The Next Stage Bandwagon Summer Series presents Ukrainian band DakhaBrakha on Thursday, July 13, at 6 p.m. at The Putney Inn, 57 Putney Landing Rd. This performance is co-presented with The Stone Church.
“Easily one of the most exciting artists to emerge from the global music scene in the past few years, DakhaBrakha brings Ukrainian music into the 21st century with creative force,” Keith Marks, executive director of Next Stage Arts, said in a news release. “They've headlined stages around the world, and we are overjoyed about the opportunity of presenting them in Putney.”
DakhaBraka is a music quartet from Kyiv, Ukraine. Reflecting fundamental elements of sound and soul, their self-described “ethno-chaos” band creates a world of unexpected new music.
The quartet was created in 2004 at the Kyiv Center of Contemporary Art “DAKH” by the avant-garde theater director Vladyslav Troitskyi and given the name that means “give/take” in the old Ukrainian language. Theater work has left its mark on the band performances - their shows are always staged with a strong visual element.
College news • The following local students recently graduated from Castleton University and were recognized during its 236th commencement ceremony: Kristopher Carroll of Brattleboro, A.A., general studies; Devon Harding of Londonderry, B.A., ecological studies; Morgen Janovsky of Wilmington, B.A., criminal justice (magna cum laude); Rebekah Lazarek of Westminster, B.A.,
Breakfast served at Williamsville Hall on July 13 WILLIAMSVILLE - Breakfast at the Williamsville Hall, 35 Dover Rd., will be served on Thursday, July 13, from 8 to 10:30 a.m. This monthly breakfast is complimentary and donations for the Hall are appreciated. The meal is open to everyone. Homemade...
Wonderful, whimsical creatures - with names like Oggy, Squish, and Snuggs - take center stage in the 2023 edition of Glasstastic, a popular biennial exhibition at Brattleboro Museum & Art Center (BMAC) that features collaborations between K–6 students and professional glass artists. Through Oct. 9, a total of 11 glass sculptures are on display alongside the drawings and descriptions that inspired them. This year, the glass creatures live in an immersive habitat designed by local artist Cynthia Parker-Houghton. The resulting...
As July is the month that the United States celebrates its independence day, Kerry Secrest, Honorary Consul of Lithuania to Vermont and Brattleboro resident, is leading a summer fundraiser to support ongoing efforts for Ukraine. Having just returned from Lithuania, Secrest said in a news release that “being in Vilnius while Wagner paramilitary group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin claimed control of military facilities in two Russian cities and marched toward Moscow, I am reminded that there is incredible instability in the...
Folk music returns to Wardsboro on Saturday, July 15, as Wardsboro Curtain Call presents Rebecca Hall and Ken Anderson, the husband-and-wife duo better known as Hungrytown, from nearby Townshend. They will be performing their new songs from the upcoming album Circus for Sale. Through many years of worldwide touring, Hall and Anderson have crafted Hungrytown into what they call an “artistic hybrid,” which includes “Celtic and Americana, ballads and psychedelia, sunshine and darkness, joy and despair,” both within the same...
There are many troubling forces at play in our current zeitgeist and politics that are demanding the attention of our president and legislators. Keeping tabs on current events and the status of our sociopolitical machine is dizzying. But the problem of climate change - the future of our planet - is the backdrop and integral piece to much of the inequities and catastrophes we are facing and witnessing. Though politically it can seem as though climate change is a partisan...
High schoolers at the Governor's Institute on Global Issues & Youth Action, cell phones in hand, pointed to U.S. Rep. Becca Balint as the political pioneer trumpeted by the Teen Vogue headline on their screens as “Vermont's first woman and LGBTQ+ federal representative.” But the subject herself knows the less-reported flip side. “It's not just the stories that people tell about us, it's the stories that we tell about ourselves,” the 55-year-old shared with students at the start of the...
Actors Theatre Playhouse's (ATP) latest production, The 39 Steps, opens on Thursday, July 13, with performances on Thursday, Friday, Saturday nights, July 13–29, starting at 7:30 p.m. In this ATP production of Patrick Barlow's award-winning play, a cast of four actors, complete with costume changes and dialects, play more than 100 characters. According to the news release, an ordinary man is mistakenly forced to take to his feet and begin an extraordinarily dangerous and entertaining escapade. The cast of Gregory...
Mitchell-Giddings Fine Arts, 183 Main St., presents “Inner Landscapes: Three Views,” paintings and collaged prints by New Hampshire artists Maggie Cahoon, Jessie Pollock, and Erika Radich. An opening and artists reception will take place on Saturday, July 15, from 5 to 7 p.m. The show continues through Aug. 27, and all are invited to an artist forum scheduled for Sunday, Aug. 6, at 5 p.m. Cahoon, Pollock, and Radich bring together their “unique and highly personal, nonfigurative imagery to fashion...
