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.
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.
DUMMERSTON — Putney Library and Scott Farm partner for a Crêpe Night fundraiser Wednesday, June 10, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at Scott Farm, 707 Kipling Rd.
Crêpe Nights are family-friendly gatherings held regularly at Scott Farm during the summer months. They are times “to celebrate the harvest, good simple food, and community in a stunning setting—picnic style,” wrote organizers in a news release.
The Early Risers, library enthusiasts Ashley Storrow and Putnam Smith, will provide music during the event. Outdoor and indoor tables and chairs are provided as well as a grassy hillside “ripe for picnic blankets, folding lawn chairs, and bare feet.”
Tickets are $20 for adults or $12 for children under 12. Each ticket comes with a savory supper crêpe (galette), sweet dessert crêpe, and side salad. Drinks are available for purchase. Support the library while enjoying a beautiful Vermont evening. Tickets are limited and advanced purchase is required. Additional information and tickets are available at scottfarmvermont.com/crepe-night.
College news • Jaia Caron of Bellows Falls was recently inducted into Alpha Kappa Delta, the International Honor Society in Sociology, and Alpha Phi Sigma, the International Honor Society in Criminal Justice, at Russell Sage College in Troy, New York. Transitions • Linda Hescock was recently promoted to Vice...
PUTNEY-Sandglass Theater launches its New Visions Summer Series with a visually stunning performance by puppeteer Tom Tuke. The City That Slept will be performed Friday and Saturday, June 5 and 6, at 7 p.m. at Sandglass Theater, 17 Kimball Hill. Combining shadow puppetry, lantern puppets, and large-scale marionettes, the...
BRATTLEBORO-Write Action, Brattleboro’s local group for poets and writers of all genres, announces the publication of its 2026 anthology, Through the Windows of Brattleboro. The anthology brings together 87 poems by 53 poets from Brattleboro and surrounding towns, all of which appeared in the windows of the downtown and Canal Street businesses during this year’s National Poetry Month. Through the Windows of Brattleboro will be for sale for $15, plus tax, at Byway Books & More, 399 Canal St.; and...
BELLOWS FALLS-Stage 33 Live is running a Local Curator series of shows this summer, turning over the room to local heroes and “letting them call the shots.” The first concert, Sunday, June 7, starting at 7 p.m., is put together by Ezra Holloway, born and bred just around the corner from Stage 33 live in Saxtons River. He’s assembled a trio of young rising bands that organizers said in a news release would “bring heat and energy.” A Few Fine...
CHESTER-Once again, St. Luke's Episcopal Church - the gray church at 313 Main St. - will host free "Community Croquet" on its back lawn every Thursday from 6 to 7:30 p.m. from June 4 through July 30. Corn Hole and Badminton will also be available to the public. All outdoor activities are offered to adults and children 10 and up who are accompanied by a parent. Children under 10, who can comply with the rules, may play if supervised by...
BRATTLEBORO-Vermont artist Amber Paris will lead a conversation about her Brattleboro Museum & Art Center (BMAC) installation, “The Living Room: This Dreaming Earth,” at the museum on Thursday, June 4, at 7 p.m. “This Dreaming Earth” is a collaborative fiber-art installation that transforms BMAC’s Mary Sommer Room into “a welcoming space for contemplation and creative exchange. Incorporating contributions from local artists, writers, students, and museum visitors, the installation functions not as a static artwork but as a living environment shaped...
BRATTLEBORO-The town of Brattleboro is looking for citizens to serve on the following committees and boards: • ADA CommitteeArts Committee • Citizens Police Communications Committee • Conservation Commission • Design Review Board (member and alternate) • Development Review Board (member and alternate) • Energy Committee-1-, 2-, and 3-year terms • Fence Viewer • Honor Roll • Inspector of Lumber, Shingles & Wood • Nelson E. Withington Fund Advisory Committee • Planning Commission • Recreation and Parks Board • Senior Solutions...
ROCKINGHAM-The Rockingham Meeting House, a National Historic Landmark, opened for the 2026 visitor season over Memorial Day weekend and is welcoming visitors through Halloween. Based on docent availability, the Meeting House will be open for guided tours seven days a week from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. A meeting house has stood on this hilltop since 1774, organizers said in a news release, and the present building - constructed by the community in 1787 - is "the largest surviving eighteenth-century...
