Issue #850
Singer-Songwriter Showcase featured at Next Stage
PUTNEY-Next Stage Arts Project and Twilight Music present a singer-songwriter showcase, in person and via livestream, featuring Paper Wings, Jason Scaggs, Emily Margaret, and Michael Roberts at Next Stage, 15 Kimball Hill Rd., Friday, Jan. 30 at 7:30 pm.
Southern Vermont-based Scaggs, Margaret, and Roberts will perform an in-the-round set, followed by the Nashville-based duo Paper Wings.
Buster Keaton's 'The General' features live music score
BRATTLEBORO-A screening of The General (1926), one of Keaton's landmark feature films, will take place Friday, Jan. 30, at 6:30 p.m. at Epsilon Spires, 190 Main St. "He never smiled on camera, earning him the nickname of 'the Great Stone Face,'" organizers wrote in a news release. But Buster...
Speakers come to Putney to kick off community book read of ‘The Problem With Plastic’
PUTNEY-Putney Public Library, 55 Main St., and the local Beyond Plastics affiliate group Third Act of Windham and Windsor counties (Win/Win) is hosting the launch of a community read of The Problem With Plastic: How We Can Save Ourselves & Our Planet Before It’s Too Late Tuesday, Feb. 3,
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Curator and art historian discuss Meyer Schapiro tribute exhibition at BMAC
BRATTLEBORO-Curator Phong H. Bui and art historian Alexander Nagel will discuss the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center (BMAC) exhibition "Singing in Unison, Part 13: Homage to Meyer Schapiro," at BMAC on Saturday, Feb. 7, at 5:30 p.m. Invited by BMAC to curate an exhibition at the museum, Bui, the co-founder, publisher, and artistic director of monthly journal The Brooklyn Rail, proposed a show that would serve as a tribute to his late mentor, the art historian, Meyer Schapiro. "My personal...
Around the Towns
Potluck features ‘polite political talk’ BRATTLEBORO — On Sunday, Feb. 1, from 5 to 7 p.m., at the downstairs hall at Centre Congregational Church, 193 Main St., Brattleboro Indivisible and Brattleboro Area Action will host a community potluck supper. Organizers say all are invited “to connect and get to know your neighbors, no matter their views. [...] Brattleboro has much to discuss — let’s share some polite conversation over food. Fresh conversation starters will be provided.” If possible, bring a...
Opening reception of the Dummerston School Student Art exhibit at Historical Society
DUMMERSTON-The Dummerston Historical Society announces the opening reception of the Dummerston School Student Art exhibit, featuring works by approximately 25 students in first, fourth, fifth and eighth grades, Sunday, Feb. 1, between 1 and 3 p.m. At 1:30 p.m., Benjamin Ferguson, who has served as the art teacher at Dummerston School since 2019, will give a short presentation on the exhibit. He says he is dedicated to introducing students to notable artists, teaching a wide range of artistic techniques, and...
'Endless Butter,' a communal feast of poetry and music, comes to Next Stage
PUTNEY-Next Stage Arts, 15 Kimball Hill, invites the community to "Endless Butter," a warm, midwinter gathering of poetry, music, and storytelling, on Sunday, Feb. 1, from 1 to 4 p.m. Inspired by a miracle attributed to St. Brigid, patron saint of poetry, fertility, farmers, and makers of all kinds, "Endless Butter" is a celebratory afternoon designed to sweep away winter cobwebs and nourish creative spirits. The event features a remarkable lineup of poets, musicians, and a storyteller in an intimate,
Guilford Center Stage auditions Feb. 5, 7
GUILFORD-Open auditions for actors for Guilford Center Stage's spring production, "Shorts," will be held in two sessions, Thursday, Feb. 5, and Saturday, Feb. 7 at Broad Brook Community Center, 3940 Guilford Center Rd., about 4 miles west of the Country Store The show opens the theater group's 11th season. The Thursday session will be from 5 to 7 p.m.; auditions on Saturday will be from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m. No appointment is needed. "Shorts" is a program of short...
We are all journalists
With stunned disbelief, the world has looked at the stream of images coming to us from Minneapolis, which has quickly become the unlikely epicenter of the greatest threat to democracy in our lifetimes as militarized and violent federal agents abuse bodies, minds, spirits, and trust in their haphazard mission of terror and chaos — the consequence of the $75 billion appropriated and signed into law by President Donald Trump last year. Our country’s leaders have wasted no time in blaming...
Stage 33 Live, WOOL.fm to screen 1930s films in February
BELLOWS FALLS-On Thursdays in February at 6 p.m. at 33 Bridge Street in Bellows Falls, Stage 33 Live and WOOL.fm will screen a series of classic films newly entered into the public domain. The lineup of films, as described by the organizers, is as follows: • Feb. 5: King of Jazz, plus two cartoons featuring Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. King of Jazz is a lavish series of musical numbers, comedy sketches, and visual set pieces showcasing the possibilities of sound...
Milestones
College news • Maria Carfora of Brattleboro and Evan Fitzpatrick of Jacksonville were named to the fall 2025 Dean’s List at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. • Kali Taylor of Brattleboro was named to the fall 2025 Dean’s List at Regis College in Weston, Massachusetts. • Georgia Bristol of Dummerston, Liliana Carignan of Brattleboro, and Cameron Gage of Putney were named to the fall 2025 Dean’s List at Springfield (Mass.) College. • Sean Alexander of East Dummerston was named to...
