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Your support powers every story we tell. We're committed to producing high-quality, fact-based news and information that gives you the facts in this community we call home. If our work has helped you stay informed, take action, or feel more connected to Windham County – please give now to help us reach our goal of raising $150,000 by December 31st.
This Memorial Day weekend, the Vermont Crafts Council will present its annual “Spring Open Studio Weekend,” which spotlights professional artists and craftspeople who live and create throughout the state.
Participating sites will be open to the public from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, May 23 and 24, with many studios offering demonstrations as well as the opportunity to purchase art and talk to the artists who make it.
The council has organized participating sites into distinct loops that can be visited in one or two days. The southern Vermont loop includes eight studios and two galleries along a stretch from Brattleboro in the east to Readsboro in the west.
In the center of the loop, the studios of several members of Brattleboro-West Arts offer a cluster of tour stops along the wooded backroads of West Brattleboro, Marlboro, and Dummerston.
For U.S. Rep. Becca Balint, D-Vermont,“every day we’re fighting the fight,” she told The Commons last week. “Everything is about abuse of power.” Balint, 58, who used “scrappy little dyke” as the catchphrase that launched her into the House of Representatives in 2024, recently announced that she will be...
BRATTLEBORO-The musical ensemble Sammy and Brothers will perform an all-ages show Saturday, May 23, at 2 p.m., at Sages Downstairs at the Latchis Hotel & Theatre. The band’s “uplifting and infectious music” blends traditional African styles from DR Congo and East Africa with original compositions, wrote organizers in a...
Obituaries • Clifford W. “Cliff” Bouchard, 74, of West Dover. Died at his home May 12, 2026. He was born March 12, 1952, in Worcester, Massachusetts, the son of the late Jean Donald and Marion Bouchard. He was a graduate of East Greenwich (R.I.) High School. A longtime resident of West Dover, he was affectionately known as “Bub.” Cliff was a friend to all in the community and always there to help. Cliff worked at Mount Snow for 25 years...
BRATTLEBORO-Visitors to the exhibition “Michaela Harlow: A Certain Slant of Light,” on view at the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center (BMAC), encounter a world shaped by the artist’s view of winter’s quiet intensity. In this installation of pastel paintings, scattered sketchbook drawings, and arrangements of stones and birch branches, Harlow translates the fleeting gestures of the natural landscape into marks, textures, and forms “that evoke both movement and stillness,” wrote organizers in a news release. Inspired by the stark beauty...
WEST BRATTLEBORO-Sandglass Theater, in partnership with All Souls Church Unitarian Universalist invites community members to participate in “Sacred Bodies,” a creative storytelling workshop and community gathering taking place Saturday, May 23, at the West Village Meeting House, 29 South St. The workshop will take place from 2 to 4 p.m., and will be followed by a community potluck. Organizers call Sacred Bodies “a facilitated space for dialogue, reflection, and creative exploration. Rooted in themes of sacred bodies, queerness, and coming...
Townshend Farmers Market opens for the season WEST TOWNSHEND — The 2026 season of the Townshend Farmers Market begins Friday, May 22, from 4:30 to 7 p.m. Organizers said the market “is handicapped accessible, family and all human friendly, and even well behaved leashed dogs are welcome.” The market is at 6573 Vermont Route 30 in West Townshend, behind the West Townshend Country Store, and features a variety of local vendors old and new. For more information, visit westtownshend.org/farmers-market. Local...
PUTNEY-Next Stage Arts and Twilight Music present Baklava Express Friday, May 29, at Next Stage Arts, 15 Kimball Hill. Brooklyn-based Baklava Express “creates vibrant, high-energy music that evokes the atmosphere of an open-air Mediterranean market,” said organizers in a news release. Blending ancient and modern instruments, the ensemble performs original compositions rooted in Turkish, Greek, Armenian, Arab, Mizrahi, and Sephardi musical traditions, while weaving in touches of jazz, flamenco, rock, and Ottoman classical music. Led by oud player and composer...
Lynn Martin is an artist and poet. BRATTLEBORO-It was 1945. The year the Nazi concentration camp at Buchenwald was liberated by the United States, Congress officially recognized the Pledge of Allegiance by name, and Branch Rickey signed Jackie Robinson to play for the Montreal Royals. I was 10 years old, and about to make the most amazing discovery — a discovery that would affect my entire life. Our fifth grade teacher took us to the public library. It was a...
BRATTLEBORO-The Brattleboro Music Center (BMC) presents “An Evening With Ben Cosgrove,” Friday, May 29, at 7 p.m. The concert will feature the traveling pianist-composer-performer whose music explores themes of landscape, place, and environment. According to promotional materials, the Boston Globe has described Cosgrove as “a sonic plein-air painter” who uses “his piano as a paintbrush.” Over the last year, Cosgrove has collaborated with the BMC and The Landmark Trust USA to compose new works inspired by southern Vermont landscapes. One...