BRATTLEBORO-“By the People: Brattleboro Goes Fourth” is seeking donations and parade participants as it prepares to celebrate the town’s 53rd Independence Day event on Saturday, July 4. The all-volunteer citizens committee will begin the day at 10 a.m. with a parade from Flat Street to Main Street and the Common. The shorter route comes after requests from older marchers and challenges finding enough volunteers and public safety patrols to monitor a longer distance. Bands from the local American Legion and...
PUTNEY-Twilight Music and Next Stage Arts Project launched the 23rd “Twilight On The Tavern Lawn” series of folk, world, jazz, zydeco, bluegrass, pop, and Americana music summer concerts May 31 with the Vermont Jazz Center Sextet. The seven concert series continues every other Sunday through Aug. 23. The series is sponsored by Next Stage, the town of Putney, and many Putney area businesses and organizations. The concert lineup for the remainder of the 2026 Twilight on the Tavern Lawn series...
PUTNEY-Local author Jessie Haas will present on the process of researching and writing her latest novel, Dearest Blood: A Romance of the Revolution, at Putney Public Library on Tuesday, June 9, at 6:30 p.m. Dearest Blood is a biographical novel inspired by the true story of Fanny Montresor, a young woman with a secret identity whose love and loyalties crossed both sides of the American Revolution. Set in Westminster in 1775, the first section takes Fanny through the turmoil that...
Tim Kipp is a retired history teacher of 39 years and a political activist since the 1960s. He was arrested for trespassing at Citizens Bank on April 26 and directed to appear in Windham Superior Court Criminal Division. He intended to make these remarks to the court, but learned on June 2 that the state’s attorney declined the case. Also arrested was Dan DeWalt, whose remarks also appear in this issue. BRATTLEBORO-I have been summoned to the Vermont Superior Criminal Court...
BRATTLEBORO-“Game On: An Unexpected Harmony” will celebrate the contributions of BIPOC and women composers in video game music, Sunday, June 7, at 4 p.m. at the Brattleboro Music Center, 72 Blanche Moyse Way. “Timeless melodies and modern soundscapes collide as the EOS Project explores the music of the gaming world,” wrote organizers in a news release. Performers include Emmett Culbert, piano and synthesizer; Steve Rice and Wyatt Cudworth, drums and percussion; Genevieve Rose, upright bass and electric bass; and Bill...
-Last week was the final week of the regular season for Vermont’s high school athletes, as teams jockeyed for position in their respective playoffs in baseball, softball, and lacrosse. Baseball • Perhaps the most competitive division in Vermont baseball is Division IV, where two of the contenders are from Windham County. Leland & Gray got the No. 2 seed with a 10-4 record and will host the winner of the June 2 first-round game between No. 7 Hazen and No.
BRATTLEBORO-In 2006, after two years of planning and preparation by the founders of our fledgling nonprofit, Vermont Independent Media, the first issue of The Commons rolled off the presses. That we are still here 20 years later is entirely due to the support and unprecedented generosity of our friend, Diana Bingham, who died on May 28 at the age of 91, after living a full life with character, subversiveness, and a glint of mischief in her eye. Her obituary appears...
WEST DUMMERSTON-Lydia’s Friends, the friends-of-the-library organization that supports the Dummerston Community Center & Library, is screening the documentary Gone Guys Thursday, June 4, at 6 p.m. The film invites viewers into a timely, necessary conversation about the challenges facing boys and young men today. Produced by Well Told Films and made possible with leadership support from The Richard E. & Deborah L. Tarrant Foundation and the Vermont Community Foundation, Gone Guys explores the growing disconnection many boys face in school,
For information about Transfixed! at New England Youth Theatre in Brattleboro, visit neyt.org. The play will be performed Friday and Saturday, June 5 and June 6. BRATTLEBORO-I walked out of New England Youth Theater (NEYT), looked down and saw a four-leaf clover. I picked it and handed it to my young family member, a member of the cast of the play I'd just seen: Transfixed! The magic of this play had followed us out into the world! I was literally...
BRATTLEBORO-“Working Theory,” a group exhibition curated by Gayle Robertson, is on display during the month of June at 118 Elliot Gallery. The exhibit, featuring the works of Robertson, Elizabeth Budington, and Leonard Ragouzeos, debuts during the Friday, June 5, Gallery Walk from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. “When we look at a single painting, we see it in isolation,” organizers wrote in a news release. “A painting is a moment in a succession of decisions; a pause in the flow of...
