The Vermont Jazz Center will present Cyrus Chestnut in a trio concert on Saturday, Oct. 19, at 8 p.m.
Called the best pianist of his generation by Time magazine, Chestnut will appear with his current trio, featuring bassist Eric Wheeler and drummer Evan Sherman.
Chestnut's repertoire is vast, varied, and deep. His superb original compositions, his soulful connection to the African-American gospel tradition, and his extraordinary technique have earned him the highest regard from both his peers and jazz aficionados from around the world.
VJC says in its program announcement that a concert by the Cyrus Chestnut Trio “is a breathtaking event: those in attendance will be privy to a manifestation of talent and intention, an experience that crystalizes the potential of the highest level of musicianship, craftwork and heart within the jazz tradition.”...
The Brattleboro Area Prevention Coalition (BAPC) thanks the 17 businesses that participated in the Responsible Beverage Service Trainings that were held in September and co-sponsored by the Department of Liquor Control. BAPC recognizes the important role that local retailers and restaurants play in preventing underage drinking. Thirty-two employees of...
Our Place Drop-in Center is collecting bowls and auction items for its 16th annual Empty Bowl dinner and auctions, to be held Sunday, Nov. 3 at Alyson's Orchard in Walpole, N.H. This year's soup supper features a live auction with auctioneer Sharon Boccelli and an array of winnables such...
Windham County Republican Committee to meet BRATTLEBORO - The Windham County Republican Committee will hold a reorganizing caucus on Wednesday, Oct. 16, at 7 p.m., at the Brattleboro Savings & Loan Community Room. Delegates recently elected by their town committees will meet to elect county officers and state committee delegates. Positions to be filled are county chair and secretary, as well as members and alternates, if needed, to the state committee. Republican voters of Windham County who are not Town...
Town workers questioned the Selectboard on Oct. 2 on insurance coverage made available under newly enacted health care reform, and learned that they are free to choose their own carrier and plan. They'll also keep receiving town funding at a rate they had been receiving before the Affordable Care Act took effect Oct. 1, and will have a town-funded broker to help them make the most of Vermont Health Connect, the state's new health exchange. These actions bring no additional...
Latchis Arts invites the community to a grand re-opening benefit at the Latchis Theatre in downtown Brattleboro. The event on Saturday, Oct. 19 marks the public's first glimpse of the renovations that have taken place since the theater was closed for construction Aug. 1. Ken Burns, long-time friend of the Latchis, will celebrate the re-opening by screening the fifth episode (1933-1939), The Rising Road, of “The Roosevelts: An Intimate History.” Burns' appearance at the grand re-opening is a benefit for...
Births • In Brattleboro (Memorial Hospital), Sept. 14, 2013, a daughter, Sophia Stevi Nadeau, to Schavon (Newton) and Josh Nadeau of Brattleboro; granddaughter to Bonnie and Gary Newton of Vernon, and Victoria and the late Steve Nadeau of Vernon. Transitions • The AIDS Project of Southern Vermont has three new members joining its Board: Geoff Burgess, Ricky Davidson, and Robert Glennon, all of Brattleboro. Burgess has taught for 25 years at Landmark College in Putney and is the chair of...
The Actors Theatre Playhouse 2013 season draws to a close with a Halloween-ish treat - a staged reading of Irish playwright Martin McDonagh's 2005 Tony-nominated play, “The Pillowman.” James Gelter, Jim Maxwell, Mark Bateman, and Ian Mahoney star. Ben Stockman directs. Performances are Saturdays, Oct. 19 and 26, at 7:30 p.m. Staged readings have been part of the Actors Theatre Playhouse's programming for many seasons. In them, the actors sit at a table and perform with script in hand. This...
With the leaves turning color, the forests of Bonnyvale Environmental Education Center are ready to bestow their lessons to all who are willing to look - and listen. There are changes in store for BEEC's Forest of Mystery. Performances of this year's play - Friday, Oct. 25, and Saturday, Oct. 26 - are under new leadership, as Jessica and Jay Gelter take the director's reins from Michael Nethercott, who is promoting his new novel. This year's Forest of Mystery play...
