valentine’s Day. The holiday surrounds love and appreciation of others.
Walk down memory lane, Free Press Staff share old photos
The Free Press wishes everyone a safe and healthy Thanksgiving this year! You can read more about what will be on our holiday menus here. While this year families might do zoom calls and smaller gatherings, the traditions of asking about the current, watching movies and football, are still alive. Take a walk down memory lane as The Free Press staff share some old photos of their youth.
Gather Around the Table - Free Press Staff Share What’s on the Menu
Happy Thanksgiving, this year we have to be extra grateful for what we have, and for those, we surround ourselves with. In this new normal of socially distant meals, we are relying on smaller dinner parties and more facetime calls. Staying in touch with those you care about and checking in to let them know they are loved. USM will be closed from the 25th until students return in January. Returning home for the holidays will start the warm seasons of holiday cheer and celebration.
Protecting Your Happiness & How to Cultivate Joy
Nora Devin / Director of Photography. So buckle up, get back in your car, and go forward. With the start of the holiday season beginning next week, students will be placed in the spotlight. Having to recall the joys and challenges of being at college during a pandemic. However, as we go back to the homes and begin to follow the rules of the roof we are under, protecting your happiness is more important than ever.
A Sunny Saturday To Remember Forever. Healing 2020
Zoe Bernardi / Community Editor. Within the streets of Portland joy and happiness filled as we gain back power! These past few months have been solemn for many. Joy doesn’t come as it used to and more. It feels like stress fills our heads and thoughts more than we’d like to admit. This week especially, with the election on Tuesday, I know my friends and I sat in our common spaces continuously refreshing our screens. Tracking the states and listening to various radio stations and TV broadcasts.
Keep in touch! Is there a “correct” way to maintain friendships?
Kelly Ledsworth / Design Director Long-distance friendships/relationships used to mean two people staying in touch who are separated by the distance of living in two states, attending different universities, or hours away from each other. Yet in light of the pandemic, long-distance friendships can mean two people living in the same town that are unable to see each other due to social distancing rules and fear of passing COVID-19.
Community or Immunity? How freshman balance making friends and staying safe
Cullen McIntyre / Editor-in-chief. Students spread out across Brooks Dinning Hall to socialize and meet new friends. One of the many fears students have coming back to school this pandemic season is, how will this semester compare to all of those before? As upperclassmen try to settle into their new schedules, adapt to a routine foreign to them, and far different from before.
Totally remotely stressed! Does less time on campus mean more time to fill?
Riley Peterson / Staff Photographer. Evan Kenefic studying in his dorm room in Gorham. (Hopefully he isn't too stressed!) Since moving to online classes from being in-person in early March, people have been adding more and more to their already busy lives. Since we are mostly working and taking classes online, we must have more time to fill the extra space we have and have more time on our hands.
Campus blues - spaces are now all-purpose rooms
Nora Devin / Director of Photography. Student Hunter Johnson walks through Woodbury Campus Center. By: Zoe Bernardi, Community Editor As students crawl out of their childhood homes for the first time in months, holding on to the fleeting moments of their strange and distanced summers, they enter into a realm of Zoom university. How have their personal spaces become all-purpose rooms? USM has opened up its campus.
The pandemic of loneliness - is it a bad time to make new friends?
Nora Devin / Director of Photography. Roommates Bailey and Isla go out to Peaks island to spend time together. By: Zoe Bernardi, Community Editor The Pandemic of loneliness, COVID-19 has lingered longer than expected. It bleeds into the back to school season, and already dreaded time. Everyone must be there doing a part in trying to stay safe, looking out for those who are at risk, and ensuring they aren’t passing the virus to others. People miss people.
Things have changed, I have a lot of time to think these days
Zoe with Friends Elaine & Megan in an empty pool. Zoe Bernardi / Community Editor By: Zoe Bernardi, Community Editor The further we slip into the fourth month of this pandemic lockdown, the more I lose myself in my thoughts. Each month, a new wave of emotions and ideas flood my head. The fact that four months ago I was laughing with new friends, sipping wine and exploring the streets of Italy now seems like a fever dream. The photos on my phone from that time don’t feel real.
