• Graveside committal services for Mark E. Johnson will be conducted Friday, July 12, at 2 p.m. in the Johnson family lot in Meetinghouse Hill Cemetery in Brattleboro. A celebration of Mark's life and reception will follow to be held at the F.O. Eagles on Chickering Drive. Mark, 66, of Port Charlotte, Florida and a native of Brattleboro, died May 21, 2024 at Hope Hospice in Cape Coral, Florida. To view his full obituary and offer condolences to his family, visit www.atamaniuk.com.
This Milestones item was submitted to The Commons.
...Edible Brattleboro's 'Share the Harvest' stand now open BRATTLEBORO - Edible Brattleboro's "Share the Harvest" stand is now open Sundays from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Turning Point garden at the corner of Frost and Elm streets. Gardeners may drop off surplus from their gardens from 10:30...
-Brattleboro Post 5 is off to a fast start. Near the midpoint of Vermont's 2024 American Legion Baseball season, Post 5 ended last week with a 6-1 league record and were tied for first place with Lakes Region in the Southern Division. After beating Bellows Falls Post 37, 8-3,
BRATTLEBORO- For Interaction: Youth Services and Restorative Justice, one major goal is to prevent chronic homelessness for students. The agency works with approximately 60 teens. Of those, probably fewer than 20 are homeless in some form. Some are runaways. Some have been living on the margins of society for many years. Some have been connected to the child welfare system, and the agency does a lot of work with the local arm of the state Department of Children and Families (DCF).
BRATTLEBORO-The girl in this conversation is homeless. She turned 18 years old in November. She just graduated from Brattleboro Union High School with the rest of the class of 2024. "Shane" - she asked that we not use her real name - came to The Commons through Mack Mackin, associate director of youth programs at Interaction: Youth Services and Restorative Justice, who called her "a remarkable human." Shane talked to us on June 15 on a cell phone from the...
BRATTLEBORO-Tricia Hill's job is to reach out to the homeless student population of the Windham Southeast Supervisory Union and offer them services like laundry vouchers and sports equipment. "Basically, our goal is to remove barriers so students who are experiencing homelessness can access their public education just like a student who is not experiencing homelessness," she said. Her position as homeless liaison was extended this year into a full-time position. Three days a week, Hill works in her school district...
BRATTLEBORO-New audio recordings created by multimedia artist Shanta Lee will enhance the visitor experience at selected sites on the Vermont African American Heritage Trail. These recordings resulted from a collaboration between the Brattleboro Words Trail and the Vermont African American Heritage Trail and will be shared on both sites. They can be accessed all together at bit.ly/772-VAAHT. The recordings invite visitors to explore: the back stories of the Turner Family at Journey's End in Grafton; the 54th Regiment sculpture of...
PUTNEY-Yellow Barn's 55th Summer Festival is underway. Spanning five weeks, the festival offers 20 concerts performed by new and returning members of its international family of musicians. New this year will be a children's concert on Thursday, July 18; a conversation about music with celebrated composer-in-residence Jörg Widmann; and a gala performance at the Retreat Farm on Saturday, July 13. This season, Widmann returns for his fourth summer as composer-in-residence. During his residency week (July 30–Aug. 4), audiences can hear...
PUTNEY-The Next Stage Bandwagon Summer Series presents the Villalobos Brothers on Saturday, July 13, at 6 p.m., in the field behind the Putney Inn, 57 Putney Landing Rd. The Villalobos Brothers are a Grammy Award-winning family band, a contemporary Mexican ensemble. With their fusion of Mexican folk, jazz, and classical music, they have performed for audiences across the United States, Mexico, India, Russia, and Canada. "Virtuosic violinists from Mexico showcasing how traditional music can get reborn into modern culture, these...
BRATTLEBORO-Jay Craven's newest film, Lost Nation, will hold its world premiere screenings at the Latchis Theatre on Wednesday and Thursday, July 10 and 11, at 7 p.m. The film's stars, Eva Ndachi (Lucy Terry Prince) and Kevin Ryan (Ethan Allen), will travel from Los Angeles to attend opening night. Ndachi will also attend the July 11 screening. The picture was filmed on 43 locations, including principal locations in Marlboro as well as Leyden and Colrain, Massachusetts. Historic landmarks, including Packers...
GUILFORD-On Thursday, July 11, at 6:30 p.m., New Hampshire storyteller Andy Davis will be performing outdoors at the historic Spring Farms in Guilford at 49 Carpenter Hill Rd. He will be joined by several local storytellers including Prudence Baird, Lissa Weinmann, and Mary Collins. Suggested donation is $15 but no one will be turned away for lack of funds. Children and adults who can sit through long stories are welcome. The venue will open at 6 p.m. for gathering and...
