Don Stevens stepped to the podium in the Cedar Creek Room of the Vermont Statehouse on February 5 and reasserted the sovereign rights that his people have never ceded: to hunt and fish freely on their ancestral land. Stevens, 53, is a political activist, artisan, educator, environmentalist and informational technology expert. During the Wednesday morning…
Westminster mechanic remembered for his “MacGyver”-like ingenuity
Brussels-born woman survived German occupation and followed American airman to the States
Former B-17 copilot flew 35 missions and skied until age 90
Former Vermont Historical Society director loved state history and Lake Champlain
For decades, Highgate did Town Meeting Day the traditional way. Volunteers cooked and served a hearty lunch of spaghetti or chicken and biscuits to break up the hours-long debate about frost heaves, school staffing and snowplowing. But this year, lunch won’t be on the table March 3. The town of 3,650 is shifting to secret…
Harrison Hsiang works best at night. Or at least he did when he was first writing songs in college. “Only the really late hours of the night were productive for me,” he says. Those nighttime fits of creativity always ended with Hsiang passed out on the couch, he recalls, fully clothed. Hence the name of…
Deb Billado, leader of the Vermont Republican Party, wants to tell you that most of what you’ve heard about her is wrong. She is not a cheerleader for Donald Trump, she insists, despite her pugnacious support for the president. Nor does she harbor ill will toward Phil Scott, even though the Republican governor distanced himself…
(BluVudu Productions, digital) I’ll probably get internet-attacked on this one, but the Queen City punk scene ain’t what it used to be. No doubt, there are some fabulous punk acts raging across the greater Burlington area. But the halcyon days of 242 Main and all-ages basement shows happening all over town are decidedly in the…
This poltergeist is getting another makeover. Randolph Union High School, home of the Galloping Ghosts, has erased a mural of its mascot over concerns that the hooded figure on horseback looked like a Ku Klux Klansman. Debate over the controversial image has ebbed and flowed in the decade since it first went up, but it…
(Self-released, digital) CMBN8R is an electronica producer from the Burlington area who has been releasing top-notch product for many years. Known to his friends and the government as Guy Derry, he is more of a composer than an EDM DJ chasing trends. Much of his SoundCloud catalog occupies the overlap between bass music and ambient,…
Dear Reverend, My husband has the scalding hots for Pete Buttigieg. Unfortunately, I kind of look like him, and my beau wants to call me “Mayor Pete” in bed. I know it’s all in good fun, but this idea sort of turns me off. Probably because I’m a huge Bernie fan. I’m game for trying…
Joelen Mulvaney has some issues with the art world. Throughout her 50-plus-year career, the 72-year-old visual and performance artist has been a vocal critic of the machinations that drive art scenes — and stifle them. “There’s a lot of disrespect,” Mulvaney recently told Seven Days, citing everything from stodgy, gatekeeping institutions to morally bankrupt economic…
Waitsfield’s Yestermorrow Design/Build School is entering its 40th year with new but familiar leadership. Last week, the nonprofit announced the hiring of executive director Britton Rogers. The architect and landscape designer has a 10-year relationship with the school, first as a student and then, since last year, as an instructor and full-time staff member. But…
In the era of #MeToo, one woman’s story is never just about her. SEVEN, a documentary-style play about seven women who overcame sometimes brutal circumstances to fight injustice in their home countries, magnifies the effect of individual testimony. Each narrative, presented as a monologue, becomes part of a larger story that transcends time and geography.…
Try to imagine Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street without the Quaaludes, coke, morphine, pep pills, pep talks, martinis, penthouses, mansions, pool parties, Ferraris, private helicopters, yachts, hookers, orgies, Swiss bank accounts, international intrigue, scams, lions, snakes, roller-skating chimps, flying little people, lingerie, out-of-bounds comic debauchery or swaggering mendacity. Imagine a movie about a…
Two of my favorite 2019 movies were female-directed ones that stayed well outside the Oscar conversation: Jennifer Kent’s The Nightingale and Céline Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire, which opens Friday at Montpelier’s Savoy Theater. Known for contemporary coming-of-age tales such as Tomboy and Girlhood, Sciamma performs a strange alchemy here, using her modern,…