The Vermont Sampler Initiative (VSI), a statewide effort to locate, photograph, and document all American samplers and related embroideries held in Vermont public and private collections, is coming to town. Needlework samplers - pieces of loosely woven fabric stitched with letters, numbers, aphorisms and images - were used to “showcase embroidery stitches, patterns, and techniques, often as a way for women to learn and practice their skills,” according to the Vermont Historical Society. VSI is a branch of the nationwide...
The 2023 Marlboro Music Festival invites audiences to Potash Hill for the first concerts of the season and free open rehearsals in Persons Auditorium. From among the more than 75 pieces that were rehearsed last week, Marlboro artists have chosen six fascinating works to share, from Mozart and Haydn string quartets to Janáček's Mládí for woodwind sextet. The program on Saturday, July 15, at 8:30 p.m., also offers a rare opportunity to hear Marlboro's Artistic Directors Mitsuko Uchida and Jonathan...
The Yellow Barn Summer Festival distinguishes itself as an international chamber music hub that, according to its website, “encourages discovery in the studio, classroom, and concert hall; explores the craft of musical interpretation; and illuminates our world through the unique experience of music.” A participant's journey begins well before the festival opens. “Four weeks before their arrival, participants receive their assigned repertoire and are notified when each work will be performed and rehearsals will begin,” the festival organizers write at...
Newfane • Newbrook Fire Department, 698 Route 30, Newfane Jamaica • Jamaica Masonic Lodge, 110 VT-30, Jamaica Londonderry • Londonderry Flood Brook School, 91 VT-11, Londonderry • Londonderry Town Hall, 100 Old School Road, Londonderry • South Londonderry Baptist Church, 62 Crescent St., Londonderry -VtDigger...
Google “Rock River.” You'll find lots of local entities that boast that handle. A beautiful tributary feeding first the West, then the Connecticut River, its massive rock formations are staid, but the river never is - even on the driest of days. The rocks are constant around which the ever-changing river flows. Visiting Rock River Artists (RRA) studios recently to catch up on plans for their Open Studio Tour coming up this weekend, I was struck by just that: constancy...
Brattleboro Post 5 is off to a great start to its American Legion Baseball season. After they lost their first league game to Bennington Post 13 on June 18, Brattleboro has since won 11 of 12 league games to take control of first place in the Southern Division with an 11-2 record. On July 1 at Tenney Field, Post 5 - and pitchers Jolie and Jayke Glidden - swept a doubleheader with Manchester Union Underground. Jolie was the winning pitcher...
A few years back, a member of the Dummerston Historical Society sought out lifelong resident Don Hazelton to answer a question, one about town history, that members of the group had long wanted answered. Hazelton, now 93 years old, stood before them, thoughtfully pulling his hand down his beard as he considered the question. A few moments passed. “That's a good question,” he said quietly, and he thought a few seconds more before suggesting, “I think that's a question for...
Janice Martin, 96, remembers being awarded a scholarship to Green Mountain Camp for Girls - a place that, even though it was just 6 miles from her childhood home on Canoe Brook Road, “felt very far away.” “I was a country bumpkin, with very little socialization in 1938, when I was 12 years old,” says Martin, now a resident of Brattleboro. As GMC celebrates its 106th anniversary this summer, it remains the longest-continuously-run camp in Vermont, and one of a...
In the parking lot outside her store Tuesday, Beverly Jelley was taking inventory. Holding a yellow legal notebook, she kept a list of food items - some waterlogged - that volunteers were taking from her store and bringing outside. After the food was accounted for, it was thrown into a dumpster. Jelley's is a neighborhood staple, a deli and liquor store that also serves as a de facto community meeting place, according to town resident Salina Cobb. Jelley herself is...
Forever Simon & Garfunkel, a musical tribute group, will perform at Next Stage Arts Project on Wednesday, July 12. This duo of Sean Altman, 62, and Jack Skuller, 27, has been called a “Spring-Winter musical bromance,” since the two have a three-decade age difference. Next Stage co-founder Billy Straus, a Putney resident, met Altman in college in the early 1980s. The two have enjoyed a lifelong friendship and musical collaboration, including work on the PBS television series Where in the...
Dear Fellow Vermonter, As we all know, Vermont is now experiencing our worst natural disaster since 1927. Many hundreds of homes and businesses have been damaged by the terrible flooding that we are seeing throughout the state, and there is concern that more rain may bring even further damage. Sen. Welch, Rep. Balint, and I are working with the Governor's office to make sure that every possible federal resource comes to Vermont as quickly as possible. I am very appreciative...
Heavy rain fell on Vermont on July 9 and 10 in amounts not seen since Tropical Storm Irene in 2011. Mountain towns such as Weston and Londonderry took the brunt of a slow-moving series of showers and thunderstorms that delivered up to 6 inches of rain in less than 24 hours. Access to both towns was cut off after flash flooding washed out roads and led to the need for several rescues to be made by water-borne emergency responders. All...