Seven Days, August 30, 2023

SHORT-TERM GAINS

e number of homes being used as short-term rentals in Vermont has risen 13 percent in the past year — a steep increase that comes as the state’s housing crisis has been exacerbated by recent floods.

e number of entire Vermont homes that were listed on sites such as Airbnb and Vrbo hit 10,982 in June, according to AirDNA, a Denver-based company that collects data on the online short-term rental industry.

at 13 percent increase from June 2022 to June 2023 matches the growth in listings seen in Maine, New Hampshire and Rhode Island, AirDNA said.

Affordable housing advocates point to the growth as one of the reasons for the housing crisis: Homes once rented long-term are now let to vacationers. Many Vermont cities and towns are now looking at ways of regulating the industry.

Burlington passed short-term rental rules last summer. e city has about 240 active short-term rentals, which must be in the primary home of the hosts, an apartment in the building they live in or an outbuilding on their lot. In most cases, they must live on-site. Hosts can also rent up to three bedrooms in their own home.

Last week, Winooski started discussing proposed regulations. Jazmine Hurley, the city’s housing initiative

director, said the city council considers the issue a priority. Winooski, with a population of around 8,000 people, has about 85 short-term rentals.

“It doesn’t sound like a ton,” Hurley said. “But we do have a very high renter population.”

Nearly 9 percent of Vermont’s short-term rental listings this summer are in Stowe, which had 935 homes registered in June. e average daily rental rate for an entire home in Stowe was $483 — $100 higher than the statewide average.

Statewide, the short-term rental occupancy rate is low, hovering around 50 percent most of the year, the AirDNA data show. at figure typically rises in February and the summer.

Julie Marks, founder and executive director of the Vermont Short Term Rental Alliance, said many of the accommodations available online aren’t suitable for yearround renters because they’re yurts or tree houses. Regulations, though, are starting to crop up as quickly as the rentals. In the past year, Marks estimated, at least 20 Vermont towns have talked about new rules for short-term units.

“ ere are too many to keep track of,” she said. Read Anne Wallace Allen’s full story at sevendaysvt.com.

FINS AT THE FAIR

Draft horses. Dairy cows. Racing pigs. ey’re all animals you’d expect to find at the Champlain Valley Fair. But this year, a surprising aquatic addition has joined the barnyard menagerie: a trio of nurse sharks.

At 12:30 p.m. on Monday, spectators lined metal bleachers in a shady corner of the Essex Junction fairgrounds in advance of the first of three “Live Shark Encounter” shows of the day. e sharks, sporting whisker-like appendages that resembled fangs, floated languidly on the bottom of a long, rectangular tank, as Muzak versions of Bob Marley tunes played from speakers.

“ at’s crazy,” one school-age kid said when he spotted the animals.

emoji that TICKET TO RIDE

Beginning in January, Green Mountain Transit will charge for rides again. The service has been free since March 2020.

LOOKING FOR VOTES

Fringe Democratic presidential candidate Marianne Williamson toured flood damage and held a town hall in Vermont. It’s starting…

LEAF LETDOWN?

Some prognosticators believe that Vermont is due for an underwhelming fall foliage season. Blame the rainy, roller-coaster summer.

$3.5 million

That’s how much two Phish benefit shows are estimated to have raised for flood relief in Vermont and New York.

TOPFIVE

MOST POPULAR ITEMS ON SEVENDAYSVT.COM

1. “Farm Equipment Dealer Must Pay Worker in Whistleblower Case” by Anne Wallace Allen. Feds say Champlain Valley Equipment has to pay $145,000 in back wages and damages to a fired whistleblower who reported that the company improperly dumped wastewater.

2. “Cocktail and Oyster Bar Salt & Rind Opens in Waterbury” by Hannah Feuer. Co-owners Britt ompson and Luke Williams opened the 20seat cocktail and oyster bar in July.

3. “Burlington Entrepreneur Buys Historic Old North End Synagogue” by Alison Novak. Kitter Spater says he intends to turn the Archibald Street building into an incubator for six to eight small food vendors, a concept he described as “Faneuil Hall meets food trucks.”

4. “Vermont Drummer Urian Hackney Is on a Wild Ride rough the Rock World” by Chris Farnsworth. e globe-trotting percussionist has played with legendary bands yet remains devoted to Vermont-based Rough Francis, which he started with his brothers.

5. “New Operator Will Run Burlington’s LowBarrier Shelter” by Courtney Lamdin. e facility, in the former Champlain Inn, will have new management this fall: the Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity.

@jenrosesmithvt

Winter is coming

SAFETY ZONE

After the wind died down, a hot-air balloonist managed to land on the median between lanes of tra c on I-91 in Hartford. Mad skills.

“ ose are some big fish, huh?” an older man asked his companion.

“ ese aren’t the big white sharks,” a woman said, a tinge of disappointment in her voice.

Felipe Velarde of California — the show’s energetic, wet suit-clad host — was there to set the record straight. Nurse sharks, among the most common shark species, aren’t as aggressive as great whites. But, he said, the bottom-dwellers attack when provoked.  at didn’t stop Velarde from donning a scuba mask and jumping into the tank.

Speaking through an underwater microphone, he introduced the animals. In their earlier lives, 7-year-old Rosita lived in a bathtub in Mazatlán, Mexico; 9-year-old Abby resided in a Florida aquarium’s touch tank; and 11-year-old

“big boy” Jimmy, measuring around six and a half feet long, was kept at a cancer research center in Texas.

Before getting out of the tank, Velarde retrieved a serrated shark tooth from the bottom, then handed it over to a kid in the stands.

Everyone else could have one, too, Velarde told the audience: “You just got to climb in there and get it yourself.”

INFO

“Live Shark Encounter” runs daily through September 2 at the Champlain Valley Fair. Shows are at 12:30, 2:30 and 7 p.m. near the fairground’s yellow gate.

PUPPET MASTERS.

publisher & editor-in-chief

Paula Routly

deputy publisher Cathy Resmer

AssociAte publishers Don Eggert, Colby Roberts

NEWS & POLITICS

editor Matthew Roy

deputy editor Sasha Goldstein

consulting editors Ken Ellingwood, Candace Page

stAff writers Derek Brouwer, Colin Flanders, Rachel Hellman, Courtney Lamdin, Kevin McCallum, Alison Novak, Anne Wallace Allen

ARTS & CULTURE

coeditors Dan Bolles, Carolyn Fox

AssociAte editor Margot Harrison

Art editor Pamela Polston

Music editor Chris Farnsworth

cAlendAr writer Emily Hamilton

stAff writers Jordan Barry, Hannah Feuer, Mary Ann Lickteig, Melissa Pasanen, Ken Picard

proofreAders Carolyn Fox, Angela Simpson

AssistAnt proofreAders

Katherine Isaacs, Martie Majoros, Elizabeth M. Seyler

DIGITAL & VIDEO

digitAl production speciAlist Bryan Parmelee

senior MultiMediA producer Eva Sollberger

MultiMediA journAlist James Buck

DESIGN

creAtive director Don Eggert

Art director Rev. Diane Sullivan

production MAnAger John James

designers Jeff Baron, Kirsten Thompson

SALES & MARKETING

director of sAles Colby Roberts

senior Account executives

Robyn Birgisson, Michael Bradshaw

Account executives Michelle Brown, Logan Pintka

events & ticKeting MAnAger Katie Olson

legAls, lifelines And super reAder coordinAtor

Kaitlin Montgomery

ADMINISTRATION

business MAnAger Marcy Stabile

director of circulAtion & logistics Matt Weiner

circulAtion deputy Andy Watts

AssistAnt to the publishers Gillian English

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Jordan Adams, Justin Boland, Alex Brown, Annie Cutler, Chelsea Edgar, Erik Esckilsen, Steve Goldstein, Colleen Goodhue, Margaret Grayson, Amy Lilly, Rachel Mullis, Bryan Parmelee, Mark Saltveit, Jim Schley, Carolyn Shapiro, Casey Ryan Vock

CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS

Luke Awtry, Daria Bishop, Rob Donnelly, Josh Kuckens, Steve Legge, Tim Newcomb, Jon Olender, Jeb Wallace-Brodeur

FOUNDERS

Pamela Polston, Paula Routly

CIRCULATION: 35,000

Seven Days is published by Da Capo Publishing Inc. every Wednesday. It is distributed free of charge in greater Burlington, Middlebury, Montpelier, Northeast Kingdom, Stowe, the Mad River Valley, Rutland, St. Albans, St. Johnsbury, White River Junction and Plattsburgh, N.Y.

Seven Days is printed at Quebecor Media Printing in Mirabel, Québec.

DELIVERY TECHNICIANS

Harry Applegate, Joe Bouffard, Pat Bouffard, Colin Clary, Julie Copley, Elana Coppola-Dyer, Becky Gates, Matt Hagen, Russ Hagy, Debra Leduc, Ed Lieberman, Dan Manion, Nat Michael, Frankie Moberg, Liam Mulqueen-Duquette, Dan Nesbitt, Dan Oklan, Ezra Oklan, Steve Stanley, Mike VanTassel, Andy Watts With additional circulation support from PP&D.

SUBSCRIPTIONS

6-Month 1st clAss: $140. 1-yeAr 1st clAss: $220.

6-Month 3rd clAss: $85. 1-yeAr 3rd clAss: $135. Please call 802-865-1020, ext. 132 with your credit card, contact circ@sevendaysvt.com or mail your check to: Seven Days, c/o Subscriptions, 255 S. Champlain St., Ste. 5, Burlington, VT 05401

Seven Days shall not be held liable to any advertiser for any loss that results from the incorrect publication of its advertisement.

If a mistake is ours, and the advertising purpose has been rendered valueless, Seven Days may cancel the charges for the advertisement, or a portion thereof as deemed reasonable by the publisher. Seven Days reserves the right to refuse any advertising, including inserts, at the discretion of the publishers.

WEINBERGER IS NO RACIST

During his tenure as Burlington mayor, Miro Weinberger may have made some mistakes — just like any other human being — but not one that rises to the level of being a racist.

The mayor has worked on many consequential issues, such as making the Racial, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging Office what it is today. He made the city workforce more diverse and skillfully handled the protest that took place after the untimely and unjust death of George Floyd. He managed the COVID-19 city emergency with grace and grit. Through it all, the mayor has been kind and caring to all.

At a recent city council meeting, I was appalled to see the unfounded racist accusations hurled at Weinberger and the disregard for decorum exhibited during the public forum [“After Audit, Activists Rally in Burlington to Support Former Diversity Director,” August 15]. Democracy is messy, but it is not a ticket to vulgarity. Children and families watch city council meetings.

Supporters of former REIB director Tyeastia Green are entitled to redress the city government of the day, just as the city is entitled to address any and all mishandling of city taxpayer funds by current and former city staff, regardless of rank.

Accusations of racism against Mayor Weinberger are not only unfounded and unhelpful but also unjust. He has consistently advocated for inclusivity, diversity and social justice. His administration’s policies have reflected his commitment

CORRECTIONS

Last week’s story “EV Program Likely to Leave Some Flood-Stricken Vermonters Behind” contained a quote with erroneous information. Ludlow and surrounding areas do have EV charging stations.

“Rep. Balint Joined House Dems on August Trip to Israel” included an incorrect date. Balint visited the National Weather Service and the Vermont Air National Guard on August 1.

The July 26 cover story, “Dam Scary: Intense Storms Push Vermont’s Aging Structures to the Brink,” contained an error. The Ascutney Mill Dam was in “fair” condition as of its last inspection, state officials said.

to building a city that values and respects every individual, regardless of their background.

WHAT ABOUT COWS?

I appreciated reading the various animalrelated articles you all published in the Animal Issue [August 9]. One notable exception to your coverage was the hundreds of thousands of dairy cows who live and suffer in Vermont. While your exposé on the horny goat was funny [“Bang for the Buck: This Stud Has Just One Job, and He’s the GOAT”], there are much more serious topics that could be covered. No mother wants to have her baby taken from her, and that is the basis of the conventional dairy industry. May we strive to do better in the future. Coverage of these important topics would help.

Editor’s note: On May 31, we published an entire issue of stories about Vermont’s dairy farming industry. One of them, “Herd Mentality: The Life and Times of Cow No. 74,” touched on this topic.

REPURPOSING LESSON

Thanks for highlighting the woes and hopes of Vermont State University [“Pass or Fail?” August 16]. What I’m not seeing in the article or in VTSU’s goal statements are creative proposals for addressing urgent societal needs — proposals that could reverse the enrollment trend.

While entire dorms sit empty, Vermont prisons are full. An opioid epidemic and a growing overall culture of addiction constitute a modern plague. Vermont’s recovery community and restorative justice community stand ready to help. But state and federal investment in treatment services, restorative justice and prevention education is minimal. Politicians pay lip service to shifting resources from punitive and minimalist to restorative and preventive.

Who is advocating for retrofitting both empty dorms at VTSU’s Johnson campus (which already has courses in restorative justice and addiction counseling) for substance-free recovery communities? Instead of jailing people with addiction and mental health issues, offer an accountability-proof option of living in a community with other offenders and live-in treatment practitioners and student trainees. VTSU gains. And Vermont shows the world how compassionate individual treatment relates to the health of the wider society.

MORE ON THAT MOOSE

There’s much more that needs telling or research behind the demise of the moose on Main Street that got hit by a car in July [“Wrong Turn: How Did a Moose End Up Lost and Afraid in Burlington?” August 9]. Your story describes cops’ indecisiveness on what firepower was needed to kill the injured moose and whose jurisdiction had control of the scene, as gawkers multiplied. Had it been a person instead of a moose, would there have been such

indecision about what to do? Aren’t law enforcement agencies trained in such emergencies supposed to not only have adequate firepower to shoot what needs to be shot but also be trained in protection of crowds from possibly wayward bullets?

Why did the moose suddenly lay outside the jurisdiction of University of Vermont cops, forcing them to call Burlington cops? Isn’t the corner of Main and Summit streets in the heart of the UVM campus? Why was there a jurisdictional issue? Don’t emergencies transcend jurisdictional boundaries? The moose apparently never changed jurisdiction once it was hit by the car, so once UVM cops began their investigation, why suddenly did they decide that city cops needed to be called?

Lastly, the failure of the cops to have the proper guns to kill the injured moose would be comical, if not so obviously tragic and negligent.

ON THE WAKE

Vermont’s Agency of Natural Resources is in its final review of the new proposed rule to manage wake boat activity on Vermont’s inland lakes and ponds [“New Proposed Wake Boat Rules Edge Toward a Compromise,” June 20].

More than 90 verbal comments and 750 written comments came in, and the public is clamoring for a stronger rule. Comments overwhelmingly support strong regulation of wake boats operating at least 1,000 feet from shore. The Department of Environmental Conservation’s weakened 500-foot rule is not adequate.

Currently, only 73 lakes in Vermont allow motorboats operating over 5 miles per hour. Many are small, shallow ponds obviously inappropriate for — and rarely, if ever, visited by — wake boats. Adding DEC’s proposed rule, at a distance from shore of 500 feet, does not significantly change the situation.

SAY SOMETHING!

Seven Days wants to publish your rants and raves. Your feedback must... be 250 words or fewer;

• respond to Seven Days content;

• include your full name, town and a daytime phone number.

Seven Days reserves the right to edit for accuracy, length and readability. Your submission options include: sevendaysvt.com/feedback

• feedback@sevendaysvt.com

• Seven Days, P.O. Box 1164, Burlington, VT 05402-1164

NEWS+POLITICS 14

Climate Retreat

After summer floods, state planners look to higher ground for new housing

Bellows Falls Union High School Latest to Find PCBs

No Return

Strict laws govern rental security deposits. What if a landlord ignores them?

Lawmakers Drop

Impeachment Inquiry After Prosecutor Resigns

New Operator Will Run Burlington Shelter

Buying Into St. Johnsbury

Locals wanted to create a food co-op — but a dollar store stood in the way

ARTS+CULTURE 46

Roll Credits

Book review: Save Me a Seat!

A Life With Movies, Rick Winston Frost in Thought

One-man show brings Vermont’s first poet laureate to life in Middlebury Vermont Law School Can Conceal Controversial Mural, Court Says Barn Again

Eliot Lothrop found his dream restoration project

FEATURES 26

Fission Accomplished

How a Senate staffer from Norwich helped right the wrong done to J. Robert Oppenheimer

40 Shabbat Suppers

UVM Hillel provides Friday meal kits

Maple Meets the Middle East

Lincoln entrepreneur develops Vermontsweetened Holy Halvah Peak Sandwich

Phnom Penh Sandwich Station offers a taste of Southeast Asia in White River Junction

In This Together

At Hexum Gallery, two artists convey their private lives

MAGNIFICENT

SUNDAY 3

FIDDLE ME THIS

e 31st annual New World Festival takes over Randolph’s Chandler Center for the Arts for 11 rollicking hours of music and community.

Vermont’s Celtic and French Canadian heritage is on full display with acts including Québécois rockers Le Vent du Nord, Scottish foursome Cantrip and Montréal trad outfit Genticorum.

SEE CALENDAR LISTING ON PAGE 70

THURSDAY 31

Picture Show

For its latest monthly screening, the Vermont International Film Festival presents And the King Said, What a Fantastic Machine at the Main Street Landing Performing Arts Center Film House in Burlington. is new Swedish documentary draws on a stunning array of archival footage to paint a comprehensive picture of the history of photography and video and the ways they attract our attention.

SEE CALENDAR LISTING ON PAGE 66

SATURDAY 2

Bard Knock Life

Stand Up Shakespeare, a collective of New York City actors who have become Green Mountain State icons over the years, returns to Union Christian Church at Plymouth’s Calvin Coolidge State Historic Site for its annual performance of Shakespeare Alive! A BardBased Variety Show. is year’s new collection of scenes, skits, soliloquies and songs remixes the Bard’s beloved tales.

SEE CALENDAR LISTING ON PAGE 70

SATURDAY 2 & SUNDAY 3

Craft Masters

Artisans from across New England arrive to peddle their wares at the annual Mad River Valley Craft Fair at Kenyon’s Field in Waitsfield. Alongside live music, food and craft cocktails, shoppers peruse jewelry, paintings, pottery, woodwork and other artisan creations. Entry fees support local community theater company the Valley Players.

SEE CALENDAR LISTING ON PAGE 69

TUESDAY 5

Beet the Rush

For local produce lovers, Burlington’s best open secret is the Old North End Farmers Market, which convenes at Dewey Park every Tuesday afternoon. Fresh local produce and prepared foods from vendors including Diggers’ Mirth Collective Farm, Richmond Chai, Tremolo Bread and Sabah’s House bring good vibes to the Queen City’s melting pot.

SEE CALENDAR LISTING ON PAGE 71

ONGOING Paper Trail

SUNDAY 3

Ducks by the Truckload

Mad River Valley Rotary hosts Waitsfield’s wackiest, quackiest annual fundraiser: the Duck Race. More donations buy you more rubber duckies, which take off from the Lareau Park swimming hole and head down the river. e owners of the first 10 fake fowl to cross the finish line win cash prizes. Donations benefit the Rotary’s charity work with local organizations.

SEE CALENDAR LISTING ON PAGE 70

Soapbox Arts in Burlington presents “Blown Away,” a solo show by Puerto Rican artist Rosa Leff Leff’s intricate and brightly colored paper cutouts depict familiar urban sights — a discarded candy bar wrapper, a closed shoe warehouse, a cyclist speeding past a taco joint — with a distinct pop-art sensibility.

SEE GALLERY LISTING ON PAGE 54

©ATMAN|DREAMSTIME

Have you had surgery or an injury and want to get back to doing what you love faster? Are you struggling with long COVID or lyme disease? The Stram Center is here to help.

For a limited time, we are giving away additional HBOT sessions when you buy a package, to help you push your healing further.

We utilize medical grade hyperbaric oxygen chambers to improve your body’s function and healing. Hyperbaric Oxygen may help with symptoms from traumatic brain injury including concussion, Lyme disease, arthritis, and post-surgical healing.

Curious? Schedule a free 15-minute exploratory consult today.

Super Trouper

Burning Man has nothing on Vermont’s Bread and Puppet Theater. When I moved here in 1978, everyone in the know made the August pilgrimage to Glover for its two-day Domestic Resurrection Circus. Scattered throughout the forest were pop-up performances about greedy capitalists, obscure foreign wars, environmental degradation. Later in the day, the action moved to a natural amphitheater for a version of the “circus” that Bread and Puppet still performs on summer weekends. After that came the pageant. It usually began with giant puppets rising up behind a distant hill and ended in flames.

If you weren’t hallucinating, you might think you were.

Holding the animated papier-mâché sculptures aloft, and often running fast with them, were people of all ages, shapes and sizes clad in white. While most of the audience focused on the puppets, I studied the humans manipulating them. Their task looked hard — and hot! — but joyful.

I learned that Bread and Puppet is powered by these volunteers devoted to the cause of its founding ringmaster, the German-born artist Peter Schumann. They live communally on the farm, sharing meals, chores, and the experience of making, performing and being art.

The idea appealed to me. Decades later, it enticed one of our writers, too.

In July, Chelsea Edgar “ran away” to join Vermont’s most unusual circus, a singular troupe that, without seeking grants or media attention, has performed worldwide to great acclaim for 60 years. Her goal, she told me, was “to be in the slipstream of the place and get a taste of what that felt like.” The last reporter to have such unfettered access to the inner workings of Bread and Puppet was Edward Hoagland, who wrote a piece about the theater company for Vanity Fair in 1983.

As Chelsea quickly learned, “There is just so much shit happening all the time, you can’t possibly experience it all,” she said. To accurately convey the creative chaos, she devoted a full month to reporting this week’s cover story, “Circus of Life” (page 26). That’s three times longer than she spent milking cows on a Vermont dairy farm for her last immersive writing project for Seven Days. She toiled alongside other Schumann acolytes, doing whatever was needed, from picking bits of cardboard out of the grass to joining a team of five charged with holding up the left wrist of the iconic Mother Earth puppet.

“I was nothing, a tiny cog in a glorious machine,” Chelsea wrote of the experience that informed the 7,000-word piece. On a personal level, she said it was “transformative” to swap a life of reading, writing and

laptops for one of making things with other people in the service of someone else’s art. Journalists aren’t usually active participants in the things they write about, but here Chelsea took the “being there” approach to gonzo levels.

Taking notes while scrambling around with the other puppeteers was a challenge, so, at the end of each day, she tried to record her observations via voice memos, usually in an outhouse — “the only place you can really be alone at Bread and Puppet,” she noted. She made friends she hopes to keep.

She spent time with Schumann, too. The 89-year-old artist continues to work constantly, and obsessively, despite having suffered two strokes since his wife and collaborator, Elka, died two years ago. He talked openly with Chelsea about his death and legacy, but the words “succession plan” never passed his lips. “The people who are involved with the theater recognize that this is sort of a poignant moment,” Chelsea said. “There’s this great uncertainty about what will become of the theater when he’s gone.”

Not surprisingly, writers for a number of national media outlets, including the New York Times, also made the trek to Glover this summer. But none played a garbageman in the circus. This week Seven Days brings you a rare and intimate look at Bread and Puppet Theater, one of Vermont’s greatest cultural treasures, from the inside.

Paula Routly

If you like Seven Days and can afford to help pay for it, become a Super Reader! Look for the “Give Now” buttons at the top of sevendaysvt.com. Or send a check with your address and contact info to:

SEVEN DAYS, C/O SUPER READERS P.O. BOX 1164

BURLINGTON, VT 05402-1164

For more information on making a financial contribution to Seven Days, please contact Kaitlin Montgomery:

VOICEMAIL: 802-865-1020, EXT. 142

EMAIL: SUPERREADERS@SEVENDAYSVT.COM

CHELSEA TOOK THE “BEING THERE” APPROACH TO GONZO LEVELS.

Climate Retreat

After summer floods, state planners look to higher ground for new housing

For decades, Vermont has tried to encourage housing development in downtowns and village centers to keep them vibrant, limit suburban sprawl, and protect farm and forestland. As incentives, the state has offered tax credits and streamlined permitting for developers who build in 274 designated areas.

The only problem: Most of those community centers sit on floodplains. That presents a conundrum for state housing officials, who must consider how — and where — to rebuild following devastating July floods that drowned downtown Montpelier and wreaked havoc in a dozen or more town centers from Johnson to Ludlow. In a sign of how climate change is shifting public policy thinking, state o cials are now openly talking about the need for disinvestment or a planned retreat from some flood-prone areas.

“We’ve gotta back o the rivers,” Josh Hanford, commissioner of the Department of Housing and Community Development, told Seven Days

The discussion is already under way in the city of Montpelier, which has held two public forums on how it should recover from the flood and prepare for future ones. At the Statehouse, housing committee members have started to discuss not only the fate of downtowns but also the future of low-lying mobile home communities, another form of dense development often located on riverbanks.

At a meeting with lawmakers earlier this month, Hanford stressed that the state is “not giving up on historic properties,” but he urged legislators to encourage communities to give serious, strategic thought to how they are going to grow.

“Where might we be safe to develop in the future? Looking to just where we’ve looked in the past might not be the only answer,” Hanford said.

A second meeting is planned for October, when lawmakers will review the strategies adopted after 2011’s Tropical Storm Irene that helped communities weather the latest flood, Sen. Kesha Ram Hinsdale (D-Chittenden-Southeast) said.

“I think we are talking about flexible retreat,” she said.

Vermont currently offers incentives through five designation programs that support a number of development goals, including historic preservation and densely clustered housing. Today those designated areas include 229 village centers, 24 downtowns, 12 neighborhood development areas, six growth centers and three new town centers.

The recent storm underscored the vulnerability of some of those areas. Barre’s designated downtown has attracted tens of millions of dollars in

EDUCATION

Bellows Falls Union High School Latest to Find PCBs

Just as the academic year gets under way, another Vermont school is dealing with airborne PCBs. is time, it’s Bellows Falls Union High School, where administrators are scrambling to determine how they can use the campus safely this fall. e fixes will be costly — and potentially disruptive.

As part of a statewide program, 49 spaces in the high school were tested for the toxic chemicals in the spring. Results showed that multiple rooms — including the gymnasium, auditorium and stage — exceeded the state’s “immediate action level” of 300 nanograms per cubic meter for seventh graders and older.

Under guidelines set by the Vermont Department of Health, students and staff are not allowed to use a space if it exceeds the immediate action level.

An additional 34 spaces tested — including hallways, classrooms, conference rooms and bathrooms — exceeded the state’s “school action level” of 100 nanograms per cubic meters for seventh through 12th graders. ose levels require the school to identify and remove materials containing PCBs.

At a special board meeting on August 22, high school principal Kelly O’Ryan said she and her staff are aiming to limit students and staff to no more than 26 hours per week inside the building — the amount of time recommended by the state — without disrupting the school schedule.

at means renting tents, equipped with Wi-Fi and propane heaters, that will serve as classrooms, as well as space for school-wide events such as homecoming and pep rallies. Windham Northeast Supervisory Union, of which Bellows Falls Union High School is a part, is also looking at the possibility of renting space off-site for extracurriculars such as basketball and theater. e district has ordered and installed 11 tents on campus, plus tables and chairs to go inside. All told, it will cost approximately $100,000 for the fall, superintendent Andrew Haas said in an email to Seven Days on Tuesday. e tents are not equipped to withstand winter weather in Vermont. ➆

No Return

Strict laws govern rental security deposits. What if a landlord ignores them?

In 2020, Keegan McCall briefly rented a tiny room in a Burlington boardinghouse. For the three years since, he’s been trying to recover his security deposit.

and cussing, McCall claimed. The lease, he said, allowed either party to terminate tenancy with 60 days’ notice. After just two days in his new place, McCall gave notice.

LEGAL

McCall, 28, has become his own amateur debt collector, navigating the city’s housing board and the state’s small claims court to secure judgments in his favor. In the process, he said, he’s forked over another $500 in fees — and encountered the limits of a system that’s supposed to stick up for the little guy.

“I think the majority of people would have given up a long time ago,” he said.

Tussles over deposits, the refundable payment most landlords require in case of damage to a unit, can often seem like games of dirty pool. Many renters carry a tale of some perceived slight, which is why the state created laws spelling out when landlords can withhold a deposit and how quickly they must return it.

McCall’s case presents an unusual, but not unprecedented, question: What happens if the landlord ignores the law? The answer, prior to our reporting on it: nothing.

Back in August 2020, McCall agreed to pay $995 in monthly rent, plus a $995 deposit, to live at 565 Main Street, a white-clapboard house across from the University of Vermont’s Dudley H. Davis Center. The home had small, furnished bedrooms across four floors, with common bathrooms and one shared kitchen. It wasn’t his preferred living arrangement, but, McCall said, he “desperately needed” a place.

The building, according to property records, is owned by Michael Shea Jr. and Michael Shea Sr. The elder Shea runs the Spirit of Ethan Allen waterfront cruise company. He and his wife also own a rental company, Diamond Apartments, that manages properties throughout Burlington.

The Main Street house appears to be a distinct commercial enterprise. The younger Shea lived on-site, McCall said, and managed the property himself.

McCall quickly became wary of his live-in landlord. Shea Jr. responded to move-in questions with condescension

McCall said the landlord didn’t do a walk-through when he moved out. By law, a landlord has 14 days to return the deposit once a unit is vacated, less any deductions for damage, which must be itemized. Once the deadline passed, McCall began inquiring by text message. He never received a response.

Burlington, unlike most Vermont cities and towns, has a citizen Housing Board of Review to efficiently resolve disputes over security deposits and hear

appeals of alleged housing code violations. McCall requested a hearing before the five-person panel. The Sheas did not show up. The panel reviewed McCall’s evidence and, in a written order, said he was entitled to the $995 deposit. It also imposed a $995 penalty, the maximum allowed, because the board concluded that the landlord had “willfully” withheld the tenant’s money.

The Sheas “are experienced landlords and should be well aware of their responsibilities with respect to the return of a security deposit,” the board wrote.

McCall was awarded about $2,000, plus interest. He called his girlfriend to tell her the good news. She responded with bigger news: She was pregnant. McCall, who works at GlobalFoundries, was going to need that money to support a family and pay for childcare.

BURLINGTON HAS NO WAY TO ENFORCE THE HOUSING

Lawmakers Drop Impeachment Inquiry After Prosecutor Resigns

public and private investment since 2000, much of it in places inundated by July’s floodwaters. Cambridge established a village center in 2017 made up of properties that were recently devastated by the neighboring Lamoille River. And even some riverside downtowns that were largely spared last month, such as Hardwick’s, saw major damage to surrounding infrastructure, including the Lamoille Valley Rail Trail.

The state had been planning to review development incentives even before the flood, according to Bronwyn Cooke, planning and policy manager at the Department of Housing and Community Development. She acknowledged that the programs have “gotten a little unwieldy and a little confusing.”

A special committee of Vermont lawmakers has ended its impeachment inquiry into Franklin County State’s Attorney John Lavoie after the veteran prosecutor announced he would resign.

The seven-member panel voted unanimously last Friday to drop the probe. Lavoie will step down effective September 1.

Lavoie, a Democrat, was elected last November to an office primarily staffed by women. An internal investigation released in May found he used crass and sexist language in the workplace. He’d worked as a prosecutor in Franklin County since 2004.

Lavoie declined to resign when the report came to light, though he did acknowledge that his “sense of humor is often inappropriate.”

Last Friday, the lawmakers thanked the witnesses who testified and vowed to keep their statements confidential. Given Lavoie’s resignation, “the Special Committee finds that it would not be in the best interests of the State to impose additional burdens and stress on witnesses, nor to expend additional State resources involved in continuing the investigation,” a resolution ending the probe said.

Gov. Phil Scott has the power to appoint a replacement for Lavoie. He’ll choose from a slate of potential candidates suggested by Franklin County Democrats.

The committee isn’t done yet. It has also been investigating Franklin County Sheriff John Grismore, who was caught on video kicking a handcuffed suspect. Grismore, too, was elected last November — after the video came to light. He’s since been charged with simple assault.

The impeachment committee has hired the law firm Downs Rachlin Martin to investigate Grismore; a final report is expected this fall.

The resolution of the Lavoie inquiry “does clear up our calendar and ability to focus on that matter,” Rep. Martin LaLonde (D-South Burlington), the committee chair, said at last Friday’s meeting. ➆

After last month’s storm, officials realized that they needed to take a deeper dive into how the designation programs address climate resilience, Cooke said. That will happen at the Designation 2050 Design Summit, a daylong event on September 12 in Randolph.

Though certain to be steeped in the wonky world of housing policy, the meeting could set the stage for changes to how and where communities are encouraged to rebuild.

Updates could include requiring municipalities that receive incentives to adopt stricter development rules in flood-prone areas or mandating that swamped homes be rebuilt to a higher standard of flood resilience. The meeting could also lead to a rethinking of rules that focus most incentives for development around historic downtowns.

“We’ve had these pretty tight boundaries around existing settlements,” Cooke said. “Maybe those boundaries need to shift a little bit.”

That, however, is certain to trigger soul-searching in communities leery of letting dense housing development spill into surrounding farmland or land zoned for larger residential lots.

Ram Hinsdale thinks there are ways to build back in most downtowns by embracing commonsense adaptation measures, such as moving utilities and inventory out of basements. She also believes the state’s housing crisis, made worse by the flooding, is so dire that the state needs to rethink its devotion to past settlement patterns.

“We are going to have to have difficult conversations with people on higher ground who have wanted to limit development next to them,” Ram Hinsdale said.

She referred to these areas as “the New Vermont” and said it’s imperative

that a different approach be taken to developing housing in them. Too often, people with resources have “weaponized environmental concerns” to block or stall new housing outside of historical patterns, she said.

When successful, such opposition constrains the supply of new homes, which increases the cost of existing housing. And when legal challenges ultimately fail, those appeals add costs to projects, which get passed on to future residents, she said.

The argument against development outside of core centers is that it often requires expensive infrastructure, locks people into driving more miles, and puts pressure on farm and forestland. Infill development, by contrast, creates housing close to public transportation and the amenities of walkable, bikeable communities.

Even with the increased flood risk in downtowns, infill projects can make sense for some communities when designed to withstand flooding, Cooke said.

The poster child for this type of development is the Taylor Street Apartments complex, which was built atop the Montpelier Transit Center on the banks of the Winooski River. The building, hailed as “visionary” when it opened in 2019, houses 30 units on the second, third and fourth stories. The first floor is a bus depot designed with hard surfaces and durable building materials that allow it to bounce back after a flood. The $8 million project took 20 years to plan, permit and build.

“Our theme has to be: We don’t know what the future will look like, and we need to create flexibility so that things work for the unknown,” Ram Hinsdale said.

If the state embraces a more expansive view of where housing is encouraged, that doesn’t mean it will abandon the principles of compact development, Cooke said.

“The risk of developing and redeveloping outside of city centers is that it ends up being sprawl, which is definitely not part of the solution,” she said.

Despite being surrounded by floodwaters last month, the building “suffered no damage to the building systems or the interior,” said Angie Harbin, executive director of Downstreet Housing & Community Development, which operates the building.

“This wasn’t accidental. This was design, and it worked,” she said.

Residents and lawmakers are more willing to support these kinds of flood-resilient projects than they are to just pay people to rebuild the same way in flood-prone areas, as happened after Irene, said Sen. Alison Clarkson (D-Windsor), vice chair of the Senate Committee on Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs.

WHERE MIGHT WE BE SAFE TO DEVELOP IN THE FUTURE? LOOKING TO JUST WHERE WE’VE LOOKED IN THE PAST MIGHT NOT BE THE ONLY ANSWER.

JOSH HANFORD

“People don’t want to see their public dollars washed away,” she said.

Top of mind for many officials are Vermont’s 234 mobile home parks, which are often built in floodplains because that land is less expensive. While they aren’t developed with state incentives, the parks provide an important supply of affordable housing in a state sorely lacking it. Those who live in them are grappling with immediate decisions about whether to rebuild in the same places.

After Irene, some mobile home communities built back on raised concrete platforms and fared far better this time around, Clarkson noted.

But that won’t be possible for many residents of mobile home parks who were hit hardest by the recent floods, said Kelly Hamshaw, a senior lecturer at the University of Vermont who just completed a study of the vulnerabilities of the state’s mobile home parks. The draft report found that 70 parks have some level of flood risk.

One, the 32-unit Berlin Mobile Home Park, is located entirely in the floodway of the Stevens Branch of the Winooski River. It was devastated by the storm in a way that even Hamshaw, who’s been studying vulnerable properties for more than a decade, couldn’t believe.

“It was a shock to be on the ground and see the homes and the state they were left in,” she said.

The Town of Berlin has made it clear to the owner, Ran-Mar Corporation, that the park can only reopen if it hooks up to city water and sewer, can operate “reasonably safe from flooding,” and complies with a plethora of additional building regulations. It’s unclear if the owner, who did not return a call for comment, will try to reopen.

Most park residents told Hamshaw that they want out. But they need help moving somewhere safe.

“They’ve been through this experience once,” she said. “They don’t want to be doing it again.”

Corinne Cooper is one of those residents. She doesn’t want to return to the park and doesn’t think others should be allowed to, either. She worries that new residents of the park or another in Berlin, River Run Manor, might not be fully aware or informed of the flood risks.

“I hope both mobile home parks become just regular parks for families to go enjoy,” she said. ➆

New Operator Will Run Burlington Shelter

The low-barrier homeless shelter at Burlington’s former Champlain Inn will have new management this fall.

On October 2, the Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity will take the reins from ANEW Place, the nonprofit that has owned and operated the Shelburne Road shelter for the past four years. The Champlain Housing Trust will assume ownership of the building and manage the property.

The shelter model is shifting, too. It will be staffed 24-7, instead of just overnight. And in place of the drop-in system used now — where people line up for a bed but aren’t guaranteed one, and share a room with others — guests will be assigned their own room for six months at a time or longer.

The change means the shelter will only have room for about 35 people, instead of the 50 to 70 people who can now sleep there each night. The guests will receive social services — such as financial counseling and renter workshops — that aren’t offered now. With the help of a caseworker, they’ll also be expected to seek out stable housing and employment during their stay, CVOEO executive director Paul Dragon said.

“The goal here is to do intensive, wraparound work to move them on and make that bed available for the next person,” he said.

CVOEO runs a similar program in St. Albans called Samaritan House and operates Feeding Chittenden, a food shelf and hot meals service that delivers dinners to the Champlain Inn.

The housing trust has experience running transitional housing programs, too, including the city’s “shelter pod” village on Elmwood Avenue.

At the Champlain Inn, the housing trust will install a sprinkler system, new floors and heat pumps in each room, along with a fence out front to give guests privacy.

“This really was just a nice way for us to team up together and make sure that this resource survives,” the trust’s chief operating officer, Amy Demetrowitz, said. “It’s a really critical resource.” ➆

Buying Into St. Johnsbury

Locals wanted to create a food co-op — but a dollar store stood in the way

St. Johnsbury is having a moment. Since the start of the pandemic, the former factory town’s central district has sprouted 31 businesses; launched a flourishing series of Friday night block parties; and begun attracting young, artsy types who already have opened an upscale vintage shop, a quirky brewery and, of course, a record store. It’s the type of grassroots renaissance that many Vermont towns dream about.

So, to many residents, it seemed only fitting that the up-and-coming town should get its own proper food co-op, à la Hunger Mountain in Montpelier or City Market in Burlington. A determined group has spent the past four years laying the foundation for the Caledonia Food Co-op, conceived as a communityowned store that would support local growers and vendors and serve as a place for residents to gather. The dream is ambitious: a place with about 12,000 square feet of space and 60 to 70 parking spots.

Co-op organizers set their sights on a shuttered Walgreens on Railroad Street, whose downtown setting seemed to fit the bill. The building has been vacant since the pharmacy chain closed the branch in late February. But the building’s New York-based owner — who did not respond to a request for comment — was also in conversation with an unidentified dollarstore chain that expressed interest in the same spot, just minutes away from a Family Dollar.

In the face of possible competition from a chain store, the board of the co-op sent an impassioned letter earlier this month imploring the property’s owner, R&R Vermont Management, to consider selling to a locally rooted group. The owner came around, but with strict terms: The co-op had to come up with $350,000 within two weeks — by August 28 — in order to hold the property through an option-to-purchase agreement.

The co-op board internally raised $175,000 through grants, board member donations and membership fees but needed to find another $175,000 through community investment. Complicating matters, the organizers are limited to accepting funds from just 25 individual lenders in order to comply with a Vermont statute protecting residents from risky investments.

A period of frenzied fundraising followed, including energetic appeals asking locals to invest in the enterprise. The pitch worked: The proposed Caledonia Food Co-op met its fundraising goal this week — soliciting and confirm-

agreement is worked out, the co-op board will have to come up with another $1.9 million to purchase the building by next year, and then more funds to renovate it.

For members of the proposed co-op, the essential challenge boils down to ensuring that downtown St. Johnsbury continues its promising upswing — and outmaneuvering a dollar store is the first step.

“We sense a new energy,” said Jay Craven, a prominent local filmmaker and co-op board member. “The town is at a tipping point. We believe that the co-op will really bring forward momentum to St. Johnsbury.”

the board chair for the nascent Caledonia Food Co-op, believes community-owned food markets are critical for sustaining small-scale farms, especially in the Northeast Kingdom.

“[Co-ops] really do allow farms to grow and become profitable where otherwise that business might be marginal,” Skovsted said.

But beyond the vision of a grocery with the power to nurture nearby farming, Skovsted and his peers saw an opportunity to use local investment to ensure St. Johnsbury’s health.

ing lenders until the last minute — and appears in a solid position to secure the property. As of Tuesday, the group was still negotiating with the owner for more time so it could conduct an environmental review of the property.

The road to complete the purchase and make good on the local investments will be long. Even if the option-to-purchase

The town is already home to a familyowned grocery, the White Market, and a small natural-food store, Natural Provisions. But board members think the co-op will serve as an important link in the food ecosystem.

The vision for it first emerged in 2019, when a group of community members bonded over a love of locally grown food. Among them was Eric Skovsted, who owns and operates an organic farm in Barnet along with his wife, Mary. Skovsted, now

In the early and mid-1900s, St. Johnsbury was a hub of statewide activity, a gateway to the rest of the Northeast Kingdom. But when business waned for the three major companies in town — Fairbanks Scales, a maple sugar candy company and a firm that made candlepins for bowling — St. Johnsbury took it hard. Downtown buildings emptied, and the local population dwindled by nearly 2,000 between 1950 and 2020.

Over the past five years, though, there’s been new energy in the district. On a stroll

WE HAVE A DOLLAR STORE. WE DON’T NEED ANOTHER ONE. WHAT WE NEED IS LOCAL BUSINESSES.

REP. SCOTT CAMPBELL

down Railroad Street — St. Johnsbury’s main drag — one might pass a live music event or a meeting of the NEK Young Professionals Network, which is run by Geo rey Sewake, the co-owner of downtown brewery Whirligig. Residents see the new grocery as a way to keep the momentum going.

“The co-op is a way for everyone to participate in the excitement and the revitalization in St. Johnsbury,” Craven said. “The whole idea of 1,500 to 2,000 people sharing ownership in one place? I mean, wow!”

former Walgreens, the board reasoned, overall costs would be lower.

“We’ve basically been asking members to see the potential, and that’s exactly what everyone who showed up at that emergency meeting did,” Craven said.

During the successful campaign, Craven noticed that many of those pledging money were in their thirties and forties. “I think that’s a fabulous sign,” he said.

Among the investors is Rep. Scott Campbell (D-St. Johnsbury), who has been loosely involved in the co-op since its inception four years ago.

Promoters of the co-op received more than $70,000 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to produce a feasibility study, find a site and boost membership.

It currently has almost 800 members, each of whom purchased a $100 share. Nearly 80 people flocked to an “emergency informational meeting” to hash out the details of the Walgreens purchase earlier this month, with 44 more tuning in via Zoom.

Despite the building’s $2.2 million total price tag and required renovation, the board considers the Walgreens property to be its best option. Last year, the co-op had its sights set on a di erent downtown location, on Bay Street, that would have required building from the ground up. But as construction costs mounted, the team grew wary of a new building. Despite the need to fix up the

“We have a dollar store,” Campbell said. “We don’t need another one. What we need is local businesses.”

Board members acknowledge that much work lies ahead, but they remain committed to the larger vision of a revivified St. Johnsbury.

“I’m avidly interested in a co-op,” Campbell said of his decision to invest. “But I’m most interested in the future viability of St. Johnsbury and the surrounding area. St. Johnsbury used to be the hub of this whole region, and there’s no reason why it shouldn’t be again.” ➆

Rachel Hellman covers Vermont’s small towns for Seven Days . She is a corps member of Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms. Find out more at reportforamerica.org.

No Return « P.15

Yet McCall quickly learned that the city has no way to enforce the housing board’s orders regarding security deposits. Nor does it impose penalties for noncompliance, despite maintaining a rental registration and inspection program. Instead, the city encourages tenants to take their cases to small claims court.

For renters, the process can be intimidating — and expensive. Vermont Legal Aid typically doesn’t intervene in one-o security deposit cases because of sta ng limitations, Jean Murray, director of its Housing for Everyone Law Project, said.

“Getting your security deposit back is not the same thing as losing your housing,” she said. “We have to prioritize.”

McCall decided to go it alone, reading explainers on vtlawhelp.org, a tenant resource hosted by Vermont Legal Aid and Vermont Legal Services, and consulting with court clerks. He sued Shea Jr. and Shea Sr. in July 2021.

The defendants didn’t file a response, nor did they attend a hearing. In December 2021, Superior Court Judge Samuel Hoar issued a $2,189 judgment in McCall’s favor, including nearly $200 in fees and court costs.

A month passed, and McCall didn’t receive a check. He asked the court to hold a hearing on the Sheas’ ability to pay, which was scheduled months later — and the defendants didn’t show again. McCall still had to pay filing fees, and he had to pay the sheri ’s o ce a fee, plus mileage, to serve more court papers on his landlord.

A judge cannot haul a debtor into court or prison, so collecting a small claims judgment requires some finesse. Often the creditor is a business or even a professional debt collection agency, represented by a skilled attorney. “Attorneys know how to collect,” said Chittenden County Sheriff Dan Gamelin, whose office serves civil court papers on defendants.

As McCall’s case languished, another former tenant of 565 Main Street was beginning the same process. Liam Bell, who lived there between December 2020 and March 2022, sought to recover nearly $500 of his deposit that had been withheld without explanation. Bell also obtained an order awarding him the deposit, plus damages, from the city’s Housing Board of Review, then went to small claims court when the bill went unpaid.

In a sworn affidavit, Sheriff Gamelin detailed his attempts to serve the Sheas in Bell’s case. Noting that the younger Shea has been “very difficult” to serve in the past, Gamelin went directly to the

Spirit of Ethan Allen corporate office. There, he served Shea Sr., who said his son was “avoiding” the sheriff. He gave Gamelin his son’s phone number, but when Gamelin called, “Michael answered the phone and advised me I had the wrong number after I identified myself” and hung up.

“Mr. Shea Jr. is definitely avoiding service,” Gamelin wrote.

McCall and Bell had a few options. A judge can take the money owed out of a defendant’s wages, but it can be difficult if the debtor is self-employed or a real estate entity. Plaintiffs can also ask the judge to hold the defendant in civil contempt, which can subject them to further penalties or fines. A third approach involves putting a lien on their property, which the owner must resolve before completing most future real estate transactions.

McCall chose the latter route. A lien, he thought, was the most surefire mechanism, something the former landlord couldn’t avoid. He shuttled between the courthouse and the city land records o ce, paid more fees and, in February, had a property lien entered against both Sheas.

“I’m tired of these types of people getting away with things all the time,” McCall said.

Murray, the Vermont Legal Aid attorney, said the situation with the

Sheas suggests a need for a better way to adjudicate and enforce security deposit disputes, one that recognizes that tenants are distinct from typical creditors.

“There should be a practical way of being able to handle situations,” she said.

McCall appears to have been more persistent than the professionals. Burlington o cials have not inspected 565 Main Street for compliance with rental housing codes since 2015, before the

The department’s director, Bill Ward, emailed Shea Jr. in June, asking him to confirm whether the building is still used as a rental property. The city was “preparing to issue liens in July” for properties whose rental registration fees have not been paid, Ward wrote.

Ward never heard back, and no lien was recorded in the land records.

But on Tuesday, Seven Days finally got in touch with the Sheas. Each man sent a statement from his respective attorney, saying they had just paid the city the $3,326 they owed and intended to cut checks for the tenants.

The statements included different explanations for what had gone wrong. The younger Shea’s attorney said there had been “confusion surrounding the service of notice of these proceedings on my client.” Shea Sr.’s attorney blamed an unnamed property manager for failing to perform the required duties.

Sheas bought it, according to city records. The property’s certificate of compliance expired on December 16, 2020.

In February 2023, Shea Sr.’s wife, Elmira, told inquiring city officials that Shea Jr. owned the building separately from Diamond Apartments, according to records provided to Seven Days upon request. She provided the Department of Permitting and Inspections with Shea Jr.’s email address.

Nonetheless, as the property owner, Shea Sr. “takes full responsibility for these oversights,” the statement read, adding that the situation doesn’t reflect how he has managed his other rental properties.

Meantime, rents at 565 Main Street have continued to g o up since McCall and Bell lived there: Rooms start at $1,495 per month — security deposit required. ➆

I’M TIRED OF THESE TYPES OF PEOPLE GETTING AWAY WITH THINGS ALL THE TIME.

KEEGAN MCCALL

FEEDback

In this way, the state manages to create the illusion of a solution without the reality of significant change.

The state’s weakened 500-foot rule allows wake sports to dominate, claiming the deepest areas in the center of the lake. It includes no margin of error to accommodate future growth. Water quality will decline, along with the health and enjoyment of Vermont’s lakes.

Nationally, Vermont enjoys a glowing reputation for good environmental practices. Here at home, we trust the state to safeguard our clean air, clean water and open land for future generations.

The people of Vermont insist upon true protection, not just symbolic protection without substance. Now is the time for Secretary Julie Moore and the Agency of Natural Resources to respond by restoring the distance from shore back to 1,000 feet, as originally proposed.

POP. UP

Having endured a very informative twohour YouTube podcast on green energy

just days before Gordon Spencer’s excellent letter to the editor [Feedback: “Wind Power Is Dead,” July 26], I feel compelled to respond. His statement that “Vermont [is the] toilet for solar developers” is exactly right. The panels are an ugly blight on the landscape. As a small state, we are often the victims of greedy investors and those who seek to politically exploit us.

My interest isn’t energy; it’s corrupt partnerships between corporations and governments. Taxpayers are being hoodwinked by their propaganda and robbed by both, via trillions in energy subsidies. The either-or narrative — dirty fossil fuels or green energy — is a false dichotomy. Other countries, including Canada, are turning to nuclear energy.

As an ex-member of Vermonters for a Sustainable Population, now Better (Not Bigger) Vermont, I’m inclined to trust Vermont’s leading environmentalist, Bill McKibben. In his book, Maybe One, he noted, “The earth is becoming dangerously overcrowded.” It’s a very unpopular topic, and he took quite a shellacking for it. He rarely, if ever, mentions it these days.

Years ago, VSP commissioned a study of Burlington. Conclusion: Burlington is

populated far beyond resource capacity. Since then, the population has increased by 2,000! The city’s nonsensical solution: more growth. It’s suffocating.

For something closer to the truth about energy options, I highly recommend enduring the Jordan Peterson video with Robert Bryce, author of A Question of Power: Electricity and the Wealth of Nations.

TASTY ‘TREASURE’

Just reading [“The Godfather of All Sandwiches: In Waitsfield, Mehuron’s Makes Deli Offerings You Can’t Refuse,” August 15]. You couldn’t have made a better choice! Mehuron’s Supermarket is a treasure. Thank you!

LOCATION, LOCATION

[Re Last 7: “Scythe Season,” August 16]: You got it right; the Addison County Fair & Field Days is the quintessential county

fair and offers a lot of special features such as the hand-mowing competition. However, you got the location wrong. The fair is located in the town of New Haven, not Vergennes, which is two towns away.

Vermonters are generally proud of their towns and appreciate the recognition whenever their town is in the news. Seven Days has usually identified the correct municipality in its reporting, but I can’t always say the same for some of our local TV stations, which frequently mistakenly identify the location of their on-site reporting.

With the technology so easily available today, there should be no excuse for incorrectly identifying one’s location. And, of course, there are always those old reliable hard-copy maps that show municipal boundaries. A tip: Don’t use zip codes as a location identifier. That can really screw you up. Keep up the reporting about those special Vermont events.

Editor’s note: This error was corrected and documented soon after publication.

lifelines OBITUARIES,

VOWS, CELEBRATIONS

OBITUARIES

Paul Meyer

FEBRUARY 2, 1930-AUGUST 24, 2023 MIDDLEBURY, VT.

Our beloved Paul passed away peacefully, with his family by his side, on the morning of August 24, 2023, at 93. He was born on February 2, 1930, in Manhattan, to John Henry Meyer and Mildred M. (Heins) Meyer and was raised in Yonkers.

Paul attended Dartmouth College, earning his undergraduate degree in 1951 and an MS in engineering and business in 1952. While at Dartmouth, he was awarded the Churchill Prize for outstanding academic achievement and citizenship. He discovered his love of the outdoors and skiing with the Dartmouth Outing Club, where he formed lifelong friendships. In 1952, he accepted a direct commission as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force and was stationed in Japan. While in Japan, he made sure to climb Mount Fuji.

