Issue #524
Artist Timothy Segar to give free talk at BMAC
Former Marlboro College visual arts faculty member Timothy Segar, whose artwork is currently on view at the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center in the exhibit “Character Development,” will give a free talk at BMAC on Thursday, Aug. 1, at 7:30 p.m.
“Character Development” is a two-part exhibit consisting of Segar's steel sculptures (in BMAC's Rubinstein-Freed Sculpture Garden through Nov. 5) and works on paper (in the South Gallery through Sept. 23).
Foundation to fund funerals for people in Vt., N.H.
The nonprofit Phaneuf Family Foundation was launched this summer to provide financial assistance for funeral and cremation arrangements for needy individuals and families in New Hampshire and Vermont. According to a news release, the foundation will also provide financial support to hospice and other caregiver organizations and present scholarships...
Around the Towns
Healing walk at Manitou WILLIAMSVILLE - The Manitou Project will hold a healing walk on Friday, Aug. 23, from 4 to 6 p.m. This meditative walk, to be held rain or shine on Manitou's Sanctuary Trail, will be led by Ryan Murphy and will include poems or other readings...
More
The real threat to merchants: online competition, not individuals
I'm not sure why there are more people begging in Brattleboro than in comparable other towns. But I know they are not the most serious threat to local retail. Tax-free shopping put building-supply and other businesses in New Hampshire. And Walmart's pressure-sourcing and low wages made sale of basic clothing and other goods, from toys to housewares, unprofitable on Main Street. And the mega-threat, now, is not beggars but the internet: first and foremost Amazon, whose scale, diversity, smartness, and...
Milestones
Obituaries • Franklin J. “Frank” Bell, 61, a longtime resident of Green River in Guilford and, recently, of West Brattleboro. Died Aug. 1, 2019, after being stricken earlier at his home. He was born on June 19, 1958 at Brattleboro Memorial Hospital to Benjamin Bell Sr. and Frances (Rowe) Bell, who have predeceased him. He was the second eldest of six brothers; Benjamin D. Bell Jr. (Tammi) of Guilford, Alexander D. Bell and his significant other Amy Hoyt of Guilford,
Photos of farm work on display at Putney Library
The Putney Public Library invites everyone to view photographs by Brent Seabrook on exhibit through Sept. 28, during library hours and special events, free and open to the public. The focus of the exhibition is farm work, farm workers, and the workplace itself. Brent Seabrook says he “wants to make a photograph that shows the viewer both a recognizable activity or scene and the psychological depth of the relationship between the subject and the setting.” His large color photographs depict...
Going big
Any performance of Tristan und Isolde is an event, but the presentation in a small New England town of Richard Wagner's musical paean to erotic love is positively a phenomenon. Tristan und Isolde is a massive work that requires superb singers and an enormous orchestra, as well as a gifted conductor able to cope with all of this. Because of the demands it makes on producers and performers, it is rarely performed outside of big cities with major opera houses.
Severe weather possible Wednesday, followed by fair weather into the weekend
Hello and good day to you, Windham County folks! I hope things are well with you. We've been dealing with humid, showery, very warm and stormy conditions for the past several days. The severe weather threat will peak on Wednesday before a cold front moves through Thursday and washes all of this muggy air out to sea. Thereafter, Friday into early next week looks to be generally seasonable, dry, fair, mostly sunny and cooler - a welcome change from this...
Stone Church Arts presents singer-songwriters Joe Jencks and Jesse Terry
Two singer-songwriters will share the stage in a Stone Church Arts concert on Friday, Aug. 23, at 7:30 p.m., in the Chapel at Immanuel Episcopal Church, 20 Church St., in Bellows Falls. According to a news release, Joe Jencks is a 20-year veteran of the international folk circuit, an award-winning songwriter, and a celebrated vocalist based in Chicago. Jesse Terry has made it his mission to share his love of music fully, without regard for shading his emotions or tempering...
At a time of downtown business transition, conversations turn to affordability
The Aug. 14 meeting in Putney came after news hit the Facebook-sphere that multiple downtown businesses had decided to close or relocate, including Ruggles & Hunt, Candle in the Night, Windham Movement Apparel, Walking with Wolves, Traveling Treasures, ArtRAGEus1, and Twin Flames Taqueria. Speculation around the closings has ranged from the downtown rents being too high, to shop owners catering to tourists and discounting the needs of local consumers, to people not having enough disposable income. In reality, the stores...
