Issue #670
In Brattleboro, a backlash to a seismic Supreme Court ruling
Protests and vigils are not an unusual sight here, but this one was different.
Within hours of the U.S. Supreme Court eliminating the federal right to abortion on June 24, more than 100 people gathered on a hot and sunny Friday afternoon in Plaza Park to denounce the decision as well as to support Vermont's efforts to protect abortion rights.
WWHT presents Tom Yahn Award to Cathy Eakins
Cathy Eakins, a residential lending officer with Peoples United, a division of M & T Bank, received the Tom Yahn Award at Windham & Windsor Housing Trust's (WWHT) 34th Annual Celebration in May at the Waypoint Center in Bellows Falls. The award is given out annually, in honor of...
Milestones
College news • The following local students were honored for academic achievement at Community College of Vermont during the spring 2022 semester: Named to the President's List were Ada Brown of Brattleboro, Ethan Gray of East Dummerston, Madison Anyan of Townshend, and Kestrel Voulgarakis of Wilmington. Named to the...
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Vermont utilities urge Vermonters to apply now for COVID-19 Utility Bill Assistance
Vermont utilities are reminding their customers that help is available for those struggling to pay existing and past bills. Vermonters financially impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic can apply for two grant programs for renters and homeowners to help with overdue utility bills. Customers may be eligible for tens of thousands of dollars through these programs, and should apply now before money runs out: • Vermont Emergency Rental Assistance Program (VERAP) provides federal grant money for qualified renters to help pay...
Wojcicki, Só Sol to perform at Stage 33 Live
Wojcicki ['Voy-CHEECH-key'] will celebrate the release of their second album, Failure to Illuminate, with a concert at the Stage 33 Live listening room, 33 Canal Street., on Saturday, July 2, at 7 p.m., with special guests Só Sol. Wojcicki is the vehicle for songwriter and performer Matt Sharff, along with his long-time musical conspirators Bethanie Yeakle and Garth Tichy. Sharff began performing in his teens with bands in his native New York City at venues like CBGB, Max's Kansas City,
Around the Towns
Voting districts renamed in BrattleboroBRATTLEBORO - Every 10 years, the Vermont State Legislature is required to conduct a redistricting process, based on the U.S. Census results. Earlier this year, the Legislature redistricted the Vermont House of Representatives and renamed Brattleboro's three Districts as Windham-7 (previously Windham 2-1, or District 1), Windham-8 (previously Windham 2-2, or District 2), and Windham-9 (previously Windham 2-3, or District 3), changing the district lines slightly. For local Town Meeting Day elections, the districts will be...
VSO is back in Grafton, with fireworks, for July 3 concert
On Sunday, July 3, the Vermont Symphony Orchestra (VSO) will return to Grafton, after a two-year pandemic break, for the 30th time on its Summer Festival Tour. The grounds at Grafton Ponds will open for picnicking at 5:30 p.m., and the concert will begin at 7:30 p.m. This year's program, aptly named “Celebrate!” will feature music from West Side Story, John Philip Sousa marches, the William Tell Overture, and beloved tunes by John Williams and Aaron Copland. The orchestra is...
Sundog Poetry Center presents art, music, and poetry at Next Stage Arts
The Sundog Poetry Center presents a summer afternoon of art, music, and poetry. Poets include Rage Hezekiah, Kerrin McCadden, and Partridge Boswell. The music will be provided by Los Lorcas and visual art, by Liz Hawkes deNiord. The event is set for Sunday, July 3, at 2 p.m., at Next Stage, 15 Kimball Hill. A donation of $10 is suggested. Rage Hezekiah is a Cave Canem, Ragdale, and MacDowell Fellow who earned her Master of Fine Arts from Emerson College.
Entries sought for July 4 pie baking contest
In conjunction with the Saxtons River Fourth of July celebration, a pie baking contest will be held. Bakers are invited to submit their delicious creations for judging by the International Union of Pie Judges, Saxtons River, Vermont (a self-appointed cohort of pie connoisseurs). All pies are welcome, they require only a crust and a filling. “Surprise us with your traditional summer standards as well as unexpected interpretations of the 'pie,'” said the judges in a news release. Pies are to...
