BRATTLEBORO-Vermont Independent Media (VIM), publisher of The Commons, will celebrate its 20th anniversary on Sunday, Oct. 6, from 4 to 6:30 p.m., at the Retreat Farm's North Barn to honor and thank the community that has been integral to its success.
VIM was founded in 2004 by citizens who wanted to create a mission-driven organization to understand and educate people in creating their own media - news media in particular - and, eventually, to publish a community newspaper that would embody that understanding. That led to the creation of its Media Mentoring Project - free public workshops on all aspects of writing, editing, and publishing - and, eventually, publication of The Commons two years later.
The Commons was among the first nonprofit newspapers in the country. The founders of VIM envisioned an organization that would promote local, independent journalism, create a forum for participation and encourage civic engagement by building media skills. Today, VIM and The Commons are going strong.
The party promises to be a joyous occasion filled with music, community spirit, and a few surprises, said Board President Lynn Barrett.
BRATTLEBORO-Local children's book author and TEDx speaker, Melany Kahn, will partner with the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center (BMAC) to host "Forage to Feast," a mushroom-foraging expedition and meal on Saturday, Oct. 5, at 3 p.m. Participants will join Kahn for a gentle hike into the woods near her...
BRATTLEBORO-Last year, a Barbie Dreamhouse, a portrait of Peter Pan, a Minecraft structure, and an ocean wave, all constructed from thousands of dominoes over two and a half days, toppled in a few awe-inspiring minutes. The Brattleboro Museum & Art Center's (BMAC) annual Domino Toppling Extravaganza returns for the...
BELLOWS FALLS-"Pride organizations everywhere are responsible to embrace National Coming Out Day as a rallying cry for equality, safety, and freedom," say members of Bellows Falls Pride. On Wednesday, Oct. 9, at 10 a.m., they will unfurl the historic 14-foot-by-25-foot Sacred Cloth, known Section 93, of the original Key West Sea-to-Sea Rainbow Flag to recognize National Coming Out Day. Mark Ebenhoch of Key West, Florida, and Brattleboro, the steward of Section 93, will oversee the unfurling. Following the unfurling, attendees...
Obituaries • Lisa Theresa (Fowler) Caslin, 55, of Brattleboro. Died on Sept. 23, 2024, surrounded by her loving family. Lisa was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on May 28, 1969, the daughter of Frank and Patricia (Beaudry) Fowler. A lifelong resident of the Brattleboro area, she attended schools in Guilford and Brattleboro. Lisa enjoyed writing song lyrics, singing and playing the guitar, crossword puzzles, and spending time with her family, especially her sons. In 1987, she married Mark Caslin of Bennington.
Absentee ballots for Nov. 5 election now available MONTPELIER - The Vermont Secretary of State's office has mailed absentee ballots to all registered voters for the Nov. 5 General Election. According to a news release, the Secretary of State's office exported voter mailing addresses from the Vermont Elections Management System in preparation for mailing absentee ballots to all voters between Sept. 23 and Oct. 5. Any voter registered after Sept. 3 will have their ballot mailed out by the town...
BRATTLEBORO-The national touring company Cirque Us will perform their newest show, "Cirque Us Stories," at the New England Center for Circus Arts (NECCA) on Sunday, Oct. 6, at 3 p.m. Tickets for this family friendly show about the adventures inside the pages of books are available now at thecirqueus.com. Company Founder Doug Stewart, a graduate of NECCA's professional training program, said in a news release that "Cirque Us Stories is a new, thoughtfully curated show that flips through the pages...
BRATTLEBORO-The September episode of the Brattleboro Words Trail Podcast told the story of how Jacob Estey and the Estey Organ Company put Brattleboro on the map and helped shape American popular culture in the second half of the 19th Century. The podcast is available for free on all podcast platforms at bit.ly/783-estey. The podcast release coincided with the Sept. 26–30 EsteyFest 24. This national reed organ conference attracted hundreds to Brattleboro, "site of the longest-lived and largest reed organ company...
BRATTLEBORO-Southeastern Vermont Community Action (SEVCA), Downtown Brattleboro Alliance, and Latchis Arts are teaming up to present Ramen Day - The Vermont Everyone Eats Story, in partnership with the Vermont Agency of Commerce and Community Development (ACCD) and documentarian Corey Hendrickson for a one-week run at the Latchis Theatre. This 35-minute film about the Vermont Everyone Eats (VEE) program featuring local participants opens on Saturday, Oct. 5, at 7 p.m. It will be followed by a panel discussion with those integral...
DUMMERSTON-October will be a busy month at the Dummerston Historical Society. It will continue to be open the first and third Sundays of the month - Oct. 6 from 1 to 3 p.m.; Oct. 20, for its quarterly meeting from 2 to 4 p.m.; Oct. 13 from 9 a.m to 3 p.m., during Dummerston's Apple Pie Festival; and other times by appointment. At the Oct. 20 meeting, Bill Schmidt will speak about his homestead, Elysian Hills, its long history as...
