Why Dar Williams Thinks Festivals, Coffee Shops and Music Matter More Than We Think.

Carrie Jones

Jul 15, 2026

The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by Geddy’s.

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BAR HARBOR — What if the biggest challenge facing towns isn’t division, but forgetting what’s already working?

That’s a question Bar Harbor might delve into a bit this Saturday in a panel discussion led by award-winning musician Dar Williams.

Hendrik Hertzberg of The New York Times called Dar Williams “one of America’s best singer-songwriters.”

She’s that.

She’s more than that, too.

Williams has always defined easy categories. She’s an American singer-songwriter. She is an author. She’s folk. Sometimes she’s jazzy. Sometimes she’s pop. With multiple studio records and books in her resume, she’s also taught at Wesleyan.

Underneath it all, Williams has become a civic anthropologist, using music as a doorway into conversations about what makes towns flourish.

When she tours, she’s walked the towns, checked out the community, talked to people and observed.

“I would hit the main points and sing and that was it,” she said of how she used to share her observations.

That changed when someone in Beverly, Massachusetts, in real time, brought community leaders on stage with her. One chair hauled up after another. Then they all sat down.

And then?

And then they talked about what they were doing in the region.

“Everything I had done became so much more meaningful,” Williams said.

When people hear about other people in their community doing cool things, they realize that they are part of that, too. They think, “It’s not them. It’s us.”

The cool things and individual actions create an understanding of the good that exists already in a town or city.

“We’re doing cool things where we’re looking out for neighbors in need, where we’re planning for the future,” Williams said. Those moments become a collective identity, an identity that inspires others to action, too.

It’s not us vs. them.

It’s not just them.

It’s us.

“What I’m interested in is how people build networks and infrastructures so that the culture can grow on its own,” Williams said.

When Williams arrives at Hidden Barn Books in Bar Harbor before she heads to the Criterion Theatre this Saturday, she won’t be delivering a lecture. Instead, she’ll spend about twenty minutes sharing observations gathered from years of visiting communities around North America before inviting local leaders onto the stage—and then turning the conversation over to the audience.

“Town talks are an opportunity to look into a mirror we know is there but don’t seek out,” Williams said.

What matters in developing communities is that people have space to contribute, that they know (and the town knows) that their talents matter, and that they can become part of the solution. They can collaborate to make a community that thrives no matter what the pressures are within it or outside it.

“Just the word ‘collaborate’ excites the imagination more than ‘we have to work together.’” Williams said.

Williams says every community has people quietly doing extraordinary work. The challenge is making those efforts visible to everyone else.

“They remind us how much we love and care and work for our own communities,” she said.

That’s the idea behind the Town Talks: not simply to discuss problems, but to help neighbors recognize one another and to remember that their town is larger than any one challenge.

“They remind us how much we love and care and work for our own communities. Identity based projects that draw on culture, history, and local food, the more they’ll remember how cool they are. And the projects themselves, I believe, help people find each other in the commons so that when there’s a solution to be found in the commons, you already have your Rolodex,” Williams said.

Positive proximity or social truths can be addressed in three ways at a town talk:

1. People can discover one another.
2. They can show what’s going on.
3. They can help to raise civic self esteem and remind one another that they exist beyond their problems.

Typically, Williams said, people in the audience come in with questions and their own observations and projects. People are invited not to just observe but talk about how their own efforts have worked or not worked.

“It’s always been really special to hear,” she said.

It’s more than that though.

“It’s also a great opportunity for people to applaud the work of their neighbors,” Williams said.

She recalled how one woman at a meeting said, ‘“I never really thought to pause and thank my selectman for their hard work, but it’s amazing what you do.”

Another man, emotional and a bit shaken, told those gathered, “I’m the bad guy because I enforce environmental regulations.”

“The whole audience said you’re not the bad guy,” Williams said. “One person was in tears. People told him, “It really makes me emotional to know how important it is to thank you for your work, for what you do. We are very grateful.’”

That might happen at the town talk in Bar Harbor. It might not, but either way, Williams said, it is “a revelation when you understand how hard your neighbors are working for you.”

“So, town talks are kind of an opportunity to look in a mirror that we know is there but we don’t seek out,” Williams said. “It helps reassure people that people are looking out for them and they have an opportunity to contribute for themselves.”

It’s meant to be a space where people learn that their contributions are valued and there is space for them.

There is space for them, too.

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THE TOWN TALK EVENT

Hidden Barn Books will host the Town Talk Saturday afternoon ahead of Williams’ evening concert at the historic 1932 Criterion Theatre in Bar Harbor.

According to the press release, guests include:

• “Johannah Blackman is Executive Director of A Climate to Thrive, a decade-old nonprofit organization working around Mount Desert Island and, increasingly, across Maine to design, implement, and share decentralized, renewable energy solutions and climate resiliency initiatives.
• “Carrie Jones is a journalist, novelist and writing coach who founded and co-runs Bar Harbor Story, an innovative Substack digital newspaper providing reliable coverage of breaking news and community issues and updates in a shrinking media environment dominated by clickbait.
• “Puranjot Kaur is co-founder of Open Table MDI, a community hub in Bar Harbor dedicated to food security and connection. Through a weekly free vegetarian sit-down meal and takeout option, Open Table MDI works to inspire strong, loving, and inclusive communities by bringing people together to share in nourishing food.
• “John Zavodny is president of Maine Seacoast Mission. Since 1905, the Mission has supported Maine’s unbridged islands and Downeast coastal villages with health care, education, scholarships, food assistance, and community-building programs. The Mission is based in Northeast Harbor, Cherryfield, and on the 74-foot boat Sunbeam. Zavodny previously was chief of staff and a philosophy professor at Unity College.
• “Andy Revkin, panel facilitator, is a journalist covering sustainability issues for 42 years, mostly for The New York Times. Based in Maine since 2022, he is also a performing songwriter and a member of the boards of trustees of Bagaduce Music and ACTT.”

Disclosure: I am the Carrie Jones who will be at the panel on Saturday. I’m quite nervous. Come and say hi, okay?

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LINKS TO LEARN MORE

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/DZe16i2RLs0?rel=0&autoplay=0&showinfo=0&enablejsapi=0

Hidden Barn Books, Bar Harbor

Saturday, July 18, 1-2:30 p.m.

The reservation link is here.

Dar Williams at the Criterion Theatre begins at 7 p.m, Saturday, July 18. More information is here.

Dar Williams’ website

What I Found in a Thousand Towns

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