Aging from a woman's perspective, loss, and death: topics many avoid in polite conversation.
Madeleine May Kunin faces each one in her new memoir, Coming of Age: My Journey to the Eighties.
Readers and admirers filled the Catherine Dianich Gallery on Oct. 13 for an early-morning presentation and book signing as part of the Brattleboro Literary Festival.
“Life doesn't stop,” Kunin said. “It goes on, and you continue to be curious and make new friends and enjoy the good parts.”...
By the time the closing of the 7-Eleven on Western Avenue was reported in the Brattleboro Reformer on Sept. 24, most residents had known it would be happening a couple of weeks before. Still, the change was abrupt. In the days after the store closed, a chain-link fence surrounded...
Next Stage Arts Project and Twilight Music present contemporary folk singer/songwriters Ellis Paul and Garrin Benfield at Next Stage on Friday, Oct. 19, at 7:30 p.m. Ellis Paul was at the forefront of singer/songwriters that emerged from the Boston folk scene in the 1990s, creating a movement that revitalized...
The Brattleboro Music Center's new Season Guest Concert series continues Saturday, Oct. 20, at 7:30 p.m., in the BMC Auditorium with So Percussion, a group dedicated to promoting the power of music to unite people and forge deep social bonds. The groundbreaking Brooklyn-based quartet redefines the meaning of the term “percussion ensemble.” Though established in 1999 to play contemporary classical works, they have worked with a wide range of composers, musicians, and recording artists to play everything from tea cups...
Michael Poster, the photographer whose exhibit “If She Has A Pulse, She Has A Chance” at the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center was profiled in “Faces of recovery” [Arts, Oct. 10], has recently retired after many years as a professional in the wood industry. The Commons reported in error the energy sector in which the photographer worked.
Traffic calming for walkable villages is the focus of a Sunday, Oct. 14, event to be held at the Williamsville Hall on Dover Road. The evening begins with a community potluck at 5:30 p.m., followed by an open forum centered on making villages safe and walkable through efforts to calm speeding through Williamsville, South Newfane, and Brookside - the villages along Dover Road in the town of Newfane. The evening is hosted by the Newfane Planning Commission and presented by...
Republicans like to complain about the meddling of the “nanny state” as envisioned by Democrats. But one of their own, Governor Phil Scott, has been meddling in our affairs just as obtrusively as any nanny might. Last spring, when voters in towns across Vermont made the hard decisions to raise their school budgets to meet critical needs, Scott repeatedly derided us for not having enough understanding to even know that we were raising our own taxes. Are these the same...
Stone Church Arts brings the minimalist folk style of Sound an Echo, composed of fiddlers Rachael Kilgour and Sara Pajunen, to its concert series at 7:30 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 20, in the Chapel at Immanuel Episcopal Church, the stone church on the hill, at 20 Church St. According to a news release, Kilgour is an award-winning songwriter whose sincere and lyric-driven work - called “a heartfelt slice of indie folk” by Billboard - has been heard at Lincoln Center and...
The West Brattleboro Association's combined annual and monthly meeting is being held on Thursday, Oct. 18, at 6 p.m., in the community room at Hayes Court on Garfield Drive. Refreshments will be provided. This meeting will see the election of Trustees for the coming year. The slate includes Doug Cox, Tim Cuthbertson, Tom French, Joe Jewett, Stewart McDermet, Erin Maile O'Keefe, Felicity Ratte, Adam Silver, and Michael Bosworth. Nominations will also be accepted from the floor. Attendees can also participate...
How does a society rebuild after conflict? What constitutes justice? Those questions will be addressed at a Windham World Affairs Council talk, “Chile After Pinochet,” on Friday, Oct. 19, at 7 p.m., at the 118 Elliot Gallery. The speaker, Patricia Perez Valdes, has worked in the Education and Audience Department of the Museum of Memory and Human Rights, located in Santiago, Chile, since 2011. This museum seeks to draw attention to human rights violations committed between 1973 and 1990 during...
