NEWFANE — The Historical Society of Windham County will host a special program exploring the long history of the Abenaki people in the region. Professor Robert Goodby of Franklin Pierce University in New Hampshire will share some of the extensive knowledge he has gained in leading a number of archaeological explorations with his students in this homeland of our first residents.
One of those digs, near Keene, New Hampshire, produced charcoal which could be carbon-dated to nearly 13,000 years ago, a time when the glacial ice sheets were still retreating. That site is among the earliest confirmed native occupancies known in the entire eastern United States.
This program will begin at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, June 17, in Williamsville Hall at 35 Dover Rd. Admission is free, with donations appreciated. For the latest updates and schedule of events, visit historicalsocietyofwindhamcounty.org.
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College news • The following students recently earned degrees from Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts: Lydia Hazzard-Leal of Brattleboro graduated with an M.S. in communications. Hazzard-Leal is a member of the Alpha Epsilon Lambda honor society. Freddie Learey of Brattleboro graduated with an M.A. in International Development. • Ava...
BRATTLEBORO-Out in the Open, in partnership with Everyone’s Books and Brooks Memorial Library, is proud to present “Better Off Read,” an evening of trans literature and conversation. The event will take place Friday, June 12, at 7 p.m. at the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center and is free and...
BROOKLINE-As part of the Brookline Selectboard’s 2026 Building Planning Initiative, Brookline voters are invited to attend a Special Town Meeting Saturday, June 20, at 9 a.m. in the Multipurpose Room in the former Brookline School Building, 624 Grassy Brook Rd. The meeting will include articles related to town facilities and future planning, including: • Article 1: A proposed Town Garage improvement project to build covered bays to expand storage capacity, install a cement floor, and add covered equipment storage. •
BRATTLEBORO-The Windham County Sheriff’s Office recently announced that S.255, an act relating to establishing a pilot Law Enforcement Governance Council in Windham County, passed the Vermont Legislature and was signed into law by Governor Phil Scott May 20. Following over three years of discussion and development, S.255 establishes a pilot framework for the Windham County Law Enforcement Governance Council, a regional governance model intended to help participating municipalities without police departments plan, fund, and deliver law enforcement and related public...
BRATTLEBORO-The Vermont Center for Photography (VCP) presents a three-part Artist Talk series running June through September, featuring photographers Harvey Stein, Barbara Bosworth, and Ace Lehner. Each talk offers the Brattleboro community an opportunity to engage directly with working photographers whose practices span documentary street photography, large-format landscape work, and portrait-based inquiry into identity and representation. VCP opens the series Wednesday, June 17, at 6:30 p.m., with Stein, a street photographer who has spent more than 50 years walking the streets...
GUILFORD-Local children and families are invited to take part in a special community art exhibit celebrating our nation’s 250th anniversary at the Broad Brook Community Center (BBCC) this summer. The new art show, entitled “Past, Present, and Future,” will open at the BBCC on the Fourth of July at Guilford’s annual “4th of July Picnic.” The show organizers invite young artists to help bring this vision to life. Children of all ages are encouraged to submit up to three pieces...
GUILFORD-The Guilford Free Library will kick off their summer programming Wednesday, June 17, from noon to 2 p.m., with a library party that will begin with an all-ages outside puppet show titled Punschi with Jana Zeller from Sandglass Theatre. Originally created by Sandglass’ co-Founder, Ines Zeller Bass, Punschi is an enchanting tradition of imaginative puppetry in the tradition of German fairground entertainment. It features a selection of hand puppet acts, general buffoonery, and music, presented by this second-generation international puppeteer.
GUILFORD-The Soubrettes, the Vermont Jazz Center’s lively 19-voice choir, will be celebrating their 20th anniversary and the release of their album Town with a 6:30 p.m. concert Wednesday, June 17, at the Guilford Community Park Pavilion on 24 Church Drive next to the Guilford Community Church. The choir was founded in 2006, when Eugene Uman invited Anna Patton to lead a harmony singing class at the Jazz Center. Over the years, participants honed their skills of singing syncopated rhythms and...
BRATTLEBORO-ByWay Books & More, 399 Canal St., hosts performer Stephanie Bass Abrams for an afternoon of vaudeville talk Sunday, June 14, at 3 p.m. as a preview to her upcoming vaudeville show at the Vermont Jazz Center. What is vaudeville? Vaudeville is a style of live variety entertainment, jam-packed and fast paced. Vaudeville was the most popular form of American commercial entertainment from the mid-1890s through the First World War with millions of people attending shows weekly at its peak.
BRATTLEBORO-The Windham Solid Waste Management District (WSWMD) has launched a new online survey to solicit feedback from the approximately 3,000 access sticker holders who use the transfer station that WSWMD operates at 327 Old Ferry Rd., Brattleboro. WSWMD Chair Michelle Cherrier encourages users to take 5 minutes to respond to the survey questions regarding operating hours, ease of use, and customer service. “Our staff and the Board of Supervisors will review the responses in order to provide critical insight into...
