Next Stage's 2021 Artist-in-Residence Arun Ramamurthy returns to Putney on Saturday, June 25, with the Arun Ramamurthy Trio (ART) at Next Stage on 15 Kimball Hill, and on Sunday, June 26, with Brooklyn Raga Massive (BRM) outdoors at Bunker Farm in Dummerston as part of the Bandwagon Summer Series.
Saturday's concert kicks off with a unique collaboration between the cello and the Indian slide guitar, two instruments seldom heard in Indian classical music. Cellist Jake Charkey and Indian slide guitarist Joel Veena (both Vermont-raised) are joined by tabla player Mir Naqibul Islam, a trio of artists all deeply steeped in the oral tradition of Hindustani music.
The second set of the night features Ramamurthy bringing a fresh approach to South Indian classical repertoire in his trio ART. A recent recipient of Chamber Music America's prestigious New Jazz Works commission, the Trio will premiere selections from Arun's newly composed suite.
ART's collaborative sound is driven by the propulsive rhythm section of drummer Sameer Gupta and electric bassist Damon Banks. The Carnatic canon is remixed in what organizers describe as a “seamless integration of styles, as the group expands on traditional and original compositions in explosive, improvisational flights of fancy.”...
After two years of event cancellations due to the pandemic, Westminster Cares says it is excited that its 2022 Garden Tour will be held this summer. The event will be held the weekend of July 9 and 10 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. both days. The Tour is...
College news • The following local students all graduated from Vermont Technical College after the spring 2022 semester: Tessa Pierce of Brattleboro, A.A.S, general engineering technology; Mariah Barnett of Saxtons River, A.S., nursing; Heather Benson of Bellows Falls, A.S., nursing; Alexandra Kennedy of East Dover, A.S., nursing; Erika Miller...
This year marks an important milestone for Betty Chamberlin of Vernon. She has worked and/or volunteered for Members 1st Credit Union for 50 years. The credit union was originally founded in 1957 for the employees of The Book Press. Chamberlin was the first paid employee of the credit union in 1972. She worked for many years, as the CEO (including serving one year with no pay). “I remember starting in the Book Press Building and working out of a small...
Rescue Inc. charges the same per-capita annual fee to 15 member towns: subsidizing uncollectible accounts and partially subsidizing lower Medicaid and Medicare reimbursement rates compared to those of commercial health insurers, as is clear from its public IRS Form 990 financial statements. According to data from Rescue Inc. member towns from the U.S. Census Bureau's latest American Community Survey: • Brattleboro's median household income is lowest. • Brattleboro's poverty rate is highest: an indicator of Medicaid eligibility and reimbursement rates.
Greater Falls Connections (GFC) of Bellows Falls donated five Kindle Fire tablets to the Rockingham Free Public Library (RFPL). The library staff will be making the devices available to patrons to borrow. The idea for the purchase came out of a need for youth, especially those connected to Friends for Change (FFC) - a democratically run, youth-led/adult guided, trauma-informed, and play-based club in Bellows Falls - to have access to school programming and to stay socially connected during the COVID-19...
Retreat Farm's Thursday evening Food Truck Roundup has become a signature event that signals the start of summer for the Brattleboro community. With the support of Brattleboro Savings & Loan and Park Place Financial Advisors, Farmhouse Square this summer will once again be filled with food trucks, musicians, and families, couples, and new residents eager to connect with neighbors and friends. From the bluegrass roots of the Rear Defrosters to the grooves of The Myles Band, the musical lineup for...
Manitou Healing Walk set for June 24 WILLIAMSVILLE - The Manitou Project will hold its Healing Walk, rain or shine, on Friday, June 24, from 4 to 5:30 p.m. The walk, led by Fred Taylor, will include poems or other readings and invites participants to share about the experience. Healing walks will be held every second and fourth Friday of each month until October. For information, contact Taylor at 802-254-2675. Shred your documents on June 25 BRATTLEBORO - Brattleboro Savings...