Upon his return to the United States, he worked as an engineer at Eastman Kodak. He left Kodak to attend Columbia University, where he earned a PhD in mathematics. Paul felt, “You don’t choose mathematics; mathematics chooses you.” Mathematics remained important throughout Paul’s life.

Upon graduation from Columbia in 1964, Paul started as a professor of mathematics at Hunter College and later moved to Lehman College in New York City. He remained at Lehman College until his retirement in 1999. While at Lehman, he had visiting appointments at the University of Texas, Austin; the University of London; the University of Padua, Italy; the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur, India; and the University of Mexico, where he combined his love of birding with mathematics. Over the course of his career, Paul published 25 mathematical journal articles in topology.

Paul met Mary Ruth Hazelden while working at Kodak, and they married in 1955, initially living in New York City and then moving to Yonkers. Together, they raised four children: Lisa Meyer (Jeffrey Hughes) of Shelburne, Vt.; Gretchen Meyer (Raymond F. Gates III) of Cedarburg, Wis.; Peter Meyer (Bonnie Meyer) of University Place, Wash.; and Kristen Stroud (George Stroud) of Mount Shasta, Calif. Paul generously shared with his family his passion for nature, hiking, skiing, camping, canoeing and birding in parks and natural areas across the United States.

Paul and Mary separated amicably in 1978. Paul met his second wife, Susan Roney Drennan, while volunteering for the American Museum of Natural History’s tern project on Great Gull Island, and they married in 1997. After Paul’s retirement, they moved to Middlebury, Vt. en Paul and Susan explored the world while leading National Audubon nature cruises.

Paul reliably shared suitable quotes from Shakespeare, Robert Frost, oreau, Charles Darwin and others to enhance any moment or event. His knowledge of and interest in science, literature, current events, history, physics and numerous other subjects was unbounded. He was especially passionate about birds and the natural world. He was well known for his “life bird dance.”

Paul cared deeply about his family and is survived by his four children and seven grandchildren: Sam Hughes and Julia Richter (Dennis Richter), Sonya Meyer (Nick Schaffer), Naomi Meyer and Monica Meyer (Luke McConnell), and Weston and Owen Stroud; and his great-grandson, Pepin Schaffer. He is also survived by his wife, Susan, and her two children: Matthew Drennan of Bar Harbor, Maine, and Maureen Drennan (Paul Gagner) of New York, N.Y., and Susan’s two grandchildren, Grace and Ava Drennan. Also surviving are three nephews and one niece. He was predeceased by his sister Norma, his brother Kenneth, and his first wife, Mary.

Paul’s family wishes to extend their gratitude to the supportive and caring staff at the Residence at Otter Creek, who brought much joy to Paul. In addition, the family wishes to thank Deb Wilkinson and Lori Cyr of Taking Care of You for their outstanding service and Addison County Home Health and Hospice, especially Stephanie Stoddard, his hospice nurse, for the compassionate care and support that they provided to Paul.

As Paul (and Robert Frost) would say: “Ah, when to the heart of a man Was it ever less than a treason To go with the drift of things, To yield with a grace to reason, And bow and accept the end Of a love or a season?”

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Vermont Land Trust, local food banks and wildlife conservation organizations. Arrangements are under the direction of Sanderson-Ducharme Funeral Home. Online condolences may be left at sandersonfuneralservice.com.

Maureen Mindell

MARCH 18, 1940-AUGUST 22, 2023 SHELBURNE, VT.

Maureen Collins Mindell passed away on the morning of August 22, 2023, surrounded by family, following a courageous three-year battle with cancer.

Maureen was born on March 18, 1940, in Berkeley, Calif., the first of three children born to Florence Breiding and Jack Collins. Florence was born in Happy Camp, Calif., and Jack in Pasadena. ey met as students at University of California, Berkeley in the 1930s. Jack worked as an executive for the Del Monte corporation, and Maureen had many fond memories of their time as a family in far-off locations, particularly time spent in South Africa in the early 1960s.

Maureen attended public schools in Walnut Grove, Martinez and Santa Rosa, Calif. She completed nursing school at St. Francis in San Francisco in 1960. Following graduation, she worked at San Francisco General Hospital. In 1961 she spotted a handsome young medical resident who, in her words, was “wandering around the emergency room with a pair of surgical scissors, looking lost.” It was Howard Mindell from Chicago. ey were married in December 1966 at Central Synagogue in Manhattan.

After a brief stint living in New York City, on the advice of a friend and former radiology resident, Howard accepted a job at the University of Vermont Medical Center as a radiologist. ey moved first to Burlington, eventually settling in Shelburne, where they spent 35 years together raising a family and putting down roots, both literally and figuratively. Maureen created a home and garden that is hard to top in all of Chittenden County. Her happy place was working in the garden. Up until the end, Maureen was out in the yard gardening, listening to classical music on her headphones.

Maureen went back to school in her forties and earned a bachelor of science degree at UVM. She spent many years working as a nurse in the operating room and ER and also worked as part of the employee health team at UVM Medical Center. She enjoyed running during this period and completed several marathons. She volunteered extensively in the community, at the Ronald McDonald House, COTS and the sisterhood at Temple

Sinai. She also volunteered at the Hyde School in Bath, Maine, where her youngest son, Michael, graduated. In her later years, she was active with Dragonheart Vermont and enjoyed being out on the water as part of the sisterhood of rowers, many of them cancer survivors.

Maureen was deeply shaped and affected by the early deaths of both her mother, Florence, who passed away from multiple myeloma at the young age of 52, and her brother Navy Lt. Michael Collins, who died in Vietnam at age 28. Both deaths occurred within a year of each other, but Maureen carried on with courage and grace, raising her family in Vermont and being a stellar and supportive daughter and sister to her family in California.

Maureen was predeceased by her husband, Dr. Howard Mindell; her parents and brother; and her beloved son Michael Mindell. She is survived by her daughter, Ann Mindell, son-in-law Sean Toohey and granddaughter Ariel Toohey of Shelburne; her son Paul Mindell and grandchildren Boaz and Ayla Mindell of Pasadena, Calif.; her grandson Lucas Herrera-Mindell of New York City; her brother Raymond Collins of Eureka, Calif.; and her stepmother, Meghan Collins, and her children, Betsy, Laura and Peter, all of California.

Maureen hailed from a large extended California family and is survived by many cousins. She made countless trips to California over the years to see family and friends and experienced many happy times in the Bay Area, where she and Howard met and forged their future together.

e family would like to thank her excellent caregivers at the UVM Medical Center, with special thanks to family friend Dr. Kristin Holm and current radiology chair Dr. Kristen DeStiger for their support and guidance, particularly at the outset of her diagnosis. e family thanks the excellent staff and nurses at McClure Miller Respite House in Colchester, who cared for Maureen with dignity and grace during her final days. Finally, sincerest thanks to the many family members and friends who stood with her and were present during this difficult time.

A service was held on Friday, August 25, 2023, at Temple Sinai in South Burlington. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the Vermont Youth Orchestra.

Dorothy Pellett

JUNE 25, 1935-AUGUST 26, 2023

SHELBURNE, VT.

Dorothy Jean (Engel) Pellett passed peacefully in her sleep, surrounded by family, on August 26, 2023.

Dorothy was born to the late Clarence Arthur Engel and Stella Frances Starr Engel on June 25, 1935, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. She graduated from Iowa State University with a bachelor of science degree in horticulture. It was here that she met the love of her life and husband of 67 years, Norman E. Pellett.

Most important to her were her faith and her family. Although she had two diverse careers in her lifetime, the most important one to her was that of wife and mother.

As owner of Rock Crest Gardens, a wholesale nursery, she was known throughout the state of Vermont for her unique selections of hardy hostas, daylilies, trilliums, other perennials and native plants and had an unrivaled reputation for providing specimens of incomparable perfection. She was also a member of the Vermont Nursery and Landscape Association, including serving on the board.

She was a longtime, dedicated member of the Charlotte Congregational Church, providing years of gentle leadership and support and serving as president, treasurer, clerk, financial secretary and cabinet secretary. She was also a deacon, and her family suspects she probably served on almost every other committee. She initiated a program of milk donation through the church to

Nancy S. Hinchman

FEBRUARY 20, 1947-AUGUST 3, 2023

ESSEX JUNCTION, VT.

Nancy S. “Kelly” Hinchman, 76, passed away on Thursday, August 3, 2023, at the McClure Miller Respite House, with her high school sweetheart and husband of 56 years, Clark, by her side.

Nancy was born on February 20, 1947, in Jersey City, NJ to Thomas and Lydia (Paffenroth) Kelly.

Nancy and Clark met on a blind date arranged by a mutual friend in high school. They maintained a long-distance relationship when Clark joined the U.S. Air Force and was stationed in Dover, Del.

In 1967 the two eloped to Dillon, S.C., after which they returned to Delaware, where they resided for several years. After the birth of both of their children, Clark and Nancy made the decision to leave New Jersey and grow new roots in Vermont, where they lived briefly in Winooski before purchasing their home in Essex in 1972.

the Salvation Army for the benefit of pregnant mothers. Over time, this caused the church to be known as the “milk church.” Dorothy donated her exceptional hostas, which still adorn the side of the vestry. She and Norman gave time and resources to create a playground at the church in 1996 in memory of their daughter, Kerri. Lastly, Dorothy was appreciated for her habit in her various leadership roles of quietly asking thoughtful questions that needed to be asked.

As a freelance writer, Dorothy was published in many national home, industry, travel and horticultural magazines. She also wrote as a Chittenden County local news correspondent for the Burlington Free Press for 14 years. She was inspired to write by her favorite author, Ronald Rood.

Perhaps most noteworthy, Dorothy’s family still marvels at how they never ever — not even once — heard her say a bad word about anyone.

She is predeceased by her son Dwight Allen Pellett in 1959 and by her daughter, Kerri Pellett Frost, in 1994.

She is survived by her husband, Norman Pellett; sons Alden Pellett (Tara Brown) and Andrew Pellett (Rachel Smith); grandchildren Hannah Frost and Laurel Pellett; son-in-law Gregory Frost; and her dear friends Vic and Wanda Bean and Jim (and late Joan) Olson.

A funeral service is scheduled for Thursday, September 21, 2 p.m., at the Charlotte Congregational Church. In lieu of flowers, donations in Dorothy’s memory can be made locally to the Nature Conservancy in Vermont, 575 Stone Cutters Way, Montpelier, VT 05602.

Lynne Soule

1946-2023

Lynn Soule lived life to the fullest. She was passionate about so much, especially people, laughter and the combination of the two. Her family invites you to celebrate her life with fond memories and funny stories at the North Hero Community Hall, North Hero, Vt., on Saturday, September 9, at 11 a.m.

At an early age, Nancy developed a love for cooking and restaurants. Her passion for cooking brought joy to countless hearts, as she believed creating delicious food was a way to bring happiness to others, most especially her family. She worked as a professional chef for many years at several memorable Vermont restaurants, including the Radisson Hotel in Burlington, the original Waterworks and Spruce Pond Inn in Stowe.

Nancy was an avid reader and a seeker of knowledge, with an amazing ability to retain information and share a good story. Her family jokes that before there was Google, there was “Ask Nanni!”

A celebration of Nancy’s life will be held on Sunday, September 17, 1 p.m., at the Eagles Club in Milton, Vt., where all are invited to come visit with family, share a memory and enjoy light refreshments. To view the full obituary or share memories and condolences, visit awrfh.com.

Paul Jordan

1934-2023

SOUTH BURLINGTON, VT.

Paul Jordan, a longtime coach and teacher at South Burlington High School, died at age 89 on August 2. Please join us in a celebration of his life on Saturday, September 9, 1 p.m., at Williston Federated Church, 44 N. Williston Rd. A complete obituary can be found at tributearchive. com/obituaries/28615486/ paul-jordan.

Circus of life

Inside Bread and Puppet eater as founder Peter Schumann, 89, contemplates his final act

It was a warm afternoon in July, and I had come to watch the rehearsal in the backyard of the 19th-century farmhouse that serves as the nucleus of life at Bread and Puppet, a theater company that, for the past 60 years, has turned scraps of cardboard, used bedsheets and other debris into political performance art. “Who wants to be on deck? Maybe Cloud Orchestra?” one of the puppeteers suggested. Several people were carrying cardboard cumulus clouds to one side of the yard. Another small group was singing a dirgelike rendition of “Au Clair de la Lune.” Schumann was not interested in hearing who was on deck. He wanted them to start. “Go, go, go, go!” he shouted in his thick, rough German accent. “Do it!”

Schumann, fresh from painting bedsheet murals in his studio, wore a paint-splattered button-down that had gone sheer with age, paint-splattered jeans and paint-splattered Birkenstocks. His toenails were thickly coated with dried paint. With his weathered fedora and beard, he looked like an aged Hummel figurine of a mad artist. I was sitting on the ground nearby, watching one of his chair legs sink into the mud.

A group of puppeteers led by Amelia Castillo assembled in front of him. “And now, a chapter in the life of Daniel Ellsberg!” Castillo announced. Another puppeteer, Tanja Höhne, took over the narration: “Pentagon Papers whistleblower who, in 1971, risked life in prison by copying and then

leaking 7,000 pages of top-secret documents outlining the secret history of the U.S. war in Vietnam…”

The rest of the act proceeded in a similarly wordintensive fashion. At one point, two puppeteers lying on the ground mimed a Xerox machine with their arms and legs. More narration followed.

“And now, a whistle requiem for Daniel Ellsberg,” Castillo said. She addressed Schumann: “And then we’ll have whistles, and we’ll do some sort of dance, or…”

Schumann had a few words of his own. “Oh, my God, you guys,” he said. “It’s incredibly overdone, and preachy, and all that. The Xerox is beautiful, but the other things are not OK.”

Peter Schumann sat in a wobbly plastic chair, a gin and tonic in one hand and a cigar in the other, crossing and recrossing his legs. The 89-year-old founder and director of Bread and Puppet Theater in Glover wanted to see acts in progress for his troupe's first circus of the season, just three days away.

The puppeteers were still scrambling to come up with ideas, and he was not thrilled.

“I agree, Peter,” Castillo said, “and we’ll cut it down, and—”

“It’s just words, words, words, words. This is so, so tedious,” Schumann continued. “Please.”

Schumann’s troupe performs its playfully acerbic anti-war, anti-capitalist shows around the world, but Glover is its geographic and spiritual home. Every summer, the theater stages its unclassifiable outdoor spectacles in a large, sloping meadow, which serves as a natural amphitheater. The Sunday afternoon circus is a variety show, part vaudeville, part agitprop; the pageant, which follows the circus, is a slow and ceremonial affair, a surreal moving tableau of giant puppets that feels more like a sacred rite than a work of modern theater.

On Saturdays, the troupe performs for a smaller crowd in a barn known as the Paper Mache Cathedral, which Schumann has covered from floor to ceiling with paintings and papier-mâché relief human figures. Thousands of people come to watch the performances every summer, a smorgasbord of humanity that includes aging hippies from near and far; weekending city folk drinking pét-nat out of Yeti tumblers; on at least one occasion, a shirtless man with a leather scabbard; college kids in search of a weird time; unimpressed 5-year-olds; and babies.

After the performances, the spectators wait in long lines for Schumann's bread, the same sourdough rye he learned to bake as a child in war-torn Germany. The shows involve a host of performers all dressed in white, like members of a utopian religious community, but Schumann alone is the visionary puppet master.

The existence of Bread and Puppet — a leftist quasi-commune in the middle of the Northeast Kingdom — has always seemed improbable. In July, I came to the farm for a few weeks to experience a small dose of this improbability, at a particularly fraught moment for the theater.

Schumann’s wife and artistic collaborator of 60-plus years, Elka, died in August 2021, following a stroke. Schumann has had several strokes since May that have affected his speech, but not his insatiable drive to produce new work. He has offered no clear directive for what should become of the theater when he dies, nor can Bread and Puppet’s unwieldy governing apparatus — the dozen or so members of the theater's board of directors, an informal group of advisers, and the amoebic society of performers that he and Elka have ushered into being — seem to agree on a vision for the future.

What is certain is that Bread and Puppet cannot continue as it presently exists without Schumann, because Schumann, for all of his emphasis on collectivism in his art, is the sun around which the theater revolves.

In the backyard of the farmhouse, the cardboard clouds took their places for Schumann. The puppeteers huddled together, shook the clouds to produce a thunder-like sound, then scattered with the arrival of someone bearing a large, tattered cardboard sun. Another puppeteer, holding a blank piece of cardboard, addressed Schumann: “There are children with this sign. And I don’t have the exact words for it right now. It is a Frederick Douglass quote. But as long as there is inequality, there will always be a storm. Thank you.” She took a small bow and walked away.

“Come back, come back, come back, come back!” Schumann bellowed. “Why not use a local weather report? They’re always wrong. They’re wonderful.” The puppeteers regarded him uncertainly, as if he were an ancient talking tree. “This is all sentimental. It’s missing intelligence, this act. Not enough to feed the mind. OK. Next.”

Nobody seemed particularly eager to go next. “I think we just need more time, Peter,” one of the puppeteers said.

“Time?” Schumann said. “I don’t know what that is.”

‘CLOSEST THING TO MAGIC’

To spend any length of time at Bread and Puppet is to be dislodged from the continuum of normal human experience under 21st-century capitalism.

In the summer, the farm, which sits on close to 200 densely wooded acres near the top of a long, steep hill, becomes a teeming village of locals, performers from all over the world and perennial hangers-around

who share in the upkeep of the Schumanns’ artistic enterprise. Some people stay for the whole summer; others drop in for a couple of days or weeks. With the exception of a handful of staff members, who earn a very modest salary, Bread and Puppet relies on volunteers who work for free. Apprentices, who learn the ins and outs of puppetry, pay $1,200 for a three-week session. (In some cases, the theater offers financial aid for apprenticeships.)

Each day begins with a meeting at 9 a.m. to discuss the various tasks that must be accomplished. At any given moment, several people might be repairing broken puppets, pushing a stuck car out of the mud, smoking on the farmhouse porch, searching in vain for the right size drill bit, administering a stick-and-poke tattoo, or grinding grain for bread in a hand-powered mill. Some wretch — who, one afternoon in July, was me — must pick tiny shreds of gluey cardboard out of the grass after a papier-mâché session.

The plumbing is fragile in the farmhouse, where up to 17 puppeteers live during the summer, so most people use the outdoor privies, one of the few places at Bread and Puppet where you can be truly alone. Showers are only permitted once a week, which makes skinny-dipping in the nearby swimming holes both a practical and spiritual necessity.

Everyone gathers twice a day for a communal lunch and dinner. On Friday nights, Schumann makes potato pancakes for everyone on the outdoor grill. He uses a machete to flip them. “Why use a spatula?” he said one evening, drinking from a bottle of Shed Mountain Ale. “Much more efficient to use this.”

A guy named Sandy Kepler, a retired teacher who lives in West Glover, periodically shows up to cook dinner for everyone. In the ’90s, he told me, he helped devise the pyrotechnics for the pretend launching of then-U.S. representative Bernie Sanders from a cannon as a circus stunt. Kepler has never performed in a Bread and Puppet production, but he said he likes the general philosophy of the theater. I asked him what that philosophy was.

“I know what it is,” he said, “but it isn’t important to me to explain it.”

There is no cell service here, or in most of the surrounding area, and the use of Wi-Fi is limited to a handful of staff members who are forbidden from sharing the password. In the absence of technological distractions, everyone becomes immersed in a relentless present. On one of my first days at the theater, I met Garrett MacLean, a photographer from Detroit who first came to Bread and Puppet in 2022 to make a documentary.

“Time moves so weirdly here,” he said. “Every day feels like a week.” After

following the troupe on tour, MacLean said, he concluded that being behind the lens was keeping him from entering the slipstream, where the real experience seemed to be. He returned this summer, without his camera.

As a matter of principle, Bread and Puppet doesn’t accept government, corporate or nonprofit funding. The theater sustains itself with private donations, volunteer labor, fees from the apprenticeship program, revenue from the brisk e-commerce sales of its handmade posters and prints, and a spirit of frugality bordering on masochism. The food processor in the kitchen only works if you press down on a piece of plastic in a very particular way; the blender is held together with duct tape that only sort of prevents liquid from seeping out. In the three and a half weeks I spent at Bread and Puppet, I encountered one pair of matching work gloves.

During the summer, 30 to 50 people might be living at the farm, in tents and broken-down school buses and other structures not usually meant for human habitation. Emma Doyle, who has run the kitchen at Bread and Puppet for the past three summers, told me that she once lived in the tiny cabin of a wooden boat that flooded whenever it rained. Her bedding consisted of a futon pad on the floor, and she got bruises on her hips when she slept on her sides. “I was going through a breakup, so I honestly didn’t notice how rugged it was,” she said.

In spite of these physical discomforts, or maybe because of them, the bonds at

Bread and Puppet are deep. The theater recently held an art auction to benefit Linda Elbow, the Schumanns’ first business manager and a mainstay of the company for decades. Elbow, who has dementia, lives in an assisted living facility in Morristown, and the puppeteers regularly visit her.

On July 25, a scrawny little Christmas tree was placed on one of the picnic tables, decorated with beer bottle caps and scraps of duct tape. For no particular reason, except that it happened to be five months until Christmas, the puppeteers had gone the night before to Schumann’s house, a short distance from the farm up a gravel road, to sing carols and drink beer with him.

“This place is fucked up,” said Mollie McGregor, a puppeteer from Toronto, “and it’s also the closest thing to magic I have ever found.”

BECOMING ART

“To the north!”

Schumann was standing in the middle of the meadow, shouting directions at the puppeteers across a great distance. We were rehearsing for the Sunday pageant, which usually involves one or more massive puppets operated by dozens of people, who move them across the field at a slow, dreamlike pace. Schumann directs these spectacles to bring the sublimity of the landscape into relief. The hills in the distance, the sky and the clouds, he said, are more important to him than what the puppeteers are doing.

“The point is to introduce the audience to the cumuluses,” Schumann told me. “Forget about the puppetry. These huge cumuluses, they are preaching.”

When you’re in the pageant field, maneuvering a swaying papier-mâché hand atop a 20-foot bamboo pole, the sermons of the cumuli are not always top of mind. During this particularly hot, humid afternoon, we were mainly concerned with figuring out where we should stand, a task complicated by the fact that Schumann’s voice was a faraway yawp in the meadow.

There were four giant hand puppets in the field, each manned by four to six puppeteers. One group took a few tentative steps in a direction, which apparently was not north. “Nooooo!” Schumann bellowed. Then he seemed to have a change of heart. “Now, a few paces to the east!”

Before I arrived at Bread and Puppet, I’d worried, for legitimate reasons, that I was unsuited to the rigors of a performing arts environment. My theater résumé consists of undistinguished chorus roles in high school productions of The Music Man and Grease. I have no special facility with puppets and, frankly, find them terrifying. But as we schlepped the hands to and fro in the meadow, I grasped that the only qualification that matters at Bread and Puppet is a willingness to be nobody, a useful nobody. Only Schumann could see the totality of the painting we were somehow creating together, and only Schumann — maybe not even Schumann — knew, in that moment, what that painting was supposed to look like. I felt a strange sense

As you wander through the barn, you might get the uncanny feeling that the puppets are talking about you through a vast papier-mâché neural network.

of well-being. We weren’t just making art. We were becoming art.

To participate in a Bread and Puppet production is to experience a kind of collective ego death. “You feel like you’re being absorbed into a giant organism,” said Clare Dolan, the creator of the Museum of Everyday Life in Glover and Schumann’s assistant. Dolan has been part of Bread and Puppet since the early ’90s. “This is probably what organized religion is trying to achieve,” she said, “but I never connected with that feeling until I got here.”

PUPPET PURGATORY

Schumann’s puppets are variously lumpy, leering, apoplectic, serene, beseeching, stoic, mirthful, sullen, up to no good. Almost every square inch of the cavernous 150-year-old dairy barn on the property has been consecrated to them. You would never want to spend the night alone in this barn, which serves as both a museum and a kind of puppet purgatory for the lame and unemployed.

Fifteen-foot-tall washerwomen with pendulous breasts loom over small, grimacing heads. There are legions of

demonic creatures, masses of huddled figures no bigger than toadstools, perturbed-looking trees, impassive suns, pointing hands, ghostly horses, gangster figures in dark suits and Homburg hats whose expressionless white faces somehow radiate pure evil.

Collectively, they seem to possess a furtive, mycological consciousness. As you wander through the barn, you might get the uncanny feeling that the puppets are talking about you through a vast papiermâché neural network. A profound melancholy hangs in the air, the ineffable sadness of huge animals in zoos and abandoned toys. I found that people at Bread and Puppet don’t talk much about this feeling. It evaporates when you try to describe it.

THE IMPERMANENCE OF EVERYTHING

Since his stroke in May, Schumann has been uncommonly productive, even by the standards of a man who has populated an entire barn with puppets and made, by his own estimate, some 200,000 paintings. Some are no bigger than postage stamps; others cover a whole school bus. For the

past few months, Schumann has been completing an average of two murals a day on white bedsheets, which he gets for free from local motels. This summer, Schumann’s bedsheet paintings adorned the walls of the 160-by-60 foot former veal barn near the pageant field, which Bread and Puppet purchased last year.

One morning, I visited him in his studio, where he had just put the final touches on a bedsheet painting of an ochre sun rising above eight writhing figures. He told me that he had started and finished in the exact length of time it took him to listen to Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 5, or about 22 minutes. What Schumann paints is often less interesting than how, and how much, he paints. He told me he works like “a wild boar,” ravenously and without looking back. His creative constraints are wall space and the speed at which paint hardens. “Drying periods are my main problem,” he said.

Schumann insists that he never knows exactly what he’s going to paint until he gets started. He begins with a few thumbnail sketches, on which he spends “about half a minute,” and then he tacks the bedsheet up on the wall and goes to work, laying down one brushstroke after another in the same way that most people breathe, automatically and without beating themselves up about how shitty that last breath was. When he gets bored, he stops.

“I’m very good at dilettantism, at never feeling like I even need to complete something,” he told me. “Art education is something that results in gallery art and commercial art and professionalism, and professionalism obliges people to continue to do what they do. And then they are bored stiff with themselves.”

Schumann believes in ephemerality as the organizing principle of the universe, in the impermanence of everything, including his own art. The barn, teeming with his papier-mâché life, was never meant to become a monument.

“It’s here, but it might as well not be here,” Schumann said. “A lightning storm strikes, or someone puts a match to it — that’s it.” Not to mention the less cinematic indignities to which papier-mâché is heir — rain, mold, insects, careless puppeteers, time. If the barn went up in flames, Schumann said, he’d get over it. “Make new stuff. What else is there to do in life?”

In many ways, an act of God would radically simplify things for Schumann and the world he and Elka brought into being. As it happens, lots of people want to preserve his art, and there is much disagreement among those people about how it should be kept alive when its creator is gone.

Dolan, who was on the Bread and Puppet board of directors until last November, told me: “There is near-universal

agreement — actually, I don’t know if I can even say ‘near-universal’ — that if you continue to make new shows with Peter’s puppets, but he doesn’t direct the shows, you can’t call it Bread and Puppet. Can you use Peter’s work to make new shows and call that something other than Bread and Puppet? Some say yes; some say no. Can you repeat shows that have already been developed and call that Bread and Puppet? Some say yes; some say no. Who should even be the arbiter of what is and isn’t Bread and Puppet? There’s no agreement about that, either.”

Max Schumann, Peter’s son, said these machinations are torture for his father. “He was the charismatic leader, and now he doesn’t have the bandwidth or the patience to deal with all the administrative stuff,” Max said. “And he hates it. It’s bourgeois bureaucracy.” Nor is he constitutionally capable of retirement. “He doesn’t differentiate between work and life,” Max said. “He doesn’t recognize the legitimacy of those kinds of capitalist categorizations.”

Max is on the theater’s board of directors, along with two of Peter and Elka’s other four children, Tamar and Solveig. Bread and Puppet has become such a sprawling entity, with so many people invested in its future, that none of the Schumann siblings could simply take the reins, Max explained. “I’m pretty sure everyone would agree that no one can replace Peter.”

Peter doesn’t seem particularly optimistic about the fate of his enterprise. “Maybe the best thing is to throw it all overboard,” he said. “But that has problems also. People rely on this. If you start thinking that you want to hang yourself, you would still have the burden of thinking that through.”

ORIGIN STORY

In February 1987, Mikhail Gorbachev, the last president of the Soviet Union, invited a special delegation of American artists and intellectuals to the Kremlin in an effort to foster understanding between the Cold War rivals. Among the passengers on the first-class charter flight from New York City to Moscow were the novelist Norman Mailer, the actor Gregory Peck, the artist and peace activist Yoko Ono, and Peter and Elka Schumann. As Schumann recalled, the in-flight beverage service featured “beautiful vodkas.”

The Schumanns had found themselves in this rarefied company because of their friendship with Sergey Obraztsov, a famous Soviet puppeteer. At the Kremlin summit, the other luminaries in

attendance wanted to know what the Schumanns did for a living in Glover, Vt. Peter told them: “Papier-mâché.”

Peter and Elka founded Bread and Puppet in 1963 on the Lower East Side of New York City, where they often enlisted neighborhood kids to help make masks and participate in shows. The troupe rose to international prominence for its 1968 show “Fire,” a slow, wordless pageant about the atrocities of the Vietnam War that ended with a puppet of a Vietnamese woman dying by allegorical self-immolation. Bread and Puppet moved to Vermont in the early ’70s — first to Plainfield, where the Schumanns were artists-in-residence at Goddard College, and then, in 1974, to the Glover farm that had belonged to Elka’s parents.

Few of the radical experiments in rural living and art-making of the 1960s and ’70s remain as robust and influential today as Bread and Puppet. The troupe counts among its disciples and alumni a lengthy list of acclaimed artists, including Julie Taymor, whose Tony Award-winning adaptation of The Lion King for Broadway made use of puppets and papier-mâché. Many past and present Bread and Puppet performers have launched their own theater companies, inspired by Peter’s defiantly lowbrow aesthetic. His “Why Cheap Art? Manifesto,” a ransom note-style paean reproduced by hand at the print shop on the farm, can be found in museums, university libraries and bathrooms the world over.

Bread and Puppet owes its longevity, in part, to its inclusiveness — anyone can show up on the day of the circus and jump in — and to the influence of Elka. She turned the massive dairy barn filled with Peter’s puppets into a public museum, oversaw the Bread and Puppet Press, and generally acted as a stabilizing force to the tempest of Peter’s creativity.

“He’s a real narcissist,” Dolan said, not without love. “Not a fake, low-grade one, but a real, charismatic narcissist.” Eddie Haynes, a former puppeteer who now works as the groundskeeper for the theater, thinks Peter is fundamentally uninterested in the social dynamics of Bread and Puppet. “The goal of this place is for Peter to work,” he told me. “He’s not a cult leader. He’s not here to teach.”

Peter was born in 1934 in Silesia, a region of eastern Germany that became part of Poland after World War II. When he was 10, his family fled their home under siege from Allied and Soviet troops and escaped to a refugee camp. They subsisted on turnips and Peter’s mother’s sourdough rye bread — the

same bread Peter bakes today at Bread and Puppet, using his mother’s 160-yearold starter. At night, no lights were permitted in the camp, so Peter and his four siblings sat in pitch darkness and recited stories to each other from Brothers Grimm fairy tales, the only book they had managed to bring from home.

By the time Peter met Elka, in 1955, he was an art school dropout with vague but grand ambitions. Their first encounter was in a hospital room in Munich, where Peter was recovering from a bike accident he suffered in a recruitment stunt for a dance company he’d started with his childhood friend.

Around this time, according to a twovolume history of Bread and Puppet by theater historian Stefan Brecht, son of playwright Bertolt, Peter talked a lot about mounting a pageant in the tradition of the Oberammergau, an open-air play depicting the life and death of Christ staged once a decade by some 2,000 inhabitants of a village in the Bavarian Alps. But there were some problems with this idea, not least of which was that Peter didn’t have 2,000 Bavarian villagers at his disposal.

By summer 1961, Peter and Elka, married with two children, had moved

to the United States and were living with Elka’s parents in Ridgefield, Conn., a wealthy suburb of New York City. In Brecht’s telling, Peter did his best not to fit in with his new surroundings. He spent his days making hundreds of little human forms out of cement and plastic and papier-mâché. When he ran out of surfaces in the house, he would stash his creations in the oven, where Elka’s mother was not amused to find them.

“My parents really had a hard time with Peter,” Elka told Brecht. “They thought he was a real irresponsible and strange man.”

OVERHEARD AT BREAD AND PUPPET

The scale and complexity of Bread and Puppet’s work have provided occasion for sentences that probably have never been uttered before. Such as:

“There’s a question from inside the whale!”

“Want to be a frog landlord?”

“I have sausages, a baby and a gas mask. I think I’m all set.”

“Can anyone replace me as a gate of Hell this Saturday?”

HEART OF THE MATTER

By the first weekend of July, the circus was slowly coming together. This summer’s show, which Schumann titled “The Heart of the Matter Circus,” included a skit about the destruction of pollinator habitat, featuring a brief musical interlude of Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It),” and an act about youth activists in Montana who sued the state — and won — for violating their right to a clean environment. Still, Schumann found the whole thing wanting. “The acts are pretty mediocre political statements, because they don’t dare to say anything,” he told me. “They say wishy-washy little generalities.”

But he was fond of one act, set to an accordion ballad, in which the performers careened around each other in a freewheeling dance, flapping pieces of cardboard and singing: “We are going to die! We are going to die! Today or tomorrow, it’s life that we borrow! We are going to die!” Repeat.

The puppeteers had debuted this act during one of the first circus rehearsals of the season, to acclaim from Schumann. He liked their inventive use of cardboard. “So much better this way than with actual

To be self-conscious while holding the left wrist of Mother Earth!

I was nothing, a tiny cog in a glorious machine.

wings,” he said. Ben Stieler and Ludivine Hipeau, who had come up with the skit, told me they saw it as a celebration of life in the face of the inevitable.

“I think it truly gets to the heart of the matter,” Stieler said. “Like, why should we make the world better if we’re all going to die?”

On the Saturday before the troupe’s first performance, a group of puppeteers rehearsed the act in the circus field while Schumann and Dolan watched. The performers leaped and spun in circles with their cardboard like a flock of demented birds, an unabashedly weird display of abandon. Stieler stood in the middle of it, wearing a cardboard donkey head. When they had finished the last chorus of “We are going to die!” Schumann looked pleased. “Best message ever!” he said.

Dolan thought it needed something more. “I feel like you can make just a brief tie-in to climate change,” she said. “How about having a single kid come in at the end and say, ‘I’m a kid, and I beseech you: Do something about climate change now! Mobilize!’”

“I like it better without this,” Schumann said. “Very definitely without.”

But as the puppeteers rehearsed the skit one more time, Schumann changed his mind. “You guys!” he yelled to the puppeteers. “At the end, say: ‘No! We are not going to die! Change the climate!’” Some people weren’t thrilled about this late addition. “I mean, we are going to die. It’s, like, the basic truth,” Hipeau told me later. “Can’t we say the truth?”

HOW TO BE A GARBAGEMAN

The first time I put on a papier-mâché garbageman head, I discovered an essential truth about Bread and Puppet, which is that everyone wearing a puppet head in a performance is visually impaired. My view of the outside world was limited to a centimeter-wide slit, which caused serious problems for me in the arena of knowing what the fuck I was doing.

Mark Dannenhauer, who has been part of the theater since the early ’70s, gave me some helpful tips. His first time performing in a Bread and Puppet show was at Emmanuel Church in Boston, in 1971. His role was to sit in one of the church’s upper balconies with his arms

outstretched, wearing a giant puppet head and gloves coated in talcum powder. Over the course of 20 minutes, he said, he gradually brought his hands closer and closer together. When they were about six inches apart, he clapped them, releasing a puff of white dust.

“You have to move slowly and deliberately,” he said. “Anything sudden or jerky looks really weird with a giant puppet head.”

As it turns out, most normal motions look sudden and jerky with a giant puppet head. You can’t simply turn this way and that, or the mask might slip out of position, leaving you blind. You sure as hell can’t scratch an itch. You must, at all costs, resist the urge to sneeze. If you don’t, you will emit a terrible noise, like a bomb detonating underwater, and you will know the taste of your own sputum.

I told Dannenhauer I appreciated his advice. “I’ve never done anything like this before,” I said. He shrugged. “Who has?”

The garbagemen look like they enjoy a beer or four after work. They are the folk heroes of Bread and Puppet. During the circus, they sit on the sidelines with their potbellies and dungarees, getting up occasionally to pick up props left behind by puppeteers. Other garbagemen, like

Bobby Cleverdon, embody the spirit of the garbageman by striving to do as little as possible.

Cleverdon came to Vermont in the 1970s to avoid being drafted in the Vietnam War. He has brown, leathery skin and a brown, leathery voice. Whenever he can, he hitchhikes the 30 or so miles to Bread and Puppet from his home in East Charleston. One of his hobbies is perusing old dictionaries to study changes in word usage over time.

“I found a definition in a dictionary with a publication date of 1942 that defines ‘fascist’ as ‘a government with close collusion between government and large corporations,’” he said. By this definition and several others, Cleverdon believes we’re living in a fascist country. I asked him how he adapted to this reality. “I’ve dropped out as far as I could do conveniently,” he told me. “And I do things like Bread and Puppet, which won’t change the world, but it satisfies my conscience, to an extent.”

It was Sunday morning, and Cleverdon and I, along with the other performers, were unloading puppets from the school buses in the circus field to get ready for the performance that afternoon. At the 9 a.m. meeting, Schumann had declared that the Mother Earth puppet would be incorporated into one of the acts.

Mother Earth is a puppet in the sense that a megalodon is a fish. She is a behemoth contraption — her arms are white plastic sheets that billow in the wind and measure more than 100 feet when fully extended; each of her papier-mâché hands is big enough to cradle LeBron James. No fewer than 20 people are required to successfully operate her.

Before I donned the faintly musty mask and pillow gut of the garbageman in the circus that day, my task would be to help carry Mother Earth into the circus ring at the start of the act and unfurl her arms around the perimeter. At the end, we would bring her hands together so that her arms would encircle everyone in the act, which involved half a dozen small children and 11 adults, several of whom would be lashed together with a rope and one of whom would be inside a 10-foot-tall evil Uncle Sam puppet. Then, with everyone thus trapped in our embrace, we were supposed to exit the ring together, at a brisk pace and, in the case of the Mother Earth puppeteers, backward.

Pulling this off would depend on our ability to communicate with our fellow Mother Earth operators, most of whom we would not be able to hear or see. We had one rehearsal to figure it out.

I ended up on Mother Earth’s left wrist, where I had an unobstructed view of the hand’s interior. The inside was hollow and roomy enough for a little kid to climb in,

with a scrap-wood frame that appeared to have been hastily pieced together. There were five of us on this hand, and lifting it off the ground still took some effort.

“Watch out for the sharp nails,” my hand partner Isabella Donati-Simmons warned me as I tried out several grips, all of them awkward in different ways. When she isn’t at Bread and Puppet, Donati-Simmons travels around British Columbia and replants forests cleared by commercial loggers. “I love being uncomfortable,” she told me.

Another puppeteer on our hand, Hugo Crick-Furman, leaned against Mother Earth’s palm. “I feel so held right now,” she said.

THE EMBRACE OF MOTHER EARTH

The music for the circus act began. Mother Earth’s moment had come. I ran to my station and promptly disassociated from my corporeal form. Things I remember: feeling the sun on my cheeks, wishing I had applied more sunscreen, realizing I’d never taken off my sun hat, surveying other Mother Earth operators to see if anyone else was wearing a hat, realizing no one else was wearing a hat, feeling embarrassed to be the only person wearing a hat, feeling embarrassed at my own embarrassment. To be self-conscious while holding the left wrist of Mother Earth! I was nothing, a tiny cog in a glorious machine.

Then the act ended. As the hands of Mother Earth closed around the performers, the panic I’d managed to keep at bay flooded my body. The Mother Earthers were moving faster than the people corralled in her arms. I was in imminent danger of trampling the small child behind me, but if I stopped moving, I would be steamrolled by the hand of Mother Earth. As I reached back to push the kid out of my path, a gust of wind whipped Mother Earth’s sleeve and knocked my hat over my eyes.

“Slow down! SLOW DOWN!” I yelled, to no effect whatsoever. I had a moment of sudden clarity. Damn, I thought. So this is what it’s like to die in a stampede.

Then a series of small miracles happened. Another wind gust blew my hat off my face. Donati-Simmons, who had been next to me this whole time, let go of the hand and slipped away, ninja-like, under the sleeve, sparing me a few critical inches to avoid colliding with the kid. A puppeteer squeezed herself between us, and somehow she and the kid managed to duck out together unharmed.

Like a brief violent thunderstorm, it was over. I’d come within seconds of maiming a child, but there was no time to mull that over. I had to go be a garbageman.

A GRAVE IN THE FOREST

A short distance into the pine forest above the circus field, just beyond the remnants of a Baldwin piano that has been left to molder in the elements, is a cluster of little wooden huts, sculptures and shrines dedicated to deceased members of the Bread and Puppet community. Elka is buried in a small clearing nearby, beneath a mound covered in wildflowers. At the foot of her grave is a bench, where Schumann often sits in the evenings and smokes a cigar. His grave, as yet undug, is next to Elka’s.

Every Thursday after dinner, the theater observes a ritual of remembrance in the pine forest. There is no formal program. People simply sit in the woods, sometimes with a beer, and contemplate the dead. Occasionally, the theater holds services when someone close to Bread and Puppet dies. Toward the end of July, Dolan and two other alumni organized a memorial for Nabila Schwab, who was part of Bread and Puppet in the ’90s and taught many people, including Dolan, how to walk on stilts.

After rehearsal one morning, I went for a walk in the pine forest with Dolan and Schumann to scout a location for Schwab’s memorial site. Here and there, Schumann stopped to size up a patch of earth. Being in the pine forest, he said, is overwhelming. “It’s not just my wife. People who we knew since the early ’60s — they’re in here. People we depended on.”

As we walked back toward the circus field, Dolan asked Schumann why he kept making shows. “You’re right,” Schumann said. “Why not retire? I have a beautiful porch. That’s all you need for dying.”

“For dying, or for retirement?” I asked. “Or is that the same thing?”

“Also interesting,” Schumann said.

‘HE CAN’T LET GO OF HIS WORK’

While most of the puppeteers were performing at an arboretum in the Hamptons in late July, the small group that stayed behind held a modest pageant rehearsal. That morning, Schumann had gone to a doctor’s appointment. He told us he’d return by 3:30 p.m., but he never showed up.

Back at the farm, we learned that his doctors had discovered he’d likely had another stroke in the past couple of weeks, and they wanted to keep him overnight at Northeastern Vermont Regional Hospital in St. Johnsbury. Schumann refused. The next morning he was back in his studio, painting another bedsheet. He was not in a good mood.

“Humanity is so stupid, it’s unbelievable. At the hospital, they use plastic for everything, and everything they use, they throw out. Why not die in there? How beautiful that would be,” he said, applying a shade of green reminiscent of mint toothpaste to the sheet. He was painting a village surrounded by rolling hills; above the hills and the village was a sky with red banners and the words “Heart of the Matter.”

After Elka’s death, Schumann said, he thought he was done living. “Finished,” he said. “Bye-bye, Schumann.” He picked out the trees and the telephone cords by which he would do himself in, and then he decided not to go through with it.

“Every time he talked about hanging himself, I’d say, ‘I don’t believe you,’” Dolan told me. “He can’t let go of his work. He wants to work until he drops. He’s just an animal that can’t stop making things.”

Schumann also feels some responsibility to the world he and Elka created, which he fears will implode without him. “Before I go into the graveyard, I should try to console some of the things that are pretty bad here,” he said. “Make it so that it can reasonably continue. It’s not so clear that it can be continued.”

But what Schumann believes will endure is not a style of theater-making or a barn full of puppets but the accumulation of quiet, fleeting moments that make up a performance — the position of a cloud in the sky, the angle of the late-afternoon sun as the papier-mâché hands slowly move through the air above the meadow. “It’s almost like saying, when a poet dies, is there a legacy besides his poetry?” Schumann asked. “Can the audience be part of the legacy?”

In one of the shows this summer, the performers lie on their backs on the dirt floor of the barn theater with a life-size cardboard body on top of them. They grab fistfuls of dirt and slowly sprinkle it over their puppets, an enactment of burial, filling the barn with the echoes of dirt trickling over cardboard. After a while, it sounds almost like rain, a requiem as they commit their puppets to the earth.

“That is a sound that doesn’t exist culturally,” Schumann said. “But that is a sound that this little audience deserves.” ➆

INFO

Bread and Puppet Theater presents “The Heart of the Matter Circus” in a September tour, appearing in Vermont on Friday, September 1, 6 p.m., at Middlebury Snowbowl in Hancock, $22; and Monday, September 11, 6 p.m., at Pittsford Village Farm, $23. Learn more at breadandpuppet.org.

Today or tomorrow, it's life that we borrow! We are going to die!

PUPPETEER CHANT

Fission Accomplished

How a Senate staffer from Norwich helped right the wrong done to J. Robert Oppenheimer

Moviegoers who watch the closing credits of Oppenheimer may notice a familiar name. Writer and director Christopher Nolan’s three-hour biopic about J. Robert Oppenheimer, the theoretical physicist who led the Manhattan Project during World War II to develop the atomic bomb, ends with a thank-you to retired U.S. senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont.

Unrelated to Leahy’s appearances in Nolan’s Batman trilogy, this cinematic shout-out is about righting a decades-old injustice. Vermont’s longest-serving U.S. senator played a critical role in clearing Oppenheimer’s name 55 years after his death. And longtime Leahy staffer Tim Rieser deserves his own screen credit for the role he played in that process.

The Norwich native worked for Leahy for 37 years, mostly as his senior foreign policy aide on the Senate Appropriations Committee. Rieser’s political savvy and deep relationships in Washington, D.C., earned him a level of influence rarely achieved by Capitol Hill staffers. In one of his final acts before Leahy retired in January, Rieser helped right a grievous wrong that ended Oppenheimer’s career — one that, as viewers of Oppenheimer now know, was based on a lie.

In June 1954, at the height of the Red Scare, the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission voted to revoke Oppenheimer’s security clearance. The decision was influenced by Oppenheimer’s past association with communists and justified with the baseless allegation that he was a Soviet spy.

In actuality, Oppenheimer’s fall from grace was a political hit job motivated by his opposition to U.S. development of the hydrogen bomb. Denying the physicist access to nuclear secrets effectively ended his government career and left a stain on his reputation that endured long after his death in 1967.

Nolan’s blockbuster movie, which is based on the 2006 Pulitzer Prize-winning biography American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Martin J. Sherwin and Kai Bird, chronicles much of that previously untold story. But viewers may leave the theater thinking that Oppenheimer was never vindicated.

In fact, Rieser, 71, spent years working

with Sherwin and Bird to do just that. His motivation wasn’t just to remove a black mark from the history of one of the most important scientists of the 20th century. As he explained to Seven Days, Rieser also wanted to affirm the ongoing importance of protecting scientists who express their political views from becoming targets of government retribution.

The cause was personal for the former Vermont public defender, who lives in Arlington, Va., but still owns, with his siblings, their family home in Norwich. Rieser’s parents, Leonard and Rosemary Rieser, worked on the Manhattan Project, knew Oppenheimer and had tremendous respect for him.

“It was probably the most memorable year of their lives,” Rieser said of his parents’ stint in Los Alamos, N.M. “My

father, my mother and everybody else there just revered Oppenheimer. He was larger than life for people their age.”

Leonard Rieser was 21 in 1943 when he graduated with a physics degree from the University of Chicago, site of the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction. The following year, he got married, enlisted in the U.S. Army and, because of his knowledge of nuclear physics, was sent to Los Alamos.

The Riesers knew little about where

they were going or what they’d do there. For more than a year, they couldn’t disclose their whereabouts to family and friends or reveal their activities. While Rieser’s mother ran the Los Alamos nursery school, his father worked alongside such scientists as Niels Bohr, Enrico Fermi and Hans Bethe.

The Trinity test, the first-ever detonation of an atomic bomb, occurred on July 16, 1945, which was also the Riesers’ first wedding anniversary. Leonard witnessed the blast from less than 20 miles away, face down in the sand.

After the war, Leonard took a teaching job at Dartmouth College, where he later became chair of the physics department, then dean of faculty and provost. When president Lyndon Johnson gave Oppenheimer the prestigious Enrico Fermi Award in 1963, Leonard invited the physicist to speak at Dartmouth and even hosted him at their home.

Tim Rieser, who was only 5 at the time, doesn’t remember meeting Oppenheimer, but he grew up hearing stories about the Manhattan Project and still has his father’s correspondence with the physicist.

He cannot recall his parents discussing Oppenheimer’s blacklisting. “I can only assume ... that they must have been appalled,” he said.

So were others in the scientific community. Shortly after the 1954 ruling, 500 scientists signed a letter urging the Atomic Energy Commission to reverse its decision. But it would fall to the next generation to take up that cause.

Bird related in his July 7 New Yorker article “Oppenheimer, Nullified and Vindicated” how Sherwin spent 25 years researching the Oppenheimer case before Bird joined him on the project in 2000. In 2010, with the Pulitzer under their belt, the two authors tried unsuccessfully to convince president Barack Obama’s administration to reinstate Oppenheimer’s security clearance.

Others made similar attempts. In 2011, senator Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) sent a 20-page memo urging Oppenheimer’s vindication to secretary of energy Steven Chu, who was a scientist and cowinner of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1997. Chu never acted on that memo, and Bingaman retired from the Senate in 2013.

Next, Sherwin and Bird approached Rieser, whom Bird had known for years. Their interest in the Vermont aide had

RIESER HAD TO SHOW THE GOVERNMENT WHY THE OPPENHEIMER DECISION STILL MATTERS.

nothing to do with his personal connection to Oppenheimer, of which neither was aware. (Coincidentally, Leonard Rieser had once hired Sherwin to teach at Dartmouth.)

The biographers’ interest in Rieser was a political strategy: A seasoned Capitol Hill sta er, he worked for one of the most powerful Democrats in the Senate and had access to high-ranking o cials in the Obama administration.

Rieser said it wasn’t until he read American Prometheus that he grasped the scope of the miscarriage of justice done in 1954.

“Until then, I didn’t know what had happened to Oppenheimer,” he said. “I don’t think many people did.”

UNIQUELY QUALIFIED

It’s hard to imagine anyone else on Capitol Hill who could have brought to the task of clearing Oppenheimer the combination of political clout, governmental savvy, personal motivation and professional autonomy that Rieser did. Because Rieser had worked for Leahy since 1985, the senator knew his parents. After Leonard Rieser died and the Montshire Museum of Science in Norwich renamed part of the museum in his honor, Leahy attended the dedication ceremony. And because the senator shared Rieser’s view that Oppenheimer had been railroaded, he gave Rieser broad discretion on the project.

Rieser had earned a reputation as someone who knew how to get things done in Washington. He helped draft Leahy’s 1992 signature legislation banning the sale of land mines. He was also an architect of the so-called Leahy Law, which outlawed the export of U.S. arms to countries that violate human rights with impunity — an e ort that made Rieser the target of a character assassination campaign by Guatemala’s then-president, Otto Pérez

Molina. In her book Sweet Relief: The Marla Ruzicka Story , author Jennifer Abrahamson described Rieser as “the conscience of the Senate.”

Rieser was known for his dogged persistence. In the New Yorker piece, Bird described him as “relentless.”

After Alan Gross, a U.S. government contractor, was jailed in Cuba in 2009 and accused of spying, Rieser spent years using back-channel diplomacy to secure his release, making multiple trips to Havana and enlisting the help of Pope Francis. The e ort succeeded in 2014. According to the New York Times, once the deal was finalized and Obama called Leahy to thank him, the Vermont senator told the president, “I could not have done it without Tim Rieser.”

Rieser brought that same determination to the Oppenheimer cause. In the summer of 2016, he penned a letter from Leahy, cosigned by Sens. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and Je Merkley (D-Ore.), asking Obama to reinstate Oppenheimer’s security clearance. That letter landed on the desk of secretary of energy Ernest Moniz.

“He’s a nuclear physicist,” Rieser said, “so we thought, If there’s anyone who would want to clear Oppenheimer’s name, you would think it would be him.”

But reversing a 1954 decision on the security clearance of a scientist who died in 1967 was more nettlesome than it looked at first. However corrupt and flawed that process had been, Rieser said, Oppenheimer had lied to a federal investigator.

At issue, he explained, was the so-called “Chevalier incident.” Haakon Chevalier was a professor of French literature at the University Of California, Berkeley who met Oppenheimer in 1937. The two became friends, and, in

1943, Chevalier and his wife dined at the Oppenheimers’ home.

That evening, Chevalier mentioned to Oppenheimer that the U.S. government wasn’t sharing its nuclear secrets with the Soviets, who were U.S. allies at the time. When Chevalier told Oppenheimer that he knew of someone who could get that information to the Russians through back channels, Oppenheimer called the idea treasonous and ended the discussion.

Oppenheimer later disclosed that conversation to general Leslie Groves, the U.S. Army officer who oversaw the Manhattan Project, but he didn’t reveal Chevalier’s identity. When a federal investigator interrogated him about it, Oppenheimer concocted a fake story to protect his friend.

