New Orleans jazz legend plays at VJC

Saxophonist and composer Donald Harrison and his quintet will perform Friday

The Vermont Jazz Center at the Cotton Mill will present New Orleans saxophonist and composer Donald Harrison and his quintet in concert. The Friday, Sept. 14, show will support Harrison's new album, Quantum Leap.

The Grammy-nominated trumpeter, composer, and bandleader Jack Walrath - also a longtime collaborator with Charles Mingus, and who wrote the liner notes for the album - said Harrison is “one of the most significant voices of the 'Young Lions' of jazz” and praises Quantum Leap as “an intertwined journey inward to the roots of jazz and outward to its furthest frontiers. This is jazz as it was envisioned to be … bluesy, original and forward-looking … always swinging and constantly surprising.”

This isn't surprising, because Harrison links traditional and cutting-edge jazz.

Born in New Orleans in 1960, Harrison was raised in the African-influenced Mardi Gras Indians' culture of brass bands, parades, and rituals by his father, a Big Chief of four Indian tribes; then, just out of music school, he started working with drummer Roy Haynes, and soon after was a member of the legendary ensemble of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers. Harrison went on to work with Lena Horne, Miles Davis, Terence Blanchard, Latin Jazz great Eddie Palmieri, Digable Planets, the Head Hunters, Larry Coryell, Spike Lee, and many others.

Read More

Jewish High Holy Days begin at sundown on Sept. 16

At sundown on Sunday, Sept. 16, Jewish people will welcome Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year 5773. Rosh Hashanah, considered by Jews to be the birthday of the world, marks the beginning of a sacred period known as the Days of Awe, a time of reflection and introspection that...

Read More

WOOL-FM hosts finale of indie-rock concert series on Sept. 15

Community radio station WOOL-FM's Summer 2012 indie-rock concert series, presented in partnership with the What Doth Life music collective and featuring some of the region's top up-and-coming bands, wraps on Sept. 15 with a triple-headliner show. The bill includes the “best band in Vermont” according to the Boston Phoenix,

Read More

More

Everything you wanted to know about vaginas, but were afraid to ask

Robin Westen admits that most people in town, even close neighbors, only know her as the wife of octogenarian jazz cornet player and President Emeritus of the Vermont Jazz Center, Howard Brofsky. What they don't know is that Westen is the author of 10 books, including a best-selling Young Adult biography of Oprah Winfrey; an Emmy Award-winning television writer; frequent contributor of feature articles for national magazines, including Glamour, More, Family Circle, Cosmopolitan, and Self; and medical director for thirdage.com,

Read More

Guilford Ensemble plays a benefit for Sweet Pond

The Guilford Ensemble offers an evening of classical music on Friday, Sept. 14, at 7:30 p.m., at the historic Guilford Center Meeting House. The musicians are donating their time to benefit the rebuilding of the Sweet Pond dam and restoration of Sweet Pond. The pond has been an important part of Guilford's culture and history since the 18th century, when the music to be played at the concert was composed, and when Guilford was founded. The Guilford Ensemble musicians are...

Read More

MSA to hold auditions for ‘Kiss Me Kate’

Main Street Arts will hold auditions for its winter production of Kiss Me Kate Friday, Sept. 14, from 7 to 9 p.m., and Saturday, Sept. 15, from 10 a.m. to noon. The performance dates for the musical are March 1, 2, and 3; and 8, 9, and 10, 2013. Winner of five Tony awards, Kiss Me Kate was originally produced in 1948 and is a classic play-within-a play that combines Cole Porter's music and lyrics with the story line from...

Read More

Milestones

Obituaries • Athena Arvanitakis, 55, of Brattleboro. Died Aug. 30 after a courageous battle with cancer. Mother of Andrew Arvanitakis. Sister of Elpi and Nick Arvanitakis. Born in Queens, N.Y., daughter of the late Simon and Marianna (Doxakis) Arvanitakis, she spent her formative years in Wilton, Conn., and then went onto live in Colorado and Arizona before coming to Brattleboro, where she had lived for the past 12 years. Prior to her death, she was attending Divinity school working towards...

