Next Stage Arts Project and Twilight Music present contemporary bluegrass, Americana, and folk trio the Kruger Brothers at Next Stage, 15 Kimball Hill on Friday, July 7, at 7:30 p.m.
“Jens Kruger (banjo and vocals), Uwe Kruger (guitar and lead vocals), and Joel Landsberg (bass and vocals) personify the spirit of exploration and innovation that forms the core of the American musical tradition,” say organizers.
Although initially staying fairly close to a traditional repertoire, the Kruger Brothers later turned to songwriting and composition in order to draw more closely from their personal experiences.
Kruger's style of banjo playing is based on the three-finger bluegrass style popularized by Earl Scruggs. His playing is differentiated by long melodic passages and a more complex compositional foundation, often building on jazz or classical themes and techniques.
Next Stage Arts brings Boston-based tap dance ensemble Subject:Matter to the Bandwagon Summer Stage, on Saturday, July 8 at 6 p.m. The performance will take place at the New England Center for Circus Arts (NECCA), 10 Town Crier Drive, in Brattleboro. “Tap dance is an American invention, and Subject:Matter...
Next Stage Arts presents You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, a Weston Young Company production, at Putney Central School on Thursday, July 6, at 4:00 pm. “The ability to invite community members to see a professional-level production from Weston in our community gets to the heart of community partnerships...
On Wednesday, July 5, at 4 p.m., the Putney Public Library kicks off the youth Summer Reading Program with a presentation, “All About Bats!” with bat enthusiast Jerry Schneider. What is it echolocation? Why do bats echolocate? Why can't people hear them? Participants will create bat T-shirts using a combination of fabric dye sprays and cut outs. Participants may purchase blank T-shirts for $5 or bring their own. Kids can participate in Putney Library's Summer Reading Program all summer long,
College news • The following local students have been named to the Dean's List for the spring 2023 semester at the University of New England in Portland, Maine: Jonathan Terry of Bellows Falls; Xiamara Achilles-Bodnar, Nicholas Campbell, Hannah Geno, Lexi Miner, Mollie Patenaude, Riley Patenaude, and Rachael Rooney of Brattleboro; Olivia Lauricella of Saxtons River; and Shelby Stoodley of Westminster. • Leah Madore of Williamsville and Kylie Reed of Jacksonville were named to the Dean's List for the spring 2023...
The Rich Earth Institute will be holding a Rich Earth Jubilee, a family-friendly event on Saturday, July 1, from 3 to 6 p.m., on the Brattleboro Common, to celebrate local food and the cycles that sustain our lives. The rain location is the Vermont Jazz Center at the Cotton Mill. It will feature art-making, music, free food, and exhibits from groups in the local food system, from growers to eaters to composters and peecyclers. The Brattleboro Museum & Art Center...
All Souls hosts creative writing workshop WEST BRATTLEBORO - All Souls Church, 29 South St., will host two sessions of an Ekphrastic Writing workshop with artist/instructor/writer Trish Murtha on Thursday, June 29. Ekphrastic is the Greek term for creative, descriptive writing triggered by a particular work of art - visual, musical, or other. Many museums and art centers now encourage writers to delve into a piece of art, or several, as a prompt for creative written expression. Writers, poets, artists,
On Friday, July 7, and Saturday July 8, a series of events at Epsilon Spires in downtown Brattleboro and the Green River Bridge Inn in Guilford will feature a diverse array of artists, academics, and musicians exploring the theme of “Transcendence: Call & Response/Things Unseen” as part of the second annual Multidisciplinary Artist Salon. “Makers and creators of art are in conversation - but with who, and with what?” co-curators Jamie Mohr and Shanta Lee said in a joint statement...
Artist Aurora Robson, whose new site-specific installation, “Human Nature Walk,” is on view at the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center (BMAC) through Feb. 11, 2024, creates art to bring about a circular economy and remove plastic debris from the waste stream. For more than 20 years, Robson has been radically reframing the potential of plastic debris, creating otherworldly sculptures and installations - “transforming trash into beauty,” as BMAC Director Danny Lichtenfeld puts it - and supporting other artists in their...
