Brooks Memorial Library - Brattleboro VT

Citizen Police Communications Committee
2022-10-24 17:30 - 18:00 (America/New_York) | Meeting Room A – Community Meeting Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
Monthly CPCC town meeting

Town Arts Committee
2022-10-25 17:00 - 19:00 | Meeting Room A – Community Meeting Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
The monthly meeting of the Town Arts Committee members invites guests and the public to discuss town arts!

Efficiency Vermont: Open Office Hours for your questions
2022-10-26 15:00 - 17:00 | Main Reading Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
Efficiency Vermont offers the second of three visits to help you increase energy efficiency in your home or business.
Open Office hours with Brad Long of Efficiency Vermont
3:00-5:00 in the Main Reading Room on the library’s first floor
Drop by for a personal conversation with Brad Long of Efficiency Vermont to discuss your home, apartment or business energy use and what can be done to reduce it while becoming more comfortable. Brad will have information available on all topics pertaining to energy efficiency and would love to speak with you about how Efficiency Vermont can help through it’s services, financial incentives and state wide partners.
In the evening, Brad will offer a Presentation on Weatherizing Your Home, 7:00-8:00 in the Community Meeting Room.

Scrabble
2022-10-26 18:00 - 20:00, 2022-11-02 18:00 - 20:00, 2022-11-09 18:00 - 20:00, 2022-11-16 18:00 - 20:00 | 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
Scrabble is back! Join the fun on Wednesday evenings, 6-8pm in the Quiet Reading Room on the mezzanine.

Efficiency Vermont: Weatherizing your Home
2022-10-26 19:00 - 20:00 | 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
Efficiency Vermont offers the second of three presentations to help you increase energy efficiency in your home or business.
Each presentation is preceded by Open Office hours with Brad Long of Efficiency Vermont, 3:00-5:00 on the library’s first floor. This is an opportunity for community members to have a personal conversation with Brad Long of Efficiency Vermont to discuss their home, apartment or business energy use and what can be done to reduce it while becoming more comfortable.
Presentation on Weatherizing Your Home
7:00-8:00 on Oct. 26th in the Community Meeting Room
Weatherization for your home means and where to start, how to afford it and what resources are available to you as well as what Efficiency Vermont’s Free virtual home energy visit is and how it can be a helpful first step. Do you want a cozier home that costs less to heat and cool than it does now? Efficiency Vermont has financial incentives a partner contractor network and financing partners that can help you meet your goals and needs. Brad Long from Efficiency Vermont will present on the basics of the science of home weatherization and what resources are available.

T. P. James' Write Like the Dickens Supernatural Flash Fiction Contest
2022-10-27 18:30 - 20:30 | Brooks Memorial Library, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
Local author and character T.P. James claimed he channeled the genius of Charles Dickens who wrote through him. Let the creative spirit flow through you and try your hand at writing a story in a single hour.

Writing Memoir with Shin Freedman
2022-10-29 10:15 - 12:15 | Meeting Room A – Community Meeting Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
Author Shin Freedman will lead a three-part workshop to explore the craft of writing memoir
10:15-12:15 on three Saturdays: October 1st, October 29nd and November 5th at Brooks Memorial Library
“Great memoirs deal with the subject of identity and lifetime quests by weaving cohesive stories from jumbled, imperfect memories. What propels people to write a memoir, and what motivates us to read them? Memoir writing is powerful, rewarding, and therapeutic for both the writer and readers’” says Freedman. Elements of the program include:

What makes a memoir a memoir
Writing a meaningful personal essay as a memoir
Writing a memoir alone and with others
Sharing one’s writing with the participants and making plans to publish their work

Shin Freedman published her memoir A Doll for a Day: Growing up in Post-War Korea in 2019 and an anthology, Accidental American in 2020. She is the recipient of many writing/literary awards including the First Prize winner from Massachusetts for the 30th Anniversary of H-Mart Writing Contest in 2013 and the Vermont Write Action Annual Writing Contest in 2017 and was a U.S. Fulbright Scholar to China in 2016-2017.
The program is free of charge and open to the public. The venue is accessible to people in wheelchairs. Please email info@brookslibraryvt.org or call 802-490-9289 ext. 0 to register.

