Brooks Memorial Library - Brattleboro VT

Book Talk – Accidental American by Shin & Jim Freedman
2023-11-14 19:00 - 20:00 (America/New_York) | Meeting Room A – Community Meeting Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
Local authors Shin and Jim Freedman will read from their latest book of personal essays, Accidental American,a compilation of essays and tales, drawing from the authors’ extensive travels as seasoned explorers, educators, and consultants. Within its pages, readers embark on a literary journey that transcends borders, immersing them in the vibrant tapestries of cities like Beijing, Boston, Brattleboro, Holliston, Seoul, Shanghai, and numerous other locales around the globe.
At its heart, this book is a celebration of love, inquisitiveness, and the profound sense of amazement inspired by the remarkable individuals encountered by Shin and Jim during their odyssey. Their reflections on the invaluable lessons gleaned from these encounters and how these experiences enriched their lives imbue these stories with a truly distinctive and captivating quality that beckons readers to immerse themselves in this exceptional narrative. Jim and Shin’s words resonate as a testament to the enduring impact of the people they met, making this collection a compelling and enriching read for all.

Common Place: The Public Library, Civil Society and American Values
2023-12-04 19:00 - 20:30 | Main Reading Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
Thomas E. Johnson, Jr. presents his exploration of New England libraries, Common Place: The Public Library, Civil Society and Early America Values. He will discuss his four years of research and writing, the case studies he chose for the book and his reflections on the roles of public libraries in the past and present. Find more information about the book here.

Tactical Basin Planning Meeting for Basin 12
2023-12-07 10:30 - 12:00 | Meeting Room A – Community Meeting Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
We will be gathering farmers and foresters who are located within Basin 12 to provide input on what the upcoming Tactical Basin Plan should be composed of.

Legislative Forum
2023-12-09 10:00 | Main Reading Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
State elected officials will be on hand to discuss local, regional and state issues.

Legislative Forum
2024-01-06 10:30 - 14:00, 2024-02-03 10:30 - 14:00, 2024-03-02 10:30 - 14:00, 2024-04-06 10:30 - 14:00 | Meeting Room A – Community Meeting Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States

Vermont Blue Advantage Member Education - Sessions 1 & 2
2024-01-18 10:00 - 13:00 | Meeting Room A – Community Meeting Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
Join Vermont Blue Advantage for an overview of benefits and resources for new and existing Vermont Blue Advantage members. Medicare Advantage plans include a number of valuable resources and we want to help our members get full access to all.

Vermont Blue Advantage Member Education - Session 3
2024-01-18 14:30 - 15:30 | Meeting Room A – Community Meeting Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States

Book Discussion: The Age of Surveillance Capitalism
2024-01-22 19:00 - 20:30 | Meeting Room A – Community Meeting Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
As our surroundings become increasingly computerized, a new frontier has emerged: a space where large corporations monitor and collect as much information as they can in order to predict and influence behavior, both on and off-line. Join us for a workshop on Shoshana Zuboff’s book The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the new Frontier of Power, which covers the rise of Google, Facebook, and behavior futures markets–and what we can do to protect ourselves and fight back.

Picture by PIRO4D https://pixabay.com/users/piro4d-2707530/

VIRTUAL EVENT--Welcome 2 Houston: Hip Hop as Local Heritage
2024-01-24 19:00 | Zoom
VIRTUAL EVENT presented in partnership with Vermont Humanities–Langston Collin Wilkins returns to the city where he grew up to illuminate the complex relationship between place, identity, and music in Houston’s hip hop culture. Interviews with local rap artists, producers, and managers inform an exploration of how artists, audiences, music, and place interact to create a heritage that musicians negotiate in a variety of ways.
Register for the event here.
Sponsored by the Friends of Brooks Memorial Library

Vermont Workers Center - Medicaid/Medicare Information & Help
2024-02-06 15:00 - 17:30 | Meeting Room A – Community Meeting Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
In advancing our mission of enacting Healthcare for All in Vermont, we are here to listen to your stories on problems you have encountered accessing medical care as well as answer questions on Medicaid/Medicare

The Street Project: Documentary and Discussion
2024-02-12 19:00 - 20:30 | Main Reading Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
THE STREET PROJECT is the story about humanity’s relationship to the streets and the global citizen-led fight to make communities safer. Watch the trailer here.
Digging deep into the root causes of traffic violence, the filmmakers engage a diverse array of interviews with experts, interwoven with the stories of real people working to make their communities safer.
The screening will be followed by a panel discussion with local leaders.

