Culture

On Saturday, October 3, from 4 – 6 pm at Mitchell • Giddings Fine Arts, 183 Main Street, Brattleboro, the public isinvited to a book signing of Emily Mason’s new book, The Light in Spring.

Mitchell • Giddings Fine Arts is very pleased to host the first public book release of Emily Mason’s most recent monograph, The Light in Spring. The evening will include a one-night exhibit of Mason’s print work as well as a opportunity to meet the artist and have her sign your copy of the book!

On Thursday, October 1, from 5 – 7:30pm at Mitchell • Giddings Fine Arts, 183 Main Street, Brattleboro, the public is invited to an opening reception for Christine Triebert’s new solo exhibit,”Through a Glass Dimly“.

Mitchell • Giddings Fine Arts is pleased to introduce this unique portrait series including more than twenty subjectsmany of whom will be familiar to area residents. The faces may be recognizable, but the subjects are shown in a novel way; simply, unadorned, and draped only with a crisp white sheet. According to photographer, Christine Triebert, “The white sheet symbolizes the commonality of our human experience.

It is reminiscent of the blanket we’re swaddled in at birth and the burial cloth we’re wrapped in at death.” Using the white sheet also brings us all to an equal place, “By donning the same covering, the portrait subjects are presented in a visually unified way, yet each person’s unique manifestation and expressiveness shines through. My intention with each image is to portray an essential quality of being of the individual self. As a whole body of work, they suggest a view of seeing ourselves as ‘spiritual beings having a human experience’.”

Sponsored by the Brooks Memorial Library and the Brattleboro Camera Club members, please join us for an evening with Chris Szwedo, the director of the film Eye on the 60’s: The Iconic Photography of Rowland Scherman, (and watch a trailer) in the library’s meeting room, Wednesday, September 23, at 7 PM.

EYE is an inter-disciplinary, stratified story about a passionate photographer– Rowland Scherman of LIFE magazine, who followed his path to remarkable people and events in the 1960s– from the inception of the Peace Corps and JFK to Dylan, The March On Washington, the Beatles, LBJ, RFK 1968, iconic celebrities, war protests, and the Woodstock Festival.

A special showing of the locally produced film, Quiet Rebel: Lynn Martin’s Story, will be presented at the new arts venue, 118 Elliot. The 80 minute film is produced by Paul Bennett and Vidda Crochetta, and is being presented with the help and support of BCTV and Write Action. Long time Brattleboro resident, Lynn Martin is an activist, poet, and painter and a retired HIV Prevention Specialist of the AIDS Project of Southern Vermont, where she worked as a volunteer for 18 years.

In a Reformer story on Martin, by Becky Karush, Martin describes her turn to poetry, at age 50: “‘I stood there, and in my mind I put all the people I was angry at….at the bottom of the stairs. And I told them off. And then, whatever it was inside me said, ‘Okay, Lynn, you are really angry. There is something missing from your life. Where are you going to be in five years? Are you going to be in the same place?’ And I dragged the typewriter over, and that’s where I started to write poetry. My joy is in giving voice to people who don’t necessarily have it, because that was my story.”

Following last weekend’s jam-packed three days of parades, puppet shows, and gala celebrations, the festival continues for another weekend of world-class entertainment for all ages, engaging public dialogues, and much more.

This Friday evening at New England Youth Theater, Sandglass Theater will perform the final local showing of D-Generation: An Exaltation of Larks, their multiple-award-winning production based upon stories written collaboratively by groups of people with late-stage dementia. At Sandglass Theater, Kimi Maeda will present Bend, a performance drawn in sand that addresses issues of war, memory, home, and trans-cultural identity.