In the absence of a federal budget bill to keep the government running, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is stripping down to a skeleton crew. More than 90 percent of nuclear regulators nationwide were furloughed late last week. “Only about 300 of the normal 3,900 NRC staffers will stay on the job until the shutdown is over,” NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said in a statement. “Our Resident Inspectors assigned to each operating nuclear power plant will be among those who...
I thank everyone, from California to Maine, who wrote letters and spoke to me privately in support of my appointment to the Rockingham Free Public Library Board of Trustees on Oct. 2. I also thank those who commented so positively on my recent column [“What happens when a library loses its spirit,” Sept. 25]. Their letters and messages of support were not only moving and validating, they also show that the community cares deeply about our library as we move...
The Brattleboro Museum & Art Center's (BMAC) sixth annual Lego Contest & Exhibit is set for the weekend of Oct. 25. This year's event is open to Lego enthusiasts of all ages, with prizes awarded for creativity and craftsmanship in seven age groups. Prizes also will be awarded for best in show, best architectural design, best use of moving parts, best title, best diorama, and best space-themed creation. In a new offering this year, the school sending in the most...
On Sunday, Oct. 20, at 3 p.m., the Brattleboro Music Center presents a recital with faculty members Richard Ullman, guitar, and guest Kristen Carmichael-Bowers, voice, at Centre Congregational Church, 193 Main St. For this recital, Ullman revisits some of his favorite pieces from Spanish composer Andrés Segovia's repertoire. Segovia, considered the father of modern classical guitar, is credited with popularizing classical guitar music. Also on the program, Carmichael-Bowers joins Ullman for the performance of several beautiful English folksongs; an American...
We are lucky to live in a small community where individuals and groups volunteer their time and energy to make this place better. Differences of opinion and alternate methods for solving problems are inevitable, but for the greater good, we usually find ways to compromise and, in so doing, listen to and treat one another with respect. We're neighbors. We often know one another's families. We see one another in stores, on the streets, and at local events. Because ours...
The Brattleboro Colonels were eliminated from the Division I football playoffs last Friday night with a 30-14 loss to the Colchester Lakers. The 2-5 Lakers were also battling to keep their slim playoff hopes alive, so both teams were playing with a sense of urgency. Colchester had a 23-7 lead on the Colonels, but quarterback Kyle Patno threw for his second touchdown pass of the night, to make it 23-14 at the half. Colchester had a decided advantage in both...
The Brattleboro Museum & Art Center (BMAC) is accepting submissions for the 2014 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, a prestigious national recognition initiative for teenagers with exceptional artistic and literary talent. Vermont students in grades 7-12 are invited to submit art and writing entries in 28 categories, including comic art, ceramics and glass, digital art, architecture, painting, photography, video game, poetry, humor, dramatic script, science fiction, and personal essay/memoir. “We believe the world needs both makers and breakers: those committed...
Kingdom County Productions and the Brattleboro Retreat present the Vermont tour of “The Hungry Heart,” a new documentary film on prescription drug addiction and recovery in Vermont. Just off a sold-out premiere in St. Albans and the Flynn Theater in Burlington, the film plays Wednesday, Oct. 23, at 7 p.m. at the Latchis Theatre. “The Hungry Heart,” produced by Kingdom County Productions and directed by Bess O'Brien, provides an intimate look at the oft-hidden world of prescription drug addiction through...
Entergy Corp.'s newly amended petition to run the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant past its initial 40-year licensing period is giving the Vermont Department of Public Service pause. Chris Recchia, commissioner of the department, said there are two main moves his team is considering. “The options are to support it with conditions or oppose it unless there are conditions,” he said. For more than a year, Entergy has been embroiled in the process of applying for a new permit to...
Every family has one. The black sheep, the misfit, the weird uncle no one wants to talk about. In the Human family, Neanderthal Man takes this role. For years, we denied that we were related. He wasn't an ancestor, just an “evolutionary dead end.” Then the DNA test came back. We are all descended from Neanderthal Man, whether we want to admit it or not. * * * Neanderthals are commonly depicted as dimwitted cave dwellers. I can't help thinking...