Brattleboro Area Interfaith Group sets sights on spring service trip to South Carolina
BRATTLEBORO-The Brattleboro Area Interfaith Youth Group says its spring service trip for 2026 will be to Charleston, South Carolina, from April 18 to 25. Charleston is one of the oldest cities in the South, and the city where the Civil War began. During Brattleboro Union High School’s spring break, the group will be exposed to the area’s rich history and current situation, according to Brian Remer, one of the youth group’s organizers. “From slavery to today’s racial-economic disparity, youth group...
Rebel girls mark their first win
-Last week, I wrote about the trials and travails of the Leland & Gray boys’ basketball team. The Rebels finally got their first wins of the season with a 48-21 win over Long Trail School on Jan. 14 and a 47-38 victory over Sharon Academy on Jan. 17. The Leland & Gray girls’ basketball team had many of the same issues that the boys have had this season — namely not enough experience and too many injuries. After 11 straight...
Brattleboro FY27 budget keeps trash pickup, cuts nonprofit funds
BRATTLEBORO-Voters will decide in March whether to approve a proposed $27,018,335 fiscal year 2027 town budget after Selectboard members voted 3–2 to approve the plan. Board members Isaac Evans-Frantz and Amanda Ellis-Thurber voted against it, while Vice Chair Oscar Heller, Chair Elizabeth McLoughlin, and member Peter Case voted in favor. The meeting date will depend on what format voters choose in an upcoming vote: retaining Representative Town Meeting or moving to a “regular” annual meeting format. The board started the...
Brattleboro police chief to step down March 30
BRATTLEBORO-Police Chief Norma Hardy, who previously served 26 years with the Port Authority Police Department of New York and New Jersey, is retiring. Saying he spoke “with a heavy heart,” Town Manager John Potter announced Hardy’s March 30 retirement at the Jan. 22 Selectboard meeting. “I’ve been working really hard to postpone this day as long as possible, but I know from extensive conversations with the chief that now is the best time for the next chapter in her life,
Curbing costs in Brattleboro
Isaac Evans-Frantz is the clerk of the Brattleboro Selectboard. He writes in his capacity as an individual member of the board. He invites readers to reach out to him directly at ievans-frantz@brattleboro.gov with opinions and questions. BRATTLEBORO-Over the last two weeks, the Brattleboro Selectboard has taken important steps for financial health and stability in voting to: • Restore funding for critical infrastructure for our bridges, retaining walls, and bicycles. • Unanimously pass my motion to restore the finance director position.
BMH: State issues warning, but won't intervene
BRATTLEBORO-Vermont health care regulators have issued a warning, but won't intervene, as new leaders at Brattleboro Memorial Hospital work to control a projected $14.5 million annual budget shortfall. "We want Brattleboro to thrive," Owen Foster, chair of the state's Green Mountain Care Board, said during a pair of review hearings that ended Jan. 21. "The solution to make sure that happens is the management needs to identify the essential services for that community and it needs to come up with...
BMH nurses threaten strike amid hospital's financial tailspin
BRATTLEBORO-A union representing nurses at Brattleboro Memorial Hospital is threatening to strike after the 500-employee facility changed its contract offer upon projecting a $14.5 million annual budget shortfall for the current fiscal year. The 135-member Brattleboro Federation of Nurses said the hospital had proposed wage increases totaling 11% over three years, only to reduce that figure during negotiations this week to no raises at all. "They are asking the nurses basically to bail them out," Tracy Ouellette, a nurse and...
Royal Diner owners ‘moving on’
WEST BRATTLEBORO-After two years running it, Royal Diner co-owner Bo Foard and partner David Manning have closed its doors and are quietly talking to folks who’ve expressed interest in buying the building it’s in. “It’s been a pleasure, but we’re moving on,” said Foard by phone on Jan. 19, noting there was not a particular issue or problem; the time had just come for him to wrap it up at the Marlboro Road property. “I just kind of reached the...
Brattleboro Selectboard’s budget shamefully leaves human services out in the cold
Sarah Turbow is a clinical social worker, an organizer, and a member of the Human Services Committee. This piece does not represent the opinions of the Committee as a whole. BRATTLEBORO-On the eve of projected sub-zero temperatures and more than a foot of snow, the Brattleboro Selectboard cut the entirety of the town’s human services budget to save homeowners less than $60 in property taxes. In one act, the Selectboard swiped at Brattleboro’s democratic traditions, its most vulnerable residents, and...
A Jan. 31 poetry and music doubleheader in Putney
PUTNEY-As Yellow Barn Executive Director Catherine Stephan says, “we have a delightful embarrassment of riches” in Putney on Saturday, Jan. 31, with two separate performances that commingle poetry and musical performance. At 2 p.m. that day, one can catch cellist Eugene Friesen and poet Court Dorsey in their collaboration, “Poems with Wings,” at Next Stage. As Dorsey describes it, the program will be “an astonishing array of poems, from dark to light, from the absurd to the sublime — socks,
What if ICE comes to Brattleboro?
Janice Stockman and Judy Davidson are members of several Brattleboro groups committed to standing up for the civil rights of our immigrants and refugees and protesting the violent tactics of ICE. Up until now, protests here in Brattleboro have been peaceful and nonviolent - and even joyful because of the music and singing provided by Dan DeWalt's Resistance Band and Becky Graber's Good Trouble Chorus. However, if ICE comes to town and tries to deport immigrants, the atmosphere will likely...