Estey Organ Museum plans Hymn Sing to mark 20th anniversary
Estey Organ Museum, 108 Birge St., announces an old-fashioned Hymn Sing to celebrate the museum's 20th anniversary. The event will take place at the museum on Sunday, July 10, at 4 p.m. Organist Gavin Klein will accompany singers on reed and pipe organs manufactured by the Estey Organ Company between 1850 and 1960. Klein is no stranger to the Brattleboro area, having offered a well-attended recital on the Estey pipe organ, Opus 300, at Epsilon Spires in January 2020. Mr.
Abortion is not the opposite of motherhood — it’s part of it
If not for my abortions, my partnership of 35 years with Casey would not exist. He would not have become a teacher. He would not influence the lives, paths, futures of hundreds and hundreds of teenagers. If not for my abortions, our two sons would not exist. Lloyd would not work with a women-run NGO in Costa Rica. Or the advance team for Bernie's campaign. Or in progressive politics in Pennsylvania. A generation of mothers would not have looked toward...
Liz Hawkes deNiord is July’s featured artist at Crowell Gallery
For the month of July, the Crowell Gallery presents “Edges,” a collection of Liz Hawkes deNiord's new “right off the easel” abstract paintings, along with selected pieces from the past few years. Hawkes deNiord's second show at Crowell Gallery showcases new work as well as recent paintings connected thematically. Hawkes deNiord shows regionally and, after 38 years teaching art and ceramics, she says she enjoys the daily challenge of engaging visually with ideas and the discipline of pushing each new...
We have seen nothing yet
The outrageous overreach of the Supreme Court's decision to overturn multiple laws supported by the vast majority of citizens looks like an early shot across the bow in the coming civil war. This sort of behavior, where the will of the people has no bearing on the Supreme Court majority's decision-making, is the spark that could bring us to war. Considering the possible interference in daily life that a corrupt organization like the current Supreme Court could, and probably will,
Windham Southeast announces a passel of new school district hires
The Windham Southeast Supervisory Union and Windham Southeast School District have hired several administrators. Kate Margaitis will serve as principal of the Green Street School in Brattleboro after serving as an assistant principal at Brattleboro Union High School. Most recently she served as Green Street School's interim principal, replacing Mark Speno, who had been appointed as the interim superintendent of schools for the Windham Southeast Supervisory Union last summer and has been named to the permanent role. A resident of...
Fourth of July parade returns to downtown
The “By the People: Brattleboro Goes Fourth” citizens committee invites the public to the town's 49th annual Independence Day celebration, set for Monday, July 4, with a morning parade downtown and afternoon and evening program of family activities and fireworks at Living Memorial Park. Marching units - including the local American Legion and Brattleboro Union High School bands, veterans, and civic and youth groups - will kick off the festivities at 10 a.m. with a parade along a new route...
Brattleboro EMS plan will launch as public questions linger
The municipal press release began with a bombshell: “Rescue Inc. informed the Selectboard and Town Manager that [it] would no longer be providing emergency medical services for the Town of Brattleboro as of July 1.” People who know Rescue as Windham County's largest and longest-serving EMS provider were shocked - none more so than officials at the private nonprofit who hadn't said that at all. Rescue had told municipal leaders the town's contract was set to expire this summer and...
Twilight on the Tavern Lawn presents Planet Zydeco
Twilight Music continues its 19th Twilight on the Tavern Lawn series of folk, world beat, zydeco, Celtic, rock, and bluegrass summer concerts on Sunday, July 3, with zydeco sextet Planet Zydeco. Co-presented with Next Stage Arts Project, the four-concert series continues on Sundays, July 17 (Cary Morin), and July 31 (The Stockwell Brothers). All concerts begin at 6 p.m. in downtown Putney on the Putney Tavern lawn (bring a lawn chair or blanket) or at Next Stage at 15 Kimball...
