The Maine Public Broadcasting Network (MPBN) and the League of Women Voters of Maine (LWVME) announce that they are partnering on two free public screenings of Park Avenue:  Money, Power and the American Dream, a provocative film about wealth, poverty and political power in the United States. The screenings take place on Saturday, March 9th from 1:30 pm to 3:00 pm in two Maine locations, Portland and Bangor.

 Academy Award-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney (Taxi to the Dark Side, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room) presents his take on the gap between rich and poor Americans.  Gibney contends that America’s richest citizens have “rigged the game in their favor,” and created unprecedented inequality in the United States.  The film notes that while income disparity has always existed in the U.S., it has accelerated sharply over the last 40 years.

Award-Winning Poet Marianne Baruch to Read at University of Southern Maine in Portland at 7pm on March 13, as part of USM's 2012-13 Reading Series.

Boruch is the author of seven poetry collection, including The Book of Hours (Copper Canyon Press, 2011), Grace, Fallen from (Wesleyan University Press, 2008), and A Stick that Breaks and Breaks (Oberlin College Press, 1997). She is the author of the memoir The Glimpse Traveler, about a hitchhiking trip she made in 1971. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, Poerty Lonon, Best American Poetry, and elsewhere. She's been awarded Pushcart Prizes and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. A new collection of poetry, Cadaver, Speak (Copper Canyon Press) is forthcoming. Currently, Boruch teaches at Purdue University and Warren Wilson's low-residency MFA.