Jun 24-30, 2020

Jun 24-30, 2020 / Vol. 25 / No. 39
How the Pandemic Propelled King Arthur Flour Into the National Spotlight; Five Candidates Vie to Represent Burlington’s South End District; Theater Artist Jarvis Green and Cartoonist Lillie Harris Talk About Difficult Conversations and Black Joy; Three Breweries Work to Open During a Pandemic

Cover Story

Tha Truth, ‘Animated Dreams’

(Equal Eyes Records, digital) Tha Truth arrived in Vermont back in 2006, and the rapper has been an integral part of the local hip-hop scene ever since. Known to friends and family as Warren Stickney, he’s a genre superfan. Whether it’s a local lineup in some bar basement or a national act coming through Higher…

Open House Seats Touch Off Free-for-All in Burlington’s South End

When Scott Pavek declared last spring that he was running for the Vermont House in Burlington’s two-seat South End district, he was prepared to challenge two longtime Democratic lawmakers. A year later, Pavek finds himself in a much different race than the one he expected.  Mary Sullivan and Johannah “Joey” Leddy Donovan separately announced this…

Book Review: ‘Swan Song’ by Lisa Alther

The Idries Shah Foundation, a UK charity devoted to advancing the work of the eponymous late Sufi writer and mystic, recently inaugurated its Gold Medal Awards for Human Achievement. The 2019 honorees included such luminaries as primatologist Jane Goodall, BBC broadcaster David Attenborough, Nobel laureate Herta Müller and writer Lisa Alther, a part-time Vermont resident.…

Letters to the Editor (6/24/20)

To Clarify… Kudos to Margaret Grayson for writing about the impact of the pandemic on chronically ill people [“High Stakes,” June 17]! Chronic illness frequently means invisibility, and fighting to be heard is hard — especially when you have very limited energy, as most of us do. Grayson did a great job of amplifying our…

Racial Remnant: Activists Say It’s Time Vermont Renamed Negro Brook

Like postcards in any Vermont gift shop, Daniel DeMasi’s Instagram account features covered bridges, white steeples and sylvan homesteads, each captioned with brief historical notes. Lately, DeMasi has used his Southern Vermont Living page to showcase the stone arch bridges that have spanned the region’s streams for more than a century. But when he posted…

Composer Matthew Evan Taylor Reacts to Police Violence With New Album

For multi-instrumentalist and composer Matthew Evan Taylor, only music could sufficiently express his reaction to the recent deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery and the subsequent worldwide protests. The Middlebury College assistant professor of music decided to process his multitude of thoughts and feelings in a series of free jazz improvisations. Seven…

Free Will Astrology (6/24/20)

CANCER (June 21-July 22): “Who would deduce the dragonfly from the larva, the iris from the bud, the lawyer from the infant?” Author Diane Ackerman asks her readers that question, and now I pose the same inquiry to you — just in time for your Season of Transformation. “We are all shape-shifters and magical reinventors,”…

Soundbites: Live Music During a Pandemic

Show and Tell Over the weekend, I did something I thought I wouldn’t do for a long time: I saw live music in person. With newly eased restrictions on large public gatherings and indoor spaces, Vermont saw the return of proper rock shows — “proper” being a relative term here. And as of this Friday,…

Will Keeper, ‘Bear’

(Anti-Golf, digital) When the manager of one of the most successful music outfits Vermont has seen in years directs you to a new album from a completely unknown local, you pay attention. I came upon Bear, the debut EP from singer-songwriter Will Keeper, through Calhoun Rawlings, manager of the now Chicago-based rap group 99 Neighbors.…

Three New Vermont Breweries Work to Open During the Pandemic

It might take an apocalypse to stop new breweries from opening in Vermont. Even then, a few would likely make it through. As the COVID-19 pandemic emptied out tasting rooms and halted growler fills, the state’s breweries pivoted to curbside pickup and local delivery. Some even offered drive-through can and bottle sales — including the…

Uncommon Coffee Roastery Opens for Mail Order in Essex

Maya Crowley, co-owner of Uncommon Coffee at the Essex Experience, will take a step toward opening the new coffee shop, roastery and restaurant on June 25 when she makes house-roasted coffee beans available for online ordering. Crowley, former manager of the now-closed Uncommon Grounds on Burlington’s Church Street, has been working since the fall to…


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