PUTNEY-Twilight Music and Next Stage Arts Project continue the 23rd Twilight On The Tavern Lawn series of folk, world, jazz, zydeco, bluegrass, pop, and Americana music summer concerts Sunday, June 14, with Brattleboro-based quartet High and Loathsome. High and Loathsome is a band that “plays songs and improvisations, floating between form and freedom, structure and ambiance, intention and attention, and drawing fully from the experiences of four musicians who have spent their careers as sound explorers,” wrote organizers in a...
Following a successful opening weekend, Actors Theatre Playhouse announces that its annual 10-Minute Play Festival continues with performances scheduled for the second and third weekends of June. Audiences have responded enthusiastically to this year’s theatrical potpourri, which features seven mini-plays selected from more than 300 nationwide submissions. The festival, directed by Wendy Almeida, Rob Gray, Ian Hefele, Ann Linge, Brenda Seitz, Lin Sinder, and Burt Tepfer, delivers a diverse lineup of comedy, drama, and thought-provoking storytelling. “We’re thrilled with the...
BRATTLEBORO-Latchis Arts’ Classics at the Latchis series continues with Sunset Boulevard Sunday, June 14, at 7 p.m., including an introduction, afterthoughts, and a book signing with David M. Lubin, author of Ready for My Close-Up: The Making of Sunset Boulevard and the Dark Side of the Hollywood Dream. Consistently cited by cinephiles and scholars alike as “one of the greatest American films of all time,” Sunset Boulevard (1950) stars Gloria Swanson as Nora Desmond, an aging silent film queen who...
BRATTLEBORO-Vermont Independent Media (VIM), the publisher ofThe Commons and The Deerfield Valley News, Brattleboro Community Television (BCTV), and WVEW-LP will collectively welcome Democracy Now! founder and host Amy Goodman to a fundraiser reception Friday, June 19, at 5 p.m. at Sages (6 Flat St.). Goodman has been touring the country to support Steal This Story, Please!, a documentary film that chronicles her life and career as an independent journalist. While traveling, she actively attends fundraising events to champion independent media...
Elayne Clift (elayne-clift.com) has written this column about women, politics, and social issues for two decades. BRATTLEBORO-During the snowstorms in January, my family managed to meet up for a birthday celebration in sunny California where the temperatures were in the 60s and 70s and the sky was beautifully blue every day. The winter respite was lovely but sobering as well, because I knew we were lucky to be able to take the trip since we are what could be called,
WESTMINSTER-As a reading interventionist at a Vermont public middle school, I witness daily how technology shapes our students’ futures. We use our Google Chromebooks for statewide testing, diagnostic testing, even for daily instruction. As a Vermont teacher I am expected to have all my work available through Google Classroom, to regularly check my Gmail, to use only Google tools in my job. Generally this helps Vermont schools move toward a more universal design, where students gain better access to school...
WILLIAMSVILLE-When my latest Time magazine arrived this week, I was elated to see Michael and Susan Dell of Dell Computers depicted saintlike on the cover, leading to an initial blurb stating how they are donating $6.25 billion to needy folks in America by researching and locating low-income counties and giving $250 to anyone who registers their kids by July 5. The money will go into a government-backed account, where it will collect interest and become cashable at age 18. A...
BELLOWS FALLS-Four new candidates, two Republicans and two Democrats, are in the running for the two Windham-3 House seats in the Aug. 11 party primaries, as is one of the two incumbent state representatives. Democrats Leslie Goldman and Michelle Bos-Lun are the two representatives for Windham-3, and they have both served since 2021. Bos-Lun, from Westminster, is running again. Goldman will be moving to be closer to family in California and will not seek reelection. She said she will not...
Django Grace describes himself as an environmentalist, skier, chiller, and lifelong Brattleborian. He graduated from Brattleboro Union High School in 2024 and will enter his junior year of college at Columbia University this fall. He plans to study political science and environmental policy, and eventually hopes to work in the Vermont Legislature. BRATTLEBORO-The approaching election cycle will be a tumultuous, important time of change in this country, especially here in Vermont, where I see and feel a growing anxiety about...
BRATTLEBORO-In an event taking place at the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center (BMAC) Saturday, June 20, at 6 p.m., two winemakers from Vermont’s Champlain Valley, Deirdre Heekin and Caleb Barber of Domaine La Garagista Farm & Winery in Barnard, will discuss how they are managing the impacts of climate change on their livelihood. Climate change profoundly affects the ancient craft of winemaking, altering where grapes can be grown, when grapes are harvested, and even how wine tastes in the glass.
