• A burial service for Martha Jane O'Brien “Marty” Fenn will be held Sunday, Sept. 17, at noon, in the Rural Cemetery in Center Sandwich N.H. She will join her husband, Jerry Fenn, as the seventh generation of family buried in that cemetery. Mrs. Fenn died on July 26, 2017 at the age of 87.
...The Brattleboro Women's Chorus will begin its 22nd fall session in September with a repertoire featuring an eclectic mix of songs about love and music. Any woman or girl 10 or older is welcome to participate. Under the direction of Becky Graber, rehearsals are either Wednesday nights or Thursday...
Actors Theatre Playhouse will pay tribute to American playwright Edward Albee with a Saturday night staged reading of one of his most highly acclaimed dramas, A Delicate Balance. It premiered in 1966 and won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the first of three that Albee, who died last year,
Main Street will be busy with special sales on Saturday, Sept. 2, when the Grafton Historical Society and the Grafton Public Library hold their annual fundraising events. The Grafton Historical Society will hold its Bake Sale, Mum Sale, and Silent Auction from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in front of its museum on Main Street. At the same time, the Grafton Public Library will be selling myriad used books on the library lawn near the bridge on Main Street from...
Borter's Jewelry Studio is bringing together the skills of three local jewelers to offer a series of beginner and intermediate metal-smithing workshops. Bob Borter, who has been making and selling his jewelry in Brattleboro for more than 30 years, will co-teach the classes with fellow silversmiths Susanna Haas (susannahaasjewelry.com) and Chris Lann (chrislanndesigns.com), according to a news release. Borter said the trio wants to give budding jewelers a taste of what other Brattleboro collectives such as Brattleboro Clayworks, Fire Arts,
As the second whitest state in the nation, Vermont is distinctively poised to address the atrocities that were perpetrated in Charlottesville on Aug. 12. White people, myself included, are responsible for living out what so many of us here preach: anti-racism, acceptance of all religions, and especially taking action to further these ideals. While Vermont may seem insular in many ways, we are a part of this country, and we are a part of its lackluster and abhorrent (to say...
The Vermont Jazz Center will host a 10-week session of classes beginning the week of Sept. 18. Courses include an expanded youth program for ages 10 to 16, an ensemble led by bebop master Scott Mullett (Blue Note Ensemble), Anna Patton's popular Soubrette Choir, the VJC's Latin Jazz Ensemble, and Julian Gerstin's Afro-Caribbean Percussion & Rhythms. A new offering this year is Ben Carr's Jazz Uke Ensemble. “Consider joining a combo and learning to perform classic jazz compositions while being...
On Sept. 7, from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m., Grace Cottage Hospital and Brattleboro Area Hospice will host a community screening of the documentary Being Mortal. After the screening, audience members can participate in a facilitated conversation about the film, including how to identify and communicate one's wishes about end-of-life goals and preferences. The panel discussion will be facilitated by Robert Backus, M.D. A panel of local healthcare professionals will join the conversation: Susanne Shapiro, RN, Director of West River Valley...
Williams Street closed for repairs BRATTLEBORO - The Department of Public Works said Williams Street will be closed for about two weeks to repair the deck of the bridge between West Street and Whetstone Drive. Residents within the closure will have access to their homes. Through traffic, including pedestrians and bicyclists, will need to seek alternate routes during the closure. For more information, contact Highway and Utilities Superintendent Hannah Tyler at 802-254-4255 or htyler@brattleboro.org. State Police to step up traffic...
More than two years after its inception, a wood heat program fueled by a $1.6 million allocation from Vermont Yankee appears to be kicking into high gear. Windham Wood Heat Initiative, which promotes high-efficiency wood boiler installation, has funded three completed projects with five more in progress. Five of those new heating systems are in school buildings. The program also has a newly extended deadline, and officials have begun allowing nonprofit organizations to participate. Previously, the program had been limited...
This year's Guilford Fair features three days of live music. On Saturday, Sept. 2, from 1 to 3 p.m., there is a pre-fair concert featuring Kevin Parry playing “new and used Blues.” Parry uses acoustic, electric, and resonator guitars to complement his singing and harmonica playing. On Sunday, Sept. 3, at 10 a.m. “The Lonesome Brothers,” featuring Ray Mason, Jim Armenti, and Keith Levreault play their original music style that they call “Hick Rock.” At 12:30 p.m., Trailer Park, featuring...
