Issue #516
Waste not, want not
A few weeks ago, I was having lunch at The Works when a woman came in and talked with the manager. Shortly thereafter, the manager went to the back and reemerged with three huge garbage bags full of bagels.
When I asked the manager about this, he informed me that The Works contributes its day-old bagels - as long as they're still fresh - and other food regularly to soup kitchens and shelters in the area.
Brattleboro tree board needs new members
Do you like trees? They reduce energy use, provide erosion control, and help control storm water runoff. The Brattleboro Tree Advisory Board is shorthanded and needs a new member. If you are a resident of town and want to help us look after our trees, fill out the online...
Wardsboro parade, street fair gears up for 70th year
The 70th annual Wardsboro 4th of July Parade and Street Fair - the longest consecutive running 4th of July celebration in Vermont - is just around the corner. It will take place Thursday, July 4, rain or shine. Organizers say they are planning many surprises, as well as the...
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Great River Theater Festival returns for a third year
Main Street Arts is pulling out all the stops for its third annual Great River Theater Festival, with a mix of tradition, edge, comedy, dance, social satire, and puppets, plus an opening Great Tent Event with a Bake Your Art Out dessert contest thrown into the mix. The festival opens Friday, July 5, for a two-weekend run with performances of the landmark musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch and Loom Dance Ensemble's What the Jellyfish Knows, both at 7:30 p.m.
Inclusive or exclusive?
I was flabbergasted when I read this encouragement to further ostracize, abandon, walk away from, shun, ignore, and NIMBY-off the most vulnerable in our society - an effort by a capitalist society that has been desensitized from caring for our neighbors and brothers as ourselves, and labeling them as somehow toxic or less than and definitely not worthy of a dime, nickel, or quarter of our capitalist gains. This manifesto assigns the faceless in need with the blame for anonymous...
Milestones
College news • The following local students received degrees in May from Vermont Technical College: Jacob Deweerdt of South Londonderry, A.A.S., Automotive Technology; Colleen Doyle of West Wardsboro, A.S., Nursing; Eric Fenton of Londonderry, A.A.S., Diesel Power Technology; Benjamin Fontaine of Brattleboro, A.E., Electrical Engineering Technology; Nicholas Fontaine of Newfane, A.A.S., Automotive Technology; Natalie Freeman of Putney, A.S., Nursing; Ashley Kane of Guilford, A.S., Nursing; Eric Kimball of Bellows Falls, B.S., Electromechanical Engineering Technology; Madison Sommers McNary of Vernon, A.S.,
BF Moose Lodge hosts Big Band Brunch
Featuring the music of Frank Sinatra, Rosemary Clooney, Ella Fitzgerald and other greats, the first Big Band Brunch will be held Sunday, June 30, at the Moose Lodge, 59 Westminster St. The event begins at 11:30 a.m., with brunch served in the hall until 1 p.m., followed by dancing and live on-stage performances with regional vocalists and 2019 Keene Idol finalists Zac Binney and Allie McGahie from 1 to 3 p.m. The full-course brunch menu includes quiche, fruit and cheese...
I-91 Welcome Center plans paving
The Vermont Agency of Transportation (VTrans) will be repaving the Guilford Welcome Center parking lot, including entrance and exit ramps. The center is located on Interstate 91 northbound, about a mile from Exit 1 in Brattleboro. VTrans says repaving will take place between July 9 and Aug. 23. Bazin Brothers Trucking of Westminster will be doing the work, which is expected to cost $831,145.81. While the car parking area is being paved, visitors will use the truck/bus parking area. During...
Shakespeare in the Park turns 30
For its 30th annual Shakespeare in the Park production, Vermont Theatre Company will present Macbeth, with performances June 27 through 30 at the Rotary Stage in Brattleboro's Living Memorial Park. Admission is $5, and performances begin at 6 p.m. Reservations aren't necessary. The well-known tale is given a contemporary setting to engage audiences in drawing connections to a tumultuous geopolitical climate created by present-day leadership crises. Macbeth is a cunning general and fearsome warrior in service to Scotland's king, earning...
Pause 5G deployment until testing can guarantee health and safety
Laura Sibilia and the wireless tech industry tout the increased convenience of “expanded broadband” (read 5G) while neglecting to inform us all of the radioactive threat to our environment of 5G, which puts all life in danger of sickness and eventual death. Radioactivity kills. 5G is used by the military as a weapon. Why would U.S. politicians and business people agree to put military strength radioactivity and infrastructure in our neighborhoods? Insanity? Perhaps. Greed? Definitely! We have been misinformed about...
In-Sight Photography Project to launch artist talks series
The In-Sight Photography Project will launch a series of artist talks on Friday, June 28, at 5:30 p.m., at its new location at 183 Main St., Suite 3, Brattleboro. The inaugural speaker is Jon Gitelson, and the event is free and open to the public. A Brattleboro resident and associate professor of art at Keene State College, Gitelson has had artwork exhibited at institutions throughout the U.S., Canada, and Europe, with highlights including MASS MoCA, the deCordova Sculpture Park and...
