Music
• Atlati at the Stone Church: Atlatl, recent winner of the Battle of the Bands contest at the River Garden, will hold a concert at the Stone Church on Main Street in Brattleboro on Saturday, Feb. 5, at 8 p.m.
Also playing will be Blanche Blanche Blanche, Paula Marie and Strange Little Beasts. A $5 donation at the door is appreciated. All ages welcome.
• Rockabilly star Rosie Flores at Boccelli's: One of the country's foremost female rockabilly/country stars will make a special appearance in Bellows Falls at Boccelli's on the Canal on Friday, Feb. 11.
“Rosie has been named as one of the greatest female guitarists of all time,” Vermont Festivals LLC Producer Ray Massucco, said. “Whether she was touring with Wanda Jackson, sharing the spotlight with Dick Dale, Jimmy Vaughn, or Cindy Cashdollar, narrating the history of rockabilly in the documentary Whole Lotta Shakin' or in front of the cameras during the several movies in which she appeared, Rosie Flores catches your attention.”
Flores's style combines the best of rock and roll, honky tonk, early rockabilly, blues, and jazz with the traditional sounds of her native Texas. Her career took off in Southern California, and she has been a major figure in the Los Angeles, Austin, Texas, and Nashville music scenes, and she has toured Europe and Japan as well, garnering a fan base on the other side of both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
She has recorded with many other artists, and her solo recordings have found homes on both the Billboard and Gavin charts and are featured in seven motion pictures. Her high-energy performances from California to New York have won legions of fans and earned appearances on such nationally broadcast television programs as Austin City Limits and Late Night with Conan O'Brian. She is currently appearing in the documentaries Every Night is Saturday Night: The Story of Wanda Jackson and Sweet Lady with the Nasty Voice.
Tickets are $24 at the door, or $20 in advance, available at Village Square Booksellers and Fat Franks in Bellows Falls, Misty Valley Books in Chester, Brattleboro Books, or online at brattleborotix.com. A limited number of $30, front-row “angel” tickets are also available. While Boccelli's is no longer open for dinner, but desserts and beverages will be available during the concert. For more information, visit the festival's website at www.vermontfestivalsllc.com or call 802-463-9595.
Books
• Meyers gives reading at The Book Cellar: On Friday, Feb. 4, at 6 p.m., The Book Cellar welcomes author, Randy Susan Meyers, for a reading of her new novel, The Murderer's Daughters.
Using her years of work with victims of domestic abuse, batterers, and at-risk youth as inspiration, Meyers has created a dark and moving family drama. The Murderer's Daughters is a story of desperate struggle, redemption, and the powerful bond of sisterhood. The author lives in Boston and teaches writing seminars at the Grub Street Writers' Center.
Call ahead at 802-254-6810, or stop by the store on 120 Main St. in Brattleboro to reserve your seat at the reading.
Performing arts
• VTC presents The Good Doctor: The Vermont Theatre Company announces its production of The Good Doctor by Neil Simon, to be presented at the Hooker-Dunham Theater, 139 Main St., in Brattleboro on Feb. 3-6.
This award winning Broadway hit, set in Russia in the 1800s, is Neil Simon at his best - a very funny parody of Anton Chekhov's comedies, consisting of a series of vignettes connected only by the character of the Writer, who is meant to be Chekhov. The stories are droll, the portraits affectionate, the humor infectious, and the fun unending.
The talented cast of local actors includes Jim Bombicino, Nick Bombicino, Nancy Groff, Abby Hadden, Elizabeth McCollum, John Ogorzalek, Michelle Page, and Eric Walther. A team of three directors - Samuel Murphy, Brenda Seitz and Tracy Therieau - do an excellent job of helping the actors bring Simon's hilarious play to life.
Performances are Thursday-Saturday, Feb. 3-5: 7:30 p.m., with a 3 p.m. matinee on Sunday, Feb. 6. Ticket are $12 for adults, $1o, for seniors and children. All seats are $10 for the Sunday matinee. Seating is limited, call 802-258-1344 for reservations.
• Balkan dance classes: On Feb. 6, from 7-10 p.m., balkan dance classes will be given at The Church, corner of Main & Grove Streets in downtown Brattleboro. A beginner session will also be offered at 6:30 p.m.
There will participatory line and circle dances from the Balkans, with live music by Xopo, featuring Miamon Miller, Becky Ashenden, Chuck Corman and Joe & Barbara Blumenthal. plus guest vocalists. Bring a water bottle and clean, soft-soled shoes to protect the dance floor. All levels welcome.
The cost of the class is on sliding scale, $8-12. Contact Rachel Ackerman at [email protected], or 802-257-9513 or 802-254-2040, for more information.
Lectures
• Black History Month lecture looks at black farming community in Vermont: As part of its programming for Black History Month, Marlboro College will present a free, public lecture by Elise A. Guyette, author of Discovering Black Vermont: African-American Farmers in Hinesburgh, Vermont 1790-1890 on Monday, Feb. 7, at 7 p.m., in Ragle Hall.
Guyette will discuss the research and writing of Discovering Black Vermont (University of Vermont Press, 2010), which began with inquiries into a destroyed black cemetery on a rural hill in Hinesburg. Through town records, court documents, newspapers and photographs, she reconstructed the story of three generations of free blacks trying to build a life and community. The Vermont Historical Society gave the book its 2010 Award of Excellence.
James Brewer Stewart, professor emeritus of history at Macalester College called Discovering Black Vermont, “A gem of a book. Guyette brings this long-overlooked history to life in a manner that is as highly instructive to scholars of race relations and African-American History as it is revealing to general readers.”
Guyette is a former public school teacher and president of the Vermont Alliance for Social Studies (VASS). She is presently a doctoral candidate and an adjunct faculty member at the University of Vermont. Guyette also works as a consultant on ethnohistory, social sciences and curriculum development for schools, theaters, television and museums.
Copies of Discovering Black Vermont will be available for sale at the lecture. In case of inclement weather, call the Marlboro College Events line at 802-451-7151.