BRATTLEBORO - On Wednesday, Sept. 18, at 7 p.m. at Brooks Memorial Library, 224 Main St., Isaac Evans-Frantz and Neda Saleh from Action Corps will discuss how their organization mobilized a coalition that achieved the bipartisan passage of a bill in Congress to end the U.S. and Saudi war on Yemen.
The group brought together Yemeni-Americans, peace activists, and NGOs, which together achieved this result for the U.S. peace movement. An audience Q&A will follow the presentation.
Join us either in person or online by registering for the event at bit.ly/781-Yemen.
This program is one segment of the fall 2024 Snapshot season from Vermont Humanities, which presents online and live humanities presentations every week. The full schedule is available at vermonthumanities.org.
GRAFTON-On Sunday, Sept. 15, at 5:30 p.m. Bard Owl - T. Breeze Verdant and Annie Landenberger - will be featured performers in the Grafton Community Church's (GCC) 2024 Evensong Series. In lieu of morning worship that Sunday, the church offers the Evensong tradition coordinated by GCC music minister Ken...
BRATTLEBORO-Internationally known Sandglass Theater of Putney is sharing some of its puppets with the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center (BMAC) this summer and fall during the exhibit "From Home/To Home," currently on view through Oct. 19. The exhibit highlights two Sandglass productions and coincides with the theater's 12th "Puppets...
BELLOWS FALLS-The Bandwagon Summer Series, presented by Next Stage Arts, is coming to Bellows Falls at the Robertson Paper Mill lot on 21 Island St. for an outdoor concert with La Sonora Mazurén on Sunday, Sept. 15, at 5 p.m. La Sonora Mazurén is a seven-piece band from Colombia. "They are the latest of the rich indie-tropical scene out of Bogotá," say organizers. Deeply rooted in the popular sounds and rhythms of South America, the group draws from cumbia, chicha,
BRATTLEBORO-Juventas New Music Ensemble presents "Studio to Stage" on Friday, Sept. 13, at 7 p.m. at the Brattleboro Music Center. Juventas New Music Ensemble is a contemporary chamber group with a focus on emerging voices. Ensemble members say they "reimagine classical music as a vibrant living art form, uplifting rising voices and bringing audiences music from a diverse array of composers that live in today's world and respond to our time." The group's work has been recognized with multiple American...
BRATTLEBORO-Since 1910, 196 Main St. has been the location for Brattleboro Lodge of Freemasons. Over time, there have been hundreds of Freemasons who have met there for fellowship, learning, and planning programs to benefit members and the community. However, the Lodge's board of directors said in a news release that "increases in maintenance costs, new areas of community interest competing with the Masons, and the recent Covid pandemic have affected the levels of membership, and consequently the funds the lodge...
WEST BRATTLEBORO-Brattleboro Area Jewish Community (BAJC) announces youth programming enrollment for the 2024–25 school year. BAJC offers three programs for different age groups: • Yalla Chaverim ("Let's go friends!"), ages 6–13 (grade 1–8). This joyous Jewish kids' community meets twice per month during the school year. Highlights include baking in BAJC's outdoor oven, puppet shows, crafts, singing, ethical discussions, traditional practices, and Hebrew language learning. Registration required; scholarships available. • Tot Shabbat, birth–age 6. Young children and their parents are...
HALIFAX-DVFiber and the Halifax Community Broadband Committee is celebrating high-speed fiber internet coming to Halifax with an ice cream social on Saturday, Sept. 14, from 11 a.m to 2 p.m. at the Halifax Community Hall, 20 Brook Rd., in West Halifax. The family-friendly celebration will feature the Halifax Ice Cream Wagon, and DVFiber representatives will be available to answer questions about service and construction. DVFiber is also hosting a free screening of Connected: Vermont Grassroots Effort for Rural Broadband on...
BRATTLEBORO-The Ethiopian Community Development Council (ECDC) and The Multicultural Community Center (MCC) are relocating from their current home on Birge Street to Bliss House on the SIT Graduate Institute campus. According to a news release, this move "will streamline services for the newest Vermonters while allowing the MCC to expand its programming to meet the growing needs of our community." The final day on Birge Street will be Friday, Oct. 18, with the new location opening on Monday, Oct. 21.
Obituaries • Nancy J. (Rock) Chamberlin, 90, of West Dummerston. Died peacefully on Sept. 2, 2024, surrounded by her loving family, at Vernon Green Nursing Home from complications of cancer and Alzheimer's disease. Nancy was born March 1, 1934, to John and Margaret (Beckius) Rock, and grew up in her extended family's large home. She attended Forestville and Bristol (Conn.) schools and graduated Bristol High School, class of 1952, where she was passionately engaged as a multi-sport athlete, and as...
BRATTLEBORO-Brattleboro Sunrise Rotary continues their walking history tour of Brattleboro this fall, offering participants a journey through time while supporting a worthy cause. This fundraiser will take place on Saturdays, Sept. 14 and 28, and Oct. 26, at 11 a.m. Led by knowledgeable local Rotarian guides, attendees will spend 90 minutes walking up Main Street, delving into its fascinating history from its early beginnings to its present-day charm. "Whether you're just visiting or have lived here your whole life, we're...