Archer Mayor at the Library: Fall Guy
2022-10-29 11:00 - 12:00 | Main Reading Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
In Fall Guy, Archer Mayor’s newest Joe Gunther novel, a body found in the trunk of a stolen car leads Gunther and his team to crucial evidence in an infamous unsolved case from years past.
Meet author Archer Mayor at the library
Saturday, October 29th at 11:00 a.m.
Learn about what the Chicago Tribune calls “the best police-procedural series being written in America.”
About Archer Mayor and the Joe Gunther series
Protagonist Joe Gunther once worked for the Brattleboro, Vermont, police department and is now a Special Agent for the fictional Vermont Bureau of Investigation. Books about his case-solving prowess have appeared once a year since 1988 and have been published in five languages (if you count British). They routinely gather high praise from such sources as The New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and the New Yorker, often appearing on annual ten best lists.
Mayor’s novels are rooted in actual field experience. Closely aligned to the Gunther series are the author’s own experiences in Vermont working variously as a police officer and a firefighter/EMT over the past thirty years. Currently, he still works as a medico-legal death investigator for the state’s medical examiner. This background adds depth, detail, and veracity to his characters and their struggles.
Archer was honored with the 2016 Robert B. Parker Award. (Parker being “The Dean of Mystery Writers.”) In 2004, he won the New England Independent Booksellers Association Award for Best Fiction—the first time a writer of crime literature has been so honored. He was inducted into Vermont’s Academy of Arts and Science, and, in 2012, was awarded the Vermont governor’s award for Excellence in the Arts. In 2011, Mayor’s 22nd Joe Gunther novel, TAG MAN, earned a place on The New York Times bestseller list for hardback fiction.

Migration Pathways: Stories of Yesterday and Today
2022-10-29 14:00 - 15:30 | Main Reading Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
Andrew Ingall, creator of the project “Warlé, Yesterday, and Today,” presents a slide talk and storytelling exercise inspired by the lives and legacy of Warren Kronemeyer and Leon Ingall, a Vermont couple who were entrepreneurs and civic leaders in Townshend, VT during the 1980 and 1990s. Leon was a refugee twice: first fleeing the Bolsheviks in 1918 and then again from the Nazis in the late 1930s.
Warren and Leon’s remarkable story of love, adversity, caregiving, and creativity provides a lens to explore similar and divergent experiences of today’s LGBTQ+ elders, asylum-seekers, refugees, and migrants. The afternoon will conclude with a discussion from local organizations that include an overview of various immigration statuses and avenues towards residency; how these underrepresented communities invigorate cultural, economic, and social life; and how citizens can best support newcomers.
About Andrew Ingall
Andy Ingall has been working in arts, culture, and community engagement for over twenty years as a curator, scholar, writer, performer, and producer. He received a B.A. from Columbia College and an M.A. in Performance Studies from Tisch School of the Arts, New York University. His collaborators have included cultural workers, artists, scholars, faith leaders, activists, health care professionals, and funeral directors.

