Words flutter at Word Festival

Words that are no longer in use on federal agencies’ websites flutter above attendees at the annual Word Festival opening on Oct. 23. Photo by Steele Hays.

By Steele Hays

BLUE HILL—Word Festival 2025 got underway Oct. 23 with an opening event at the Winings Gallery in Blue Hill featuring works of art inspired by the literary arts.  

As attendees mingled, talked, sipped wine and viewed paintings and other creative work on display, pages fluttered from wires overhead featuring more than 350 words and phrases that are not in current use on federal government websites, according to PEN America, an organization whose mission is to “celebrate creative expression and defend the liberties that make it possible,” according to its website.

The list of words includes “global warming,” “climate change,” “racial justice,” and “discrimination,” the organization says.

The word display was just one of a diverse range of featured creative works on the gallery walls. Jan Owen of Belfast, a calligrapher, contributed several works, including “The Mind’s Eye,” featuring colorful paper swatches with calligraphy, cut into faces and mounted into a spread (two facing pages) of an open book. 

Susan Webster and Stu Kestenbaum contributed a range of works, including two small collages featuring hand lettered free verse poetry intercut with colorful small images.