The new year brings new exhibits to the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center.
Open Call NXNE 2017 and “Change Your Mind: Carolyn Enz Hack,” open Saturday, Jan. 14, with a brunch reception, free and open to all, at 11 a.m.
Open Call NXNE 2017 is BMAC's latest juried exhibit. Approximately 150 photographers and video artists from New England and New York submitted work for consideration by juror Bernard Yenelouis of L. Parker Stephenson Photographs in New York City, according to a news release.
Yenelouis selected 24 artists for inclusion in the exhibit, with work encompassing inkjet and gelatin silver prints, cyanotypes, dye sublimation printing on fabric, video installation, digital animation, and leporello books.
Next Stage Arts will bring together young writers, performers, and musicians to explore the meaning of poetry, as part of its ongoing literary series, Next Stage Speaks, on Friday, Jan. 13, at 7 p.m. Young adults will share original material, published pieces, live music, and the power of the...
The municipal election season in Brattleboro began with a surprise at the Jan. 3 Selectboard meeting when Board Chair David Gartenstein announced he wouldn't seek re-election. “After six years of serving, I'm not standing for re-election,” he said at the meeting. Gartenstein encouraged people to take out petitions for...
Runamok Maple, a Cambridge, Vt.-based maker of all-natural, organic maple syrup, including a collection of barrel-aged, smoked, and infused maple syrups, recently announced the acquisition of Brattleboro-based Bascom Maple Farms' maple candy operation. According to a news release, the candy operation of Bascom Maple Farms, consisting of maple candy and maple butter, will be owned by Runamok Maple and operated under the name of True North Maple, a newly developed maple candy brand from Runamok Maple. True North Maple will...
It took me until the age of 54, but finally my luck at avoiding a major illness and hospitalization ended in 2016. I spent five days in March at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) in Lebanon, N.H., after being hospitalized with what the doctors called an idiopathic autoimmune hemolytic anemia. Translation: my bone marrow hiccuped and stopped producing reticulocytes, or the good red blood cells, and my hemoglobin count got dangerously low. The good news was that there was no cancer,
Vermont Theatre Company is looking for directors for its 2017-2018 season. Anyone interested in submitting a proposal is welcome to do so. Simply send an email to Brandon Batham (brandonbatham@gmail.com), the head of VTC's Artistic Committee. According to a news release, candidates should include the following information: a resume, a copy of the script they are proposing; a brief description of the play, a statement describing their intent for the show and why they feel VTC should put on the...
Selectboard signs another VSP contract GUILFORD - The Selectboard unanimously voted to sign a new contract with the Vermont State Police at the Dec. 12 Board meeting - but this is the second contract the town signed with the VSP this year. Board Chair Sheila Morse told her colleagues that although earlier in the year they negotiated a 12-month contract with the VSP, which began on July 1, “they changed it to a six-month contract,” which was set to expire...
As I drove past the Townshend Dam Diner - that one-of-a-kind best-turkey-croquettes eatery sandwiched between Townshend and Jamaica on Route 30 - I realized how long it'd been since I'd been up that way. And certainly how long it'd been since I whipped through Rawsonville, a tiny crisscross of energy at the junction of Routes 30 and 100. The spouse and I had motored through this village lots of times in the old days, when the Manchester outlets' promise of...
College news • Olivia Milne of Brattleboro qualified for the fall 2016 Dean's List at Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn. • Evan Perkins of Brattleboro was named to the fall 2016 Dean's List at Hudson Valley Community College in Troy, N.Y. Perkins is studying in the heating/air conditioning/refrigeration technical services academic program. • Paige Gargett of Jamaica, a sophomore and an early childhood education major, and Nicole Winot of Brookline, a junior and a cinema production major, were named to...