On Thursday, Oct. 18, at 6 p.m., the Brattleboro Words Project's Roundtable Discussion will gather representatives who work with the unique, rare, important, and humorous historical treasures and archival collections that reside within Windham County's numerous historical societies, public libraries, and museums. The discussion, in recognition of National Archives Month, will take place at 118 Elliot, across from the Central Fire Station. The Roundtable event is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be available. In a news...
Artist Wilder Alison will present an exhibit of her work and a public lecture at Marlboro College. The exhibit, titled $PLIT/$UBJECT, will be displayed at Marlboro's Snyder Center for the Visual Arts from Oct. 23 to Dec. 1. The talk will be in Appletree Building on Tuesday, Oct. 23, at 4 p.m. Both the exhibit and the talk are free and open to the public. According to a news release, Alison is an interdisciplinary artist and a 2016 graduate of...
Service news • Airman Myia Boyd of Hinsdale N.H., recently graduated from Air Force Basic Military Training (BMT) at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas. Her parents, Eric and Joy, who attended the graduation ceremonies with her two siblings, say that Boyd and her BMT unit received the top scores for their training cycle in the physical training test. Transitions • The Great Falls Regional Chamber of Commerce welcomes Debra Collier as their new Executive Director. Collier grew...
At the 2019 Annual Town Meeting, voters in Dummerston and Putney might vote on whether the municipalities should enter into a partnership to co-own the Renaud Gravel Pit. The pit, on Route 5 in Dummerston, supplies both towns with gravel. During Selectboard meetings in September in both towns, board members respectively introduced the proposal, after receiving the offer from Mike Renaud, the gravel pit's owner. Renaud confirmed with The Commons that he is interested in selling the gravel pit to...
Ruggles & Hunt, purveyors of clothing, gifts, home furnishings, and creative toys, is putting on a fashion show at the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center on Tuesday, Oct. 23, at 6 p.m. Proceeds support BMAC's work with infants, toddlers, and preschoolers in Head Start classrooms throughout southern Vermont. Tickets are $20 in advance, $25 at the door, and include admission to the fashion show, one drink, delicious finger food, and great entertainment in a beautiful setting. Tickets are available online...
Brattleboro sets dates for leaf pickup BRATTLEBORO - Friday, Oct. 26, and Friday, Nov. 9, are curbside leaf pickup days. Leaves and clippings must be in brown paper leaf bags and waiting at the curb by 7 a.m. Acceptable waste includes only leaves, grass, clippings, garden waste, and twigs (no household trash). No branches larger than 1 inch around and 2 feet long are allowed. Brown paper leaf bags are available for purchase at local businesses. Knitting circle resumes at...
The Northeast Fiddlers Association is planning a repeat local “fiddle meet,” with another gathering at the Moose Club in Bellows Falls on Sunday, Oct. 21, beginning at noon. The NEFA is inviting local fiddlers, musicians, and folks who enjoy listening, dancing, and socializing to traditional fiddle music to join them for this free event. All fiddle meets begin with a jam that lasts for one hour. Fiddlers, (or other instrumentalists) sign up on a numbered list when they arrive and...
Roberto Alagna and Elina Garanca star in the title roles as the 2018-19 season of The Met: Live in HD continues on Saturday, Oct. 20, at 1 p.m., at the Latchis Theatre, 50 Main St., with Saint-Saens' Samson et Dalila. This new production of Saint-Saens' biblical tragedy is conducted by Sir Mark Elder and also stars Laurent Naouri as the High Priest opposite Elchin Azizov as the Philistine King Abimelech and Dmitry Belosselskiy as the Old Hebrew. Making his Met...
The Rockingham Historic Preservation Commission will host a reception for the town's 2018 Old House Award winners Wednesday, Oct. 17, from 5 to 6 p.m. at Wunderbar, 22 Rockingham St., Bellows Falls. The public is invited to meet the winners and learn about the 2019 awards contest, which will kick off in the spring. These annual awards sponsored by the commission are designed to recognize property owners in the town of Rockingham who are maintaining and restoring their historic homes...
