FARMINGTON—The Emery Community Arts Center at the University of Maine at Farmington presents a series free, public events.

On Friday, Sept. 9, a concert on the lawn from dynamic musician Ruth Hill. A storyteller of the finest kind, her songs are packed with powerful imagery and beautiful melodies and have been described as compelling, charming and authentic. With an achingly clear voice, she delivers her own eclectic mix of folk, Americana, blues and bluegrass. Her moving original lyrics weave stories of her hardscrabble youth, teenage runaway years, working class upbringing, love, loss and the human yearning for transformation. The concert starts at 7 p.m. and features a cash bar. It follows the 5 to 7 p.m. opening reception for Jay Sawyer’s  “Sculpture Soup.”

Author Douglas Rooks presents a talk entitled “George Mitchell and the Clean Air Act of 1990” at 11:45 a.m., on Wednesday, Sept. 14. Learn how Mitchell, as U.S. Senate Majority Leader, overcame daunting obstacles to enact the most important environmental law of the global warming era, which now stands as the foundation for President Obama’s Clean Power Plan. Douglas Rooks is the accomplished author of the new biography “Statesman: George Mitchell and the Art of the Possible.”

On Thursday, Sept. 22, esteemed author and former Maine Poet Laureate Wesley McNair and current Maine Poet Laureate, Stuart Kestenbaum, will read from their work. McNair is an American poet, writer, editor and UMF Professor Emeritus. He has authored 10 volumes of poetry, most recently, “Lovers of the Lost: New & Selected Poems” and “The Lost Child: Ozark Poems.” A poet and longtime arts administrator, Stuart Kestenbaum has published four books of poetry. His latest, “Only Now,” came out in 2014.