Equine Sport, Ltd. Junction Routes 30 and 100, Rawsonville, VT 05115; 800-282-6665 • Website: equipesport.com • Facebook: facebook.com/EquipeSport • Instagram: instagram.com/equipesportvt • Founded: Domestic profit corporation, incorporated in Vermont in 1989. Company owns trade name “Best Bootfitting.” • Employees: 12 • Annual revenue: Est. $1.8 million • Products/services: Four-season outdoor sports shops and online store, with equipment for skiing, riding, cross country skiing, telemarking, snowshoeing, kayaking, and hiking. Rawsonville Marketplace, Ltd. 8701 Vermont Route 30, Rawsonville, VT 05115; 802-297-0427 •
The Windham Solid Waste Management District adopted a new Solid Waste Implementation Plan in 2015. Valid for five years, the Plan sets goals and performance standards for solid waste management as required by Vermont's Universal Recycling Law, Act 148, according to a news release. According to the Plan, WSWMD will provide educational programs for residents, schools, businesses, and institutions on recommended practices for reduction of waste, diversion of recyclables and organic materials, textile reuse/recycling, construction/demolition debris recycling, hazardous waste disposal,
Since 2012, the local chapters of two international service clubs - the Whitingham-Halifax Lions and the Deerfield Valley Rotary - have been working together to bring light and joy to hundreds in the Deerfield Valley who are in need of food. Their December 2016 “Holiday Food Basket” project proved to be their largest joint endeavor to date. On a very snowy Dec. 17, Lions & Rotarians spread out from Halifax to Wardsboro to deliver food to more than 150 families,
Merry Mulch tree collection program returns BRATTLEBORO - The Brattleboro Union High School Music Department is once again offering the Merry Mulch Christmas tree collection service to Brattleboro residents. This program, in its 26th year, is endorsed by the Vermont Department of Agriculture as well as the New Hampshire/Vermont Christmas Tree Association. For a $10 donation, members of the band and chorus will transport undecorated trees from homes to a community garden in West Brattleboro where they will be chipped...
The Putney Public Library, 55 Main St., will host Brattleboro poet Daniel A. Heller for a reading from his recently published book, Between the Shadows, on Thursday, Jan. 12, at 7 p.m. The reading is free and open to the public. In Heller's words, “Many of the poems in this book come from the dark corners of my heart. By giving verbal form to these ideas I hope to be able to at least look at them if not actually...
Will 2017 be the year that Brattleboro finally gets a skateboarding park? It might be, if BASIC (Brattleboro Area Skatepark is Coming), the town committee that has been working for years to build a skatepark in town, can raise about $173,000 to do the construction work at Living Memorial Park. According to a news release, the last regulatory hurdle for the skatepark was cleared in November, when the town received a modification to Living Memorial Park's existing Act 250 permit...
On Sundays in January, Main Street Arts and the Saxtons River Historical Society are again presenting a series of Fireside Chats to highlight the area's history, from 5:30 to 6:45 p.m. in the dining room of the Saxtons River Inn. On Jan. 15, the topic will be “Myths in Vermont History,” a look at the truth behind some of the stories passed down through the years. Presenter will be local historian John Leppman. On Jan. 29, a talk on wool...
The art of the late Jerry Pfohl is the focus of an exhibition entitled New England Landscapes at Main Street Arts from Jan. 9 to Feb. 24, with an opening reception Thursday, Jan. 12, from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Pfohl employed a wide variety of styles and subjects, with this retrospective focusing on local and regional landscapes such as the Vilas Bridge in Bellows Falls, according to a news release. A resident of Acworth, N.H., until his death in 2010,
Entergy awards $15,000 to Project Feed VERNON - Entergy Charitable Foundation awarded a $15,000 grant to Groundworks Collaborative Food Shelf toward the 2016 fundraising goal of Project Feed the Thousands. “Vermont Yankee employees have a special relationship with Groundworks Collaborative Food Shelf,” Vermont Yankee Decommissioning Director Jack Boyle said in a news release. “Over the past decade, Entergy, through both grant funding and volunteer labor, has helped the Drop-In Center increase its ability to address community needs.” Since Entergy purchased...