Juggling demonstration and lesson with Tony Duncan
2024-02-21 18:00 - 19:30 | Main Reading Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
Tony Duncan will lead a workshop introducing participants to a variety of different manipulation props that are generally used in circus. This includes traditional juggling balls clubs and rings, but also much easier fare, such as diabolo, and some fun partner stuff called “social siteswap” that can be learned by most anyone over the age of 7 with enough coordination to get food onto a fork or spoon and then into their mouth. Tony has been performing and teaching juggling since 1981.
Tony has performed in venues all over the world and opened for numerous famous celebrities, but he is quite humble and doesn’t like to name drop, (and people under 30 probably wouldn’t recognize most of them). He won the 1982 and 1983 International Jugglers Association (IJA) “numbers” championship, won the 1994 IJA world Championship, as well as other international awards. At the age of 65 he is finally willing to rest on his laurels.
He has been teaching at The New England Center for Circus Arts (NECCA) since 2004, Mostly focused on developing manipulation skills in the Professional Track student program.

Pagan, Jewish and Christian Women in the Roman Empire: Literary and Archaeological Evidence
2024-03-11 19:00 - 20:30 | Main Reading Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
In honor of Women’s History Month, Dr. Valerie A. Abrahamsen will present recent scholarly research, which clearly shows that women had much larger roles in the early Roman Empire than previously acknowledged. In this slide presentation we will explore women in antiquity using literary and archaeological evidence. Women in Graeco-Roman cults, Judaism, and the early Jesus groups served as priestesses, synagogue leaders, missionaries, apostles, and possibly even bishops. Contrary to traditions that still impact us in the West, we will see how ancient texts have been misinterpreted for centuries and how archaeology can not only expand our knowledge of the ancient world but also help promote justice and equality in our own society.
Valerie A. Abrahamsen holds the Master of Theological Studies and Doctor of Theology degrees in New Testament and Early Christian Origins from Harvard Divinity School. She is the author of over 100 articles, reviews and book chapters in New Testament archaeology, early church history, women in antiquity, and ancient goddess religion, and she has published two books in these fields: Women and Worship at Philippi (1995) and Goddess and God: A Holy Tension in the First Christian Centuries (2006).

Vermont River Conservancy Poetry Workshop
2024-03-26 12:00 - 14:00, 2024-04-02 12:00 - 14:00, 2024-04-09 12:00 - 14:00, 2024-04-16 12:00 - 14:00, 2024-04-23 12:00 - 14:00 | Meeting Room A – Community Meeting Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
Join Vermont River Conservancy for a free river-themed poetry workshop. Participants will read and discuss river-poems by regional poets and from a range of cultures, time periods, and styles. As we reflect on the ideas and emotions that the poems provoke, we will also discuss how the poet builds or unlocks those ideas and emotions through poetic craft. Developing into a community of writers as well as readers, we will write our own river poetry and share in a supportive space.
The first hour is a workshop and discussion, BYO lunch. The optional second hour is an opportunity to write, revise, and check in with the instructor about your work.
Walk-ins Welcome! But if you register, you will receive the poetry in advance: vermontriverconservancy.org/south

Eclipse Folklore as Inspiration: A Creative Writing Workshop with GennaRose Nethercott
2024-04-02 19:00 - 20:30 | Meeting Room A – Community Meeting Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
Unleash your creativity under the shadow of the upcoming solar eclipse. Eclipses have meant many things to many people throughout history–from end times omens to cosmic messages. In this workshop, we’ll take a world tour through eclipse folklore, myths, and superstitions, and then re-imagine these old stories to create new ones of our own. Open to all levels of writing experience, this is a generative workshop; walk in with a blank page, and walk out with new writing!
Ages 14 and up. Please register in advance by sending an email to info@brookslibraryvt.org or in person at the library.
GENNAROSE NETHERCOTT is the author of a novel, Thistlefoot, and a book-length poem, The Lumberjack’s Dove, which was selected by Louise Glück as a winner of the National Poetry Series. Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart –– her latest book — marks her debut into short fiction. As a folklorist, she helps create the podcasts Lore and Harlots, the latter of which she also hosts, and she tours nationally and internationally performing strange tales (sometimes with puppets in tow). She lives in the woodlands of Vermont, beside an old cemetery.