On Sept. 11, Open Music Collective will be starting its fall semester with the return of its Jazz Vocal Repertoire class and evening Jazz Ensemble. After a long hiatus, OMC is happy to announce its return to offering classes that were once a staple of the music community. Jamie MacDonald, a founder and teacher of these ensembles (and Open Music Collective) is newly returned after earning a master's in music performance in double bass from the University of Massachusetts and...
As part of his 2017 U.S. fall tour, fingerstyle guitarist and guitar-maker Peter Ciluzzi is set to perform at Hooker-Dunham Theater and Gallery on Saturday, Sept. 9, at 8 p.m. Ciluzzi's music takes listeners on a journey through “virtuosic, evocative compositions that tell a story without words,” according to a news release. His acclaimed solo instrumental work has accumulated millions of views on YouTube and more than 6 million plays on Spotify. As a luthier, his performances also showcase some...
Act 46, Vermont's school consolidation law, gets a lot of ink on the front page of our newspaper. But it will also have an effect on matters written about on this page. At their annual preseason meeting with the media last week in Montpelier, the Vermont Principals' Association dropped a lot of hints that as smaller school districts merge, Division IV, the smallest classification for Vermont schools, will not be around much longer. The VPA announced new guidelines, requiring that...
Vendor applications are being accepted for the 12th season of the Brattleboro Winter Farmers' Market, which will be held at the River Garden in the heart of Brattleboro. Space for new vendors is limited, but interested parties are encouraged to submit an application prior to the Sept. 15 deadline. The Brattleboro Winter Farmers' Market opens Nov. 4 for the 2017-18 season and will be open every Saturday through March 31, 2018, for a total of 22 markets. Weekly market hours...
I have listened with great interest to the rhetoric concerning the removal of Confederate monuments and the demonstrations about such actions. The problem is that all this just does not go far enough. We must not just destroy in order to save, we must address the hearts and minds of the Philistines. We are ignoring the greatest danger of all, especially to our children: books and, to some extent, film. Take Gone with the Wind as an example of a...
LATCHfest, a two-day showcase of local music, performers, and video art, returns to the Latchis Theatre on Friday and Saturday, Sept. 1 and 2. A homegrown music and arts festival, LATCHfest promotes and celebrates Brattleboro's sonic scene with 10 local bands offering an array of sounds and styles. Music on Friday, Sept. 1, runs from 8 to 11 p.m., in the Latchis Underground (enter on Flat Street). The festival continues Saturday, Sept. 2, in the Latchis Main Theatre from 4:30...
Main Street Arts is holding auditions for its March musical, Jesus Christ Superstar, Friday, Sept. 8, from 6 to 9 p.m. and Saturday, Sept. 9, from 1 to 3 p.m. Performances in March will take place at the Bellows Falls Opera House. The show is being cast gender blind, with all roles open to women or men. Those auditioning are asked to prepare a song from the show, although it isn't mandatory. If seeking the role of Judas or Jesus,
Despite Vermont's big problems with EB-5, the foreign investment program, has led to major expansions at Mount Snow. And that trend may continue, even in the wake of recent news that the federal government intends to shut down the state-run EB-5 regional center. Executives at the Dover resort wouldn't comment on the state's latest EB-5 travails. But Mount Snow administrators in recent weeks have touted their progress on an initial round of EB-5 projects, while also confirming that they've requested...
On Friday and Saturday (Aug. 10, 11) in Charlottesville, Virginia, white supremacist extremists terrorized the people of Charlottesville and the nation when they burned torches and chanted hate speech against Jews, African-Americans, and the LGBTQ community. Their goal was to come out of the shadows and take their online activity to the streets. They traveled from states all around the country, came armed, beat people, ran their cars into people, killed a person, and led to the death of two...
After a long search and some legislative lobbying, Marlboro school officials think they've found their district's niche in Vermont's changing educational landscape. The question is whether state officials will agree. Marlboro School Board members have approved an Act 46 merger plan that would link their district with two other, newly formed districts while also allowing Marlboro to retain its middle school and its current form of governance. The so-called “2x2x1” merger model is a new option created this year by...
