The Hooker-Dunham Theater, 139 Main St., can't yet encourage people to congregate in the historic building's underground theater, but the space is still used to create art.
In that spirit, the theater announces its newest project as Cracked Glass Productions and the Rock River Players present SOLOs .
Area performers will be creating video performances of monologues, soliloquies, and poetry from the Hooker-Dunham stage. A series of half-hour compilations of these performances will be streamed beginning in September, with dates to be announced.
The theater is now scheduling auditions via video or online for additional slots in this series. Material for streaming must be original or in the pubic domain.
In spite of the restrictions imposed on its fundraising efforts by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Community Asylum Seekers Project (CASP) was able to raise more than $11,000 from its supporters all over the country. “We ran an online StartSomeGood campaign in July that reached 83 folks all over the...
Registration is now open for the Connecticut River Conservancy's (CRC) Source to Sea Cleanup. This annual event, now in its 24th year, has grown into one of the largest river cleanups in the country. CRC invites volunteers to safely continue the tradition of getting dirty for cleaner rivers in...
Vendor applications are now being accepted for the 15th season of the Brattleboro Winter Farmers' Market located in the C.F. Church Building, 80 Flat St. Interested vendors are encouraged to submit an application prior to the Sept. 1 deadline. The Winter Market opens on Nov. 7 for the 2020-21 season and will operate every Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. for 21 weeks through March 27, 2021. A wide array of products are typically offered, including locally grown and...
Nominations are now open for the 2020 edition of the Rockingham Old House Awards. “In the 'Age of Covid,' the Commission is excited to continue our annual Old House Awards program,” Dr. John Leppman, chair of the Rockingham Historic Preservation Commission (RHPC), said in a news release. “This is an excellent opportunity to celebrate with property owners their restoration and renewal of historic homes and commercial buildings.” There are multiple award categories with multiple awardees. Categories include awards for best...
Brattleboro Area Hospice, 191 Canal St., is broadening its grief and spiritual support to include issues of loss and transition related to the COVID-19 crisis by offering a support group. “The pandemic has brought with it alterations in our circumstances that were unimaginable just months ago,” organizers explained in a news release. “How is 'COVID time' affecting you and those you love? Have there been losses? How are you managing? Would you like some help?” This new group will be...
The National Alliance on Mental Illness of Vermont (NAMI Vermont) will be educating and offering support to those with family members who live with a mental health condition with its free Family-to-Family education program. In addition to helping with the everyday challenges that might be expected to the friends and family of those living with a mental illness, the classes provide up-to-date research surrounding behavioral health. Classes run for eight weeks and will be offered online via Zoom starting Thursday,
On or about July 22, Marlboro College trustees transferred the remaining Marlboro College endowment of $20.250 million to Emerson College in Boston and sold the 366-acre campus including over 50 buildings to Democracy Builders for $225,000, with Democracy Builders assuming a 40-year, $1.5 million note to the Marlboro Music Festival, all for a total of $21.975 million. In 2019, the value of the Marlboro endowment was listed at $35 million, and the campus valued at $10 million or possibly more,
More than 68,000 Vermonters receive 3SquaresVT benefits to help them provide food for their families. Those who spend some of their benefits at 28 participating farmers' markets across the state are now able to triple their spending power by purchasing fresh, local food with the Crop Cash Program. The program is administered by the Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont (NOFA-VT), which has been incentivizing the use of 3SquaresVT benefits at farmers' markets for more than 10 years. Typically, Crop...
The Boys & Girls Club of Brattleboro is making plans to reopen its doors on Sept. 14. The club has been closed since March due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. “We miss our members and are so excited to reopen our doors. We have been working diligently to implement safety protocols, new policies and procedures, and staff training,” Executive Director Michelle Simpson said in a news release. “We are ready to welcome back our members.” The health and safety of...