Brattleboro Area Hospice - Video Presentation
2024-04-18 16:00 - 17:30 | Meeting Room A – Community Meeting Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
BAH will provide refreshments, screen a Youtube video of a presentation on Voluntary Stopping of Eating and Drinking, and offer additional resources.

Everywhere Philosophy Presents: The Twilight Zone Examined
2024-04-20 15:30 - 16:45 | Meeting Room A – Community Meeting Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
Join Everywhere Philosophy for their The Twilight Zone Examined series featuring facilitated, interactive explorations of philosophical themes that appear in episodes of the original Twilight Zone series.
Artificial Intelligence has become a ubiquitous feature of daily life, leaving our intelligent machines and their algorithms to rust in the places we inhabit…and in the Twilight Zone. Join Everywhere Philosophy’s Dr. Mike & Bethany for an interactive viewing and exploration of The Lonely – Rod Serling’s brilliant dramatic study at the intersection of AI and Personhood.

What Vermonters Are Doing for Climate Action, Adaptation and Resilience
2024-04-22 19:00 - 20:30 | Main Reading Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
State legislators Mollie Burke and Wendy Harrison will discuss environmental legislation that has been passed at the state level in the current session, and legislation that is still pending. They will be joined by John Woodland of Third Act Vermont, an organization of seniors, started by Bill McKibben, to promote environmental stewardship and address climate change.

Food System Assessment Public Presentation - Brattleboro Planning Department
2024-04-23 19:30 - 20:30 | Meeting Room A – Community Meeting Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
Emma and Carissa will share with the public about the food system assessment they have conducted in Brattleboro. Attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions about the project as well as network with other attendees.

Voices Live: A Conversation on Homelessness
2024-04-24 18:30 - 20:00 | Main Reading Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
This panel discussion, sponsored by Vermont Independent Media/The Commons, is part of a series of programs that explore the issues important to Windham County.
The panel discussion will feature
Michael Pieciak Vermont State Treasurer
Anne N. Sosin Lecturer and researcher at Dartmouth College
Elizabeth Bridgewater Executive Director, Windham & Windsor Housing Trust
Josh Davis Executive Director, SEVCA
Libby Bennett Executive Director, Groundworks Collaborative
Chloe Leary Executive Director, Winston Prouty Center

Book Launch--Shades of Mortality, by Jamal Barbari
2024-04-30 19:00 - 20:30 | Meeting Room A – Community Meeting Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
Join three time traveling, universe hopping, inter-dimensional storytellers as they share stories of life, death, love, and despair in Jamal Barbari’s debut short story collection. Each story features a unique illustration by one of 9 different artists and draws the reader into a mixture of profound, touching, and comic tales unlike any you’ve ever read. The dreamlike quality of the collection brings to mind fairy tales with a darkness and capriciousness to the characters reminiscent of Greek mythology. Together, the collection is a delightful blend of wonder, tragedy, and tenderness
Born in Bronx, NY but raised in the Washington DC, Maryland and Virginia (DMV) area, Jamal has been traveling and teaching abroad for most of his adult life. His interactions and experiences with different cultures, people and religions sprouted ideas for his short stories and his love for art prompted him to combine his various literature with unique illustrations from talented artists. When Jamal is not writing, he’s gaming with friends, trying new recipes, listening to a plethora of music, and slowly becoming a digital nomad.

Brattleboro's Sustainability in Action
2024-04-30 19:00 - 20:30 | Main Reading Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
Come hear from community groups and leaders about what’s happening locally to address climate and resilience, and learn of actions residents can take to improve our Town’s overall sustainability from panelists:

Stephen Dotson – Sustainability Coordinator

Marilyn Chiarello – Edible Brattleboro

Django Grace – Brattleboro Energy Committee

Dave Cohen – VBike & Brattleboro Coalition for Active Transport

Alex Wilson – Building Green Inc. & the Resilient Design Institute

Jamina Shupack – Rich Earth Institute

Blue Zones: Could Brattleboro Become One?
2024-05-01 18:00 - 19:30 | Meeting Room A – Community Meeting Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
Communities have been identified around the world where individuals not only live longer, but appear to have an enhanced sense of purpose and connection. Several other communities have sought to emulate the example. Could Brattleboro? Join the conversation with panelists: Kate Anderson and Mary Lindquist with moderator: Jim Levinson