About Kate Paarlberg-Kvam
Kate Paarlberg-Kvam (she/they) is Executive Director at the Community Asylum Seekers Project (CASP), headquartered in Brattleboro. Kate holds a PhD in Latin American and Caribbean Studies, and is a former postdoctoral fellow at the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, where she conducted research on gender, displacement, and postwar reconciliation efforts. Kate works with CASP’s team of staff and volunteers to support twenty asylum seekers in Southern Vermont, providing legal aid, housing, advocacy, language learning, and job placement services, and cultivating a supportive community for people fleeing political violence and building new lives in this country.
About Alex Beck
Alex Beck (he/him) is a Brattleboro resident, and holds a MA in Service, Leadership, and Management from SIT Graduate Institute. He has extensive experience in community development, youth engagement, and social entrepreneurism in rural economies in the U.S and abroad. Alex has resided in Windham County since 2012, and has been at BDCC since 2015. He coordinates the Southern Vermont Workforce Center of Excellence, and facilitates the creation, organization, and distribution of regional workforce and education opportunities for Vermonters throughout the Windham region.
About Eduardo Meléndez
Eduardo Meléndez works at ECDC, a national resettlement agency that has been empowering refugees and immigrants since 1983. He serves as their Community Engagement and Communications Manager, connecting New Vermonters to resources that help them achieve stability and independence while they rebuild their lives. Born and raised on the island of Puerto Rico, Eduardo previously worked with an organization that assisted low income and marginalized Puerto Ricans build their own businesses. He also worked as an independent photojournalist documenting the conditions of the Island’s poor and marginalized population including those affected by Hurricane Maria and the oppressive legacy of colonialism.
About Abdullah
Abdullah was born in Panjshir, Afghanistan, migrated to Pakistan and grew up there, where he studied painting, traditional calligraphy, Persian Miniatures, learned and taught English as a second language and graduated from high school. He moved back to Kabul Afghanistan, completed his bachelors degree in computer science as well as worked as an IT Trainer for three years. He also painted wall murals with themes of social transformation and peace building with the artist collective, Artlords as a part time profession. When the Taliban took over the control of Kabul, he had to flee and found himself in Brattleboro, Vermont. He’s now rebuilding his life and finding new ways to make cross cultural collaborative murals with different regional artists using different mediums. He is also producing individual personal artwork using oil and acrylic paint on canvas using different genres.
About the Fall Festival 2022
Join us in October during National Arts and Humanities Month for our Where We Land Fall Festival, a remix of our Annual Fall Conference. Attend in-person events in communities around Vermont or join hybrid events online. Many sessions will center around the themes of our Vermont Reads 2022 selection, The Most Costly Journey, a comics collection of stories told by migrant workers in Vermont.
Please contact us at info@vermonthumanities.org for information on disability services. To request a specific accommodation, contact us at least three weeks prior to the event. Vermont Humanities strives to provide accommodations whenever possible. All event locations are ADA accessible.

Game Cafe!
2022-10-29 14:00 - 16:45, 2022-11-05 14:00 - 16:45, 2022-11-12 14:00 - 16:45, 2022-11-19 14:00 - 16:45 | Meeting Room A – Community Meeting Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
Come join game enthusiasts in playing Magic the Gathering in various formats (including Commander/EDH) as well as other fun and creative board & card games.
Bring your favorite games- All Ages Welcome!

Mineralogical Society of Brattleboro
2022-11-01 18:00 - 19:45 | Meeting Room A – Community Meeting Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
Study of Rocks & Minerals

First Wednesdays: Drawing Community
2022-11-02 19:00 - 21:00 | Brooks Memorial Library, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
Creating Comics from Shared Stories
Live Event

November 2: 7:00 pm

Using examples from his work with the Vermont Reads 2022 book The Most Costly Journey (El Viaje Más Caro) and his Civil War Diary of Freeman Colby series, cartoonist Marek Bennett explores how the act of cartooning can help us forge connections, build empathy, and challenge set definitions of identity and belonging.
About Marek Bennett
New Hampshire-based cartoonist, musician, and educator Marek Bennett leads discovery-based Comics Workshops for all ages throughout New England and the world beyond! His comics work includes the graphic novel series, The Civil War Diary of Freeman Colby, as well as drawing, translating, & editing for The Most Costly Journey (2021) with the bilingual El Viaje Project. Marek is the recipient of the 2021 New Hampshire Governor’s Arts Award for Art Education. His website is: www.MarekBennett.com.

Sponsored by the Friends of Brooks Memorial Library

Statewide Underwriters

Please contact us at info@vermonthumanities.org for information on disability services. To request a specific accommodation, contact us at least three weeks prior to the event. Vermont Humanities strives to provide accommodations whenever possible. All event locations are ADA accessible.