Why would such historical details matter decades after the fact?

“Moniz was afraid of creating a standard for Oppenheimer that was different from those seeking a security clearance today,” explained Rieser, who has a security clearance himself. Though he vehemently disagreed with the Department of Energy’s legal argument, Rieser understood why Moniz wouldn’t want to set a precedent of giving preferential treatment to someone based merely on their public stature.

As a concession, Moniz renamed a DOE fellowship in honor of Oppenheimer, which wasn’t at all what Bird, Sherwin and Rieser had sought. In the meantime, Donald Trump was elected president, at which point Bird and Sherwin essentially gave up the fight.

But not Rieser. He made little progress during the Trump years, which often had a skeptical, if not antagonistic, relationship with science and scientists.

“Generally, when I try to solve a problem, I do everything I can until I finally feel like I’ve exhausted everything I can possibly do,” he said. “I also felt it was so outrageous what had been done to Oppenheimer. It was pure vindictiveness and politics.”

CARRYING THE DAY

To make his case, Rieser had to show the government why the Oppenheimer decision still matters — a quest with personal resonance. After the war, Rieser’s father, like Oppenheimer, was conflicted about the way the atomic bomb had been used. Having visited Hiroshima, he devoted much of the rest of his life to advocating for strict controls on nuclear energy and nuclear weapons. Also like Oppenheimer, he once chaired the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, a nonprofit organization devoted to

controlling nuclear weapons and other new technologies that can negatively affect humanity. Rieser was incensed that the government could exact retribution against scientists merely for expressing controversial or unpopular views.

“So when [Joe] Biden got elected,” Rieser said, “I decided we should try again.”

In June 2021, Rieser wrote a second letter to the DOE, signed by Leahy and the same three Democratic senators. When two months passed with no reply, he called “this guy I knew” at the department.

Ali Nouri had worked in the Senate for about a decade and had once sold Rieser a Ping-Pong table through Craigslist. After leaving the Hill, Nouri went to work for the Federation of American Scientists before Biden tapped him to be assistant secretary of congressional relations at the DOE.

Nouri replied to Rieser a few days later.

“‘I think you’re going to get the same answer,’” Rieser recalled Nouri telling him. “So I said, ‘Then don’t answer it. I’m going to write a different letter.’”

The underlying problem, Rieser explained, lay in the nature of the request. He couldn’t ask the DOE simply to reinstate Oppenheimer’s security clearance, because that would require a new hearing, one that was fair, impartial and, obviously, impossible, given that Oppenheimer is dead. Instead, Rieser decided to ask the department to “nullify” the 1954 decision.

Beginning in August 2021, Rieser drafted a third letter to Biden’s secretary of energy, Jennifer Granholm. This one not only detailed the injustices and illegalities of the 1954 proceedings but also highlighted why the decision should be nullified. It read, in part:

Government scientists, whether renowned like Oppenheimer or a technician laboring in obscurity, including those who risk their careers to warn of safety concerns or to express unpopular opinions on matters of national security, need to know that they can do so freely and that their cases will be fairly reviewed based on facts, not personal animus or politics.

After more than a year of working on the letter, Rieser and Leahy got 42 other senators to sign it, including four Republicans: Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), James Inhofe (R-Okla.) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Ala).

Even with such bipartisan backing, Rieser said, he feared that the endorsement of 43 senators might not be enough to “carry the day.” So he asked Thomas Mason, director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, to pen a letter in support. Mason did so and got all seven surviving former directors of the Los Alamos lab to sign it, too.

Next, Rieser contacted the heads of the Idaho National Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, American Physical Society and Federation of American Scientists. Though Sherwin had died of lung cancer in 2021, Rieser asked Bird and Richard Rhodes, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book The Making of the Atomic Bomb, to pen similar letters to the energy secretary. It didn’t hurt that Nolan’s Oppenheimer was scheduled for release the following year.

“What I’ve learned over the years in

Congress,” Rieser explained, “is, if you’re going to take on a difficult problem, you have to use every ounce of energy you can muster and stick with it no matter how long it takes.”

In late August 2022, Rieser compiled all the supporting materials into a binder, then bicycled down to the DOE headquarters and hand-delivered it to Nouri to present to Granholm.

“And then I waited,” he said.

On December 16, 2022, Granholm issued a five-page order vacating the Atomic Energy Commission’s 1954 decision against Oppenheimer. She wrote:

When Dr. Oppenheimer died in 1967, Senator J. William Fulbright took to the Senate floor and said “Let us remember not only what his special genius did for us; let us also remember what we did to him.” Today we remember how the United States government treated a man who served it with the highest distinction. We remember that political motives have no proper place in matters of personnel security. And we remember that living up to our ideals requires unerring attention to the fair and consistent application of our laws.

“It had everything that I could have hoped for,” Rieser said. “Granholm felt, as senator Leahy and I did, that this is as relevant today as it was 70 years ago.”

Even after Oppenheimer’s vindication, Rieser felt that his work wasn’t done. Knowing that millions of people would see Oppenheimer, he suggested to Nolan, whom he knew through Bird and Leahy’s Batman cameos, that he include an epilogue to that effect; he even suggested the wording.

Ultimately, Nolan didn’t include it. While Rieser has no hard feelings about not getting thanked in the movie himself — Senate staffers are accustomed to letting their bosses take credit for their work — he wishes that viewers of the film knew the final outcome. As he put it, “It’s important that people know there is another chapter, and an important one, albeit many, many years later.”

Rieser, who now works as a senior adviser to Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) hasn’t remained entirely in the shadows. In addition to being featured in last month’s New Yorker piece, he will be in two forthcoming documentaries about Oppenheimer’s life.

For one, Rieser was interviewed in the late physicist’s New Mexico house. While sitting in Oppenheimer’s living room, he remembers thinking, “If only my parents could have been here! None of us could ever have imagined that I would be doing such a thing. It’s amazing how life does come full circle.”

IT WAS SO OUTRAGEOUS WHAT HAD BEEN DONE TO OPPENHEIMER. IT WAS PURE VINDICTIVENESS AND POLITICS.

TIM RIESER

ANTARCTICA

WOMEN’S

The Changing

a pe

FREE

Friday, September 29

8:00 AM - 4:00 PM

Dudley H. Davis Center (Burlington, VT) or Zoom

FREE TO ATTEND REGISTRATION REQUIRED:

Thanks to our presenting sponsor:

e Pa i O’Brien Women’s Health and Cancer Fund

1t-UVMcancerCenter1-083023 1 8/24/23 3:25 PM SEVEN DAYS AUGUST 30-SEPTEMBER 6, 2023 38

Women’s Health & Cancer Conference

INVITED GUESTS

KEYNOTE: “WIFE OR DEATH”

Kristin Flanary, MA (‘Lady Glaucom ecken’)

This keynote will deliver an immersive and moving example of the bystander, co-survivor, and caregiver experiences and explore how to make healthcare a little more human for patients and their families.

OPENING PLENARY: Eleonora Teplinsky, MD Head, Breast and Gynecologic Medical Oncology, Icahn School of Medicine, Mount Sinai

“Cancer online: The good, the bad and the ugly”

SPEAKER: Don S. Dizon, MD, FACP, FASCO

Professor of Medicine Brown University

“Sexuality is a human right, even after cancer”

CLOSING PLENARY: Suzan R. White, DO Tamarack Integrative Psychiatry

“Addressing the health impacts of social inequities and trauma in the LGBTQ+ community”

Plus sessions on nutrition, emerging therapies, genetics, and lymphedema, acupuncture, reiki, community organizations, and so much more!

www.vermontcancer.org

food+drink

Shabbat Suppers

On a Friday in April, University of Vermont senior Tucker Paron stopped by the campus Hillel at 439 College Street to pick up a free meal kit of locally grown potatoes, onions, spinach and garlic, plus canned tomatoes, spices and eggs. The bag also held a printed pamphlet illustrated with original student art. It contained a recipe for shakshouka, a Middle Eastern dish of eggs and vegetables simmered in spiced tomato sauce; Sabbath prayers in English and in Hebrew (Shabbat); and information on Passover, the Jewish holiday that had just concluded.

Paron said this was the second time he had signed up for what is called a Hillel Fresh meal kit after learning about the program through a guest speaker in one of his courses.

“I’m not Jewish, but they said anyone can participate,” the Connecticut native recalled. “I’d always walked past this building but had no idea what Hillel was.”

The imposing stone edifice houses the university’s chapter of the international nonprofi t that supports Jewish students on more than 800 campuses.

Since early 2021, about twice a month during the school year, a student-led Hillel Fresh team has assembled as many as 60 bags and boxes of meal ingredients to feed up to 200 fellow students. Not only do students plan the recipes, source the food and develop the accompanying materials, but some also grow vegetables for the program at the university-owned Catamount Educational Farm in South Burlington during paid summer internships.

As far as UVM Hillel executive director Matt Vogel knows, the school’s chapter is the only one in the world

to run its own farm. “That is the most Vermont thing possible,” Vogel said.

Hillel chapters often host Friday-night Shabbat dinners to which Jewish students and their friends can come for a free meal and a pause at the end of a busy week. During the pandemic, Vogel said, many Hillels o ered prepared meals or meal kits so that small groups could continue to celebrate Shabbat together when large gatherings were prohibited.

At UVM, Hillel started providing grocery store gift cards for at-home Shabbat meals in late 2018, after a student expressed concern that the Friday dinners for as many as 100 overwhelmed some attendees. The pandemic led Hillel to o er catered, prepackaged meals for home consumption. That evolved into the current student-directed, ingredients-plus-recipe model, which students named Hillel Fresh in a nod to HelloFresh meal kits.

Hillel has resumed on-site Friday dinners, but the meal kits proved so popular that they remain an option. Although most of those who sign up have a connection to Judaism, the program is open to all students, as Paron learned.

Before he headed out the door of Hillel, bag

in hand, Paron pulled out his phone and proudly showed o a photo of the roasted vegetable galette he had made with his first meal kit a couple of weeks earlier.

“My brother and sister are both in town, too, so this is a fun family thing for us to do together,” he said. “I won’t lie: It’s free food,” Paron added. “And the fact that it’s local and fresh — I’ve been reading about how that’s important.”

Hillel Fresh contributes to the nonprofit’s mission by providing opportunities for Jewish students to establish their own version of traditions such as Shabbat dinner when far from home. But the free meals do more than that, Vogel said: They create positive relationships with the broader university community and address campus food insecurity by delivering ingredients and simple recipes that help students build cooking skills. Hillel Fresh even stocks some pots and pans to loan out for the year.

The program has become a signature e ort of the organization, Vogel said. Its annual budget of $40,000 accounts for just over a third of Hillel’s total programming costs, which are all raised through donations. That sum covers everything from seeds and plant starts to printing to ingredients, many sourced from local farms. It also includes stipends for student leaders and the team of seven or eight who work part time in the June-to-October Seeds to Students farming Vogel believes Hillel Fresh is worth every penny. Food has a way of bringing people together, he said. A Jewish student might sign up for a meal kit and cook with nonJewish roommates.

“This is one of the ways we fight antisemitism — by fostering personal connections to the Jewish experience,”

The first of this year’s meal kits won’t go out until late September, after the Jewish High Holy Days end. Last year, the inaugural recipes were cheesy kale baked potatoes and honey apple salad with lemonbalsamic dressing. The

bags contained potatoes and salad greens from Shelburne Farms, apples from Shelburne Orchards and honey from Brooks Bees in Essex Junction, plus studentgrown kale and carrots.

“The kale in your bag is extra special because it was planted, grown, harvested, and processed by student interns at the Hillel Fresh farm,” read the accompanying materials.

On a drizzly early August morning, three Seeds to Students team members harvested some of this season’s crop of kale. While it had also been a bumper year for cucumbers, the carrots had fallen victim to the constant rain. “The seeds

Hillel Fresh since her first year at UVM, said students have learned the benefits of planning ahead. She worked closely with Breimann in the spring to develop a crop plan that better matched the needs of the meal kit recipes.

Walking through the rows of vegetables, Warth pointed out the cipollini onions, mini butternut and acorn squashes, and hilled potato plants with pride.

Warth and Breimann decided to grow the mini butternuts based on reactions to the standard size they grew last year. They learned that many student kitchens lack the large, sharp knives required to tackle the big squash. Plus, when cooking

washed away,” lamented Hillel Fresh student director Sophie Warth, a senior from Orange County, Calif.

The trio was working with Kate Breimann, a UVM graduate student who has served as Hillel Fresh farm manager for all of its three seasons. The size of the plots has tripled since the first year to 300 feet of crop beds. Breimann guides the students with hands-on learning and teaches weekly sessions on di erent aspects of farming. For example, students learn how to store produce, since the growing season overlaps only briefly with the meal kit schedule.

During those sessions, Warth leads discussions of how Judaism approaches agriculture, food and sustainability. She looks to the Torah (the Hebrew bible), along with Indigenous practices and books such as Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farm’s Practical Guide to Liberation on the Land by Leah Penniman, to explore topics such as how “stewardship and ownership are connected to responsibility and care,” Warth said.

Warth, who has been involved with

for one or two, Warth said, “You’re eating it forever.”

Indira Fleet, a junior from the Washington, D.C., area, was busy weeding. The outdoor education major spends a lot of time at Hillel and said the Seeds to Students internship was a good fit for her academic and personal interests. “I wanted to learn how to grow food,” she said.

Fleet said she has appreciated learning about different farming methods, including companion planting strategies that create natural pest deterrents. “It’s a lot more than just planting a seed and watering it,” Fleet said.

Robert Ness carefully plucked chamomile buds that would be dried for stress-reducing tea to be distributed during exams. He found community at Hillel after transferring to UVM for the spring semester of his junior year, he said. (He has since left the university for financial reasons and returned home to the Philadelphia area.) Ness said he

SMALL PLEASURES

Maple Meets the Middle East

Lincoln entrepreneur develops Vermont-sweetened Holy Halvah

Rebecca Freedner grew up in the Poughkeepsie, N.Y., area eating bulk halvah from a health-food store her family frequented. “I loved it,” she said of the rich, crumbly-textured, sesame-based sweet. Now 47 and living in Lincoln, Freedner has retained her love for halvah and appreciates that “it’s super-high in protein and good fats.”

But the most widely available U.S. brand of halvah contains ingredients that Freedner avoids, such as glucose syrup and palm oil. About four years ago, she was inspired to try making her own halvah with honey, a traditional sweetener. She didn’t love the results, so the 25-year Vermont resident turned to her “go-to sugar replacement” — maple syrup.

After much trial and error, Freedner’s efforts resulted in the summer launch of Holy Halvah, made simply with organic sesame tahini, certified organic syrup from Twin Maple SugarWorks in Lincoln, vanilla extract and salt. The extra-sweet twist? The brand was named by her chief tester and now partner.

Achieving the unique texture of halvah with a nontraditional sweetener was an exercise in alchemy. The confection is as much about mouthfeel as it is about flavor: It should break off in shards and start

crumbly on the tongue before melting into nutty, crystalline morsels of slightly sticky sweetness. Holy Halvah nails it, delivering an unctuous richness that is not too sweet, with a perfect salt balance.

Freedner started building the business as a regular vendor at the Bristol Farmers Market and alternate at the Shelburne Farmers Market, offering 3.25-ounce bars for $6. As of October 1, she will move the operation into a commercial kitchen in Bristol, which will enable her to expand distribution to local stores.

According to the Oxford Companion to Food by Alan Davidson, halvah (also halva and halwa) derives from the Arabic word for sweet, hulw, and goes back to seventhcentury Arabia. It can refer to a wide range of sweets from the Middle East, Central Asia and India made from various ingredients. Many have a dense, paste-like consistency.

Davidson notes that Europeans and North Americans are most familiar with sesame halvah, made with the finely ground sesame seed butter or paste known as tahini combined with a sweetener. Over centuries and continents, halvah has been sweetened with sugar, date syrup, grape syrup and honey. Maple syrup — not so much.

Freedner had never cooked professionally. She makes her living as a psychic medium and has run a variety of businesses. “I’ve always been a side hustle/ main hustle job lady,” she said.

The recipe development process was long and, occasionally, risky. Some versions, “You’d have to stab at it with a knife and chip bits off,” Freedner said. “My friends have almost broken their teeth.” She acknowledged that she could have taken better notes. “I’m not a scientist. It bores me,” she said.

Last September, Freedner moved to a new home in Lincoln and become friendly with her neighbor, Shaun Dedrickson, who had a lot of dietary restrictions. The ingredients of her halvah were among those he could eat. “I was bringing him all these samples,” Freedner said. “And I finally got this text that said, ‘Holy halvah, you’re amazing!’”

In the course of perfecting her product, “My relationship with my neighbor blossomed,” she said. The two are now a couple, and Dedrickson is her “main support” in the business, Freedner said.

“It was kind of inexplicable why I kept working on this,” she reflected. Perhaps it was a psychic’s instinct. In retrospect, her culinary endeavor has yielded a doubly sweet reward. ➆

INFO

Learn more at holyhalvahvermont.com.

appreciated the Hillel Fresh meal kits as a recipient and wanted to help grow some of the ingredients: “It’s a great way to provide food to those in need.”

Around 11 a.m., the group loaded the day’s harvest into cars and headed to Hillel to work in the kitchen. One of its challenges is preserving the produce for use during the school year. The team made sauerkraut last year, but it developed mold. “It goes really bad really fast,” Warth said.

This summer, the students tried to blanch and freeze cabbage leaves for stuffed cabbage rolls, but “they fell apart and were disgustingly wet and soggy,” Warth said.

The latest cabbage preservation test involved shredding and then dehydrating, which seems promising for later use in soups or stews.

That day’s kitchen task required turning a 17-pound cucumber harvest into pickles. The finished jars would join an impressive stock of pickled goods, including beets, in a Hillel kitchen cupboard.

Warth, Fleet and Ness worked together to wash and cut cucumbers, sanitize jars and lids, and fill them with spices and herbs before adding the cucumbers and pouring in brine. They carefully wiped the jar lips and sealed them.

As Warth processed the jars in a hot water bath, her colleagues moved on to strip kale leaves from their stems to be blanched and frozen.

“It feels good to know I just cut this out of the ground,” Ness said. “We know what we’re eating from start to finish.”

Later, in mid-August, Warth would report that the Seeds to Students team had processed or stored almost 95 pounds of cucumbers, close to 19 pounds of kale and about 60 pounds of onions, along with some beets, cabbage and peppers. She and the team had been brainstorming recipes to which those ingredients might contribute: stuffed peppers and squash, tofu-and-pickle sandwich wraps, a Japanese-style cabbage pancake.

The options were many — and Hillel Fresh recipients would appreciate them all. ➆

Learn more at uvmhillel.org/hillelfresh.

THIS IS ONE OF THE WAYS WE FIGHT ANTISEMITISM.

MATT VOGEL

Peak Sandwich

Phnom Penh Sandwich Station offers a taste of Southeast Asia in White River Junction

I first tried the Phnom Penh Sandwich Station’s eponymous sandwich during a sunset hike up Mount Cardigan for a friend’s wedding celebration. Love was in the air as we ate under a starry night sky. For me and that colorful, crunchy sandwich bursting with flavor, it was love at first bite.

Ever since, I’ve made a point to pick one up every time I’m near White River Junction. I eat mostly vegan, so my Phnom Penh filling choice is always the fried tofu with spicy soy sauce ($12.95), which I order extra spicy. Other choices include ginger-garlic pork, curry or teriyaki chicken, lemongrass beef, and coconut shrimp.

Sandwiched in a crusty roll, each bite is a chorus of bright, complementary flavors, from the vinegary vegetables to the mild, airy tofu and fresh jalapeños. inly sliced cucumbers, spicy daikon radish and pickled carrots make a vibrant visual and textural contrast to the tofu, which is pillowy beneath a crisp exterior. ick swirls of creamy, mild chile mayo mellow the heat. Cilantro and scallion add refreshing, aromatic flavors.

Deliciously satiating, it makes a perfect candidate for Seven Days summer series on great sandwiches to power outdoor adventures in Vermont (or New Hampshire!).

e sandwich and restaurant name pay homage to Phnom Penh, the Cambodian capital where co-owner Sarin Tin grew up. He moved to the Upper Valley in 2006 and wanted to share Southeast Asian cuisine with the community.

My favorite Phnom Penh sandwich shares some vegetable ingredients with a classic Vietnamese bánh mì but is truly a Cambodian-style sandwich with a twist, according to Tin. He and his wife, Lay Yi, also offer bánh mì made with head cheese, pâté, ham and an egg-based spread called “butter.”

“People know about a bánh mì, but it’s hard to find up here. You usually have to drive to Boston,” Tin explained. “So we drive to Boston to get the best bread and source the best ingredients, and we bring the bánh mì to people here.”

e couple started Phnom Penh Sandwich Station in 2015 at the Hanover Farmers Market in New Hampshire with — as the name implies — just sandwiches. ey expanded to a food truck and then to their original Lebanon, N.H., location, which offers only takeout. eir full-service White River Junction restaurant opened in 2018.

e menu at both spots has grown to include curry, noodle and rice dishes, but it’s the sandwiches that repeatedly pull me back.

All fillings, including condiments and pickled vegetables, are made in-house. Yi drives to Boston twice a week to pick up bread from Vina Bakery.

“We started small and learned as we went,” Tin said. “For years, we sliced the meat by hand every day. Finally, someone recommended that I get a meat slicer.” Fiftyto 100-pound daily batches of pickled carrots were shredded by hand until the couple bought a food processor.

On a recent visit, a

meat-eating friend ordered the bánh mì ($10.95) with a side of housemade chile oil, as well as a Phnom Penh sandwich with lemongrass beef ($13.95). Slices of meat threatened to spill out of the fragrant bánh mì roll, which was slathered with the creamy, golden housemade “butter.” My friend reported that the crunchy, vinegary vegetables and punch of welcome heat from the chile oil balanced the rich meats. With the Phnom Penh, she said the tender beef was redolent of lemongrass, garlic and chile.

We crunched partway through our generously sized sandwiches, packed the leftovers in a cooler and hit a nearby portion of the Appalachian trail. ere were no weddings to attend that day, but whenever I visit Phnom Penh Sandwich Station, I feel the love. ➆

INFO

Phnom Penh Sandwich Station, 7 N. Main St., White River Junction, 281-6617, phnompenhsandwiches.com

EACH BITE IS A CHORUS OF BRIGHT, COMPLEMENTARY FLAVORS.

SIDEdishes

SERVING UP FOOD NEWS

Winooski’s Morning Light Bakery Adds Noodle Bowls and Fei’s Street Bites Food Truck

MORNING LIGHT BAKERY, which has o ered freshly made Hong Kong-style sweet and savory baked goods at 106 East Allen Street in Winooski since spring 2019, expanded its menu in mid-June to include noodle bowls. The stir-fried noodles topped with chicken, beef or pork belly are also on the menu of the business’ newly launched FEI’S STREET BITES food truck, which made its first outing at the SOUTH END GET DOWN on August 18.

KEN LIU — who helps his parents, ANN WONG and KING CHIU LIU, with the business — said the family is working on nailing down a regular location for the food truck by mid-September.

Crumbs: Pingala Café Temporarily Shutters North Avenue Location; Nourish Closes Deli to Focus on Vegan Cheese Biz; Changes at Misery Loves Co.

Newly involved in the business is Liu’s wife, FEI CHENG, for whom the food truck is named. Liu said his wife and mother are working together to create menu items such as savory jian bingstyle Chinese crêpes and chopsticks spring rolls, a slender version of fried spring rolls filled with cabbage, taro and pork.

The goal of the truck is to o er streetstyle foods that can be grabbed and eaten on the way to work or school, “kind of like grabbing a bagel,” Liu said.

The noodle bowls are served at Fei’s Street Bites and at the bakery in limited quantities for about $13 to $15. Featuring vegetables, meats and a slightly sweet, soy-based sauce, they can also be ordered spicy with homemade chile oil. Liu said his mother enjoys interacting with customers at the food truck: “Life would be boring if we always just stayed in one place.”

PINGALA CAFÉ co-owner TREVOR SULLIVAN

confirmed that the vegan café’s second Burlington location, which opened in July 2022 at 1353 North Avenue, has closed temporarily due to sta ng constraints.

The original Chace Mill restaurant remains open, and Sullivan said he and co-owner LISA BERGSTRÖM hope to reopen the North Avenue location by the end of September. The couple are planning a pop-up pizza event there with a guest chef on September 15 and 16.

Sullivan also confirmed that a brickand-mortar version of the company’s BROCCOLI BAR will open shortly after Labor Day in the University of Vermont’s Dudley H. Davis Center Marketplace in partnership with UVM dining services.

NOURISH DELI & BAKERY has permanently closed its St. Albans retail location to focus on its wholesale plant-based cheese business. Co-owner RIC LAVALLEE said he and his wife, DARA, made the decision due to sta ng shortages, the increased costs of everything from ingredients to electricity, and slower customer tra c, which he attributed to higher prices.

Nourish’s line of vegan cheeses mimics styles such as Brie; feta and blue crumbles; and shredded mozzarella, cheddar and Parmesan. Lavallee said the team of four is busy meeting strong demand from stores and restaurants throughout Vermont and expanding its regional distribution to Rhode Island and Massachusetts.

Winooski’s MISERY LOVES CO. has stopped serving food cooked to order and returned to its pandemic incarnation as a specialty grocery store and market stocked with ingredients, take-home meals, pastries and beverages. ONION CITY CHICKEN & OYSTER , its sister restaurant on the Winooski traffic circle, is now open for lunch and has added to its menu the favorite Rough Francis fried chicken sandwich, which dates back to Misery’s original food truck menu.

Welcomes Dr. Jessica Guter, DMD!

Dr. Guter was raised in Colchester. She graduated from Colchester High School and completed her undergraduate education at Middlebury College. Dr. Guter received her Doctor of Dental Medicine degree from the University of New England College of Dental Medicine followed by one year in Boulder, CO, completing an Advanced Education in General Dentistry residency program. Dr. Guter loves hiking, camping, and walking in the woods with her two dogs. She also enjoys boating on Mallets Bay in summer. She is excited to be returning to Vermont to practice dentistry and to serve the community she grew up in!

The irony of the title of Robert D. Putnam’s 2000 book Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community is that it describes something absurd: Isn’t bowling an intrinsically social activity, best enjoyed with friends and surrounded by an upbeat crowd?

Rick Winston would surely say the same of moviegoing. In his new book, Save Me a Seat! A Life With Movies, he describes his passionate, lifelong devotion to the art of film. Yet this is more than one person’s autobiography. Having discovered cinema as a youth, Winston has spent the past six decades finding ways — as an organizer, entrepreneur and educator — to bring people together to watch movies. His book reads like a communal memoir, celebrating the roles that many people played in the cultural revitalization of north-central Vermont during an era of tremendous political, economic and demographic change.

Winston has lived in Calais since 1970 and served as founder, curator and programming director of Montpelier’s Lightning Ridge Film Society (1974 to 1980), Savoy Theater (1981 to 2009), Downstairs Video (1989 to 2009) and cofounded the Green Mountain Film Festival (1999 to 2012). He has taught fi lm appreciation at Goddard College, the Montpelier Senior Activity Center (50 eight-week series so far), the KelloggHubbard Library and Community College of Vermont. And he has visited more than 50 libraries through Vermont Humanities’ Speakers Bureau, facilitated 28 film series for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the University of Vermont and a long-running series at the Chandler Center for the Arts in Randolph,

BOOKS

Roll Credits

Book review: Save Me a Seat! A Life With Movies, Rick Winston

and cohosted more than 200 episodes of the public-access TV program “Talking About Movies,” which are archived for view on the ORCA Media website.

Born in 1947, Winston grew up in Yonkers, N.Y., which gave him easy access by bus and train to the art houses of Manhattan. Since his parents, both high school art teachers, cheered on his early

which showed the same film every day for a week, so cinephiles such as young Winston could watch them over and over, studying their techniques and structures.

From 1950 to 1963, Winston attended Buck’s Rock, a radical art colony summer camp in Connecticut, and from 1965 to 1968, he studied film at Columbia College (now Columbia University) in New York City. He transferred to the University of California, Berkeley for one tumultuous school year, 1968-69, participating in many of the anti-war protests and strikes that disrupted his classes.

While waiting for his draft notice, Winston returned east and visited Vermont, where he found a beautiful place in a whirl of creative ferment. In 1970, his parents purchased land in Calais, and Winston and his brother Jon moved there to homestead.

Winston soon met Walter Ungerer, the one-person film department at nearby Goddard College. Though Winston had no degree, Ungerer o ered him the chance to join a boldly innovative group of instructors there, including playwright David Mamet, musician and writer Marc Estrin, and gamelan leader Dennis Murphy.

In 1974, Winston launched his first venture as a cinematic activist, hosting showings of historically and aesthetically important movies in Montpelier’s Pavilion Auditorium under the aegis of

FROM SAVE ME A SEAT! A LIFE WITH MOVIES

It would take a lot of hours to figure out exactly how many films were shown at the Savoy during the twenty-nine years I was there. I can only estimate roughly that there were upward of two thousand. For many of these titles, there are memories and associations that have remained with me: I can’t hear any mention of Akira Kurosawa’s Dersu Uzala without recalling that it was the first time we received a print in such rough shape that we had to demand a new one. When I see a reference to Andrzej Wajda’s Man of Marble or Tony Richardson’s Tom Jones, I remember the only two instances when an electrical storm knocked out all of downtown Montpelier’s power, canceling our shows. Whose Life Is It Anyway?, with

enthusiasm, he often made his way into the city to watch classic and new films. In Save Me a Seat! , he cites some that serve him as personal and pedagogical milestones: Marcel Carné’s Les Enfants du Paradis, Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal Another major influence was the TV series “Million Dollar Movie” (1955 to 1966),

Enfants

Richard Dreyfuss, marked the first (but not the only) time, shortly after our 1981 opening, that only one person showed up for a show. I asked our lone customer, Mary Messier, if there was another time she might come, but her nursing schedule meant this Sunday late show was her only chance. e show must go on! And it did. When I think of that heartwarming (and sometimes scary) 1943 classic Lassie Come Home, I remember fiveyear-old Zephyr Billingsley in her mother’s arms, carried wailing from the theater. About ten years later, Zephyr became one of our teenage popcorn scoopers, and about fifteen years after that she was bringing her own son to the Savoy matinees.

the Lightning Ridge Film Society, which was named for the road Winston lives on to this day.

After seven years, the movie appetites of Winston’s audience outgrew a periodic festival, and he decided to start a fulltime business. In 1981, he began offering nightly screenings at the Savoy Theater, named in honor of then-landlord Ernest Massucco’s family origins in Italy’s Savoia region. He later discovered that a “Savoy Theatre” moving-picture venue had occupied the same location in 1910.

Although Montpelier was (and is) tiny compared with Burlington, the smaller town became and has remained a busy locus of film culture in Vermont. For the whole region, the 1970s and early ’80s were a time of cultural efflorescence. Winston and his counterparts at Bread and Puppet Theater, Word of Mouth Chorus (which became Village Harmony), Fyre and Lightning Consort, Circus Smirkus, and Lost Nation Theater were discovering new ways of sustaining arts ventures. Meanwhile, “alternative” enterprises such as Hunger Mountain Co-op, Horn of the Moon Café, Bear Pond Books and Buch Spieler Records were reinventing local business with a Vermont flavor.

Winston carries a reader at a sprightly pace through a bumpy-road chronicle of necessarily endless experimentation and adaptation. He and his Savoy partners, who included Gary Ireland and Andrea Serota, had to contend with evolving technologies and ever-changing financial dynamics; the shifts from theatrical viewing to home video to DVDs to streaming; and the transformation of U.S. film distribution, as corporations devoured independent networks. Add to those systemic upheavals the episodes of citywide flooding, equipment mishaps and costly miscalculations of audience interest, and you have a wild tale of smalltown entrepreneurship.

The business lessons that Winston offers will be fascinating for anyone who has struggled to keep an arts organization going day in, day out. But what most distinguishes this book from other memoirs is the verve that he conveys for sharing with

G. Richard Ames in Beast Friends: A Talk in the Woods

Sept

audiences works that are “a universe apart from films [they] had seen before,” films that can open their eyes “to the potential of film to do more than entertain.”

As a teenager, Winston loved reading the essays and reviews of critics such as Parker Tyler, Arthur Knight, Pauline Kael and Andrew Sarris, who wrote about movies with the conviction that this rela tively new medium could be as beautiful and powerful as literature or any other art. Winston’s own continuing educa tion as a film lover has never narrowed or become staid. His book incorporates “trailers,” or lively, illuminating tributes to movies he wants readers to know about — and see. And Save Me a Seat! is full of intrigu ing still images from films he cites, along with wonderful graph ics from his own proj ects’ publicity materials. Winston’s excitement about movies and the conversations they generate is inspiring and catching.

The years have brought more indie film venues to Vermont, but the Savoy remains. In 2009, Winston sold the theater to Terry Youk, who closed the video store and opened a second, smaller viewing room; in 2016, James O’Hanlon bought the business. Deluged by the July 2023 flooding in downtown Montpelier, the theater has raised more than $45,000 in community donations and will reopen this Friday, September 1.

For his part, Winston has immersed himself in the role of educator, which requires and allows for his own ongoing learning. The book demonstrates that he has never stopped asking a key question: What has been done with cinema, what is happening now, and what is possible?

Save Me a Seat! A Life With Movies by Rick Winston, Rootstock Publishing, 262 pages. $18.99. Winston will discuss the book on Tuesday, September 12, 5 p.m., at Bear Pond Books in Montpelier; Wednesday, September 20, 6 p.m., at the Aldrich Public Library in Barre; and Saturday, September 30, 11 a.m., at Bridgeside Books in Waterbury, and 2 p.m. at the Fletcher Free Library in Burlington. Find more dates at rickwinston.org.

WINSTON HAS SPENT THE PAST SIX DECADES FINDING WAYS TO BRING PEOPLE TOGETHER TO WATCH MOVIES.

Frost in Thought

One-man show brings Vermont’s first poet laureate to life in Middlebury

wittier than he is, but I think he would have approved of some of the things that we just stuck in there.”

Along with accurately representing his character, Clapp said it was important to reproduce Frost’s distinctive rough voice, which he compared to “gravel running down cellar steps.”

The play shifts in tone when the setting moves to Frost’s cabin in Ripton, an environment that Clapp said allows Frost to “take the audience home with him” and get personal. Frost’s private life was filled with struggle; he suffered from depression, lost both of his parents at a young age and outlived four of his six children.

Known to lash out, Frost once set a small fire to some papers after heckling a poet at the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference in 1938. The incident — which some believe may have been an accident — led a friend of his to remark that Frost was a “good poet” but a “bad man.”

Acclaimed poet Robert Frost spent his last 24 summers living at the Homer Noble Farm in Ripton and lecturing at Middlebury College’s Bread Loaf School of English before his death in 1963.

But the former poet laureate of Vermont will come alive again in Robert Frost: This Verse Business, a Middlebury Acting Company production playing Friday, September 8, to Sunday, September 10, at Town Hall Theater in Middlebury. Emmy Award-winning actor and Norwich resident Gordon Clapp embodies an 88-year-old Frost in the one-man show, a biographical monologue interspersing Frost’s poetry with his musings on politics, religion, science and the arts. Middlebury professor Jay Parini, author of Robert Frost: A Life , will participate in a Q&A following the Saturday performance.

“Frost is a voice that we need in this century,” Clapp said. “I feel like I’m bringing him into this time again.”

Clapp has performed the show in about 30 towns since the play’s 2010 premiere in Peterborough, N.H. But seeing it in Middlebury will be special, playwright Andy Dolan said, since it’s where he “imagined the whole thing to take place.”

The play’s opening setting is a public hall in Middlebury — no suspension of disbelief required.

“It’s slightly daunting,” Clapp said of performing in Frost’s old stomping grounds.

About 85 percent of the play’s script is verbatim speech from recordings of Frost, Dolan said, a result of combing through library archives at Amherst, Dartmouth and Middlebury colleges.

“I discovered a huge amount of material,” Dolan said. “Once I started to transcribe what I was hearing, I could very easily imagine a play about this guy onstage by himself.”

Though known for his poetry depicting rural New England, Frost was born a flatlander in San Francisco in 1874. He moved to Lawrence, Mass., for high school after his father died of tuberculosis in 1885. From there, Frost’s New England connections grew: He briefly attended both Dartmouth College and Harvard University; his family purchased a poultry farm in Derry, N.H.;

he taught at the New Hampshire Normal School (now Plymouth State University) and Amherst College; and he owned a home in Shaftsbury (now the Robert Frost Stone House Museum) before ending up on the Homer Noble Farm.

“Either Vermont or New Hampshire, those two states together are the backdrop,” said Parini, Frost’s biographer. “It’s the kind of setting for almost all of his work.”

Frost even got the hang of Upper Valley humor. His Pulitzer Prize-winning narrative poem “New Hampshire” ends with the ironic line “At present I am living in Vermont.”

Clapp said he incorporates Frost’s dry humor throughout the play, whether taking jabs at free-verse poetry — which Frost famously compared to playing tennis without a net — or joking about people’s lack of appreciation for poetry and the arts.

“I’ve added little quips and things that I thought would work and would be in the voice of Frost,” Clapp said. “It’s hard to be

Frost’s handpicked biographer, Lawrance Thompson, portrayed Frost as a “monster of egotism” who left behind “a wake of destroyed human lives,” as critic Helen Vendler wrote in the New York Times. Parini said he sought to reframe the narrative in his biography, placing Frost’s behavior in the context of tragic life circumstances.

Clapp, who was aware of the conflicting accounts when deciding to participate in the play, said it was important to him not to vilify the poet. He first heard Frost’s voice at 12 years old, watching him recite a poem at the inauguration of John F. Kennedy in 1961. He said he’s “clung to Frost” ever since, enamored of poems such as “After Apple-Picking,” describing a New England fall, and “Out, Out—,” the haunting story of a young boy who dies after a farm accident.

Clapp said that when he performs, he can feel an aura of expectation from certain audience members, hard-core Frost fans whom he calls “Frost-aceans” (like crustaceans). But he doesn’t attribute this energy to his acting.

“They’re addicted to the poetry, and they’re so moved by it,” Clapp said. “I don’t give myself a lot of credit for that. You know, it’s Frost himself right there.”

INFO

Robert Frost: This Verse Business, Friday, September 8, 7:30 p.m.; and Saturday and Sunday, September 9 and 10, 2 p.m., at Town Hall Theater in Middlebury. $17-37. townhalltheater.org

MIDDLEBURY IS WHERE PLAYWRIGHT ANDY DOLAN “IMAGINED THE WHOLE THING TO TAKE PLACE.”

Vermont Law School Can Conceal Controversial Mural, Court Rules

Vermont Law and Graduate School is allowed to cover a controversial campus mural depicting enslaved people despite the artist’s objections, a federal appeals court ruled last week.

Artist Sam Kerson sued the school in December 2020, arguing that permanently concealing his work violates the Visual Artists Rights Act, a 1990 federal law that protects an artist’s work from “intentional distortion, mutilation, or other modification.”

The law school covered the mural with acoustic panels after previously announcing in July 2020 that it would paint over the controversial artwork. Students objected to the mural’s cartoonish portrayal of Black people and framing of white people as “saviors” in the abolition movement. Kerson had sought a preliminary injunction to prevent the school from covering the mural while the suit was decided, which a district court denied in March 2021.

The Canadian artist argued that concealing his work “destroys it for all intents and purposes” and could expose the murals to a potentially toxic environment behind the fabric-cushioned acoustic panels, according to court documents.

The three-judge panel did not agree, writing in an August 18 ruling that Kerson’s reading of the law “does not comport with any conventional understanding of the word ‘destruction,’” and “merely ensconcing a work of art

behind a barrier neither modifies nor destroys the work.”

Steven Hyman, an attorney representing Kerson, expressed concern that the opinion could limit artists’ rights to how their work is used.

“That you can take art and cover it ... is just undoing the whole purpose of VARA,” Hyman said. “This opinion can be used more broadly against artists and giving more rights to the so-called ‘property owners,’ which was not the purpose of the statute.”

The law school is “pleased with the decision,” Lisa Lance, a spokesperson for the South Royalton school, said in a statement. “We believe [it] strikes the appropriate balance between the competing interests at stake.”

Hyman said the artist is “ considering all options,” including an appeal. An appeal of the decision would bring the case to the U.S. Supreme Court, which would decide whether to hear it. ➆

Built in 1901, the East Monitor Barn in Richmond is one of the largest barns in the state. The years have not been kind to this former dairy barn, visible to many people who drive by its Route 2 location on the Vermont Youth Conservation Corps campus. Over time, the barn has been pushed forward by the adjacent hillside, putting the building at risk.

Eliot Lothrop of Huntington-based Building Heritage is passionate about saving old structures. He’s the lead restorationist of a multiyear project to rehab the barn — something he’s dreamed about for 22 years. He has a special connection to the majestic structure: From 2001 to 2003, he lived in the East Monitor Barn’s milk house, a building that was formerly attached to the barn, while helping to restore the nearby West Monitor Barn.

The current project is a major undertaking. In order to stabilize the foundation, the barn — all 500,000 pounds of it — was jacked up on cribbing towers and steel I beams. The structure is currently levitating roughly eight inches in the air.

Seven Days senior multimedia producer Eva Sollberger visited the barn on July 8 to tour the work in progress. About 10 members of the Timber Framers Guild were on-site for the week, shaping beams. Eventually the restored space will house the administrative o ces of VYCC, which will increase the housing capacity in the West Monitor Barn for young adults learning about conservation and sustainable agriculture.

There was minimal flooding at VYCC during the catastrophic rains of July 10 and 11. The barn restoration continues, and the timber framework is almost complete. In September, the structure will be lowered onto a restored foundation.

Barn Again

Sollberger spoke with Seven Days about filming the episode.

Why did you pick this story?

I met Lothrop through a mutual friend in 2019, and we made a video about two barns in Richmond, one being lovingly restored and one falling to ruin. Vermonters have a special a nity for the barns in our state, which connect us to our agricultural roots. Lothrop’s passion for restoration is inspiring, and I was excited to get a look inside the massive East Monitor Barn.

Sounds like the floods derailed this video?

We met up on July 8, a hot Saturday that was

threatening rain. I planned to air the video the following week, but the floods of July 10 and 11 changed my plans. I crowdsourced footage from around the state and made a video about the heartbreaking devastation across Vermont’s small towns that week.

The only other time I’ve bumped a story like this was after Tropical Storm Irene. It is strange to edit a video that was filmed over a month ago. But this restoration project will be ongoing for years, so it will continue to be relevant. My next video will focus on the flood recovery efforts, which have been amazing.

is barn is so striking. Many people are familiar with the East and

Need Help?

West Monitor Barns, which were built for brothers in the early 1900s and are visible from both Route 2 and Interstate 89 in Richmond. I am ashamed to admit that I never noticed the barns until I talked to Lothrop about this story. But now I always turn to see them when driving past. They really do anchor the hillside and bookend one another.

What is your connection to barns?

My family lived in an old farmhouse in rural upstate New York when I was growing up. Across the road was a barn that we renovated into a living space. I have such vivid memories of the damp smell of the hayloft, the fieldstone patio with fossils embedded in it and the rough feel of the barn board. We spent hours playing in this ancient space, and I hope it’s still standing. My current house dates back to the 1890s, and it’s true what they say: They just don’t build them like this anymore. It can be costly to restore old structures, but preserving their history is worth it.

It’s wild seeing this giant barn floating in the air.

Yes, it is truly astounding. I saw photos on Facebook before I got to see the barn in person. But the images don’t totally convey the size and mass of the structure. Even after Lothrop explained it to me about 10 times, I still don’t quite understand how they are doing it. The amount of planning and expertise that went into this project is staggering. People can follow the barn’s progress on the VYCC and Building Heritage social media pages. Lothrop does a great job of taking photos and drone footage to document the progress. I will definitely be watching over the years to see this barn come back to life. ➆

To find out how we can help you or someone you love, visit our website at shsvermont.com.

Either

art

In This Together

At Hexum Gallery, two artists convey their private lives

At Montpelier’s Hexum Gallery, a pair of solo exhibits illustrate how artists can be very di erent yet have much in common. It’s tempting to draw a timely societal lesson here, but we’ll stick to the art. Similarities: Both Erickson Díaz-Cortés and Fiona McTeigue present drawings on white paper, many of which feature scenes of daily life with their same-sex partner. Di erence, aside from gender: Díaz-Cortés works in brilliant hues, courtesy of watercolor pencil, while McTeigue uses solely graphite.

Coincidentally, the artists have made inverse progressions up or down the East Coast. Díaz-Cortés, 26, born in Puerto Rico, was educated in Florida and now lives in Providence, R.I. McTeigue, 35, is from Great Barrington, Mass., was educated in Boston and now lives in Jacksonville, Fla.

How did these artists find their way to a Vermont gallery? Hexum owner John Zaso said he discovered Díaz-Cortés because he has acquired work by the latter’s partner and fellow artist, Gabe Cortese. He came across McTeigue on Instagram. For Zaso, an avid art collector, this is a recurrent curatorial M.O.

Díaz-Cortés insisted on the brightblue frames and matting surrounding his nine diminutive works, Zaso said. Only when he saw the pieces installed did Zaso concede that the unconventional presentation works. The drawings are just 9 by 6 inches, but they pop with gusto against the gallery’s white walls.

Perhaps growing up in a sun-drenched part of the world influenced Díaz-Cortés, or perhaps he has extrasensory color perception. Either way, he is a 21st-century fauvist.

“Taking on the Light” is a tightly cropped portrait of a male — presumably the artist’s partner — seen from a slightly higher position. The man’s hair isn’t black; it’s blue and violet. The fabric of his shirt undulates in white and blue. At the bottom of the frame, we see the tip of a bright red pen. This is a drawing of a man drawing. The unusual angle and proximity to the subject lend the portrait a tender intimacy.

And speaking of hair: Díaz-Cortés nails it. With a precise symphony of lines,

he conveys impossibly lustrous curls and waves. If these images weren’t behind glass, you’d want to reach out and pat them.

The artist’s floral images are vivid and sensuous, particularly the vibratory orange blossom in “La Flor de Don Coco.” Díaz-Cortés combines botanica with his penchant for cropped imagery in “Aniversario.” The title suggests the bouquet of orange-red tulips is a gift. But it’s unclear why the seemingly nude torso edging into the frame at the left is grassgreen and lumpy, or why the hand reaching around the tulips is an alarming purple. A sunny yellow wall in the background casts a little cheer on this inscrutable narrative. While most of Díaz-Cortés’ scenes are tightly focused, he brings both perspective and a bit of surrealism to “Five Vignettes.” In the foreground, a barefoot man leans over a desk, writing, in a pale blue room. Behind him, a window opens onto a street whose tilt suggests a hill. Greenery and

sky lie beyond. Beside the window, a fulllength mirror reflects another man — the artist? — in a doorway. The jarring number of angles and portals in this scene contrasts with the calm of the writing man and the curve of his back. Díaz-Cortés rendered his shirt and long pants in diaphanous orange; his hair is green and wavy.

McTeigue’s drawings are all about narrative. Her 17-by-14-inch graphite works are so filled with content that each requires sustained observation. A viewer who takes the time for it is rewarded with relatable quotidian moments from the artist’s life — walking the dog, making dinner, lounging — featuring humor and lots of pets.

WITH A PRECISE SYMPHONY OF LINES, HE CONVEYS IMPOSSIBLY LUSTROUS CURLS AND WAVES.

Spotting animals in McTeigue’s visually chaotic scenes is something of a “Where’s Waldo?” game. In “Babyyy,” for example, a pensive woman curls up on the couch accompanied by a cat and a small dog; birds and a horse appear in artwork on the wall, and a bunny is embedded in the curtains. This drawing is also typical of McTeigue’s abundant patterning: The

NEW THIS WEEK

burlington

CAROL MACDONALD: “Emergence (Coming to Light),” new monotypes by the Vermont artist. Reception: Saturday, September 2, 4-6 p.m. September 1-28. Info, 863-6458. Frog Hollow Vermont Craft Gallery in Burlington.

chittenden county

DEBBA PEARCE: “Ethereal Landscapes,” paintings in alcohol inks. Reception: Friday, September 1, 5-8 p.m. September 1-30. Info, 660-4999. Art Works Frame Shop & Gallery in South Burlington.

barre/montpelier

‘ENOUGH SAID? COUNTING MASS SHOOTINGS’: An installation that addresses rampant gun violence in the U.S., featuring artworks by Susan Calza, Samantha M. Eckert and Felix GonzalezTorres. Reception: Friday, September 1, 4-8 p.m. September 1-November 30. Info, 224-6827. Susan Calza Gallery in Montpelier.

MARJORIE KRAMER: Portrait and landscape paintings by the gallery member. Reception: Friday, September 1, 4-7 p.m. September 1-October 1. Info, marjkramer@gmail.com. The Front in Montpelier.

TRACEY HAMBLETON: “Barre Painted Fresh,” oil paintings of the city’s landmark buildings, granite quarries and hillside houses. Reception and artist talk: Thursday, August 31, 6 p.m. August 31-October 15. Info, 249-3897. Vermont Granite Museum in Barre.

upper valley

KUMARI PATRICIA YOUNCE: Landscape paintings in a sensory relationship with place and people. Artist talk: Friday, September 29, 6 p.m. September 1-October 28. Info, 738-0166. Jai Studios Gallery and Gifts in Windsor.

‘SANCTUARY’: A group exhibition of prints that address the theme by 15 studio members and friends. Reception: Friday, September 1, 5-7 p.m. September 1-October 20. Info, 295-5901. Two Rivers Printmaking Studio in White River Junction.

couch pillows come in plaids, florals and spotted prints. Like Díaz-Cortés, this artist is adept with line and shadowing.

“You’ll Be a Butterfly One Day” is flat-out hilarious. This time, a fluffy white dog with a bow on one ear reclines on the couch, improbably holding a cigarette in one paw. The other front paw has possession of a wormlike toy. On the floor lies an eviscerated plush bear, its stuffing scattered like tiny clouds. Beside the couch, a small three-legged table holds a sketch pad, pencil, ashtray, mug, headphones and a Magic 8 Ball. A drawing on the wall depicts a very relaxed bunny on a floatie, holding a cocktail.

Both humans and animals in McTeigue’s world have an insouciant air. Despite the disarray around them, they seem to project security and comfort. How the artist achieves this with only a pencil is a marvel.

Erickson Díaz-Cortés, “By Myself With You,” and Fiona McTeigue, “Rock, Paper, Scissor,” on view through September 15 at Hexum Gallery in Montpelier. Reception Friday, September 1, 4-8 p.m. hexumgallery.com

SUSAN SMEREKA: “Family,” collaged prints by the Burlington artist. Reception: Friday, September 1, 5:30-7 p.m., including wine tasting with Artisanal Cellars. September 1-30. Info, 603-443-3017. Scavenger Gallery in White River Junction.

brattleboro/okemo valley

FRAN BULL: “The Art Life,” paintings, prints and sculpture by the Vermont artist. Reception: Friday, September 1, 5-8 p.m. September 1-October 15. Info, 251-8290. Mitchell Giddings Fine Arts in Brattleboro.

randolph/royalton

MARK ROSALBO: “The Bad Thing,” recent paintings by the local artist. Reception: Friday, September 1, 5-8 p.m. September 1-October 1. Info, markrosalbo@gmail.com. The People’s Gallery in Randolph.

ART EVENTS

25TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION: The museum honors its birthday with free cupcakes and a story kiosk at the Champlain Mill and a craft activity tent at the Winooski Farmers Market, with gifts to go. Heritage Winooski Mill Museum, Sunday, September 3, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Free. Info, 355-9937.

ARTS ON THE GREEN MARKET & FESTIVAL: The fourth annual family-friendly event, hosted by the Chelsea Arts Collective, features works by 40 artists and artisans, music, food and live auction. The Art Bus and Family Art Tent offer opportunities for individual and family art-making. North Common, Chelsea, Saturday, September 2, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Free. Info, 685-4866.

BTV MARKET: An outdoor market featuring wares by local artists, makers, bakers and more, accompanied by live music and lawn games. Burlington City Hall Park, Saturday, September 2, 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Info, 865-7166.

CURRENTLY SPEAKING: GRACE DEGENNARO: The artist’s paintings and watercolor drawings evoke feelings of stillness, balance and harmony. In a talk titled “Radiant Geometry,” she explores the sources of her inspiration: sacred geometry, traditional symbols, Josef Albers’ color theory and a 40-year practice of recording dreams. The Current, Stowe, Thursday, August 31, 5-6:30 p.m. $10 suggested donation. Info, 253-8358.

GRAND OPENING CELEBRATION: The brand-new gallery, a sister of the Bryan Memorial Gallery in Jeffersonville, invites the public in for artwork, refreshments, live music by George Petit and an auction. Bryan Fine Art Gallery, Stowe, Saturday, September 2, 1-5 p.m. Info, 644-5100.

NOMADIC PHOTO ARK: Photographer Monica Jane Frisell and audio recorder and editor Adam Scher bring the nationally touring “Portrait of US” project to town to photograph and record members of the community. If interested in participating, contact project director Martha Elmes at nomadicphotoark@gmail.com. Their mobile studio is parked in front of White Market, Lyndonville. Through August 31. Info, 229-8317.

