Craig Hickman

Organic farmer, chef, poet, and author, Senator Craig Hickman is the son of a Tuskegee Airman and a wise woman. Elected to the Maine Senate in 2021 after serving four terms in the Maine House of Representatives, Hickman is the first Black lawmaker in Maine’s history to serve in both chambers of the Legislature. Hickman is the original sponsor and author of the first-in-the-nation Right to Food amendment to the Maine Constitution, the first-in-the-nation Maine Food Sovereignty Act of 2017, and the Resolve to End Hunger in Maine by 2030.

Throughout his life and in his work, he has championed food rights, food sovereignty, food security, and other efforts to protect Maine’s small family farms and promote civil rights and rural economic development. He is also an adoptee with a long-standing commitment to improving the lives of both adult and minor adoptees.

Inspired by his father, a Tuskegee Airman, and his wise mother, both deceased, Hickman has spent most of his life serving his community, feeding people, and striving to bring people from all walks of life together in common purpose. His award-winning 2005 memoir, Fumbling Toward Divinity: The Adoption Scriptures, chronicles his search and reunion with his biological family.

Hickman is a National Poetry Slam Champion and the recipient of several awards, including a James Baldwin Award for Cultural Achievement, AIDS Action Committee Community Recognition Award, Spirit of America Foundation Award for altruistic service to the community, the Maine AFL-CIO Edie Bealieu Award for his commitment to workers, and an Angels in Adoption Congressional Award, nominated by United States Senator Angus King.

Originally from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Hickman moved to New England to attend Harvard University, where he graduated with a degree in government. He and his spouse, Jop Blom, own and operate Annabessacook Farm in Winthrop, where they raise organic produce, dairy, and livestock, sell products direct-to-consumers at their roadside farm stand, and host community gardens and a fresh food bank for anyone in need.