Tthe Bellows Falls Downtown Development Association (BFDDA) will #LightUpBF on Saturday, Dec. 11, at 5 p.m.
The Square will be dark until 5 p.m., when the holiday lights and the Christmas tree at the Fireman's Memorial Park to start the Bellows Falls Parade of Lights, with more than 30 vehicles decked out with lights (and some with music) in a procession through the village.
The parade route begins on Henry Street and will continue north through the downtown before ending on Williams Street.
The Bellows Falls Parade of Lights is an outdoor event, so dress for cold weather. There is ample room on all sidewalks for people to safely spread out and watch the parade. There are also many places to park along the route to watch from inside your vehicle.
As soon as she received an email from herself telling her what new tax bills would look like, Town Treasurer Melissa Brown smelled a scam. While Brown's name was listed as the sender's name, the email address it came from was “billing@rppsc.com.” “Good morning, please read this ASAP. .
The virtuoso composer and Guggenheim Fellow Jin Hi Kim will present her multimedia performance piece, Ritual for COVID-19, at Epsilon Spires on Saturday, Dec. 11, at 8 p.m. Inspired by elements of the Korean shaman ritual of the dead, called ssitkimkut, Kim developed Ritual for COVID-19 as a way...
COVID-19 made it harder, but the United Way of Windham County is doing its best to make sure that kids have access to warm winter clothing. The United Way's ninth annual Coats for Kids Drive serves all elementary schools in Windham County. Outreach and Marketing Associate Brandie Starr helped organize this year's effort, along with Executive Director Ruben Garza and Office Manager Kara Orfanid. “That's it. That's all there is of us,” Starr explained. “With Covid, the volunteer program has...
Many Vermonters in need will receive a surprise gift of warmth this winter thanks to the Split the Ticket Fund. While thousands of families receive fuel assistance through the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, many Vermonters don't qualify but still need help. These families can receive donations of heating oil, propane, and kerosene from the Split the Ticket Fund, a Vermont-based nonprofit organization recognized by the IRS as tax-exempt and tax-deductible. This program matches cash donations with donations of...
Award-winning mystery author and Brattleboro resident Lynne Kennedy has launched her latest novel, The Tree of Lost Secrets. Set in Brattleboro, and spanning three centuries, the book is described as “an ambitious and adventurous story … a journey into the past with the help of a magical old maple tree.” As described in a news release, The Tree of Lost Secrets is the story of Helen Ainsley, a best-selling mystery writer struggling with cancer. She begins to doubt her storytelling...
Nomination papers available for Brattleboro election BRATTLEBORO - Petitions for town officers, Windham Southeast School District (WSESD) board members, and Town Meeting members are now available at the town clerk's office. Elections take place Tuesday, March 1, at the American Legion (32 Linden St.), and the Annual Representative Town Meeting will begin on Saturday, March 19, with location and format to be announced. For a candidate's name to appear on the ballot, by 5 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 24, 2022:
Obituaries • Doris Frances Harvey, 95, of Brattleboro. Died Nov. 24, 2021 at Pine Heights nursing home. She was born on June 22, 1926 in Brooklyn, N.Y. In her amazing 95-plus years, she touched the lives of many along the way. As a young girl, she lived through the Depression. Her favorite place to go was at St. Sylvester's Church, where she would sit in the balcony and watch weddings and christenings. She asked her mother for a nickel to...
St. Mary's in the Mountains, 13 East Main St., invites one and all to its sixth annual Red Door Community Carol Sing on Saturday, Dec. 11 to celebrate the season, sing traditional carols and seasonal favorites, and enjoy musical performances by Deerfield Valley musicians, along with tasty treats and surprises. The red doors of the Episcopal church will open at 3:15 p.m.; beginning at 3:30 p.m., singers and ensembles will offer a variety of seasonal music, including choral, traditional, and...
Afrobeat and funk supergroup Kaleta and Super Yamba Band perform at Next Stage Arts on Sunday, Dec. 12, at 5 p.m. The concert features internationally recognized singer/guitarist/songwriter Leon Ligan-Majek - a.k.a. Kaleta - who was born in the West African country of Benin Republic and raised in Lagos, Nigeria. “The arts are an opportunity to experience rich and diverse cultures. Kaleta and Super Yamba Band offer this region an opportunity to experience Afrobeat's unique musical power that doesn't normally make...
In her memoir Recollections of My Nonexistence Rebecca Solnit writes, “To be a young woman is to face your own annihilation in innumerable ways.” Nothing proves her point more powerfully than the debacle of the Supreme Court as it debated the likely demise of legal abortion in this country. With stunning ignorance of and disregard for women's lives, five men and one woman in black robes pontificated and danced around the real issue before them: women's bodily integrity, agency, and...
It has been two years since the emergence of the first versions of the Covid virus. The world was slow to figure out what was going on and even slower to figure out ways to deal with this new deadly disease. Despite all of the technology and science that we have developed over the years, Covid continues to make fools of the humans who are trying to beat it. On the surface, it may seem that the best way to...
On Friday, Dec. 10, the Brattleboro Literary Festival concludes its 20th anniversary year with a Literary Cocktail Hour at 5 p.m., featuring award-winning novelist Ruth Ozeki. Register for the free online event at bit.ly/LitCocktail14. Ozeki will discuss her new book, The Book of Form and Emptiness, with local writer Stephanie Greene. The book tells the story of 13-year-old Benny Oh who, one year after the death of his beloved musician father, begins to hear voices. The voices belong to the...