BRATTLEBORO-The entity once known as 69A Elliot St. — named for the storefront where it originally came into being — will continue down the street as the community resource it has become, under different leadership and corporate structure. “I want to thank everyone who has supported 69A and everyone who came in and utilized our community art center,” said 69A’s director, Lisa Marie, adding that she dissolved its corporate entity, 69A LLC, on June 1. “I did this with a...
BRATTLEBORO-The Windham World Affairs Council invites the public to “Profitable Good Book Launch and Sustainability Lens Game Play with author, Tamara Stenn, Friday, June 19, from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. at 118 Elliot. The evening will feature local author, entrepreneur, and sustainability expert Tamara Stenn, who holds a Doctor of the Arts in Leadership and Economics. She will present her new book, The Profitable Good: A Bold Playbook for Sustainable Business Growth, which explores questions such as: What if the...
-Bellows Falls ended the first week of the high school postseason in Vermont with its softball and baseball teams both reaching their respective Division III semifinals and getting home games this week. Brattleboro boys’ lacrosse and Leland & Gray softball also have a date in the semifinals on the road this week. • The BF softball team needed eight innings to defeat the No. 7 White River Valley Wildcats, 9-8, in a quarterfinal in Westminster June 5. With the game...
WILLIAMSVILLE-Bernard (Bernie) Rosow, originally of Williamsville, didn’t choose a path to fame and fortune. The freeriding, freestyling skier, who died of cardiac arrest on April 23 while hiking up Bloody Mountain in Mammoth Lakes, California, preferred carving his own routes, building his own jumps, and holistically honing his own blend of Nordic and alpine skiing with ski jumping. The 45-year-old Rosow probably could have gone pro, but he chose his own route: He took on the grind of nighttime slope...
BRATTLEBORO-Imagine an American Fair constructed in the Heartland with pavilions hosted by each of the 50 states. Imagine billionaires responding to a wish list and ponying up for software to efficiently connect states with resources, sort out parking, shuttles, and housing for guests, offer updated information, and imagine them footing the bill for attendance by Americans with disabilities, veterans, children. Imagine American music showcased in days-long multistage performances, featuring the distinct sounds of shape-note singing, blues, jazz, gospel choirs, symphonies,
BRATTLEBORO-Happy, the elephant, died on May 26 at the Bronx Zoo. That same day, Ken Paxton, endorsed by President Trump, defeated Texas Senator John Cornyn in the Republican party primary by an overwhelming margin (28 points!). Cornyn is a longstanding member of the Grand Old Party, a Bush-era Republican. He has held his seat for 23 years, served as Republican whip for six of them, and is known for his bipartisan deal-making. Like the GOP of old, also suffering from...
Dora Levinson is an early childhood data and policy professional. SAXTONS RIVER-What happened to the Phil Scott we knew? The governor who brought us through Covid together is not the Phil Scott on the ballot this year. In the spring of 2020, when no one knew what the pandemic would bring next, Phil Scott stood at a podium twice a week with his health and education team and told us the truth. He asked Vermonters to be smart, stay safe,
BRATTLEBORO-Sixteen years ago Eugene Uman, director of the Vermont Jazz Center (VJC), launched the Convergence Project, a concert that fills the VJC’s aesthetically cool Cotton Mill space in Brattleboro with a blend of hometown excellence and invited talent. For Uman, this annual concert offers an opportunity to invite his favorite musicians to join him on stage to showcase new compositions, review old favorites, and connect with the VJC’s growing, and loyal, audience. The event wraps up each year’s September-to-June season...
BRATTLEBORO-The Commons goes to great lengths to a question how the Charter Revision Commission can manage to deal with two apparently contradictory votes that were cast in Brattleboro's last election on March 3. These two votes dealt with the issue of Representative Town Meeting,and the Australian ballot system. The only issue I can see, is how the results are contradictory? The Brattleboro voter, as far as I can tell, felt that the Representative Town Meeting was no longer capable of...
BELLOWS FALLS-On behalf of everyone involved in the Bellows Falls Rotary Club’s Second Annual Adult Spelling Bee, we sincerely thank the many sponsors, donors, volunteers, participants, and community members who made this year’s event such a tremendous success. What began as a fun and friendly competition is becoming a meaningful community tradition — one filled with laughter, camaraderie, and an incredible spirit of generosity. The enthusiasm shown by local businesses, organizations, teams, and audience members reminds us just how strong...
BRATTLEBORO-The Brattleboro Music Center’s Chamber Series welcomes back Espressivo! Friday, June 12. The 7 p.m. concert features Jaime Laredo and Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt, violins; Sharon Robinson, cello; and Anna Polonsky, piano. The program will include Beethoven’s Piano Quartet in E-flat major, Richard Danielpour’s “Book of Hours” for piano quartet, and Robert Schumann’s Piano Quartet in E-flat major. “We really love these three works together,” Robinson said in a news release. “Each are very expressive and tug on your heartstrings...
