Malaga Island talk on April 4 is first 2017 A Capital Read event

AUGUSTA – The saga of the multi-racial community that settle on Malaga Island will be the topic of the first event in Lithgow Public Library’s annual community reading program, A Capital Read.

Kate McBrien of the Maine Historical Society and Joanna Torow of the Maine State Museum, will discuss, “Malaga Island, Fragmented Lives,” 6:30 p.m., Tuesday, April 4, in the library’s community room, 45 Winthrop St.

The talk is free and open to the public.

In 1912, the state evicted the multi-racial community that had formed on Malaga Island, off the coast of Phippsburg. Families scattered along the Maine coast, setting up homes where they could, while eight members of the small island group were institutionalized in the Maine School for the Feebleminded. McBrien and Torow will describe the people who created this unique island home and the political and economic events that led to their demise, according to a news release from the library.

A Capital Read is sponsored by Bangor Savings Bank and the Friends of Lithgow Library, in partnership with the Holocaust and Human Rights Center of Maine, Barnes and Noble, and the Augusta Civic Center.

Copies of “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,” this year’s title for the annual read program, will be available at Lithgow Library, Bangor Savings Bank Augusta locations, and The Holocaust and Human Rights Center at UMA, while supplies last.

All events for A Capital Read 2017 are free and open to the public. For more information, contact Lithgow Library at 626-2415 or visit lithgow.lib.me.us.