Christ's Church invites you to join it in helping to make a difference toward world peace through participation in its upcoming series on peacemaking and the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. The church's four-Wednesdays series, “Making a Difference in a World of Difference,” features guest peace builders from a variety of organizations and perspectives who will share their stories. The first session, which explores the work of building peace, is set for Oct. 23 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Subsequent sessions are Nov.
Thank you to all who helped to make the Overflow the Opera House fundraiser in Bellows Falls Sept. 26 such a success. WKVT initiated and ran the entire event, many businesses collected and contributed food and energy, and innumerable citizens, both local and distant, came to drop off bags of food. The school and other groups both donated and worked to fill the Opera House. We also thank our sponsors and the volunteers who worked from start to finish moving...
Dave Allen knows a lot more about making and marketing calendars this year than he did last year. Although the inaugural edition of the Windham County Railroads calendar was a modest success, selling nearly 300 copies, the West Chesterfield, N.H., surveyor and history buff says he learned one important lesson. “One shopkeeper told me last year that if you want to sell calendars, you have to get them in the stores in October, when people still have money to spend...
Mac Gordon, Brattleboro: There seems to be a BASIC (Brattleboro Area Skatepark Is Coming) problem here. (Pun intended.) Usually, in order to achieve a successful outcome for a project, it's first necessary to do a needs assessment - in this case, canvass the local community to ask: Is there a demand for a skatepark? Are people willing to fund such a project? If the answer is yes, then there is a good chance for a positive outcome. Without such an...
The week of Oct. 20 has been designated as the seventh annual Friends of the Brooks Memorial Library Week. Celebrations will take place at the library through Oct. 26. The Friends of the Library, established in 1991, supports the Brooks Memorial Library through its mission of advocacy, public relations, and fundraising. Every year the Friends raise thousands of dollars to support the library's digital access services, public programs, and information resources. This year, the Friends helped purchase new computer equipment;
This year, an estimated 13 million American children will be bullied at school, online, on the bus, at home, through their cell phones, and on the streets of their towns, making it the most common form of violence young people in this country experience. Several community organizations have come together to present a program to raise awareness about bullying. On Thursday, Oct. 24, at 6 p.m., there will be a screening and discussion of the documentary “Bully” at the Rockingham...
The dead pine lists toward an electrical box on the edge of Dutton Pines State Park. With each swing, Sam Schneski drives an arrangement of orange wedges deeper into the tree's base, causing the trunk to shift away from the electrical box. Schneski, a Windham/Windsor County forester, slices into the pine with a chainsaw. It falls slowly along the lower trail of the Dutton Pines loop. A burst of golden leaves flutter down like confetti. Work crews marked this pine,
Writer, poet, and environmental activist Dede Cummings is inviting everyone to a party celebrating the launch of Green Writers Press (GWP), a new Vermont-based publishing house that she founded earlier this year. Cummings says that the mission of GWP is to publish books about how places shape and are shaped by the people who inhabit them. “GWP wants to show how poetry and art are a means of engendering empathy, illuminating interconnection, prompting new ways of imagining and living, and...
I've been following the controversy over the proposed Brattleboro Skatepark for years now. I never made it to any of the Planning Board, Development Review Board, or Selectboard meetings, but I have still kept up with the latest developments due to my family's growing involvement in wheel-based sports. My two children, Hayden, 5, and Forrester, 8, are avid skateboarders. Because no park has been built yet, we travel to Carinthia Snow Park at Mount Snow Ski Resort. We travel to...
Connecticut River Joint Commissions (CRJC) announces that it has received a $34,960 grant through the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources' Department of Environmental Conservation. This one-year grant provides funding to implement CRJC's July 2013 to June 2014 work program. The commission said in a press release that the grant will help it continue the grassroots work of the local river subcommittees as its local eyes and ears, and in guiding implementation of its river management plans. CRJC said it would...
The network of trails in Wilmington and Marlboro has expanded dramatically. It has been so great to hike and mountain bike all over Hogback Mountain and down near Lake Raponda. Additionally, the Hoot, Toot, and Whistle Trail and Valley Trail in Wilmington have made huge strides towards completion this year. These trails are tremendous assets to the area, and all are encouraged to get out on their bikes, or to hike, especially with fall in full effect.