Read More

Bringing the Bard to Brattleboro

When people move from a beloved town, they often are filled with regret about what they have to leave behind: their house, a favorite store, or a park. But when Suzanne Rubinstein had to leave Madison, Wis., because her husband was taking a job at Marlboro College in Vermont, she had one overriding thought, “I can't leave Madison without YSP.” So she took it with her. The Young Shakespeare Players (YSP) is a nationally acclaimed youth classical theater that was...

Read More

Raising funds for continued Irene recovery

The Southeastern Vermont Irene Long Term Recovery Committee (SEVT LTRC), one of nine disaster recovery committees around the state, serves to identify and help those with unmet needs in the wake of last year's devastating Tropical Storm Irene. We assist anyone in Windham County who needs help, including those who did not register with FEMA. In the weeks and months following the storm, 1,500 Windham County households were listed by FEMA as damaged. One year later, the SEVT LTRC is...

Read More

Around the Towns

Local harvest supper served in Putney PUTNEY - The second annual Local Harvest Lantern Supper will be held on Friday, Sept. 14, at Putney Central School. Sponsored by the Putney Co-op, Transition Putney, Christopher Irion, and the Community Supper committee, this year's meal will include a pig roast, barbecue chicken, roasted corn, vegan tempeh entree, side salads, apple crisp and ice cream dessert. The meal is open to all by donation, and service begins at 6 p.m. The showpiece of...

Read More

Colonels, Terriers both lose home football openers

The defense of the Brattleboro Colonels football team is still a work in progress, as they gave four unanswered touchdowns in a 28-7 loss to the Champlain Valley Red Hawks in the home opener at Natowich Field last Friday night. The Colonels took a 7-0 lead when quarterback/safety Tyler Higley intercepted a pass on defense, connected on a 22-yard pass to Elliot Gragen, then burrowed into the end zone on a quarterback sneak. Higley finished with 14 completions for 111...

Read More

BMC, WSESU offer free after-school music programs

This fall, the Brattleboro Music Center (BMC) and Windham Southeast Supervisory Union (WSESU) launch a new collaboration to provide free after-school music programs to students in Brattleboro's three public elementary schools. “Over the past several years, the Brattleboro Town School District has been expanding our after school enrichment program offerings,” said WSESU Superintendent Ron Stahley. “We are very excited that this year the Brattleboro Music Center will be offering two new music programs in the schools. The Children's Chorus and...

Read More

Our Place marks its 20th year of operation with a roundtable and fiesta

How do you celebrate an organization you wish didn't have to exist? That was the thinking of the folks at Our Place Drop-in Center (OP), which is observing its 20th year of operation with special activities Thursday, Sept. 13, at the center on Island Street. As part of this year's annual fiesta to thank its supporters and recognize its volunteers, the food pantry and daytime shelter is hosting a roundtable at 3:30 p.m. that will bring together food providers from...

Read More

VY’s jobs keep young people in Windham County

According to a July announcement from Gov. Peter Shumlin, his office will be working to promote job opportunity in Vermont to encourage Vermonters to come back to the area to work, or consider staying here to work. Promoting job opportunities at Vermont Yankee would be a good place to start. With more than 600 full-time employees, Vermont Yankee is the second-largest employer in Windham County and has remained a steady employer through the recessions of the last decade. According to...

Read More

Forest Moon offers free writing workshop for cancer survivors

Forest Moon will again offer Spirit of the Written Word, a 10-week writing workshop for area residents affected by a cancer diagnosis. The free workshop will take place on Tuesday evenings, Sept. 18-Nov. 20, 6-8 p.m. at the Richards Building, Brattleboro Memorial Hospital. No writing experience is required and all sharing is confidential. The workshop will be facilitated by Forest Moon's program director Pam Roberts. Roberts is a writer, artist, and workshop facilitator who found writing to be an important...

Read More

Windham Orchestra invites all musicians to an open rehearsal

The Windham Orchestra invites all area amateur and professional musicians to an open rehearsal on Monday, Sept, 17, at 7:30 p.m. at the Robert H. Gibson River Garden on Main Street. The open rehearsal is an opportunity to meet and work with the amateur and professional musicians of the Windham Orchestra. For local musicians who would like to experience playing with a large ensemble, this is an excellent opportunity to “try out” the orchestra. Musicians are asked to RSVP by...

