BRATTLEBORO-The following statement from the Zon Eastes Campaign is in response to Delores Clark's letter in the Aug. 7 edition of The Commons:
Ms. Clark's letter presumes a timeline that is incorrect.
To clarify, Zon Eastes left his positions at the Brattleboro Music Center and the Windham Orchestra in 2006, well before any reports of Zeke Hecker's shocking and repulsive behavior emerged.
If anyone was "advised not to have him as an orchestra member," that advice could not have been given to Zon.
BELLOWS FALLS-Experimental pop collective Sool, described by The Boston Globe as " "Sool is a musically schizophrenic hodgepodge of experimental curiosities that you can dance to, has been recording and making music since 1994, traversing genres in a 'pin-the-tail-on-the-cosmic-monkey' approach," organizers said in a news release. "Their music has...
JAMAICA-As our country plans for the U.S. Semiquincentennial The Jamaica History Museum will be open during Jamaica Day - located in the old Bank Building on Main Street, where visitors can find a special surprise in the vault. The Jamaica Historical Foundation (JHF) is charged with preserving documents, photographs,
PUTNEY-Next Stage Arts and Twilight Music present an evening of folk, roots, and Americana music by California-based trio Rainbow Girls at Next Stage on Thursday, August 15, at 7:00 pm. Children of Divorce opens. Rainbow Girls is an eclectic folk trio hailing from just north of California's Bay Area: Vanessa May, Erin Chapin, and Caitlin Gowdey. Throughout their performance, "voices are paired with an ever-changing amalgamation of acoustic and slide guitar, keys, upright bass, harmonica, and an array of vocal...
MARLBORO-On Saturday, Aug, 17, from 7 to 9 p.m., all are invited to put on their dancing shoes and enjoy live music under the stars at the Marlboro Community Center (MCC). This summer concert features local jazz quartet The Woodpeckers. The Woodpeckers play early swing of 1910 to 1930. "In a highly improvisatory, good-humored, spontaneous, danceable, conversational and interactive style," say organizers in a news release, "they interpret the exhilarating music of that time, when jazz was being born and...
PUTNEY-The NXT Gallery presents "Landscapes," an exhibition of paintings by artist Hannah Harvester. The exhibit runs Saturday, Aug. 17, through Nov. 10. Harvester is known both for her rural landscapes and portraits of children and families. She is also a teacher of drawing, pastel painting, and printmaking for adults and children. "I paint in oils and soft pastels, en plein air in rural western Massachusetts or in my studio by the South River," she writes in her artist statement. "I...
PUTNEY-The Next Stage Bandwagon Summer Series presents Vermont native indie-soul singer-songwriter Myra Flynn, on Saturday, Aug. 17, at 6 p.m., at Cooper Field on Sand Hill Road. "Flynn spends her career embracing dichotomy," say organizers: Half-Irish and half-African American, her original songs "blend soulful vocals with a lyrical delivery that doesn't let one get too comfortable." "Myra has been on her way to building a national name for herself. As a regular at the Flynn's Jazz Festival, Myra's name is...
Town offices closed for Aug. 16 employee picnic BRATTLEBORO - Most Brattleboro Town Offices will be closed on Friday, Aug. 16, from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. for the annual employees' picnic. Brooks Memorial Library will open at 2 p.m. on Friday. All emergency services will remain in full operation. Copeland Hanzas featured at Candidates at the Coffeehouse on Aug. 17 BELLOWS FALLS - Come to the Flat Iron Cooperative, 51 The Square, on Saturday, Aug. 17th, at 10:30 a.m.
Obituaries • William H. Chase, 86, of Newfane. Died Aug. 6, 2024, holding hands with his love, Nancy Baker. He was born in Wardsboro on Sept. 8, 1937, to Perry Ripley Sr. and Helen (Connolly) Chase. He worked through much of his school years and still proudly graduated from Leland & Gray. In his early years, he logged with horses. He worked for various construction companies, as well as the state, doing drilling and blasting. One of his accomplishments during...
