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• Graveside committal rites for Elaine M. Tkaczyk will be conducted Saturday, April 11, at 10 a.m. in St. Joseph’s Cemetery on Plain Road in Hinsdale, New Hampshire. Elaine, a resident of Indian Acres Drive in Hinsdale, died March 10, 2026, at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, New Hampshire, following a lengthy illness. To view her full obituary or offer condolences to the family, visit atamaniuk.com.
This Milestones item was submitted to The Commons.
...Route 5 construction project resumes this week DUMMERSTON — Construction is scheduled to resume this week on U.S. Route 5 from Brattleboro to Putney during daytime hours. Crews will mobilize, anticipating their start of work on the portion of the Route 5 project from north of the Interstate 91...
BRATTLEBORO-A second edition of Deborah Lee Luskin’s 2010 award-winning novel Into the Wilderness, hailed by the Rutland Herald as “a fiercely intelligent love story,” will be reissued by Sibylline Press. A celebration of the relaunch will take place Friday, April 10, at ByWay Books & More on Canal Street...
BRATTLEBORO-The music of two foundational musical groups to come out of the 1960s and ’70s, Led Zeppelin and The Grateful Dead, will play at the historic Latchis Theatre in downtown Brattleboro Saturday, April 11, in a show called “Led & Dead,” performed by two local groups. Black Rover, a Brattleboro-based group, will present an eclectic set of Led Zeppelin songs, with some of their biggest hits as well as a couple of deep cuts. Then, the band Wolfman Jack will...
BRATTLEBORO-As long as the United States Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) believes it has the freedom to kidnap, terrorize, and deport new Americans, attorneys will be necessary. Which is why, in 2025, State Treasurer Michael Pieciak — a Brattleboro native — found time away from his official state duties to help create the Vermont Immigration Legal Defense Fund (VILDF). On April 2, Pieciak brought his traveling fundraising appeal to the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center, bringing with him such distinguished...
SAXTONS RIVER-The Saxtons River Art Guild (SRAG) is celebrating its 50th anniversary with events and exhibits. A members’ exhibit is currently at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, New Hampshire, through June 29 in the Rubin Gallery in the Level 3 hallway between the Main Entrance and the Cancer Center Clinical Space. Twenty SRAG members are participating, showing work in a variety of media: oil, acrylic, watercolor, pastel, print-making, and colored pencil. Exhibiting artists from New Hampshire are: Donna Cary,
TOWNSHEND-The cast and crew of the Leland and Gray Players production of She Kills Monsters gave “a terrific performance” at the Vermont Regional Drama Festival hosted by Leland & Gray Union High School, March 28 at Dutton Gymnasium, according to Leland & Gray Theater Director Ray Chapin. The show was selected to advance to the State Drama Festival, and on Friday, April 10, 16 students will travel to Bellows Free Academy in St. Albans to share their work with the...
BRATTLEBORO-The third annual Palestine Film Series will be presented in the main theater of the Latchis Theatre on four consecutive Sundays, starting April 12, at 4 p.m. The film series opens with the Oscar-shortlisted feature Palestine ’36. It will be followed by Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk April 19. The Oscar-nominated dramatized film The Voice of Hind Rajab will be featured April 26. The series will conclude May 3 with screenings of two shorter films, Aisha’s Story...
BRATTLEBORO-Vermont Jazz Center (VJC) on Cotton Mill Hill hosts its 10th annual Solo Jazz Piano Festival on Friday, April 10, and Saturday, April 11. Organizers describe this event as being “for all music lovers interested in the development of piano styles and techniques throughout the evolution of jazz.” Six pianists will perform and discuss their musical aspirations and the expansion of their approaches to the instrument. The weekend features concerts and educational opportunities that celebrate the distinct practices and vocabularies...
PUTNEY-Next Stage Arts presents an evening of klezmer and Yiddish music featuring two ensembles: Jake Shulman-Ment and Abigale Reisman, known as Two Strings, and Ira Temple and Michael Winograd Friday, April 17. This double bill brings together two duos that each draw on a distinct branch of the klezmer tradition: one rooted in old-world European string band aesthetics, the other inspired by the clarinet-led sound of mid-20th-century New York. Together, they bridge eras of Ashkenazic musical history, offering an original...