BRATTLEBORO-St. Michael's Episcopal Church Rector the Rev. Mary Lindquist recently announced that the St. Michael's Choir School, which its previous music director, Susan Dedell, started in 2014 and ran until the pandemic, is coming back this fall, although with a new name and new focus. "This children's choral program sponsored by St. Michael's, now named Beloved Community Youth Choir, aims to develop both social and musical skills in youth by using music to instill the practices of Rev. Martin Luther...
SAXTONS RIVER-The Sunday music series at the Saxtons River Park continues on Sept. 15 at 4 p.m. with the group Swing Low, who describe their style as "jazz standards and pop classics with mesmerizing vocals and swinging grooves." The four-member group includes Nick Scalero on saxophone, Ashok on bass, Maryann McArdle on keyboard, and vocalist Ajlan Beer. Rain date is Sept. 22. The series concludes on Sept. 29 at 3 p.m. with the Main Street Arts String Band under the...
BRATTLEBORO-Epsilon Spires will host a fundraiser for New England Center for Circus Arts (NECCA) to celebrate Friday the 13th with "one of the most bizarre silent films to come out of Hollywood," according to organizers, accompanied by a live pipe organ soundtrack by Jeff Rapsis. Epsilon Spires' immersive sight and sound experience begins at 8 p.m. The Unknown (1927) features Lon Chaney's performance as carnival knife thrower "Alonzo the Armless" who throws knives with his feet in a daring circus...
BRATTLEBORO-Join 118 Elliot and their partners at Burlington City Arts and the American Institute for Architects Vermont for a monthly exploration of art and ideas through live film screenings (with a virtual screening option) mid-month Wednesdays with refreshments and conversation, all free (donations accepted to help cover costs) at 118 Elliot, 118 Elliot St. The series begins with Lost Silverfish of Berlin (Germany/UK, 59 minutes in English with some subtitles, 2024) which will screen on Wednesday, Sept. 18. Doors open...
BRATTLEBORO-Mark Treinkman's full-throated advocacy of genocide provides us with a patronizing litany of reasons why Israel should be able to continue to slaughter babies, torture doctors, rape prisoners, dismember children, bomb ambulances, bulldoze homes, starve an entire population, and carry out other horrors that are illegal under international and U.S. law. None of this is rhetorical. If the Gaza genocide has been too much for you lately - if you have chosen to look away - know that it is...
PUTNEY-This week, Sandglass Theater presents the 12th edition of the Puppets in the Green Mountains (PGM) international festival. Local and international artists and community leaders bring to life this year's theme "Just Around the Bend." Organizers say the festival "celebrates the thriving art of puppet theater as a means of enhancing perspectives, generating compassion, and celebrating the human spirit." The festival offers family shows, shows for adults, and workshops and forum discussions, all in and around the Brattleboro area. Venues...
-The cross country season began with a meet at Bellows Falls Union High School on Sept. 3. While Burr & Burton won the boys' and girls' event by having more and better runners than the other schools, the Brattleboro and Bellows Falls teams both showed that they may not have the numbers just yet but they do have some outstanding runners right now. Bellows Falls did not have enough girls to compile a team score, but they do have one...
BRATTLEBORO-A great tsunami of pain is coming toward us, and there's no getting out of the way. Oh, sorry. False alarm. It's already here. I'm talking about homelessness. We see some piece of the situation every day. On the streets, camped by the river, in the library, panhandling near the supermarkets. Every day we see people who are vulnerable, exposed, and hungry. Vulnerable to violence, to theft, to all sorts of criminality. Exposed. So exposed. Imagine not ever having a...
BRATTLEBORO-With wars raging in Ukraine and Gaza, plus a very uncertain presidential race in the United States, the Windham World Affairs Council's annual Galbraith Lecture featured a wide-ranging and candid discussion that touched on Afghanistan, Cuba, Ukraine, the Leahy Amendment as it applies to Hamas and Israel, and other hot foreign policy issues. "A Meeting of the Minds: Peter Galbraith and Tim Rieser Discuss What Lies Ahead - U.S. Foreign Policy Today and After the Election" featured two long-time insiders:
BRATTLEBORO-When I was a child, I read The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank. I had nightmares of hiding in a wall, under a floor, in the attic. Anne was discovered by the relentless killers who finally destroyed her life. As I grew older, I wondered about the men who tortured people in the concentration camps. Doctors who masterminded cruel experiments. It was a terrible mystery. Today, I wonder how people can torture, rape, maim, and kill Palestinians.
WESTMINSTER WEST-To Linda Hecker: Yes, apologies are due, but not to you. Apologies are due from you to all of the students and parents of students in your husband's classes at Brattleboro Union High School. I am a parent of a 1995 grad, one who was not affected by Zeke Hecker's grooming and sexual molestation. I asked my daughter, and she said "He was weird." She steered clear. But there are an awful lot of folks angry at you, Linda,
NEWFANE-What an interesting juxtaposition on the front page. A woman in her 90s who grew up during the Depression when "everybody was poor, but we didn't know it [...] we were all the same" ["'They were tough times, but we made the best of it,'" News, Aug. 28]. She attended a one-room schoolhouse - which probably meant a one-employee schoolhouse - with one teacher who managed successfully to instruct all the children in all the subjects in grades 1–8. The...