As officials announced last month, Vermont's state-run COVID-19 testing sites will close by June 25. According to the Vermont Department of Health, the closure of statewide testing sites “signals that the tools available to prevent COVID-19 have grown and evolved.” The state opened its first test sites in the spring of 2020 as part of the emergency response to slow the spread of a novel coronavirus. These sites, which grew statewide and included a network of partners, relied on PCR...
Weston Theater Company announces its 2022 Young Company production: Shrek: The Musical, playing Wednesday, June 22, through Sunday, July 10, and touring venues throughout central and southern Vermont. “Follow Shrek, that lovable, stinky ogre on his quest to save quirky, captivating Princess Fiona from a dragon-guarded castle,” say organizers. “There is something for everyone in this bighearted, fun-packed, and fart-joke-filled fairy tale.” Weston Theater Company joined with partners across Vermont to bring Shrek to audiences in their own towns for...
As temperatures start to climb, more people are visiting Vermont's lakes, rivers, and swimming holes. State health officials are reminding everyone that when in and around these natural waters - especially swimming holes - it is important to take precautions, check the weather, and be aware of the conditions. According to the Vermont Department of Health, more than two dozen accidental drownings are known to have taken place at Vermont swim holes in recent years - including at Hamilton Falls...
Triad, a joint exhibit by three artists, will be on display at Gallery in the Woods, 145 Main St., for the month of July, with an opening reception on Friday, July 1, from 5 to 8 p.m. Deborah Garner, Alicia Hunsicker, and Karen Loomis are close friends and creative collaborators who have worked in tandem for decades, organizers say. They draw inspiration from the natural world “to create distinctive visionary reflections of the macro and micro in oil, acrylic, alcohol...
118 Elliot Gallery's “Creative Relations'' exhibit will close on Sunday, June 26, at 5 p.m., with the first full screening of Through Her Mind's Eye, a film by local artist John Loggia, made with compelling Super 8 and 8mm film footage his mother, Marjorie Sloan Loggia, shot of people, the places they inhabit, and the things they do around the world. “Loggia''s score combines with his mother's compelling eye to tell an abstract yet emotional story that begins with a...
As Vermont ambulance officials continue to voice questions, the town Selectboard voted Tuesday to amend its transition plan to take over local emergency medical services upon the July 1 end of its nearly 60-year contract with Windham County's largest EMS provider. The board decided this spring with little notice or public debate to drop its association with the private nonprofit Rescue Inc. for the lower-priced for-profit Golden Cross Ambulance of Claremont, N.H., which has agreed to help the local fire...
Wild Goose Players continues its first season with John Hadden's production of Hamlet. Having just completed a successful run of Into The Woods at the Bellows Falls Opera House, Wild Goose Players will be partnering with Main Street Arts in Saxtons River, where the play will be performed. Performance dates are Saturdays at 7 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m., June 25 through July 10; Friday, July 15 at 7 p.m., and Saturday, July 16 at 2 p.m. This production...
Katharine (Tink) Turner has been creating art since 1958. “I really like spreading the paint across the canvas and checking the colors out; the bounce of the canvas under the brush is delightful,” said Turner, whose paintings are the Marlboro Community Center's current exhibit. “Mixing colors is also a favorite aspect.” The artist - who is mostly self taught, though she did take a few classes in college - started in a small studio behind her house in Marlboro. There,
On April 2, 1968, Marlboro Volunteer Fire Company (MVFC) Fire Chief Bob Bartlett, (father of the current board member and past firefighter with the MVFC, Ann Bartlett) and the Chair of the Board of Commissioners, J. F. Herrick Jr., signed a contract to purchase a brand new Diamond Reo pumper/tanker fire truck for $17,189. The Diamond Reo truck, known as Engine #1, has been in active service to the town of Marlboro since then, responding to an estimated 1,600 fire...
The Brattleboro Music Center Chamber Series concludes with an evening of beloved piano quartets featuring Jaime Laredo (violin) Nokuthula Ngwenyama (viola), Sharon Robinson (cello), and Benjamin Hochman (piano). Their performance will include the Vermont premiere of award-winning composer/violist Ngwenyama's new piano quartet Elegy. This BMC co-commission was composed in response to the tragic events of spring 2020, including the killing of George Floyd. Known for writing “music of bold, mesmerizing character” (Gramophone), Ngwenyama joins what The Washington Post calls “superstars...
