Music
• Yellow Barn Festival begins: The 2010 season of the Yellow Barn Festival begins on Friday, June 18, with a Young Artists Program alumni concert featuring the Meehan/Perkins Duo at 8 p.m., at Centre Congregational Church in Brattleboro.
A post-concert reception follows with Steve Reich (Nagoya Marimbas, 1994); Nathan Davis (Diving Bell, 2002); John Fitz Rogers (Once Removed, 2003); Thierry de Mey (Musiquede Tables, 1987); Tristan Perich (Observations, 2008) and Paul Lansky (Travel Diary, 2008).
Tickets are $18. They are available by calling 802-387-6637, ext. 107, or e-mailing [email protected]. For the complete Yellow Barn schedule, visit www.yellowbarn.org.
• Simba Summer Solstice Celebration: On Monday, June 21, Simba will celebrate the beginning of summer and the longest day of the year with their annual Summer Solstice dance party at the Evening Star Grange in Dummerston Center.
All ages are welcome for this night of drumming, dancing, music and fun for the entire community. The show goes from 7-11 p.m. There is a $10 admission, with a $25 family maximum.
Simba has been together for 21 years, but the Solstice party is the highlight of the season. The energy and feeling of the community at these annual gatherings makes this celebration one of the most special occasions of the year.
The band - Bob Stabach, sax, flute; Dan DeWalt, keyboards, steel drum, trombone; Wim Auer, bass; Derrik Jordan, guitar, percussion, violin, vocals; Steve Leicach, percussion; Johnny Yuma, drums, vocals; Charlie Schneeweis, trumpet, vocals and Steve Sonntag, trumpet - will play music to make you move. Special guests and friends will also sit in with the band, including super-soul and gospel vocalist Moonlight Davis.
Rupa Cousins will lead a moving meditation dedicated to peace, love and unity for all our friends and neighbors around the world.
The Evening Star Grange is located at the intersection of East-West, Bunker and Middle roads in Dummerston Center, right across from the Congregational Church.
Literature
• New Book on Crohn's disease: When Dede Cummings of Brattleboro was diagnosed with Crohn's disease, a chronic and often debilitating digestive disease, it turned her life upside down. She was overwhelmed and isolated because of the unrelenting symptoms, chronic pain, side effects from the medications, hospitalizations, and doctor appointments. That was in 2001.
Eventually, she had surgery to remove part of her small intestine and some of the large colon, and it helped to put her into remission. She was treated at both Brattleboro Memorial Hospital and Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. She regained her life back and has been trying to live every moment to its fullest since. But Crohn's comes back in many post-surgical patients. Although it has been just over four years since her surgery, every day she still worries and wonders when her symptoms will return.
Cummings is doing something to help others like herself. First, she wrote a book that is due out June 29 published by Hatherleigh Press and distributed by Random House with endorsement from Peter D'Adamo, ND, author of Eat Right For Your Type, and Emeran Mayer, MD, from UCLA. The book is called Living With Crohn's & Colitis: A Comprehensive Naturopathic Guide for Complete Digestive Wellness. Second, she is training for the 13.1 Boston Marathon taking place on June 27 through the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation's half marathon training program, Team Challenge (www.ccteamchallenge.org). She's raising critical dollars for research into a cure while being coached by professional coaches from Team Challenge via email and phone.
If any local individuals, or businesses, in the Southern Vermont area would like to donate, or send Dede a message with a wish for her to run for someone in our area, she will be glad to oblige. You can call 802-380-1121 for more information. Read more about Cummings' story at http://www.active.com/donate/boston10newengland/DedeCummings.
Cummings will be doing a reading and book signing at Everyone's Books on Elliot Street in Brattleboro on Friday, June 25, at 6 p.m. Other bookstores or hospitals, or holistic care organizations can contact the author to give a talk or book signing. She will also be hiking another section of Vermont's historic Long Trail this summer, and more on that can be viewed at www.greenmountainclub.org.