Next Stage and Twilight Music present an evening of brass-fueled, swinging music of New Orleans by the Soggy Po Boys on Saturday, Dec. 11 at 7:30 p.m. at 15 Kimball Hill. The jazz septet brings the party to street corners, clubs, festivals, and concert halls, celebrating the sounds and stories of New Orleans. The Soggy Po Boys have spread the good news of New Orleans music across the Northeast and beyond since 2012. Stu Dias (vocals, guitar), Eric Klaxton (clarinet,
After a one-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a cappella music returns to the Latchis Theatre with the 18th (almost) Annual Collegiate A Cappella Benefit Concert on Saturday, Feb. 5, at 7:30 p.m. The benefit for the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center (BMAC) will feature six groups, including the Tufts Beelzebubs, Vassar Devils, UMass Vocal Suspects, Williams College Ephlats, and two other groups to be confirmed. Ben Brady, a Brattleboro Union High School alumnus, will be returning to his...
The town recently received a $215,600 Bike/Pedestrian Grant from the Vermont Agency of Transportation (AOT) for redesign of the streetscape on the east and west sides of North Main Street. A public meeting is planned for Tuesday, Dec. 14, at 5:30 p.m., at the Town Office Meeting Room and via Zoom at us02web.zoom.us/j/87304841725. The meeting ID number is 873 0484 1725. According to town economic development consultant Gretchen Haverluk, the project spans from the intersection at the center of town...
New England Youth Theatre proudly presents its 2021 Holiday Musical, Disney's Beauty and the Beast, with music by Alan Menken, lyrics by Howard Ashman and Tim Rice, and book by Linda Woolverton. This production is directed by NEYT Executive Director Hallie Flower, with choreography by Malia'Kekia Nicolini and music direction by Bob Thies. In a news release, Flower, describing the play as “such a lush production,” said that students “have really embraced the telling of this timeless tale.” As always...
More than three years after the property was sold, plans for the former Maple Valley Ski Area are finally starting to take shape. Sugar Mountain Holdings LLC of Weatogue, Conn., which bought the long-defunct 375-acre ski area on Route 30 in 2018 for $745,000, hopes to renovate the base lodge into a brewery and distillery with a tasting room, seating up to 150 people. The lodge would also be used as an event space for weddings, concerts, and other gatherings.
Hear how Cor Trowbridge, executive director of Brattleboro Community Television (BCTV), and John Lightfoot, president of the board of directors of WVEW-FM, Brattleboro Community Radio, and host of “John's Album Hour,” can help you get the word out through trusted community-media centers. This, the fourth in a series of workshops produced by Vermont Independent Media (VIM), publisher of The Commons, is scheduled for Wednesday, Dec. 8, at 7:30 p.m., on Zoom. The workshop is part of the Media Mentoring Project,
There will be a Special Town Meeting, Wednesday, Dec. 15 at 6 p.m. at the Athens Elementary School. The purpose of this meeting is to discuss and vote on how our “regular” town meetings will be held in the future. Some of the residents in Athens would like to see a change that would encourage more voters to get the vote out on Town Meeting Day. We are suggesting a change to Australian ballot for elected officials and a “regular”
During the monthly meeting of the Hunger Council of the Windham Region, a group that includes representatives from several dozen area food, fuel, and shelter resources, what strikes one about the people involved is their passion for the work and commitment to overcome its challenges. One big challenge is to get people to use the services that are available for them. Senior Solutions Outreach Specialist Thom Simmons brims with enthusiasm about his determination to increase the number of Windham County...
Loic Danjou is the picture of Christmas, sporting forest green wool pants, a red-and-black-checkered insulated shirt, and a red woolen cap topping his grey hair. He chats at his Christmas tree stand in the parking lot of the Black Mountain Inn where, at the edge of Putney Road, a spray-painted sign declares trees available for $29.95. Danjou, whose tree farm is in Canaan, in the Northeast Kingdom on the Quebec border, has been coming off the mountain down to Brattleboro...
The 2021-22 Vermont winter high school sports season gets going on Friday, Dec. 10, and the local teams will be busy for the next couple of weeks before the holiday break. As was the case last season, COVID-19 protocols will be in effect. According to guidance from the Vermont Agency of Education (AOE), all coaches and athletes playing indoor sports such as basketball and hockey should wear face masks, regardless of vaccination status. Participants in outdoor sports, such as alpine...
St. Patrick - U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy - is resigning, and the great realignment has now begun. The question is: Do we want to continue the current model of feckless, middle-ground maneuvering that is laying the groundwork for a radical right-wing takeover of national politics? Or is it time to support candidates who recognize that the times have changed and that our politicians need to change with them? U.S. Rep. Peter Welch, who has announced his candidacy for Leahy's seat,
I'm lighting a candle this morning for Bill Oates, my old friend. We are living through a sad and sorry time in our nation's history - especially in regard to how we handle death in our communities. By the time this pandemic ends, we'll have officially lost at least a million of us to Covid. We probably have already. In the first months of the disease, folks had to say goodbye to their loved ones by cell phone, or from...