The Brattleboro Words Project recently announced two new partnerships in the publishing and printing of the much-anticipated book Print Town: Brattleboro's Legacy of Words.
In a culmination of three years of dedicated work, the book, due out this fall, will be published by the Vermont Historical Society, Inc. and printed by Howard Printing in Brattleboro.
“Our partnerships with Howard Printing and Vermont Historical Society created pretty much our dream-team publishing lineup for this book,” Brattleboro Words Project Executive and Creative Director Jen Austin said in a news release.
Print Town features more than 30 authors with connections to Brattleboro, all lending a unique perspective and style to telling the story of the region's long history, and ongoing legacy, of printing, publishing, and words.
It's the time of year again when the Windham County Heat Fund reminds all of the generous people in the county that our less fortunate friends and neighbors will need your help once again as we approach another heating season. The Windham County Heat Fund was created in 2005...
The Bellows Falls Downtown Development Alliance (BFDDA) recently introduced BF Bucks, a shop-local program funded by an economic stimulus grant offered by the state of Vermont. According to a news release, the grant paid for 1,500 cards to be distributed among the area schools and nonprofits with a goal...
On Sunday, Oct. 25, from 4 to 5:30 p.m., Windham World Affairs Council will host Ambassador Peter W. Galbraith in a Zoom webinar on “U.S. National Security and the Election: What Is at Stake.” Galbraith will discuss how the choices U.S. voters make will affect national security interests with regard to the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, NATO, Europe, the Near East, Iran, China, Russia, and the wars in Afghanistan, in Iraq, and against terrorism. The talk, followed by a community...
Marlboro Alliance holds online auction MARLBORO - The Marlboro Alliance's first online auction is now in full swing through Monday, Oct. 26. The Alliance was unable to hold its usual fundraisers, such as its Summer Sale and Marlboro Music Festival Benefit Concert, during the COVID-19 pandemic. The auction is providing an alternate means of raising funds for the organization's Community Grant program. These grants benefit town organizations such as Marlboro Cares, Marlboro Community Center, Marlboro Library, and the Volunteer Fire...
College news • Allison V. Stamler, an English major from Brattleboro, graduated with the Class of 2020 at St. Lawrence University in Canton, N.Y. • Cameron Baldwin Wright of West Dummerston and Sabin Litchfield of Jamaica both graduated with the Class of 2020 at Stonehill College in Easton, Mass. • Marguerite Brown of Londonderry and Jem Cohen of Brattleboro are part of the Class of 2024 at St. Lawrence University in Canton, N.Y. • Lilia Kocsis of Vernon has enrolled...
In this exceptionally difficult time for artists who want to exhibit their work in a gallery setting, there is a show currently on view in the gallery at Next Stage Arts that is well worth a safe visit. I have known Susan Parenti and her work for a quarter century, during which time I've had the pleasure of visiting her studio - engaging in lively conversation, viewing works in progress, and witnessing her artistic development. And I must say that...
This fall, the Brattleboro Women's Chorus begins a year of celebrating 25 years of singing with online musical events on the 25th day of some months. All are welcome to join with them in song. At the first Zoom celebration, on Sunday, Oct. 25 from 4 to 5 p.m., chorus members will welcome Elizabeth Melvin, a song leader and choir director of the Freedom Choir in Maryland. Melvin and chorus Musical Director Becky Graber will share leadership of an hour...
The Brattleboro Music Center is launching the EOS (Educate. Open. Strengthen.) Project, as a direct response to questions about social justice as it pertains to the world of classical music and institutions like itself. Developed and led by BMC faculty member Heather Sommerlad, EOS is envisioned as a collaborative effort of BMC Music School faculty and other local musicians to actively seek out and intentionally study and perform music by composers who are “Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, as...
While Windham County remains a Democratic stronghold, a number of races have turned into contests. “Vermont Republicans believe in one nation under God, individual liberty, personal responsibility, limited government, compassion for the needy, low taxes, a free market economy, and local control,” Richard Morton, chair of the Windham County GOP, wrote in an email to The Commons. “The Vermont Republican Party embraces the principles of the United States Constitution (including all amendments), the Vermont Constitution, and the values contained within...