Read More

Looking for options

The Selectboard discussed options for financing upgrades to the town's police and fire stations at its meeting on Sept. 3. The lengthy discussion concerned the financial and emotional practicalities of embarking on a large municipal project - estimated to cost $14.3 million to complete - in a down economy. The board considered two financing routes for the project. The first path is issuing municipal bonds. The second route includes a combination of municipal bonds and money raised through a new...

Read More

A fresh start for Brattleboro Area Drop In Center

The office of Brattleboro Area Drop In Center executive director Lucie Fortier sits on the second floor of the old house on South Main Street that the Drop In Center calls home. Like so many things at the Drop In Center, it is a space that has been well used to the point of being threadbare. But soon, Fortier said, the space will be “cleaner and nicer to be in.” That's because the Drop In Center will be closing its...

Read More

Stop telling me I got punched in the face because I’m gay

Psst. Can you keep a secret? Okay, don't tell anyone, but I have a superpower. No, I can't talk to sea horses or make tulips grow to towering, city-menacing heights. But I do have that meta-human ability to take any situation and make it gay. And yeah - I know I'm not the only one, but I still can wield it in spectacular (and obviously fabulous) ways. The check-out girl only offers me paper and never plastic? She can sense...

Read More

Fanfare for a modest man

Friends and colleagues gathered at Centre Congregational Church on Saturday to pay tribute to the life of former state Sen. Robert Gannett, who died on Aug. 26 at the age of 94. His sons, Bill and Bob Jr.; his 91-year-old sister, Dorothy Gannett West; and former House Speaker Stephan Morse offered remembrances of a man who loved his family, his community, and the honor of representing Brattleboro in the Vermont Legislature. “While, for the rest of you, you know him...

Read More

BMH is looking for ‘Daddy Bloggers’ for its website

Through Oct. 8, Brattleboro Memorial Hospital is sponsoring a Daddy Blogger contest. All fathers in the tri-state region are invited to enter. Through the contest, the hospital plans to select four to six area dads to be featured as permanent daddy bloggers. Each month their posts will appear on the BMH daddy blog. Winning dads will also receive a Sony Bloggie camera. “Today's dads are getting more involved in exchanging ideas and connecting with one another. Whether it's about the...

Read More

There's a big difference between protected freedom and vindicated prejudice

RE: “A simple quiz” [Viewpoint, Sept. 5]: Thank you! There is a vast difference between a “freedom” that must be protected and a prejudice that seeks legal vindication. I am a Taoist, and our beliefs coincidentally include many of Jesus's teachings (before he was born... some things are universal, no?) but we do not worship a deity, believing instead that our souls and salvation are in our own acts and responsibility toward others. We believe there is no spiritual being...

Read More

Grounds for optimism

I was actually a bit surprised when Marlboro College President Ellen McCulloch-Lovell asked me to deliver a commencement address. I do not have a graduate degree, much less have earned one as many graduates have - while holding a full-time job, paying a mortgage, and raising a family. So I asked Ellen straight out why she was inviting me to speak. She said, “Because, Matt, you are an optimist.” I found that moniker flattering. But I have to be honest:

Read More

Can there be legal justice for evicted tenants

RE: “Landlords need legal, cost consequences” [Letters, Sept. 5]: Agreed. And where - and when - do the aggrieved get relief? Possibly from the Vermont Department of Consumer Affairs, which has an excellent track record as far as I'm concerned, but probably has no jurisdiction. For over five years, I've read about this-and-that housing authorities, both local and state. Since (apparently) three states are concerned in the Bellows Falls matter [“Anatomy of an eviction,” Aug. 25], is this a federal...

Read More

Not anti-God, anti-theocracy

“A simple quiz” [Voices, Sept. 5] was a very-well-done article. To any who might say that I'm anti-God or even anti-religion, I would reply: No. Just anti-theocracy.

Read More

Knock it off, litterbugs!

This pile of disgusting waste found recently by the side of Crosby Street prompts me to put my thoughts in writing. To all those fast-food-munching, beverage-guzzling, tobacco-smoking litterbugs: knock it off and take your trash home. This is Vermont - be proud of your state.