BELLOWS FALLS-The Housing Coalitions of Southeastern Vermont and the Springfield Area invite residents and providers of the region to a co-hosted Housing Resource Fair, to be held Monday, June 8, from 4 to 6 p.m. at the Moose Family Center, 59 Westminster St. This free event, supported by a grant from the Housing & Homelessness Alliance of Vermont, will be an opportunity for attendees to connect with local and statewide organizations, to learn about housing unit development resources, and to...
HALIFAX-The Halifax Union Society will present a series of diverse religious and spiritual gatherings every two weeks this summer beginning Monday, June 7. Topics to be covered include mindfulness, the influence of women in the English reformation, beauty in nature, and religious perspectives on national affairs. Gatherings will begin at 5 p.m. and will be followed by a social hour at 6 p.m. Union Society organizers say their group aims to provide inspiration for daily living and a sense of...
BRATTLEBORO-Vermont State Treasurer Mike Pieciak is running for a third term. The Brattleboro native made the formal announcement May 29 outside the Vermont Secretary of State’s Office in Montpelier before heading back to his hometown for a campaign kickoff reception at American Legion Post 5. Pieciak, who has been treasurer since 2023, was long rumored to be a possible Democratic challenger to Republican Gov. Phil Scott, who polls as the nation’s most popular governor and who has defeated his challengers...
BRATTLEBORO-After more than five decades of passengers being relegated to the old baggage area of the former Union Station, now the home of the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center, Amtrak will soon have a new stand-alone station right across the tracks. Amtrak officials and local, regional, and federal leaders will preside over a ceremonial grand opening of the new station on Depot Street on Wednesday, June 24, starting at 11 a.m. Vermont’s first level-boarding station will offer a 345-foot-long concrete...
BRATTLEBORO-Molly Gray wants her old job back. Gray, 42, a Democrat from Newbury, is running for lieutenant governor, a job she held from 2021 to 2023. She came through Brattleboro on May 21 to visit Brattleboro Memorial Hospital, the Downtown Brattleboro Alliance, the agricultural community at the Retreat Farm, patrons at The Works on Main Street, and do a video webcast. She also found time for a sit-down interview with The Commons. In 2022, while in her first and only...
Dan DeWalt, a frequent contributor to these pages and one of the founders of this newspaper, writes that if he didn’t love his country, he “wouldn’t spend so much time trying to get it to live up to its purported principles.” He was arrested for trespassing at Citizens Bank on April 26 and directed to appear in Windham Superior Court Criminal Division. He intended to make these remarks to the court, but learned on June 2 that the state’s attorney declined...
James Freedman (Jim.freedman@gmail.com) is a leadership consultant working in the global healthcare sector. BRATTLEBORO-These four questions the highest-performing organizations routinely use to improve performance: What was intended? What actually occurred? Why did it happen? What will we do differently next time? These questions form the backbone of one of the most practical learning tools ever developed: the after-action review (AAR). On its surface, it seems almost too simple. No billion-dollar consulting contract. No 12-step leadership pyramid. No retreat center with...
PROCTORSVILLE-I want to thank everyone who has reached out after my storefront in Cavendish was vandalized with antizionist graffiti. The messages, calls, and offers of support have meant more than I can say. People from Vermont and beyond have written to tell me that seeing Israeli flags in my window gave them comfort, courage, and a feeling that they were not alone. I did not fully realize how much that visibility mattered until others told me. I was shaken by...
BRATTLEBORO-After less than a month on the job, Brooks Memorial Library Director Julie Perrin has resigned. "It is clear to me that Brooks is not a good match for me," Perrin wrote in her May 28 resignation letter to Town Manager John Potter. She did not offer any other details about her decision, but did write that she had already worked the required hours that week and submitted her timesheet. She said that her resignation was immediate. "Considering the brevity...
Cindy Coble is a mother. She likes swimming in Broad Brook year round. Her dog, Tunni, is her best friend. London P. Lippke, 71, of Guilford, died Feb. 7. BRATTLEBORO-Naked and freezing, I had just dunked in Broad Brook one raw March morning. London, on the other bank, cupped his hands and yelled, “You’re fucking nuts!” followed by the most boisterous laugh I’d ever heard. This was love. He was 10 years older, fabulously handsome, whip smart. I had just...