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): If you’re like most of us, you harbor desires for experiences that might be gratifying in some ways but draining in others. If you’re like most of us, you may, on occasion, get attached to situations that are mildly interesting but divert you from situations that could be amazingly interesting and…
Burlington’s Community and Economic Development Office recently released a memo stating that it had received a qualified bid from South Burlington nightclub Higher Ground to lease the entire Memorial Auditorium building. The memo, which was first reported by VTDigger.org, further noted that Higher Ground proposed to operate the site as a “multi-purpose events space that…
When technology has vastly expanded the platforms for receiving and sending information, it’s a cruel irony that some populations are watching their very languages disappear. The loss of indigenous languages was the impetus for the Endangered Alphabets Project, which Burlington resident Tim Brookes, former director of the Champlain College professional writing program, launched about a…
For Daniel Cooperrider, pastor of the Weybridge Congregational Church, the climate crisis has spiritual roots. “If you dig a little deeper, carbon emissions have to do with our misplaced moral and spiritual values as a society — greed, excess,” he said. “Not every church is talking about these things. But we probably mention climate change…
Last Friday, the BCA Center in Burlington opened three new exhibitions, including, on the main floor, “Apocalypse Diet: What Will We Eat?” Among the works in the show are a large, pink-lit display of plants, an interactive seed library, and multiple films about the reclamation and restoration of land. All of the work is by…
Sanctuary Stacks I was born in the former capital of the Confederacy: Richmond, Va. When I was 22 years old, about to head off to Harvard Law School, the city was still effectively segregated. So, when I went into a five-and-dime store on the white side of town, I was detained and accused of shoplifting. …
As we motored north on Route 7 toward Burlington, I respected the silence of Karen McCoy, the customer sitting beside me in my taxi. A short, wiry woman, maybe 40 years old, she appeared to be deep in her thoughts, as if harnessing and focusing her energy. Karen had just completed a month’s stay at…
As Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has become the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, rivals and skeptics have warned that revelations about his past could destroy his chances in a matchup against President Donald Trump. “The opposition research on @BernieSanders could fill @realDonaldTrump’s empty Foxconn facility in Wisconsin,” former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg’s…
A handful of Vermont restaurants draw their identities from their chef-founders, including American Flatbread in Waitsfield (George Schenk), Café Provence in Brandon (Robert Barral) and, recently, Honey Road in Burlington (Cara Chigazola Tobin). Perhaps nowhere is the association between chef and restaurant stronger than at Hen of the Wood, founded by Eric Warnstedt in 2005…
Ever wondered what’s really going on behind the scenes at your favorite restaurant? The Vermont Department of Health has a pretty good idea, and anyone can take a look at a virtual snapshot of every kitchen in the state with just a few clicks on a website. The Food and Lodging Program sends a squad…
Justin Barrett, an architect-turned-chef, said his favorite aspect of opening a restaurant is the “design phase.” That’s the phase the 36-year-old restaurateur is currently in at 112 Main Street in Stowe, where he’s preparing to open a second location of Piecemeal Pies. Barrett launched the first Piecemeal Pies, known for its savory pies, in White…
When Down Home Kitchen closed in Montpelier on January 1, the folks at neighboring Three Penny Taproom, at 108 Main Street, spotted an opening for serving breakfast. “We saw that the town kind of requires a breakfast place, and when Down Home closed, we kind of sprung into action and made it happen,” Three Penny…
For months, the wealthy businessman flooded the airwaves with gauzy ads painting himself as an experienced executive who could deliver real change to Washington, D.C. Only then did he train his fire on Bernie Sanders, denouncing the veteran congressman’s “partisan hatred” and his socialist plan for government-run health care. Sanders activated his loyal network of…