OPEN STUDIO: Draw, collage, paint, move, write and explore the expressive arts however you please during this drop-in period. Available in studio and via Zoom. Most materials are available in the studio. All are welcome; no art experience necessary. Expressive Arts Burlington, Thursday, August 31, 12:30-2:30 p.m. Donations. Info, info@ expressiveartsburlington.com.

VISITING ARTIST TALK: CARLY GLOVINSKI: The New Hampshire-based artist makes work that explores the resourceful attitudes associated with domestic craft and reverence for nature and the outdoors, embedding elements of time and place. Lowe Lecture Hall, Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, Thursday, August 31, 8-9 p.m. Free. Info, 635-2727.

ONGOING SHOWS burlington

‘ABENAKI: FIRST PEOPLE EXHIBITION’: The council and members of Alnôbaiwi (in the Abenaki way) and the museum open a new exhibition featuring the Abenaki Year, the seasonal calendar of people who lived in the area for more than 8,000 years before Europeans arrived, as well as works by contemporary Abenaki artisans and a replica of a 19th-century Abenaki village. Through October 31. Info, 865-4556. Ethan Allen Homestead in Burlington.

ANDRE BEAULIEU: Hyperrealist acrylic and oil paintings. Through August 31. Info, 338-7441. Thirty-odd in Burlington.

ART AT THE HOSPITAL: Oil paintings by Louise Arnold and Jean Gerber and photographs by Mike Sipe (Main Street Connector, ACC 3); photographs on metal by Brian Drourr (McClure 4 ); acrylics and mixed-media painting by Linda Blackerby (Breast Care Center) and Colleen Murphy (EP2). Curated by Burlington City Arts. Through September 30. Info, 865-7296. University of Vermont Medical Center in Burlington.

‘OUTSTANDING: CONTEMPORARY SELF-TAUGHT

ART’: Drawings, paintings and 3D works by area artists Larry Bissonette, Denver Ferguson, June Gutman, Chip Haggerty, Liza Phillip, Pamela Smith, Thomas Stetson and Kalin Thomas. Through September 17. HYUNSUK ERICKSON: “Thingumabob Society,” multicolored, towering, playful sculptures that suggest sprouting seeds or family groupings. Through September 17.

KATE LONGMAID: Contemporary portraiture, still life and landscape paintings in oil and acrylic

gouache by the Vermont artist. Through December 17. Info, 865-7296. BCA Center in Burlington.

PETER & NATHANIEL JOSLIN: “Kindred,” works in different mediums by the father and son artists.

Closing reception: Friday, September 1, 5-8 p.m. Through September 1. Info, 363-5497. new new art studio in Burlington.

PIEVY POLYTE: Paintings by the Haitian artist, coffee farmer and founder of Peak Macaya Coffee. Curated by Burlington City Arts. Through August 31. Info, 865-7296. Burlington City Hall.

ROSA LEFF: “Blown Away,” familiar scenes of urban life in intricately cut paper. Through September 30. Info, 324-0014. Soapbox Arts in Burlington.

‘VERMONT PHOTOGRAPHERS CLUB’: A group exhibition of established and emerging local photographers, including Ali Kaukas, Abbey Meaker, Corey Hendrickson, Daniel Brooks, Daniel Cardon, Daniel Schechner, Nathanael Asaro, Shem Roose, Zack Pollakoff and more. Copresented with Bauschaus VT. Through September 7. Info, 233-2943. Safe and Sound Gallery in Burlington.

WOODY JACKSON: “Amazing Graze,” new large-scale watercolor landscapes of Vermont. Through August 31. Info, 863-6458. Frog Hollow Vermont Craft Gallery in Burlington.

‘XOXO: AN EXHIBIT ABOUT LOVE & FORGIVENESS’: An interactive exhibition that provides children and caregivers the opportunity to think about and explore feelings through activities designed to help them understand, appreciate and express their emotions. Through September 4. Info, 864-1848. ECHO Leahy Center for Lake Champlain in Burlington.

chittenden county

ART AT THE AIRPORT: Acrylic abstract paintings by Matt Larson and acrylic floral paintings by Sandra Berbeco, curated by Burlington City Arts. Through September 30. JULIA PURINTON: Abstract oil paintings inspired by nature. North Concourse.

Through February 29. Info, 865-7296. Patrick Leahy Burlington International Airport in South Burlington.

‘BUILT FROM THE EARTH’: An exhibition of masterful Pueblo pottery from the Anthony and Teressa Perry Collection of Native American art. ‘OBJECT/S OF PLAY’: An interactive exploration of the creative processes of American toy designers Cas Holman and Karen Hewitt. ‘POP UP’: An exhibition of contemporary inflated sculptures inside and outside the museum featuring three artists and artist teams from the field of pneumatic sculpture: Claire Ashley, Pneuhaus and Tamar Ettun. (Outdoor sculptures not on view on days with excessive wind.) STEPHEN

HUNECK: “Pet Friendly,” an exhibition of hand-carved and painted furniture, sculptures, relief paintings, bronze sculptures and more by the late Vermont artist. Reception: Thursday, September 7, 5:30-7:30 p.m.; members only; preregistration required. Through October 22. Info, 985-3346. Shelburne Museum.

CHRISTINE MITCHELL ADAMS: “I Am Your Playground,” drawings that explore the shifting sense of self and identity as a parent/caregiver within the lens of play. Through September 30. Info, christinemitchelladams@gmail.com. MATT LARSON & NANCY CHAPMAN: Nature-inspired abstract paintings. Curated by Burlington City Arts. Through October 17. Info, 865-7296. Pierson Library in Shelburne.

DAVID SMITH: “Chasing Light,” oil paintings of vividly patterned land and water. Through September 2. Info, 985-3848. Furchgott Sourdiffe Gallery in Shelburne.

JENNIFER ASHLINE: An installation of landscape, floral and figurative works. Through September 24. Info, 662-4877. Salt & Bubbles Wine Bar and Market in Essex Junction.

‘LET THE LIGHT IN’: New paintings by Vermont artists Liz Hawkes deNiord, Joy Huckins-Noss, Jill Madden and Julia Purinton, curated by Essex High School student Xandra Ford. Through October

Sabrina Fadial

If you were looking for a stellar example of a multimedia artist, you could head to South Barre, Vt. More specifically, to Stevens Branch Studios. That’s where Sabrina Fadial makes and teaches art and where the pleasant clutter of her threeroom workspace reveals a remarkable range of activities — from drawing and painting to sewing and soft sculpture to blacksmithing and welding.

Fadial’s career itself has been just as varied. First, the North Carolina native headed north for her education: the Rhode Island School of Design, for a BFA in textiles in 1989; and Vermont College of Fine Arts, for a master’s in visual art in 2001. Later roles at VCFA included residency assistant, gallery director and director of alumni relations. She also picked up a certificate in nonprofit management through Marlboro College.

Since 2018, Fadial has been an adjunct professor in the school of architecture and art at Norwich University. She’s a blacksmithing instructor at AVA Gallery and Art Center in Lebanon, N.H., and teaches welding and building through Rosie’s Girls, a teen program of Vermont Works for Women.

And that’s not all. This summer, Fadial accepted yet another gig: executive director of the T.W. Wood Gallery in Montpelier.

“I wasn’t necessarily looking for a job,” she said during a studio visit last weekend, “but the post came up on my Facebook feed. I read it and realized I checked all the boxes.”

Fadial decided to apply. “It all just fell into place,” she said with a vestigial honeyed accent. “It feels like a good fit.”

The gallery, which is inside the Center for Arts and Learning on Barre Street, contains a treasure trove of 700plus paintings, drawings and prints by Thomas Waterman Wood (1823-1903). The Montpelier-born artist, who studied in New York and Europe, left his works to the city. The collection, which includes copies of paintings by European masters, resided in several venues over the years, including VCFA; it joined the consortium of arts nonprofits at CAL in 2012.

The directorship is a full-time position but allows Fadial to continue teaching at Norwich two mornings a week. “When I’m not in class, I’ll be at the gallery,” she said. “Weekends and evenings I’m in the studio.”

Fadial noted that the Wood’s afterschool art programs for K-2 are full, and she anticipates leading projects for teens and adults, as well.

The gallery is also the repository of an important collection not by Wood: paintings by artists in the Work Progress Administration. (The WPA was a Depression-era program that, in part, paid artists, musicians, writers and other creatives for their work to offset massive unemployment.)

“I want to let people know about the WPA collection!” Fadial said, acknowledging the challenge of marketing a gallery that’s off the beaten path. In the planning stages, she said, is “a mural that will go up on the Statehouse lawn, then be installed at [Montpelier’s] transit center.” And to honor the 200th birthday of T.W. Wood in November, she added, “we have plans for projections around downtown Montpelier.”

Fadial is also designing a mural she titled “Dancing in the Streets” for the parking lot next to Julio’s Cantina on State Street. The cheerful theme will surely be welcome in a city that still faces a long post-flood recovery. “As soon as the snow melts, I’ll get that going,” Fadial said.

In the gallery meantime, she envisions using Wood’s paintings as models in adult drawing classes, both to better utilize the gallery’s resources and to introduce Wood’s work to more students. She’ll also be able to curate the gallery’s contemporary exhibition space — where Fadial mounted a solo exhibition herself in February 2022.

First, though, she has to finish up one of her own works: a sculptural installation for the Kent Museum in Calais, which opens its annual exhibition of Vermont artists on Friday, September 8.

In contrast to Fadial’s weighty forged and welded metal sculptures, this one appears delicate, with thin wire loops joined together in a sort of curtain. It’s one of several pieces she’ll show at the Kent.

Even while sitting for an interview, Fadial managed to multitask: talking while playing tug-of-war with Piglet, her 8-year-old pit bull mix. Asked how she juggles art-making and so many jobs, she was unruffled: “It’s all just one big art project,” she said with a grin.

And, apparently, there is always time for more. “I’m really excited about the Pull Room [Printmaking Studio] at CAL,” Fadial enthused. “It’s right across from my office!”

Learn more about the Center for Arts and Learning at cal-vt.org, the T.W. Wood Gallery at twwoodgallery.org, and the Kent Museum at kentscorner.org.

19. Info, gallery@southburlingtonvt.gov. South Burlington Public Art Gallery.

PATRICIA DUTCHBURN: Whimsical acrylic paintings by the self-taught artist. Through August 31. Info, 846-4140. South Burlington Public Library Art Wall.

ROBERT WALDO BRUNELLE JR.: An exhibition of more than 30 of paintings, sculptures and cartoons by the fair’s featured artist this year. Through September 3. Info, 878-5545. Champlain Valley Exposition in Essex Junction.

‘SPARK: FUELING A LOVE OF BIRDS’: An exhibition of works by more than 60 artists and writers expressing avian admiration. Through October 31. Info, 434-2167. Birds of Vermont Museum in Huntington.

TOM WATERS: “Reaching New Heights,” Vermont landscape paintings. Through September 24. Info, 899-3211. Emile A. Gruppe Gallery in Jericho.

barre/montpelier

AUGUST GROUP SHOW: Artworks in a variety of mediums by established and new member artists. Through August 31. Info, 552-0877. The Front in Montpelier.

‘ELEMENTS OF SHELTER’: Original works in wood, metal and glass by Yestermorrow faculty members

Thea Alvin, Meg Reinhold, Nick Pattis, Anna Fluri, Sophia Mickelson and Johno Landsman, in conjunction with the Waitsfield design/build school. Through May 31, 2025. Info, 828-3291. Vermont Arts Council Sculpture Garden in Montpelier.

ELINOR RANDALL: “Deep Impressions,” a survey of the master printmaker’s work 1954 to 2013. Curated by NNEMoCA. Second-floor gallery and Quick Change Gallery. Through October 18. Info, 479-7069. Studio Place Arts in Barre.

ERICKSON DÍAZ-CORTÉS AND FIONA MCTEIGUE:

Two solo exhibitions: “By Myself With You,” featuring painterly colored drawings of domestic scenes; and “Rock Paper Scissor,” stream-of-consciousness graphite drawings of daily life, respectively. Closing reception: Friday, September 1, 4-8 p.m. Through September 15. Info, hexumgallery@gmail.com.

Hexum Gallery in Montpelier.

‘INSIDE OUT: INCARCERATION’: A traveling exhibition of artworks by imprisoned artists that explore the intersections of trauma, addiction, incarceration and reentry. A collaboration of Artists in the WV Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and Goddard College’s Reentry Advocates program. Through September 22. Info, 262-6035. T.W. Wood Gallery in Montpelier.

PATTY MERIAM: “The Longest Branch,” oil paintings that explore trees and human connections by the Barre-based artist and conservator. Through September 14. Info, 229-6206. North Branch Nature Center in Montpelier.

PREYA HOLLAND: Nature and landscape photography inspired by the beauty of Vermont and New England. Through September 30. Info, 479-0896. Espresso Bueno in Barre.

stowe/smuggs

‘NATURE’S PLAYGROUND’: An exhibition of 2D artworks that depict activities in the New England landscape. Through September 3. ‘THE CREATIVE PROCESS’: An exhibition of works by 40 artists as well as their reference photos, test strips, sketches or other supportive materials. Through September

3. LEGACY COLLECTION: A showcase exhibition of paintings by gallery regulars as well as some newcomers. Through December 23. Info, 644-5100. Bryan Memorial Gallery in Jeffersonville.

JOE CHIRCHIRILLO: Recent sculptures by the southern Vermont-based artist and curator of the North Bennington Outdoor Sculpture Show. Through September 20. Info, 635-2727. Red Mill Gallery, Vermont Studio Center, in Johnson.

‘A PLACE OF MEMORY’: An exhibition that questions public representation and how cultures and countries define their past through monuments, memorials and sculptural objects, featuring indoor and outdoor artwork by Woody De Othello, Nicholas Galanin, Vanessa German, Deborah Kass and Nyugen E. Smith. Through October 21. Info, 253-8358. The Current in Stowe.

SAMANTHA M. ECKERT: “The Color of the Sky Is Pink,” new sculpture and installation. Closing reception and artist’s talk: Thursday, September 28, 3 p.m. Through September 28. Info, 635-1469. Julian Scott Memorial Gallery, Vermont State University-Johnson.

SCOTT LENHARDT: An exhibition of graphic designs for Burton Snowboards created since 1994 by the Vermont native. Through October 31. Info, 253-9911. Vermont Ski and Snowboard Museum in Stowe.

‘TINY FIREWORKS’: Small works on canvas, panel, paper and wood by 14 Vermont-based and affiliated female-identifying artists: Athena Petra Tasiopoulos, Andrea Pearlman, Abigail Synnestvedt, Marjorie Kramer, Tamara Malkin Stuart, Lynne Reed, Louise Von Weiss, Annie Pearlman, Kathy Stark, Marie LePré Grabon, Lois Eby, Wiley Garcia, Mollie Douthit and Arista Alanis. Through September 16. Info, 646-5191781. Minema Gallery in Johnson.

mad river valley/waterbury

BIG RED BARN ART SHOW: The 25th anniversary exhibition of fine crafts, paintings, sculpture, glass, pottery, fabric arts and photography by nearly

A SOLO EXHIBITION OF PAINTINGS BY

OPENING RECEPTION

July 27th 5:00 - 6:30PM

40 area artists. Through September 3. Red Barn Galleries, Lareau Farm, in Waitsfield.

DENIS VERSWEYVELD: “Still Life,” sculpture, paintings and drawings by the Vermont artist. Through September 30. Info, 244-7801. Axel’s Frame Shop & Gallery in Waterbury.

‘THE MAD CONTEMPORARY’: An exhibition of cartoon artworks by more than a dozen Vermont artists. Through September 14. Info, 496-6682. Mad River Valley Arts Gallery in Waitsfield.

‘NOR’EASTER’: Contemporary abstract paintings by Terry Ekasala, Craig Stockwell and Rick Harlow. Through September 4. Info, 583-5832. The Bundy Modern in Waitsfield.

middlebury area

BONNIE BAIRD: “Weathering,” a solo exhibit of land- and skyscape paintings by the Vermont artist and farmer. Through September 15. Info, 877-2173. Northern Daughters in Vergennes.

‘FACES & PLACES’: An exhibition of figurative and landscape artwork by 60 artists that celebrates the comforts of home and family as well as faraway people and destinations. Through September 2. Info, 989-7225. Sparrow Art Supply in Middlebury.

‘FINDING HOPE WITHIN’: Subtitled “Healing & Transformation Through the Making of Art Within the Carceral System,” an exhibition of artwork created by prisoners. Curated by A Revolutionary Press in partnership with Vermont Works for Women and others. Through October 14. Info, 877-3406. Rokeby Museum in Ferrisburgh.

MARGARET GERDING: “Capturing the Moments,” new paintings featuring coastal scenes and rural

MIDDLEBURY AREA SHOWS » P.56

EDGEWATER GALLERY PRESENTS

REJOICI NG IN COLOR

A SOLO EXHIBITION OF PAINTINGS BY PH I L I P F R E Y

JULY 22ND – SEPT 5TH , 2023

Edgewater Gallery at the Falls One Mill Street, Middlebury

GALLERY HOURS:

Tuesday - Saturday 10AM – 5PM

Sunday 11AM – 4PM or by appointment

One Mill St and 6 Merchant’s Row, Middlebury Vermont 802-458-0098 & 802-989-7419

edgewatergallery.com

PHILIP FREY

Vermont. Through September 26. Info, 989-7419. Edgewater Gallery on the Green in Middlebury. PHILIP FREY: “Rejoicing in Color,” a solo exhibition of paintings. Through September 5. Info, 458-0098. Edgewater Gallery at the Falls in Middlebury.

‘STELLAR STITCHING: 19TH CENTURY VERMONT

SAMPLERS’: An exhibition of needlework samplers made by young girls in the 19th-century that depict alphabets, numerals and decorative elements. Through January 13. ‘VARIETY SEW: A SAMPLING OF TEXTILE TOOLS AND DEVICES’: Sewing machines, spinning wheels and myriad sewing paraphernalia from the permanent collection. Through September 30. Info, 388-2117. Henry Sheldon Museum of Vermont History in Middlebury.

STEVEN & KYLE QUERREY: “The Aegean,” photographs taken on the islands of Hydra and Poros, Greece, by the local artists. Through September 14. Info, info@littleseed.coffee. Little Seed Coffee Roasters in Middlebury.

‘TOSSED’: Nearly 20 works that make use of found, discarded or repurposed materials, curated by museum exhibition designer Ken Pohlman. Through December 10. Info, 443-5007. Middlebury College Museum of Art.

rutland/killington

‘ART IN THE GARDEN, COLOR ME HAPPY’: Garden-themed artworks by gallery members, with a featured wall of garden and floral art by Arlene O’Connor. Through September 22. Info, 775-0356. Chaffee Art Center in Rutland.

‘THE ART OF THE CREATIVE PROCESS’: An exhibition of sculpture, photography, painting, fabric art and illustration by Kerry Fulani, John Lehet, Amy Mosher, Judith Reilly and Ashley Wolff, respectively, as well as works by Vermont lighting design company Hubbardton Forge. Through October 8. Info, 468-2711. Stone Valley Arts in Poultney.

BANNERS ON BRIDGE STREET: Colorful double-sided banners painted with repurposed house paint by nine local artists decorate the street. Through October 15. Info, 496-3639. Waitsfield Village Bridge.

BILL RAMAGE: “Jackson, Warhol & Johns: The Triumvirate of Transition,” the third of three installations addressing a culture transformed over the span of three artists’ lives. Through September 2. Info, 282-5361. B&G Gallery in Rutland.

‘BROOM ART’: The inaugural exhibition in the new gallery features paintings and sculpture made with brooms by artists Warren Kimble, Sandy Mayo and Fran Bull. Through October 31. Info, 558-0874. Conant Square Gallery in Brandon.

NEW MEMBERS EXHIBITION: Fused-glass work by Garrett Sadler, wood crafts by Guy Rossi, landscape paintings by Brian Hewitt, pastel paintings of animals and nature by Lynn Austin, and sculpture and realist paintings by Liza Myers. Through October 31. Info, 247-4956. Brandon Artists Guild.

champlain islands/northwest

‘HEARTFELT VESSELS FOR PEACE: A SHOW OF

CLAY’: Unique pieces by artisans from Across the Grain Pottery Studio in South Hero. Includes silent auction to benefit UNICEF and the Vermont Community Foundation’s Flood Response and Recovery Fund. Through September 15. Info, 734-7448. Grand Isle Art Works.

TINA & TODD LOGAN: Acrylic paintings and 3D works, respectively, by the married artists. Through October 1. Info, 308-4230. Off the Rails at One Federal in St. Albans.

upper valley

‘COW’: An exhibition of dozens of bovine artworks based on the same paint-by-number kit, executed in

a huge variety of unusual mediums and submitted by participants from around the world. Through August 31. Info, 369-5722. Main Street Museum in White River Junction.

CALL TO ARTISTS

2023 PHOTOGRAPHY SHOOTOUT: “Texture” is the theme of this year’s exhibition, which will be October 11 to November 11. All capture and processing methods are welcome. Drop off your entry (one or two photos) on October 7 by 4 p.m. Prizes will be awarded. Axel’s Frame Shop & Gallery, Waterbury. $20. Info, 244-7801.

ART/CRAFT FESTIVAL: MAG is accepting up to 100 vendors for the third annual Art & Stroll festival on September 16. There will also be food trucks, live music, kids’ activities and more. Register at miltonartistsguildstore.com. Milton Artists’ Guild Art Center & Gallery. Through August 30. $30-50 members; $80 nonmembers. Info, 891-2014.

ARTIST DEVELOPMENT GRANTS & FLOOD RELIEF FUNDING: The Vermont Arts Council offers grants that can fund activities to enhance mastery of a skill, or support an artist’s business or the creation of new work. Separate grants are available to artists who have been significantly and adversely affected by the recent flooding. The latter will be offered until funds are exhausted. Details at vermontartscouncil.org. Online.

Through September 26. Info, 402-4602.

ARTIST MEMBER SHOW: Artist-members of Stone Valley Arts may submit up to five pieces of work in any medium for an exhibit October 14 through December 10. Must be ready to hang or be displayed appropriately. A link to the entry form will be sent via email to registered artist members. Deadline: August 31. Stone Valley Arts, Poultney. Info, stonevalleyartscenter@gmail. com.

BTV WINTER MARKET: Burlington City Arts invites artisans, makers and arty small businesses to apply as a vendor at the outdoor marketplace Fridays through Sundays, November 18 to December 23. Application at burlingtoncityarts.org. Deadline: September 18. Online. Info, 865-7166.

‘CYCLES’: Inclusive Arts Vermont invites artists to submit work for an upcoming touring exhibition that interprets the theme in any way. Artists with disabilities are encouraged to apply. Apply at inclusiveartsvermont.org.

Deadline: September 22. Online. Info, exhibitions@inclusiveartsvermont.org.

‘MACRO/MICRO’: Sparrow Art Supply in Middlebury invites artists to dive into the realm of size and scale with monumental masterpieces and tiny miniatures. Alternatively, this theme can be approached in the subject matter. All mediums will be considered. Details and application at sparrowartsupply.com.

Deadline: September 3. Online. Free to enter; $10 if accepted. Info, 989-7225.

‘MY DOG AND THE WOLF’: Radiate Arts Space is sponsoring an unjuried art exhibit about the dog-wolf connection: about people and their dogs, humans’ role in the domestication of the wolf, and why and how it has resulted in such a variety of breeds. Workshops October and November, celebration in December. Richmond Free Library, Through November 1. Info, mauie@ gmavt.net.

KATE REEVES: “Watercolors Plus,” 29 original paintings, some of which use plant material as stencils. Through August 31. Info, watercolorkatevt@gmail. com. Quechee Inn at Marshland Farm.

THE PEOPLE’S ART SHOW: Montgomery Center for the Arts is seeking submissions to a non-juried, uncensored exhibition celebrating all forms of creativity, diversity and imagination. Submissions must be ready to hang. More info and registration at bit.ly/3Q7d1IM. Deadline: September 17. Online. Free. Info, montgomery centerarts@gmail.com.

‘POETRY OF THE ORDINARY’: PhotoPlace Gallery invites submissions of photographs on the theme for an upcoming exhibition; juried by Sarah Suhoff. More info and application at photoplacegallery.com. Deadline: September 11. Online. $39 for the first five images; $6 each additional image. Info, 388-4500.

PUBLIC ART OPPORTUNITIES: Burlington

City Arts has issued two requests for qualifications: Artists can apply to create new work for Burlington International Airport’s recently updated terminal and/or for the CityPlace Streetscape Project. Details and application at burlingtoncityarts.org. Deadline: September 22. Online. Info, 865-7166.

‘PUPPETS’: Create a film seven minutes or shorter according to the month’s theme, “Puppets.” Interpretations can be loose. Films will screen in competition on September 2 at 7 p.m. Winner chooses the theme for next month. Submit your film via Google Drive to mothership monthlyfilmfest@gmail.com. Deadline: August 31. MothershipVT, Burlington. Free.

‘REFLECTIONS’: Edgewater Gallery on the Green in Middlebury is seeking submissions for an upcoming juried show for emerging artists. Guest jurors are John and Gillian Ross of Gallery Twist in Lexington, Mass. Deadline: October 20. More info at edgewatergallery.com. Online. $15 for three images. Info, 989-7419.

SEEKING GALLERY MEMBERS: Become a member of the Brandon Artists Guild and participate in group and solo exhibitions. Judging criteria include originality, impact, clarity, craftsmanship, consistency of style and quality, presentation and marketability. Apply at brandonartistsguild.org. Online. Through September 11. Free. Info, 247-4956.

VENDING OPPORTUNITY FOR MAKERS & CRAFTSPEOPLE: We’re looking for artists, makers and craftspeople that would like to set up a booth during our 10-year anniversary celebration September 16 and 17. Contact Laz at lazarus@ stonecorral.com for details, and include name/ business name, medium, Instagram/website/ portfolio link, and days of interest. Stone Corral, Richmond. Through September 11. Free. Info, lazarus@stonecorral.com.

‘WHO ARE WE? PIECES OF THE IDENTITY

PUZZLE’: November is a time for reflection and introspection. The gallery is seeking artwork depicting your take on identity, whether personal or as a people. All mediums accepted. Deliver work on or before Wednesday, November 8. Register at melmelts@yahoo.com. The Satellite Gallery, Lyndonville. $20. Info, 229-8317.

‘VERMONT FEMALE FARMERS’: Forty-five photographs by Plymouth-based JuanCarlos González that focus on the impactful contributions that women farmers are making to the state’s culture, identity and economy. Through October 31. Info, 457-2355. Carriage Barn Visitor Center, Marsh-BillingsRockefeller National Historic Park in Woodstock. VERMONT WATERCOLOR SOCIETY: Twenty paintings by a dozen member-artists of the Connecticut River chapter. Through August 31. Info, watercolorkatevt@ gmail.com. Norwich Public Library.

WILLIAM B. HOYT: “Moments Noticed,” landscape paintings in oil by the Vermont artist. Reception: Thursday, August 31, 5:30-7:30 p.m. Through September 23. Info, 457-3500. Artistree Community Arts Center Theatre & Gallery in South Pomfret.

northeast kingdom

ANN YOUNG: Figurative paintings by the Vermont artist. Through September 30. Info, oliveylin1@gmail. com. 3rd Floor Gallery in Hardwick.

ANNE TAYLOR DAVIS: “Wonderland,” paintings and drawings, old and very new. Through September 24. Info, 533-2000. Highland Center for the Arts in Greensboro.

‘BEES ON PEAS & OTHER OBSERVATIONS IN THE GARDEN’: A group exhibition of artworks featuring all things garden-related. Through September 9. Info, 334-1966. MAC Center for the Arts Gallery in Newport.

ISA OEHRY: “Looking Out,” paintings of animals. Through September 27. Info, 525-3366. Parker Pie in West Glover.

MICHAEL ROOSEVELT: “A Life in Print,” fine-art prints, linocuts and engravings. Through September 30. Info, 748-0158. Northeast Kingdom Artisans Guild Backroom Gallery in St. Johnsbury.

PHILIP HERBISON: “Water in Motion” and “Assemblages,” photographs of large bodies of water, and wood sculptures using the scraps of other works, respectively. Through December 31. Info, 748-2600. Catamount Arts Fried Family Gallery DTWN in St. Johnsbury.

TODD DEPERNO: “Beef Quirky,” graphically stylized paintings depicting the obvious. Through September 6. Info, 229-8317. The Satellite Gallery in Lyndonville.

‘WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND’: An exhibition of objects that explores the practical, spiritual and ecstatic human relationship to wheels and what they enable. Through May 31. Info, 626-4409. The Museum of Everyday Life in Glover.

brattleboro/okemo valley

5TH ANNUAL VERMONT SUMMER GROUP SHOW: Works by 26 local artists in a variety of mediums. Through September 2. KIM GRALL & KATHLEEN ZIMMERMAN: “One Artist Bound to Earth,” mixed-media encaustics on paper, birch bark and gourds; and “Solo Spotlight,” serigraph and intaglio prints, respectively. Through October 14. LEN EMERY: An exhibition of aerial, journalistic and fine art photography by the latest member of the gallery’s Working Artist Program. Through September 29. Info, 289-0104. Canal Street Art Gallery in Bellows Falls.

‘GLASSTASTIC’: Glass creatures dreamed up by children in grades K-6, brought to 3D life by glass artists, and situated in a habitat designed by Cynthia Parker-Houghton. ‘PRIDE 1983’: Photographs, artifacts and audio recordings that explore the origins and legacy of Burlington’s first Pride celebration. A production of the Pride Center of Vermont and Vermont Folklife, curated by Margaret Tamulonis.

EGAN: “Drawing Room,” a series of paintings that make up an imaginary house. ANINA MAJOR: “I Land Therefore I Am,” ceramic sculptures and other objects that explore self and place, belonging and

identity, by the Bahamas-born artist. AURORA ROBSON: “Human Nature Walk,” an immersive site-specific installation inspired by the natural forms of the Connecticut River and fashioned from plastic debris intercepted from the waste stream. Visitors are invited to contribute clean plastic bottle caps in designated sections of the installation.

HANNAH MORRIS: “Movable Objects,” narrative multimedia paintings in the gallery’s front windows.

LELA JAACKS: Outdoor abstract sculptures by the Vermont artist. ROBERLEY BELL: “Where Things Set,” an installation of distinct but related sculptures and drawings. Through October 9. Info, 257-0124. Brattleboro Museum & Art Center.

ANDY WARHOL: “Small Is Beautiful,” 100 of the artist’s smaller-format paintings, from the Hall collection. RON GORCHOV: A 50-year survey of the American abstract artist’s work, featuring shaped canvases from the 1970s to large-scale paintings in his last years. SUSAN ROTHENBERG: Nearly 30 figurative, gestural paintings by the late American artist from throughout her career. Weekends only; reservation required. Through November 26. Info, info@hallartfoundation.org. Hall Art Foundation in Reading.

JOHN R. KILLACKY: “Flux,” an exhibition of objects from a wordless, process-based video inspired by scores, propositions and performative actions of Fluxus-era artists; cinematography by Justin Bunnell, editing by C. Alec Kozlowski and sound composition by Sean Clute. Through August 30. Info, 257-7898. CX Silver Gallery in Brattleboro.

PHOTOGRAPHY: FOUR PERSPECTIVES: An exhibition of images in different styles and subject matter by Al Karevy, Davida Carta, Joshua Farr and

Vaune Trachtman, members of the Vermont Center for Photography in Brattleboro. Through November 12. Info, 451-0053. Next Stage Arts Project in Putney.

manchester/bennington

‘THE RED DRESS’: A touring project, conceived by British artist Kirstie Macleod, that provides an artistic platform for women around the world, many of whom are vulnerable and live in poverty, to tell their personal stories through embroidery.

BARBARA ISHIKURA & SAM FIELDS: “Frippery, Finery, Frills: Works in Conversation,” an exhibition of paintings and mixed-media sculptures, respectively, that explore intimacy in women’s lives. Through September 24. Info, 362-1405. Southern Vermont Arts Center in Manchester.

‘A HISTORY OF BENNINGTON’: An exhibition of artifacts that invites viewers to examine how history informs and affects our lives. Through December 31.

‘FOR THE LOVE OF VERMONT: THE LYMAN ORTON COLLECTION’: More than 200 pieces of art, primarily from the 1920s to 1960, acquired by the founder of the Vermont Country Store. Simultaneously exhibited at the Southern Vermont Art Center in Manchester. Through November 5. Info, 447-1571. Bennington Museum.

‘FOR THE LOVE OF VERMONT: THE LYMAN ORTON COLLECTION’: More than 200 works of art that capture Vermont’s unique character, people, traditions and landscape prior to the 1970s from the collection of the Vermont Country Store proprietor. Also displayed at Bennington Museum. Through November 5. Info, 362-1405. Yester House Galleries, Southern Vermont Arts Center, in Manchester.

NORTH BENNINGTON OUTDOOR SCULPTURE SHOW: An outdoor exhibition featuring 77 sculptures by 59 artists, curated by Joe Chirchirillo. Through November 12. Info, nbossvt@gmail.com. Various Bennington locations.

randolph/royalton

ASTRO DAN DAN: “Manufactured Phonies,” a show of prints and paintings by the Hanover, N.H.-based artist, aka Daniel Matthews. Through September 30. Info, 889-9404. Tunbridge Public Library.

CAROLYN EGELI & CHRIS WILSON: Landscape oil paintings and figurative sculptures, respectively. Through November 5. Info, 728-9878. Chandler Center for the Arts in Randolph.

LINDA BLACKERBY & BETTE ANN LIBBY: Abstract paintings and mixed-media mosaic works, respectively. Through October 1. Info, 279-5048. ART, etc. in Randolph.

‘NO PLACE LIKE HERE: PHOTOGRAPHS FROM VERMONT, PAST AND PRESENT’: Vermont photographs, 1978-98 by Peter Moriarty, main gallery; and Farm Security Administration photographs of Vermont 1936-43, center gallery. Through October 29. Info, 767-9670. BigTown Gallery in Rochester.

TANYA LIBBY: Detailed paintings from nature. Through October 14. Info, 889-3525. The Tunbridge General Store Gallery.

outside vermont

‘PORTABLE UNIVERSE: THOUGHT AND SPLENDOUR OF INDIGENOUS COLOMBIA’: Nearly 400 artworks, including jewelry, masks, effigies, textiles and more,

dating from about 1500 BC to the present. Through October 1. DEMPSEY BOB: “Wolves,” a retrospective of totem poles, sculptures and masks by the Canadian master carver. Through September 10. Info, 514-285-2000. Montréal Museum of Fine Arts.

‘FAITH’: An exhibition of 50 landscapes, still lifes and figurative spanning five decades by Harold Weston, accompanied by writing from his wife, Faith Borton Weston, and archival photographs. Curated by Charlotte-based Rebecca Foster. Through September 3. Info, 914-309-7095. Keene Arts, N.Y.

‘HOMECOMING: DOMESTICITY AND KINSHIP IN GLOBAL AFRICAN ART’: More than 75 works drawn from the museum’s collection of African and African diaspora art that emphasize the role of women artists and feminine aesthetics. Through May 25. KENT MONKMAN: “The Great Mystery,” four new paintings by the Cree artist along with five works in the museum’s collection that inspired them, by Hannes Beckmann, T.C. Cannon, Cyrus Edwin Dallin, Mark Rothko and Fritz Scholder. Through December 9. Info, 603-646-2808. Hood Museum, Dartmouth College, in Hanover, N.H.

LINDA ROESCH: “A Lifetime of Unfinished Discovery,” paintings in ink and watercolor by the local artist. Through September 23. Info, 603-448-3117. AVA Gallery and Art Center in Lebanon, N.H. ➆

The Bright Side of Life: David Cross on Fatherhood, the Hollywood Strike and Lightening Up

“Fatherhood has changed my perspective a bit,” comedian David Cross told me. He was speaking by phone from his house in the Catskills in upstate New York while watching his daughter play outside.

Fatherhood, he went on, “has forced me to find hope where I might have just glossed over that before.” Then he paused to warn his daughter about getting too close to some bees that seemed, he told me, to be “itching to fuck.”

The star of such TV shows as “Arrested Development,” “Mr. Show” and “The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret,” Cross is known for a politically charged, often acerbic style of humor akin to that of the late BILL HICKS and LENNY BRUCE. On Wednesday, September 6, he’ll kick o his Worst Daddy in the World tour at the Higher Ground Ballroom in South Burlington.

As its title suggests, the show deals with Cross’ adventures in parenting. It explores how becoming a dad has required him to do something strange, for him: cheer the fuck up.

“She has a lot of friends, so I’m hanging out with a bunch of little kids,” Cross said of his elementary schooler daughter. “I have to sweep the cynical pessimism under the rug and embrace their optimism, because I really don’t want to bum these kids out. It’s the last thing you want to do, believe me.”

Longtime Cross fans who worry fatherhood might have dulled one of comedy’s sharpest tongues, fear not. For all the glass-half-full vibes he’s getting from his daughter, the rest of the world still gives him plenty to bitch about. Most notably, that includes the so-called “Hollywood strike”: The Writers Guild of America, Directors Guild of America, Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA), International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees and even the Teamsters have gone on strike in response to a number of grievances with the studios, such as with their moves toward replacing writers and actors with generative AI.

“It’s honestly beyond the pale what they’ve been suggesting and trying to get away with,” Cross seethed when

SUNDbites

News and views on the local music + nightlife scene

speaking of the studios. “The whole thing with digitally copying extras to use in perpetuity is just disgusting and wrong on every level. You get paid 45 bucks, and they get to put your face wherever they want, saying whatever they want.”

In Cross’ view, one of the worst side e ects of the strike is the likelihood that reality TV programs will flood screens to fill the void left by scripted shows that aren’t being produced. He pointed out that in the wake of the last writers’ strike, in 2008, reality shows such as “Vanderpump Rules” and “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” took root in the American consciousness.

“The streaming industry isn’t collapsing,” Cross said, pushing back on a frequent claim by studios that the streaming bubble has burst, putting them in dire financial straits. “It’s actually

America would fall in love with a dumb, stupid criminal,” Cross said. “Well…”

The movie never reached the conclusion that Cross and Odenkirk originally envisioned, which featured Ronnie (get this) being elected president of the United States, seducing the Queen of England and catching the Loch Ness Monster.

Altered vision aside, Run Ronnie Run! is now seen as almost prophetic, much like MIKE JUDGE’s 2006 dark comedy Idiocracy, as American society continues its push to be stranger than fiction. Cross thinks it’s exactly the kind of artistic statement that wouldn’t be green-lighted in the world that the streaming studios are trying to create by forcing out writers.

“All ‘The Sopranos’ and ‘Better Call Saul’s, those kind of highfalutin shows, they’ll all disappear,” he predicted. “You couldn’t have another ‘Arrested Development’ like this.”

But his newfound sunny streak showed up when I asked Cross how he thought the strikes might play out.

“I’m actually optimistic,” he said. “The studios weren’t prepared for SAG-AFTRA joining the strike, and they weren’t prepared for the ferocity of it all. They made plans for a few months of writers striking, and that’s not what happened at all.”

Cross believes the studios will come to the table and make an agreement by October, though he hopes it will happen earlier.

the opposite of the case: The traditional networks are collapsing, which has made the streaming services the top-tier place for entertainment.”

That dominance, in turn, has made the streaming providers what Cross describes as “monolithic.”

The topic brings out plenty of Cross’ signature bite, inspiring him to crap on the CBS cop show “Blue Bloods,” (“A computer could write that show, and no one would give a shit”) and remark on the prescience of a 2002 film he made with longtime collaborator BOB ODENKIRK, Run Ronnie Run! Focusing on an oftarrested redneck named Ronnie who becomes the star of his own reality show, the film predicted not only America’s future media landscape but also its political one.

“That film was all about the idea that

In the meantime, his focus is squarely on his upcoming tour. Cross estimates that he’s performed in the Queen City more than 20 times; he even spent his honeymoon in Vermont. He rates Burlington as a squarely average comedy city.

“There are cities you get really excited to visit when you’re on tour, and there are cities you look at ahead of time and sort of roll your eyes and say, ‘Oh, God, again?’” Cross said. “Burlington isn’t either one of those sorts of towns; it’s right in the middle. But all it takes is one show to change that, so you never know.”

I don’t know about you, but that sounds like the throwing down of a gauntlet, Burlington. We’re already known as a boring music audience town (debate me on that one, please), so let’s make a reputation as a comedy town, all right? We can start at the Cross show. For more details and tickets, pop over to highergroundmusic.com.

On the Beat

Indie Latin singer-songwriter MARCIE HERNANDEZ has released a new video for her single “Easy on Me.” Directed by Burlington filmmaker TRISH DENTON, the clip was filmed on location in Mojácar, Spain, earlier this year and funded by a Burlington City Arts Elevation Grant, along with support from Mojácar’s Valparaíso Foundation.

The song was produced by Burlington musician WILL ANDREWS, aka WILLVERINE, who worked on remixes from Hernandez’s 2020 album, Amanecer The video for “Easy on Me” is streaming now on YouTube.

Listening In

(Spotify mix of local jams)

Park. If you miss that one, you can catch a solo show the following day at Spruce Peak Performing Arts Center in Stowe, where King opens for singersongwriter ANDERS OSBORNE. Both shows will raise funds for flood relief e orts.

“Vermont has been hit hard with weather this summer,” King wrote in a press release for the shows. “Being able to come back to share some community time with music is so important to me.”

For tickets and info, visit burlingtoncityarts.org and sprucepeakarts.org.

Scan

Congrats to Vermont singer-songwriter

SARAH KING, who won the Great River Folk Fest singer-songwriter competition.

The music fest, held annually in La Crosse, Wis., bestowed the honor on King last weekend.

If you want to celebrate with King,

Eye on the Scene

Last week’s live music highlights from photographer Luke Awtry

she’ll make her way back home for a pair of shows in the Green Mountains, starting with a full-band performance in Burlington on Friday, September 1, at the BCA Twilight Series concert in City Hall

One of the 802’s best and most influential rappers, KONFLIK, is back with a new single and video. “Don’t Let’em feat. TERMANOLOGY” dropped on August 17 with a video directed by SANDOFILMS. The track comes o the rapper’s critically acclaimed 2022 album Head of a Snake, Thumbs of a Thief and features one of my favorite lines of Konflik verse ever: “Don’t let ’em make you think that I preach / If each is to teach, I speak to da one I’m a teach, capisce?”

The video for “Don’t Let’em feat. Termanology” is available on YouTube. ➆

On the Air

Where to tune in to Vermont music this week:

“WAVE CAVE RADIO SHOW,” Wednesday, August 30, 2 p.m., on 105.9 the Radiator: DJS FLYWLKER and GINGERVITUS spin the best of local and nonlocal hip-hop.

“ROCKET SHOP RADIO HOUR,” Wednesday, August 30, 8 p.m., on 105.9 the Radiator: Host TOM PROCTOR plays local music.

“THE SOUNDS OF BURLINGTON,” ursday, August 31, 9 p.m., at wbkm. org: Host TIM LEWIS plays selections of local music.

“CULTURAL BUNKER,” Friday, September 1, 7 p.m., on 90.1 WRUV: Host MELO GRANT plays local and nonlocal hip-hop.

“ACOUSTIC HARMONY,” Saturday, September 2, 4 p.m., on 91.1 WGDR: Host MARK MICHAELIS plays folk and Americana music from Vermont artists.

A_DOG DAY AT NECTAR’S, BURLINGTON, AUGUST 26: A few weeks ago, I posited that the fate of the showgoer resides almost solely in the simple act of showing up, and I’m doubling down on that. Come midnight on Saturday, I was completely wiped out, torn between the siren call of my couch and the A_Dog Day celebration at Nectar’s and Club Metronome. More than just one of the most respected DJs ever to come out of Burlington, Andy “A_Dog” Williams was also my friend. Even though, earlier that day, I had laced up a pair of kicks Andy had given me and walked up to the ANTHILL COLLECTIVE mural on Maple Street to pay my respects, I wasn’t feeling good about missing the show. So I rallied and caught DJ sets from KANGA, RON STOPPABLE, CRE8 and DJ TRANSPLANTE, as well as a killer stripped-down trio set by ACQUA MOSSA. e love for Andy in those rooms and on the street was tremendous, and, as always, showing up was 100 percent worth the effort.

“LOCAL MUSIC SPOTLIGHT,” Sunday, September 3, 6:45 p.m., on 104.7 WNCS the Point: e station plays new music from Vermont artists.

“ALL THE TRADITIONS,” Sunday, September 3, 7 p.m., on Vermont Public: Host ROBERT RESNIK plays an assortment of folk music with a focus on Vermont artists.

CLUB DATES music+nightlife

live music

WED.30

e 502s (folk) at Higher Ground Ballroom, South Burlington, 7:30 p.m. $20/$25.

Bluegrass & BBQ (bluegrass) at Four Quarters Brewing, Winooski, 6:30 p.m. Free.

Jazz Jam Sessions with Randal Pierce (jazz) at the 126, Burlington, 9 p.m. Free.

Jazz Night with Ray Vega (jazz) at Hotel Vermont, Burlington, 8:30 p.m. Free.

Jim Branca and Tom Buckley (folk, blues) at Blue Paddle Bistro, South Hero, 5:30 p.m. Free.

John Lackard Blues Duo (blues) at American Flatbread Burlington Hearth, 5:30 p.m. Free.

Joshua Spears, Erin Cassels-Brown, Louisa Stancioff, Eastern Mountain Time (singer-songwriter, folk) at Radio Bean, Burlington, 8:30 p.m. $8/$10.

Josie Gil, Max Berman (singersongwriter) at Radio Bean, Burlington, 7 p.m. $5/$10.

Lazy Bird (jam) at Red Square, Burlington, 8 p.m. Free.

Live Jazz (jazz) at Leunig’s Bistro & Café, Burlington, 6:30 p.m. Free.

Songwriter Round (singersongwriter) at Two Heroes Brewery Public House, South Hero, 6 p.m. Free.

Wednesday Night Dead (Grateful Dead covers) at Zenbarn, Waterbury Center, 7 p.m. $5.

Ween Wednesday: Knights of the Brown Table (tribute) at Nectar’s, Burlington, 8 p.m. $5/$10.

Willverine (electronic) at the Wallflower Collective, Burlington, 7:30 p.m. Free.

THU.31

Andriana Chobot (indie pop) at Black Flannel Brewing & Distilling, Essex, 6 p.m. Free.

Bethany Connor (singer-songwriter) at 1st Republic Brewing, Essex, 6 p.m. Free.

Burlington Electronic Department Showcase (electronic) at Radio Bean, Burlington, 8 p.m. $15.

Classy Boss (Latin fusion) at Foam Brewers, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free.

Duke Aeroplane (rock) at the Venetian Cocktail & Soda Lounge, Burlington, 8 p.m. Free.

Grace Palmer and Socializing for Introverts (rock) at Red Square, Burlington, 6 p.m. Free.

Jazz with Alex Stewart and Friends (jazz) at the 126, Burlington, 8:30 p.m.

Josh Panda (singer-songwriter) at Butter Bar and Kitchen, Burlington, 6 p.m. Free.

Naelstrom: A Dark Alternative Flood Benefit for Bent Nails Bistro (goth, industrial) at Orlando’s Bar & Lounge, Burlington, 8:30 p.m. $10.

Nathan Byrne (singer-songwriter) at American Flatbread Stowe, 6 p.m. Free.

Find the most up-to-date info on live music, DJs, comedy and more at sevendaysvt.com/music. If you’re a talent booker or artist planning live entertainment at a bar, nightclub, café, restaurant, brewery or coffee shop, send event details to music@sevendaysvt.com or submit the info using our form at sevendaysvt.com/postevent.

Howling at the Moon Burlington

Some Hollow (indie pop) at Whammy Bar, Calais, 7:30 p.m. Free.

Soulja Boy (hip-hop) at Higher Ground Ballroom, South Burlington, 8:30 p.m. $40/$48.

MOONDOGS are a hard act to pin down. On their 2022 debut record, ACiD TeST, the songs moved easily between indie rock, jam and even R&B. They were largely a one-man act then, the dorm-room project of singer-songwriter Will Sturcke. Now a quartet, the band is preparing to drop its brand-new, full-length, self-titled LP this Friday, September 1. To celebrate, Moondogs play a release show at Nectar’s in Burlington that night with local rock band BLACKWATER

band

e Rough Suspects (acoustic) at Filling Station, Middlesex, 6:30 p.m. Free.

Ryan Osswald Trio (jazz) at Red Square, Burlington, 6 p.m. Free.

WAREWARE (African fusion) at Charlie-O’s World Famous, Montpelier, 6:30 p.m. Free.

FRI.1

90 Proof (rock) at 14th Star Brewing, St. Albans, 6 p.m. Free.

Ari & Eli Glasser, Eleanor Freebern, Winslow Solomon (folk) at Stone’s row, Richmond, 6 p.m. Donation. Blue Fox (acoustic) at Gusto’s, Barre, 6 p.m. Free.

Dave Mitchell’s Blues Revue (blues) at Red Square, Burlington, 2 p.m. Free.

First Friday Folk (folk) at the Venetian Cocktail & Soda Lounge, Burlington, 8 p.m. Free.

GuitFiddle (folk) at Radio Bean, Burlington, 6:30 p.m. $5/$10.

Jackson Garrow (singer-songwriter) at 1st Republic Brewing, Essex, 6 p.m. Free.

Maple Street Six (jazz) at Foam Brewers, Burlington, 9 p.m. Free.

Mean Waltons (bluegrass) at Taps Tavern, Poultney, 6 p.m. Free.

Moondogs, Blackwater (psych rock) at Nectar’s, Burlington, 8 p.m. $10.

Phil Abair Band (covers) at the Old Post, South Burlington, 8 p.m. Free. Open Mic Night! (open mic) at RabbleRouser Chocolate & Craft, Montpelier, 7:30 p.m. Free.

tip/toe, Proper., Lilith, Tyler Serrani (indie) at Radio Bean, Burlington, 8:30 p.m. $10/$12.

Ursa and the Major Key (rock) at Red Square, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free.

Wreckless Strangers (jam) at Zenbarn, Waterbury Center, 8 p.m. $10/$13.

Xander Naylor (jazz) at Bleu Northeast Kitchen, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free.

SAT.2

Abby Jenne and the Bald Eagle Death Spiral (roots) at Charlie-O’s World Famous, Montpelier, 7 p.m. Free.

Alive & Pickin’ (bluegrass) at 1st Republic Brewing, Essex, 6 p.m. Free. All Night Boogie Band (blues) at Red Square, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free.

Duncan MacLeod (jazz) at Bleu Northeast Kitchen, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free.

Good Gravy and Friends (bluegrass) at Foam Brewers, Burlington, 8 p.m. Free.

Jim Gilmour & Deserie Valloreo (jazz) at Taps Tavern, Poultney, 6 p.m. Free. Left Eye Jump (blues) at Red Square, Burlington, 2 p.m. Free.

Pat Morelli (singer-songwriter) at the Den at Harry’s Hardware, Cabot, 7 p.m. Free.

Peg Tassey & the Loud Flowers, Tom Banjo & Ethan Azarian, Aneken River (indie rock) at Radio Bean, Burlington, 8:30 p.m. $10.

Void Bringer, Cooked, Fishface, Split In Half, Torn, Blossom (hardcore, punk) at Monkey House, Winooski, 8 p.m. $10/$15.

SUN.3

Joe Moore (blues) at Red Square, Burlington, 3 p.m. Free.

John Lackard Blues Band (blues) at Red Square, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free. Reid Parsons (singer-songwriter) at Foam Brewers, Burlington, 1 p.m. Free. Sunday Brunch Tunes (singer-songwriter) at Hotel Vermont, Burlington, 10 a.m.

TUE.5

Big Easy Tuesdays with Back Porch Revival (jazz) at the 126, Burlington, 8 p.m. Free.

Bluegrass Jam (bluegrass) at Taps Tavern, Poultney, 7 p.m. Free. Cole Davidson (singer-songwriter) at Radio Bean, Burlington, 7 p.m. $5/$8.

Honky Tonk Tuesday with Wild Leek River (country) at Radio Bean, Burlington, 9 p.m. $10. nothing, nowhere., SeeYouSpaceCowboy, Static Dress, UnityTX (emo) at Higher Ground Ballroom, South Burlington, 6 p.m. $28/$33.

WED.6

Bluegrass & BBQ (bluegrass) at Four Quarters Brewing, Winooski, 6:30 p.m. Free.

Collin Craig & Friends (blues) at American Flatbread Burlington Hearth, 5:30 p.m. Free.

Doom Service, Warped Floors, the Path, Vallory Falls (punk) at Radio Bean, Burlington, 8:30 p.m. $10/$15.

Jazz Jam Sessions with Randal Pierce (jazz) at the 126, Burlington, 9 p.m. Free.

Jazz Night with Ray Vega (jazz) at Hotel Vermont, Burlington, 8:30 p.m. Free.

Lazy Bird (jam) at Red Square, Burlington, 8 p.m. Free.

Live Jazz (jazz) at Leunig’s Bistro & Café, Burlington, 6:30 p.m. Free. Luis Betancourt (singer-songwriter) at Two Heroes Brewery Public House, South Hero, 6 p.m. Free. Ryan Sweezey (singer-songwriter) at 14th Star Brewing, St. Albans, 6 p.m. Free.