The Crowell Gallery at the Moore Free Library, 23 West St., presents an exhibit of its permanent collection during the month of January. This outstanding collection, featuring Vermont art collected by Robert & Muriel Crowell, was donated to the Moore Free Library in 2000. According to a news release, artists represented in this collection include Clare Adams, Eric Aho, David Brewster, Barbara Comfort, Janet Fish, James Florshutz, Michaela Harlow, Mary Hermandsader, Wolf Kahn, Mallory Lake, Emily Mason, Jules Olitski, Susan...
Musician Ben Yelle says he and his string band, Blackjack Crossing, have “never been an overtly political band, but these are different times.” With the inauguration of Donald J. Trump just days away, Yelle said he wanted to do something constructive to counter the plans of the president-elect. So Yelle has put together a benefit concert in Brattleboro for the Vermont chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. The show, which features three local bands, is Saturday, Jan. 14, starting...
On Sunday, Jan. 15, at 3 p.m., Open Music Collective will present the returning duo Contra-Temp, featuring virtuoso bassist Salvatore Macchia. Contra-Temp is an exciting “new music” duo that features composer/performers Salvatore Macchia on contrabass and Jazer Giles on electronics. Their repertoire is made up of pieces for solo bass, bass and synthesized sound, bass and live electronics, and bass live electronics and interactive video, according to a news release. Although the group is actively involved in commissioning new works,
The Brattleboro Food Co-op staff and board of directors recently announced they will be honoring Martin Luther King Jr. on Monday, Jan. 16, with numerous social justice and activist organizations featured in the store throughout the day. There also will be a free screening of the movie “13th” in the evening, live music, and, of course, food. The idea for the event grew out of the Co-op board of directors' newly formed Engagement Committee, as well as feedback from staff.
Happy New Year to everybody who reads these words, and to all of those who don't, because I'm an equal opportunity Happy New Year wisher! The next two to three weeks especially will feature an atmospheric see-saw of weather conditions and hazards, so expect cool-downs and what I like to call mild-ups, since temperatures in the 40s can't really be classified as “warm.” Let's jump into the details, shall we? * * * For Wednesday, a cold front will be...
Entergy has found an unlikely ally in its quest to sell Vermont Yankee, and some anti-nuclear activists aren't happy about it. Elizabeth Miller - formerly an Entergy adversary in two prominent roles in state government - now is listed among the attorneys representing the company as it seeks state Public Service Board permission to sell the defunct Vernon plant to a New York-based cleanup specialist. Miller, who is now a private attorney in Burlington, confirmed her role in the sale...
A long-running state investigation of the Brattleboro Retreat may soon be finished. Sixteen months after the Vermont attorney general's probe first made headlines, an official said the inquiry - which came on the heels of a former staffer's Medicaid fraud allegations - is “still active,” but is mostly complete. “A large majority of that has been concluded, and it's only a single issue that's still under investigation,” said Jason Turner, an assistant attorney general and director of the office's Medicaid...
Auto parts manufacturer Sonnax Industries has been held up as a model for employee ownership. But federal regulators now are taking legal action, alleging that the process by which the Rockingham company was sold to its staffers was “fundamentally flawed” and led to “sizable financial losses” totaling millions of dollars for the employee stock ownership plan. The defendants named in the U.S. Department of Labor's suit include Sonnax; two company administrators who benefitted from the sale; and First Bankers Trust...
As I write, we are mere days from the inauguration of Donald J. Trump - a political D-day in my view. I wasn't surprised by Trump's presidential victory, but I was horrified and so very ashamed of our country. America has elected a man who personifies the ugliest of human traits: greed, arrogance (the flip side of insecurity), cruelty, and self-aggrandizement, to name a few. A serial liar with such unlimited hubris that he thinks that he alone can untangle...
In the beginning of December, Colchester's Islamic Society of Vermont (ISVT) received an anonymous letter with a hateful message. A few weeks later, during an interfaith meeting to show support for the mosque's congregation, Imam Islam Hassan noted how one negative letter brought in 500 letters of support and love. One attendee noted “hundreds of postcards” arrived bearing “hearts of love." Most of those postcards came from Local Love Brigade, a Brattleboro-based independent grassroots organization founded by Ann Braden. Members...