The mixed media artist and author Phoebe Sparrow Wagner, who spent years of her life in psychiatric hospitals, will be July's featured artist, exhibiting “art from the asylum” at the Harmony Collective Artist Gallery, on 49 Elliot St. Because of her experience with poverty and homelessness, all sales of Wagner's art in July will benefit Brattleboro's Groundworks Collaborative. An award-winning writer and artist, Wagner started making art at age 55 when a voice inside her head instructed her to “build...
The Brattleboro Museum & Art Center (BMAC) will present a special opening celebration for “Nebizun: Water Is Life,” a multimedia art exhibit that explores the Abenaki relationship to water, on Friday, June 24, at 7 p.m. Admission is free, and all are welcome. The evening will begin with an Abenaki welcome and a greeting song. Vera Longtoe Sheehan, the exhibit's curator and a member of the Elnu Abenaki Tribe, will speak about the exhibit. Roger Longtoe Sheehan, chief of the...
When I boarded the train in Brattleboro on a recent Friday, gas was approaching $5 per gallon, and my ticket cost less than making my 300-mile round-trip in my Prius. When I returned home that Sunday, gas had hit the $5 mark. If I calculated the cost of purchasing, registering, insuring, and maintaining the car, the train was an absolute bargain. It was also a pleasure. After boarding, I settled into a seat the size of a Barcalounger, which would...
Richard (Dick) DeGray arrived here over 40 years ago as a contractor for the former Vermont Yankee Power Plant in Vernon. “I'm retired,” says DeGray with a laugh, “except I'm not retired at all.” There is good reason for his contradictory statement. DeGray volunteers his time, to the tune of 40 hours a week, as the person in charge of the flowers planted all over town in hanging baskets, boxes, hayracks, and the large planters he describes as “coffins.” DeGray...
The West River Education District (WRED) School Board is looking for public input regarding task force reports that might include removing high school students from Leland & Gray, among other possibilities. “The West River board is engaging in some fruitful conversations about the future of the school district,” said Windham Central Supervisory Union (WCSU) Superintendent William Anton, of which the WRED is a part. “With declining enrollment and increasing upward pressure on a tax rate, the board understands that engaging...
Dealing with the bureaucracy of a federal agency is never easy, but it is a task that Thomas M. French has gladly done to help his fellow veterans. It is also a task he is very good at - and a task for which French, 86, was honored on June 19 with the 2022 Legionnaire of the Year award from the American Legion's Department of Vermont. Over the past five years, the longtime Brattleboro attorney formally brought 15 actions against...
Maggie Cassidy and Tim Cowles were some of the best examples of what it means to “think globally and act locally.” Tim's dedication to the environment is now legendary, certainly among those who knew him. Decades ago he showed how far he was willing to go to live his values. Over lunch one day, he said he was thinking of building a house. I asked if he had thought about an earth-sheltered house. He asked “What's that?” The next time...
Sometimes in the mirror - especially first thing in the morning, clear-eyed - I see my father's face. It can be a flash of an expression, the look around the eyes, the shape of the mouth or cheek, a twisting of the lips. There he is. It's not a pleasant experience, looking in the mirror. The punch-in-the-gut feeling starts low and deep and ends up almost strangling me in its violence. At one point, the mixture of disgust and despair...
Amid the “clang” sound of alloy bats connecting with baseballs at Tenney Field during a Brattleboro Post 5 practice on June 18, a group of 26 high school football players were gathering at nearby Natowich Field for a training clinic for the coming season. Brattleboro is still very much a baseball town in the summertime, but football is starting to make its move into the months of June and July. For the young men who are playing high school football...
There is quite the buzz going on in southern Vermont and just over the border in the Monadnock region about the inaugural Northlands Music & Arts Festival happening at Northlands, an outdoor performance compound (home of the Cheshire Fairgrounds) in Swanzey on Friday, June 24 and Saturday, June 25. This distinctive festival, an easy 20-mile drive from Brattleboro, welcomes everyone of all ages and will feature 15 bands on two stages over two days. Concert producers Seth McNally and Mike...