On Tuesday, Oct. 27, Artistic Director Seth Knopp brings together nine summer musicians for a final evening of Yellow Barn's fall discussion series, Patio Noise. Focusing on the 2020 summer season finale, performers and listeners will discuss Knopp's Aug. 8 program, including Dmitri Shostakovich's gripping Seven Romances, a John Cage solo for voice, Philippe Hersant's In the Dark for solo clarinet, and an outdoor recording of Osvaldo Golijov's Tenebrae for soprano, clarinet, and string quartet, before returning to the Big...
On Sunday, Oct. 25, from 3 to 5 p.m., Halloween-inspired fun for the whole family will take place at Epsilon Spires' Halloween Jamboree in the arts venue's outdoor socially-distanced Backlot Cinema. The Lovelight's Theatre Troupe will present a quaint old-fashioned musical play. “See the witches dance, hear the ghosts sing, and any children who come dressed as witches and ghosts may join in, if they dare,” according to a news release for the event. D.J. Sparkles will spin spooky vinyl...
For decades, from April to October each year, Curtis Tuff has stood over his three barbecue pits, wreathed in wood smoke as he tended the fire, and grilled tens of thousands of chicken halves and racks of pork ribs. Unlike other barbecue cooks who use a smoker, Tuff has always cooked his meats over an open fire. It takes about 80 minutes to grill a rack of ribs, which get mopped with his barbecue sauce about 10 minutes before they...
The media has just reported that Vermont and Hawaii are the only states in the Union not seeing a coronavirus surge. We also tied with Missouri as the two top states in the union that best handled this pandemic crisis that is a daily challenge to all of us. We, in Brattleboro, we can make another record. Let's lead the nation in our all-out voting. Let us show that we here in our town can break all voting records and...
The countdown to the launch of the Brattleboro Words Trail begins Saturday, Oct. 24, at the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center (BMAC). Cynthia Parker-Houghton's “Our Storied Landscape: Revealing the Brattleboro Words Trail” presents the clay murals and wall maps commissioned to represent the project. The maps will be unveiled as part of BMAC's fall/winter exhibits. A limited opening is scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 24, with viewings available during normal museum hours until the close of the exhibit on Feb. 14,
In the early 1960s, a young man from Georgia came to town to pick apples at Green Mountain Orchard. Vermont gave Curtis Tuff a place where he felt loved and accepted. And Tuff gave Vermont the gift of more than five decades of great barbecue at Curtis' All American Bar-B-Q. On Oct. 16, two longtime Putney residents who are big fans of Curtis Tuff and his food, state Rep. Mike Mrowicki and state Sen. Jeanette White, surprised him with a...
Bellows Falls coach Bob Lockerby is not a fan of 7-on-7 touch football. “I'm not one of those guys who's going to pretend that I like this,” he said. “My guys want to block, and tackle, and hit people. That's BF football. But this is what we have, and at least there's something for the kids to do this fall.” For decades, Bellows Falls football has been about running the ball first, and passing the ball only when necessary. Power...
Candidates, volunteers, and members of the Windham County Democratic Committee stood 6 feet apart while chatting about the Nov. 3 presidential election over slices of apple pie and cups of apple cider. They had just driven in approximately 70 cars, decorated with banners, streamers, campaign signs, and balloons, looping Windham County on Sunday, as part of the committee's Ridin' with Biden get-out-the-vote event. The travelers started from Guilford County Store in Algiers Village on Route 5. The caravan drove north...
Bartleby's Books store manager Anna McDaniel speaks about the foliage season between waiting on customers. “We've been very busy,” she said. “We're very pleased.” The independent book store in downtown Wilmington survived the epic flooding caused by Tropical Storm Irene in 2011. But the COVID-19 pandemic has proven to be nearly as difficult to overcome. Bartleby's closed its doors to in-person sales in March in accordance with the state's “stay home, stay safe” order and relied on online sales instead.
It started with a ride down an escalator. And it's been escalating ever since. From the first cries of rapists invading our country to dog whistles like “stand back, stand by,” Donald Trump's dangerous delusions of power and control have brought this country to the brink of collapse, and everyone who has allowed that to happen is an enabler and a collaborator. From White House cronies who share in Trump's power fantasies and who are incapable of running a government...