WILLIAMSVILLE-A concert to support the important work of the Vermont Asylum Assistance Project (VAAP) takes place Saturday, April 18, from 7 to 9 p.m., at Williamsville Hall. The Seymour Sisters will be performing Americana music. The band includes local musicians Beth Spicer on banjo, mandolin, and guitar; Laura Bryant-Williams on vocals and guitar; Kate Wolff on dobro, and Betsy Williams on upright bass. Vermont State Treasurer Mike Pieciak and Molly Gray, former Vermont Lieutenant Governor and previous director of the...
Windham Philharmonic’s spring concerts, “Music Through a Prism,” Saturday, April 11, at St. Mary’s in the Mountains in Wilmington; and Monday, April 13, at the Latchis Theatre, offer an opportunity to “step into a world of color, light, and sound,” said organizers in a news release. “This program refracts Baroque, Romantic, and modern music through a vivid kaleidoscope of textures and moods,” they said. The concerts include Bach’s Concerto for Oboe and Violin in C minor, featuring oboist Aaron Lakota...
BRATTLEBORO-Write Action, Brooks Memorial Library, and ByWay Books & More announce the sixth year of Poems Around Town, public displays of poetry, for the month of April, designated as “National Poetry Month.” Poems are submitted and read by a small team of poetry lovers, who have vetted them. More than 90 poems from poets in Brattleboro and vicinity, with some from more distant towns, will be posted in shop windows throughout downtown, organizers explained in a news release. Copies of...
BRATTLEBORO-The UMass Percussion Ensemble returns to the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center (BMAC) Sunday, April 12, at 6 p.m. Tickets can be purchased in advance ($10 general admission, free for BMAC members) at brattleboromuseum.org, at the door (subject to availability), or by calling 802-257-0124, ext. 101. Led by percussionist Ayano Kataoka, the UMass Percussion Ensemble is made up of graduate and undergraduate percussion students at University of Massachusetts at Amherst. For their performance in Brattleboro, Daniel Burroughs, Morgan Corey, Alex...
BRATTLEBORO-The back entrance of Brooks Memorial Library, which connects to the Municipal Center parking lot, will be closed to the public due to construction starting April 13. The entrance will remain inaccessible throughout construction, which is anticipated to continue through early July 2026. Library patrons should plan to use the front entrance along Main Street. During this phase of construction, visitors to the library and Municipal Center should note the following: • There will be limited parking in the back...
BRATTLEBORO-The Windham Southeast School District (WSESD) and Windham Southeast Supervisory Union (WSESU) will host a community forum about education restructuring per Act 73 on Saturday, April 25, from 2 to 4 p.m. at Brattleboro Union High School. The boards invite attendees to bring questions/concerns and meet with neighbors in Windham Southeast, Windham Central, and Windham Northeast, as well as with local legislators to learn about forthcoming developments concerning Act 73, which will impact the way school districts are organized, significantly...
-On a recent Friday afternoon, students at The Grammar School (TGS) in Putney stepped into the bindings of their cross-country skis and lined up at the start of the fifth annual TGS Ski for Putney Food Shelf. Starting with the eighth grade, each class, all the way down through kindergarten, lined up at the start, received a short motivational speech from a teacher, and set off to ski as many laps as they could, putting their strength and stamina to...
Timothy Maciel, Ed.D. is a former WSESD board director. BRATTLEBORO-To the Windham Southeast Community, First, I want to express my sincere gratitude to the voters who entrusted me with the opportunity to serve on the Windham Southeast School District (WSESD) Board of Directors. Representing our district has been an honor, and I have taken that responsibility seriously from my first day in office in March 2020. After careful reflection, I have decided to resign from the WSESD board. This was...
Kevin O’Keefe is artistic director of Circus Minimus, which brings the magic of circus arts to kids and to schools. BRATTLEBORO-The bland office park on the edge of Brattleboro isn’t where one would expect the revolution to start. Its tenants are mostly low-key: lawyers, a tax assistance service, and a pilates studio. The setting seems more appropriate for a new branch of Dunder Mifflin, the fictional name of the paper company in the television show The Office. But a recently...
DUMMERSTON-For months, neighbors along Black Mountain Road have watched truck after truck haul logs from the hillside. What’s happening in our backyard is a carefully planned forestry project led by Steve Hardy — president and owner of Green Mountain Forestry — whose four decades in the woods inform every decision made on the mountain. Hardy has practiced forestry for close to 48 years and founded Green Mountain Forestry 35 years ago. He’s a licensed forester in Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts,
MIKE Mrowicki represents the Windham-4 district (Putney, Dummerston, and Westminster) in the state Legislature and is a longtime Putney resident. (He notes that he writes from a white perspective, cognizant that this country has in our history attempted genocide of the First Nations peoples here, and that Jim Crow actions against people of color continue right into present day.) PUTNEY-I’ve heard resistance actions described as “Fifty Shades of Gray-Hair Resisting.” Another term I’ve heard is “grand-tifa.” While we gray hairs...