Wednesday Night Dead (Grateful Dead covers) at Zenbarn, Waterbury Center, 7 p.m. $5.

Willverine (electronic) at the Wallflower Collective, Burlington, 7:30 p.m. Free.

djs

WED.30

DJ CRE8 (DJ) at Red Square, Burlington, 11:30 p.m. Free.

THU.31

DJ Chaston (DJ) at Red Square Blue Room, Burlington, 10 p.m. Free.

DJ Two Sev (DJ) at Red Square, Burlington, 11 p.m. Free.

JP Black (DJ) at Red Square, Burlington, 9 p.m. Free.

Mi Yard Reggae Night with DJ Big Dog (reggae and dancehall) at Nectar’s, Burlington, 9:30 p.m. Free.

Vinyl Night with Ken (DJ) at Taps Tavern, Poultney, 6 p.m. Free.

FRI.1

DJ Craig Mitchell (DJ) at Red Square Blue Room, Burlington, 9 p.m. Free.

DJ CRWD CTRL (DJ) at Monkey House, Winooski, 9 p.m. Free.

DJ Kata (DJ) at Red Square, Burlington, 10 p.m. Free.

DJ LaFountaine (DJ) at Gusto’s, Barre, 9 p.m. Free.

DJ Taka (DJ) at Light Club Lamp Shop, Burlington, 11 p.m. $10/$15.

SAT.2

Blanchface (DJ) at Manhattan Pizza & Pub, Burlington, 10 p.m. Free.

DJ A-Ra$ (DJ) at Red Square, Burlington, midnight. Free.

DJ Raul (DJ) at Red Square Blue Room, Burlington, 6 p.m. Free.

DJ Taka (DJ) at Light Club Lamp Shop, Burlington, 11 p.m. $10/$15.

Emo Night Brooklyn (DJ) at Higher Ground Showcase Lounge, South Burlington, 8:30 p.m. $20/$23.

HAVEN (DJ) at MothershipVT, Burlington, 10 p.m. Free.

John’s Jukebox (DJ) at Gusto’s, Barre, 9 p.m. Free.

Matt Payne (DJ) at Red Square Blue Room, Burlington, 10 p.m.

Free.

Molly Mood (DJ) at Red Square, Burlington, 10 p.m. Free.

Nice Up! with JP Black (reggae

DJ) at Nectar’s, Burlington, 8 p.m.

Free.

SUN.3

JP Black (DJ) at Red Square, Burlington, 11 p.m. Free.

Sunday Night Mass (DJ) at Club Metronome, Burlington, 9 p.m.

$15.

MON.4

Memery (DJ) at Red Square, Burlington, 10 p.m. Free.

TUE.5

Local Dork (DJ) at Foam Brewers, Burlington, 6 p.m. Free.

WED.6

DJ CRE8 (DJ) at Red Square, Burlington, 11:30 p.m. Free.

open mics & jams

WED.30

Irish Sessions (Celtic, open mic) at Light Club Lamp Shop, Burlington, 6 p.m. Free.

Open Mic (open mic) at Monopole, Plattsburgh, N.Y., 10 p.m. Free.

Open Mic, Open Stage, Open Jam Night (open mic) at Orlando’s Bar & Lounge, Burlington, 8 p.m. Free.

Open Mic with Danny Lang (open mic) at Taps Tavern, Poultney, 7 p.m. Free.

FRI.1

Red Brick Coffee House (open mic) at Red Brick Meeting House, Westford, 7 p.m. Free.

MON.4

Open Mic (open mic) at Stone Corral, Richmond, 7 p.m. Free.

Open Mic Night (open mic) at Despacito, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free.

TUE.5

Open Mic Night (open mic) at 1st Republic Brewing, Essex, 6 p.m.

Free.

Venetian Open Mic (open mic) at the Venetian Cocktail & Soda Lounge, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free.

WED.6

Irish Sessions (Celtic, open mic) at Light Club Lamp Shop, Burlington, 6 p.m. Free.

Open Mic (open mic) at Monopole, Plattsburgh, N.Y., 10 p.m. Free.

Open Mic with Danny Lang (open mic) at Taps Tavern, Poultney, 7 p.m. Free.

comedy

WED.30

Standup Comedy Open Mic (comedy open mic) at Vermont Comedy Club, Burlington, 8:30 p.m.

Weird & Niche (comedy) at Vermont Comedy Club, Burlington, 7 p.m. $5.

THU.31

Kate James & Steve Waltien (comedy) at Vermont Comedy Club, Burlington, 8:45 p.m. $20.

Madelein Smith (comedy) at Vermont Comedy Club, Burlington, 7 p.m. $10.

FRI.1

Ray Harrington (comedy) at Vermont Comedy Club, Burlington, 7:30 & 9:30 p.m. $25.

SAT.2

Ray Harrington (comedy) at Vermont Comedy Club, Burlington, 7:30 & 9:30 p.m. $25.

SUN.3

Pride Week: Drag Brunch (drag) at Vermont Comedy Club, Burlington, 10:30 a.m. $20.

MON.4

Comedy Open Mic (comedy open mic) at the 126, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free.

WED.6

David Cross, Sean Patton (comedy) at Higher Ground Ballroom, South Burlington, 7 p.m. $40/$43.

Roar! Showcase (comedy) at Vermont Comedy Club, Burlington, 6:30 p.m. $5.

Standup Comedy Open Mic (comedy open mic) at Vermont Comedy Club, Burlington, 8:30 p.m.

trivia, karaoke, etc.

WED.30

4Qs Trivia Night (trivia) at Four Quarters Brewing, Winooski, 6 p.m. Free.

Trivia Night (trivia) at Stone Corral, Richmond, 7 p.m. Free.

Venetian Trivia Night (trivia) at the Venetian Cocktail & Soda Lounge, Burlington, 6 p.m. Free.

THU.31

Karaoke Night (karaoke) at Zenbarn, Waterbury Center, 7 p.m. Free.

Trivia (trivia) at Highland Lodge, Greensboro, 7 p.m. Free.

Trivia Night (trivia) at McGillicuddy’s Five Corners, Essex Junction, 6:30 p.m. Free.

Trivia Night (trivia) at Nectar’s, Burlington, 6:30 p.m. Free.

Trivia Thursday (trivia) at Spanked Puppy Pub, Colchester, 7 p.m. Free.

SUN.3

Venetian Karaoke (karaoke) at the Venetian Cocktail & Soda Lounge, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free.

MON.4

Trivia Monday with Top Hat Entertainment (trivia) at McKee’s Pub & Grill, Winooski, 7-9 p.m. Free.

Trivia with Craig Mitchell (trivia) at Monkey House, Winooski, 7 p.m. Free.

TUE.5

Karaoke with Motorcade (karaoke) at Manhattan Pizza & Pub, Burlington, 9 p.m. Free.

Taproom Trivia (trivia) at 14th Star Brewing, St. Albans, 6:30 p.m. Free.

Trivia Night (trivia) at the Depot, St. Albans, 7 p.m. Free.

Trivia Tuesday (trivia) at On Tap Bar & Grill, Essex Junction, 7 p.m. Free.

Tuesday Trivia (trivia) at Vermont Comedy Club, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free.

WED.6

4Qs Trivia Night (trivia) at Four Quarters Brewing, Winooski, 6 p.m. Free.

Trivia Night (trivia) at Stone Corral, Richmond, 7 p.m. Free.

Venetian Trivia Night (trivia) at the Venetian Cocktail & Soda Lounge, Burlington, 6 p.m. Free. ➆

REVIEW this music+nightlife

Scott Tournet, Rock & Roll Stories

(SELF-RELEASED, CD, DIGITAL)

Guitarist Scott Tournet has an on-again, o -again relationship with rock and roll. Raised on a dirt road in rural Vermont in a house with no electricity, Tournet didn’t start playing the guitar until he attended college. At Goddard College in Plainfield, he took up the art of rock with gusto, studying at the altar of Jimi Hendrix and Jimmy Page. Not long after, he met drummer Matt Burr and singer-songwriter Grace Potter, and the three musicians formed Grace Potter and the Nocturnals. The band became one of the most

Beard & Glasses, Born at the Wrong Time

(SELF-RELEASED, DIGITAL)

Producers Matt Scott and Sam Clement met at Bennington College in 2004 and soon became frequent collaborators. Between doing session work together and playing in bands such as psych-rock trio Tighten, Scott and Clement developed an indie rock-meets-funkmeets-pop sound that is encapsulated by their new project, Beard & Glasses.

Scott’s musical résumé boasts an eclectic mix of activities, from incarnating his instrumental hip-hop alter ego, Elder Orange, to

successful Vermont musical exports, but that success wore on Tournet, who found playing football stadiums and making TV appearances tiresome. He quit the band he’d helped start and delved into Afrobeat and experimental and Latin jazz, forming the band Elektric Voodoo.

Now living back east after leaving California with his wife and kids, Tournet has decided to reengage with his inner rocker, picking his guitar back up for Rock & Roll Stories

“Cadillac” kicks things o . Avoiding the cliché of making an album like this all about himself, Tournet tells the story of two teen lovers stealing a car to leave their hometown. It’s a good thematic place for the record to launch: rebellious youth

ripping o an American institution to hit the road.

“Cadillac” and the subsequent track, “Fever,” show a lot of Black Keys influence, both in the songwriting and the fuzzed-out guitar hooks. Which makes sense, as Tournet spent time writing with the Black Keys’ front man, Dan Auerbach. While he clearly picked up some useful tricks of the trade from Auerbach, certain songs on Rock & Roll Stories give a sense of following an already-paved road.

Things get much more interesting on “8654321.” Tournet wrote the song after seeing the ultrasound for his soon-toarrive daughter, Lucy Violet. After the doctor told him and his wife that their daughter’s heart rate was 142 beats per minute, Tournet programmed a drum loop at the same speed and composed a song from the perspective of his child, still in the womb. It could easily have come across as cheesy, but Tournet keeps

the song driving hard, laying down some ferocious guitar solos.

Publicity materials describe the record as Tournet’s return to the guitar-rock roots of his days in the Nocturnals. That’s somewhat accurate — surely, a song such as “Holy Roller” would have slotted nicely into any of the early Nocturnals albums. But that characterization doesn’t take into account the more eclectic influences that have since entered Tournet’s sound. The production of Rock & Roll Stories is more pop than rock, with crisp, sometimes programmed beats and highly processed vocals.

That’s not to say there aren’t moments when the album puts its foot to the accelerator and things get properly rocking. But Tournet has lived a lot since his time in the Nocturnals, and the album reflects that living, much to its benefit. Rock & Roll Stories is available now on all major streaming platforms.

playing in R&B outfit the NEKTones and contributing to rapper Fattie B’s 2022 album, GUMBO. Clement’s solo work, such as his 2020 record ARTEMIS, often focuses on ambience. When these myriad approaches intertwine, you get the slightly strange but incredibly listenable Born at the Wrong Time.

The duo’s debut kicks o with the striking “War Without Room for an Argument.” Over a roadhouse blues keyboard figure, Scott’s vocal comes through as brightly as a burst of sunlight through a window, powerful and reminiscent of Irish singer-songwriter Hozier.

“Hunger makes us do some crazy things / War without room for an argument,” Scott sings, opening the record on a philosophical note that is nicely, if

somewhat ambiguously, tied up by the line “When the cat’s away / you’ll know where to find me.”

The potential pitfalls of producing your own work rear their ugly heads on the title track, an otherwise powerfully uplifting rock/indie-soul mashup, when Scott goes all in on auto-tuning his vocals for the song’s hook. The move falls a little flat, suggesting a guitarist who perhaps should have left the wah pedal at home.

It’s a momentary blip, though, as the band drops an R&B-leaning soft jam titled “My Love (Is Like a River),” featuring clever back-and-forth between Clement’s guitar and the keys as Scott pushes into falsetto. Beard & Glasses could easily just have made an album to fuck to — they clearly have that mode in their bag — but they seem to have little desire to stay in one place on Born at the Wrong Time

With “A Better Version of Me,” Southern rock and hints (only hints,

thankfully) of jam creep in. But, as on most of the record, Scott and Clement are so completely in control of their sound that they wield the di erent genres like carpenters do a tool belt. They go full folk ditty on “Bottom of the Bottle,” only to switch gears on indie rocker “Eternal Interstate.”

The tonal fidelity that the record maintains amid its variety does credit to the duo’s songwriting chops as well as its obvious comfort in the studio. Clement and Scott run Akin Studios in Hoosick Falls, N.Y., where they recorded much of the LP and spent years writing these songs — and it shows. By the album’s closer, electro-soul jam “Prism,” Beard & Glasses have moved through many di erent shades, but the record never loses the cohesion of one gorgeously colored-in painting.

Born at the Wrong Time is available at beardandglasses.bandcamp.com.

CHRIS FARNSWORTH

on screen

July’s flooding damaged Montpelier’s Savoy Theater, one of Vermont’s most important cultural institutions. A new memoir from its founder, Rick Winston, details the theater’s early decades as a landmark purveyor of indie and foreign films (see page 46).

In 1989, the Savoy was where I saw Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing. In April, it was the first local theater to screen Daniel Goldhaber’s How to Blow Up a Pipeline, fresh from its 2022 premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival and arguably just as exciting and controversial as Lee’s film was in its day.

How to Blow Up a Pipeline ★★★★★ REVIEW

If you didn’t notice How to Blow Up a Pipeline during its brief local run, that’s because today’s indie fi lms struggle to find a theatrical audience. I’m as guilty as anyone of “waiting for streaming.” You can now watch this eco-thriller on Hulu or rent it elsewhere. But please also catch a film at the Savoy, which reopens this Friday, September 1.

The deal

Eight young people converge on a desolate cabin in West Texas, bearing materials for homemade explosives. Their mission is to blow up a section of nearby oil pipeline, driving up global prices to hasten the end of fossil fuels — all without causing an oil spill.

As their plan unfolds, the narrative periodically flashes back to show us how each ended up here. Shawn (Marcus Scribner) was recruited by Xochitl (Ariela Barer), a college student whose mom died in a heat wave. Xochitl’s childhood friend Theo (Sasha Lane) grew up in a refinery town and developed terminal leukemia. Theo’s girlfriend, Alisha (Jayme Lawson), is struggling to overcome doubts about the plan.

Michael (Forrest Goodluck) is a young Indigenous man who taught himself to build explosives to fight back against the industry that decimated his ancestral lands. Working-class Texan Dwayne (Jake Weary) had his homestead seized for the building of the pipeline. Rowan and Logan (Kristine Froseth and Lukas Gage) look like a couple of club kids, but they also have vital roles to perform.

And one of these people just might be a mole for the authorities.

Will you like it?

Every year of wild weather brings home the reality of the climate crisis. Yet cinema rarely attempts to depict this threat to humankind, with the exception of a few hyperbolic disaster movies and Oscar-bait environmentalist films. The reasons are obvious: Climate change is too di use to be cinematic, too much of a downer, too politically charged. It’s a tough topic for fiction to broach without getting academic or preachy.

Goldhaber, who made his name with the thriller Cam, cuts through all those objections by giving How to Blow Up a Pipeline the propulsive form of a heist movie. The film takes its name from Andreas Malm’s 2021 manifesto How to Blow Up a Pipeline: Learning to Fight in a World on Fire, which argues that climate activists should embrace sabotage as a tactic. Xochitl expresses that view in the film, describing the attack on the pipeline as “self-defense.” Alisha, by contrast, fears the consequences of violence. Michael seems eager to burn everything down.

The film’s characters rarely sit still long enough to debate ideas, however. They’re almost continually in motion, and the tightly paced narrative sweeps us up and makes us root for them whether we endorse their last-resort approach or not.

Goldhaber makes shameless use of time-honored techniques of pulpy action

filmmaking: quick cuts, zooming in on key objects, interrupting the story with flashbacks at cli -hanger moments. And damned if it doesn’t all work. Shot on 16-millimeter film for a gritty look, How to Blow Up a Pipeline combines low-budget simplicity and clever orchestration into a thrill ride that might remind you of beloved ’80s action flicks. There’s no bloat here.

Likewise, the script (by Goldhaber, Barer and Jordan Sjol) is all e ciency, sketching each character’s backstory in swift strokes. While the movie has a clear point of view, the dialogue doesn’t hit false or hokey notes, and the actors make us believe in their characters’ convictions and fears.

Most environmentalist movies encourage nothing more aggressive than voting and donating to good causes. This one presents a provocative call to action in a highly entertaining package — a combination that some authorities appear to find worrying. According to a May story in Rolling Stone, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and 22 other state and federal law enforcement agencies have warned that violence could result from How to Blow Up a Pipeline — even though, according to an expert quoted in the article, the movie is not the “step-bystep guide” its title might suggest.

Whatever you think of Malm’s thesis, it’s hard not to share the frustration that

clearly motivates the film. All that wellintentioned voting and donating doesn’t seem to be doing much. With breathless immediacy, Goldhab er offers a master class in making activist films less polite and more, well, explosive.

MARGOT HARRISON margot@sevendaysvt.com

IF YOU LIKE THIS, TRY...

NIGHT MOVES (2013; Crackle, fubo, Peacock, Plex, Prime Video, Redbox, the Roku Channel, rentable): One of acclaimed director Kelly Reichardt’s lesser-known films is this eco-thriller about activists plotting to blow up a dam.

END OF THE LINE: THE WOMEN OF STANDING ROCK (2021; Peacock): Shannon Kring’s documentary pays tribute to the Indigenous women who risked their lives to protest the Dakota Access Pipeline.

THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS (1966; Criterion Channel, Max, rentable): How to Blow Up a Pipeline reminds us that political films don’t have to be talky or dull. But that’s no surprise to anyone who’s viewed Gillo Pontecorvo’s taut classic about the Algerian struggle for independence.

NEW IN THEATERS

THE EQUALIZER 3: Denzel Washington is back as the former government assassin and champion of the oppressed, now taking on the mafia in Italy, in Antoine Fuqua’s action thriller. With Dakota Fanning and Eugenio Mastrandrea. (109 min, R. Essex, Majestic, Palace, Roxy, Star, Sunset, Welden)

LANDSCAPE WITH INVISIBLE HAND: In this satire based on the novel by Vermont author M.T. Anderson, two teens survive under alien rule by selling aspects of what makes them human. Asante

Blackk, Tiffany Haddish and Kylie Rogers star. Cory Finley directed. (105 min, R. Roxy)

CURRENTLY PLAYING

BARBIEHHHH Margot Robbie plays the Mattel toy as she experiences her first-ever existential crisis. (114 min, PG-13. Bethel, Bijou, Essex, Majestic, Palace, Paramount, Roxy, Savoy, Star, Stowe, Sunset, Welden; reviewed 7/26)

BLUE BEETLEHHH An alien scarab transforms a teenager (Xolo Maridueña) into a superhero in this action adventure. Angel Manuel Soto directed. (127 min, PG-13. Bethel, Big Picture, Bijou, Essex, Majestic, Palace, Roxy, Stowe, Welden)

GOLDAHH1/2 Helen Mirren plays Golda Meir, former prime minister of Israel, in this drama about the Yom Kippur War. Guy Nattiv directed. (100 min, PG-13. Palace)

GRAN TURISMOHH1/2 A teen (Archie Madekwe) transfers his video game prowess to professional car racing in this fact-inspired action drama from Neill Blomkamp. (135 min, PG-13. Bijou, Essex, Majestic, Palace, Roxy, Star, Stowe, Sunset, Welden)

THE HILL: Rickey Hill (Colin Ford), a young baseball player with a disability, aims for the major leagues in this biographical sports drama directed by Jeff Celentano. (126 min, PG. Essex, Majestic)

MEG 2: THE TRENCHHH Erstwhile experimentalist Ben Wheatley directed this sequel to the summer hit in which Jason Statham aids deep-sea researchers as they battle various menaces, including prehistoric sharks. (116 min, PG-13. Bijou, Majestic, Sunset)

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE — DEAD RECKONING PART

ONEHHHH Tom Cruise returns as secret agent Ethan Hunt in the seventh installment of the action franchise. (163 min, PG-13. Palace)

NO HARD FEELINGSHHH A down-on-her-luck woman (Jennifer Lawrence) is hired by a 19-yearold’s parents to bring him out of his shell before college in this comedy. (103 min, R. Sunset)

OPPENHEIMERHHHHH Director Christopher Nolan tells the story of the man (Cillian Murphy) who played a key role in creating the atomic bomb. With Emily Blunt, Matt Damon and Robert Downey Jr. (180 min, R. Big Picture, Essex, Majestic, Palace, Roxy, Stowe; reviewed 8/2)

RETRIBUTIONHH Liam Neeson plays a bank exec who gets a bomb threat while driving his kids to school, and you can guess the rest. Nimród Antal directed the action flick. (91 min, R. Essex, Majestic, Palace, Star)

STRAYSHH1/2 Will Ferrell and Jamie Foxx voice candid canines in this not-for-kids comedy about a dog who seeks vengeance on the owner who abandoned him. Josh Greenbaum directed.

(93 min, R. Essex, Majestic, Palace, Roxy, Sunset)

TALK TO MEHHH1/2 A group of friends learns that using an embalmed hand to conjure spirits is a very bad idea in this horror thriller from Australia.

(94 min, R. Sunset; reviewed 8/8)

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: MUTANT

MAYHEMHHH1/2 Cowriter Seth Rogen and directors

Jeff Rowe and Kyler Spears reboot the comic-based series about four crime-fighting brothers raised in the New York sewers for this animated adventure.

(99 min, PG. Essex, Majestic, Palace, Welden)

THEATER CAMPHHH1/2 A staff of thespians must make an unusual alliance to save their beloved summer retreat in this comedy starring Ben Platt.

(92 min, PG-13. Playhouse, Roxy)

OLDER FILMS AND SPECIAL SCREENINGS

AMERICAN GRAFFITI 50TH ANNIVERSARY (Essex, Wed 30 only)

ELEMENTAL (Essex, Majestic, Palace, Star)

HAUNTED MANSION (Paramount)

JURASSIC PARK 30TH ANNIVERSARY 3D (Majestic, Palace)

THE LAST VOYAGE OF THE DEMETER (Sunset)

OLDBOY (2003) (Roxy)

THEY LIVE 35TH ANNIVERSARY (Essex, Sun only)

VANISH: DISAPPEARING ICONS OF A RURAL AMERICA (Stowe, Sat only)

OPEN THEATERS

The Capitol Showplace and Catamount Arts are currently closed until further notice. The Marquis Theater is closed with a reopening date of September 13. (* = upcoming schedule for theater was not available at press time)

BETHEL DRIVE-IN: 36 Bethel Dr., Bethel, 728-3740, betheldrivein.com

*BIG PICTURE THEATER: 48 Carroll Rd., Waitsfield, 496-8994, bigpicturetheater.info

*BIJOU CINEPLEX 4: 107 Portland St., Morrisville, 888-3293, bijou4.com

*CAPITOL SHOWPLACE: 93 State St., Montpelier, 229-0343, fgbtheaters.com

*CATAMOUNT ARTS: 115 Eastern Ave., St. Johnsbury, 748-2600, catamountarts.org

ESSEX CINEMAS & T-REX THEATER: 21 Essex Way, Suite 300, Essex, 879-6543, essexcinemas.com

MAJESTIC 10: 190 Boxwood St., Williston, 878-2010, majestic10.com

*MARQUIS THEATER: 65 Main St., Middlebury, 388-4841, middleburymarquis.com

*MERRILL’S ROXY CINEMAS: 222 College St., Burlington, 864-3456, merrilltheatres.net

PALACE 9 CINEMAS: 10 Fayette Dr., South Burlington, 864-5610, palace9.com

PARAMOUNT TWIN CINEMA: 241 N. Main St., Barre, 479-9621, fgbtheaters.com

PLAYHOUSE MOVIE THEATRE: 11 S. Main St., Randolph, 728-4012, playhouseflicks.com

SAVOY THEATER: 26 Main St., Montpelier, 229-0598, savoytheater.com

STAR THEATRE: 17 Eastern Ave., St. Johnsbury, 748-9511, stjaytheatre.com

*STOWE CINEMA 3PLEX: 454 Mountain Rd., Stowe, 253-4678, stowecinema.com

SUNSET DRIVE-IN: 155 Porters Point Rd., Colchester, 862-1800, sunsetdrivein.com

WELDEN THEATRE: 104 N. Main St., St. Albans, 527-7888, weldentheatre.com

Note: These capsule descriptions are not intended as reviews. Star ratings come from Metacritic unless we reviewed the film (noted at the end of the description). Find reviews written by Seven Days critic Margot Harrison at sevendaysvt.com/ onscreen-reviews.

AUGUST 30-SEPTEMBER 6, 2023

WED.30 business

QUEEN CITY BUSINESS

NETWORKING

INTERNATIONAL GROUP: Savvy businesspeople make crucial contacts at a weekly chapter meeting. Burlington City Arts, 11:15 a.m.-1 p.m. Free. Info, 829-5066.

crafts

YARN CRAFTERS GROUP: A drop-in meetup welcomes knitters, crocheters, spinners, weavers and beyond. BYO snacks and drinks. Must Love Yarn, Shelburne, 5-7 p.m. Free. Info, 448-3780.

environment

UNDER THE ARCTIC: DIGGING INTO PERMAFROST: A special exhibition focuses on climate education and environmental sustainability. Montshire Museum of Science, Norwich, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. $17-20; free for members and kids under 2. Info, 649-2200.

etc.

DOG DAY AT THE POOL:

Four-legged swimmers have the pool to themselves at this yearly canine splash fest. Maximum two dogs per adult. Donations benefit Central Vermont Humane Society. Montpelier Public Pool, 5-6:30 p.m. $20 suggested donation. Info, development@central vermonthumane.org.

fairs & festivals

CHAMPLAIN VALLEY FAIR: Vermonters enjoy an absolute smorgasbord of rides, games and fun, from the demolition derby to carousels to a Ludacris concert. Champlain Valley Exposition, Essex Junction, 10 a.m.-midnight.

$5-185; free for kids 4 and under. Info, 878-5545.

film

See what’s playing at local theaters in the On Screen section.

‘JOURNEY TO SPACE 3D’: Sparkling graphics and vibrant interviews take viewers on a journey alongside NASA astronauts as they prepare for stranger-than-sciencefiction space travel. Northfield Savings Bank 3D Theater: A National Geographic Experience, ECHO Leahy Center for Lake Champlain, Burlington, ongoing, 10:30 a.m., 12:30, 2:30 & 4:30 p.m. $3-5 plus regular admission, $14.50-18; admission free for members and kids 2 and under. Info, 864-1848.

‘MYSTERIES OF THE UNSEEN WORLD 3D’: Stunning footage takes viewers on a mind-bending journey into phenomena that are too slow, too fast or too small to be seen by the naked eye. Northfield Savings Bank 3D Theater: A National Geographic Experience, ECHO Leahy Center for Lake Champlain, Burlington, ongoing, noon, 2 & 4 p.m. $3-5 plus regular admission, $14.50-18; admission free for members and kids 2 and under. Info, 864-1848.

RICK WINSTON: Drawing on 12 movie clips, the local film historian illuminates the arc of Alfred Hitchcock’s brilliant career. Worthen Library, South Hero, 6:30 p.m. Free. Info, 372-6209.

‘WILD AFRICA 3D’: Viewers are plunged into the magical vistas of the continent’s deserts, jungles and savannahs. Northfield Savings Bank 3D Theater: A National Geographic Experience, ECHO Leahy Center for Lake

LIST YOUR UPCOMING EVENT HERE FOR FREE!

All submissions must be received by Thursday at noon for consideration in the following Wednesday’s newspaper. Find our convenient form and guidelines at sevendaysvt.com/postevent

Listings and spotlights are written by Emily Hamilton Seven Days edits for space and style. Depending on cost and other factors, classes and workshops may be listed in either the calendar or the classes section. Class organizers may be asked to purchase a class listing.

Learn more about highlighted listings in the Magnificent 7 on page 11.

Champlain, Burlington, ongoing, 11 a.m., 1 & 3 p.m. $3-5 plus regular admission, $14.50-18; admission free for members and kids 2 and under. Info, 864-1848.

‘WINGS OVER WATER 3D’: Sandhill cranes, yellow warblers and mallard ducks make their lives along rivers, lakes and wetlands. Northfield Savings Bank 3D Theater: A National Geographic Experience, ECHO Leahy Center for Lake Champlain, Burlington, ongoing, 11:30 a.m., 1:30 & 3:30 p.m. $3-5 plus regular admission, $14.50-18; admission free for members and kids 2 and under. Info, 864-1848.

food & drink

ALL ABOUT FOOD: A FOOD LOVERS’ GROUP: A monthly discussion group samples new topics of tasty conversation at every meeting. Manchester Community Library, Manchester Center, 2-3 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, 549-4574.

KEY LIME PIE WITH ‘THE PIE GUY’: Gary Stuard virtually demonstrates a classic recipe. Preregistration required. 5:30-7 p.m. Free. Info, 861-9700.

games

MAH-JONGG OPEN PLAY: Weekly sessions of an age-old game promote critical thinking and friendly competition. Manchester Community Library, Manchester Center, 12:30-3:30 p.m. Free. Info, 362-2607.

health & fitness

CHAIR YOGA: Waterbury Public Library instructor Diana Whitney leads at-home participants in gentle

FIND

Find visual art exhibits and events in the Art section and at sevendaysvt.com/art.

film

See what’s playing at theaters in the On Screen section.

music + nightlife

Find club dates at local venues in the Music + Nightlife section online at sevendaysvt.com/music.

= ONLINE EVENT

stretches supported by seats. 10 a.m. Free. Info, 244-7036.

MPOX & COVID-19 VACCINE CLINIC: Walk-in or preregistered guests get their shots. Pride Center of Vermont, Burlington, noon-2 p.m. Free. Info, glam@ pridecentervt.org.

SEATED & STANDING YOGA: Beginners are welcome to grow their strength and flexibility at this supportive class. Manchester Community Library, Manchester Center, 9-10 a.m. Free. Info, 549-4574.

language

BEGINNER IRISH LANGUAGE CLASS: Celtic-curious students learn to speak an Ghaeilge in a supportive group. Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, noon-1 p.m. Free. Info, 863-3403.

ELL CLASSES: ENGLISH FOR BEGINNERS & INTERMEDIATE STUDENTS: Learners of all abilities practice written and spoken English with trained instructors. Presented by Fletcher Free Library. 6:30-8 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, bshatara@ burlingtonvt.gov.

montréal

‘AURA’: An immersive light show and soundscape highlights the rich history and stunning architecture of the Québec church. Notre-Dame Basilica of Montréal, 6 & 8 p.m. $18-32; free for kids 5 and under. Info, 866-842-2925.

music

ZACH NUGENT UNCORKED: The sought-after guitarist plays a weekly loft show featuring live music, storytelling and special guests. Shelburne Vineyard, 6-8:45 p.m. Free. Info, 985-8222.

sports

GREEN MOUNTAIN TABLE

TENNIS CLUB: Ping-Pong players swing their paddles in singles and doubles matches. Rutland Area Christian School, 7-9 p.m. Free for first two sessions; $30 annual membership. Info, 247-5913.

PDGA PROFESSIONAL DISC GOLF WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP: Over 300 of the best disc golfers in the world take on the Brewster Ridge and Fox Run courses. Smugglers Notch Resort, Jeffersonville, 8 a.m.-9 p.m. $10-1,200. Info, kmohr@smuggs.com.

talks

PRESTON BRISTOW: A local official traces the history of the First Congregational Church of Woodstock with a slideshow, supplemented by craft marshmallows and switchel. Woodstock History Center, 6:30-7:30 p.m. Free. Info, 457-1822.

theater

‘THE TEMPEST’: Shakespeare in the Woods takes on the Bard’s tale of love, sorcery and revenge, set on a remote island. Hunter Park, Manchester Center, 7:30 p.m. $12-20; preregister. Info, shakespeareinthewoodsvt@ gmail.com.

words

VANESSA ANGÉLICA

VILLARREAL: The author of the poetry collection Beast Meridian reads from her work. Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, 7:30-8:30 p.m. Free. Info, 635-2727.

THU.31 activism

INTERNATIONAL OVERDOSE

AWARENESS DAY GATHERING: The Addiction Recovery Channel hosts a gathering to honor loved ones taken by drug overdose. Burlington City Hall Park, 5-7 p.m. Free. Info, 793-9252.

community

‘A PORTRAIT OF US’: Artists

Monica Jane Frisell and Adam Scher display photos and audio of the living history of Lyndon. The Satellite Gallery, Lyndonville, noon-7 p.m. Free. Info, 229-8317.

crafts

BOBBIN LACE DEMONSTRATION:

Nancy Pecca, a practitioner of the nearly forgotten art of lace making, shares her passion. Henry Sheldon Museum of Vermont History, Middlebury, 1-3 p.m. Regular admission $5-10; free for students and youths under 18. Info, 388-2117.

KNIT FOR YOUR NEIGHBOR: Fiber artists knit hats and scarves to donate to the South Burlington Food Shelf. Yarn, needles, looms and crochet hooks provided. South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, noon-3 p.m. Free. Info, 846-4140.

KNITTING GROUP: Knitters of all experience levels get together to spin yarns. Latham Library, Thetford, 7 p.m. Free. Info, 785-4361.

environment

UNDER THE ARCTIC: DIGGING INTO PERMAFROST: See WED.30.

etc.

PIZZA BY THE POND: A woodfired oven warms pies made of local ingredients while local musicians regale diners. Blueberry Hill Inn, Goshen, 5-8 p.m. $22-35; free for kids 5 and under; preregister; limited space. Info, 247-6735.

fairs & festivals

CHAMPLAIN VALLEY FAIR: See WED.30.

film

See what’s playing at local theaters in the On Screen section.

‘AND THE KING SAID, WHAT A FANTASTIC MACHINE’: A new Swedish documentary draws on a stunning array of archival footage to paint a comprehensive picture of the history of photography and video. Film House, Main Street Landing Performing Arts Center, Burlington, 7-8:30 p.m. $6-12; VTIFF members benefits apply. Info, 660-2600.

‘JOURNEY TO SPACE 3D’: See WED.30.

MOVIE NIGHTS AT THE FRAME: ‘DO THE RIGHT THING’: Bigotry boils over on a hot summer day in Brooklyn in this 1989 film from Spike Lee. Picnic baskets from Adventure Dinner available for purchase. BYO blankets or lawn chairs. Moran Frame, Burlington, 6-11 p.m. Free. Info, 863-3403. ‘MYSTERIES OF THE UNSEEN WORLD 3D’: See WED.30.

‘WILD AFRICA 3D’: See WED.30. ‘WINGS OVER WATER 3D’: See WED.30.

food & drink

ARE YOU THIRSTY, NEIGHBOR?:

A special discount cocktail menu sparks conversations and connections over cribbage and cards. Wild Hart Distillery and Tasting Room, Shelburne, 3-8 p.m. Free. Info, info@wildhartdistillery.com.

BARK & BREW: Humans chat over local food and beer while their pups play in the fenced yard. Proceeds benefit animal shelter programs. Humane Society of Chittenden County, South Burlington, 5:30-7:30 p.m. $20. Info, 862-0135.

DESTINATION DINNERS: ITALY:

Foodies enjoy a menu of pasta, garlic bread and pesto salad with a beautiful view of Greensboro. Highland Center for the Arts, Greensboro, 5-8 p.m. $20; $6 for children. Info, 533-2000.

UNDERSTORY FARM PIZZA

SOCIAL: Dinner baked in NOFAVT’s wood-fired pizza oven is followed by a farm tour. Understory Farm, Bridport, 5:30-7:30 p.m. $10-25. Info, 434-7153.

VERGENNES FARMERS MARKET: Local foods and crafts, live music, and hot eats spice up Thursday afternoons. Vergennes City Park, 3-6:30 p.m. Free. Info, 233-9180.

games

THE CHECK MATES: Chess players of all ages face off at this intergenerational weekly meetup. Manchester Community Library, Manchester Center, 3:30-4:30 p.m. Free. Info, 549-4574.

DUPLICATE BRIDGE: A lively group plays a classic, tricky game with an extra wrinkle. Waterbury Public Library, 12:30-4:30 p.m. Free. Info, 244-7223.

health & fitness

AMERICAN RED CROSS BLOOD DRIVE: The community arts group does its part to collect pints. Next Stage Arts Project, Putney, 9 a.m.2 p.m. Free. Info, 451-0053.

SIMPLIFIED TAI CHI FOR

SENIORS: Eighteen easy poses help with stress reduction, fall prevention and ease of movement. Manchester Community Library, Manchester Center, 3:15-4 p.m. Donations. Info, 362-2607.

TAI CHI THURSDAYS: Experienced instructor Rich Marantz teaches the first section of the Yang-style tai chi sequence. Manchester Community Library, Manchester Center, 5:30-6:30 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, 645-1960.

FAMI LY FU N

Check out these family-friendly events for parents, caregivers and kids of all ages.

• Plan ahead at sevendaysvt.com/family-fun

Post your event at sevendaysvt.com/postevent.

WED.30 burlington

BABYTIME: Librarians bring out books, rhymes and songs specially selected for young ones. Pre-walkers and younger. Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 11-11:30 a.m. Free. Info, 863-3403.

IMAGINATION STATION: Giant Jenga, Hula-Hoops and jump ropes entertain shoppers of all ages in between stops. Church Street Marketplace, Burlington, 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Free. Info, 863-1648.

STEAM SPACE: Kids explore science, technology, engineering, art and math activities. Ages 5 through 11. Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 5-6:30 p.m. Free. Info, 863-3403.

STORIES WITH SHANNON: Ages 2 to 5 gather in the library’s youth section for story time, songs and fun. No preregistration needed. Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 11 a.m. Free. Info, 863-3403.

chittenden county

LEGO BUILDERS: Aspiring architects enjoy an afternoon of imagination and play. South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, 3-4:30 p.m. Free. Info, 846-4140.

READ TO A DOG: Kids of all ages get a 10-minute time slot to tell stories to Lola the therapy pup. Dorothy Alling Memorial Library, Williston, 3:30-4:30 p.m. Free; preregister; limited space. Info, 878-4918.

manchester/ bennington

MCL FILM CLUB: Teen auteurs learn how to bring stories to life on camera. Manchester Community Library, Manchester Center, 3:30-5 p.m. Free. Info, 362-2607.

NEW MOMS’ GROUP: Local doula Kimberleigh Weiss-Lewitt facilitates a community-building weekly meetup for mothers who are new to parenting or the area. Manchester Community Library, Manchester Center, 9-10 a.m. Free. Info, 549-4574.

THU.31 burlington

IMAGINATION STATION: See WED.30.

chittenden county

PRESCHOOL MUSIC WITH LINDA BASSICK: The singer and storyteller extraordinaire leads little ones in indoor music and movement. Birth through age 5. Dorothy Alling Memorial Library, Williston, 10:30-11 a.m. Free. Info, 878-4918.

Flying High

Royal subjects of all ages flock to Sport of Kings Day at Vermont Institute of Natural Science in Quechee to celebrate the 3,000-year-old tradition of falconry, the art of hunting with trained raptors. After meeting birds of prey and a modern-day falconer, the whole fam can take part in a medieval siege, see a seven-foot trebuchet in action, participate in an archery demo, learn about medicinal plants and craft an oh-so-regal crown. Bring a picnic lunch to enjoy while local troubadours As the Crow Flies entertain the nobles.

SPORT OF KINGS DAY

Saturday, September 2, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., at Vermont Institute of Natural Science in Quechee. Regular admission, $16-19; free for members and kids 3 and under. Info, 359-5000, vinsweb.org.

TUE.5

chittenden county

PLAYGROUP & FAMILY SUPPORT: Families with children under age 5 play and connect with others in the community. Winooski Memorial Library, 10-11 a.m. Free. Info, 655-6424.

PRESCHOOL STORY TIME: Little ones enjoy a cozy session of reading, rhyming and singing. Birth through age 5. Dorothy Alling Memorial Library, Williston, 10:30-11 a.m. Free. Info, 878-4918.

SEPTEMBER SCIENCE: Young scientists learn about friction by making their own butter. Dorothy Alling Memorial Library, Williston, 5-5:45 p.m. Free. Info, 878-4918.

barre/montpelier

PRESCHOOL STORY TIME: See THU.31.

manchester/ bennington

STORY TIME: Youth librarian Carrie leads little tykes in stories and songs centered on a new theme every week. Birth through age 5. Manchester Community Library, Manchester Center, 10:30-11:30 a.m. Free. Info, 362-2607.

WED.6 burlington

BABYTIME: See WED.30.

IMAGINATION STATION: See WED.30.

STEAM SPACE: See WED.30.

STORIES WITH SHANNON: See WED.30.

chittenden county

PRESCHOOL PLAYTIME: Pre-K patrons play and socialize after music time. Dorothy Alling Memorial Library, Williston, 11-11:30 a.m. Free. Info, 878-4918.

stowe/smuggs

WEE ONES PLAY TIME: Caregivers bring kiddos 3 and younger to a new sensory learning experience each week. Morristown Centennial Library, Morrisville, 10 a.m. Free. Info, 888-3853.

mad river valley/ waterbury

JUBAL HARP & SONG: Judi Byron plays folk ditties, rhymes, and counting and movement songs for babies, toddlers and preschoolers to sing and dance along to. Waterbury Public Library, 10:30 a.m. Free. Info, 244-7036.

PRESCHOOL PLAY & READ: Outdoor activities, stories and songs get 3- and 4-year-olds engaged. Waterbury Public Library, 10:30 a.m. Free. Info, 244-7036.

FRI.1 burlington

SPLASH DANCE: DJs spin the decks by the fountain as kids party the day away. Burlington City Hall Park, 4 p.m. Free. Info, 865-7554.

upper valley

STORY TIME: Preschoolers take part in tales, tunes and playtime. Latham

Library, Thetford, 11 a.m. Free. Info, 785-4361.

manchester/ bennington

YOUNG ADULT DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: Teens battle beasts with swords and spell books in this campaign designed to accommodate both drop-in and recurring players. Ages 12 through 16. Manchester Community Library, Manchester Center, 2-4 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, 549-4574.

SAT.2 burlington

FACE PAINTING AND CARICATURES: Little Artsy Faces and Marc Hughes Illustrations paint faces in more ways than one at the corner of Bank and Church streets. Church Street Marketplace, Burlington, 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Free. Info, 863-1648.

stowe/smuggs

MUSICAL STORY TIME: Song, dance and other tuneful activities supplement picture books for kids 2 through 5. Morristown Centennial Library, Morrisville, 11 a.m. Free. Info, 888-3853.

upper valley

SPORT OF KINGS DAY: Lords and ladies of all ages experience the ancient arts of falconry and archery between legendary lessons on raptors and reptiles. See calendar spotlight. Vermont Institute

of Natural Science, Quechee, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Regular admission, $16-19; free for members and kids 3 and under. Info, 359-5000.

manchester/ bennington

NOTORIOUS RPG: Kids 10 through 14 create characters and play a collaborative adventure game similar to Dungeons & Dragons. Manchester Community Library, Manchester Center, 1-2 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, 362-2607.

STEAM SATURDAY: Little ones play around with foundational science and art fun. Manchester Community Library, Manchester Center, 11 a.m.-noon. Free. Info, 362-2607.

SUN.3

burlington

MASKS ON! SUNDAYS: Elderly, disabled and immunocompromised folks get the museum to themselves at a masksmandatory morning. ECHO Leahy Center for Lake Champlain, Burlington, 9-10 a.m. Free; preregister. Info, 864-1848.

MON.4

burlington

IMAGINATION STATION: See WED.30.

BABY TIME: Parents and caregivers bond with their pre-walking babes during this gentle playtime. Dorothy Alling Memorial Library, Williston, 10:30-11 a.m. Free. Info, 878-4918.

barre/montpelier

CHESS CLUB: See WED.30.

mad river valley/ waterbury

QUEER READS: LGBTQIA+ and allied youth get together each month to read and discuss ideas around gender, sexuality and identity. Waterbury Public Library, 6-7 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, 244-7036.

TEEN HANGOUT: Middle and high schoolers make friends at a no-pressure meetup. Waterbury Public Library, 3-6 p.m. Free. Info, 244-7036.

manchester/ bennington

MCL FILM CLUB: See WED.30. NEW MOMS’ GROUP: See WED.30. K

montréal

‘AURA’: See WED.30.

music

BARNARTS FEAST & FIELD

MUSIC SERIES: BILLY WYLDER: Farm-fresh foods and world music tunes are on the menu at a pastoral party. Fable Farm, Barnard, 5:30-8:30 p.m. $5-25. Info, music@barnarts.org.

CHUCK’S LAST JAM: Local jazz pianist and beloved music teacher Chuck Miller puts on a final performance before retiring to Florida. Town Hall Theater, Middlebury, 6:30 p.m. $20. Info, 382-9222.

MARK DALY: The indie rocker and Madaila leader serves up two sets on the patio. Shelburne Vineyard, 6 p.m. Free. Info, 985-8222.

SPRUCE PEAK SUMMER

CONCERT SERIES: THE BROOK & THE BLUFF: The Nashville-based quartet shows off its knack for expert musicianship. Katie Pruitt opens. The Lodge at Spruce Peak, Stowe, 6 p.m. $5-750. Info, 760-4634.

STEVE EARLE: An award-winning artist serenades a crowd with country tunes. Paramount Theatre, Rutland, 7:30 p.m. $4565. Info, 775-0570, ext. 201.

SWAY WILD: The Washington State-based indie folk duo couples sweet vocal harmonies with infectious rhythms to make joyful music. Live stream available. Next Stage Arts Project, Putney, 7 p.m. $10-25. Info, 451-0053.

THROWDOWN THURSDAYS: Sugarbush hosts a weekly summer shindig featuring live tunes, doubles cornhole tournaments and disc golf competitions. Lincoln Peak Vineyard, New Haven, 5-8 p.m. Free. Info, 552-4007.

THURSDAYS BY THE LAKE: MAL

MAÏZ: The psychedelic Latin outfit captivates audience members with a blend of traditional and modern Central and South American tunes. Union Station, Burlington, 5:30-7:30 p.m. Free; cash bar. Info, 540-3018.

TROY MILLETTE: Heartfelt original country-rock songs carry through the air, courtesy of the Fairfax musician. Shelburne Vineyard, 6-8:30 p.m. Free. Info, 985-8222.

outdoors

ROV SHIPWRECK TOUR: Explorers take a boat to the wreck of the Champlain II and peer into the depths using a remotely operated robot. Lake Champlain Maritime Museum, Vergennes, 10 a.m.noon. $25-40; preregister. Info, 475-2022.

politics

THOUGHT CLUB: Artists and activists convene to engage with Burlington’s rich tradition of radical thought and envision its future. Democracy Creative, Burlington, 6-7:30 p.m. Free. Info, tevan@democracycreative.com.

food & drink

RICHMOND FARMERS MARKET: Vendors present a diverse selection of locally produced foods and crafts as picnickers enjoy music from a different local band each week. Richmond Town Park, 3-6:30 p.m. Free. Info, rfmmanager@ gmail.com.

SOUTH END GET DOWN: Food trucks dish out mouthwatering meals and libations. Live DJs and outdoor entertainment add to the fun. 377 Pine St., Burlington, 5-9 p.m. Cost of food and drink. Info, getdown@orleansevents.com.

games

MAH-JONGG: Tile traders of all experience levels gather for a game. Dorothy Alling Memorial Library, Williston, 1-3 p.m. Free. Info, 878-4918.

montréal

‘AURA’: See WED.30.

music

MAL MAÏZ: Afro-Caribbean sounds carry across the lawn when the Costa Rica-born multiinstrumentalist explores the psychedelic edges of Latin music. Shelburne Vineyard, 7 p.m. $12. Info, 985-8222.

SUMMER MUSIC AT GRACE:

JOCELYN PETTIT AND ELLEN

GIRA: The Scottish fiddler and cellist, respectively, push boundaries between genres and continents. Grace Episcopal Church, Sheldon, 7 p.m. Donations. Info, 326-4603.

seminars

FREE COMMUNITY SELFDEFENSE CLASS: Attendees of all ages learn how to react to an attacker quickly and effectively. Oom Yung Doe VT, Burlington, 7-8 p.m. Free. Info, 309-6114.

sports

PDGA PROFESSIONAL DISC GOLF WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP: See WED.30, 8 a.m.-9 p.m.

tech

TECH AND TEXTILES: Crafters work on their knitting or crocheting while discussing questions such as how to set up a new tablet or what cryptocurrency even is. George Peabody Library, Post Mills, 1-5 p.m. Free. Info, 333-9724.

theater

‘HAMLET’: Shakespeare in the Woods presents the Bard’s timeless tale of revenge in this lavish and diverse outdoor performance. Hunter Park, Manchester Center, 7:30 p.m. $12-20. Info, shakespeare inthewoodsvt@gmail.com.

words

CHUCK COLLINS: The nonfiction author discusses his debut novel, Altar to an Erupting Sun, which tracks the aftermath of an environmental activist’s shocking death. Norwich Bookstore, 7 p.m. Free. Info, 649-1114.

Allium in Good Fun

Downtown Bennington transforms into a pungent paradise with the return of Garlic Town USA, hosted by the Southwestern Vermont Chamber of Commerce. The stinkin’ good time celebrates local agriculture — specifically, all thing garlic — with food trucks, on-brand treats such as garlic fudge and garlic lemonade, live music, kids’ activities, and plenty of photo ops. Visitors who try a garlic Bloody Mary or garlic margarita are sure to feel the clove, but there’s plenty of garlic-free food and drinks on offer, as well. Don’t leave without picking up a garlique-chic T-shirt and hat.

GARLIC TOWN USA

Saturday, September 2, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., in downtown Bennington. $5-30; free for kids 2 and under. Info, 447-3311, garlictownusa.com.

FRI.1 activism

FIRST FRIDAY SPEAK OUT: ‘HEALTHCARE IS A HUMAN RIGHT’: The Vermont Workers’ Center invites neighbors to share their health care stories in response to Congress eliminating extra Medicaid funding. Junction Arts & Media, White River Junction, 5-7 p.m. Free. Info, 295-6688.

agriculture

OPEN GARDEN DAYS: Owners Sally and Tobi chat horticulture with visitors exploring their lush grounds. Von Trapp Greenhouse, Waitsfield, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. $1010.50; free for kids under 18. Info, vontrappgreenhouse@gmail.com.

crafts

FIRST FRIDAY FIBER GROUP: Fiber-arts fans make progress

on projects while chatting over snacks. GRACE, Hardwick, 10:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Free; donations accepted. Info, info@ruralartsvt.org.

SCRAPBOOKING GROUP: Cutters and pasters make new friends at a weekly club. Manchester Community Library, Manchester Center, 10 a.m.-noon. Free. Info, 549-4574.

environment

UNDER THE ARCTIC: DIGGING INTO PERMAFROST: See WED.30. etc.

PIZZA BY THE POND: See THU.31.

fairs & festivals

CHAMPLAIN VALLEY FAIR: See WED.30.

FREE FIRST FRIDAY EVE: The museum opens its exhibits to one and all, and the lawns overflow with food, drink, games and live

music. Shelburne Museum, 5-7:30 p.m. Free. Info, 985-3346.

film

See what’s playing at local theaters in the On Screen section.

‘ABOLITION & REVOLUTION’: Burlington-based filmmaker April Fisher screens her debut film about the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020 and their connection to anti-capitalist movements around the world. South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, 6-8 p.m. Free. Info, 845-598-0655.

‘JOURNEY TO SPACE 3D’: See WED.30.

‘MYSTERIES OF THE UNSEEN WORLD 3D’: See WED.30.

‘WILD AFRICA 3D’: See WED.30.

‘WINGS OVER WATER 3D’: See WED.30.

TWILIGHT SERIES: SARAH KING: Shades of blues and alt-country color powerful songs by the Ripton-based singer-songwriter. Burlington City Hall Park, 6:309:30 p.m. Free. Info, 865-7166.

sports

PDGA PROFESSIONAL DISC GOLF

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP: See WED.30, 8 a.m.-10 p.m.

SUPER FRIDAY: The racetrack’s 2023 season continues with another nail-biting competition. Thunder Road Speedbowl, Barre, 7-10 p.m. $5-30; free for kids under 6. Info, info@thunderroadvt.com.

tech

MORNING TECH HELP: Experts answer questions about phones, laptops, e-readers and more in one-on-one sessions. ADA accessible. South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, 10 a.m.-noon. Free; preregister. Info, 846-4140.

theater

‘MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING’: Shakespeare’s classic romantic comedy gets an irresistible refresh in this production from Foul Contending Rebels. Off Center for the Dramatic Arts, Burlington, 7 p.m. $10-40. Info, foulcontendingrebels@ gmail.com.

‘THE TEMPEST’: See WED.30.

SAT.2 agriculture

OPEN GARDEN DAYS: See FRI.1.

dance

MONTPELIER CONTRA

DANCE AND GRANGE HALL

FUNDRAISER: To live tunes and gender-neutral calling by Adina Gordan, dancers balance, shadow and do-si-do the night away. Donations benefit the grange hall and Berlin flood victims. Capital City Grange, Berlin, beginners’ lesson, 7:40 p.m.; 8-11 p.m. $5-20. Info, 225-8921.

environment

UNDER THE ARCTIC: DIGGING INTO PERMAFROST: See WED.30. etc.

FREE STUDENT SATURDAY:

College students peruse the museum’s collections for free once a week all month long. Student ID required. Shelburne Museum, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Free. Info, 985-3346.