Read More

Hoffer: Illuzzi’s labels mask details

RE: “Wearing blue in a red county” [Sept. 5]: With all due respect, Vermonters might like a little more information about Vincent Illuzzi. It is not unfair for him to call himself a “Vermont Republican,” but such labels can mask important details. • For example, he voted against the Legislature's health-care reform bill (H.202, Act 48). • He received the third-lowest rating of all state senators from VPIRG, which just released its annual report card, and was also rated poorly...

Read More

Real science examines all causes and effects

RE: “Protesters plan to take to the river: SAGE seeks to call attention to thermal pollution at VY” [Sept. 5]: As a nuclear engineer and supporter of Vermont Yankee, I believe, first of all, in science. I accept new findings, as long as they are really scientifically produced. I also accept that it is likely that we did not know all there is to know about the sciences of life forms in the river. We might learn more and have...

Read More

Telling stories, grasping cultures

What foundational myths influence our perception of our culture? Does story have power to shape and create new realities? And if so, do we as storytellers have the authority to choose how we shape our communities? I've found that for the most part we do. We as a people have shaped our lives, justified our very being, by resting our belief on a story we've been told about who we are and how we should live. In American society, one...

Read More

Holding it together

Many people have predicted that the world will end in 2012. We are more than halfway through the year and, as far as I can tell, the Earth is still here. But there are some bad signs on the horizon. The ice sheets in Greenland are melting, Texas is baking in the heat, and gas is pushing four bucks a gallon. The more you think about it, the worse it seems. It's enough to drive you crazy. Fortunately, we all...

Read More

Bellows Falls charter revisions draw public ire

If one were to go by the minutes of the public hearing held Sept. 4 to review the Charter revisions approved by the Rockingham Selectboard and Bellows Falls Village Trustees in March, nothing much occurred and no specific comments were made. The public hearing was meant to solicit feedback on the results of the yearlong work, and a possible vote. Yet, witnessing the hearing, it is clear several things occurred that were not noted in the minutes, not the least...

Read More

‘A catalyst for debate’

Come November, the screens of the Latchis Theatre will light up with films in a new festival that organizers want to reflect the uniqueness of Brattleboro and the social, economic, and political life of its community. The Brattleboro Film Festival (BFF), which is in the process of organizing as a nonprofit charity, will show its first series of films from Friday, Nov. 2, through Sunday, Nov. 4. The films - from all genres, from all over the world - “inform,

Read More

A message of hope

Publishing a book is no easy task, and one that is autobiographical can be even more difficult. For Judith Dickerman-Nelson, the challenge was deciding how to tell the story of her unplanned pregnancy at age 17. Over the years, she kept revisiting this experience and struggled with how to tell the story. “I was a teen mom, and I was a writer already,” said Dickerman-Nelson. “I'd always been writing stories and poems. I kept a journal during that time about...

Read More

Workers’ letter to Co-op board

Editor's note: Following is the text of the letter addressed to the Brattleboro Food Co-op Board of Directors and presented to the board at its meeting on Sept. 10. The following statement was written by a group of Brattleboro Food Co-op employees, based on conversations with many staff members over the past few months, and after gathering many stories from co-workers. Because we feel that we have the right to work in an environment: • in which employees routinely review...

Read More

Entergy files another lawsuit in U.S. District Court against state

Two Entergy Corp. subsidiaries have filed suit in U.S. District Court against the state of Vermont in an attempt to overturn a new electrical generation tax imposed on Vermont Yankee by the Legislature earlier this year. At issue is “legislation that imposes a new levy on Vermont Yankee, based upon its generation of electricity, that increases its obligations to the state from approximately $5 million annually to an estimated $12.8 million per year,” according to a press release issued Tuesday...

Read More

Workers unionize at|Brattleboro Food Co-op

Workers at the Brattleboro Food Co-op have announced their intention to organize a union. A group of workers formally made the request at the Co-op's Board of Directors' meeting on Monday night. In a statement read by Co-op employee Charlie Lewis at the meeting, the decision made by a majority of the more than 160 members of the Co-op's non-managerial staff to seek representation from Local 1459 of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UCFW) stemmed from a number...

Read More