Richard Foye graduated from The Putney School in 1965 and has enjoyed a long career as a creator of Raku pottery. SOUTH NEWFANE-When I first arrived in Putney in September 1962; all 5’2” of me, prepubescent at age 14, I discovered that I had to play a sport three afternoons a week. Never having played any sport other than ice hockey on local ponds north of Boston, it seemed that soccer would be similar. I had never heard of the...
Libby Bennett is executive director of Groundworks Collaborative. BRATTLEBORO-Right now, Brattleboro faces a defining moment. As the town considers its FY27 budget at open Town Meeting on April 11, we are being asked to make difficult choices. But let’s be clear: including human services funding in our municipal budget is not just a monetary decision. It is a resolution about who we are as a community and our commitment to our future. Every day, our neighbors are feeling the impact...
BRATTLEBORO-Brattleboro Memorial Hospital and a union representing its nurses have reached a tentative agreement to avoid a strike amid a projected $14.5 million annual budget shortfall. But southeastern Vermont’s main health care provider still faces threats of a walkout by support staffers unhappy with their own stalled contract talks. The 160-member Brattleboro Federation of Nurses (BFN) voted last month for a potential strike after objecting to proposed curbs on salaries and benefits. The union said it would give the hospital...
BRATTLEBORO-Voters will convene in the first open Town Meeting since 1960 on Saturday, April 11, starting at 8:30 a.m. in the gymnasium at Brattleboro Union High School, 131 Fairground Rd., to consider a $27 million FY27 budget. The open Town Meeting format means that every registered voter who attends has a vote. That’s different from Representative Town Meeting (RTM), where about 140 elected representatives voted on behalf of their district’s constituents. The change came after voters on March 3 discontinued...
PUTNEY-Regarding the movement to repeal Act 181: I hope that Vermont can meet the needs of its citizens and provide opportunities for all Vermonters to live productive lives and to be encouraged to be involved in the future of this beautiful state. The legislators pushed this bill through to support the development at the entrance to Putney. They did not have time to understand its impacts on Vermonters fully. They were too busy attacking community members in Putney who were...
BRATTLEBORO-If you are a fan of alternative rock, you know the music of Tanya Donelly and Chris Brokaw. She was the cofounder of Throwing Muses, Belly, and the Breeders. He is best known as the guitarist/singer for the band Come and the drummer for Codeine, and he has collaborated a number of other musicians, including Thurston Moore. Now Donelly and Brokaw, both of Boston, have teamed up for a new project that reaches further back than their 1980s beginnings. They...
BRATTLEBORO-When Brattleboro Union High School (BUHS) social studies teacher Lindsay Levesque was about 12 or 13, she read The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank. It was her introduction to the Holocaust. “I remember talking to my dad about it,” she recalls. “My other Holocaust connection is that my mom’s best friend is an immigrant from Hungary whose mother was a Holocaust survivor.” Levesque jumped at the idea of bringing the exhibit “Anne Frank: A History for Today”
BRATTLEBORO-A poem by Brattleboro writer Diana Whitney introduces a narrator clad in a bandana, slinky bracelets, and “the pearly jelly flats everyone craved.” When she gets laughed at by mulleted, bra-snapping “JT,” she takes revenge by striking him out in gym class softball. JT’s friends boo him, and as our protagonist relishes in her victory, a spaceship explodes on live TV. This childhood recollection of the 1986 Challenger disaster is one of many visceral moments in the poems that make...
LANDGROVE-Competing at the Olympics is the culmination of years of hard work by the athletes fortunate enough to make it, and all the time spent training and working toward the hopes of one day reaching the podium can come down to a matter of a few minutes that can define a career. That was the case for cross-country skier Ben Ogden of Landgrove at the 2026 Milan Cortina games in Italy. Ogden ended a long U.S. drought for America in...
VERNON-Enough already with the asinine No Kings protests! These tantrums are not newsworthy and are a complete waste of ink and paper. Grow up, people. Wyatt Finley Vernon This letter to the editor was submitted to The Commons. This piece, published in print in the Voices section or as a column in the news sections, represents the opinion of the writer. In the newspaper and on this website, we strive to ensure that opinions are based on fair expression of...