BELLOWS FALLS-The Bellows Falls Historical Society’s Frank Adams Grist Mill at 20 Mill St. will open for the season Memorial Day Weekend, Saturday, May 23, and Sunday May 24, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The mill will be open Saturdays and Sundays through Indigenous Peoples Day Weekend (Oct. 10–12). The Mill can also be open by appointment at other times by making arrangements via email to bfhistoricalsociety@gmail.com. While at the mill, visitors can make time to visit the Riverfront...
HINSDALE, N.H.-Community members will gather in Hinsdale along the banks of the Ashuelot River Saturday, May 23, to celebrate World Fish Migration Day, a global event recognizing “the remarkable journeys of migratory fish and the importance of healthy, free-flowing rivers,” wrote organizers in a news release. The free, family-friendly event will take place from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Millstream Riverfront Park and Community Center, 19 Main St. It is part of a worldwide celebration connecting communities across the...
Bellows Falls • American Legion Post 37, 42 Rockingham St., will host Memorial Day ceremonies Monday, May 25, starting at 10 a.m. Legion family members and the color guard will lay wreaths at nine local cemeteries and memorials. Brattleboro • The annual Memorial Day service — presented by American Legion Post 5, VFW Post 1034, and Marine Corps League Detachment 798 — will be held on the Common Monday, May 25, at 11 a.m. Before the service on the Common,
If you want to vote in the August party primaries in Vermont or the general election in November, democracy advocates suggest this action plan to be sure of your access to the voting booth: • Ahead of time, make sure to check your voter registration, confirm your polling place, know your voting hours, and make a plan to vote early if you can — voting by mail is also available to all Vermonters. • Encourage your friends and family to...
ROCKINGHAM-A two-alarm fire last week that had the potential of leaving dozens of vulnerable residents homeless was contained quickly enough to prevent a much more serious disaster. Damage from the May 11 blaze at the Rodeway Inn at 593 Rockingham Rd. was limited to the main structure of the motel and did not affect any of the rooms. An estimated 40 to 50 residents who are in the General Assistance Emergency Housing program have been able to stay in their...
-Thanks to the efforts of so many people, Tenney Field at Brattleboro Union High School has never looked better. Last season, fans saw the infield was rebuilt with new sod and dirt — the first upgrade to the playing surface since the 1960s — and the installation of fenced-in bullpens next to the dugouts. Still left to be done was the biggest job, refurbishing the field’s historic grandstand after years of deferred maintenance and neglect forced it to be closed...
WILLIAMSVILLE-For the fifth year running, the Rock River Players (RRP) evening of one-act plays is back, with a big following, and with original works, usually by area playwrights, and, each year, with newcomers to the RRP. This year marks another stride with the renaming of the festival as The Annual Tom Ely Festival of One-Acts to honor the memory of Tom Ely, a core company member who died in 2025. Ely, distinguished for building camaraderie in a company, for anticipating...
Dr. Tony Blofson and Dr. Elizabeth McClarney are acting co-CEOs of Brattleboro Memorial Hospital. BRATTLEBORO-When it comes to your health, where you choose to receive care matters. Today, patients are often faced with the assumption that going farther away — often to larger, urban medical centers — means better care. But that isn’t always the case. In fact, for most healthcare needs, the best choice may be right here in our own community. At Brattleboro Memorial Hospital, we are proud...
Liza Cochran is a writer and educator whose work has appeared in The Iowa Review, The Gettysburg Review, Colorado Review, and elsewhere. She and her mother, Lorni Cochran, of Guilford, write Brave Little Voices, a Substack site that advocates for a more just world as it celebrates Calvin Coolidge’s famous remark about Vermont: “If the spirit of liberty should vanish in other parts of the union and support of our institutions should languish, it could all be replenished from the generous store held...
BRATTLEBORO-Brattleboro Memorial Hospital and a union representing its 280 support staffers have signed their first contract, avoiding a threatened walkout amid a projected $14.5 million annual budget shortfall. The two-year agreement with Brattleboro Healthcare United workers, announced May 14, comes a month after management at southeastern Vermont’s main health care provider successfully negotiated a separate contract with the 160-member Brattleboro Federation of Nurses. “These agreements recognize the hard work and dedication of our employees while also reflecting the realities facing...
BRATTLEBORO-The Brattleboro Regional Chamber of Commerce (BRCC) has chosen Rachel Shields Ebersole as its new executive director. “There’s a lot to take in — a lot of history, a lot going on,” says Shields Ebersole, who started work earlier this month and brings more than a decade of experience in community building, communications, program management, and regional economic development to the role. Priorities for her, once she has a handle on the big picture, will be “leaning into the regional...