• Finding tranquility in your garden: On Friday, June 18, Dummerston author Cheryl Wilfong will sign and discuss her book, The Meditative Gardener at Everyone's Books on Elliot Street in Brattleboro from 4 to 6 p.m.
Meditation and gardening are natural companions in The Meditative Gardener: Cultivating Mindfulness of Body, Feelings, and Mind. In this wise, down-to-earth book, Master Gardener and mindfulness meditation teacher Cheryl Wilfong offers a rich bouquet of meditations. Her gentle, friendly, and humorous tone creates a nurturing environment in which to practice mindfulness in our very own gardens. Wilfong invites us to stroll beside our flowerbeds, appreciating them just as they are, and noticing the joy they bring us.
Lush color photographs of gardens in every season grace this lovely book, drawing in readers, while the author skillfully brings meditation into everyday gardening, beginning with simple five-minute contemplations. The Meditative Gardener is a made-in-Vermont book-the author resides in Dummerston, the photographers in Brattleboro and Putney and the book designers in Brattleboro and Marlboro. The book was printed in Springfield.
Wilfong invites us to simply pay attention as we tend our gardens. You may not have done all the weeding or planting you had hoped, but appreciate that you are doing the best you can. As you sit in the shade of your own back yard, simply hold this book in your lap and contemplate nature around you. Use the tools of mindfulness and kindness to discover how to cultivate your garden and your meditation practice at the same time. Instead of being a busy bee, simply be. To reserve a book, call Everyone's Books at 802-254-8160 or visit www.everyonesbks.com.
Visual arts
• In-Sight gets ready for annual auction: The In-Sight Photography project seeks prints for its 12th annual Photography Exhibition and Silent Auction. By donating a print to In-Sight's Exhibition and Auction, you are contributing to their mission of making photography accessible to all youth. The auction is its largest fundraiser providing significant scholarship for youth to participate in their programs.
The Exhibition and Auction opens Friday, Oct. 1, and will be on view throughout the month of October in Brattleboro, and available for viewing and bidding online. For submission details, contact [email protected]. Donors are asked mail or deliver prints and forms no later than July 15.
Theater
• Performing arts exploration at Leland & Gray: Leland & Gray Summer Performing Arts Explorations, a comprehensive performing arts camp for students entering grades 5 through 8, will be offered July 26 through August 6 at Leland & Gray's historic Dutton gymnasium and attached Gould wing.
Initiated in 2008 by Leland & Gray alumni Karlie Kauffeld and Claire Zukas, the summer program was conceived as a community service after 40 elementary schoolers performed in The Wizard of Oz and Oliver at the high school. The program, now in its third year, offers exposure to acting, set design, lighting, costumes, makeup, dance and movement for the stage, and vocal production. Because it draws participants from L&G's sending towns, it also offers an opportunity for students to begin working with each other in preparation for their transition to Leland & Gray Middle School.
L&G theatre director Ann Landenberger provides management for the program as well as design and performance workshops; L&G music director Ron Kelley will lead workshops in voice for the stage; Brattleboro dancer and Journey East alumna Nicole Thomas will lead workshops in dance and choreography. Other staff include Melissa Soule, Abby Hadden, Cassidy Anderson and Johnny Pozzi.
Zukas and Kauffeld, assisted by Pozzi, will direct participants in an adaptation of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. A culminating performance on Aug. 6 will incorporate skills in voice, design, movement and production that will be introduced over the course of the two-week program. Several spots are still available. For a brochure and registration form, write [email protected] or call 802-365-7355, ext. 204.
• The Gin Game at Actors Theatre: The Actors Theatre Playhouse opens its 2010 season with a staged reading of D.L. Coburn's Pulitzer Prize winning comedy, The Gin Game. Performances are on Saturdays, June 19 and 26, at 7:30 p.m.
All seats are $6 at the door. Reservations are not required. The playhouse is located on the corner of Brook and Main streets in West Chesterfield, NH. Visit www.Actors-Theatre.Info for directions, production and season information.