MEDITATION AND BUDDHIST

DISCUSSION GROUP: Locals calm their thoughts and discuss a short reading. Refreshments are served. All welcome regardless of meditation experience. Shambhala Meditation Center, Burlington, 9:30-11 a.m. Free. Info, 658-6795.

fairs & festivals

CHAMPLAIN VALLEY FAIR: See WED.30.

GARLIC TOWN USA: It’s the best stinkin’ time of the year! Garlic ice cream, garlic fudge and other odiferous offerings make for a funky festival celebrating all things allium. See calendar spotlight. Downtown Bennington, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. $5-30. Info, 447-3311.

LIBERTYSTOCK: This libertarian festival features live music, vendors and speakers. Proceeds benefit the Johnson Health Center’s flood recovery. Pransky Farm, Washington County, noon9 p.m. $5-30; free for kids under 13. Info, 851-0604.

MAD RIVER VALLEY CRAFT FAIR: Myriad artisans from across New England arrive to peddle their wares alongside live music, food and craft cocktails. Ticket proceeds support the Valley Players. Kenyon’s Field, Waitsfield, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. $5; free for kids 12 and under. Info, 583-1674.

film

See what’s playing at local theaters in the On Screen section.

‘JOURNEY TO SPACE 3D’: See WED.30.

MOTHERSHIP MONTHLY FILM

FEST SCREENING: Filmmakers screen their work based on a monthly theme. MothershipVT, Burlington, 7-9 p.m. $10 suggested donation. Info, mothership monthlyfilmfest@gmail.com.

‘MYSTERIES OF THE UNSEEN

WORLD 3D’: See WED.30.

‘WILD AFRICA 3D’: See WED.30.

‘WINGS OVER WATER 3D’: See WED.30.

food & drink

BURLINGTON FARMERS

MARKET: Dozens of stands overflow with seasonal produce, flowers, artisanal wares and prepared foods. 345 Pine St., Burlington, 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Free. Info, 560-5904.

CAPITAL CITY FARMERS MARKET: Meats and cheeses join farm-fresh produce, baked goods, locally made arts and crafts, and live music. Vermont College of Fine Arts, Montpelier, 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Free. Info, montpelierfarmersmarket@ gmail.com.

CHAMPLAIN VALLEY DINNER

TRAIN: Travelers savor a threecourse meal and scenic landscape views during a three-hour trip in a kitchen car. Ages 5 and up. Union Station, Burlington, 5-8 p.m. $99-148.50; preregister. Info, 800-707-3530.

ICE CREAM SOCIAL: Neighbors gather on the terrace and in the gardens for locally made ice cream and sweet treats. Waybury Inn, East Middlebury, 1-3 p.m. Free. Info, 388-4015.

NORTHWEST FARMERS

MARKET: Locavores stock up on produce, preserves, baked goods, and arts and crafts from over 50 vendors. Taylor Park, St. Albans, 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Free. Info, 242-2729.

ST. JOHNSBURY FARMERS

MARKET: Growers and crafters gather weekly at booths centered on local eats. Pearl St. & Eastern Ave., St. Johnsbury, 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Free. Info, cfmamanager@gmail. com.

games BEGINNER DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: Waterbury

Public Library game master Evan Hoffman gathers novices and veterans alike for an afternoon of virtual adventuring. Teens and adults welcome. Noon-4 p.m. Free. Info, 244-7036.

CHESS CLUB: Players of all ages and abilities face off and learn new strategies. ADA accessible. South Burlington Public Library

FOMO?

Find even more local events in this newspaper and online:

art

Find visual art exhibits and events in the Art section and at sevendaysvt.com/art.

film

See what’s playing at theaters in the On Screen section.

music + nightlife

Find club dates at local venues in the Music + Nightlife section online at sevendaysvt.com/ music.

Learn more about highlighted listings in the Magnificent 7 on page 11.

& City Hall, 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Free. Info, 846-4140.

lgbtq

PRIDE AT THE Y: LGBTQ swimmers have the water to themselves at this all-ages pool party. Greater Burlington YMCA, 4-6 p.m. Free; donations accepted; preregister. Info, richard@pridecentervt.org.

montréal

‘AURA’: See WED.30, 7 & 9 p.m.

music

ANDERS OSBORNE DUO: Sixstring virtuosity and stunning songwriting define this soughtafter musician’s sound. Spruce Peak Performing Arts Center, Stowe Mountain Resort, 7 p.m. $40-55. Info, 760-4634.

BURNHAM PRESENTS MUSIC

SERIES: BON DÉBARRAS: The high-energy Québécois musician impresses on fiddle, banjo, harmonica and body percussion. Burnham Hall, Lincoln, 7:30-10 p.m. $15-25 suggested donation. Info, burnhampresents@gmail. com.

THE SLAMBOVIAN CIRCUS OF DREAMS: Woodstock-tinged psychedelia and a hint of southern rock come together for this band’s sound. Highland Center for the Arts, Greensboro, 6:30 p.m. $25. Info, 533-2000.

TWILIGHT SERIES: MAPLE

RUN BAND: Waltz, bluegrass and rock combine for unparalleled grooves and unbeatable rootsy beats. Fern Maddie opens. Burlington City Hall Park, 6:309:30 p.m. Free. Info, 865-7166.

VERMONT PHILHARMONIC

POPS CONCERT: Louis Kosma conducts a program of Broadway standards, film favorites and patriotic numbers. Shore Acres Inn & Restaurant, North Hero, 4 p.m. $15-40. Info, 223-9855.

outdoors

GMC HIKE: LARAWAY LOOKOUT: The Green Mountain Club leads a scenic, moderately difficult trek up Laraway Mountain. Codding Hollow Trailhead, Johnson, 8 a.m.-3 p.m. Free; preregister; limited space. Info, 899-9982.

sports

PDGA PROFESSIONAL DISC

GOLF WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP: See WED.30, 8 a.m.-10 p.m. LAKE ELMORE 5K RUN/WALK: A new-this-year kiddie dash kicks off the fun, followed by the main event on a mostly flat course, an end-of-summer block party and evening fireworks on the beach. Race begins at the Elmore Fire Station, Lake Elmore, 8:30-10:30 a.m. $15-25. Info, 888-2637.

talks

WATER + ADVENTURE SPEAKER SERIES: Speakers from around the world inspire attendees to embark on water adventures in a daylong event hosted by the Community Sailing Center. Hula, Burlington, 11 a.m.-6 p.m. $35-70;

IN-PERSON

■ The Agrarian Vision of Wendell Berry

■ Extending Bloom T ime for Pollinators

■ Beginning Yoga

■ Stone Mason: My Earthwork, Permanent Ephemeral

■ Interfaith and Perennial Wisdom

■ Shelburne Museum Exhibit: Pop-Up—Inflated Sculpture

■ Shelburne Museum Exhibit: Pet Friendly—The Art of Stephen Huneck

■ Get More Out of Your Doctor’s Visit! What Your Doctor Wishes You Knew

■ Raul Hilberg and Research on the Holocaust at the University of Vermont

■ Fleming Museum—Praxis: Recent Work by Studio Art Faculty at UVM

■ Resilience, Joy, and the Convergence of Science & Meditation

“

ONLINE

■ Beginning Yoga

■ Poetry of Two Centuries, from Romantic to Postmodern: Wordsworth, Hopkins, Eliot, Larkin

■ VSO Offstage: Spotlight on the Conductor

■ Biryani and Indo-Persian Clay Pot Cooking

■ New York Historical Society Virtual Tour: First Jewish Americans: Freedom & Culture in the New World

■ Art of the Tale: Mid-Century Short Stories

■ Brain & Memory Activation

■ Cryptocurrencies and the Future of Money

■ Alfred Hitchcock’s San Francisco

■ Deconstructing Soup

OLLI programs are a great way to meet interesting people and explore a variety of disciplines led by engaging, knowledgeable people. It’s a wonderful way to refresh the mind and spirit!”

free for kids 12 and under. Info, 864-2499.

theater

GREEN MOUNTAIN CABARET

PRESENTS: SUGAR ON TAP: A BURLESQUE SHOW: Performers including Katniss Everqueer and Ginge O’Lolly celebrate body liberation and consent in a night of sass and class, hosted by Green Mountain Cabaret. Ages 18+. Black Box Theater, Main Street Landing Performing Arts Center, Burlington, 8 p.m. $20-25.

‘HAMLET’: See THU.31.

‘MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING’: See FRI.1

‘SHAKESPEARE ALIVE! A BARDBASED VARIETY SHOW’: Stand Up Shakespeare debuts a new collection of scenes, skits, soliloquies and songs. Union Christian Church, Calvin Coolidge State Historic Site, Plymouth, noon-1 p.m. Free. Info, 917-406-1456.

‘THE THANKSGIVING PLAY’: An elementary schoolteacher gamely tries to produce a pageant about the first Thanksgiving that makes everyone happy in this satirical production. Dorset Playhouse, 7:30 p.m. $53. Info, 867-2223.

words

FRIENDS OF ILSLEY LIBRARY

BOOK SALE: Books of all genres for all ages go on sale out in the sunshine, and all proceeds fund library programming. Middlebury Town Offices, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Free. Info, 388-4095.

SUN.3 community

MAD RIVER VALLEY ROTARY

DUCK RACE: Waitsfield’s quackiest fundraiser features a rubber-duck race, food, music and kids’ activities. Cash prizes for sponsors of the first 10 fake fowl to cross the finish line. Lareau Park, Waitsfield, 1-4 p.m. Free. Info, mrvrotary@gmail.com.

crafts

YARN CRAFTERS GROUP: See WED.30, 1-3 p.m.

environment

UNDER THE ARCTIC: DIGGING

INTO PERMAFROST: See WED.30, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.

fairs & festivals

CHAMPLAIN VALLEY FAIR: See WED.30.

HERITAGE WINOOSKI MILL

MUSEUM 25TH ANNIVERSARY

CELEBRATION: The Onion City collection marks a quarter century with exhibits, a Story Kiosk, crafts and free cupcakes. Heritage Winooski Mill Museum, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Free. Info, 355-9937.

MAD RIVER VALLEY CRAFT FAIR: See SAT.2.

NEW WORLD FESTIVAL: The 31st annual celebration of Celtic and French Canadian music features artists such as Cantrip and

health & fitness

ADVANCED TAI CHI: Experienced movers build strength, improve balance and reduce stress. Holley Hall, Bristol, 11 a.m.-noon. Free; donations accepted. Info, jerry@ skyrivertaichi.com.

LAUGHTER YOGA: Spontaneous, joyful movement and breath promote physical and emotional health. Pathways Vermont, Burlington, 2-3 p.m. Free. Info, chrisn@pathwaysvermont.org.

LONG-FORM SUN 73: Beginners and experienced practitioners learn how tai chi can help with arthritis, mental clarity and range of motion. Holley Hall, Bristol, 11 a.m.-noon. Free; donations accepted. Info, wirlselizabeth@ gmail.com.

YANG 24: This simplified tai chi method is perfect for beginners looking to build strength and balance. Congregational Church of Middlebury, 3:30-5:30 p.m. Free; donations accepted. Info, wirlselizabeth@gmail.com.

montréal

‘AURA’: See WED.30.

outdoors

Genticorum. Chandler Center for the Arts, Randolph, noon-11 p.m. $30-60; free for kids under 12. Info, 728-9878.

TWILIGHT STARS PARTY:

Stargazers and celebrants gather for an evening of food, beer, family fun and guided astronomy tours. See calendar spotlight. Old Stone House Museum & Historic Village, Brownington, 5-10 p.m. $8-12. Info, 754-2022.

film

See what’s playing at local theaters in the On Screen section.

‘JOURNEY TO SPACE 3D’: See WED.30.

‘MYSTERIES OF THE UNSEEN WORLD 3D’: See WED.30.

‘WILD AFRICA 3D’: See WED.30.

‘WINGS OVER WATER 3D’: See WED.30.

food & drink

STOWE FARMERS MARKET: An appetizing assortment of fresh veggies, meats, milk, berries, herbs, beverages and crafts tempts shoppers. 2043 Mountain Rd., Stowe, 10:30 a.m.-3 p.m. Free. Info, stowefarmersmarket@gmail. com.

SUNDAY FUNDAY: Food and drinks are on tap when attendees gather outside for games. 1st Republic Brewing, Essex, noon-5 p.m. Free. Info, 857-5318.

WINOOSKI FARMERS MARKET: Families shop for fresh produce, honey, meats, coffee and prepared foods from more seasonal vendors at an outdoor marketplace. Winooski Falls Way, 10 a.m.2 p.m. Free. Info, 655-6410.

health & fitness

COMMUNITY MINDFULNESS

PRACTICE: New and experienced meditators are always welcome to join this weekly practice in the tradition of Thich Nhat Hahn. Sangha Studio — Pine, Burlington, 6:30-8:30 p.m. Free. Info, newleafsangha@gmail.com.

KARUNA COMMUNITY

MEDITATION: A YEAR TO LIVE

(FULLY): Participants practice keeping joy, generosity and gratitude at the forefront of their minds. Jenna’s House, Johnson, 10-11:15 a.m. Free; donations accepted. Info, mollyzapp@live.com.

montréal

PIKNIC ÉLECTRONIK MONTRÉAL:

A weekly throwdown pairs topquality electronic music with a breathtaking view of Montréal from Île Saint-Hélène, aka St. Helen’s Island. Parc JeanDrapeau, Montréal, 4-10 p.m. $22-47; preregister. Info, info@ piknicelectronik.com.

music

BANDWAGON SUMMER SERIES:

THE SLAMBOVIAN CIRCUS OF DREAMS: A Sleepy Hollow, N.Y.based sextet mixes Americana music with anthem rock for a show that surprises and impresses. SVG Multipurpose Field, Bellows Falls, 5 p.m. $20-25; free for kids under 12. Info, 451-0053.

BRETT HUGHES: The singer-songwriter plays a weekly show on the porch while visitors enjoy an afternoon of wine and food. Lincoln Peak Vineyard, New Haven, 5-7 p.m. Free. Info, 388-7368.

Do Look Up

The night sky comes alive when the Old Stone House Museum & Historic Village in Brownington opens its grounds for its annual Twilight Stars Party. Bring your own picnic to enjoy before sundown or order from onsite provisions by Runaway Tomato, the local Ladies Aid Society and a beer garden. Northeast Kingdom rockers Evansville Transit Authority provide stellar tunes to pass the time until it’s dark enough for science educator and state Rep. Bobby Farlice-Rubio (D-Barnet) to take stargazers up Prospect Hill for a guided celestial tour that’s sure to be out of this world.

TWILIGHT STARS PARTY

Sunday, September 3, 5-10 p.m., at the Old Stone House Museum & Historic Village in Brownington. $8-12; free for kids 4 and under. Info, 754-2022, oldstonehousemuseum.org.

sports

45TH LABOR DAY CLASSIC: Racers hoping to take home the $5,000 prize rev their engines. Thunder Road Speedbowl, Barre, 1-5 p.m. $10-25; free for kids under 6. Info, info@thunderroadvt. com.

PDGA PROFESSIONAL DISC GOLF

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP: See WED.30, 8 a.m.-8 p.m. theater

‘MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING’: See FRI.1, 2 p.m. Free.

‘THE TEMPEST’: See WED.30.

‘THE THANKSGIVING PLAY’: See SAT.2, 2 p.m.

MON.4 crafts

KNIT WITS: Fiber-working friends get together to make progress on their quilts, knitwear and needlework. Manchester Community Library, Manchester Center, 3-4:30 p.m. Free. Info, 362-2607.

film

See what’s playing at local theaters in the On Screen section.

‘JOURNEY TO SPACE 3D’: See WED.30.

‘MYSTERIES OF THE UNSEEN WORLD 3D’: See WED.30.

‘WILD AFRICA 3D’: See WED.30.

‘WINGS OVER WATER 3D’: See WED.30.

STOWE PINNACLE HIKE: Hikers join the Green Mountain Club for a wonderful view of Stowe. Preregistration required. Start from Upper Hollow Road Trailhead parking lot, Stowe Pinnacle Trail, 8 a.m.-3 p.m. Free. Info, 356-9863.

words

ADDISON COUNTY WRITERS COMPANY: Poets, playwrights, novelists and memoirists of every experience level meet weekly for an MFA-style workshop. Swift House Inn, Middlebury, 6-8 p.m. Free. Info, jay@zigzaglitmag.org.

FOMO?

Find even more local events in this newspaper and online: art

Find visual art exhibits and events in the Art section and at sevendaysvt.com/art.

film

See what’s playing at theaters in the On Screen section.

music + nightlife

Find club dates at local venues in the Music + Nightlife section online at sevendaysvt.com/ music.

Learn more about highlighted listings in the Magnificent 7 on page 11.

= ONLINE EVENT

TUE.5 community

CURRENT EVENTS

DISCUSSION GROUP: Brownell Library holds a virtual roundtable for neighbors to pause and reflect on the news cycle. 10-11:30 a.m. Free. Info, 878-6955.

NETWORK DISCUSSION:

COMMUNITY-LED

RESPONSE AND RECOVERY: The Vermont Community Leadership

Network presents a virtual discussion of the current status of response and recovery. 9-10 a.m. Info, 223-6091.

dance

MORRIS & MORE: Dancers of all abilities learn how to step, clog and even sword fight their way through medieval folk dances of all kinds. Revels North, Lebanon, N.H., 6 p.m. Pay what you can. Info, 603-558-7894.

SWING DANCING: Local Lindy hoppers and jitterbuggers convene at Vermont Swings’ weekly boogie-down. Bring clean shoes. Beginner lessons, 6:30 p.m. Champlain Club, Burlington, 7:309 p.m. $5. Info, 864-8382.

film

See what’s playing at local theaters in the On Screen section.

‘JOURNEY TO SPACE 3D’: See WED.30.

‘MYSTERIES OF THE UNSEEN WORLD 3D’: See WED.30.

‘WILD AFRICA 3D’: See WED.30. ‘WINGS OVER WATER 3D’: See WED.30.

food & drink

COOKBOOK CLUB: Ottolenghi Flavor by Yotam Ottolenghi inspires a potluck. ADA accessible. South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, 5:30-6:45 p.m. Free. Info, 846-4140.

NORTHFIELD FARMERS MARKET: A gathering place for local farmers, producers and artisans offers fresh produce, crafts and locally prepared foods. Depot Square, Northfield, 3-6 p.m. Free. Info, 485-8586.

OLD NORTH END FARMERS

MARKET: Fresh local produce, bread, honey and prepared food bring good vibes to the Queen City’s melting pot. Dewey Park, Burlington, 3-6:30 p.m. Free. Info, 355-3910.

health & fitness

THE 8 BROCADES: Librarian Judi Byron leads students in the ancient Chinese practice of Ba Duan Jin qigong. Waterbury Public Library, 10 a.m. Free; preregister. Info, judi@waterbury publiclibrary.com.

TAI CHI TUESDAY: Patrons get an easy, informal introduction to this ancient movement practice that supports balance and strength.

CSWD offers convenient drop-off locations for trash, recycling, food scraps, and special materials like batteries and appliances. You’ll be surprised by all the things we can help you keep out of the landfill!

TUE.5 « P.71

Manchester Community Library, Manchester Center, 9-10:15 a.m. Free; donations accepted. Info, 362-2607.

language

Get Ready to Jam!

WED.6 business

QUEEN CITY BUSINESS

NETWORKING INTERNATIONAL

GROUP: See WED.30.

Vermont Tech Jam is an annual career and tech expo that showcases some of Vermont’s most innovative companies. The popular event attracts hundreds of job seekers, career changers, tech professionals, college students, enthusiasts and anyone eager to learn from and connect with Vermont companies.

KEYNOTE PRESENTATION

Lab-grown meat in Vermont?

Vermont loves its farms and its farmers. Will it also embrace meat that’s been grown in a lab? The USDA recently approved the production and sale of “cell-cultivated chicken.” What kinds of challenges and opportunities does no-slaughter meat present? Dr. Rachael Floreani and Irfan Tahir, two Vermont-based pioneers in the rapidly evolving field of cellular agriculture, explore those questions in a keynote conversation, moderated by Seven Days’ deputy publisher Cathy Resmer.

ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS: Instructor Andrea Thulin helps non-native speakers build their vocabulary and conversation skills. Manchester Community Library, Manchester Center, 5:307 p.m. Free. Info, 549-4574.

PAUSE-CAFÉ FRENCH

CONVERSATION: Francophones and French-language learners meet pour parler la belle langue Burlington Bay Market & Café, 5-7 p.m. Free. Info, 343-5493.

montréal

‘AURA’: See WED.30.

music

COMMUNITY SINGERS: A weekly choral meetup welcomes all singers to raise their voices along to traditional (and notso-traditional) songs. Revels North, Lebanon, N.H., 7:30 p.m. Pay what you can. Info, 603-558-7894.

GEORGE THOROGOOD & THE DESTROYERS: A certified platinum rock musician brings the jams. Paramount Theatre, Rutland, 7:30 p.m. $79-99. Info, boxoffice@paramountvt.org.

words

BURLINGTON

LITERATURE GROUP:

ORHAN PAMUK: Readers analyze the Nobel Prize-winning author’s novel My Name Is Red over five weeks. 6:30-8 p.m. Free. Info, info@nereadersandwriters.com.

JAMES CREWS: The local poet uses his poems and essays to explain why he believes kindness will save the world. Live stream available. Ilsley Public Library, Middlebury, 6-7:15 p.m. Free. Info, 388-2061.

FOMO?

Find even more local events in this newspaper and online:

art

Find visual art exhibits and events in the Art section and at sevendaysvt.com/art.

film

See what’s playing at theaters in the On Screen section.

music + nightlife

Find club dates at local venues in the Music + Nightlife section online at sevendaysvt.com/ music.

Learn more about highlighted listings in the Magnificent 7 on page 11.

= ONLINE EVENT

Free. Info, kell@pridecentervt. org.

community

COMMUNITY PARTNERS

DESK: VETERANS OUTREACH

PROGRAM: Representatives post up in the main reading room to answer questions and provide resources. Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 2-4 p.m. Free. Info, 863-3403.

crafts

YARN CRAFTERS GROUP: See WED.30.

dance

WESTIE WEDNESDAYS DANCE: Swing dancers lift and spin at a weekly social dance. North Star Community Hall, Burlington, 8-9 p.m. $5 suggested donation. Info, 802westiecollective@gmail. com.

film

See what’s playing at local theaters in the On Screen section.

‘JOURNEY TO SPACE 3D’: See WED.30.

‘MYSTERIES OF THE UNSEEN WORLD 3D’: See WED.30.

‘WILD AFRICA 3D’: See WED.30.

‘WINGS OVER WATER 3D’: See WED.30.

games

MAH-JONGG OPEN PLAY: See WED.30.

health & fitness

CHAIR YOGA: See WED.30. SEATED & STANDING YOGA: See WED.30.

language

BEGINNER IRISH LANGUAGE

CLASS: See WED.30.

ELL CLASSES: ENGLISH FOR BEGINNERS & INTERMEDIATE STUDENTS: See WED.30.

SPANISH CONVERSATION: Fluent and beginner speakers brush up on their español with a discussion led by a Spanish teacher. Presented by Dorothy Alling Memorial Library. 5-6 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, programs@damlvt.org.

lgbtq

LGBTQ PRIDE SEDER: LGBTQ+ Jews and allies gather for an evening of readings and community. Ages 13 and up recommended. Ohavi Zedek Synagogue, Burlington, 7:30-8:30 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, 864-0218.

MENTAL WELLNESS PROVIDER PANEL AND MIXER: Local doctors and therapists team up for a discussion on mental health care in the LGBTQ community. Virtual option available. Pride Center of Vermont, Burlington, 4:30-6 p.m.

PIZZA PARTY: PACK (the queer men and men-aligned affinity group formerly known as GLAM) hosts a cheesy Pride Week shindig. American Flatbread Burlington Hearth, 6-8 p.m. Free. Info, jacob@pridecentervt.org.

montréal

‘AURA’: See WED.30.

music

CANTRIP: Pipes, fiddle, guitar and three-part harmonies combine traditional Scottish music with modern influences for a foot-stomping sound. Catamount ArtPort, St. Johnsbury, 7 p.m. $25. Info, 748-2600.

INBAR HEYMAN GETS LOOPY:

A one-woman band from Israel performs original music with instruments and household objects from around the world. Junction Arts & Media, White River Junction, 7-9 p.m. Free. Info, 295-6688.

OLD STAGE SUMMER SERIES:

BRETT DENNEN: Folk tunes meet pop songs when this Californiabased musician takes the stage. Essex Experience, 6-10 p.m. $30. Info, 876-7152.

ZACH NUGENT UNCORKED: See WED.30.

politics

VERMONT INTERFAITH ACTION STATEWIDE CONVENTION: Leaders of different faiths assemble to discuss political issues from a viewpoint of justice and compassion. Our Lady of the Angels, Randolph, 9:30 a.m.-3 p.m. Free; donations accepted. Info, 651-8889.

sports

GREEN MOUNTAIN TABLE

TENNIS CLUB: See WED.30.

talks

THOMAS ESTILL: The Vermont Tree Steward Award recipient relates the history of the American chestnut tree, from the early20th-century blight that nearly wiped it out to recent research into its reintroduction. Rutland Free Library, 7 p.m. Free.

theater

‘HAMLET’: See THU.31.

‘THE THANKSGIVING PLAY’: See SAT.2, 2 & 7:30 p.m.

words

BANNED BOOKS TOUR: Lt. Gov. David Zuckerman hosts a reading featuring stories that have faced conservative backlash across the country. Phoenix Books, Essex, 6 p.m. Free. Info, 828-2226.

KATHY ELKIND: The author shares life lessons from her memoir, To Walk It Is to See It: 1 Couple, 98 Days, 1400 Miles on Europe’s GR5. Norwich Bookstore, 7 p.m. Free. Info, 649-1114. ➆

THE GOOD CITIZEN CHALLENGE is a nonpartisan civics project for Vermont youth in grades K-8. Participants do activities that help them learn about their communities and practice the skills they’ll need to become informed and engaged adults.

HOW TO PLAY

Complete five activities in a row on this year’s Good Citizen Challenge scorecard and submit evidence of your work by September 4 at goodcitizenvt.com

WHAT YOU’LL WIN

All who finish the Challenge will receive a Good Citizen sticker and patch, a pocketsize U.S. Constitution, and an invitation to an awards reception this fall. They’ll also be entered to win other prizes, including a behind-the-scenes tour of the Vermont State House, a $100 gift card to Phoenix Books — with locations in Burlington, Essex and Rutland — and a free trip for two to Washington, D.C. courtesy of Milne Travel. No purchase necessary to win.

Challenge Organizers

Congratulations to last year’s big winner, Cate Hjelt of Manchester! She traveled to Washington, D.C. in April, where she met Vermont’s congresswoman, Rep. Becca Balint.

Kids at the Morristown Centennial Library create a banner that explains what Vermont’s state motto, “Freedom and Unity,” means to them — activity #2 on the 2023 Good Citizen Challenge scorecard.

shamanism

THE FOLLOWING CLASS LISTINGS ARE PAID ADVERTISEMENTS. ANNOUNCE YOUR CLASS FOR AS LITTLE AS $16.75/WEEK (INCLUDES SIX PHOTOS AND UNLIMITED DESCRIPTION ONLINE). SUBMIT YOUR CLASS AD AT SEVENDAYSVT.COM/POSTCLASS.

agriculture

CUT FLOWER GARDENING & ARRANGING: Join us for a twopart class on cut flower gardening and arranging. e first half of the class will be a talk and Q&A about cut flower gardening, while the second half will be a hands-on lesson in floral arranging. Bring your own vase. We will provide the flowers. Sun., Sep. 10, 10:30 a.m. Cost: $35. Location: Horsford Gardens & Nursery, 2111 Greenbush Rd., Charlotte. Info: 802-425-2811, sevendaystickets. com.

art

FIGURE DRAWING NIGHT!:

Please join us for an evening of figure drawing at Soapbox Arts in the Soda Plant, hosted by Ana Koehler of Devotion. A live nude model will be in short and long poses. Bring your own drawing supplies. Please no wet supplies such as inks or paints. All drawing levels welcome. Ages 18-plus only. Mon., Sep.11, 6 p.m. Cost: $20. Location: 266 Pine St., Suite 119, Burlington. Info: 617-290-5405, sevendaystickets.com.

craft

SEW A SCRAP-BUSTING POUF: Come make a patchwork floor pouf (10.5” high x 20.5” wide) during Art Hop using our factory fabric scraps for filling. All project materials are provided (precut organic cotton twill fabric, zipper, piping, needle and thread). Bring your own machine and zipper foot. Maximum class size is 6. is is an intermediate-level class for ages 16-plus. Sat., Sep. 9, 1-4 p.m. Cost: $100. Location: Continuing rED at Fourbital Factory, 750 Pine St., Burlington. Info: 802-487-6408, allie@ fourbitalfactory.com, fourbital factory.com/continuing-thred.

language

ADULT LIVE SPANISH

E-CLASSES: Join us for adult Spanish classes this fall, using Zoom online video conferencing. is is our 17th year! Learn from a native speaker via small group classes or individual instruction, from beginning to advanced. You’ll always be participating and speaking. Classes fill up fast. See our website or contact us for details. Group classes begin week of Sep. 11; private instruction any time. Location: Online. Info: 802-585-1025, spanishparavos@ gmail.com, spanishwaterbury center.com.

ALLIANCE FRANÇAISE FALL

CLASSES: Join us for online and in-person adult French classes this fall. Our 11-week session starts on September 18 and offers classes for participants at all levels. Please go to our website to read about all of our offerings or contact Micheline for more information. Location: Online and in person at Alliance Française. Info: education@aflcr. org, aflcr.org.

martial arts

AIKIDO: THE POWER OF HARMONY: Discover the dynamic, flowing martial art of aikido. Relax under pressure and cultivate core power, aerobic fitness and resiliency. Aikido emphasizes throws, joint locks and internal power. Circular movements teach how to blend with the attack. We offer inclusive classes and a safe space for all. Visitors should watch a class before joining. Beginners’ classes 4 days a week. Membership rates incl. unlimited classes. Contact us for info about membership rates for adults, youths & families. Location: Aikido of Champlain Valley, 257 Pine St., Burlington. Info: Benjamin Pincus, 802-951-8900, bpincus@ burlingtonaikido.org, burlington aikido.org.

nature

ECO-RESILIENCY GATHERING: is is a free monthly space to gather with others who are interested in exploring ecological questions, emotional elements of climate change, ideas of change, building community and creating a thriving world. Come together, share, engage and learn. Each month we center on topics related to the ecological and climate crises. Wed., Sep. 13, 6 p.m. Location: Online. Info: akmckb@ gmail.com, sevendaystickets. com.

APPRENTICESHIP IN SHAMANISM: Rare opportunity to apprentice locally in a shamanic tradition. Receive personal healing, learn to create your own Mesa, cultivate a relationship with the unseen world and discover your personal guide(s) who will help you “re-member” your new path of expanding possibilities. Weekend-long sessions: Sep. 15-17; Dec. 8-10; Feb. 16-18, 2024; Apr. 26-28, 2024; Aug. 23-25, 2024. Location: Heart of the Healer, St. Albans. Info: omas Mock, 802-3694331, thomas.mock1444@gmail. com, heartofthehealer.org.

tai chi

NEW BEGINNER TAI CHI CLASS: We practice Cheng Man-ch’ing’s “simplified” 37-posture Yangstyle form. e course will be taught by Patrick Cavanaugh, a longtime student and assistant to Wolfe Lowenthal; Wolfe is a direct student of Cheng Manch’ing and founder of Long River Tai Chi Circle. Opportunities for learning online are also available! Starts Oct. 4, 9-10 a.m.; registration open until Oct. 25. Cost: $65/mo. Location: Gym at St. Anthony’s Church, 305 Flynn Ave., Burlington. Info: 802-4906405, patrick@longrivertaichi. org, longrivertaichi.org.

yoga

AYURVEDIC INTEGRATION

PROGRAM: Learn to integrate Ayurveda as lifestyle medicine that can prevent or reverse chronic disease; increase energy; promote longevity; and reduce stress, anxiety and depression. Specialized seasonal and daily Ayurvedic routines, holistic nutrition, stress-reduction techniques, and self-care will be taught. Sat. & Sun. 9 a.m.-4 p.m. 2023: Oct. 14-15, Nov. 4-5, Dec. 2-3; 2024: Jan. 6-7, Feb. 3-4, Mar. 9-10, Apr. 6-7, May 4-5, Jun. 8-9, Jul. 13-14. Cost: $2,895/200hour program. Location: e Ayurvedic Center of Vermont, 34 Oak Hill Rd., Williston. Info: Allison Morse, 802-872-8898, info@ayurvedavermont.com, ayurvedavermont.com.

Find

Humane Society of

Ella Bean

AGE/SEX: 13-year-old spayed female

ARRIVAL DATE: June 28, 2023

SUMMARY: At 13 years old, our dear Ella is sure to tug at your heartstrings! She’s an ol’ gal with ol’-gal problems such as kidney disease. While we believe that Ella is comfortable and content and has more time with us, we are looking for a most special hospice home for her golden years. Ella will do best in a home with no other animals, to minimize any stress. She’s super loving, friendly and affectionate. If you have a comfy pillow for our sweetest lady, stop by HSCC to meet her today!

DOGS/CATS/KIDS: Ella Bean is looking for a home without other cats and dogs. She has experience with kids and did well with them.

Visit the Humane Society of Chittenden County at 142 Kindness Court, South Burlington, Tuesday through Friday from 1 to 5 p.m. or Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Call 862-0135 or visit hsccvt.org for more info.

DID YOU KNOW?

Most cats are actually lactose intolerant! The ageold myth that cats love milk has been debunked by veterinarians and cat experts, and milk can often lead to an upset tummy. So instead of a saucer of milk, treat your kitty to a purée or lickable cat treat!

Sponsored by:

CLASSIFIEDS

on the road

CARS/TRUCKS

2010 GMC TERRAIN

103,500 miles.

6-cylinder. Inspected, no rust. Sunroof, heated leather seats, hitch, backup camera, silver. Like-new. New brakes. Asking $9,999. Call

802-355-4099.

MOTORCYCLES

2009 HARLEY SPORTSTER 1200

2009 Harley Davidson Sportster 1200 Custom. Detachable faring, custom seat, sissy bar w/ padded backrest, saddle bags. 12K miles. $5,600. Call Pat: 802-482-3100.

housing FOR RENT

1-BR APT. IN BURLINGTON 800-sq.ft., ground-fl oor apt. near high school. Great views, ceramic tile fl oors, W/D shared w/ other tenant. On bus route & bike path. Off-street parking. Pets considered. Defi nitely NS! $1,100/mo. incl. utils. Avail. immed. Shown by appt. only: 802-862-7602, morton. bostock@gmail.com.

2-BR IN ESSEX

2-BR, 1 full BA. Great location at Lang Farm. $1,750/mo. incl. all utils. except cable. Credit check. 802-316-1210.

3-BR HOUSE RENTAL

3-BR, 3.5-BA house in Benson. Pastoral views, professional kitchen, study, spacious dining/ family room, 20-30

housing ads: $25 (25 words) legals: 52¢/word buy this stuff: free online

min. from Middlebury/ Castleton areas. W/D, parking. $3,000. Contact xyacht332@ gmail.com.

SHELBURNE STUDIO

2nd fl oor, furnished. Utils. are incl. No pets. NS. $1,300/mo. $1,500 damage. Contact kencartularo@gmavt. net.

HOUSEMATES

MOUNTAIN VIEWS IN SHELBURNE

BR, LR & private BA available in Shelburne house w/ mountain views. Active senior seeking housemate who can help w/ spring & fall raking & trimming. $650/mo. + utils. No pets. Contact 802-863-5625 or visit homesharevermont. org for application.

Interview, refs. & background checks req. EHO.

RENT-FREE HOMESHARE

Share Colchester home w/ movie, CD & memorabilia collector & his 2 cats. Seeks supportive housemate to help w/ cooking, light housekeeping, companionship & occasional transportation in exchange for no rent. Shared BA. NS. Close to Saint Michael’s College. Contact 802-863-5625 or visit homesharevermont. org for application.

Interview, refs. & background checks req. EHO.

OFFICE/ COMMERCIAL

OFFICE/RETAIL SPACE AT MAIN STREET LANDING on Burlington’s waterfront. Beautiful, healthy, affordable spaces for your business. Visit mainstreetlanding.com & click on space avail. Melinda, 864-7999.

services: $12 (25 words) fsbos: $45 (2 weeks, 30 words, photo) jobs: michelle@sevendaysvt.com, 865-1020 x121

MASSAGE FOR MEN BY SERGIO

ser vices AUTO

DONATE YOUR CAR TO CHARITY

Running or not! Fast, free pickup. Maximum tax deduction. Support Patriotic Hearts. Your car donation helps veterans! 1-866-5599123. (AAN CAN)

PROFESSIONAL SAFE

DRIVER

Avail. Mon.- u., 10 a.m.-3 p.m., fl exible. $25/hour, 1099 needed. Lightweight, no taxi or CDL. Prefer Chittenden County. Call at 802-495-1954.

ELDER CARE

FIND SENIOR LIVING

My Caring Plan has helped thousands of families fi nd senior living. Our trusted, local advisers help fi nd solutions to your unique needs at no cost to you. Call 866-386-9005.

(AAN CAN)

FINANCIAL/LEGAL

$10K+ IN DEBT?

Be debt-free in 24-48 mos. Pay a fraction of your debt. Call National Debt Relief at 844-9773935. (AAN CAN)

APPEAL FOR SOCIAL SECURITY

Denied Social Security disability? Appeal! If you’re 50+, filed SSD & were denied, our attorneys can help. Win or pay nothing. Strong recent work history needed. Call 1-877-311-1416 to contact Steppacher Law Offi ces LLC. Principal offi ce: 224 Adams Ave., Scranton, PA 18503.

(AAN CAN)

HEALTH/ WELLNESS

EQUAL HOUSING OPPORTUNITY

All real estate advertising in this newspaper is subject to the Federal Fair Housing Act of 1968 and similar Vermont statutes which make it illegal to advertise any preference, limitations, or discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, marital status, handicap, presence of minor children in the family or receipt of public assistance, or an intention to make any such preference, limitation or a discrimination. The newspaper will not knowingly accept any advertising for real estate, which is in violation of the law. Our

readers are hereby informed that all dwellings advertised in this newspaper are available on an equal opportunity basis. Any home seeker who feels he or she has encountered discrimination should contact:

HUD Office of Fair Housing 10 Causeway St., Boston, MA 02222-1092 (617) 565-5309

— OR —

Vermont Human Rights Commission 14-16 Baldwin St. Montpelier, VT 05633-0633

1-800-416-2010 hrc@vermont.gov

Time for a massage to ease those aches & pains. Deep tissue & Swedish. Contact me for an appt.: 802-324-7539, sacllunas@gmail.com.

PERFECT MASSAGE FOR MEN

Men, I’m Mr. G. It’s all about you relaxing. Very private, 1-on-1 moment. If you feel good, I’m happy. e massage is real; the sessions are amazing! Located in central Vermont just off Exit 7. Text only to 802-522-3932 or email motman@ymail.com.

PSYCHIC COUNSELING

Psychic counseling, channeling w/ Bernice Kelman, Underhill. 40+ years’ experience. Also energy healing, chakra balancing, Reiki, rebirthing, other lives, classes & more. 802-899-3542, kelman.b@juno.com.

HOME/GARDEN

BATH & SHOWER UPDATES

In as little as 1 day! Affordable prices. No payments for 18 mo.

print deadline: Mondays at 3:30 p.m. post ads online 24/7 at: sevendaysvt.com/classifieds questions? classifieds@sevendaysvt.com 865-1020 x115

Lifetime warranty & professional installs. Senior & military discounts avail. Call 1-866-370-2939. (AAN CAN)

COVERED HOME REPAIRS

Never pay for covered home repairs again! Our home warranty covers all systems & appliances. 30-day risk-free. $200 off & 1st 2 mo. free. Call 1-877-4344845. (AAN CAN)

NEVER CLEAN YOUR GUTTERS AGAIN! Affordable, professionally installed gutter guards protect your gutters & home from debris & leaves forever. For a free quote, call 844-947-1470. (AAN CAN)

SECURE YOUR HOME Secure your home w/ Vivint Smart Home technology. Call 855-621-5855 to learn how you can get a professionally installed security system w/ $0 activation. (AAN CAN)

buy this stuff

APPLIANCES/ TOOLS/PARTS

DISPOSAL/EXTENSION LADDER

InSinkErator slightly used garbage disposal. Long aluminum extension ladder. Contact pvoorheis@comcast. net.

GARAGE/ESTATE SALES

BENEFIT ESTATE/ YARD SALE

Estate/yard sale to benefi t Neighbor Helping Neighbor. 135 Huntington Acres, Richmond. Sep. 2-4, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Contact 802-233-1638 or mlucagilbert@gmail. com.

HOUSEHOLD ITEMS

BLINDS & SHADES

“Blinds & Shades: Embracing Modern Living With Style” is a guide that explores the fusion of contemporary living & interior design through window treatments. Visit blindstown.com.

MISCELLANEOUS

BCI WALK-IN TUBS

Now on sale! Be 1 of the 1st 50 callers & save $1,500. Call 844-5140123 for a free in-home consultation. (AAN CAN)

DISH TV $64.99

$64.99 for 190 channels + $14.95 high-speed internet. Free installation, Smart HD DVR incl., free voice remote. Some restrictions apply. 1-866-566-1815. (AAN CAN)

HOME OXYGEN MACHINE

DEDAKJ home oxygen machine in original box. 6-liter, portable. Asking

CASH FOR CANCER PATIENTS

Diagnosed w/ lung cancer? You may qualify for a substantial cash award, even w/ smoking history. Call 1-888-3760595. (AAN CAN)

DISCOVER OXYGEN THERAPY

Try Inogen portable oxygen concentrators. Free information kit. Call 866-859-0894. (AAN CAN)

CALCOKU BY JOSH REYNOLDS

DIFFICULTY THIS WEEK: ★★

Fill the grid using the numbers 1-6, only once in each row and column. e numbers in each heavily outlined “cage” must combine to produce the target number in the top corner, using the mathematical operation indicated. A one-box cage should be filled in with the target number in the top corner. A number can be repeated within a cage as long as it is not the same row or column.

SUDOKU BY JOSH REYNOLDS

DIFFICULTY THIS WEEK: ★★★

Place a number in the empty boxes in such a way that each row across, each column down and each 9-box square contains all of the numbers one to nine. e same numbers cannot be repeated in a row or column.

ANSWERS ON P.80

★ = MODERATE ★ ★ = CHALLENGING ★ ★ ★ = HOO, BOY!

WANT MORE PUZZLES?

Try these online news games from Seven Days at sevendaysvt.com/games.

NEW ON FRIDAYS: See how fast you can solve this weekly 10-word puzzle.

Put your knowledge of Vermont news to the test.

NEW EVERY DAY:

Guess today’s 5-letter word. Hint: It’s in the news!

buy this stuff [CONTINUED]

$30. From pet- and smoke-free home. Call 802-578-4160.

HUGHESNET SATELLITE INTERNET

Finally, no hard data limits! Call today for speeds up to 25 mbps as low as $59.99/mo. $75 gift card, terms apply. 888-669-0615. (AAN CAN)

MALE ENHANCEMENT PILLS

Bundled network of Viagra, Cialis & Levitra alternative products for a 50-pills-for-$99 promotion. Call 888531-1192. (AAN CAN)

PETS

STANDARD POODLEBICHON PUPS

AKC registered. 2 black male poodles, 10 weeks. Bichons males/females. Accepting deposits. Will be vax/micro when ready, & 1 male, 1 female, 16 weeks. 802-318-8249 or ljbrier@comcast.net.

WANT TO BUY

TOP CASH FOR OLD GUITARS

1920-1980 Gibson, Martin, Fender, Gretsch,

Epiphone, Guild, Mosrite, Rickenbacker, Prairie State, D’Angelico & Stromberg + Gibson mandolins & banjos. 877-589-0747. (AAN CAN)

Legal Notices

STATE OF VERMONT DEPARTMENT OF MENTAL HEALTH NOTIFICATION OF PERIOD OF PUBLIC COMMENT

music INSTRUCTION

GUITAR INSTRUCTION

Berklee graduate w/ 30 years’ teaching experience offers lessons in guitar, music theory, music technology, ear training. Individualized, step-by-step approach. All ages, styles, levels. Rick Belford, 864-7195, rickbelford.com.

GUITAR LESSONS

All levels welcome. Jazz, rock, funk, Indian, classical. Technique, theory, songs, self-expression through music. Studentcentered lessons, also improvisation & composition concepts. Touring musician w/ extensive teaching experience. Info: Xander Naylor, 802-318-5365, contact@xandernaylor. com.

Pursuant to 18 V.S.A. § 8907 and the Administrative Rules on Agency Designation, the Vermont Department of Mental Health (DMH) hereby notify the public of the Application for Redesignation of Northeastern Family Institute (NFI).

A 14-day period of public comment is provided for DMH to gather information about Northeastern Family Institute (NFI) as part of the process to decide whether or not the State of Vermont will renew the agency’s designation to deliver mental health services to children, adolescents and families in Vermont. Comments from consumers, parents, family members and other concerned citizens about your experiences with services provided by NFI are welcomed. Public comments will be accepted for the two-week period from Friday, September 01, 2023, until the close of business on Friday, September 15, 2023. In particular, DMH is interested in knowing:

1. What are the strengths and challenges of the agency?

2. Does the agency work well with other agencies in the community?

3. Do people get the mental health services that they need?

4. Do people get mental health services when they need them?

5. Do you have any recommendations for improvements?

Please send written comments or contact us by phone no later than Friday, September 15, 2023.

Mail: Department of Mental Health

280 State Drive, NOB 2 North Waterbury, Vermont 05671-2010

Attn: Puja Senning

Phone: 802-585-4540

Fax: 802-241-0100

E-mail: Puja.Senning@vermont.gov

PLACE AN AFFORDABLE NOTICE AT: SEVENDAYSVT.COM/LEGAL-NOTICES OR CALL 802-865-1020, EXT. 142.

VERMONT MOVING & STORAGE PUBLIC SALE

Take notice that on the 5th day of September 2023, Vermont Moving & Storage, Inc. will hold a virtual public sale of the following goods:

House hold goods and personal belongs owned stored for Deante Judge $880.00

e terms of the sale are final payment in full by cash or credit card. Items will be sold in “as is condition” with no warranties expressed or implied.

Any person claiming the rights to these goods must pay the amount necessary to satisfy the storage cost list above.

Please contact Jennifer at 802-655-6683 between the hours of 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

STATE OF VERMONT SUPERIOR COURT CIVIL

DIVISION WASHINGTON UNIT DOCKET NO. 41-120 WNCV

Estate Of Gordon Stone And Estate Of Jennifer Harwood Stone Plaintiffs, v. John C. Kirby; State Of Vermont Offi ce Of Child Support; And Any Occupant(S) Residing At 43 Randall St., Waterbury, Vt; Defendants.

NOTICE OF Foreclosure SALE

By virtue, and in execution of a Power of Sale as granted by the Judgment Order and Decree of Foreclosure and Order for Public Sale dated May 8, 2023, the undersigned, holder of a lien to secure payment of unpaid Principal and interest due on the Court’s Judgment Order dated May 8, 2023 entered in the case entitled “Gordon Stone and Jennifer Harwood Stone v. John C. Kirby, Docket No. 163-3-19 Wncv, of record in Book 448 at Page 27 of the Town of Waterbury Land Records (“Judgment Lien”) , for failure of Defendants to satisfy and for the purpose of foreclosing the same, will cause all of the premises described below to be sold by Public Auction to the highest bidder at 11:00AM. on September 28, 2023 at the property located at 43 Randall Street, Waterbury, Vermont:

To wit:

Being all and the same lands and premises conveyed to John C. Kirby by Warranty Deed of the State of Vermont dated September 1, 2016 and recorded in Book 387, Page 76 of the Town of Waterbury Land Records, consisting of a main residence and a carriage house set on 0.27 acre, more or less, located at 43 Randall Street in Waterbury, Vermont; the carriage house is also known as 45 Randall Street.

Terms of Sale: Successful bidders will sign a no contingency Purchase and Sale Contract and shall pay a deposit in the amount of $10,000.00 or 25% of the highest bid, whichever is less, in cash or certified funds at the time of sale with the balance due at closing, which shall be held within ten (10) days of confirmation of the sale. Proof of financing for the balance of the purchase price must be provided at the time of sale; such sale being as-is, where-is, with buyer taking all risks and defects associated with or connected to the property.

e Defendants are entitled to redeem the premises at any time prior to the sale by paying the full amount due under the Final Judgment Order, including the costs and expenses of the sale. Other terms to be announced at the sale or inquire at Stackpole & French Law Offi ces, P.O. Box 819, Stowe, VT 05672, (802) 253-7339.

Estate of Gordon Stone and Estate of Jennifer Harwood Stone

By: Anna A. Black, Esq.

Stackpole & French Law Offi ces

P.O. Box 819, Stowe, VT 05672

Dated: August 18, 2023

PROPOSED STATE RULES

By law, public notice of proposed rules must be given by publication in newspapers of record. e purpose of these notices is to give the public a chance to respond to the proposals. e public notices for administrative rules are now also available online at https://secure.vermont.gov/ SOS/rules/ . e law requires an agency to hold a public hearing on a proposed rule, if requested to do so in writing by 25 persons or an association having at least 25 members.

To make special arrangements for individuals with disabilities or special needs please call or write the contact person listed below as soon as possible.

To obtain further information concerning any scheduled hearing(s), obtain copies of proposed rule(s) or submit comments regarding proposed rule(s), please call or write the contact person listed below. You may also submit comments in writing to the Legislative Committee on Administrative Rules, State House, Montpelier, Vermont 05602 (802-828-2231).

Water Supply Rule.

Vermont Proposed Rule: 23P023

AGENCY: Agency of Natural Resources

CONCISE SUMMARY: e Rule amendment proposes to incorporate by reference the federal Revised Total Coliform Rule, responsible for assessing bacteriological and pathogen vulnerability of all public drinking water systems. It adds a few Vermont-specifi c topics required by the federal regulation when incorporating by reference as required to be specifi cally identified in our primacy application to EPA. is amendment also seeks to revise the standards and process for operator licensing/certifi cation to better-protect public health at larger or more complicated public drinking water systems by requiring additional certified staff. It makes minor amendments to the treatment specifi cations for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in drinking water. e rule also provides greater and more uniform protection for isolation distances from public drinking water sources (including wells) by aligning better with existing Wastewater System and Potable Water Supply Rule. ere are also a series of minor changes, primarily fi xing internal citations.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, CONTACT:

Ben Montross, Agency of Natural Resources, 1 National Life Drive Davis 4, Montpelier, VT 05620,

Tel: 802-498-8981

Fax: 802-828-1541

Email: ben.montross@vermont.gov

URL: https://dec.vermont.gov/water/laws.

FOR COPIES: Catherina Narigon, Agency of Natural Resources, 1 National Life, Davis 2, Montpelier VT 05620, Tel: 802-261-5487

Fax: 802-828-1541

Email: catherina.narigon@vermont.gov.

ACT 250 NOTICE MINOR APPLICATION 4C01936E10 V.S.A. §§ 6001 – 6111

Application 4C0193-6E from Sports and Fitness Edge, Attn: Mike Feitelberg, 142 W. Twin Oaks Terrace, South Burlington, VT 05403 was received on August 15, 2023 and deemed complete on August 17, 2023. e project is generally described as retrofi tting the existing parking lot to create more parking spaces and a smoother flow of traffi c. e project includes an upgrade to the stormwater system and upgrades to the existing parking lot lights. e project is located at 4 Morse Drive in Essex, Vermont. is application can be viewed online by visiting the Act 250 Database: (https://anrweb.vt.gov/ANR/Act250/Details. aspx?Num=4C0193-6E).

No hearing will be held and a permit will be issued unless, on or before September 12, 2023, a party notifies the District 4 Commission in writing of an issue requiring a hearing, or the Commission sets the matter for a hearing on its own motion. Any person as defined in 10 V.S.A. § 6085(c)(1) may request a hearing. Any hearing request must be in writing, must state the criteria or sub-criteria at issue, why a hearing is required, and what additional evidence will be presented at the hearing. Any hearing request by an adjoining property owner or other person eligible for party status under 10 V.S.A. § 6085(c)(1)(E) must include a petition for party status under the Act 250 Rules. To request party status and a hearing, fill out the Party Status Petition Form on the Board’s website: https://nrb. vermont.gov/documents/party-status-petitionform, and email it to the District 4 Offi ce at: NRB. Act250Essex@vermont.gov. Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law may not be prepared unless the Commission holds a public hearing.

For more information contact Stephanie H. Monaghan at the address or telephone number below.

Dated this August 22, 2023.

By: /s/ Stephanie H. Monaghan District Coordinator

111 West Street Essex Junction, VT 05452 802-261-1944 stephanie.monaghan@vermont.gov

CITY OF BURLINGTON

In the Year Two ousand Twenty-three

A Regulation in Relation to Rules and Regulations of the Traffi c Commission—Section 29 Special parking

Sponsor(s): Public Works Commission

Action: Approved

Date: 12/15/2021

Attestation of Adoption:

Phillip Peterson, PE Public Works Engineer, Technical Services

Published: 08/30/23

Effective: 09/20/23

It is hereby Ordained by the Public Works Commission of the City of Burlington as follows: at Appendix C, Rule and Regulations of the Traffi c

Commission, Section 29 Special parking, of the Code of Ordinances of the City of Burlington is hereby amended as follows:

Section 29 Special parking. No parking shall occur at the following locations unless by:

(a) –(e) As written.

