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1849 Opening of the Vermont and Massachusetts Railroad

by cgrotke | History

The Vermont Phoenix account of the first train arriving in Brattleboro, from Boston, on February 20, 1849.

Celebration of the Opening of the Vermont and Massachusetts Railroad

This celebration took place on Tuesday last, the 20th inst., and will be long remembered by those who were present at it. By the arrangements made, the cars from Boston were to arrive about 1 o’clock P.M., but owning to the large train of passengers, they did not arrive until 3 P.M. Our citizens, and guests from the adjacent country, in the mean time were assembled “en masse” – and notwithstanding the long delay, had not the least difficulty in keeping cool.

6th Annual Brattleboro Rotary Club “International Film & Food Festival” Set for March 1st

by cohnpr | Entertainment

The Brattleboro Rotary Club is raising money to help upgrade the radio station KILI, a non-profit radio station broadcasting to the Lakota people on the  Pine Ridge, Cheyenne River, and  Rosebud Indian Reservations, part of the Great Sioux Nation in South Dakota.

On Sunday, March 1, 2015, from 4-8PM at the New England Youth Theatre, the Brattleboro Rotary Club will be sponsoring the sixth annual “International Film & Food Festival,” with proceeds benefiting KILI which serves 30,000 people on the three reservations and seeks to preserve Native American culture and instill pride in the peoples’ unique heritage.

Puppies and Pigs

by cgrotke | History

From the Vermont Phoenix, Feb. 21, 1896, comes a story of puppies and pigs.

“Michael L. is a son of Erin’s Isle. His facial expression and his linguistic accomplishments would be convulsive proof before a jury.

Michael is not afraid of trichinosis, and recently bought two infantile porkers in Brattleboro, to be raised on his Vernon farm.

Michael started for home with his pigs, but he stopped at a wayside in in Guilford, presumably to get refreshments. While he was there some fun-loving person released his pigs from the bag and put two small puppies in their place.

Weekend Comedy Series: Mitch Hedberg

by cgrotke | Entertainment

This is a follow up to our Steven Wright show of last week. If you liked that one, you should enjoy this one as well. Mitch Hedberg is similar in style, doing a surreal series of nervous, one-liner, observational jokes.

I love his delivery and perspective. It’s too bad he checked out at an early age (37) so we don’t have more of his humor to look forward to, but he also seems to be one of the sorts of people that didn’t quite fit in on planet earth. His making sense of his time here was his craft.

Write Action Radio Hour: Mary Wilkins Freeman’s The Revolt of Mother, on WVEW 107.7 FM

by Rolf | Arts

Mary Wilkins Freeman is one of Brattleboro’s “lost treasures” and on the third and fourth Sundays of each month,

Write Action will be featuring some of her best stories, as well as biographical and historical information.

This Sunday, February 22,  at from 5 -6 PM, the Write Action Radio Hour will offer a reading of “The Revolt of Mother”, one of her most anthologized and critically acclaimed stories. Freeman’s story, The Revolt of Mother, is one told with both humor, anger, compassion and detail. It’s a small masterpiece. 

New! Tech Tips Program at Brooks LIbrary

by Brooks Memorial Library | Sci-Tech

Library technology: All Your Questions Answered! Join Reference Librarian Jeanne Walsh on the first Tuesday (4 PM to 6 PM) and first Friday (11 AM to 1 PM) of the month for one-on-one help on the various aspects of library technology, such as downloading e-books and e-audio; accessing your library account to place holds, renew your items, suggest new titles for the collection, make lists of your favorite titles to share with your fellow library users.

Get help with online tasks like filling out forms and emailing attachments.…and more. NO QUESTIONS ARE TOO SMALL OR TOO SILLY! Bring your devices if you have them: iPads, smartphones, laptops, etc.

On Exhibit at Brooks Library

by Brooks Memorial Library | Arts

ON EXHIBIT at Brooks Library in February:

MAIN FLOOR: Sequencing paintings by local artists and students River Gallery School of Art. The RGS is a vibrant hub for Brattleboro’s artistic community, with bright, spacious studios on Main Street overlooking the Whetstone Brook.

Founded in 1976, RGS offers classes, community workshops, and summer and school vacation programs for students of all ages.  Our core faculty members are all professional working artists, and teach a wide range of visual media including all types of painting, drawing, printmaking, and encaustics. RGS also partners with community organizations to offer classes to seniors and adults with physical and cognitive challenges

Handed Down from the Trade: A Story of a Slave-holding Past

by Brooks Memorial Library | History

Join independent scholar, David Mulholland, in his talk Handed Down from the Trade, Wednesday, February 18, 7:00 PM, in the library’s meeting room.

Imagine growing up in an America grasping with the horrors and social havoc of its slavery past that you personally despise. Then imagine discovering that your ancestors participated extensively in slavery, prospered from it, and influenced public policy to set people, states, and a nation on a path to spread slavery, to engage in a Civil War, and to undertake an arduous Civil Rights struggle.

Winterpills and Rusty Belle at Next Stage on Saturday, February 21

by Not Signed In | Music

Next Stage Arts Project and Twilight Music present indie/folk/chamber-pop quintet Winterpills, plus roots-rock/junk-folk trio Rusty Belle at Next Stage on Saturday, February 21 at 7:30 pm.

One of the most exciting bands to emerge from Northampton, MA in recent years, Winterpills plays haunting, delicate, dynamic music with shimmering melodies and aching lyrics. Critically praised as a mirror of sorrows and a beacon of hope, the music of Winterpills – true to the band’s name – is medicine for weary hearts.