The Vermont Theatre Company will host auditions for its production of The Pillowman on Oct. 20 from 2 to 5 p.m. Auditions will be held in room 108/109 of the Rotch Building on the campus of the School for International Training at 1 Kipling Rd. VTC seeks four men over the age of 20 to fill four roles. Performances will be presented during the first two weekends of February 2019 at the Hooker-Dunham Theater in Brattleboro. Rehearsals will be held...
The artwork of Helen (Fuller) Eddy will be on display at the Wardsboro Public Library at 170 Main St. during library hours in the months of October and November. Eddy grew up in the U.K. but lives in and has long been connected to the Stratton area. She has lived in Germany and Texas, and in Maryland, where she did social work for 28 years. After her retirement, she became a full-time Stratton resident in 2007. Her interests and talents...
It may have been a gray, rainy fall afternoon at Windham Solid Waste Management District (WSWMD) headquarters, but the sun was on everyone's minds on Oct. 11 at a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a massive new solar project. Spread out across the landscape of the former Brattleboro landfill on Old Ferry Road are nearly 16,000 solar panels that can generate up to 5 megawatts of electricity. The project officially went online June 30. According to Michelle Cherrier, chair of the WSWMD...
It was Senior Night on Oct. 12 at Hadley Field, as the Bellows Falls football team honored the families of the 17 seniors on this year's Terriers squad. But it was also a night that provided a peak what to expect in the Division II playoffs. In a hard-fought, hard-hitting grudge match, the Fair Haven Slaters escaped with a 17-16 win over the Terriers in one of the most exciting football games played in Vermont this season. There was a...
On Rolf Parker's first day as a tobacco prevention specialist working at Leland & Gray Union High School, he learned cigarettes weren't his only foe. Parker looked on as a school administrator showed him a cardboard box with devices confiscated from students. Those little electronic cartridges, which looked like computer flash drives, each held liquid containing the same amount of nicotine as an entire pack of cigarettes, plus a flavoring agent to make the contents taste like some approximation of...
A community contra dance will take place at the Evening Star Grange in Dummerston Center on Saturday, Oct. 20, from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. Calling the dance will be Fred Breunig. Music will be played by the McNeill's Quebecois Session Band. Fred Breunig will bring his unique repertoire of dances collected from the Quebecois tradition. The music will feature community musicians who play monthly at the Quebecois music jam held at McNeill's in Brattleboro. Prior dance experience isn't necessary, as...
The idea that women should always work for less or, even better, for free, is the economic theory explained in Screwnomics, the subject and title of a new book by Rickey Garde Diamond that she will discuss at Everyone's Books on Thursday, Oct. 18, at 6 p.m. The event is co-sponsored by the book store and the Brattleboro branch of the American Association of University Women. Despite a major shift in economic ideas over the past 50 years, few women...
Everyone's favorite monster is coming to Brattleboro this Halloween season. For its annual Halloween Spectacular at the Hooker-Dunham Theater in downtown Brattleboro beginning Oct. 18, Shoot the Moon Theater Company will present Frankenstein. But which Frankenstein? As aficionados (and who isn't) know, there are many versions of this classic of horror. Originally, Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus was written by Mary Shelley on a bet among literary friends about who could come up with the scariest story. The group was...
Good day to you, dwellers of the hills and valleys of southeastern Vermont! Our weather pattern has finally and completely flipped into deeper autumn, and we saw our first frost and high-elevation accumulating snowfall over the last weekend as well. Foliage is soon to peak and pass, the chance for snow is slowly increasing, and the cycles of life continue. In summary, we've got a cold front that will pass through Wednesday (which is today, if you're reading this paper...
Brattleboro Clayworks on Putney Road, a venerable place to those who work there or simply love ceramics, yet also a best-kept secret to many, will celebrate its 35th year on the last Saturday in October. I spoke with Clayworks' past and present members, who reflected on their time with the cooperative, starting with Alan Steinberg, the only original member of the collective still with the studio. “My work in clay has gone from being 'about nature,' to hopefully being 'of...