Juneteenth: USM continues its endeavors to ‘root out racism’
Zoe Bernardi / Community Editor By: Zoe Bernardi, Community Editor & Asha Tompkins, Editor-In-Chief Political uprisings sprout out across the nation and in the city of Portland in order to eradicate racism in the United States. June 19, “Juneteenth,” takes its place in the spotlight.
Adventures in Europe
Photo courtesy of Zoe Bernardi Zoe standing at the Piazza Michelangelo in Florence. By: Zoe Bernardi, Columnist Ciao! Another week, another big change in my life. Last week Italy was in a level two stated by CDC, and overnight it was pushed to a level three. To which UMaine and the risk management team held many meetings to decide what to do. UMaine chose to pull all programs from Italy and other countries that had a level 3 for coronavirus.
Adventures in Europe
Gill Mitreuter / Contributor By: Zoe Bernardi, Columnist Ciao! I think the first thing that needs to be discussed is my take on the coronavirus. Hysteria and false media have taken over every single study abroad student and their mother. People are relying on word of mouth and false news headlines to determine their fate. Rather than looking at factual information and using common sense. I am trying to stay smart and understand how to keep myself healthy and safe.
Portland gift guide map
By: Zoe Bernardi, Community Editor As the holiday season approaches, the sudden urgency rushes to everyone wondering the same thing, “What am I going to gift?” This question is repeating, occurring year after year and for everyone on our list. One of the best parts of the holiday season is gift giving. Having those gift exchanges with a big group of friends, giving your sister the necklace she keeps talking about, the overall joy the season brings.
The holiday and winter playlist for all occasions
By: Zoe Bernardi, Community Editor As we exit November and finish eating all the leftover Thanksgiving turkey and mashed potatoes, we enter December. Every radio station has now transformed into Christmas music. Some people can listen to holiday music all year round, or hear the same songs repeat even when you switch channels.
Where are they now?
By: Zoe Bernardi, Community Editor It’s 1983. Microsoft Word is a new invention. President Ronald Reagan is serving in office. Ed Barks graduated from USM with a degree in Political Science and a minor in Economics. Barks, originally from New Britain, Connecticut and was the first person in his family to graduate college. He says he didn’t follow the “typical path.” Rather than jumping into college after graduating from high school, Barks decided to work. He worked in radio broadcasting at WBLM.
Falling for fall
Illustrations by Kate Rogers / News Editor By: Zoe Bernardi, Community Editor As the fall months approach us, and the leaves turn to shades of orange, yellow and brown when the air turns crisp and summer fades into autumn, we have to change our paces.
Where’s Glenn? - USM Free Press
Dakota Tibbetts / Design Assistant By: Zoe Bernardi, Community Editor President Cumming’s October Schedule OCTOBER: Week of October 7 Arctic Assembly Meeting, Reykjavik, Iceland President Cummings is leading a delegation of faculty, staff and students to meet with leaders from around the globe. Thursday, October 17 Guidance Counselor Lunch, South Paris 12 noon President will be meeting with guidance counselors in that region to discuss what’s new at USM.
QC2 Lab and Maine Brewers’ Guild team-up in summer internship
Enodi Lohomboli/ Staff Photographer By: Zoe Bernardi, Community Editor Over the summer, four students started an ongoing project with testing local beer and its chemical content when new ingredients were added into the recipe. This internship allowed Kristi Hanscom, Scott Eugley, Zach Rohman and Gabby Hamm to work closely with the Maine Brewers Guild and the USM Quality Control Collaboratory Laboratory (QC2 lab).
What did you do over the summer?
By: Zoe Bernardi, Community Editor How did USM student spend their summer break? Here are four students who shared what they did to fill their time. Over the summer, USM student Alexis Riordan worked at Yogibo in Kittery. Riordan, a sophomore from South Berwick, is studying history education and psychology. She spent her days allowing people to test out various types of bean bags and bean bag related furniture. She was highly educated on the types and different products at Yogibo.