Come to the Write Action Open Read, Third Friday at 7:30

by Rolf | Arts

Do you write poetry?  Or perhaps you write prose ? Either way this Friday you will have a chance to read your work in front of an audience. 

This Friday, February 20th, is the third Friday of the month, and at 7:30 PM on every third Friday, Write Action hosts the Open Reading.

We meet at the Blue Dot Studio, in the Hooker Dunham Building to share our poems and stories. Each person gets about 7 minutes

Seminar Series About Money

by tomaidh | Education

What: Arriving Together At the Power of Mutual Credit – offered by John Root jr of Just Abundance, Common Good Finance and rCredits.

Where: 15 Grove St, Brattleboro, VT 05301 (Behind the Stone Church)

When: Wednesday night, Jan 18, 6:30-9pm and subsequent Wednesday eves.

The first two sessions are historical and conceptual: First, the history of money and control of the banksters, with the emphasis on American history of money.  “Why is the almighty dollar the basis for the American Empire?”

Sandglass Theater Presents Do Elephants Dream of Eclectic Sheep?

by Not Signed In | Entertainment

PUTNEY- On February 20th and 21st Sandglass welcomes the puppet artist, Amanda Maddock, with a new collaborative work, Do Elephants Dream of Eclectic Sheep? In this piece the audience is invited to visit the bedroom and mind of a slumbering elephant whose dreams are just beginning to unfold. The elephant begins to question her fate as the contents of her room and mind reveal messages either fraught with meaning or frivolous…or perhaps both…or neither? Time, scale, character transformation, creatures and objects will be awakened, unpacked, and opened to interpretation.

This piece will be presented as part of Sandglass Theater’s New Visions Series, which serves as a laboratory for new works by artist in the field of puppetry and movement-based theater.

Singers Needed for Nautical Program on June 13

by fomag | Music

Guilford, Vt. – Friends of Music at Guilford, now in its 49th year of producing concerts and stage projects in the region, is looking for a few more singers to participate in its A Cappella à la Carte season finale on Saturday, June 13.

The Guilford Chamber Singers are being directed for a third season by composer/arranger and instrumentalist Tom Baehr, of Putney, who sings tenor in several regional choirs and choruses. With a nautical theme this June, the Chamber Singers will reprise “Crossing the Bar,” Rani Arbo’s setting of Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s poem.

“Light & Variable: Music to Defy February” Features Variable Winds Quintet

by fomag | Music

If February didn’t exist, who would dare to invent it? But since it does, Friends of Music at Guilford, now in its 49th season, has chosen the 21st of that unloved month to present LIGHT AND VARIABLE: Music to Defy February featuring the woodwind quintet Variable Winds in a program designed to take your mind off it.

“Light” may not be the first word you’d connect with Gustav Mahler, but the settings he made early in his career of poems from the folk collection “The Youth’s Magic Horn” are exactly that: tuneful, witty, and charming. Arranged by Trevor Cramer for wind quintet are three songs about music, “Rhine Legend,” “Who Thought Up This Little Song?” and “In Praise of Higher Understanding,” in which a singing contest between a cuckoo and a nightingale is judged by a donkey. (Think “Bavarian Idol.”)

Homelessness Marathon Tuesday Night on WVEW

by Stevil | Media

WVEW-lp, Brattleboro Community Radio (107.7fm or wvew.org), will once again air the annual Homelessness Marathon, starting at 7pm Tuesday evening (Feb. 17th) and running until 9am the next morning. For those not familiar with the broadcast, it is not a fund-raiser, it’s a conciousness raiser. This will be the 17th time the marathon has set up outdoors on one of the coldest nights of the year to talk to people who are homeless, housing advocates, workers at crisis centers, and occasionally a poitican or two willing to discuss the issue. This year the marathon will broadcast from Sarasota, Florida. (Last year it originated from Brattleboro using a booth set up in front of the Baptist Church.)

BCTV Channel 8 & 10 Schedules for the Week of 2/16/15

by BCTVProg | Media

BCTV Ch.8 schedule for the week of 2/16/15

Monday, February 16, 2015

12:00 am Senator Sanders’ Annual State of the Union Essay C

1:35 am Coming Clean on Lake Champlain 1/29/15

3:00 am UVM Comm Med School: Keeping Blood Pressure in Check

4:42 am TED Talks: Barbara Natterson-Horowitz: What Veterinarians Know that Doctors Don’t

5:00 am Do Vaccines Promote Health?

5:45: 2/13/15

by BrattleboroTV | Media

Kia Bailey returns to the news desk for a Friday the 13th Valentines Day Harris Hill weekend edition of BCTV’s weekly news round-up that breaks down the board’s special PAYT meeting from Thursday, TransCanada’s plan to cash out on tax obligations all up and down the CT river, and much much more.
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Weekend Comedy Series: Steven Wright

by cgrotke | Entertainment

A 1985 performance by Steven Wright. Droll, dead-pan one-liners delivered rapid-fire. His humor twists things around and requires some assembly, but he gives you the parts, and asks the questions.

“Why is the alphabet in that order? Is it because of that song?”

SeVEDS Request for Proposals for Windham Higher Education Cooperative Website Project

by SeVEDS | Education

Request for Proposals for Project Design and Intern Mentoring

The Windham Higher Education Cooperative (WHEC), which includes Community College of Vermont (Brattleboro), Landmark College, Marlboro College, SIT Graduate Institute, Vermont Technical College, and Union Institute and University, is seeking proposals for their Consortium’s Website Design.