BROOKLINE-I loved this column by Joyce Marcel! I have admired and appreciated her writing for a long time, but this one was particularly impactful for me. I lived for 30 years on the end of Cape Cod, prior to moving up here. At the community-supported radio station out there, WOMR (Outermost Radio), I was a volunteer DJ in the '90s playing primarily folk music, and I always highlighted people making the rounds of the "Greater Boston area" coffeehouse circuit, which...
BRATTLEBORO-When local police studied the nearly 29,000 calls they've received in the past three years, they discovered the 20 people most cited for problems accounted for 1,700 - or 6% - of all complaints. That was only the first surprise. Most calls about the top 20 didn't involve criminal behavior, but disorderly conduct, disputes, and disturbances often linked to alcohol and drug use or mental health issues, municipal statistics show. But when authorities identified the offenders to area social service...
Addie Lentzner was a Vermont delegate at the Democratic National Convention in August. Among many other accomplishments, she is founder and executive director of the Vermont Student Anti-Racism Network, the founder of the End Homelessness VT Coalition, and interim chair of the Bennington Democrats. She is a member of the Middlebury College class of 2027. BENNINGTON-I stood with the bright lights shining on my face, the cheers of delegates ringing in my ears, and my mind skipped a beat. I...
WESTMINSTER WEST-I have known Rep. Michelle Bos-Lun for over 20 years as a teacher and youth program leader and since 2021 as my state representative. Michelle gets up at 5 a.m. every day and gets to work on our behalf. She's motivated by her passion and capacity to positively impact Vermont and the communities she serves (Westminster, Rockingham, and Brookline). She is boldly addressing the core challenges of our time, from affordable housing to climate change. If you agree we...
BRATTLEBORO-There have been highs, there have been lows, and then there was the Democratic National Convention. "Ebullient" would be the best word to describe Vermont U.S. Rep. Becca Balint going into the event, which was held in Chicago from Aug. 19 to 22 to formally nominate Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as the Democrats' candidates in the November election. "It felt like the roof was being blown off the top of the convention center by the...
Tim Stevenson, a community organizer with Post Oil Solutions, is author of Resilience and Resistance: Building Sustainable Communities for a Post Oil Age (Green Writers Press) and Transformative Activism: A Values Revolution in Everyday Life in a Time of Societal Collapse (Apocryphile Press). Contact him at [email protected]. ATHENS-The fix is in. (Or at least it's being attempted!) Speaking before a group of Christians on July 26, Donald Trump told them to "get out and vote. Just this time. You won't...
HINSDALE, N.H.-Third Act has it wrong. If you drive, ride, or take a bus to a protest, you benefited from fossil fuels. To protest a bank investment in fossil fuels makes a person not only uninformed but also a hypocrite. Everything from the clothes on your back to literally everything you consume was brought by fossil fuels (trucks). Your smartphone? That has plastics (based in petroleum), and if you have stayed or know someone in a hospital, petroleum-based plastics are...
The writer represents District 9 in Brattleboro's Representative Town Meeting, BRATTLEBORO-The difference between our faltering two-party democracy and those with a much-more-vibrant multiparty system has been on my mind more than ever lately. Trevor Noah made an observation in an interview recently that in most places around the world people are far less tribal in their approach to politics. What comes with having more choices of parties and candidates is a far greater willingness to be critical of those they...
Karen Walter originally wrote this piece as a letter for her family, and some encouraged her to submit it to the newspaper. WESTMINSTER-Why I am a democratic American patriot: • You must know that our democracy was formed after many immigrants of many years had to go to war to ward off British tyrants. The Revolutionary War provided the opportunity for Americans to work to write the Constitution and begin a democratic experimental government. • To this day there is...
NEWFANE-Crowell Art Gallery at Moore Free Library, 23 West St., will present a variety of art work by Gayle Robertson through Sunday, Sept. 29. For Robertson, making art is an expression of the experience of being alive- "it's either a reflection of my life, what's happening in and around me and for me, or it's filling a need I have," she says. The show offers a range of her art - paintings (watercolor and oils), some prints, collage, sculptures (wax,
BRATTLEBORO-The cronyism shown by the town of Brattleboro in the face of Kurt Daims's noble effort to house the homeless is disgusting and available for all to see. Shame on hypocrites to claim to be patriotic, law-abiding citizens who in reality stab their neighbor in the back. Shame on the town for pretending there is no housing crisis in Brattleboro, as if that were by definition different from a crisis of homelessness. The state of Vermont has more homeless people...
BRATTLEBORO-Constitution Week, Sept. 17 to 23, commemorates the signing of the Constitution of the United States. Did you know that the only place the word "Lord" or any reference to God appears in the Constitution is in the date? Phrases like "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal" and "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness"' are not in the Constitution but are from the Declaration of Independence. Likewise, the phrase "of the people,