(f) Food Truck Parking. Valid food truck peddlers must meet the criteria outlined in BCO Chapter 23 PEDDLERS AND SOLICITORS.

(1) On the east side of University Place in the fi ve spaces in front of the Royal Tyler eater.

** Material stricken out deleted.

*** Material underlined added.

TD: BCO Appx.C, Section 29 12/15/21

STATE OF VERMONT SUPERIOR COURT PROBATE DIVISION CHITTENDEN UNIT DOCKET NO.: 23-PR-04740

In re ESTATE of Donna E. Wark

NOTICE TO CREDITORS

To the creditors of: Donna E. Wark, late of Charlotte, Vermont

I have been appointed to administer this estate. All creditors having claims against the decedent or the estate must present their claims in writing within four (4) months of the date of the first publication of this notice. e claim must be presented to me at the address listed below with a copy sent to the Court. e claim may be barred forever if it is not presented within the four (4) month period.

Dated: July 20, 2023

Signature of Fiduciary: /s/ Rachel J. Polgrean and Heather L. Wark

Executor/Administrator : Rachel J. Polgrean and Heather L. Wark, 145 Vernon Street, Northampton, MA 01060 hwark@comcast.net (413) 237-4933

Name of Publication: Seven Days

Publication Date: 8/30/2023

Name of Probate Court: State of VermontChittenden Probate Division

Address of Probate Court: 175 Main Street PO Box 511, Burlington, VT 05402

STATE OF VERMONT SUPERIOR COURT PROBATE

DIVISION CHITTENDEN UNIT DOCKET NO.: 23-PR-04726

In re ESTATE of Donald Groll

NOTICE TO CREDITORS

To the creditors of: Donald Groll late of Shelburne, Vermont

I have been appointed to administer this estate. All creditors having claims against the decedent or the estate must present their claims in writing within four (4) months of the date of the first publication of this notice. e claim must be presented to me at the address listed below with a copy sent to the Court. e claim may be barred forever if it is not presented within the four (4) month period.

Dated: August 24, 2023

Signature of Fiduciary: /s/ Jennifer L. Wagner

Executor/Administrator: Jennifer L. Wagner, Wagner Law 62 Court Street

Middlebury, VT 05753 jennifer@wagnerlawvt.com (802) 388-4026

Name of Publication: Seven Days

Publication Date: 8/30/2023

Name of Probate Court: State of VermontChittenden Probate Division

Address of Probate Court: 175 Main Street PO Box 511, Burlington, VT 05402

BURLINGTON DEVELOPMENT REVIEW BOARD

Tuesday, September 19, 2023, 5:00 PM

Public hearing notice

Hybrid & In Person (at 645 Pine Street) Meeting Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83225696227?p

wd=SGQ0bTdnS000Wkc3c2J4WWw1dzMxUT09

Webinar ID: 832 2569 6227

Passcode: 969186

Telephone: US +1 929 205 6099 or +1 301 715 8592 or +1 312 626 6799 or +1 669 900 6833 or+1 253 215 8782 or +1 346 248 7799

1. ZP-23-98; 41 Kingsland Terrace (RL, Ward 6) Deidre Donovan / Horace Mitchell Conditional use approval to demolish existing garage to construct ADU.

2. ZPF-23-63; 16 South Winooski Avenue (FD5, Ward 8) Ronald McDonald House Charities / Kristine Bickford Alternative compliance to replace existing four-foot-high fence with new 4.8-foot-high perimeter fencing.

Plans may be viewed upon request by contacting the Department of Permitting & Inspections between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Participation in the DRB proceeding is a prerequisite to the right to take any subsequent appeal. Please note that ANYTHING submitted to the Zoning offi ce is considered public and cannot be kept confidential. is may not be the final order in which items will be heard. Please view final Agenda, at www. burlingtonvt.gov/dpi/drb/agendas or the offi ce notice board, one week before the hearing for the order in which items will be heard.

e City of Burlington will not tolerate unlawful harassment or discrimination on the basis of political or religious affiliation, race, color, national origin, place of birth, ancestry, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, veteran status, disability, HIV positive status, crime victim status or genetic information. e City is also committed to providing proper access to services, facilities, and employment opportunities. For accessibility information or alternative formats, please contact Human Resources Department at (802) 540-2505.

e programs and services of the City of Burlington are accessible to people with disabilities. Individuals who require special arrangements to participate are encouraged to contact the Zoning Division at least 72 hours in advance so that proper accommodations can be arranged. For information call 865-7188 (TTY users: 865-7142).

PUBLIC HEARING NOTICE - CITY OF BURLINGTON ANNUAL REPORT TO HUD

e City of Burlington is submitting its Consolidated Annual Performance and Evaluation Report on the expenditure of Community Development Block Grant and HOME Investment Partnership Act funds for the program year ending June 30, 2023 to the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD).

A draft report will be available on September 8, 2023, at the Community & Economic Development Offi ce (CEDO), 149 Church Street, Room 32, City Hall, Burlington, and online at www.burlingtonvt. gov/cedo. e public is encouraged to review the Report and to comment through September 23, 2023. A Public Hearing on the Report will be held online, via Zoom at the Community Development and Neighborhood Revitalization (CDNR) Committee meeting on Tuesday, September 15th, 2023, at 5:00 p.m. More information on how to access the meeting can be found online at www.burlingtonvt.gov/CityCouncil/ CEDONeighborhoodRevitalizationCommittee or by contacting ccurtis@burlingtonvt.gov. Comments will be heard at the Hearing on the Report and on housing and community development needs. Written comments can also be submitted directly to the Community & Economic Development Offi ce at the above address or by e-mail to rlawrencegomez@burlingtonvt.gov.

For more information, or information on alternative access, contact Rebeka Lawrence-Gomez, Community & Economic Development Offi ce, at (802) 734-8019.

TOWN OF RICHMOND DEVELOPMENT REVIEW

BOARD AGENDA

September 13, 2023 at 7:00 PM

Location: 3rd floor meeting room Richmond Town Offi ces, 203 bridge street Richmond VT, 05477

Join Zoom Meeting: https://us02web.zoom. us/j/82607801509Meeting

ID: 812 7003 3916

Passcode: 550860

Call-in: +1 929 205 6099 US (New York)

Application materials may be viewed at http://www. richmondvt.gov/boards-minutes/developmentreview-board/ before the meeting. Please call Tyler Machia, Zoning Administrator, at 802-434-2430 or email tmachia@richmondvt.gov with any questions.

Public Hearing

Item 1

SUB2023-10 Bradley & Karin LaRose Parcel ID#WO0156

e applicants, Bradley and Karin LaRose are seeking final approval of their two-lot subdivision located at 156 Wortheim Road. Lot 1 will be 1.37 acres with a preexisting single-family home. Lot 2 will be 2.4 acres and will be improved with a new 3-bedroom single family home.

Item 2

SUB2023-11 Scott Strode Parcel ID#DG1500 e applicant, Scott Strode, is seeking to amend his approved subdivision. e Applicant seeks to amend the previously approved road layout to minimize impacts to the surrounding area by reducing the need for a hillside cut among other improvements.

Item 3

PRESUB2023-12 Eden Sand and Gravel Parcel ID#KR0854

e applicants, Eden Sand and Gravel, are seeking preliminary approval for a two-lot subdivision located at 854 Kenyon Road. Lot 1 will be 38.06 acres and will contain the preexisting gravel pit. Lot 2 will be 1.54 acres and will be improved with a new offi ce building.

STORAGE AUCTION

I unit of personal property will be auctioned on Saturday, September 9, 2023, at 10:00

Unit # 25 at Milton Ministorage, Chrisemily Lane, Milton.

For more information 802-893-7952 Leslie Rowley

PUBLIC INFORMATION MEETING

Winooski, VT – e Vermont Agency of Transportation (AOT) invites you to attend a Public Information Meeting for the projects listed below that will be held on Tuesday, September 19, 2023, beginning at 6:00 PM at the O’Brien Community Center, located at 32 Malletts Bay Avenue, Winooski, VT. e meeting will be held by VTrans along with the City of Winooski and City of Burlington.

e meeting will be accessible for remote attendance. A remote access link will be posted on the project website the morning of September 19, 2023. e website can be accessed here: www. burlingtonwinooskibridge.vtransprojects.vermont. gov

Projects:

Burlington-Winooski Bridge BF RAIZ(2) Routes 2 and 7 (Main Street in Winooski and Riverside Avenue in Burlington) over the Winooski River

Burlington STP 5000(29) improvements to the intersections of Riverside Avenue/Colchester Avenue/Barrett Steet and Colchester Avenue/Mill Street

e overall project will include replacing the 95-year-old bridge with a new bridge that will feature wider travel lanes and dedicated bicycle and pedestrian paths on both sides of the bridge. In addition, intersections immediately south of the bridge, involving Riverside Avenue, Colchester Avenue, Barrett Street, and Mill Street, will also be improved. e intersection improvements will generally consist of roadway reconstruction,

Legal Notices

Essex Junction, VT 05452 802-261-1944

stephanie.monaghan@vermont.gov

and traffic signal modifications, with the goal of improving safety and mobility for all users.

The intent of the meeting is to provide an overview of these projects to town officials, local residents and businesses, emergency services and other interested parties. There will be a review of the proposed projects, public outreach, and overall schedule followed by a question-and-answer period. Representatives from VTrans along with the Cities of Winooski and Burlington will be available at the meeting to receive public input about the project.

Additional information such as the Scoping Reports and Project Factsheets can be found on the project website. Light refreshments will be served. Limited childcare will be provided.

CHAMPLAIN VALLEY SELF STORAGE

In accordance with VT Title 9 Commerce and Trade Chapter 098: Storage Units 3905. Enforcement of Lien, Champlain Valley Self Storage, LLC shall host a live auction of the following units on or after 9am 9/17/23: Location: 2211 Main St. Colchester, VT Jennifer Canada, unit #639: household goods Auction pre-registration is required, email info@ champlainvalleyselfstorage.com to register.

ACT 250 NOTICE MINOR APPLICATION 4C04606,4C1035-810 V.S.A. §§ 6001 – 6111

Application 4C0460-6,4C1035-8 from Camel’s Hump Skiers’ Association, Inc. c/o Dave Brautigam, P.O. Box 43, Huntington, VT 05462; Nils Smith, 1125 Bert White Rd., Huntington, VT 05462; Remo and Donna Pizzagalli Grandchildren’s Trust, LLC, c/o Remo Pizzagalli, 346 Shelburne Rd., Ste 601, Burlington, VT 05401; Windekind Commons Association, LLC, c/o William Reilly, 1325 Bert White Rd., Huntington, VT 05462; Cassandra Wilday, 1069 Bert White Rd., Huntington, VT 05462; and William Curtis, 802 Hale St., Beverly Farms, MA 01915 was received on August 7, 2023 and deemed complete on August 15, 2023. The project is generally described as construction of new and upgraded nordic ski trails at Camel’s Hump Nordic Ski Area, including construction for:

1) Race Starting Box at base area, 2) Toothacher/ Bear Scat Draw Race Loop, 3) Cool Pool/Windekind Farm Race Loop, 4) Poole’s Haunt trails, 5) Gateway Loop upgrade, and 6) Skunk Brook trail reroute. The project is located at 1085 Bert White Road in Huntington, Vermont. This application can be viewed online by visiting the Act 250 Database: (https://anrweb.vt.gov/ANR/Act250/Details. aspx?Num=4C0460-6,4C1035-8).

No hearing will be held and a permit will be issued unless, on or before September 11, 2023, a party notifies the District 4 Commission in writing of an issue requiring a hearing, or the Commission sets the matter for a hearing on its own motion. Any person as defined in 10 V.S.A. § 6085(c)(1) may request a hearing. Any hearing request must be in writing, must state the criteria or sub-criteria at issue, why a hearing is required, and what additional evidence will be presented at the hearing. Any hearing request by an adjoining property owner or other person eligible for party status under 10 V.S.A. § 6085(c)(1)(E) must include a petition for party status under the Act 250 Rules. To request party status and a hearing, fill out the Party Status Petition Form on the Board’s website: https://nrb.vermont.gov/ documents/party-status-petition-form, and email it to the District 4 Office at: NRB.Act250Essex@ vermont.gov. Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law may not be prepared unless the Commission holds a public hearing.

For more information contact Stephanie H. Monaghan at the address or telephone number below.

Dated this August 17, 2023.

TOWN OF HUNTINGTON NOTICE OF DEVELOPMENT REVIEW BOARD

Zoom Meeting*

Applications under review for September 19, 2023 – 7pm

The Huntington Development Review Board (DRB) will meet via Zoom to conduct the following business, pursuant to the Huntington Land Use Regulations.

Conditional Use

Richard and Georgia Barberi seek Conditional Use to build a brick garden wall attached to their house and a 5’ x 20’ sunken greenhouse on a 2 acre lot. Property is located in the Village District (1-acre zoning) on Main Road, Tax Map ID# 08-004.300

Tim and Laura Seymour seek Conditional Use to build a mudroom on their house on a 23 acre lot. Property is located in the Woodland District (25-acre zoning) on Camels Hump Road, Tax Map ID# 06-032.000

The project information is available on the town website www.huntingtonvt.org. Participation in a hearing is required to appeal a decision of the DRB. Application materials may be viewed the week before the meeting.

-Yves Gonnet, DRB Staff, August 28, 2023 *Zoom: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82853092094 ?pwd=K2pFMU9MMkpQcDQrMVVSakF xWXUzUT09

Meeting ID: 828 5309 2094 Passcode: 328992 / Questions: 802-434-3557.

RAILROAD ENTERPRISE PROJECT NEPA ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT NOTICE OF AVAILABILITY AND REQUEST FOR COMMENTS

Summary:

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), the Vermont Agency of Transportation (VTrans), and the City of Burlington announce the availability of the Draft Environmental Assessment (EA) for the Railroad Enterprise Project (REP) for public review and comment. The proposed REP includes a new 0.3-mile-long multimodal roadway connection between Pine Street and Battery Street in Burlington, Vermont.

The EA describes the Purpose and Need for the Project, the alternatives evaluated, and their anticipated impact on social and natural environmental resources. The EA also provides a summary of the public engagement process and identification of the Preferred Alternative and proposed mitigation measures.

The public review and comment period will be open from September 8, 2023, and conclude on October 9, 2023.

EA Review:

The EA will be available for download and review on September 8, 2023 at www.railyardenterprise.com/ environmental-assessment. Hardcopy versions of the EA are also available at the Burlington City Hall at 149 Church Street and the Burlington Department of Public Works at 645 Pine Street.

Providing Comment:

Written comments can be submitted using the comment portal at https://engagestantec. mysocialpinpoint.com/rep/environmental_assessment_comments. Comments can also be mailed or emailed to:

Corey J. Mims, P.E., Senior Public Works Engineer Burlington Department of Public Works 645 Pine Street Burlington, VT 05401 CMims@burlingtonvt.gov

Comment Deadline: Comments must be received by October 9, 2023.

Part 2 and The Homestead Preschool & Infant/Toddler School

Immediate openings on a wide variety of positions. From counselors, to assistant directors, to coordinators, to classroom teachers, we have something for everyone. Starting salary range is from $17.00-$24.00 an hour, with up to a $500 sign-on bonus, depending on schedule. We pride ourselves on having a very inclusive and fun work environment. We've nearly doubled in size in the past year and are trying our hardest to keep up with this growth. Come join this fun, dynamic group of individuals. Apply Today: part2kids.com or part2preschool.com

AFTERSCHOOL EDUCATOR

VERMONT PUBLIC IS HIRING!

We are Vermont’s unified public media organization (formerly VPR and Vermont PBS), serving the community with trusted journalism, quality entertainment, and diverse educational programming.

• Director of Engineering

• Education and Youth Reporter

• Digital Producer

• Senior Vice President of Content

We believe a strong organization includes employees from a range of backgrounds with different skills, experience & passions.

To see more openings & apply: vermontpublic.org/ careers

Must be able to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination. Vermont Public is a proud equal opportunity employer.

School’s Out in South Burlington is seeking qualified individuals to work with children at one of our after-school programs for this school year. Our programs operate out of the South Burlington School District and serve children between the ages of 5 and 13. The hours are 2:00 - 5:45 pm Monday through Friday.

Only available a few days a week? Not a problem. We can be flexible with scheduling!

Job duties: include planning daily activities, participating in activities and assisting with supervision of children.

Requirements: Experience working with large groups of children in an educational or recreational setting is prefered. Candidates must have the maturity, enthusiasm and commitment needed to work with children.

Interested candidates, please forward resume, contact information, and days you are available to ipero@sbschools.net.

IT SUPPORT SPECIALIST

Hayward Tyler is a leading manufacturer of industrial pumps and motors in Colchester, VT.

COMPETITIVE SALARY EXCELLENT BENEFITS PACKAGE

If you meet our requirements and are interested in an exciting opportunity, please forward your resume and salary requirements to:

Hayward Tyler, Inc., Attn: HR Department 480 Roosevelt Highway, PO Box 680 Colchester, VT 05446

Careers@haywardtyler.com

haywardtyler.com/job_listing/ it-support-specialist

ATTENTION RECRUITERS:

POST YOUR JOBS AT: JOBS.SEVENDAYSVT.COM/POST-A-JOB

PRINT DEADLINE: NOON ON MONDAYS (INCLUDING HOLIDAYS) FOR RATES & INFO: MICHELLE BROWN, 802-865-1020 X121, MICHELLE@SEVENDAYSVT.COM

JOIN OUR TEAM!

SHARED LIVING PROVIDER

Looking for a Shared Living Provider (SLP) for a 56-year-old male with intellectual disability and medical needs.

The client is an outgoing, social individual who takes pride in building long-term connections. Client enjoys going out in the community and has Howard Center staff for community access. He enjoys listening to Rock music from the 60s-80s. He also enjoys reading private eye novels, Western Fiction books and is big into writing his own private eye stories. The client currently has a job and will need support to continue to work because this is important for his independence.

It is important that the client’s room be on the first floor due to limited mobility with stairs. Client has supervision needs by the SLP while in the home. He enjoys conversation with people in general, does well with routine, and benefits from having an understanding and/ or reasoning for having expectations and responsibilities within the home. Relationship building is very important to him as well as feeling respected as an adult. Support is needed with medical appointments and personal care. The ideal SLP will be someone with no kids. Tax Free Stipend: $41,938 per year. Must pass driving and criminal background checks.

Please contact Anisha Neupane at 802-288-0447 if you would like to know more about this Shared Living Provider opportunity.

howardcenter.org • 802-488-6500

84 JOIN OUR TEAM!

ATTENTION RECRUITERS:

Production Associate

Shared Living Provider

Howard Center is seeking a Shared Living Provider for a 32-year-old male who is independent, responsive, respectful and enjoys writing. The location would be preferably in Burlington, near a bus line. This individual will need assistance and supervision in developing social skills and relationships as he is integrating into the community. No children in the household but pets are ok. A generous taxfree stipend, room and board are available.

Serious expression of interest only. Please email Michael Bustamantes: michaelb@howardcenter.org or call at 802-404-7811

howardcenter.org • 802-488-6500

CONSTRUCTION WORKERS

Engineers Construction, Inc. is hiring Construction Workers. Some experience in site work, underground utility, and highway construction is preferred but not required. Also preferred but not required is practical knowledge of pipeline construction, grading and layout, and concrete. A valid Vermont driver’s license is required. A CDL driver’s license is a plus.

Location: Burlington, VT with other assignments throughout VT likely; and throughout New England and upstate New York in our specialty groups.

Rate of Pay: $19.00 - $23.00 /hour, depending on experience

Benefits: Health & Dental Insurance available, 401k, Profit Sharing, Vacation

Working Hrs: 45 to 55 hours per week typical

To learn more, please visit: www.engineersconstruction.com

ECI is an equal opportunity employer, and it is the policy of ECI to assure that applicants are treated without regard to their race, religion, sex, color, national origin, age, veteran status, disability, or any other protected classes.

LEAP AmeriCorps Open Service Positions

LEAP is a national service program placing AmeriCorps members with non-profit organizations throughout Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom to provide educational programming to area schools and communities. LEAP is currently recruiting for service positions with; Farm-to-School Coordinator at Green Mountain Farm-to-School (1700 hours, Full Time), Environmental Education & Outdoor Rec Instructor at Northwoods Stewardship Center (1700 hours, Full Time), and Science Educator at Fairbanks Museum & Planetarium (1700 hours, Full Time).

Position start dates vary from Sept. 5 – Sept. 22, 2023. Members earn a living stipend and an education award. Great opportunity for recent high school grads 17+, college students, or anyone looking to gain workforce skills while making a difference in the community.

Go to leapinthenek.com or my.americorps.gov and search for LEAP in Vermont! Contact Hannah Nelson: 802-626-6638

$18.50 - $20.50/hour, Multiple Shifts Available Essex Junction, VT

Apply: Call Pattie at (615) 428-4193

Finance Director

The Vermont Arts Council, a statewide arts service organization based in Montpelier, seeks an experienced finance director. This is a great opportunity for a finance professional who loves art, wants to make a difference in Vermont through mission driven work, is seeking flexible, primarily remote work, and wishes to be a part of a high functioning team of dedicated professionals.

Part-time, 20 hours per week.

Salary range: $50,000 - $55,000 ($48.08 - $52.88 per hour).

Prevent Child Abuse Vermont is hiring for the following grant-funded positions:

PREVENTION EDUCATOR

Do you like working with adolescents and adults and feel passionate about protecting youth from human trafficking?

PCAVT seeks prevention educator for grant funded statewide school-based anti-trafficking program. Candidate must have bachelor’s degree in related field, experience with 7th to 12th grade students, and reliable vehicle.

FAMILY SUPPORT PROGRAMS COORDINATOR:

Prevent Child Abuse Vermont is seeking a Family Support Programs Coordinator to be part of a statewide team. Successful candidates will organize, oversee and facilitate online parent education and support groups. Groups may move to in-person meetings. The position may involve travel around the region. Duties include recruitment, training and supervision of volunteers and outreach and collaboration with community partners. Knowledge of child development and child abuse, love of parent education/support and experience with online facilitation are all a plus. Reliable transportation required. Minimum of Bachelor’s degree in human services, social work, education or related field required. These are currently grant funded positions.

*All employees receive health insurance, vision insurance, dental insurance, paid time off, family leave, yearly bonus, and retirement plan.

PCAVT does not discriminate in the delivery of services or benefits based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, disability, sexual orientation, or gender identity. E.O.E. Please email cover letter, resume, and 3 references, along with the employment application to pcavt@pcavt.org.

Or mail to: Prevent Child Abuse Vermont - Search PO Box 829, Montpelier, VT 05601-0829

For application visit: pcavt.org/jobs-and-internships

For more details visit: vermontartscouncil.org/

MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN YOUR COMMUNITY!

MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN YOUR COMMUNITY!

Open positions around the state serving with non-profit organizations

landstewardship

environmental education

Open positions around the state serving with non-profit organizations.

homeless assistance

MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN YOUR COMMUNITY!

LAND STEWARDSHIP

ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION

homebuyer education

Open positions around the state serving with non-profit organizations

HOMELESS ASSISTANCE

Apply now!

Service Term:

HOMEBUYER EDUCATION

landstewardship environmental education homeless assistance homebuyer education

September 12, 2022August 11, 2023 vhcb.org/americorps

Apply now!

Service term: September 11, 2023 –August 9, 2024

vhcb.org/americorps

For 11 months of service, you’ll receive:

•$25,500 livingallowance

Service Term: September 12, 2022August 11, 2023 vhcb.org/americorps

For 11 months of service, you’ll receive:

•$6,495 education award

•Health insurance

• $26,000 living allowance

For 11 months of service, you’ll receive:

• $300 monthly housing allowance

•Training opportunities

•Leadership development

•$25,500 livingallowance

•$6,495 education award

• $6,895 Education Award

•Health insurance

• Health insurance

• Training opportunities

•Training opportunities

• Leadership development

•Leadership development

Finish Carpenters, Carpenters and Carpenters Helpers. Good Pay, Full Time and Long Term! Chittenden County.

Call Mike at 802-343-0089 or Morton at 802-862-7602.

EVENT

OPERATIONS MANAGER

Coordinate, oversee, and conduct ‘Night of Show’ security and facility needs, support fellow Flynn staff during such events, and provide a high level of customer service and assistance to patrons. Your job will be to provide professional service that ensures the well-being and safety of patrons and the theatre during Flynn Center events. Candidates must have excellent communication skills, the ability to multitask, and have outstanding problem-solving skills.

Vermont Tent Company is currently accepting applications for the following positions for immediate employment.

Full time, part time and weekend hours available for each position. Pay rates vary by position with minimum starting wage ranging from $20-$23/ hour depending on job skills and experience. We also offer retention and referral bonuses.

• Tent Maintenance

• Tent Installation

• Drivers/ Delivery

• Load Crew Team Interested candidates submit application online: vttent.com/ employment.

No phone calls, please.

ATHLETIC TRAINER

Applications are invited for the position of Athletic Trainer at Saint Michael’s College, a private Catholic liberal arts and sciences college located in the greater Burlington area of Vermont. Saint Michael’s is an NCAA Division II institution sponsoring 21 varsity sports and is a proud member of the Northeast-10 Conference, NEWHA, and the EISA. This is a full-time, 10-month position with benefits. Job responsibilities include but are not limited to addressing prevention, care, evaluation, and treatment of injuries for intercollegiate student-athletes; staffing home practices, as well as home and away contests; documenting treatment plans; assisting with ordering of equipment and supplies; and completing administrative and organizational tasks with Health Services, and the Team Physician. For a complete job description, benefits information, and to apply online, please visit: bit.ly/SMCATA23

VISIT & EVENT MANAGER

The Office of Admissions at Saint Michael’s College invites applications for a Visit & Event Manager position. Successful candidates will have a passion and talent for developing and managing event experiences that are informative, engaging, and fun. They will be a holistic thinker who considers the big picture while being focused on minute details. The person in this position will manage all aspects of the College’s daily visits and special admission events. This will include developing an annual visit & event strategy that optimizes the potential for campus visits; overseeing student staffing and training; ensuring scheduled visitors and drop-in guests have an optimal visit; planning and executing exceptional special events including Open Houses and Admitted Student days; and brainstorming, coordinating, and managing group visits. For a complete job description, benefits info, and to apply online, please visit: https://bit.ly/SMCAVEM

WINGPERSONS FOR YOUNG MAN WITH AUTISM

Weekdays, $25/hr. Full-time (w/health ins.) or part-time (20 hrs./wk.)

For details please visit: KieselsteinAutism Program.com/ join-our-team

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

The Vermont Nursery & Landscape Association invites applications for their Executive Director, a part-time, at-home flexible management position working with a board of directors. Candidates should have experience in management, communications, accounting, marketing, and computer skills. View the job posting at www,vnlavt.org/news-events/jobpostings/. To apply, please send a cover letter and resume to kristina@vnlavt.org.

Experienced Residential Carpenter

Silver Maple Construction is seeking a full-time, benefits-eligible Carpenter focused on high-level customer service and the execution of exceptional quality work. Here at Silver Maple, we want everyone to feel valued and do the work that inspires you while maintaining a work-life balance better than many others in this field.

PLANNING & ZONING ASSISTANT

The Town of Stowe is seeking to hire a Planning & Zoning Assistant who is dedicated, friendly, and customer service oriented with exceptional attention to detail. An employee in this position serves as the first point of contact for visitors and those seeking planning and zoning assistance. The individual selected will be a self-starter with the ability to work independently and will have demonstrated sound judgement and a high degree of professionalism. Attendance at regular evening meetings will be required.

Associate or para-legal degree preferred; supplemented by one to three years of progressively responsible experience in an office, real estate, or regulatory setting, or any equivalent combination of education, training, or experience. If you are excited about this opportunity and your experience does not align perfectly with qualifications, we encourage you to apply. Pay is in the $25.52 to $28.13 range, dependent upon education and experience. Although the position is currently budgeted as a full-time position, those seeking part-time employment will also be considered.

The Town of Stowe currently offers an excellent benefit package including BCBS health plans with a 5% or 10% employee premium share, dental insurance, generous paid leave including 13 holidays, 10.6% employer contribution to VMERS pension plan, life insurance and more.

Town Administrator

Join our friendly, collaborative team in beautiful Lincoln, VT, as our first Town Administrator. Salary commensurate with experience. For more information & a complete job description go to: bit.ly/LincolnVTtownAdmin

Administrative Assistant

Are you looking for part-time work in a friendly, small office? The Town of Lincoln is seeking a part-time Administrative Assistant. For more information and a full job description go to: bit.ly/LincolnVTadminAsst

Highway Maintenance Worker

Do you like to work outdoors?

Have basic mechanical skills? Have a CDL or the ability to get one? Enjoy knowing a job was well done? You may be the person we're looking for. The Town of Lincoln is hiring a FT, year-round highway maintenance worker. Competitive wages and benefits. For more information and a full job description go to: bit.ly/LincolnVThighway

To learn more, please visit silvermapleconstruction.com (select JOBS) and/or send resume and market rate proposal to hr@silvermapleconstruction.com

Job description and employment application can be obtained at: www.townofstowevt.org. Submit letter of interest, resume, and employment application to: Town of Stowe, c/o HR Director, PO Box 730, Stowe, VT 05672 or by email recruit@stowevt.gov. Applications will be reviewed beginning September 18, 2023.

The Town of Stowe is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

GENERAL MANAGER

Seeking professional leadership to manage our two stores and contribute meaningfully to our next growth trajectory. We hope you join us in imagining the possibilities for an exciting future!

Apply: tomgirl.co/hiring

Champlain Orchards - Multiple Openings:

Product Operations Manager

Farm Market & Cider Garden Assistant

Diesel Mechanic - Delivery Driver

Bakery Assistant - Carpenter

Please visit our website for further information or send resume to hr@champlainorchards.com

PROPERTY MANAGER

Burlington Housing Authority (BHA) in Burlington, VT is seeking an Assistant Property Manager to serve as a critical member of our property management team. This position is responsible for assisting the team of Property Managers in the day to day operations of BHA’s property portfolio.

The Assistant Property Manager will assist with leasing apartments, move in and move outs, maintaining accurate tenant files and assist with tenant complaints, collection of rents, lease violations, property inspections, vacant unit checks, delivery of resident notices and certifications, and other duties related to property management.

Candidates must have a high school degree or equivalent. Prior experience with property management, customer service, and/or working with the public is preferred. Knowledge of HUD, LIHTC, and the affordable housing industry is preferred. Valid driver’s license, along with reliable transportation and vehicle insurance is required to fill carry out the duties of this position. Must possess outstanding organizational skills, strong written and verbal communication skills, as well as the ability to handle multiple projects simultaneously and follow through on all tasks. Must be adept at fostering positive and collaborative relationships with staff, residents, vendors and community agencies alike and have a patient and compassionate approach to working with the most vulnerable populations.

BHA serves a diverse population of tenants and partners with a variety of community agencies. To most effectively carry out our vision of delivering safe and affordable housing to all, we are committed to cultivating a staff that reflects varied lived experiences, viewpoints, and educational histories. Therefore, we strongly encourage candidates from diverse racial, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds, persons with disabilities, LGBTQ individuals, and women to apply. Multilingualism is a plus!

Our robust benefit package includes premium medical insurance with a health reimbursement account, dental, vision, short and long term disability, 10% employer funded retirement plan, 457 retirement plan, accident insurance, life insurance, cancer and critical illness insurance.

We provide a generous time off policy including 12 days of paid time off and 12 days of sick time in the first year. In addition to the paid time off, BHA recognizes 13 (paid) holidays and 2 (paid) floating cultural holidays.

If you are interested in this career opportunity, please send a cover letter and resume to: humanresources@burlingtonhousing.org.

Or mail to: Human Resources, Burlington Housing Authority, 65 Main Street, Suite 101, Burlington, VT 05401

Burlington Housing Authority is an Equal Opportunity Employer

Teacher/Community Coordinators

The right candidate should be:

• Enthusiastic about working with adult students

• Familiar with the service area

• Capable of providing high quality education

• Flexible, have a joy for teaching, and be able to teach multiple subject areas

The candidate will be teaching:

• Reading, writing, math, computer skills & financial literacy

• High school diploma and GED credentialing

• Career and college readiness

• Experience developing personalized education and graduation plans a plus

Starting salary: $43,000 – $45,000. CVABE pays 100% of individual health, dental and short-term disability insurance, and employer 403(b) contributions. Six weeks paid vacation annually.

CONSTITUENT ADVOCATE

Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) seeks an organized, civic-minded individual to serve as a Constituent Advocate on his Vermont staff. Constituent Advocates are responsible for managing a portfolio of casework on a variety of federal issues in support of Vermonters needing assistance with the federal government.

Responsibilities include providing direct assistance to constituents with federal agencies, communicating with state and local agencies, and collaborating with colleagues in state and DC offices. Strong writing, communication, and organizational skills are required, and familiarity with federal programs and agencies is preferred.

Experience with veterans issues, health care systems, or disaster assistance is highly preferred. Successful candidates will have previous direct service, legal, or social work experience or training, along with a desire for helping others, a keen knowledge of Vermont, and a strong ability to problem solve, identify systemic challenges, and develop creative solutions.

The Senator’s office is an equal opportunity employer. The office does not discriminate on the basis of an individual’s race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, genetic information, disability, or uniformed service. The office is committed to inclusion and encourages all individuals from all backgrounds to apply.

To apply please submit a resume, cover letter, and brief writing sample to jake_cernak@sanders.senate.gov indicating “CONSTITUENT ADVOCATE” in the subject line by September 5, 2023

ATTENTION RECRUITERS:

WHERE YOU AND YOUR WORK MATTER

GRANTS MANAGEMENT SPECIALIST HOUSING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT –MONTPELIER

The Department seeks candidates with strong project and financial management skills to assist the Dept’s Housing Division in coordinating the Vermont Housing Improvement Program. Requires a high level of organization and the ability to communicate with partners and track financial disbursements and grant activities. Oversight of partner activities and review reports. Ensures compliance with requirements of the US Treasury and ensures effective program accessibility. The position requires attention to detail, work with the public, and strong communication skills. For more information, contact shaun.gilpin@vermont.gov. Department: Commerce & Community Development.

Status: Full Time, Limited Service, (expected end date 06-30-25). Location: Montpelier. Job ID #46544. Application Deadline: September 10, 2023.

The Human Rights Commission (HRC) is seeking highly qualified candidates for a litigation attorney. The HRC Litigator litigates cases where the Commission has found reasonable grounds for discrimination in housing, state government employment, and places of public accommodations. Applications will be accepted by email or mail only. Qualified applicants should send a resume, cover letter, and writing sample to human.rights@vermont.gov. OR mail to Maia Hanron c/o Vermont Human Rights Commission 12 Baldwin Street Montpelier, VT 05633-6301. For more information, contact Maia Hanron at human.rights@vermont.gov.

Department: Human Rights Commission. Status: Exempt, Full Time. Location: Montpelier. Job ID #48057. Application Deadline: September 18, 2023.

INTERN OR ARCHITECT

SAS Architects is seeking an intern or architect. Our small firm of ten people tackles large scale institutional and commercial projects across Vermont and New Hampshire, and we are looking to hire someone with strong graphic design skills, drafting experience and 3D modeling skills.

We are an ambitious design-oriented firm capable of producing innovative sustainable structures and seek to carry this legacy forward. With decades of experienced staff in the office, we can provide a great environment for learning and career development as well as competitive salary & benefits. Check out our work at sasarchitects.com

Please email your resume and portfolio to Owen Smith: owen@sasarchitects.com

Executive Director

Collaborative Solutions Corporation is a leading provider of community recovery residences in Vermont for people seeking treatment for mental health and co-occurring disorders. Our mission is to create caring communities where people seeking mental health find hope, compassion and excellent clinical care.

Solar Laborer

The Solar Laborer will perform many tasks requiring physical labor on construction sites in all types of weather. May operate hand & power tools: air hammers, earth tampers, cement mixers, concrete saws, surveying and measuring equipment, small equipment, and skid steer loaders. May clean and prepare sites, dig trenches, clear trees, build access roads, erect fencing, manage rubble and debris, and exfil as needed. Will assist other craft workers and take instructions. The Solar Laborer will assist the team when required. This position will learn their trade through on-the-job training. Teamwork & communication skills are highly prioritized in all aspects of this role.

REQUIRED: Minimum 1 year prior construction/installation experience. Legally permitted to work in the United States. Willing and able to pass a criminal background screening and pre-employment physical.

Starting Pay: $20/hr, Per Diem Rate $59-$110 Daily additional

Apply via email with resume to hr@bullrockcorp.com

We are accepting applications for a full time Executive Director who will be responsible for the overall operations of Collaborative Solutions Corporation which includes 3 Level III Community Recovery Residences that serve adults with mental illness. Located in Williamstown and Westford VT, CSC's residential programs are strengths based, trauma informed and recovery focused. Our administrative offices are located in Richmond VT. Responsibilities include program development, clinical oversight, staff supervision & development, and ensuring compliance with all aspects of licensing, State and Federal regulations. External coordination and collaboration with the Vermont Psychiatric Care Hospital, community hospitals and community mental health centers is essential. The Executive Director may also serve a lead role in the research and development of new business opportunities for CSC.

Candidate must hold a Master’s degree in Business Management, Social Work, Clinical or Counseling Psychology, Psychiatric nursing, Public Health or related field. Candidates must have a minimum ten years’ experience working with people with mental illness, and at least five years providing staff supervision, preferably in a residential setting. Use of own vehicle for transportation will be required.

To apply send a cover letter and resume/CV by September 8th to:

Jena Trombly, Collaborative Solutions Corporation

P.O. Box G, Randolph, VT 05060

Or via email to: jtrombly@claramartin.org

PSYCHOTHERAPIST

The Vermont Center for Anxiety Care (VCAC), a private psychotherapy practice on the Burlington waterfront, has an opening for a psychotherapist (M.A., MSW, or Ph.D) with family, child and/or adult therapy experience. Can be licensed or post-degree intern. Clinical supervision towards licensure provided as needed.

VCAC is a collaborative group with holistic approach and multiple specialties. Visit web site: vtcenterforanxietycare.com

Send resume and cover letter describing professional interests and goals to Paul Foxman, Ph.D., 86 Lake Street, Burlington, VT 05401 or email: paulfoxman@aol.com

Long-Term Care OMBUDSMAN

We have several exciting career opportunities available!

BUILDING OPERATIONS TECHNICIAN

Burlington Housing Authority (BHA) in Burlington, VT seeks a full time Building Operations Technician to join our dedicated team. This position performs general maintenance work in BHA owned and managed properties. This includes building exteriors, common areas, apartments, building systems, fixtures, and grounds. Our Building Operations Techs are required to participate in the oncall rotation, which covers night and weekend emergencies.

Permanent Year-Round Warming Shelter Support

Full & part time shifts

Chief Clinical O cer

Young Adult Peer Navigator

Qualified candidates should have a minimum of two years of work in general building maintenance or building trades. The ideal candidate would have a demonstrated proficiency in building trades including carpentry, electrical, painting, plumbing, grounds keeping, and snow removal.

Technicians must have a valid state motor vehicle operator license at all times. The physical activities for this position include squatting, ascending and descending ladders, scaffolding, and stairs, working in small or confined spaces, twisting and lifting up to 100 pounds, often repeating motions with wrists, fingers, and hands. This position works in all environmental conditions.

Technicians must be detail oriented, efficient, be able to work within time sensitive parameters, and able to work independently, as well as part of a team. Having strong interpersonal skills and being sensitive to the needs of the elderly, disabled, and very low-income households is a must.

BHA serves a diverse population of tenants and partners with a variety of community agencies. To most effectively carry out our vision of delivering safe and affordable housing to all, we are committed to cultivating a staff that reflects varied lived experiences, viewpoints, and educational histories. Therefore, we strongly encourage candidates from diverse racial, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds, persons with disabilities, LGBTQ+ individuals, and women to apply. Multilingualism is a plus!

Vermont Legal Aid seeks full-time, Long-Term Care Ombudsman in St. Johnsbury, VT

General responsibilities: Advocate for long-term care recipients. Identify, investigate, and help resolve complaints made by, or for, individuals receiving long-term care services in long-term care facilities and in the community through Vermont’s Choices for Care Medicaid program. Visit long-term care facilities to talk with residents and monitor conditions. Empower long-term care recipients to direct their own care. See vtlegalaid.org/vop-ltcombudsman for details.

Starting salary is $44,200, with additional salary credit given for relevant prior work experience. Four weeks paid vacation and retirement, as well as excellent health benefits.

This position is based in our St. Johnsbury office. Significant in-state travel in a personal vehicle required.

Application deadline is September 13, 2023. Your application should include a cover letter & resume, writing sample, and three professional references with contact information, sent as a single PDF. Applicants must be able to pass conflict of interest review and background check. Email your application to hiring@vtlegalaid.org. Include in the subject line your name and “VOP Ombudsman September 2023.” Please let us know how you heard about this position.

BHA offers a competitive salary, commensurate with qualifications and experience. Our robust benefit package includes premium medical insurance with a health reimbursement account, dental, vision, short and long term disability, 10% employer funded retirement plan, 457 retirement plan, accident insurance, life insurance, cancer and critical illness insurance.

We provide a generous time off policy including 12 days of paid time off and 12 days of sick time in the first year. In addition to the paid time off, BHA recognizes 13 (paid) holidays and offers 2 additional paid floating holidays.

If you are interested in this career opportunity, please submit a resume and cover letter to humanresources@burlingtonhousing.org.

Burlington Housing Authority - Human Resources

65 Main St, Suite 101 Burlington, VT 05401

Burlington Housing Authority is an Equal Opportunity Employer

ATTENTION RECRUITERS:

POST YOUR JOBS AT: SEVENDAYSVT.COM/POSTMYJOB

PRINT DEADLINE: NOON ON MONDAYS (INCLUDING HOLIDAYS) FOR RATES & INFO: MICHELLE BROWN, 802-865-1020 X121, MICHELLE@SEVENDAYSVT.COM

Operating Room RN or Certified Surgical Technologist

NORTHEASTERN VERMONT REGIONAL HOSPITAL

(NVRH): Join our team of experienced nurses and provide exceptional patient care in Perioperative Services. We offer competitive wages, loan repayment, generous paid time off, and a comprehensive benefits package. Don’t miss out on this amazing chance to advance your career and join a healthcare team that delivers excellent services to the community. Apply now and experience the rewards of being in a supportive and thriving environment at NVRH.

TOWN ADMINISTRATOR OPENING

The Town of Westford, Vermont is seeking its next Town Administrator for an immediate opening. The perfect candidate will be an energetic, organized, and personable professional who is committed to maintaining our traditions of community and transparent good governance, while also working to bring more modern, more accessible, and more efficient services to our townspeople.

Under the direction of the Selectboard, this position is responsible for effectively administering the functions of both town government and the town office. This role will frequently also include oversight and implementation of special projects intended to advance the town in meaningful and sustainable ways.

Please review complete job advertisement at jobs.sevendaysvt.com

To be considered for this opportunity, please email a cover letter and resume, in confidence, to selectboard@westfordvt.us

The Town of Westford is an equal opportunity employer.

Vermont Housing & Conser vation Board

Housing Stewardship Coordinator

Are you a creative problem solver who appreciates and understands the value of permanently affordable housing?

If so, consider joining our team!

The Housing Stewardship Coordinator will support the sustainability and impact of Vermont’s network of communitybased housing non-profits. We offer a comprehensive benefit package and an inclusive, supportive work environment. We are an Equal Opportunity Employer and candidates from diverse backgrounds are strongly encouraged to apply.

For a full job description, salary information and application instructions, please visit vhcb.org/about-us/jobs

Goddard College, a leader in non-traditional education, has the following full-time, benefit eligible and part-time position openings:

• ADMISSIONS & ENROLLMENT ADMIN COORDINATOR

• ASSISTANT DIRECTOR OF CAMPUS OPERATIONS

• ASSISTANT DIRECTOR OF ENROLLMENT SYSTEMS

• CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER

• DIRECTOR OF HUMAN RESOURCES

• HELP DESK ASSISTANT – PT

• MAINTENANCE GENERALIST

To view position descriptions and application instructions, visit: goddard.edu/about-goddard/employment-opportunities

ME Williston is Hiring

You’re more than a massage therapist. You’re an artist, healer, and professional. Join the brand that sees you that way at Massage Envy in Williston.

Currently hiring massage therapists, estheticians and two new front desk associates. Flexible hours, consistent clientele, ongoing CEs.

Send resumes to: clinic0779@massageenvy.com

FULL-TIME HOUSING ADVOCATES

Do you want

to make a meaningful impact in our community?

The Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity (CVOEO) has exciting opportunities for you to make a meaningful impact in our community by joining our team to provide housing advocacy services at the Champlain Inn Emergency Shelter in Burlington, Vermont. CVOEO’s Champlain Inn will be a 24/7 low-barrier shelter for up to 40 individuals experiencing homelessness. The Champlain Inn will offer temporary shelter, housing advocacy, educational opportunities and daily meals in a community setting with the goal of assisting people to find permanent housing.

CVOEO is looking for full-time Housing Advocates for all three shifts – Day, Evening & Over-Night - Monday through Friday and part-time Housing Advocates for all three shifts on the weekend. Our Housing Advocates will provide a client-centered, trauma-informed support for emergency housing guests and others experiencing homelessness with the ultimate goal of empowering individuals to access safe, sustainable housing. Our Housing Advocates work with clients to secure housing and access essential benefits, and refer people to employment, medical, mental health and substance use disorder services and will work with an array of community partners to help clients access options for housing and social services. Addressing barriers to housing and working with our partner agencies to address those barriers is a crucial aspect of this role. Our Housing Advocates work in partnership with clients to promote a sense of community.

We are seeking candidates with relevant human services experience; effective verbal and written communication skills; demonstrated commitment to valuing diversity and contributing to an inclusive working and learning environment; be of high integrity and character as a representative of CVOEO and the people and communities we serve.

When you come to work for CVOEO you’re getting so much more than a paycheck! We offer a great working environment and an excellent benefit package including medical, dental and vision insurance, paid holidays, generous paid time off, a retirement plan and discounted gym membership. Interested in working with us? To apply, please visit cvoeo.org/careers to submit a cover letter and resume. We embrace the diversity of our community and staff. CVOEO is interested in candidates who can contribute to our diversity. Applicants are encouraged to include in their cover letter information about how they will further this goal. Review of applications begins immediately and will continue until suitable applicants are found. We’re one of the Best Places to Work in Vermont! Join us to find out why!

thecurrentnow.org/

Manager of Sponsorships, Exhibits & Memberships

The Vermont Captive Insurance Association (VCIA) represents captive insurance companies (organizations that are wholly owned and controlled by its insureds) and service providers for the industry. As the largest captive trade association in the world, VCIA seeks a motivated, proactive individual to join our tight-knit team. This position maintains relationships, and builds new ones, with VCIA members, sponsors, and exhibitors. We offer a competitive salary and benefits, a remote working environment, and the opportunity for growth.

SPONSOR RESPONSIBILITIES

• Retention and recruitment of sponsors for: Annual Conference; Webinars; Roadshows; Mixers; Ads; and other opportunities

• Development and design of sponsorship benefits

• Maintain market currency with other sector competitors and non-captive events

• Liaison with finance on pricing, billing and collections; liaison with marketing on development of materials for sponsors

• Develop reports on sponsorship activities; ensure accuracy of sponsorship entries in database

EXHIBITOR RESPONSIBILITIES

• Coordinate with Event Services on exhibit space and location, and sponsorship deliverables; primary on-site contact for exhibitors/sponsors

• Liaison with marketing on development of materials for exhibitors; liaison with finance on pricing, billing and collections

• Develop reports on exhibitor activities; ensure accuracy of exhibitor entries in database

MEMBERSHIP RESPONSIBILITIES

• Develop membership retention/contact plan with associated budgets, and acquisition plan with associated budgets

• Member visits with President and Board members

• Utilize CRM tools to automate member contact

• Liaison with marketing to develop material for membership; liaison with finance on pricing, billing, and collections

• Ensure accurate membership entries into database; run reports

• Being “The Voice of the Member” within staff and Board conversations

Qualifications:

College degree in related field or experience with associations and/or nonprofit organizations;

Knowledge of association membership and marketing practices; Strong interpersonal, communication and customer service skills; selfmotivated, innovative thinker.

TO APPLY:

Provide minimum salary requirement in cover letter. Send cover letter, resume and any other relevant information to: Kevin Mead, VCIA President, kmead@vcia.com.

Deadline to apply: End of Business Friday, September 15th, 2023.

Residential Program Manager

Why not have a job you love?

Benefit package includes 29 paid days off in the first year, comprehensive health insurance plan with premium as low as $13 per month, up to $6,400 to go towards medical deductibles and copays, retirement match, generous sign on bonus and so much more. And that’s on top of working at one of the “Best Places to Work in Vermont” for five years running. Great jobs in management, & direct support at an award-winning agency serving Vermonters with intellectual disabilities.

Job Highlight - Residential Program Manager:

Exciting management opportunity coordinating residential supports for an individual who lives in their own home. This individual is a considerate, resourceful, wheelchair-using man with a budding talent for photography. He is a great conversationalist and appreciates time spent with others.

This is an excellent position for someone who is looking for the next step in their career or to continue their work in this field. The ideal candidate will enjoy working in a team-oriented position, have good organizational skills, and demonstrated leadership. Salary is $48,300 plus $1,500 sign on bonus at six months. Send resume to mmccormick@ccs-vt.org

See all our positions at ccs-vt.org/current-openings/ Make a career making a difference and apply today!

RESIDENT MANAGER BISHOP PLACE

Burlington Housing Authority (BHA), in Burlington Vermont is seeking a Resident Manager for our Bishop Place apartment building community located at 10 North Champlain St in Burlington, Vermont. Our Resident Managers are on call after BHA regular business hours to attend to various resident requests, any site-based emergency, light maintenance, community room cleaning duties, and other duties as assigned. Resident Managers must live on-site and in exchange for being on call, the Resident Manager is given a free apartment with utilities included, as well as a monthly telecommunications stipend.

Candidates must meet the physical requirements of the position including moving in different positions to accomplish tasks, ascending or descending stairs, adjusting or moving objects up to 50 pounds, and repeating motions that may include the wrists, hands, and fingers. This position also works in outdoor weather conditions. The Resident Manager schedule includes regular check ins and updates with the Property Manger each week, and other meetings and communication as needed. Basic computer skills, with the ability to use Word and email effectively, as well as ability to communicate through text messaging is required.

BHA serves a diverse population of residents and works with various local agencies and partners. To carry out our vision most effectively of delivering safe and affordable housing to all, we are committed to cultivating a staff that reflects varied lived experiences, viewpoints, and educational backgrounds. Therefore, we strongly encourage candidates from diverse racial, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds, persons with disabilities, LGBTQ+ individuals and women to apply. Multilingualism is a plus.

If you’re interested in this opportunity, please send a resume or letter of interest to: humanresources@burlingtonhousing.org

Burlington Housing Authority - Human Resources

65 Main St, Suite 101, Burlington, VT 05401

Burlington Housing Authority is an Equal Opportunity Employer

Communications Coordinator

Full description & to apply: generatorvt.com/jobs

ATTENTION RECRUITERS:

Music Director & Accompanist

The Waitsfield United Church of Christ in Waitsfield, Vermont, an Open and Affirming church, is seeking a MUSIC DIRECTOR & ACCOMPANIST to join our vibrant church ministry. Seeking one person to fill both roles or two people to fill the two roles individually. For details or to email letter of interest & resume, contact Jane Cunningham, attn: Music Director Search, propertymanagement@madriver.com or mail to Jane Cunningham, attn: Music Director Search, c/o Waitsfield UCC Church, PO Box 16, Waitsfield, Vermont, 05673. We look forward to meeting you!

Program Director & Associate Program Director

Champlain Inn Emergency Shelter in Burlington

We’re Growing! Do you want to make a meaningful impact in our community?

The Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity (CVOEO) has exciting opportunities for you to make a meaningful impact in our community by joining our leadership team to serve as our Program Director and Associate Program Director at the Champlain Inn Emergency Shelter in Burlington, Vermont. CVOEO’s Champlain Inn will be a 24/7 low-barrier shelter for up to 40 individuals experiencing homelessness. The Champlain Inn will offer temporary shelter, housing advocacy, educational opportunities and daily meals in a community setting with the goal of assisting people to find permanent housing.

Become a part of our Leadership team! Our Community Action Network seeks full-time motivated leadership professionals with a passion for our mission for the following positions:

Champlain Inn Program Director, working closely with the Director of CVOEO’s Community Action Network and the Executive Director, will oversee and supervise the work of Advocates assisting individuals who are experiencing homelessness to find or maintain suitable housing, including advocating for clients with local social service agencies, landlords and funding sources. The Program Director will oversee all aspects of shelter operations and services; educate and advocate at the local and state level to improve services and housing for people experiencing homelessness and maintain and report on data. Bachelor’s degree in a relevant human services discipline with proven progressive leadership experience. In addition, candidates must have five-seven years of experience in supervision of staff, fiscal management and administration.