WEST CHESTERFIELD, N.H.-Lifespan of a Fact will be presented at Actors Theatre Playhouse (ATP) on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, July 11 through 27, at 7:30 p.m. With Dennis Scott as John D'Agata and Leo Mousseau as Jim Fingal, Lifespan of a Fact asks the question: What's more important? Writing the truth, or telling a good story? Fingal is a fresh-out-of-Harvard fact-checker for a prominent but sinking New York magazine. D'Agata is a talented writer with a transcendent essay about the...
BRATTLEBORO-Under mostly sunny skies, the 51st annual "By the People: Brattleboro Goes Fourth" Independence Day parade made its way through downtown. The parade's theme was a salute to area volunteers, and many organizations were well-represented. The largest contingent in the parade were protesters of U.S. support for Israel in the war on Gaza, complete with an effigy of President Biden and an oversized cruise missile. Local politicians campaigning ahead of the Aug. 13 party primaries were also out in force.
BRATTLEBORO-After years of big plans for the downtown riverfront without much follow through, local residents are seeing two big projects take shape along the Connecticut River. The bigger project - the new $61.2 million General John Stark Memorial Bridge that will link Hinsdale, New Hampshire to Brattleboro, is in the homestretch. If all goes well, the bridge will be open to vehicular traffic by the end of November. It will replace a pair of century-old steel truss bridges. The newer...
DUMMERSTON-Maybe you knew Joe Cook as a local banker at Vermont National Bank during his 18 years there. Perhaps you knew him when he started a second career as a lawyer at his firm, Corum Mabie Cook Prodan Angell & Secrest in Brattleboro. But more than likely, you've recognized Cook on the road on his bicycle wearing his helmet and bright cycling shirts. "I bought my bicycle 30 years ago. It's a touring bike, made for long-distance travel," the 70-year-old...
DOVER-When your money comes from fossil fuels, the last thing you want is a state trying to go "net zero," or fossil fuel free. That is why a network of political nonprofits funded by the Koch family acts all over the United States to protect its fossil fuel interests from things like heat pumps, solar panels, and greenhouse gas emissions controls. Koch Industries Inc. is the second largest privately owned company in the United States, according to Forbes, As described...
In so many aspects of Vermont living, the arts - photography, ceramics, woodworking, printing, dance, circus, fine art, theater, puppetry, literary arts, and music from classical to jazz to eclectic - figure in. The greater Brattleboro area itself is a microcosm of the Vermont scene with its high concentration of arts activity. At an April 23 gathering, the Economic & Social Impact of the Arts in Vermont, hosted by Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility (VBSR) at Brattleboro's Stone Church, it...
MARLBORO-In 2009, Alex Ross wrote in The New Yorker that Marlboro Music is "the classical world's most coveted retreat," nestled in the rural, pastoral nook known as Potash Hill. In a 1975 New York Times feature, Rudolf Serkin, a renowned pianist and the cofounder and director of Marlboro Music until 1991, called the festival "a community of artists." "I don't want to sound chauvinistic - only in America could Marlboro have happened," he said. "Nowhere else will you find this...
BELLOWS FALLS-Mark Erelli kicks off the 2024 Ray Massucco Concert Series at the Bellows Falls Opera House on Thursday, July 18, with a typically unique twist: Instead of being backed by a band, Erelli's voice and guitar will be accompanied by a string quintet. "I've always wanted to do this," Erelli said in a news release, "and this summer we were able to put together a run of shows that allowed for it." It is, he writes, "in a word:
BRATTLEBORO-Edge No. CLX is a great painting. It hangs on a wall next to a staircase in a house in West Brattleboro, although it is finer than a Rothko. The glistening whites, shades of blue and black, and the densely textured surface made by using a trowel and mixing acrylic paint with wood chips form a densely textured surface that radiates vitality. Who painted this, was my question. The answer was Cai Xi Silver; I had to meet her. *
BRATTLEBORO-This summer's One-Man Circus-in-a-Suitcase tour - the work of performing artist and circus teacher Kevin O'Keefe - rolls into Living Memorial Park on Friday, July 12, at 10 a.m. According to publicity materials, this free show, sponsored by the Brattleboro Parks and Recreation Department, has been performed more than 500 times around the globe "for family theater audiences and school assemblies alike and gives everyone an opportunity to participate in an enthralling, whimsical celebration of the imagination." O'Keefe, 65, founded...