College news • Sean R. Donovan of Putney recently received an A.A.S. degree in heavy construction equipment technology: operator emphasis from the Pennsylvania College of Technology in Williamsport, Pa. Donovan was also named to the school's Dean's List for the summer 2020 semester. • Hannah Oxholm, a psychology/Spanish and Hispanic studies major from Brattleboro, was named to the 2020 Dean's List at Union College in Schenectady, N.Y. Obituaries • Ilse Maria (Fink) Cobb, 85, of Jamaica. Died peacefully with her...
Everyone Eats! coming to the Rockingham area BELLOWS FALLS - Everyone Eats! will be coming “very soon” to Rockingham, Westminster, Athens, and Grafton, according to a news release. The new federally funded program supports restaurants, farmers, food producers, and the local economy while also feeding the community during the disruption of COVID-19. Local restaurants - currently including Jamaican Jewelz, MKT: Grafton, Wunderbar, Allen Bros., Leslie's, and Smokin' Bowls - will be making to-go meals for residents of these four towns.
The New England Center for Circus Arts reopened over the summer with extensive COVID-19 safety precautions, and the center says the upcoming fall session “brings the fitness, joy, and creativity that students are familiar with in a safe way.” In-person class structures have been rearranged to reinforce social distancing and mask wearing, and students who are unable to come in person to NECCA can still include circus fitness in their lives through new virtual programming. Virtual options focus on at-home...
On Aug. 11, primary voters had the difficult task of choosing two Democratic candidates to represent Windham-3 in the Vermont House of Representatives in the general election on Nov. 3. I am very grateful to have been chosen as one of those two. I would be both humbled and honored to serve Windham-3 as our state representative, and I want to take my focus on problem-solving to the State House to take on the difficult challenges in health care, our...
Weston Playhouse Theatre Company continues its reimagined 2020 season with the debut of Songs for Today, a series of bite-sized musical tracks in the spirit of classic Playhouse shows. The project is the second in a recently launched new-works initiative, Weston Writers. Songs for Today invites Weston's family of musical theater writers to talk to us in song about the stories they want to tell today. “Composers who have previously been at Weston will create and record original music that...
A new show by visual and fiber artist Ruth Shafer opened Aug. 21 in the new gallery space in Hermit Thrush Brewery's expanded storefront. The show features fiber wall hangings, works on cardboard, and mixed-media canvases. Shafer works from her home studio in Brattleboro. “I sew, weave, crochet, draw, write, and experiment to make art that amuses me,” she says on her website. “Much of my work is about 'inner life,' from the private experience of the body at home...
Four local artists - Tina Olsen, Jillian Farwell, Roxcell Bartholomew, and Lauren Watrous - will be featured in a new exhibition at 118 Elliot, 118 Elliot St., when it reopens Friday, Sept. 4. The exhibition is 118 Elliot's first since the pandemic hit in March. An outdoor, safe-distance reception will begin at 4 p.m. in the back lot, which will be closed to cars. “There will be plenty of space to safely gather while taking turns viewing the exhibition in...
At age 22 I did not intend to be living in my parents' basement in West Dummerston Village directly behind the dying business that is the U.S. Post Office, of all places. I was planning on beginning my career in sports communication. But here I am, lying on my childhood bed, listening to the hum of the dehumidifier. On what was to be my commencement day, May 16, I watched a few videos from Bradley University and was officially conferred...
The Vermont Arts Council has announced the 30 recipients of its foundational Arts Partnership awards, providing three years of unrestricted, general operating funds for arts organizations across the state that, in their words, “keenly understand the needs of their communities and address those needs through the arts.” Awarded once every three years, the awards “represent the largest investment in organizations that are helping to support the Council's mission to cultivate and advance the arts and creativity throughout Vermont,” according to...
Elayne Clift's recent foray into writing about people of color is off the mark. It is a worthy topic. Perhaps she could have had a person of color write that column, on a subject of their choosing. Anyone may make art. Paying, supporting, and promoting artists is a different topic. That publisher she wrote about who sought to do so made a good choice. I bet a $20 donation to a local group supporting and run by BIPOC that this...