Champlain Inn Associate Program Director, reporting to the Program Director, will assist in overseeing the operations of the Champlain Inn and supervise the work of Housing Advocates, Interns, Volunteers and special projects. Provide leadership and direction in the absence of the Director. Assist individuals who are experiencing homelessness to find or maintain suitable housing, including advocating for clients with local social service agencies organizations, landlords and funding sources. Bachelor’s degree in a relevant human services discipline with proven progressive leadership experience. In addition, candidates must have strong supervisory, management and training skills.

When you come to work for CVOEO you’re getting so much more than a paycheck! We offer a great working environment and an excellent benefit package including medical, dental and vision insurance, paid holidays, generous paid time off, a retirement plan and discounted gym membership.

Interested in working with us? To apply please visit cvoeo.org/careers to submit a cover letter and resume. We embrace the diversity of our community and staff. CVOEO is interested in candidates who can contribute to our diversity. Applicants are encouraged to include in their cover letter information about how they will further this goal. Review of applications begins immediately and will continue until suitable applicants are found. We’re one of the Best Places to Work in Vermont! Join us to find out why!

THE GRIND GOT YOU DOWN?

AIDES FOR YOUNG MAN WITH AUTISM

Weekend Respite:

Production Assistant

Fri 5pm-Sat 5pm and/or Sat 5pm-Sun 5pm, $300/ day. Sun 5pm-Mon 8am, $250/partial day. Minimum required commitment is two consecutive 24-hr. shifts at least one weekend per month on average.

See KieselsteinAutism Program.com/join-our-team for details.

Lost Lantern Spirits, an awardwinning independent bottler of American whiskey, is beginning to build out its Vermont production team! We’re seeking a Production Assistant to help with bottling, blending, and sometimes with the tasting room as well. We’re looking for someone who is detail-oriented, a problem solver, and has an interest in getting to know all about whiskey (if you aren’t already a whiskey nerd!). Reporting to Lost Lantern’s General Manager, this role is based at our Vergennes, VT production facility and tasting room. See the full job description at lostlanternwhiskey.com/careers

OPERATIONS LEAD

Join Wood4Good, Vermont’s largest wood bank, in supporting families in need. We’re seeking an experienced team member to be our Wood4Good Operations Lead for our Woodlot in Jericho VT. Tasks include loading, delivering, cutting firewood, and organizing volunteer days. You must operate a skid steer for moving and splitting wood. We offer flexible hours, aiming for 18-25 hrs/week across a few days. Competitive pay and a versatile work environment provided. Ideal candidates are passionate about aiding others. This role lets you give back and earn simultaneously, contributing to our local community. Position works from April to December. Urgently seeking someone to help us achieve this year’s delivery goals. Your assistance is crucial. Email your interest to eric@wood4goodvt.org and also check our website wood4goodvt.org.

“Wood4Good, Warming Homes and Warming Hearts.”

Child Care Resource Admin/Financial Assistant Support Specialist

Are you looking for a position that has a direct impact on Vermont families? Child Care Resource is recruiting a full-time Administrative Assistant/ Financial Assistant Support Specialist. You will assist Financial Assistance Specialists with casework to support families who are eligible for state child care stipends. In addition, the position supports the administrative needs of the organization by providing front desk coverage, customer service with clients on the phone and in the office. Experience in customer service and in human service organizations is desired. Excellent benefits, generous leave time and competitive salary.

To apply please send a resume and cover letter expressing interest in the position to jvanburen@childcareresource.org. For a full job description visit childcareresource.org

Burlington Housing Authority (BHA)

Engineering Positions: Creative Micro (CMC) is a small company specializing in advanced augmented reality and artificial intelligence technology development. CMC is looking for highly motivated individuals to join our unique team. We build systems using microprocessors to control cameras, inertial guidance units, and custom hardware including ruggedized, outdoor Augmented Reality display systems. Multiple engineering positions available in Waitsfield, VT including electrical, optical and firmware. Come work on the cutting edge of technology development in the Mad River Valley!

POLICE OFFICERS

Full-Time

The Stowe Police Department is seeking full-time police officer positions to help fulfill its mission to provide quality service in a professional, respectful, and ethical manner.

Stowe is a vibrant four season resort community offering worldclass outdoor recreation. The community has 5,200 year round residents and can have over 10,000 visitors during peak periods.

Stowe Police operates throughout the Town’s 72 square miles which includes over 90 miles of roadways.

Stowe Police Department is committed to excellence in law enforcement and dedicated to the people, traditions, and diversity of our town. We work in partnership with the community to preserve and improve the quality of life, making the town a safer, more pleasant place to live, work, and visit.

If you strive for excellence and are looking to start or continue your career in law enforcement, we want to speak with you about making Stowe Police Department your employer of choice.

Applicants must be 21 years of age, a U.S. citizen, possess a High School diploma or equivalent, and possess a valid Driver’s License. Applicant must be able to perform all the essential functions involved with police duties. The hiring process includes a physical fitness examination, polygraph, oral board, written exam, medical exam, fingerprint check & extensive background check.

Minimum starting pay for a certified officer is $26.05 per hour ($23.61 for uncertified) and may be higher depending on qualifications and experience. A shift differential is available.

Stowe currently offers an excellent benefit package including BCBS health plans with 8% or 10% employee premium share, dental insurance, generous paid leave including 13 holidays, 11.1% employer contribution to VMERS D pension plan, life insurance and more.

If have any questions, please call Chief Donald Hull at (802) 253-4329 or e-mail at dhull@stowevt.gov

Job descriptions & employment application can be obtained at: townofstowevt.org. Submit application, letter of interest and resume to: Town of Stowe, c/o HR Director, PO Box 730, Stowe, VT 05672 or by email recruit@stowevt.gov. Applications will be accepted until the position is filled. The Town of Stowe is an E.O.E.

Are you interested in a job that helps your community and makes a difference in people’s lives every day? Consider joining Burlington Housing Authority (BHA) in Burlington, VT to continue BHA’s success in promoting innovative solutions that address housing instability challenges facing our diverse population of low-income families and individuals. We’re currently expanding our team of professionals in the Housing Retention and Services department Here are three full time (40 hours per week) positions available:

HOUSING RETENTION SPECIALIST – COMMUNITY OUTREACH

Aids community members who are experiencing homelessness and need support navigating housing systems and locating and securing housing in the Chittenden County community. The Housing Retention Specialist – Community Outreach works collaboratively with community service agencies and providers in addition to Chittenden County Coordinated Entry, BHA Section 8, and Property Management.

HOUSING RETENTION SERVICES – SITE BASED

Responsible for supporting those who have mental health and substance use challenges and/or who have moved from homelessness to Bobbin Mill, Wharf Lane, and other BHA properties. The position works closely with property management and other site-based staff to identify challenges and respond with appropriate direct service and coordination of community services, with a goal of eviction prevention and facilitating a healthy tenancy.

OFFENDER RE-ENTRY HOUSING SPECIALIST

Provides support to men and women under the VT Department of Corrections supervision from prison back to Chittenden County. The ORHS focuses on high-risk men and women who are being released from jail and graduating transitional housing programs and in need of permanent housing. The ORHS provides intensive retention and eviction prevention services and works collaboratively with the Burlington Probation and Parole Office. Additionally, the ORHS works with various case workers, Re-Entry staff and the Administrative Staff from the VT Department of Corrections and the broad network of COSA staff as necessary throughout Chittenden County.

Find more info about these career opportunities at burlingtonhousing.org.

*BHA serves a diverse population of tenants and partners with a variety of community agencies. To most effectively carry out our vision of delivering safe and affordable housing to all, we are committed to cultivating a staff that reflects varied lived experiences, viewpoints, and educational histories. Therefore, we strongly encourage candidates from diverse racial, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds, persons with disabilities, LGBTQ individuals, and women to apply. Multilingualism is a plus!

Our robust benefit package includes premium medical insurance with a health reimbursement account, dental, vision, short and long term disability, 10% employer funded retirement plan, 457 retirement plan, accident insurance, life insurance, cancer and critical illness insurance.

We provide a generous time off policy including 12 days of paid time off and 12 days of sick time in the first year. In addition to the paid time off, BHA recognizes 13 (paid) holidays and 2 (paid) floating cultural holidays.

Interested in this career opportunity? Send a cover letter and resume to: humanresources@burlingtonhousing.org.

Human Resources

Burlington Housing Authority 65 Main Street, Suite 101 Burlington, VT 05401

burlingtonhousing.org

Burlington Housing Authority is an Equal Opportunity Employer

ATTENTION RECRUITERS:

Director of Special Projects & Innovation

Washington Electric Cooperative (WEC) is a rural, non-profit electric utility founded in 1939 to bring electricity to rural Vermont communities that were in low density, rural areas, mostly residential, and that investor-owned utilities did not consider profitable. WEC is a cooperative owned by its members—those to whom it provides electricity.

The Cooperative places its social and environmental responsibilities at the top of its priority list by continuing its mission of providing renewable power in an environmentally and socially responsible way and by modernizing our operations and infrastructure. WEC is proud to be one of three Vermont utilities supplying 100% renewable electricity, while also working to ensure efficient use of its power and helping its member-owners transition away from reliance on fossil fuels.

As a cooperative, WEC returns revenue collected in excess of its operating costs to its member-owners. It incentivizes use of its renewable power to replace fossil fuels, helps its income qualifying members weatherize their homes, and reinvests in its community through philanthropy using funds donated by its members.

Washington Electric is seeking a highly motivated, enthusiastic and innovative individual to fill a key position in the organization.

GENERAL SUMMARY OF JOB:

The Director of Special Projects & Innovation is part of WEC’s leadership team. This position reports directly to the General Manager and interacts with members of the Board of Directors. This position will be primarily responsible for obtaining grant funding and designing and implementing a variety of projects across the organization. Working with key staff at WEC, as well as with partners in the utility industry, with vendors, with lenders and with regulators, will be key components of the job. This job is ideal for someone who wants to play a key role in the success of a socially and environmentally responsible organization that provides an essential service in a rapidly changing and challenging industry. This position will work with others on WEC’s Management Team to ensure the success of the organization as it modernizes its operations, meets regulatory and lender requirements, and becomes more efficient and effective.

Qualified applicants must possess a four-year degree in an appropriate area for public utility or equivalent experience. A minimum of one year’s on-the-job experience in this position will be needed before the employee can be expected to perform satisfactorily with no more than normal supervision and direction.

WEC is a small organization with many long-term employees, which operates in a professional but family-like culture. Being able to direct your own work, collaborate with others who do not directly report to you, and manage multiple projects simultaneously are important skills for this position. The person in this position will have the opportunity to direct much of their own work, and a hybrid approach combining remote work with some in-office days is available for the right candidate, especially after the first six months.

Submit letter of interest to WEC’s Human Resources Dept., c/o Teia Greenslit, Director of Finance & Administration, PO Box 8, East Montpelier, VT 05651. (Teia.Greenslit@wec.coop)

Seeking Community Support Worker

Seeking candidate for companionship and community support to a man in his 30’s with an intellectual disability. Average 10-15 hours weekly. CSW will assist with everyday tasks: shopping, leisure and recreational activities, errands and exploring new recipes for healthy eating. Sharing good fun and trust is key.

Open and honest communication is necessary. Key qualities include solid followthrough, sharing respect, good and fair communication, honesty, and collaborative work.

Please respond directly to jobseeking775@ gmail.com.

GO HIRE.

The Center for an Agricultural Economy is HIRING!

Farm Connex Delivery Driver

Do you have a passion for helping expand farmers’ opportunities across the state and being an integral part of local food distribution? Come drive the local agricultural economy! Hourly rate starting at $20.50/hr, 40 hrs/week.

Accounting Coordinator

Are you good with numbers, comfortable with computers, enjoy solving puzzles, and excited to support organization-wide accounting and financial systems? We want to hear from you! Salary range: $45,000-$55,000 at 40 hrs a week.

Find more information at hardwickagriculture.org/jobs

Job Recruiters:

• Post jobs using a form that includes key info about your company and open positions (location, application deadlines, video, images, etc.).

Accept applications and manage the hiring process via our applicant tracking tool.

• Easily manage your open job listings from your recruiter dashboard.

Job Seekers:

• Search for jobs by keyword, location, category and job type.

• Set up job alert emails using custom search criteria.

• Save jobs to a custom list with your own notes on the positions.

• Apply for jobs directly through the site.

Get a quote when you post online or contact Michelle Brown: 865-1020, ext. 121, michelle@sevendaysvt.com.

jobs.sevendaysvt.com

Communications Manager

The Intervale Center seeks an experienced, mission-driven Communications Manager to join our team and help tell the story of the Intervale. The Communications Manager will amplify the impact of our work in enhancing and supporting community food systems through strong branding and compelling storytelling via digital and print communications and press engagement. An ideal candidate has excellent written and verbal communication skills, proven experience developing successful communications plans and campaigns, and is proficient in digital marketing, social media strategy, and design software.

Intervale Center is an Equal Opportunity Employer that values diversity of experience, background, and perspective to enrich our work. Applications by members of all underrepresented groups are encouraged.

Full job description with instructions on how to apply can be found at: intervale.org/get-involved#employment-banner.

PEER MENTOR

Recovery Vermont is hiring three Peer Mentors to help Vermonters returning to the community a er incarceration access supported employment, mental health peer support, recovery coaching, housing, transportation, childcare etc through our brand-new Beyond Bars program. Beyond Bars’ full program details and job description can be viewed here: bit.ly/3P22UTE

These positions require a split of remote and in-person work. They provide an annual salary of $52,000, generous flexible time off, an 80% employer contribution towards health, dental and vision insurance, and staff wellness and professional development funds. These are one year grant funded positions which we hope to secure sufficient funding to make ongoing.

Recovery Vermont is an organization with a deep commitment to equity - individuals with diverse cultural, racial, and gender identities, and people with mobility challenges and other disabilities and lived experiences including incarceration, homelessness, mental health challenges, substance use disorders and other addictions, and other historical barriers are strongly encouraged to apply.

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR

This exciting new position supports the organization’s mission by assisting the Executive Director in all aspects of the organization’s activities. Depending on the candidates’ qualifications and experience, particular focus may be on business incubator development and implementation, acting as Regional Navigator for the Small Business Technical Assistance Exchange Program in Addison and Lamoille Counties, developing a regional economic development strategy for Addison County, and annual development of the Regional Priority Project List.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS:

• Bachelor’s degree required and/or a minimum of 3 years in a similar or equivalent organization & role; higher degree preferred.

• Minimum two years of experience in economic development or related field required.

• Demonstrated grant research and writing experience and knowledge of government and non-government funding sources preferred.

• Demonstrated experience overseeing and guiding complex projects with multiple partners and stakeholders.

• Demonstrated knowledge of Addison County, Vermont preferred.

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills required.

How to Apply: Via email, submit cover letter and resume to fkenney@addisoncountyedc.org with “Assistant Director Job Application” in the subject line.

Applications due by October 6, 2023.

Equal Opportunity Employer

Bilingual Patient Services Coordinator

Our free health clinic seeks a detail-oriented bilingual (Spanish/English) Patient Services Coordinator who will work compassionately and collaboratively to help patients obtain needed services. The in-person role coordinates volunteer interpreters and supports Middlebury clinic operations. Desired: cultural and linguistic competence, excellent communications, problem-solving, and admin support skills. BA/BS preferred. ODC offers a great work environment. 28-32 hrs/wk, $21-$24/hr plus benefits purse.

To apply, send cover letter, resume, & 3 refs to Heidi Sulis, hsulis@opendoormidd.org

Interested parties please email a cover letter and resume to director@recoveryvermont.org. Questions can be directed to the same email address.

Brand new, state-of-the-art Residential Care program.

Clara’s Garden Memory Care is looking for caring staff to join our team. Our community is beautiful, peaceful, and purposefully designed for those living with memory loss.

Excellent work environment, competitive pay, great benefits!

Details: opendoormidd.org/ about-us/jobs

Now hear this!

Seven Days is recording select stories from the weekly newspaper for your listening pleasure.

How does it work?

Go to sevendaysvt.com/aloud and click on the article you want to hear.

When the article loads, scroll down past the first photo and find the prompt to “Hear this article read aloud.”

Press play! You can pause at any time, skip ahead, rewind and change the speaking speed to suit your needs.

Happy Days: Burlington High School Class of 1953 Holds ‘Final’ Reunion 13 MINS.

Movie Review: ‘Red, White & Royal Blue’ 8 MINS.

Talking to the Hand Is a Bad Idea in the Gritty Australian Horror Flick ‘Talk to Me’ 8 MINS. This Stud Has Just One Job, and He’s the GOAT 8 MINS.

A Seven Days Canine Staffer Samples New Offerings from Vermont Dog Bakeries 10 MINS.

Dam Scary: Intense Storms Push Vermont’s Aging Structures to the Brink 23 MINS.

In a Mobile Home Park Devastated by Flood, Shock, Sadness and Frustration Take Hold 17 MINS.

Way to Say: French Words and Phrases You Should Know Before Visiting Québec 9 MINS.

A Lincoln Carpenter Landed a Plumb Position Rebuilding Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris 12 MINS.

Start listening at: sevendaysvt.com/aloud

Then, tell us what you think: aloud@sevendaysvt.com

fun stuff

“Looks like someone found a warm spot”

VIRGO

(AUG. 23-SEP. 22)

Virgo journalist Anthony Loyd has spent a lot of time in war zones, so it’s no surprise that he has bleak views about human nature. He makes the following assertion: “We think we have freedom of choice, but really most of our actions are puny meanderings in the prison yard built by history and early experience.” I agree that our conditioning and routines prevent us from being fully liberated. But most of us have some capacity for responding to the raw truth of the moment and are not utterly bound by the habits of the past. At our worst, we have 20 percent access to freedom of choice. At our best, we have 70 percent. I believe you will be near the 70 percent levels in the coming weeks, dear Virgo.

ARIES (Mar. 21-Apr. 19): Climate change is dramatically altering the Earth. People born today will experience three times as many floods and droughts as someone born in 1960 and seven times more heat waves. In urgent efforts to find a cure, scientists are generating outlandish proposals: planting mechanical trees, creating undersea walls to protect melting glaciers from warm ocean water, dimming the sun with airborne calcium carbonate and covering Arctic ice with a layer of glass. In this spirit, I encourage you to incite unruly and even unorthodox brainstorms

to solve your personal dilemmas. Be wildly inventive and creative.

TAURUS (Apr. 20-May 20): “When love is not madness, it is not love,” Spanish author Pedro Calderon de la Barca wrote. In my opinion, that’s naïve, melodramatic nonsense! I will forgive him for his ignorance, since he worked as a soldier and celibate priest in the 17th century. The truth is that, yes, love should have a touch of madness. But when it has more than a touch, it’s usually a fake kind of love: rooted in misunderstanding, immaturity, selfishness and lack of emotional intelligence. In accordance with astrological factors, I assign you Tauruses to be dynamic practitioners of genuine togetherness in the coming months: with hints of madness and wildness, yes, but mostly big helpings of mutual respect, smart compassion, tender care and a knack for dealing maturely with disagreements.

GEMINI (May 21-Jun. 20): Gemini author Iain S. Thomas writes, “There are two things everyone has. One is The Great Sadness and the other is How Weird I Really Am. But only some of us are brave enough to talk about them.” The coming weeks will be a favorable time to ripen your relationship with these two things, Gemini. You will have the extra gravitas necessary to understand how vital they are to your full humanity. You can also express and discuss them in meaningful ways with the people you trust.

CANCER (Jun. 21-Jul. 22): A self-fulfilling prophecy happens when the expectations we embrace actually come to pass. We cling so devotedly to a belief about what will occur that we help generate its literal manifestation. This can be unfortunate if the anticipated outcome isn’t good for us. But it can be fortunate if the future we visualize upgrades our well-being. I invite you to ruminate on the negative and positive projections you’re now harboring. Then shed the former and reinforce the latter.

LEO (Jul. 23-Aug. 22): The holy book of the Zoroastrian religion describes a mythical mountain, Hara Berezaiti. It’s the geographic center of the universe. The sun hides behind it at night. Stars and planets revolve around it. All the world’s waters originate at its peak. Hara

Berezaiti is so luminous and holy that no darkness can survive there, nor can the false gods abide. I would love for you to have your own version of Hara Berezaiti, Leo: a shining source of beauty and strength in your inner landscape. I invite you to use your imagination to create this sanctuary within you. Picture yourself having exciting, healing adventures there. Give it a name you love. Call on its invigorating presence when you need a sacred boost.

LIBRA (Sep. 23-Oct. 22): Libra poet T.S. Eliot wrote the iconic narrative poem “The Wasteland.” One part of the story takes place in a bar near closing time. Several times, the bartender calls out, “Hurry up, please — it’s time.” He wants the customers to finish their drinks and leave for the night. Now imagine I’m that bartender standing near you. I’m telling you, “Hurry up, please — it’s time.” What I mean is that you are in the climactic phase of your astrological cycle. You need to finish this chapter of your life story so you can move on to the next one. “Hurry up, please — it’s time” means you have a sacred duty to resolve, as best you can, every lingering confusion and mystery.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Addressing a lover, Scorpio poet Margaret Atwood says, “I would like to walk with you through that lucent wavering forest of bluegreen leaves with its watery sun & three moons, towards the cave where you must descend, towards your worst fear.” That is a bold declaration. Have you ever summoned such a deep devotion for a loved one? You will have more power and skill than usual to do that in the coming months. Whether you want to or not is a different question. But yes, you will be connected to dynamic magic that will make you a brave and valuable ally.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Sagittarian theologian N.T. Wright writes, “The great challenge to self-knowledge is blind attachment to our virtues. It is hard to criticize what we think are our virtues. Although the spirit languishes without ideals, idealism can be the greatest danger.” In my view, that statement formulates a central Sagittarian challenge. On the one hand, you need to cultivate high ideals if you want to be exquisitely yourself. On the other hand, you must

ensure your high ideals don’t become weapons you use to manipulate and harass others. Author Howard Bloom adds more. “Watch out for the dark side of your own idealism and of your moral sense,” he writes. “Both come from our arsenal of natural instincts. And both easily degenerate into an excuse for attacks on others.” Now is a good time for you to ponder these issues.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Capricorn playwright and novelist Rose Franken said, “Anyone can be passionate, but it takes real lovers to be silly.” That’s interesting, because many traditional astrologers say that Capricorns are the least likely zodiac sign to be silly. Speaking from personal experience, though, I have known members of your tribe to be goofy, nutty and silly when they feel comfortably in love. An old Capricorn girlfriend of mine delighted in playing and having wicked-good fun. Wherever you rank in the annals of wacky Capricorns, I hope you will consider expressing these qualities in the coming weeks. Romance and intimacy will thrive if you do.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): As I work on writing new books, I often draw on inspirations that flow through me as I take long hikes. The vigorous exercise shakes loose visions and ideas that are not accessible as I sit in front of my computer. Aquarian novelist Charles Dickens was an adherent of this approach. At night, he liked to walk around London for miles, marveling at the story ideas that welled up in him. I recommend our strategy to you in the coming weeks, Aquarius. As you move your body, key revelations and enriching emotions will well up in you.

PISCES (Feb. 19-Mar. 20): The coming months will be an excellent time to build, discover and use metaphorical bridges. To get in the mood, brainstorm about every type of bridge you might need. How about a connecting link between your past and future? How about a nexus between a task you must do and a task you love to do? And maybe a conduit between two groups of allies that would then serve you even better than they already do? Your homework is to fantasize about three more exciting junctions, combinations or couplings.

supported by: Built in 1901, the East Monitor Barn on Route 2 in Richmond is one of the largest barns in the state. Part of the Vermont Youth Conservation Corps’ campus, the barn is in the midst of a massive renovation helmed by lead restorationist Eliot Lothrop of Building Heritage. From 2001 to 2003, he lived in the barn's milk house and has dreamt about this project for 22 years.

WOMEN seeking...

NOT SO DESPERATELY SEEKING

Fat, funny, farty (sixtysomething) femme seeks same in a man. Must be clean, clever and kind. CatsANDdogs, 66, seeking: M

LOVE AND COMPASSION FOR ALL

I am very active and young for my age. You’ll usually find me outdoors, in my flower garden or with my horse. Lived in Essex for many years before moving to Utah in 2008. Retired now but work temporary jobs and in stables where I am usually with my horse. Have a dachshund and cat. Have always loved Vermont. equus, 72, seeking: M, l

OPTIMISTIC, DRIVEN, BUBBLY BABE

Smiles, affectionate, hardworking, passionate, emotionally intelligent. Wants to find the love of her life. You: good head on your shoulders, know what you want, motivated, emotionally intelligent and want a future with a really cute girl with a pretty smile. An affinity for old farmhouses will get you extra brownie points! Battlebeautyfarmhouse, 33 seeking: M, l

SOME KIND OF WONDERFUL

Fierce femme with a tender heart seeks someone sweet as baklava whose eyes I can fall into. Interests include doubleshot espresso, watching the rain fall from my front porch and discovering beauty in all forms. Must have curiosity, a heart of gold and be willing to shower me in adoration. tamaracktrees 24 seeking: M, W, TM, TW, Q, NC, NBP

WANT TO RESPOND?

You read Seven Days, these people read Seven Days — you already have at least one thing in common!

All the action is online. Create an account or login to browse hundreds of singles with profiles including photos, habits, desires, views and more. It’s free to place your own profile online.

l See photos of this person online.

W = Women

M = Men

TW = Trans women

TM = Trans men

Q = Genderqueer people

NBP = Nonbinary people

NC = Gender nonconformists

Cp = Couples

Gp = Groups

ADVENTUROUS, ENJOY LIFE, SUNSHINE

I am energetic, love to try new things, adventures, short trips. I have a cat for company, live simply, low maintenance, bilingual. Seeking someone who likes to explore Vermont, Québec. A great cook would be a plus. Funny, good conversationalist, conservative in politics, but I will respect your political choices, a bit old school, a gentleman. Luvtosmile, 78, seeking: M

WIDOW STARTING OVER

I’ve been working for the same health care provider for over 40 years and plan to retire in the next 18 months. I own my home and have worked since 16, so no “gold digger” here. I’m 5’6, some “love handles,” hazel/blue eyes and short medium brown hair with highlights. I love going to Maine on weekend getaways. Here’s to our next adventure! LilyMae23, 63, seeking: M, l

CRUNCHY, BISEXUAL

Funny, open-minded, worldly, direct woman looking for a woman to hang out with, friends with benefits, hook up. Highly sexual and looking for same in a woman. No couples, no men. JATCASUAL, 41 seeking: W

QUIRKY HOMESTEADIN’ SWAMP HAG

Just your run-of-the-mill hermitess growing and cooking loads of food. I’m a cynical leftist who loves the Earth and all the critters. I’d love to meet someone with similar ideals and goals to join me on the homestead. I’m goofy, serious, quiet and loud. I have a yarn and seed addiction. Let’s go for a walk! VTHomesteader 42 seeking: M, W, TM, TW, Q, NC, NBP, l

REAL MEETS REAL

Shy at the start but getting along easily with time. I am that countryside lifestyle. I have a good sense of humor. I have so much passion for humans. All I seek in a man is loyalty. paused, 37 seeking: M, l

GENUINE, PROGRESSIVE, SMART WOMAN

Back in Vermont after moving to San Francisco in 1980, a dream of mine since high school in southern Vermont, where I grew up and learned to love the beauty of Vermont. The land conservation nonprofit I work for allowed me to work remotely after many years there, so I could relocate to live near my brother and keep working. VTtaketwo 66, seeking: M, l

NOT DEAD YET

I considered myself a high-heels, makeup-at-all-times city girl until I moved to Vermont 12 years ago. I never even owned a car, and all my Boston/New York friends wondered how I would survive. Well, not only did I survive, but I learned how to fish in a lake year-round and even how to shoot a gun. CLC 77 seeking: M, l

SUNSHINE AND WANDERLUST

Seeking fun-loving, easygoing people for friendship and maybe more. Wonderful weather these days. Who’s up for enjoying it? CarolinaGirl, 35, seeking: M, TM, Q, NC, NBP, l

LIFE IS GOOD

Nice lady seeking wonderful guy. CookiesandCream, 65 seeking: M, l ACTIVE WATER AND MOUNTAIN PERSON

Do you ever not want to go alone? Traveling is something I want to do with someone. I go to music events and theater in Vermont and beyond. I love to dance. I don’t mind my alone time at home. I’ve been single for 15 years. Hopefully you are fun, happy, active and loving. Time4Me2, 65 seeking: M, l

BRIGHT, INQUISITIVE ADVENTURER

Life is an adventure that is constantly throwing twists and turns that must be navigated with agility, flexibility and humor. I’m looking for a man who wants to join me in the adventure. Avid gardener, cook, hike, bike, scuba, rock climb. Lots of interests and willing to try new things, too. Let’s get out and play. More fun/laughter.

MIDWESTGRL, 67, seeking: M, l

LOOKING FOR MY OTHER HALF

I’m fun, laid-back and kind. I’m looking for a long-term relationship with someone who is looking for the same. I own my home, have a job and pay my bills. I’m looking for a true connection. WifeyMaterial 39, seeking: M, l

READY TO MEET VINTAGE GENTLEMAN

Happy and healthy 84-y/o woman looking for a gentleman to share exploring Vermont, ethnic restaurants, walks in the woods, bagels and coffee. ANNYLOUIE 84, seeking: M

MEN seeking...

COUNTRY MAN, 65

I am a mountain man and love being in the country. I am active. I loved church hymns. Bigfoot777, 65 seeking: W, l

FUN, CREATIVE, SMART

Music is my passion, and I have eclectic musical tastes. Playing guitar, keyboards, percussion, singing. Selfaware, mindful and meditative. Love the outdoors, hiking, walking and running, snowshoeing, travel. Love good food. Crossword enthusiast. Life is all about sharing the good things with someone you love.

OneOfAKindArtist 63 seeking: W, l

NORDIC FOREVER

I am kind, gentle, intelligent and fun-loving. Looking for a gal who’d love to wander the woods in winter on skis, snowshoes and microspikes, and hike and walk the rest of the year. Just plain love waking and talking. Love to read, browse bookstores and libraries. Love good writing for its own sake. Roadwalker 78 seeking: W, l

MAGICAL, CARING ADVENTURE

Hi. I love living and sharing Vermont with like-minded people. For myself, biking, hiking, kayaking and pickleball are some of my hobbies. Adventures with an honest, caring person would complete the picture. rangerrobin 75, seeking: W, l

LOOK YOUNGER THAN I AM

I have been married twice, 20-plus years each time. The second one left me a widower. I am not looking for a long-term relationship at this time. All I want at this time is a someone who is open-minded and adventurous. My preference would be a nonsmoker and close to my age (i.e., over 65). Moose44 78, seeking: W, l

HONEST, RESPECTFUL, LOVE TO LAUGH

I’m a UVM grad and recently retired. I love to cook and travel and enjoy a good restaurant. I consider myself open-minded, easy to talk to and a good listener. Friends and family are very important to me. People say I look younger than I am. I’m looking for someone to share the big and little things in life. FLKeys 69 seeking: W, l

SILLY, KIND, HONEST

About me: completed some college at UVM. Entrepreneur. 5’11. Dad bod. White (AF). Love basketball, making songs, funny shows/vids. Pros: sense of humor, caring, athletic, creative. Cons: dad bod (a pro for some?), too cool for school. What I’m looking for: someone who has two eyes, breathes and is OK with me hogging blankets, hopefully. Hoop, 24, seeking: W, l

ZEN KAYAKING PANTHEIST

Lavender moon appears and vanishes / behind half-clothed autumn birches / follows me down this rocky ridge... / its light and shadows / spooling across the trail, / drawing me ever forward / ephemeral as a wind-blown butterfly... My beliefs align with Celtic and Aboriginal cultures. I spend much time outdoors. My body reflects this, weathering like primitivo grapes into a rustic wine with oaky aftertastes. Rodkakov 71 seeking: W, l

OLD-SCHOOL PUNK

Hmm, honest, huh? Well, here you go. I like punk, oi, ska, metal, reggae, etc. When I have time, I color, play video games, write, Legos, take road trips and small walks. I have a medical condition and learning disability. I never know what to say here. If you want to know more, just ask over a beer or hot chocolate. Anthonyc81, 42, seeking: W, l

EARNEST, INTELLIGENT, DOWN-TOEARTH

I want to find a rustic woman — intelligent, kind, earthy, maybe educated, maybe artsy and God-centered — and start a family. I’ve never been married. No kids. Want kids. I love people, nature, the simple things. I grew up in Vermont and wouldn’t trade it for any other place on Earth. 1thdegodo, 53, seeking: W, l

ACTIVE, OLD-SCHOOL GUY

I am an energetic guy who enjoys the simple things in life, like fishing on the lake, church suppers, fairs, bingo, bluegrass and polka festivals, short-term travel, going out to eat now and then, or just relaxing at home. Looking for a compatible gal with similar interests to enjoy life with and to spoil and love. FISHGUY 80 seeking: W, l

COMPASSIONATE, ENERGETIC LIFE LUST, 63 YEARS YOUNG

Well-traveled, engaging, spontaneous, stable gentleman looking for a fun relationship. Being generally fit and active and having a passion for skiing are musts. Independent financially, as am I. Kindness, honesty, passion for life are musts. I work four intense days and have three days to play. Love all water sports, hiking, camping, long walks, holding hands, cooking, music and dreaming. stevdate1959, 63, seeking: W, l

100 PERCENT HONEST Hi. I’m a down-to-earth guy who enjoys life. Would like to find a woman to do that with.

TheDimplesRDeep, 53, seeking: W, l MELLOW, CARING LISTENER

I am in my mid-70s. I am looking for a friend first and possibly more. I will treat you with kindness and compassion. Soccer 70, seeking: W, l WIDOWER, 81, SEEKS ATHLETIC WIDOW Hi. Recent widower, 81, seeks near-age widow as equal partner/companion for multi-hour (though slower) hiking, bicycling, cross-country skiing and more. Please be grad-school educated, well read and informed, financially independent, fit, and love gardening, healthy eating, music and, most of all, a deep, loving relationship with a new partner. Anyone still out there? AthleticWidowerAt81, 81, seeking: W, l

TRANS WOMEN seeking...

HONESTY, COMMON SENSE A MUST 53-y/o single trans woman. Have a few pounds around the center. LOL. I’m finally ready to meet someone who will not be embarrassed to be seen in public with me. Love to get dolled up for someone. I’m easygoing. My ideal person would be female. Interesting to kinky. Do you think you could be my dominant other? Shygurl 53, seeking: TW, l

RECENTLY RELOCATED, ADVENTUROUS, FREE SPIRIT

I’m a gorgeous, white, 100 percent passable trans lady who is 57 and could pass as 30 — yes, 30! I long for love, laughter and romance, along with loving nature. I want a man who’s all man, rugged, handsome, well built but prefers a woman like myself. It’s as simple as that. We meet, fall in love and live happily ever after. Sammijo, 58, seeking: M, l FABULOUSLY FUTCH

Tall, smart trans woman looking for my people. I live in Middlebury. Any background in punk or politics is a plus — let’s make some noise! sashamarx, 53, seeking: M, W, TM, TW, Q, NC, NBP, Cp, l

NONBINARY PEOPLE seeking...

OPEN-MINDED YOUNG ELDER

I often enjoy exploring my internal and external world. I am a curious human being who heals and grows through creativity. I value sleep, beauty, nature, emotion, safety, peace and water. I am looking to meet nonjudgmental people who know themselves well and want to learn more. divingintodestiny, 37, seeking: W, TM, TW, Q, NC, NBP

COUPLES seeking...

LOVERS OF LIFE

We are a 40s couple, M/F, looking for adventurous encounters with openminded, respectful M/F or couples. Looking to enjoy sexy encounters, FWBs, short term or long term. sunshines, 42, seeking: M, W, Q, Cp

EXPLORING THREESOMES AND FOURSOMES

We are an older and wiser couple discovering that our sexuality is amazingly hot! Our interest is another male for threesomes or a couple. We’d like to go slowly, massage you with a happy ending. She’d love to be massaged with a happy ending or a dozen. Would you be interested in exploring sexuality with a hot older couple? DandNformen, 67, seeking: M, TM, NC, Cp, l

dating.sevendaysvt.com

COLCHESTER SHAW’S

BEAUTIFUL SMILE

You held the door for me. You were with your daughter, I believe. Even though I wanted you to enter first, you insisted. You said “Have a nice day” when I walked by. I was drawn to your smile, someone with a kind heart. Someone I would really like to get to know. When: Saturday, August 5, 2023. Where: Jiffy, Hinesburg. You: Woman. Me: Man. #915832

BERLIN PRICE CHOPPER

BLONDE

You: gorgeous blonde, tan skirt with green and pink stripes. Me: guy in a red T-shirt and baseball hat. We passed each other, made eye contact and smiled. I wish I had stopped and said hi, but you were a woman on a mission. Coffee sometime? When: Sunday, August 27, 2023. Where: Berlin Price Chopper. You: Woman. Me: Man. #915831

RE: LOOKINGFORONLYYOU

ey say, “Don’t take the risk, you’re sure to fail. ere’s no ‘get out of jail free’ card in life.” But what’s the worst that could happen, end up in a coffin? Isn’t that where we’re all headed anyway? Can’t escape the madness, so you might as well embrace it. Can’t be worse than a nine-to-five cubicle jail cell. When: ursday, February 23, 2023. Where: on the run, sin amor.

You: Woman. Me: Man. #915829

TO MY MAINTENANCE MAN

I know that you’ve had a lot on your plate recently. And things haven’t been easy. I just wanted to let you know I’m proud of you, and no matter what, I have your back. I love you. I wouldn’t want to go through the rest of this life with anyone but you. When: Friday, November 11, 2022. Where: in my future. You: Man. Me: Woman. #915828

We crossed paths, once when I was walking toward the refrigerated pasta section and the other moment we were at adjacent checkouts. I think we exchanged smiles, but maybe it was in my head? Dark blonde here, tattooed. You had dark hair, glasses and a salmon-colored shirt, I think. When: Tuesday, August 22, 2023. Where: Shaw’s. You: Man. Me: Woman. #915827

WE ALMOST COLLIDED

We almost collided with our shopping carts. Sorry, not sorry! Your smile was amazing! I wish we had made more of a connection. You: silverhaired male. Me: curly hair, Wolfsgart tank. When: Sunday, August 20, 2023. Where: Milton Hannaford.

You: Man. Me: Woman. #915826

CAMEL’S HUMP DOG DAD

To the dog dad hiking in the rain: I was running/hiking and crossed paths with you guys on the last section of the trail before the summit. You said, “Not a good day to hang out up here.” I hoped I’d catch you on the way down, but sadly I did not. Would love to connect! When: Saturday, August 19, 2023. Where: Camel’s Hump.

You: Man. Me: Woman. #915825

ENCHANTING IN OVERALLS, FOX MARKET

I was sitting at the downstairs table with a friend when you walked in on a rainy Saturday. We held eye contact and smiled. I felt a spark. Did you?

When: Saturday, August 19, 2023. Where: Fox Market, East Montpelier.

You: Woman. Me: Man. #915824

TALL SHELBURNE BLONDE

We crossed paths twice. You were wearing leggings and dark-rimmed glasses! Are you around and available?

When: ursday, August 10, 2023.

Where: Kinney Drugs, Shelburne Rd.

You: Woman. Me: Man. #915822

REVEREND Ask

De Rev end,

For the past couple of years, I have been starting to realize that I am sexually attracted to females. And just females. I have also been romantically attracted to males, but not sexually. Is this still bisexual? Or is it something else? I’ve never been able to find something that I feel comfortable with. I’m only a teenager, so it may or may not change, but I’m trying to understand myself and it’s really weighing me down.

LOOKING FOR COMPANIONSHIP

I want someone who is single, around 70 years old, and wants to have fun and do things together. Do things outdoors and other types of activities. He is a man who is a mechanic who I saw on this personals list. Can you get in touch with him for me? His ad says just what I would like. When: Friday, August 18, 2023. Where: internet. You: Man. Me: Woman. #915823

TAKE ME FOR A RIDE?

You were driving a two-tone blue/cream ‘70s Chevy truck in the evening. I was behind you in a boring-ass car. Your fumes were intoxicating. All I could see was a baseball cap. If you take me for a ride, I’ll take you for a... When: Friday, August 11, 2023. Where: Route 2. You: Man. Me: Woman. #915820

OLDER MAN AT HANNAFORD, RUTLAND

Around 4:30 p.m., I was in the produce department and I saw you walk in. You were white, older, balding, wearing shorts, a graphic T-shirt and flip-flops. You have a nice butt/hot package. Would love to invite you over for cocktails! I was the one wearing short shorts, flipflops. I’m 50, masculine and enjoy older white mature men. When: Saturday, August 5, 2023. Where: Hannaford, Rutland. You: Man. Me: Man. #915819

HUBBARD PATHS

Serious eye contact! Let’s connect! When: Saturday, August 5, 2023. Where: Hubbard, Montpelier. You: Woman. Me: Man. #915818

SEXY ART MAN

You: big, hairy muscle man with white tank. Your drawing was beautiful. Emotional but understated and classic. I feel like I understand you. I borrowed your eraser. I’m a 28-y/o woman, brown hair, hazel eyes. I also saw you at Target, and I smiled. Come back to class. Maybe I’ll even model sometime if you want a preview. When: Tuesday, June 13, 2023. Where: Kestrel Coffee. You: Man. Me: Woman. #915816

BRAVO ZULU

You greeted us as we were leaving at night. Something about that has me still thinking about you! Please reach out if you’re interested in getting acquainted! When: Saturday, August 5, 2023. Where: Bravo Zulu. You: Man. Me: Woman. #915812

De On the Fence,

You might be surprised by how often I get this kind of question and the age range of the people asking. Years can bring wisdom about ourselves, and you have a lot of ’em ahead of you to figure things out.

“Bisexual” is a broad term that can describe someone who is sexually and/or romantically attracted to members of more than one gender. If that doesn’t feel right, you might prefer the term “fluid” or “questioning.” If neither of those seems to fit either, try not to pressure yourself to choose a term — now or ever.

Sexuality is a spectrum. Whether you’re a teenager or an adult, it’s OK not to have

MONTPELIER FARMERS MARKET

You: black dress with flannel shirt, 40ish, driving a beautiful black VW Bug convertible. Me: tall, dark and handsome. Gave you a big smile. Would love to take a long ride in that sweet Bug! When: Saturday, August 5, 2023. Where: Montpelier farmers market.

You: Woman. Me: Man. #915811

HIGH PRIESTESS I was at the rite you held in the woods of Mansfield. I was there when the moon ascended into the heavens, our souls freed from our corporeal forms to become one in the night. Praise Lugh Ildánach the harvest this fall will be a blessed one. Anyhow, we should get a cup of coffee sometime. You’re really pretty. When: Tuesday, August 1, 2023. Where: Mount Mansfield. You: Woman. Me: Man. #915810

DOG WEARING

SUNGLASSES

Saw ‘em. Dog wearing sunglasses. at’s a cool dog. Feel free to reach out. When: Friday, August 4, 2023. Where: dog park. You: Group. Me: Man. #915809

SHUCKING CLAMS

You were shucking clams by the dock when I said, “Hey there, Daddy-o, what say ye give one of them thar clams?” and you said “If you get any closer, I won’t be responsible for my actions.” Anyways, what’s it like being the most enrapturing lass in all the land? Drop me a line sometime. Johnny Cool. When: ursday, August 3, 2023. Where: Burlington shore. You: Woman. Me: Man. #915808

WEDDING, SUNDAY, JULY 30, SPIRIT OF ETHAN ALLEN

If you are the couple who married aboard the Spirit of Ethan Allen’s noon tour, my aunt took a lovely photo from the upper deck we’d like you to have. One of the party wore a white sun hat. Tell me something else notable about that person to confirm ID, and I’ll send it off. And congrats! When: Sunday, July 30, 2023. Where: Spirit of Ethan Allen daily cruise. You: Group. Me: Woman. #915803

ALLIE FROM BUMBLE

You stood out to me, and I told you. We matched and rematched, then you disappeared. When may I take you to dinner? When: Tuesday, July 25, 2023. Where: Bumble. You: Woman. Me: Man. #915801

FOREVER YOUR KNIGHT

Dani, since you came into my life, all the clouds have disappeared. All I can see ahead for us is pure love and happiness. So many destinations to travel, photos and memories to be made. Hurry home, my queen! When: Tuesday, March 22, 2022. Where: in my dreams. You: Woman. Me: Gender nonconformist. #915802

HOMEGOODS, SATURDAY, 7/22

I was standing behind you in line wearing a black Harley-Davidson T-shirt and sporting a ponytail. You have the most beautiful, angel-like complexion. Was I staring? Unfortunately, that was the same time we heard over the intercom, “Cashier #3.” And away you went. Never to be seen again? I hope not! When: Saturday, July 22, 2023. Where: HomeGoods. You: Woman. Me: Man. #915800

WILLISTON BIKE PATH, MAGICAL SMILE

Between the ball fields and the church, 7 p.m.-ish. Me: tall man on rollerblades. You: pretty, slender woman with long lavender hair, sunglasses, walking your dog. As we passed each other, your smile was brighter than the sunset shining in your eyes. I’d love to know the woman behind that smile. Care to meet? When: ursday, July 20, 2023. Where: Williston bike path. You: Woman. Me: Man. #915799

COMMUTER ON THE BIKE PATH oughtful guy riding to work from near Airport Park to downtown. We talked on the bridge and had a nice chat about the state of the city. Interested in riding together again? When: Wednesday, July 19, 2023. Where: bike path.

You: Man. Me: Woman. #915798

INTREPID LANDSCAPERS WAITING IN LINE

We were both getting supplies. You had grasses, flowers; I had rocks, dirt. We talked about Seattle (the Chill!) and many other things. I think the folks ahead of us took a long time, but I didn’t mind. You gave off such a nice warm vibe that I kicked myself for not asking if I could give you my number. When: Saturday, July 22, 2023. Where: Home Depot. You: Woman. Me: Man. #915797

SCHMETTERLING WINE SHOP HOTTIE

You: serving up sensuous wine and station recommendations with our tasting! I was getting biodynamic vibes — are you interested in skin contact with a bubbly blonde? When: Saturday, July 22, 2023. Where: Middlebury.

You: Man. Me: Woman. #915796

a word for where you fall on it. e only thing that’s really important is that you’re happy with who you are. e questioning you’re going through is completely normal, but if it’s bringing you down, try finding some people to talk to.

Even if you have friends or family members you can openly discuss the subject with, you might want to expand your circle. Outright Vermont is a great local organization offering, among other things, a social and support group for ages 13 to 19. It meets up every week in real life and virtually. You can find out more at outrightvt.org.

Good luck and God bless, The

If you’ve been spied, go online to contact your admirer!

I’m a very unique lady who’s seeking a gentleman. Very passionate, honest, loyal, humble. I love to garden, read, listen to music and watch a good movie. Love to walk in the beautiful nature and earth, as well. Hoping to meet a gentleman with the same likes. #L1693

I’m a 79-y/o woman seeking a man, 70-plus y/o. Want companionship as well as a friend. Willing to stay home or travel — whichever you want to. Want to help anyone who needs it. #L1691

Need an heir? Too busy on that career? Let’s meet on that.

#L1684

Handsome straight man wanting an erotic exchange with another handsome straight man, but only in a full threesome with your wife, fiancée or girlfriend. #L1692

Gracious, faithful, educated, humorous soul seeks a fit, tender and natural female counterpart (55 to 65) to bask in autumn splendor. Let’s hike, bike, frolic, listen, ponder and share! I’m a worthy companion. #L1690

I’m a woman, 79 y/o, seeking a man, 65 to 70 y/o. I am looking for someone who likes to travel and stay at home. Like to play games of all sorts. Very friendly and want to meet new friends.

#L1688

HOW TO REPLY TO THESE LOVE LE ERS:

Seal your reply — including your preferred contact info — inside an envelope. Write your pen pal’s box number on the outside of that envelope and place it inside another envelope with payment. Responses for Love Letters must begin with the #L box number.

MAIL TO: Seven Days Love Letters

P.O. Box 1164, Burlington, VT 05402

PAYMENT: $5/response. Include cash or check (made out to “Seven Days”) in the outer envelope. To send unlimited replies for only $15/month, call us at 802-865-1020, ext. 161 for a membership (credit accepted).

PUBLISH YOUR MESSAGE ON THIS PAGE!

1 Submit your FREE message at sevendaysvt.com/loveletters or use the handy form at right.

We’ll publish as many messages as we can in the Love Letters section above. 2

Interested readers will send you letters in the mail. No internet required! 3

Dragonfly, hummingbird / warm winds, butterfly, / sun in bright sky, sun inside, / Iris, tigerlily, / Bright flowers in summer sun, / Dreams that fly, Come back in spring, / Lalee, lalee, lalee, liii. / Grown up boy for similar girl. #L1686

58-y/o SW. Humbled, thoughtful. Hoping for a safe, kind, honest relationship with a man. Calm in nature, love for nature. Morning coffees, long walks, talks, sunsets, art, music, dance, friends, family, laughs! Willing to see and resolve suffering. Unconditional love and support find me at home. Phone number, please. #L1680

Man, early 70s. Still grieving from two-plus years ago, but moving on. Funny, engaging, storyteller, listener. Interesting life (so far!). Greater Montpelier-Barre area. Looking for a woman friend: have fun, eat out, do stuff. Maybe more, but maybe not. Companionship. #L1687

I’m a SWM, 38, attractive, pierced nipples, friendly tattoos, purple and blue hair and goatee. No booze, no drugs. Looking for a kindred spirit, female, 18 to 58. #L1685

I’m a working man, 33, seeking a working woman, 25 to 33, to get to know and possibly build a life together. Born in Vermont to European family. Nonsmoking; no drugs. #L1683

Int net-Free Dating!

I’m a man, 72, seeking a woman, 45 to 70. Looking for a friend to go to dinner, movie, walking. I am fit for my age and seek the same in a woman. Phone number, please. #L1681

I’m an older guy with a high libido looking to meet a woman with similar interests to hopefully develop a LTR. My interests are country living, travel, humanpowered sports, music, art, gardening, etc. I’m secure and happy; very fit and healthy; a financially secure large-property owner; a curious, free-spirited adventurer; a singer and musician; a connoisseur of peace and quiet. 420-cool, friendly, compassionate, experienced and well endowed. You are your own beautiful self with a lust for life. Willing to travel for the right gal. Ability to sing, slender and body hair a plus. #LL1677

I’m a man seeking a woman. Very passionate, sexual and loyal man. Honest, loving, treat-youlike-a-lady guy seeking special woman, 35 to 60ish. No drugs or drunks. Must be honest and supportive emotionally. #LL1678

Describe yourself and who you’re looking for in 40 words below: (OR, ATTACH A SEPARATE PIECE OF PAPER.)

I’m a

seeking a

Seeking kinky individuals. Deviant desires? Yes, please! Only raunchiness needed. Have perverted tales? Hot confessions? Anything goes! No judgment. I only want your forbidden fantasies. Openminded. I dare you to shock me. Replies upon request. #LL1676

I’m a 72-y/o M seeking a woman 70s-80s. I would love to experience sensuality with a mature woman in her 70s and 80s. Phone # please. #LL1674

Cerulean, rose, verdant, crimson, hearts, blood, hands, souls, faces, satin, rock, warm, faith, freedom, time, eyes, know, waterlines, embraces, changes, earth, sky, grow, balance, groove. Man for woman. #LL1675

Sensual older couple enjoying life. Snowbirds (Florida), well-traveled, fit and fun. Seeking to meet others curious about alternative modes of sexuality. Meet up in BTV for a glass of wine and chat? #LL1670

MAIL TO: SEVEN DAYS LOVE LETTERS • PO BOX 1164, BURLINGTON, VT 05402

OPTIONAL WEB FORM: SEVENDAYSVT.COM/LOVELETTERS HELP: 802-865-1020, EXT. 161, LOVELETTERS@SEVENDAYSVT.COM

THIS FORM IS FOR LOVE LETTERS ONLY. Messages for the Personals and I-Spy sections must be submitted online at dating.sevendaysvt.com.

Vermont farmers Vermont farmers Support by buying direct by buying direct

Buying food directly from farms is a win-win: you get the freshest, highest quality food while Vermont farmers get 100% of the profit. Sign-up

You’ve likely passed a farmstand on your commute to work, school, or on a beautiful back road on the way to your favorite hike. Farmstands often stock more than just veggies–you can find snacks, cold beverages, ice cream, pastries, prepared foods, pantry staples and more. You never know exactly what you’ll find, but you know it’ll be good

CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) subscriptions provide farms much needed investment at the top of the season while you get a consistent supply of farm-fresh food all season long. Many CSAs include add-ons like bread, meats, cheese, milk, and more. Find a CSA near you that works for your budget and lifestyle.

Farmers Market

Farmers markets o er a variety of vendors including local farms, prepared or processed food, and crafts. Some markets even feature family activities or live music!

You can pick up groceries for the week, grab a fresh meal, or peruse special products like jams, honeys, or tinctures.

| NOFAVT.ORG

The Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont (NOFA-VT) promotes organic practices to build an economically viable, ecologically sound, and socially just Vermont agricultural system that benefits all living things.