Due to COVID-19, this year candidates have had a difficult time reaching out to voters. Brattleboro Community Television is helping citizens stay informed about local and statewide races with BCTV's half-hour interview program “Meet the Candidates.” In September, invitations were sent to 49 candidates seeking election (seven federal, 20 statewide, and 22 in Windham County) to appear on the series. Twenty-one candidates responded. The 20 candidates I interviewed are Rep. Peter Welch, Christopher Helali, and Peter Becker (U.S. Congress); Lt.
In her commentary, Erica Walch grounds her argument of Republican moderation and reasonableness in a brief comparison of political party platforms. For voters considering party preference, a deeper examination of these platforms is certainly in order. There is a moral continuity between the platform of the Vermont Democratic Party and that of the Democratic National Committee. The unifying principles are a fundamental belief in the dignity and worth of every individual and the government's responsibility for policy that supports that...
As someone who has held public office as both a Democrat and Republican, I read Erica Walch's Viewpoint with interest. She mentions briefly that many Republicans, including herself and Gov. Phil Scott, strongly disavow Donald Trump, yet she doesn't mention the policies on which she differs. To simply “disavow” a public-policy-making figure comes across as shortsighted. Is it pragmatic to shut the door of opportunity in working with his administration, ignoring the many voices that never appear in The Commons...
You've heard this phrase most of your life: “Take turns.” First, most likely when sharing with siblings, but definitely by the time kindergarten enters your world. Many a driver in this community must have missed that important early lesson, since I continue to notice how the “me-first” mentality remains alive and well here. Specifically, I refer to our other “malfunction junction” at the base of Union Hill, where it converges with Elliot, Frost, Birge and Williams streets. So locally, here...
I've always been very grateful for the Voices section of The Commons. How many citizens get a longer format to express an opinion or tell a personal story in their local newspaper? My sense is, not many. I've always likened the process to a three-legged stool represented by the writer, the editor, and the reader. I only have control over what I write and must let it go once it reaches the editor's desk, and can only hope that my...
Story is one of the main ways I relate to the world, especially within the most difficult situations. One story that I encountered over 15 years ago relates to this moment, to the boiling water we find ourselves in now. It is the parable of the carrot, the egg, and the coffee bean. A young woman went to her mother and expressed how hard life had gotten. She was tired of fighting. Tired of struggling, and when one problem was...
I want to start this rally by thinking of the hundreds of marches across the country. We're here today to stand in our power in the final days before the election. To remember that it's not just about the two people on the ballot. That the future of this country sits with each of us. Today, while we stand here in solidarity, there are women all over the state checking in ballots as town clerks, there are women running for...
This summer, 36 teams of filmmakers across Vermont collaborated to create a remake of the feature film Cast Away. Armed with a single scene from the original film and whatever equipment they had access to, teams reinterpreted and filmed every iconic moment: the plane crash, the island survival, the birth of Wilson the volleyball, and every scene in between. The final film, an amalgam of animation, live action, found footage, and soundscapes, retells the story with a Vermont flair and...
Brattleboro Area Hospice presents a fundraising event for these socially distant times: a virtual garden tour of one of the area's most lovely gardens, featured in the October issue of Martha Stewart Living and the Sept. 16 issue of Gardens Illustrated. The 44-minute video tour with homeowner Rita Ramirez and collaborating gardeners, Helen O'Donnell and Laurie Merrigan, takes viewers on a leisurely and informative stroll through the picturesque and eclectic East Dummerston garden. “We were very disappointed that we couldn't...
Sandglass Theater will present another outdoor, live event on Halloween weekend. The puppet cast of The Pig Act, Sandglass' unusual puppet circus from 2000, has emerged for Footpath to the CIRCUS Puppets, a performance in three acts that takes the audience around the Sandglass grounds, with roaming guides, music and puppets emerging from behind shrubbery, and an old trolley car, all in a manner that observes social distancing and audience safety. Three generations of the Sandglass family - Ines Zeller...
The Harris Hill Ski Jump had cancelled its annual competition a dozen times in the past century for a variety of reasons - World War II (1943–45), a lack of snow (1930, 1932, 1937, 1980, 1981, and 1998), and reconstruction of the ski jump to meet international competition standards (2006–08). And now, joining the list of extenuating circumstances that can remove a beloved local tradition and major winter sports institution from the calendar: the coronavirus. Organizers last week decided to...