BRATTLEBORO — The Vermont Humanities Council will bring two First Wednesdays talks to Brattleboro in February as part of its monthly First Wednesdays series.
On Wednesday, Feb. 6, at 7 p.m., at Brooks Memorial Library, UVM professor and lifelong Vermonter Frank Bryan will consider the cultural and historical impact of the Interstate Highway System on Vermont in his talk, “Concrete, Culture, and Community: The Impact of the Interstate Highway on Vermont.”
Bryan is the author of “Real Democracy: The New England Town Meeting and How it Works" and teaches in the Political Science Department at UVM.
On Monday, February 18 at First Baptist Church, New York Times Chief Washington Correspondent David Sanger will look inside the Obama Administration's management of global challenges in his talk, “Confront and Conceal: Obama's Secret Wars and Surprising Use of American Power.”
Sanger is author of “The Inheritance: The World Obama Confronts and the Challenges to American Power" (2010) and has twice been part of New York Times reporting teams honored with the Pulitzer Prize. (This talk is rescheduled from December.)
The Vermont Humanities Council's First Wednesdays series is held on the first Wednesday of every month from October through May, featuring speakers of national and regional renown. Talks in Brattleboro are held at Brooks Memorial Library unless otherwise noted. All First Wednesdays talks are free and open to the public.
Upcoming Brattleboro talks include “Giants: The Parallel Lives of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln” with Harvard professor John Stauffer on March 6; “What's Western about Western American Art?” with Amherst College professor Carol Clark on April 3; and “Frost and Wordsworth: Romantic Poetry in the Light of Common Day” with Vermont Poet Laureate Sydney Lea on May 1.
The Vermont Department of Libraries is the statewide underwriter of First Wednesdays. The 2012-2013 First Wednesdays series in Brattleboro is sponsored by Crosby-Gannett Fund of the Vermont Community Foundation.
Lectures at Brooks Memorial Library are sponsored by Brattleboro Savings & Loan, Downs Rachlin Martin PLLC, Friends of Brooks Memorial Library, New Chapter, Inc., The Vermont Country Store, and Windham World Affairs Council of Vermont.
For more information, contact Brooks Memorial Library at 802-254-5290.