BELLOWS FALLS-"Finding Hope Within" is the theme of a collective art exhibit on display at the Rockingham Free Public Library (RFPL) until the end of September. All of the featured artists are women currently incarcerated in Vermont's Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility. Born out of frustration during a Covid lockdown at the prison, Heather Newcomb of VT Works for Women, which is based at the facility, decided to offer a challenge to the prisoners: Create an artwork that expresses "Finding Hope...
BRATTLEBORO-Author Amy Waldman will present her new biography of music promoter and club owner Peter Jest on Thursday, Aug. 22, from 4 to 5:30 p.m., in the Community Meeting Room of Brooks Memorial Library, 224 Main St. We Had Fun and Nobody Died: Adventures of a Milwaukee Music Promoter details how, from a young age, Jest booked thousands of concerts across Wisconsin and the Midwest, and opened Shank Hall, the Milwaukee venue named after a club in the cult film...
BRATTLEBORO-Longtime friends Susan Brearey and Duane Slick have spent years as individual artists bringing their close observations of animals and landscapes to life. On Thursday, Aug. 15, they will discuss their first collaborative exhibit: "The In Between," currently on view at the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center (BMAC). The talk, facilitated by the exhibit's curator DJ Hellerman, will take place at 7:30 p.m. at the museum, 10 Vernon St. Brearey recently retired after teaching art for more than 30 years...
SAXTONS RIVER-Music comes to the Saxtons River Park in a series of free outdoor late summer Sunday concerts. On Aug. 18, at 4 p.m., The MoonDogs will perform a "quirky blend of folk, blues, and gypsy jazz," with original tunes by group founder and guitarist Dante Corsano, Charlie Laurel on bass, Dave Sullivan on violin, and Drew Kovach on washboard. Rain date is Aug. 25. The MoonDogs can be heard busking on Main Street in Brattleboro Saturdays and during the...
WEST BRATTLEBORO-As the culmination of Inclusive Arts Vermont's "Cycles" exhibit, featuring work by 25 Vermont artists with disabilities, All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church will host two interactive workshops on Saturday, Aug. 17, at 1 and 2:30 p.m. Admission is free to the inclusive event, suitable for adults and children alike. The first workshop is designed for families of children with disabilities. Participants will have a chance to explore the exhibition, make art, and connect in the gallery space, which offers...
Richard Davis, a retired registered nurse, serves on the Brattleboro Selectboard as clerk. "These comments do not represent the Brattleboro Selectboard," he writes. "They are my personal thoughts." BRATTLEBORO-When I came to this area 45 years ago, Brattleboro felt like a quiet but vibrant and peaceful town where all kinds of odd personalities were on display. Local people seemed to be very tolerant, and we all took pride in our little corner of the world. No town is free of...
Elayne Clift (elayne-clift.com) has written this column about women, politics, and social issues from the earliest days of this newspaper. BRATTLEBORO-Remember what it was like before our lives were ruled by algorithms, artificial intelligence, autopay, QR codes, social media, virtual chats, usernames and passwords? I remember when you could go to a store and a well-trained person would be on hand to assist you if you couldn't find what you were looking for. My dad owned a small haberdashery in...
BRATTLEBORO-With few contested races around the state, voter turnout was low for many of the Aug. 13 party primaries in Vermont. But not so much in the southeast corner of Windham County, where three hotly contested primaries for House seats drew many voters to the polls on a sun-splashed August day. In Brattleboro, incumbent Rep. Emilie Kornheiser prevailed over a primary challenge, and Ian Goodnow emerged as the party's candidate in the November general election. For Guilford and Vernon, in...
BRATTLEBORO-Vice President Hubert Humphrey once told his dear friend, Vermont's longtime Sen. Patrick Leahy, that "any person who doesn't have tears doesn't have heart." And Leahy showed that heart - and a few tears - when he and his wife, Marcelle Leahy, came to town on Aug. 9 and 10 as part of the 60th anniversary celebration of the School for International Training (SIT). Leahy was the longest-serving senator in Vermont's history. He represented this state for eight terms before...
