BANGOR – Nearly 50 people gathered Thursday night at the Unitarian Universalist Church on Park Street in Bangor to listen to the songs and teachings of Bo Lozoff, founder of Human Kindness Foundation and its Prison-Ashram Project. The foundation is a nonprofit whose purpose is to encourage more kindness in the world.

Lozoff, as part of his Prison-Ashram Project, has visited prisons around the country and spoken to thousands of inmates and prison guards. Lozoff said he has spent the last 20 months on the road, visiting more than 200 prisons and more than 150 churches, conducting concerts and spiritual talks.

While in Maine, Lozoff spoke at churches in Portland, Blue Hill, Ellsworth and Bangor, and at several prisons around the state. He was finishing his tour of Maine at the Belfast library Friday evening.

“I’m a cross between Mr. Rogers and the Dalai Lama to prisoners. They know I love them but I won’t take crap from them,” Lozoff said to the audience. “They know that I know they are good – I’m doing the same thing Fred was doing to another population.”

Lozoff said he teaches meditation to prisoners and encourages them to be “strong, kind, capable, calm and humble.”

The audience, encouraged to ask questions, was most curious about Lozoff’s prison work.

“Prisons are ugly places. Some people end up so desperate for change they are turning holy,” Lozoff said.

Sponsors for the event included Bangor Theological Seminary, Peace Action Maine, Maine Alternatives to Violence and the University of Maine Peace Studies Program.

For information about Lozoff’s work, visit www.humankindness.org.