Tag Archives: youth

Interview: Pious Ali, “Public Servant at Large,” on activism, immigration, and empowering young people

Pious Ali tells people he is a “public servant at large.” Over the past decade, he has worked at PROP, organized a youth interfaith alliance, and won a seat on the Portland School Board.  Ali came to Portland from New York in 2002. Looking for work outside of restaurants, he got a job with PROP, […]

Ben-Gay tastes like pennies and other memories of Papa Ed Stover

“That little book, which I should not have looked at but am glad I did, revealed to me doddering old Papa, with his suspenders, socks pulled up to his knees, and puffy trucker hat barely resting atop his head, as an actual person, a human being. He thought about people and worried about things.” — […]

A chat with a 9-year-old water liberation activist

I met Luke Sekera-Flanders while interviewing his mother Nickie about her involvement with Burma activism a couple of years ago. He was 6 then and I knew him to be wonderfully smart, driven, and very funny. I recently caught a video of Sekera-Flanders at the Maine Public Utilities Commission, where he was testifying against the proposed […]