FOMAG plans musical weekend in celebration of Labor Day
Friends of Music at Guilford's 54th Labor Day Weekend Festival begins, as usual, with a 7:30 concert on Saturday night, Aug. 31, in the Organ Barn at Tree Frog Farm. Guest organist Robert Barney, who is related to several Guilford families, has served as director of music for Trinity Episcopal Church in Concord, Mass., since 1994. His program “Bach: Friends & Family” includes solo works by Baroque masters Dietrich Buxtehude, J.S. Bach, and C.P.E. Bach, as well as by Felix...
Musical chairs in Montpelier
Last week, Gov. Phil Scott appointed Michael Schirling as commissioner of public safety. The now-lame-duck secretary of commerce and community development will take over the department in early September. While visiting Putney on Aug. 14, Schirling commented on the change. “This job has been a lot of fun,” he said. Schirling, who has a background in public safety, said he looks forward to bringing the perspective of economic and community development to his new department. He looks forward to conversations...
Grace Cottage welcomes new chief medical officer
Dr. George Terwilliger has recently joined Grace Cottage as chief medical officer, emergency department medical director, and hospitalist director. He assumed these positions after the July 30 retirement of former Chief Medical Officer Dr. Christopher Schmidt and the decision of former Emergency Department Director Dr. Kimona Alin to dedicate her time exclusively to her role as a hospital physician. “I came to Grace Cottage because of the people who work here - they all put the patient first,” Terwilliger said...
Sanders: a positive campaign
From what alternate universe did MacLean Gander pull this statement: “Supporters of Bernie Sanders can send 'stay out of Vermont' messages to Joe Biden, while supporters of racial justice can note how little Sanders has ever focused on that issue”? Bernie Sanders works almost daily with ethnic community issues, has supported and marched for racial equality for 40 years, and has been on the side of African Americans, Hispanics, Asian Americans, Native Americans, Women, LGBTQ people, and all humans on...
Artists sought for public art project in downtown Wilmington
Wilmington Works, a community organization with the mission “to build, improve and support a vital downtown that benefits the entire Wilmington, Vermont community,” seeks to commission an artist, or artist team, to design and install an original, permanent, site-specific work of public art to be located on a retaining wall located at 27 East Main St. According to a news release, Wilmington Works hopes that this project “will make our village more beautiful, create a destination and stopping point in...
Help and hope in place of despair
If you are like me, each day as you hear the news, you hang your head in despair over what is happening to children and families at the United States border and wish there were something you could do. If you agree with the following statement, please share it in any way you can think of with everyone you can possibly think of. Hopefully it will make a difference. “To every public official, person with influence or position, and citizen...
Co-op deserves community resolve to increase shopping
Recently, I learned that the Brattleboro Food Co-op is facing some financial challenges, including perhaps staff layoffs. Revenues are down because many people have decided not to shop there because of being asked for money in an aggressive way in the Flat Street parking lot, on the Whetstone pathway, or in the Co-op parking lot. The Co-op is working hard with the town on some possible solutions to this problem. which is caused by only a few of the panhandlers.
Grading the Better Block applications
The Planning Commission graded the applications for the Better Block Challenge based on a number of criteria. The ideal proposals for the challenge would: 1. Create a welcoming, inclusive, and accessible space for all people. 2. Improve safety, routes, access for pedestrians and/or bicyclists. 3. Incorporate arts and cultural activities to enliven and revitalize public spaces. 4. Benefit the downtown business district and the economic viability of downtown businesses by attracting new customers, diversifying the population frequenting downtown shops and...
Donations sought for Mayotte benefit raffle
Organizers are seeking donations for an event next month to memorialize a Guilford man and raise money for the education of his three children. The family members organizing the event are seeking donations for the Charles Mayotte Memorial Fundraiser, which will take place Saturday, Sept. 28 from 3 to 7 p.m. at the Marina, 28 Spring Tree Rd. As described by a news release, the fund will benefit the three children of Charles “Chuckie” Mayotte - Alex, Ethan, and Isabella...
Rural, small-town LGBTQ community to assemble for annual summit
Some 65 lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people living in small towns and rural communities from around the Northeast are expected to gather for the fifth annual Out in the Open Summit. The event is convened by Out in the Open (OO), a Brattleboro-based organization connecting rural LGBTQ people to build community, visibility, knowledge, and power. The summit is open to any LGBTQ-identified person of rural and/or small town experience. “This year's theme, 'Rest and Resilience,' will balance...