SOUTH NEWFANE-For two years, Willow Vermont Retreat has been under the stewardship of Tom Concannon and Ravi Shimpi, who turned to Vermont in search of a better quality of life. In the spacious, appropriately lit downstairs parlors of the 1899 inn, Concannon, a longtime art collector, and Shimpi, with whom he's been collecting for several years, will host "Passage: The Future of Contemporary Realism." The late-August show - another step on the couple's "joint path to find and support artists...
HINSDALE, N.H.-Woody Bernhard correctly points out that during Covid lockdowns, skies cleared, waters cleared, and it was like a miracle. All we need to do is receive everything for free, and we can all stay home forever! We need food to magically appear on shelves or in our pantries. We need to have homes without rent or a mortgage, which will just magically appear without construction workers or vehicles. (Remember, we are all staying home.) We need health care at...
WILLIAMSVILLE-Rock River Players' (RRP) production of Steel Magnolias by Robert Harling continues this weekend at the Williamsville Hall. Based on Harling's experience with his own sister's death, the 1987 play is about the bond among a group of Southern women in northwest Louisiana. The all-woman cast includes four players new to the RRP: Susan Boyd Joyce, formerly from Los Angeles and now from Brattleboro; Melanie Keiser, of Williamsville; Mo Hart, known locally to Actors Theatre Playhouse audiences; and Charlene Kennedy,
LINDA HECKER is professor emerita at Landmark College, where she spent 32 years of her 50-year teaching career. GUILFORD-It's been three years since a Voices essay in this paper turned my life upside down and made me an outcast in our community. Follow-up articles in the local press amplified my disgrace by quoting false allegations about me without attempting to verify them. I hoped that those who knew me would rise to my defense, but the few who spoke out...
WALPOLE, N.H.-On Aug. 3, several hundred people gathered in the Walpole Elementary School gymnasium to celebrate the life of longtime Bellows Falls Union High School coach Russell Pickering. By all accounts, Pickering was an extraordinary and highly admired man, teaching, coaching, and mentoring thousands of students, peers and, at times, total strangers, beginning in his teens and lasting right up to his death on July 17 at age 84. As person after person spoke at his celebration of life, one...
BRATTLEBORO-The topic of public safety dominated two recent Selectboard meetings, as business owners, nonprofit leaders, and townspeople expressed fear, frustration, hopelessness, and "compassion fatigue" about life downtown. During its July 23 and Aug. 6 meetings, the board heard stories of public drug use, business break-ins, and harassment. For those coming before the board, the message was clear: The community does not feel safe. Several nonprofit organizations near the transportation center on Flat Street - where town police regularly respond to...
LONDONDERRY-The town is seeking a town clerk and state representative with the resignation of dual officeholder Kelly Pajala, who has taken a job with the Federal Emergency Management Agency. "I am starting a new job with FEMA's Community Assistance Team in Vermont," Pajala wrote on her public Facebook page upon her July 31 career change, an announcement she confirmed in an interview. "I am excited about this next chapter and am ready to jump into the work that is ahead."
SOUTH NEWFANE-We at the South Newfane Community Association (SNCA) are pleased to announce that the historic village church on Dover Road in the center of South Newfane, formerly the home of the South Newfane Baptist congregation, has recently been sold. The church had been closed for several years due to a dwindling congregation, the effects of Covid and ongoing maintenance issues. Trustee Tim Cawrse, who had been the primary caretaker of the property and worked tirelessly over many years to...
PUTNEY-A packed house celebrated the Gleanery's 12-year run on Aug. 4, as the fine-dining restaurant closed its doors. The lawn outside was packed as well for the weekly Twilight Concert series. Concert promoter Barry Stockwell offered a touching tribute to Gleanery owner Elizabeth Ehrenberg, which brought a standing ovation from the crowd. It all started back in 2012. As the deadline loomed for the Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation (BDCC) annual Business Plan Competition, Ismail (Izzy) Samad called Ehrenberg, a former...