Around the Towns
BFDDA annual meeting June 27 BELLOWS FALLS - The Bellows Falls Downtown Development Alliance invites everyone to attend their annual membership meeting on Thursday, June 27, at 5:30 p.m., at Windham Antiques on The Square. At the meeting, the Alliance will discuss all they accomplished in the past year and present their Work Plan for the fiscal year beginning July 1. They will also elect board members and celebrate 20 years as a designated downtown. For further information, call the...
Gould presents ‘Horse-Drawn Yogurt Radio’
New England Youth Theatre, 100 Flat St., will present an Alumni Anniversary Production of “Horse Drawn Yogurt Radio Hour,” written and directed by Peter Gould, to be performed at 7 p.m. on Friday, June 28, and Saturday, June 29. Gould's Vermont memoir, Horse Drawn Yogurt, is a collection of stories of his life as a young man on a farm commune at the height of the back-to-the-land movement. The book is a Green Writers Press original, and Gould has done...
Trio pays tribute to Joni Mitchell’s ‘Blue’ at Next Stage
Next Stage Arts Project and Twilight Music present Julie Ness, Dave Wysocki, and Tristan Bellerive performing Joni Mitchell's legendary album Blue at Next Stage on Saturday, June 29, at 7:30 p.m. Recorded in Los Angeles in 1970 and released in 1971, Blue is considered by many to be a groundbreaking album, with a 10-song cycle that weaves a journey of hope, yearning, love, loss, and heartbreak. After a year and a half of rehearsing, researching, and listening again and again...
NECCA offers free circus activities at Moore Court, Ledgewood Heights
The New England Center for Circus Arts is launching a new outreach program, the Circus Affects Project, to combine free circus activities and food opportunities to support the development of young people in Brattleboro's underserved areas. Open to youth ages 7 to 17 living at Moore Court and Ledgewood Heights, NECCA's award winning coaches will teach a range of skills including juggling, low wire, acrobatics, human pyramids, theater games, clowning, and unicycling. The Circus Affects Project is supported by grants...
Area communities plan public reading of Frederick Douglass’ 4th of July speech
What does the Declaration of Independence mean to a human being who is not free? On July 5, 1852, at an event in Rochester, N.Y., commemorating the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Frederick Douglass, a former slave and leading abolitionist, answered this question in a fiery speech after being asked to speak in celebration of the Fourth of July. “Fellow-citizens,” he began, “why am I called upon to speak here today? What have I, or those I represent, to...
VSO to visit Grafton
The Vermont Symphony Orchestra's annual TD Bank Summer Festival Tour, presented by Northstar Fireworks, returns for 2019 with a July 3 performance at the Grafton Ponds Outdoor Center. Gates open at 5:30 p.m. for picnicking, and the concert begins at 7:30 p.m. In case of rain, the concert will be moved to the Bellows Falls Union High School Auditorium in Westminster. Making her VSO debut, guest conductor Sharon Lavery will showcase composers who set America to music: Gershwin, Joplin, Bernstein,
Youthful potential should complement, not denigrate, elder wisdom
Words and phrases like “old,” “elderly,” “aged,” “past one's prime,” “advanced in years,” “long in the tooth,” “in one's dotage,” “doddering,” “decrepit,” “senile,” “not long for this world,” and “no spring chicken” all describe the older generation, which starts at no precise age. Most of these words are particularly not flattering and do not truly reflect the true nature or competence of this older population, yet these are the only words or phrases that describe this group. Then there are...
Muggy, warmer, and more showery weather ushers in beginning of summer
Hello and good day to you, winsome Windham County residents! The Summer Solstice has passed our latitude, and the resultant warmer and muggier surges that lag that astronomical tip of Earth's northern-hemispheric hat toward our star are starting to show in our region this week. We'll see highs break into the low to mid 80s for lower elevations of southeastern Vermont from Wednesday through Sunday, along with increasing humidity and shower and thunderstorm chances on Wednesday and over the weekend.
Lawmakers offer updates on marijuana legislation
Town officials, school staff, substance abuse prevention experts, and community members gathered with local lawmakers for a breakfast meeting at the Townshend Church - one that started with an invite from West River Valley Thrives to discuss zoning and marijuana policy. As the group gathered over coffee and muffins, the conversation soon shifted to how the Legislature builds policy and the need for sustained, flexible prevention funding. State Reps. Kelly Pajala, I-Londonderry, Laura Sibilia, I-Dover, and Emily Long, D-Newfane, joined...
Two towns, two visions for marijuana regulation
Cindy Hayford of the Deerfield Valley Community Partnership, which focuses on prevention efforts in the Deerfield Valley, attended some of the conversations about marijuana and its regulation that have taken place in Dover and Wilmington in recent years. She related her experience in a phone interview to The Commons. In Dover's case, the town banned marijuana dispensaries last year. Police Chief Randy Johnson launched the effort, and the town held several community meetings and conversations. Wilmington's Police Chief brought similar...