Ambassador Peter Galbraith The Ukraine War: What Now? What Next? How Does it End?
2022-11-03 19:00 | 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
Windham World Affairs Council presents its Annual Galbraith Lecture. Ambassador Galbraith’s voice is a vital one in 2022. Few American diplomats have had as much direct experience in war time diplomacy as Ambassador Galbraith. Serving as the first US ambassador to Croatia, he negotiated the 1995 peace agreement that ended that country’s war. Recently returned from Ukraine and Moldova, Galbraith will provide an update on how the conflict is and will impact the world.
Registration is required for this free event at Eventbrite.com. This is a live event w/ a Zoom option available when you register.

Writing Memoir with Shin Freedman
2022-11-05 10:15 - 12:15 | 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
Author Shin Freedman will lead a three-part workshop to explore the craft of writing memoir
10:00-12:00 on three Saturdays: October 1st, October 29nd and November 5th at Brooks Memorial Library
“Great memoirs deal with the subject of identity and lifetime quests by weaving cohesive stories from jumbled, imperfect memories. What propels people to write a memoir, and what motivates us to read them? Memoir writing is powerful, rewarding, and therapeutic for both the writer and readers,” says Freedman.

Elements of the program include:

What makes a memoir a memoir
Writing a meaningful personal essay as a memoir
Writing a memoir alone and with others
Sharing one’s writing with the participants and making plans to publish their work

Shin Freedman published her memoir A Doll for a Day: Growing up in Post-War Korea in 2019 and an anthology, Accidental American in 2020. She is the recipient of many writing/literary awards including the First Prize winner from Massachusetts for the 30th Anniversary of H-Mart Writing Contest in 2013 and the Vermont Write Action Annual Writing Contest in 2017 and was a U.S. Fulbright Scholar to China in 2016-2017.
The program is free of charge and open to the public. The venue is accessible to people in wheelchairs. Please email info@brookslibraryvt.org or call 802-490-9289 ext. 0 to register.

Windham County Genealogy Interest Group Meeting
2022-11-05 11:00 - 13:00 | Meeting Room A – Community Meeting Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
Windham County Genealogy Research Group meeting. In-person and Zoom. We will be discussing how to solve some your genealogical research “brick walls.” Please use this link, https://forms.gle/Kt4YPngBwKygmDqWA, to tell us about your research and register for the meeting.
For more information please contact windhamcountygig@gmail.com.
Wayne and Jerry
Wayne Blanchard & Jerry Carbone
Windham County Genealogy Interest Group
windhamcountygig@gmail.com

Parenting 4 Social Justice Reading-Discussion Group
2022-11-09 18:00 - 20:00 | Brooks Memorial Library, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
Join Brattleboro’s Brooks Memorial Library for a monthly book group Reading and Discussing the pivotal book Parenting 4 Social Justice facilitated by Abby Mnookin
What:
Dive deep into the topics of Social Justice, Parenting for Social Justice, Parenting for Racial Justice, Parenting for Economic Justice, Parenting for Disability Justice, Parenting for Gender Justice, and Parenting for Collective Liberation.
Snacks will be provided, and we also hope to offer childcare.
When:
Monthly on second Wednesdays, 6-8 pm, Oct through May
*It would be great for you to attend all book group sessions (10/12, 11/9, 12/14, 1/11, 2/8, 3/8, 4/12, 5/10), but we also welcome you if you can come to most of them.*
Where:
At the Brooks Memorial Library, 224 Main St, Brattleboro, VT
How:
There is no cost for participation. Some copies of the book are available for loan from the library or they can be purchased at Everyone’s Books or online. To sign up or if you have questions, email Abby at asmnookin@gmail.com We’re really looking forward to going along this journey with you!

Vermont Foodbank Volunteer Potluck
2022-11-15 16:00 - 18:00 | Meeting Room A – Community Meeting Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
The 2022 gleaning season has ended and brought in thousands of pounds of quality, fresh produce for our community.
Come celebrate with us!