The Town and Villages Citizens Audit Committee (TVCAC) will meet on Saturday, Oct. 19, at 11 a.m. at the Train Depot in Bellows Falls on Depot Street. According to committee organizers, TVCAC was formed in September as a way for many in the community to ensure their voices would be heard and acted on in municipal budget matters. The group said in a press statement it was “inspired by a similar effort in Redding, Conn., to employ citizens to undertake...
Environmental activist, author, and 350.org founder Bill McKibben will speak at Landmark College on Tuesday, Oct. 22, at 7 p.m. McKibben will speak about his new book, “Oil and Honey: The Education of an Unlikely Activist” (Times Books), which fuses a lifetime of insight on the climate fight with observations from a Vermont beekeeping practice. The public is invited to this free event, which will be held at the Greenhoe Theater in the Fine Arts Building on the Landmark College...
It was an ordinary day, Thursday, Oct. 10. I was somewhat distracted, and after parking my car in the Municipal Center lot, I walked away with my great-granddaughter on my hip to undertake some errands. What I didn't realize at that moment was that I had left my wallet on the back of my car. Thank you to Fran Timney, an employee of our Department of Public Works, for his quick thinking and integrity for returning my wallet to the...
When Célina Houlné was terminated by the current, secretive board of trustees of the Rockingham Free Public Library [“Former library director envisions lawsuit,” Sept. 25], the overall citizenry was up in arms, knowing of no possible reason the hard-working, efficient librarian was at fault. No excuse given! A personnel matter? We - members of the Friends of the Library and others - wish to support the staff through this crisis and also through another move. The first one was proven...
Vermont Performance Lab's “In The Works” series continues with one of the most imaginative voices in dance today: Uruguayan-born/New York-based choreographer luciana achugar. Achugar is known for creating ritual-like performances in which she creates environments that invite the audience to participate in the performance experience as an active viewer. During her residency with VPL, achugar will experiment with the integration of sound and choreography for this new solo that will premiere at the Walker Arts Center in Minneapolis in 2014.
The body of a 59-year-old Townshend woman missing since Sept. 6 has been found. Vermont State Police said a hiker found the remains of Helen Holmes in Winhall on Oct. 9, and her identity was confirmed after an autopsy by the office of the chief medical examiner the following day. According to state police, based on the evidence collected and previous investigative information, detectives do not suspect foul play. The case is still under investigation pending the official cause and...
Célina Houlné, former library director of the Rockingham Free Public Library, said she could not have been happier at getting the chance to respond to the allegations from the library's Board of Trustees - a hearing that would have been held behind closed doors if not for her insistence to do otherwise. “I'm happy that I'm finally getting a chance to talk about all the issues,” she told The Commons. “This is the very first time I've had a chance...
Questions flew fast, and side conversations buzzed, at a presentation Oct. 9 at Memorial Hall on the state's new health care marketplace, the online Vermont Health Connect exchange. Most of the questions came from small-business owners investigating whether to offer health insurance as an employee benefit - and if so, at what level of funding - or if they should turn their employees loose on the open market, where subsidized care is an option. Emily Yahr, an education and outreach...
Residents and innkeepers praised the work of organizers of the eighth annual Independent Television and Film Festival, held from Sept. 26 to 28 in Dover and Wilmington, saying the event showed the Deerfield Valley at its best and drew plaudits from participating filmmakers. They also hoped the festival would return in 2014. Ticket sales reportedly fell short of the 1,000 organizers had said they'd hoped for. That said, Selectboard members and others observed at the Oct. 1 meeting that filmmakers...
Susan Walker, executive director of Turning Point of Windham County, agreed with members of the nonprofit's new building task force that they found the organization a perfect new home - a heavily-Irene-damaged-but-cozy, 15-room, single-family dwelling downtown at the intersection of Elm, Frost, and Flat streets. That is, until the federal government shutdown put a temporary kibosh on potential funding. As Congress discusses the budget and raising the debt ceiling in Washington, D.C. - a process that continues as The Commons...