In conjuction with the Saxtons River Fourth of July celebration, a pie baking contest will be held - actually two contests: one for savory pies, one for sweet. Bakers are invited to submit their creations for judging by the International Union of Pie Judges, Saxtons River, Vermont (a self-appointed cohort of pie connoisseurs). All pies are welcome; they require only a crust and a filling. Entrants can surprise judges with their traditional summer standards as well as unexpected interpretations of...
During July, the Crowell Gallery at Moore Free Library, 23 West St., presents “Many Layers of Expression,” recent work by artist Nancy Powers Libby. An artist reception will be held on Saturday, July 8, from 4 to 6 p.m. Libby is an abstract expressionist artist who uses multiple layers of paint (acrylic, oil, watercolor), cold wax, collage, and various pencils to translate how she sees and feels the world around her. The combination of colorful and energetic marks brings her...
In late May, a group of 16 artists gathered in Bellows Falls for a week of fellowship and painting. Some knew each other; some had never met before. It was billed as “The Fryer-Hunter Gathering,” a colloquium hosted by friends Doug Fryer, a Utah painter and one-time Vermont resident, and local artist Charlie Hunter. A show of selected works from that week, entitled “Downriver,“ is now on display at the Rockingham Free Public Library. “Bellows Falls has fabulous subject matter...
Vermont Everyone Eats (VEE), the innovative, statewide, $49 million pandemic relief program that increased food security, economic stabilization, and agricultural resilience within a single initiative, recently released an economic report showing that the program also stimulated significant lasting economic impact in Vermont. Between August 2020 and March 2023, nearly four million meals were produced by Vermont restaurants and distributed statewide to local meal recipients negatively affected by the pandemic. Meals were made by more than 320 Vermont restaurants using ingredients...
On Friday, June 30, from 5 to 8 p.m., the Harmony Collective Artist Gallery, 49 Elliot St., will host a new artist reception for five artists who have recently joined the collective: Rachel Eleanor Brown, Sarah Gerould, Sandy Klein, Julia Sorensen and Monty Zwickerhill. The public is welcome. Brown is a painter, tattooist, and writer. After studying at Parsons School of Design in NYC, she pursued her apprenticeship in tattooing, which led to opening Strange Brew in 2011. Alongside tattooing,
After 34 years here in Windham County, I've gotten to know many people at our local schools. I'm now writing about the children of the players and coaches I've associated with in that time. One marker of those passing years has been Tammy Brassard Claussen, who recently announced she was stepping down from her post as varsity softball coach at Leland & Gray Union High School. I met Tammy Brassard in the fall of 1990, a young woman from Brookfield...
St. Michael's Roman Catholic Church, 47 Walnut St., has a collection of stained glass windows created for the church in 1889 by the Art Stained Glass Institute of F. Nicolas and Sons in Roermond, Holland.(1) “While eye has not seen nor ear heard the glories that await in heaven, St. Michael's gives a vivid preview,” the church said in a news release. “The images of Saints are delicately rendered with amazing patterns and fanciful architectural details incorporated into the iconography.
Citing “extensive and pervasive” damage to crops, Gov. Phil Scott is requesting that the U.S. Department of Agriculture issue a disaster declaration because temperatures plunged into the low 20s across Vermont for hours in mid-May, freezing vulnerable young buds on thousands of fruits. In a letter sent to U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack on June 19, Scott described the “debilitating damage” to crops of apples, grapes, blueberries, peaches and other stone fruit across the state. He asked that a...
In what has been described by many as “a lightning round,” state legislators returned to Montpelier on June 20 to override five gubernatorial vetos in one day, including the all-important state budget, which must go into effect on July 1. The legislators' recall session had been expected to last three or even five days. “The veto session was very efficient,” said Sen. Wendy Harrison, D-Windham. “We were advised to be prepared to be there for three days the first week...