Summertime playlists for June
By Zoe Bernardi, Community Editor Music is a great way to set a summertime mood. My friends and I like to make a monthly playlist to share music while we enjoy time together. Each month we find songs that are good for driving, dancing and hanging out. These tunes are for people who vibe with alternative, pop, and mellow music that really set the tone and complement the experience. Dance music must be upbeat and make you want to groove It needs a strong beat that makes you turn up the song loud.
A journey from Portland, ME to Reykjavik, Iceland
A journey from Portland, ME to Reykjavik, Iceland By Zoe Bernardi, Lifestyle Editor Part one of the travel reflection From May 13 to May 31, I took Honors 195, which was a travel abroad class that went to Iceland for 6 days. Throughout the first week of the course, we went on daily excursions around Portland. We learned how to take in our surroundings and write about what we saw. We were assigned class readings that related to our excursions.
A journey from Portland, ME to Reykjavik, Iceland: part 2
By Zoe Bernardi, Lifestyle Editor Part two of the travel reflection After my week in Portland, my class and I flew from Boston’s Logan Airport on Saturday to Iceland. We went right into our full day in Iceland. Our days were long, packing many things into one day, spending time in nature and two days in Reykjavik. We had a tour guide named Oli that taught us about the geothermal history of the land, history of vikings and the Icelandic politics.
Bee population threatened by land use and climate change
Graphic by Lauren McCallum / Design Director By Zoe Bernardi, Staff Writer New England bee populations are quickly decreasing due to factors like climate change, pesticides and land use. According to a study done by the University of New Hampshire, more than a dozen wild bee species are decreasing in population, affecting the pollination of blueberries and apples across New England.
Student Poetry: My Mother’s Kitchen
By Zoe Bernardi, Staff Writer Above me, she carefully walks around the white and blue flowered floor our soil, where we are grounded, our meals the nutrients. In my purple pleather chair, my hands stick to the brown table Ply the play doh, salty blue, green, and purple carefully mold it in many balls and shapes, blend blue and pink to make purple.
Greek Life future faces debt and housing ordinances
Photo courtesy of USM Digital Commons By Zoe Bernardi, Staff Writer USM fraternities and sororities have spent nearly ten years strengthening their reputation. In 2010, Gorham banned all fraternities and sororities houses, resulting in ordinances and zoning codes that restrict Greek life housing. This ordinance put a restriction on current and future Greek life houses in both Gorham and Portland.
USM students practice their drag performances
Photo by Berkeley Elias, Staff Photographer USM students practiced their drag performances to prepare for the "Royal Majesty Drag Show" held in March in Portland. Posted on February 10, 2019 in Arts & Culture By USM Free Press Photo by Berkeley Elias, Staff Photographer Deborah V. Egan, one of three students performing last week in USM's first drag show in Gorham in over ten years.
After graduation plans: Are you staying in Maine?
Posted on February 06, 2019 in Community By USM Free Press By Zoe Bernardi, Staff Writer One of the many questions that comes with graduating college is: Where are you going to go? This week, the Free Press asked USM students, “Are you going to stay in Maine after graduation?” Over 50 percent of the students surveyed, a total of 11 out of 18, said that they do not want to stay in Maine after they graduate, many want to leave and explore new states and cities.
USM offers help to community during shutdown
Photo by Dionne Smith, Director of Photography Posted on January 29, 2019 in Community By USM Free Press By Zoe Bernardi, Staff Writer The effects of the 34 day long government shutdown, which is currently in a three week break, can be seen throughout the country. President Trump’s veto on the budget that did not include funding for a border wall, caused the shutdown. The only way to lift the veto is for congress to gets two thirds of the house in a congress with a republican majority.
Margo Halverson’s photos on display in Glickman
"If I Had Known," an exhibit by Margo Halverson, a professor from the Maine College of Art, is on display on the fifth floor of Glickman Library, featuring 45 photographs shot with an iPhone. The newest exhibit at Glickman Library features an iphone photography series by local artist Margo Halverson, a professor at Maine College of Art (MECA) in the graphic design program. In the exhibit called “If I had Known,” Halverson’s artist statement reads, “Moments are up for grabs.
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