PUTNEY-Next Stage Arts continues its 2024 Bandwagon Summer Series of concerts with a Folk/Roots/Americana music festival featuring The Clements Brothers, The Jacob Jolliff Band, and The Mammals on Sunday, Oct. 6, at 2 p.m. at Cooper Field on Sand Hill Road. The Clements Brothers are George and Charles Clements, identical twins from New England. They say they've been playing and writing music together for as long as they can remember, and their duo marks their first project together since playing...
BRATTLEBORO-Musician, human rights activist, and award-winning speaker Arn Chorn-Pond will share his riveting story as a child prisoner and survivor of Khmer Rouge genocide in Cambodia. Hear his inspirational account of his escape to the U.S., and subsequent return to rebuild and heal Cambodia by revitalizing its endangered artistic heritage by founding Cambodia Living Arts. "The power of the arts to bring healing and reconciliation in times of conflict is his timeless message," say organizers. Chorn-Pond will speak at the...
BELLOWS FALLS-On Friday, Oct. 4, at 7:30 p.m., an international concert series begins at the Bellows Falls Opera House, presented by Ashuelot Concerts. The four concerts will feature the Sitkovetsky Trio - cellist Nina Lee and British chamber musicians Louisa Stonehill (violin) and Nicholas Burns (piano) - with a program of masterworks by Tchaikovsky, Brahms, and Grieg. Ashuelot Concerts is a nonprofit organization that brings live chamber music from the world's leading concert halls into rural classrooms and concert halls...
BRATTLEBORO-An exhibition of paintings by Mary Wright and Ellen Maddrey, "Sensing Landscape," is now on display at 118 Elliot, with an opening party planned for Saturday, Oct. 5, from 5 to 7 p.m. The opening party will include live music and dosas made fresh on site by Dosa Kitchen Factory and Food Truck. The artists will be available to discuss their work. Attendees are invited to bring an instrument and join the music. Wright and Maddrey share a studio in...
WESTMINSTER-I have been a member of the Vermont Conservation Voters (VCV) Board of Trustees for two election cycles. The board puts forward endorsements for candidates who support the Vermont environment and we keep track over the biennium of how the elected members actually vote on key environmental issues. The VCV endorsement process starts with a broad coalition of environmental groups establishing a unified environmental agenda. VCV then asks candidates of all parties their position on those issues. The candidate responses...
BRATTLEBORO-As described by Adam Grinold, a decade ago, Windham County had the second-oldest population in the state, people were leaving the area in high numbers, and wages languished below those of our neighbors. The executive director of the Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation says that the county has turned a corner in the intervening time and has experienced an uptick in population and employee wages. The regional economy has also undergone more visible change over the past year, with some stark...
-When the two best field hockey programs south of Route 4 - the Bellows Falls Terriers and the Hartford Hurricanes- face each other, the fans always end up witnessing a game filled with intensity and drama. Their first meeting on Sept. 19 in White River Junction ended up in a 3-3 tie. With a rematch less than a week later, on Sept. 25 in Westminster, the stage was set for another overtime finish. This time around though, it was the...
BRATTLEBORO-New England Youth Theatre (NEYT) has come full circle with the naming of Ben Stockman as its new artistic director. "They put out the call across the country," said Stockman, "and I just happened to be in a position in my own life where I felt like I knew the Brattleboro youth community from my work at the Boys and Girls Club," where he was working as program staff "and from hanging out with [them] since 2021." "I felt [...]
BRATTLEBORO-The name "Somethin' Else" refers to the 1958, desert-island-worthy recording by saxophonist Cannonball Adderley that enticingly featured trumpeter Miles Davis. The band "Something Else" - performing at the Vermont Jazz Center on Oct. 5 at 7:30 p.m. - is a seven-piece, three-horn band organized by alto saxophonist Vincent Herring that draws on the rich repertoire of soul jazz, a music that came to fruition in the early 1960s. Soul jazz successfully combined the sophistication of jazz improvisation with the danceable...
BELLOWS FALLS-The Bellows Falls Community Bike Project, active in the village for 11 years, has raised enough money to be able to buy its current location at 30 Henry St., on the corner of Atkinson Street. Project founder and director Bonnie Anderson hopes the nonprofit will sign a sales agreement this fall. Funds raised by the end of August totaled $80,454 which, along with $9,450 worth of donated professional services, means the group can buy the building without needing a...