No target on my back
After reading Kevin O'Keefe's recent Viewpoint, it is quite evident to me that his attempt to directly blame President Trump and his administration for the recent mass shootings that have occurred across America fails because so few of his comments and observations were backed up by facts and research. I, for one, do not feel as if I am living day by day with a target on my back. In fact, I enjoy every freedom America has to offer. I'd...
We’re getting closer and closer to full-blown fascism
Donald Trump's militarizing Independence Day, subjecting children and adults to, yes, concentration camps, and defying the courts are not events that can be easily ignored. However, his firing climate-change scientists or banishing them to a Midwest gulag is a lot easier to overlook. So is his rescinding food and drug safety regulations, rolling back health-care protections for LGBTQ patients, foreclosing on working homeowners, destroying public education, and compromising the country's air, water, and wildlife. There's more, and it signals the...
Telling the state’s business story
On a mid-August morning, amid the bustle of commerce in the Putney General Store, staff helped customers with deli orders, stocked shelves, and prepared items for the lunch hour. Meanwhile, upstairs, in a sitting area surrounded by empty shelves left from the store's former pharmacy, approximately 20 people met with state lawmakers and leaders with the Agency of Commerce and Community Development (ACCD) to ask nuts-and-bolts questions and share big-picture concerns about doing business in Vermont. ACCD Secretary Michael Schirling...
Brattleboro planners approve 3 projects for pop-up challenge
The Planning Commission had good - and tough - choices to make as members winnowed 12 applications for the town's Better Block Challenge. During a special meeting on Aug. 14, the commission members narrowed the pool to three: new bike lanes on Flat Street, a “Story Walk” to highlight literature, and an outdoor photo project to enliven the alley at 167 Main St. The chosen applicants will receive $500 for their respective pop-up installation's construction, materials and/or programming. They will...
We normal people must keep the mutants down
If you are reading this, then I assume you are perfectly normal - in every way. Normal is important. Civilized society is based on complex systems that require people to do things properly in order to make them work. You see this in every business or institution: Normal people understand how to do things the right way. The mutants are always looking for an easier way, trying to take the short path. This is why we must not yield one...
BUHS graduate in forefront of research on sports concussions
Practices have begun for the fall sports season at Vermont's public high schools. With the varsity football season just a week away, it seems like a good time to check in with a Brattleboro Union High School alumnus who is in the thick of the No. 1 issue facing those who play and coach football and other full-contact sports - how to reduce concussions. Tyler Maland, a member of the BUHS Class of 2007, is the Chief Impact Officer for...
Our misplaced hate in the world
I want to be very careful with what I'm about to say. This morning, I went out to my car to find that someone had broken into my car, literally for pocket change. Yes, my car was unlocked - my fault. No, nothing valuable was stolen. I am still very angry at this situation, but probably not for the reasons you may think. As bothered as I am that someone invaded my personal space, I am far more angry at...
With ‘Ocean’s Edge,’ museum brings the beach to Brattleboro
Vermont may be landlocked, but visitors to the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center can practically feel the spray of the ocean and the sand beneath their feet this summer. In “Ocean's Edge,” artists David Kapp, Graham Nickson, and Isca Greenfield-Sanders transport viewers to beaches from Maine to Mexico. The exhibit is on view at BMAC through Sept. 23. Kapp is best known for his paintings of the contemporary urban landscape, and his paintings have been described by Ken Johnson of...
New techniques help students learn to put their minds at ease
For Windham Southeast Supervisory Union staff, the return to school in the fall means excitement, a surge of energy, and at least one night spent tossing and turning in anticipation of new rosters and faces. For many this fall, it will involve a new approach and an enhanced awareness of school climate as buildings across the district continue to implement the tenets of trauma-informed schools. Many students come to district schools having survived a range of experiences in their young...
Wet felting workshop planned at Main Street Arts
Wet felting is the topic of a free workshop to be offered at Main Street Arts on Saturday, Aug. 31, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Lorna McMaster and Liz Guzynski will lead the workshop, which is an introduction to the type of fiber work that will decorate set and costumes in MSA's production of The Secret Garden, opening Oct. 24 at the Bellows Falls Opera House. A follow-up workshop will be held in late September. Workshop participants will learn...
Fall session open for enrollment at NECCA with new classes, expanded programing
Whether you're already putting your foot behind your head or you've got two left feet, the New England Center for Circus Arts says it is here to help. NECCA is an internationally-recognized circus school known for innovative teaching, coaches at the top of their field, a welcoming and inclusive community, and dedication to providing training catered to each individual. It offers a mix of levels in a variety of circus disciplines - appropriate for everyone from the absolute beginner to...