Create in Community
2022-11-15 18:00 - 20:00 | Meeting Room D – Quiet Reading Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
Join us for an all ages writing workshop featuring writing prompts, discussion, and games. Led by Teen Advisory Board member (and writer) Anna Cummings and local parent (and poet) Diana Whitney, everybody from Ages 0-1000 is invited!

CANCELLED: Southeastern Vermont Audubon Society
2022-11-15 19:00 - 21:00 | Meeting Room A – Community Meeting Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
This evening’s event has been cancelled. Please keep an eye out for future programs.

New Yorker Discussion Group
2022-11-16 19:00 - 20:00 | Meeting Room A – Community Meeting Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
Do you read The New Yorker magazine regularly? Would you like to discuss recent articles with fellow readers? The New Yorker discussion group gathers on the third Wednesday of each month at 7pm in the Community Meeting Room on the second floor. Similar to a book group, participants bring their favorite articles in the magazine every month for comments and discussion.
The program is free, open to the public and accessible to people in wheelchairs. Because it will be held indoors, all attendees are required to wear masks by order of the Town. For more information call (802) 254-5290.

New Yorker Discussion Group
2022-11-16 19:00 - 20:00 | Brooks Memorial Library, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
Do you read The New Yorker magazine regularly? Would you like to discuss recent articles with fellow readers? The New Yorker discussion group gathers on the third Wednesday of each month at 7pm in the Community Meeting Room on the second floor. Similar to a book group, participants bring their favorite articles in the magazine every month for comments and discussion.
The program is free, open to the public and accessible to people in wheelchairs.
Call the Library at 254-5290 for more information.

The Buddha as Political Actor
2022-11-16 19:00 - 21:00 | Brooks Memorial Library, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
With Rev. Doctor Thomas Redden
Main Reading Room 7:00 pm
Optional meditation in Community Meeting Room, 6:15 – 6:40
Beginners welcome at 6:00 for an introduction
What if the Buddhist values of loving-kindness and compassion were at the heart of a political philosophy, what we might call a ‘Politics of Compassion,’ in 21st century USA? Explore the Buddha’s world, his politics, and what an ‘Engaged Buddhism’ looks like in the US today through a series of three programs with Rev. Dr. Thomas Redden, PhD, Professor Emeritus of Political Science and History, Southern Vermont College & Marlboro College, and ordained Zen Buddhist priest, Zen Peacemaker Order.
The series:
The Buddha’s World: October 19. The historic Buddha lived at a time of dramatic change technologically, economically, socially and politically. Dr. Redden will examine those changes and how the Buddha’s teachings challenged the traditional Brahmanism of his day and resonated with his many followers.
The Buddha as Political Actor: November 16. As the leader of religious community numbering in the thousands in Eastern India, the Buddha needed to maintain good relations with the local kings and communities in order to thrive in a very political and often violent environment. As a result, he developed distinctive leadership styles toward his followers as well as the local rulers. Above all, he was pragmatic, non-dogmatic and flexible.
Engaged Buddhism and American Politics Today: December 21. With the global climate crisis and other daunting political issues clearly in their sight, a variety of leading ‘Engaged Buddhists,’ such as the Dalai Lama, argue that our search for happiness through consumerism and naked self-interest is leading us down a path of self-destruction. Engaged Buddhism works toward personal and social transformation with the aspiration of creating societies based on compassion and justice.
The lectures will be held in the Main Reading Room at 7 pm. Each presentation will be preceded by a short period of Zen meditation in the Community Meeting Room from 6:15-6:40 for those interested. Beginners are welcome to arrive at 6 for a brief introduction.
The program is free and open to the public. The venue, 224 Main St. in Brattleboro, is accessible to people in wheelchairs. For more information visit www.brookslibraryvt.org or call 802-254-5290 ex 1201.

Vermont Blue Advantage 2023 Plans Presentation
2022-11-21 15:30 - 16:15, 2022-11-21 16:30 - 17:15 | Meeting Room A – Community Meeting Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
We will share highlights of the 2023 Vermont Blue Advantage plans, including Tribute PPO, our new Medicare Advantage plan for veterans.