For years, administrators have been planning a large-scale upgrade of the Brattleboro Memorial Hospital campus to address long-term needs. But those efforts got a big boost in 2014, when Brattleboro resident Ronald Read bequeathed $6 million to the hospital. Now, that money will play a significant role in a proposed $22.7 million, four-story expansion that is expected to house new operating rooms, medical offices, and cardiopulmonary rehabilitation facilities. The hospital has filed paperwork for state approval of the project, which...
On Dec. 2, I flew to Chicago for a national gathering of citizens concerned about the growing stockpile of nuclear waste from power generation in the United States. The participants were all people who share an understanding that there is no good answer to this problem, that any “solution” is rife with dangers, and that creating more of this poison is immoral and imperils our future. Three of us from the area participated in this summit. We brought our familiarity...
Different eras have their own pathologies. The 1950s were the “age of anxiety,” in W.H. Auden's famous phrase, and I came of age in the era when paranoia and cults were a predominant feature. In the epigraph to his novel Howards End, E.M. Forster wrote: “only connect.” This phrase, which I first read in 1978, has always stuck with me, as I am a veteran of conspiracy theories and the cults built around them. It has been a long time...
When you've only played one game in three weeks, it's fair to expect a little rustiness. That seemed to be the case for the Brattleboro Colonels girls' basketball team. Between the schedule, school vacation, and weather cancellations, the Colonels played only one game between Dec. 13 and Jan. 4 - a 64-36 loss at Champlain Valley on Dec. 22. The Colonels played their first home game of the season on Jan. 4 against St. Johnsbury, and the Hilltoppers looked a...
On Saturday, Jan. 14, at 7 p.m., local farmer, fiddler, and singer Jay Bailey will be joined by friends and family in presenting Singing through the Seasons: Songs of Farming and Life. The concert at the New England Youth Theatre, 100 Flat St., is a benefit for NEYT's “Angels in the Wings” scholarship fund, according to a news release. Jay and Janet Bailey have been diversified family farmers at Fair Winds Farm in Brattleboro for 38 years. Working as a...
During the month of January, nine members of Brattleboro-West Arts will gather to display their work at the Robert H. Gibson River Garden at 157 Main St. Conceived at the suggestion of Orly Munzing, the founder of the Strolling of the Heifers organization, the show will feature paintings in gouache, acrylic, and oil; photographs; hooked and braided wall hangings; and large-scale prints. New BWA member Kay Curtis will be showing with the group for the first time. The work of...
At the Dec. 12 regular Selectboard meeting, the Board unanimously approved Rescue, Inc.'s Fiscal Year 2018 contract to provide the town with ambulance service, but many board members questioned the cost - and one member questioned whether the town needed to support Rescue, Inc. at all. Rescue, Inc., chartered in 1966, is the Brattleboro-based nonprofit providing emergency medical services to 15 towns in southern Vermont and southern New Hampshire, including Guilford. It is governed by a Board of Trustees composed...
The Vermont Jazz Center presents Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah's Stretch Music on Saturday, Jan. 14, at 8 p.m. According to a news release, Scott aTunde Adjuah is one of the leading voices of his generation - a composer, a bandleader, a record producer, an educator, an articulate activist championing racial equality and prison reform, and an eloquent speaker whose goals include “reaching a consensus to move forward.” Scott aTunde Adjuah will perform on trumpet as well as on two custom-designed...
Kathy Leo, the founder and director of Hallowell Singers, last month published On the Breath of Song: the Practice of Bedside Singing for the Dying, a book that offers guidance and insight into the practice of singing for the dying and their families. Through the telling of true stories and over a decade of experience in song and spirit with the Hallowell hospice choir, Leo has written a guidebook for anyone offering end of life care or helping a loved...