DUMMERSTON-The controversy over political banners hung inside library windows of the Dummerston School has prompted multi-meeting discussions by the Windham Southeast School District (WSESD) Board, but any next step is currently on pause. Board member Eva Nolan said she noticed the banners, one each for presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, on Sept. 5 as she drove by the school. She then called WSESD Board Chair Deborah Stanford about her "concern for BIPOC [Black, Indigenous, and people of color]
WESTMINSTER-As we approach the general election, I encourage voters in District 3 (Westminster, Brookline, and Rockingham) to take a close look at the legislative accomplishments of Rep. Michelle Bos-Lun and Rep. Leslie Goldman. Michelle Bos-Lun has served in the House for two terms (four years) and is running again this election cycle to hold her seat. She has worked tirelessly to help solve many of the pressing issues facing our towns, county, and state. She has been a stalwart supporter...
BENNINGTON-I was attending the Governor's Institutes of Vermont Global Issues and Youth Action Institute, an amazing program that works to immerse high school students in social justice. Leading the "Making Laws, Making Change" workshop was Rep. Michelle Bos-Lun, who immediately stood out to me as a compassionate, authentic person and as a vibrant leader. Through this workshop, I wrote my first bill. I couldn't believe it at first, but Michelle walked us through the whole process of creating a bill,
The writer is the Republican Party nominee for state representative of District 4 (Putney and Dummerston). PUTNEY-To all Vermont voting citizens: Just some of the legislation by the current supermajority Democrat lawmakers: • A massive property tax increase to nearly 14% for all of us. Voters, how does that affect your budget and your health? • The Clean Heat Standard (a final vote comes in January 2025). If you heat and cool your home with oil, propane, natural gas, or...
WESTMINSTER-I have known Michelle Bos-Lun since I moved to Westminster seven years ago and joined a writing group of which she was a member. Immediately, I was impressed with her commitment to service and to helping others. She wrote beautifully about her work with students in Taiwan and Iraq through State Department exchanges. Then, as I got to know her, I learned that she has also taught English to asylum seekers and supported schools in India. In these and other...
NEW YORK, N.Y.-I support the voters of Brattleboro who elected to extend to 16- and 17-year-old teens the right to vote, the right to serve as town officials, and the right to serve on the school board. I believe it is a mistake to amend the will of voters by eliminating school board membership for teens, as it is in the forum of educational policy-making and leadership that teens are most directly and significantly impacted. These include the areas of...
BRATTLEBORO-We were thrilled to discover Mollie Burke would be our representative to the State Legislature when we moved to Brattleboro. We knew of and respected her commitment to creating affordable and sustainable communities for all Vermonters. We also knew she listens to her constituents' concerns and finds ways to solve the problems they face. Mollie has been a member of the House Committee on Transportation since she started her first term in 2009. She has initiated programs for vehicle electrification...
LONDONDERRY-Vermont has a housing crisis - the state needs up to 36,000 new homes by 2030 to meet demand - and the quintessential single-family house on a large lot on a country road will not be the solution. "It's certainly not the future that local Vermonters can afford," said Chris Campany, executive director of the Windham Regional Commission (WRC). Instead, multifamily housing will become the standard. "Without a collapse in land prices or building prices that creates a massive housing...
BRATTLEBORO-What do you get when you combine samosas, biryanis, kabobs, GEDs, and high school diplomas - and a whole lot of heart as well - with English language learners from across the globe? You get a Vermont Adult Learning (VAL) graduation and awards ceremony! This year's ceremony on Sept. 14 at the Elks Lodge in Brattleboro highlighted the achievements of 20 dedicated graduates and learners who have demonstrated exceptional commitment to their education and personal growth. VAL's mission - to...
BRATTLEBORO-Dear Brattleboro Voter, You will be receiving an absentee ballot in the mail for the Nov. 5 general election. The state of Vermont will be mailing ballots during the week of Sept. 23. The local justice of the peace ballot will be on the reverse side. If you have not received your ballot by Oct. 7, please contact our office at 802-251-8157 or [email protected]. Otherwise, please wait for your ballot to arrive. Once your ballot arrives, make your choices and...
SAXTONS RIVER-On Tuesday, Nov. 5, I will be voting for Leslie Goldman and Michelle Bos-Lun as state representatives for the Windham 3 district, covering Westminster, Rockingham, and Brookline. They are long-time residents and experienced legislators who are passionate about representing all their constituents and are well-versed on the many issues we face in our communities. I've known Leslie for over 40 years - as a friend and neighbor, as a fellow activist, and as my nurse practitioner. She's served as...
VERNON-Liberal, progressive, conservative, orthodox, right wing, left wing - descriptive words that we use to define people and their beliefs. Powerful language that sets up barriers instead of bridges and leads to awkward and sometimes confusing communications. I have had the opportunity to speak at length with Zon Eastes. Our discussions covered our respective towns - mine Vernon, his Guilford - and the ways we've been trying to bridge our local perspectives to find common ground. We've discussed combined efforts...