Roots & Routes — November 18, 2026

Oakland, 2010 · we have been doing this a while

One Night · Portland, Maine

Roots &
Routes

A one-night celebration of Maine’s creative community, presented by A Thousand WordZ to launch the A to Z Fund. Live music, spoken word, work on the walls, and two painters making something in the room while it happens.

When

Wednesday
November 18, 2026

General admission, with reduced-price artist and student tickets and a pay-what-you-can option. Nobody is turned away. Every dollar past the cost of producing the evening seeds the Fund.

Live at Madrid’s · 144 Fore Street · Portland

The Program

Four things happening at once

Two rooms. Mixed genres. Nothing staying in its lane.

Live Music

Two sets on one shared stage, the way ATW has always done it: Finestkind and Marc Chillemi’s Bebop Agogo, with more to be announced.

Spoken Word

Maya Williams, Portland’s seventh Poet Laureate, plus featured poets and an open mic for the voices already in the room.

Work On The Walls

An exhibited show in the second room, alongside two painters creating live across the night.

Documented

Professional photo and video, so the night carries past the night.

The gallery room from above: seated audience, art on the walls, a band on stage

A musician in an A Thousand WordZ shirt playing a drum machine in the crowd

People talking in front of large colorful paintings

A full room of people between the paintings and the stage

A singer performing under purple stage light

A Thousand WordZ at the Noodle Factory, Oakland, 2010 · Photographs by Bethanie Hines and SooozhyQ

What The Night Is For

Portland’s nonprofit arts organizations generate $86 million in economic activity and support 1,872 jobs. The artists who built that are being priced out of the places they made worth visiting.

Roots & Routes exists to start doing something about that. This is not a one-time grant — it is the beginning of a durable fund for working Maine artists, held and administered by partners who do this well.

The theme is the one ATW has been asking artists to answer all year: place, migration, and belonging. Where did you come from? Where have you landed?