The village of Bellows Falls is seeing the tiny house movement as one key to neighborhood revitalization. Work has just been completed on the first micro house built on a permanent foundation in the village, the 256-square-foot Little Sprout on 7 Green St. “We have a fantastic, walkable downtown,” Town Development Director Emmett Dunbar said in a news release. “With restaurants, all services, shops, library, daily rail service to New York - just about anything one might need - all...
After nearly 30 years at the helm of the Brattleboro Music Center's Brattleboro Concert Choir, choral director Susan Dedell has announced that the 2017-18 season will be her last as its music director. Dedell has been artistic director of the Brattleboro Concert Choir since 1990. The Choir, the premier program of the Brattleboro Music Center created by Blanche Moyse in 1950 as the Community Chorus, has employed only three artistic directors during its lifetime: Moyse, Catherine Stockman, and Dedell. Although...
On March 7, 1970, I took off from the Claremont, N.H. airport in a rented Cessna 175 and headed for Nantucket Island to see the eclipse of the sun. The week before, I learned both of the coming eclipse and that its totality would miss the U.S., with the sole exception of our destination. My passengers - son Chris, my companion Nancy, and John MacArthur, astronomer and science professor at Marlboro College - met at my house in Putney and...
Riders confused by The Current's bus schedule will soon get some relief. Officials with Southeast Vermont Transit, the company that runs The Current, Brattleboro's local bus service, are working on a Brattleboro bus system improvement plan. They held two public meetings at the Municipal Center - one in the afternoon and another in the evening - on Aug. 24 to explain the plan. Southeast Vermont Transit Chief Executive Officer Randall Schoonmaker spent a few minutes talking about the project, which...
After discovering elevated radon levels at two elementary schools earlier this year, Windham Central Supervisory Union officials quickly corrected those problems. But the potentially hazardous gas has caused more persistent issues at Leland & Gray Middle and High School, the supervisory union's largest building. With students returning to class, officials say they finally have preliminary test results showing that radon is within acceptable limits at Leland & Gray. They're hoping those numbers will be confirmed by final tests, which will...
Voters finally may get a chance to consider a four-town school district merger in Windham Southeast Supervisory Union. The union's Act 46 Study Committee has approved a proposal for combining districts in Brattleboro, Dummerston, Guilford, and Putney into one new district governed by one board. If the state Board of Education also OK's the plan, the matter will go to voters in those four towns on Nov. 7 The outcome is far from certain, as Windham Southeast's merger talks have...
The day the Senate voted on a bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act, I walked through my day with every muscle in my body taut with anxiety. I checked Twitter regularly, hoping for some clue about how the vote would go. I went to therapy and fretted about the vote and what it might mean for me and my friends. And I had a few small seizures. When the bill failed, I nearly shook with relief. The stakes for...
Good day to you! Our long streak of cooler, sunnier weather dominated by high pressure is beginning to break down a bit. This will result in a few chances for at least scattered showers, if not some heavier downpours and/or thunderstorms at times. Again, no heat waves are in sight as we cast an eye towards September, but a few days near 80 degrees are quite possible. For Wednesday, a coastal low pressure system will be racing northeast to the...
The Boys and Girls Club of Brattleboro has been undergoing renovations this year, and on Friday, Sept. 1, the club will open their space again with a show featuring three bands using its new, high-quality sound system. One local teen band (TBA; playing at 7:30); The Pilgrims (a four-piece indie rock band from Windsor, Vt.; 9 p.m.); and Faux in Love (a four-piece surf-crash/doo-wop group from Vermont; 10 p.m.) will all perform. The event is free, but the BGCB welcomes...
Selectboard Chair Kate O'Connor is the featured guest at the United We Standup political comedy event on Friday, Sept. 1, at 8 p.m., at the Hooker-Dunham Theater. But the pressure is off O'Connor to come up with a bunch of jokes. That job lies with Dan Boulger, who will headline the stand-up comedy portion of the evening's entertainment. Boulger, who has appeared on Comedy Central, the BBC, and the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, is joined by seasoned comedians...
How can we create more sustainable places to live? Tiny House Fest VT 2017 plans to invite fair-goers to explore this question through a multidisciplinary lens. The festival runs Friday through Monday, Sept. 1-4. Flat Street will be closed on Saturday and Sunday to accommodate visitors. Lisa Kuneman, one of the Tiny House Festival VT's organizers, described the goals of the festival and what visitors can expect. “We're trying to be real; we're bringing the regulators and the voters and...