Musicians arrive for Marlboro Music’s 69th season
Artistic Directors Mitsuko Uchida and Jonathan Biss welcomed approximately 70 resident artists - 18 of whom will be attending for the first time - to Marlboro on June 23, as Marlboro Music opens its 69th season. Musicians will spend seven weeks exploring and exchanging ideas on the approximately 250 works that they themselves have proposed to study. Marlboro's first week's schedule includes 65 works involving a variety of instrumental and vocal combinations. Described by The New Yorker as “the classical...
Reclaiming magic and wonder
When was the last time you stopped to watch the small sparks of light from fireflies pricking the summer darkness? For many people, fireflies evoke little moments of wonder, awe, and curiosity and added a sprinkle of magic to their childhood. Last year, one of those people, Jane Wheeler of Brattleboro, a volunteer with Firefly Watch, started her observations around June 16. The Mass Audubon program collects data from Wheeler and other citizen scientists across North America. Each volunteer spends...
‘Little libraries’ pop up in Dummerston
Dummerston recently got itself two new libraries. One Little Free Library was installed on the front porch of the Town Offices in Dummerston Center and one in the lobby of Dummerston School. Both Little Free Libraries are stewarded by the Lydia Pratt Taft Library, Dummerston's municipal library, located in the Dummerston Community Center in West Dummerston. “Our goal is to broaden our library's community outreach by making books more widely available while strengthening our bonds within the community,” Library Board...
Gallery 34 hosts artwork by Nancy Clingan
River Gallery School's Gallery 34 will feature the artwork of Nancy Clingan during the month of July. Her exhibit opens Friday, July 5, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., as part of Gallery Walk During her 50 year career in social services, furthering her higher education and raising children, Clingan took random art classes at local schools and workshops. Her first class was with Ric Campman at RGS and she participated in a group show for survivors of trauma. She didn't...
Celebrating women’s suffrage is theme of Saxtons River’s 4th of July festivities
With the theme of “Celebrating 100 Years of Women's Suffrage,” Saxtons River will kick off its annual Independence Day celebration Thursday, July 4, with a 5K Firecracker road race at 8:30 a.m., followed by a parade at 9:30 a.m. Grand marshals for the parade are Women in Government, featuring Susan Hammond, Ann DiBernardo, Carolyn Partridge, and some future voters. In addition to the race and the parade, the day's activities include a street fair highlighted by the firefighters' water polo,
Yellow Barn celebrates 50 years
This summer, Yellow Barn celebrates five decades of extraordinary chamber music. One of the world's most highly regarded chamber music centers, this venerable institution remains deeply rooted in Vermont and will celebrate its 50th Anniversary at home in Putney. Its annual festival runs from July 5 to Aug. 3, and includes 19 concerts over five weeks, plus master classes, pre-concert discussions, open rehearsals, and a summer gala. Contemplating what Yellow Barn is planning for its 50th anniversary season, Artistic Director...
Lady Abigail kept the ideals of Lady Liberty alive
I recently attended a memorial service for a dear friend who died last year at the age of 92. “Abigail” was a person whom I met through work, someone I probably would have never met under any other circumstance. She became the diamond in the rough in an otherwise nightmarish work experience. Abigail and I bonded as we tried to maneuver through our trying workdays while learning to communicate with each other. She became deaf in her 50s due to...
Opioid crisis worsens, with no end in sight
By the time the community forum on opiates was fully started, the room in the Central Fire Station was overflowing - perhaps in violation of fire code laws, as Fire Chief Michael Bucossi wryly noted in his opening remarks. But what he had to say was serious: When it comes to statistics regarding drug overdoses and deaths, Brattleboro and Windham County face a deep challenge. In 2018, 110 people died from opiate overdose in Vermont, with 21 of them in...
Trump tells the truth ... twice
According to The Washington Post, President Donald Trump has made close to 11,000 false or misleading statements in less than 1,000 days in office. Why can't the press call out a lie by a lying liar anymore? The running tally does not include the waffles, untruths, inaccuracies, backtracks, and self-congratulations of the president or the lies of his spokespeople - Kellyanne Conway and Sarah Huckabee Sanders. This reality has brought me through a pit of despair and onto the hard...
Koch finishes fifth in state decathlon
The 44th annual Jerry Jasinski Vermont State Decathlon was held on June 17 and 18 at the University of Vermont in Burlington. Brattleboro's Evan Koch finished fifth in the men's competition with 5,184 points. On Day 1, Koch ran the 100 meter dash in 12.15 seconds and had a leap of 17 feet, 10.75 inches in the long jump. In the shot put, he has a heave of 29 feet, 2 inches. He cleared 5 feet, 7 inches in the...