I was parked outside the Brattleboro Food Co-op after my regular curbside pickup run, when a flock of birds - some red, some yellow - flew overhead toward the Edible Brattleboro garden in front of me. My curiosity piqued, I climbed out of my car to take a closer look: something that looked like black-eyed Susans and clumps of pinkish purple flowers were growing there. Then I saw the vegetables. The sign said: “This is a help-yourself garden.” I called...
I saw today that a venue on Main Street has announced a live musical show. This is really irresponsible, and the people running the event can't actually ensure that it is safe. They are not experts, and they do not have experts available that can make sure that their venue is safe for live performances. We don't even know for sure how airborne this virus is. I'm a musician who has been performing for 20 out of my 29 years...
Unlike a letter writer in your Aug. 12 issue, I had no problem whatsoever with the semantics or the emphasis in MacLean Gander's essay about COVID-19. As he says, although we here in Vermont are in better shape than most other states, the virus does not respect borders and this is no time to relax our vigilance. The thing we have to fear with this virus is people not taking it seriously enough, rather than taking it too seriously. The...
It seems that the reason for the encounter with police described in this letter had to do with an air freshener hanging from the rearview mirror of a vehicle. There is currently a law in Vermont against air fresheners (or any ornaments or items) hanging from one's rearview mirror. Who passed such a law, and why does it even exist? Why is this a reason for police to stop someone? Why is this the business of anyone but the person...
Congressman Welch, I just read the Forbes article about the proposed Democratic giveaway to millionaires and billionaires in the HEROES Act, which proves that Ralph Nader was correct when he said there wasn't much difference between the two parties. How can the Democrats justify this tax giveaway to such wealthy people when millions of formerly hard-working Americans, unemployed through no fault of their own and who played by the rules, are once again getting the shaft? People are getting evicted...
Community members interested in serving on a public safety oversight committee have until Tuesday, Sept. 8 to apply. After more than 15 hours of discussion at its most recent meeting, and after multiple meetings building up to the decision, the Selectboard on Aug. 18 approved a request for proposals (RFP) to launch a deep review of how the town provides public safety. The board discussed a few final tweaks, concerns, and a few final legal questions before approving the RFP.
A planned display of the Vietnam Veterans Moving Wall in September at Moore Field on Putney Road has been postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The wall will instead come to town beginning Sept. 16, 2021. In a letter to The Commons, Len Derby, president of the Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA) Chapter 843, said he was making the announcement “with great sadness.” The local VVA chapter started doing its planning and fundraising last fall to bring the wall to...
During the years when I worked internationally on MCH - maternal and child health - our mission was to save the lives of mothers and children in the so-called developing world through several primary-health-care practices. The “twin engines” driving child survival were immunization and diarrheal disease control. Family planning was the start point for women's health. Today, MCH takes on new meaning: maternal and child hell. Its driving engines are lack of child care and mothers driven out of the...
Visitors to the Retreat Meadows on Route 30 across from the Retreat Farm have a new opportunity to experience the confluence of the West and Connecticut rivers from a perspective that celebrates and honors the region as the homeland of the Abenaki people. After a brief ceremony on Aug. 13, leaders of the Elnu Abenaki and the Retreat Farm joined Native Americans and others in the community in unveiling an interpretive sign for Wantastegok, the original Abenaki word for the...
On Aug. 19, the governor announced more money for an initial tranche of grants, announced at the start of July, which gave small businesses 10 percent of their revenue from 2019, up to $50,000. This is the collection of grants administered by the state Agency of Commerce and Community Development (ACCD) and the Vermont Department of Taxes. “Governor Phil Scott, ACCD, and the Department of Taxes today announced an increase to the maximum grant award for Economic Recovery Grants for...