Food, fun this summer at library
Celebrate the start of the Rockingham Free Public Library's annual summer reading program, “Oceans of Possibilities,” with a kick-off event on Wednesday, July 6. At 5 p.m. visit the library for a live, in-person performance from Modern Times Theater and the 13th annual Stuffed Animal Sleepover. Back with a brand-new show, Rose and Justin of Modern Times Theater “have updated a classic puppet show full of laughs and music that follows the troubles and travails of puppetry's favorite loudmouth, Mr.
Beginning again from the ground up
Just days before the horrific Supreme Court decision that killed Roe v. Wade - a grievous act that rendered women and girls property of the state and subjected them to forced childbearing - a spate of opinion pieces appeared bemoaning the fact that feminism was all but gone in the face of massive backlash. Feminists I admire wrote disheartening columns that included expert opinion, research findings, and personal analysis. New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg wrote that “as the backlash...
Epsilon Spires presents artist Jude Danielson’s ‘Unseen Rhythms’
An exhibit by the Oregon-based textile artist Jude Danielson will run in the gallery of Epsilon Spires for the months of July and August, with an opening celebration on Friday, July 1, featuring a musical performance by Intangible Shirt Company. The show, “Unseen Rhythms,” features Danielson's large-scale quilts based on pixelated abstractions of human faces. “I love faces and landscapes, geometry and rhythms,” Danielson, who spent decades working in various fields of science and mathematics before retiring in 2011, said...
Post 5 opens Legion season with a 3-1 record
Brattleboro Post 5 started the 2022 American Legion Baseball season with a 3-1 record in the first week of play. In the home opener at Tenney Field on June 19, Post 5 swept a doubleheader from Lakes Region, winning the first game, 15-9, and taking the nightcap, 18-13. An extremely windy afternoon made every fly ball an adventure for outfielders, and turned a couple of fly balls into home runs. The doubleheader wins were not games to objectively measure the...
When Aunt Stelle changed history
Without a doubt, Connecticut has been the leader of reproductive rights legislation. In 1879, Fairfield County Rep. Phineas Taylor (P.T.) Barnum sponsored a law prohibiting use of “any drug, medical article, or instrument for the purpose of preventing conception” by anyone in the state. If the name Barnum sounds familiar, it's because P.T.'s name is immortalized in the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus brand. He's the 19th-century entrepreneur whose carnival sideshows extracted coins from pockets as folks witnessed...
Don’t mourn. Organize.
Although the ruling felt tragic, it came as no surprise that the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, sending the country back to a time when women died from injuries suffered from wire hangers used to perform illegal abortions. We already had the memo in early May, in the form of a leaked draft of the majority opinion. We knew what was coming. So it's 1972 again, and I'm thinking it's only been since 1967 that a white man could...
A musician raises consciousness, one concert at a time
In May, composer-pianist David Feurzeig embarked on a musical tour. Not just any tour, but one he calls “Play Every Town,” in which he plans to play 251 free concerts - one in each town and city in the state - to help “combat climate change through the power of community and music.” “Routine international touring is unsustainable-and 'unsustainable' means something it's literally not possible to keep doing,” says Feurzeig, who is anticipating the tour to extend into 2026. “I...
A new home for old vinyl
A retired teacher has turned his love of music into a new business in downtown Putney. Next Chapter Records, which offers new and used vinyl records, is now open at 120 Main St. in the former home of Antidote Books, which moved to Brattleboro earlier this year. The store is run by Mitch Harrison, a 56-year-old native of northern New Jersey. For the past 20 years, he's been teaching science to middle schoolers in Alstead, N.H. Now retired, Harrison said...
The despicable patriarchy is rising again
In the last few years, so many women (and men) have shared horrific stories of being raped while young that I've seriously lost my belief in the possibility of the human race surviving. Maybe some other kind of race, but not the human one. The last event that made me wonder about the survival of our species - and of myself, to be honest - was when country singer Naomi Judd killed herself the day before she was to be...