Glen Cummings, President of USM, Muralist Muhsana Ali and Paula Gerstenblatt, Social Work Professor at USM.

Amadou Kane, Ellen Bailey & Jan Piribecr, on the USM Art Department Faculty; the Latter Two are Residents of the East Bayside Neighborhood.

Greta Wlserman, an Art Student at Maine College of Art, Listened to Music Provided by the Moosestones.

Two USM Social Work Students & a Student in the School of Art at the Event.

By Carol McCracken  (Post # 2,623)

A crowd of friends and well-wishers of muralist Muhsana Ali & her husband Amadou Kane gathered late this afternoon to celebrate the completion of a community mural in the East Bayside section of Portland.

The gathering was at 89 Anderson Street where the couple from Senegal and their three children have stayed during part of their time in East Bayside.  Music was provided by the Moosestones.

They were here under the auspices of a USM Artists-in-Residence program.  The mural on the back wall of the Young’s Furniture store is composed of hundreds of household items supplied by East Bayside residents. The community mural was a joint project between the Art Department and the Social Work Department at USM.

The recent election of The Donald to be the next president and its possible ramifications for women and many others is still fresh on the minds of many voters.

Paula Gerstenblatt, a Social Worker Professor at USM and a Bernie supporter, blasted the Democratic National Party for its treatment of Bernie, saying that if he had been the nominee of the party, he’d be President Elect today rather than The Donald.  Gerstenblatt hopes that the DNC has learned a lesson as she acknowledged that she has never liked Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.  After a rant that continued in an angry tone and was an assault on the senses of the people around her,   she stormed off.  (See above left photo.)

In retrospect, it was an inappropriate tirade of bitterness in an otherwise delightful  party.  Was this a personal opinion or that of the USM administration who she was representing at the farewell party?