Twelfth Night, by William Shakespeare, is slated as the Vermont Theatre Company's (VTC) annual outdoor production presented in collaboration with, and at, Retreat Farm. “Twelfth Night,” a VTC media release explains, “tells the tale of Viola, who's been tragically separated from her twin brother, Sebastian, during a shipwreck. Viola disguises herself as a boy and works for Duke Orsino, with whom she falls in love. Orsino is in love with the Countess Olivia, and sends Viola to court her for...
I have been paying very little attention to the story of the five rich people who went down to view the Titanic wreck on the ultra deep submersible. I was pretty sure that they were already dead. At that depth any tiny thing goes wrong and it is pretty quick - like nanoseconds - and it is over. The pressure at that depth is immense. I did, however, see the reactions of a lot of people. Some people tried for...
Spurred on by the continued strong support of the people of Townshend, who have voted a total of $288,000 over the past five years for the restoration of the historic West Townshend Stone Arch Bridge, built in 1910 by Townshend farmer-turned-stonemason James Otis Follett, the project is moving forward. Work on the bridge, which carries traffic on Back Windham Road across Tannery Brook, is slated to begin in the spring of 2024 and be finished by fall. The road will...
“I want to learn how to use tools better, create new things, and learn new stuff about building,” says Maddy Sprague, leaning in with an earnest and confident smile. The 13-year-old Putney resident explains that she's already done some around-the-house types of repairs using tools with her mother and grandmother (Amy and Sheryl Sprague) and has also built a tree house with the assistance of her grandfather, Mark Sprague. “The tree house is 6 or 7 feet off the ground...
In a departure from previous years, The Commons will not publish an issue next Wednesday, July 5. In January, the board of directors of Vermont Independent Media, the nonprofit that publishes the newspaper, voted to suspend publication the week of Independence Day to give the newspaper's staff an additional week off. Since 2010, when The Commons converted from monthly to weekly publication, the newspaper has paused for one week at the end of each year. Any urgent news will be...
The Windham County Heat Fund, an IRS-recognized tax-deductible nonprofit, was started in 2005 by me and Daryl Pillsbury. We never intended to create a fund that would keep going for so long but the need never decreases. So we raise money every year and rely on a generous community to do the heavy lifting for us. They always come through, and Daryl and I - and the people we help - are grateful for the support. This past heating season,
A 7-year-old boy, in remission from leukemia and living in Florida, was unable to access potentially life-saving treatments because his insurance coverage was suddenly cut off. This is the face of the government's cruel cancellation of Medicaid coverage for millions of Americans. What's behind this nightmare? The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated that it was actually possible to expand health care services and coverage to more individuals; all 50 states agreed to maintain Medicaid coverage for their beneficiaries in exchange for enhanced...
“By the People: Brattleboro Goes Fourth” is set to hold the town's 50th annual Independence Day celebration on Tuesday, July 4, with a morning parade downtown and afternoon and evening program of family activities and fireworks at Living Memorial Park. Marching units - including the local American Legion and Brattleboro Union High School bands, veterans, civic and youth groups - will kick off the festivities at 10 a.m. with a parade from Flat Street to Main Street to the Town...
Our window for enjoying live outdoor music is rather short in Vermont - three months, if we're lucky. So why not pile the kids in the car, grab a blanket and some folding chairs, and head to the Retreat Farm to hear great local music while sampling appealing global cuisine? (You won't even have to clean up!) The Retreat Farm has just what locals and tourists alike are looking for this summer as its live music summer season continues with...
I was late to news of the submersible. And even later to write about it. Words felt too painful, like a trespass on tragedy. But to ignore the words written by others, especially those who mocked the lives needing oxygen, seemed an even greater disregard of our shared humanity. My own grief, however, isn't without question. What of the small boats filled with families, all those tilting, sinking vessels left floundering off coastlines, denied entry by laws and leaders and...
If the town were to take on running emergency services (EMS) entirely in-house, those who are exploring options say start-up costs could range from $1.3 to $1.9 million. “There isn't anyone in the town of Brattleboro who sees this as a cash cow,” said Assistant Town Manager Patrick Moreland at the Selectboard's June 20 meeting. “EMS services are expensive. There will be some revenue, but it's not a cash cow.” A town-run EMS system is one option on the table...