Doreen Kraft doesn’t really want to talk about Doreen Kraft. During a recent reception for new exhibitions at the BCA Center on Church Street, she preferred to direct a reporter’s attention to everyone else in the room: a dedicated board member; Burlington’s supportive mayor; the brilliant director of another local nonprofit. Upstairs in her office,…
Brattleboro actor and author Peter Gould didn’t intend to start a summer camp, but “that’s what happened,” he said. In 1998, Gould proposed a residency in theater arts for high school students at Craftsbury Academy. But when he encountered resistance from teachers about the time commitment during the school year, he decided to start a…
A half dozen teenage gymnasts took turns practicing dismounts off the balance beams on a recent weeknight at the Green Mountain Training Center. The girls’ competitive team trains at least 15 hours per week in the 12,500-square-foot gym, which is nestled amid warehouses and loading docks in a Williston industrial park. As her teammates looked…
If you’re a parent with school-aged kids, chances are you’ve heard the term “proficiency-based learning.” It’s a hot topic, and for good reason: Vermont’s Education Quality Standards, adopted by the State Board of Education in 2013 and implemented the following spring, call for all high schools to use proficiency-based graduation requirements by the time the…
In my college marine biology class, I was amazed when the professor casually mentioned the forests and wetlands that used to line nearly the entire Atlantic seacoast. When I thought of the coast, I thought of the Jersey Shore, with houses as far as the eye could see. After college, when I visited a beach…
The memorial service for William C. Lipke, originally planned for April 4, at the Fleming Museum, will be postponed until this summer. More details will be published here when available. Related Stories
Central Vermont painter’s life was “marked by an inspiring resiliency”
Fifteen years ago, Vermont filmmaker Bess O’Brien helmed an ambitious project in which teens from across the state worked together to write and perform an original musical. Touching on topics from peer pressure to racial identity, The Voices Project — from Kingdom County Productions, with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Vermont as its main underwriter…
On a crisp and snowy day, my family packed our car with our winter gear and headed to the mountain — not to ski, but to ice skate. We had heard there was free ice skating at the base of Spruce Peak, the smaller sister mountain at Stowe Mountain Resort. It was ideal skiing weather,…
Tyler Scherer said his attempts at living in sober houses — group homes for those fighting addiction — have all ended the same way: He was kicked out for breaking the rules. First he was caught with too few tablets of Adderall, a medication to treat attention deficit disorder that contains amphetamines. He had a…
Rosetta Tharpe was a musical meteor who blazed through the 1930s and ’40s as a singer and guitarist, performing a swinging, emotional fusion of gospel and blues that laid the foundation for rock and roll. She was immensely popular but faded into obscurity just as her musical contributions were embraced by Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry,…
(Self-released, CD) Dan and Willy Lindner sure do have a funny concept of “retirement.” For 40 years, the central Vermont brothers were the pickin’ and grinnin’ faces of Green Mountain bluegrass through their locally iconic outfit Banjo Dan and the Mid-nite Plowboys. In 2012, the Lindners drew the curtain on that group, bringing to a…
Dear Reverend, Things are heating up with a person I’ve had a crush on for quite a while. I want to make a move and kiss them, but the coronavirus epidemic has me wondering if that’s not such a good idea. Am I being overly concerned? Coro-not-kissing (nonbinary, 38) Dear Coro-not-kissing, All of the information…
Advance to Go This just in: Advance Music, Burlington’s long-standing, independent gear shop and all-around musicians’ hub, has been sold to national chain Music & Arts. Longtime owner Mike Trombley inked the deal on Wednesday, March 4. He told Seven Days that the new ownership, which itself is owned by Guitar Center, plans to “keep…
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): I suspect your fantasy life will be especially potent in the coming weeks. Your imagination will have an enhanced power to generate visions that could eventually manifest as actual events and situations. On the one hand, that could be dicey, because you can’t afford to overindulge in fearful speculations and worried…
In a scene in IMAGINARY, Lida Winfield’s dance, theater and storytelling piece, a dancer lifts Winfield up, spins her 180 degrees, places her in a headstand and supports her while others hover about. Two dancers put mismatched, gaudy green shoes on her airborne feet; another proclaims aloud that a mustache must be shaved. Winfield is…
The person I picked up had just completed a late lunch at Istanbul Kebab House, the Turkish restaurant on lower Church Street. I took a gander at him as he figured out the shotgun seat-belt situation; he was a fit middle-aged guy with still-reddish hair and a trim beard to match. How cosmopolitan is Burlington…
Muckraking Award Goes to… I hereby award reporter Courtney Lamdin my personal Lincoln Steffens Award for brilliant muckraking with regard to her exhaustive reporting on official obscurantism [“Redacted,” March 4]. This bureaucratic refusal to recognize a citizen’s right to know has become as endemic in our supposed democracy as the coronavirus threatens to be. The…
Few wars have been researched, written about and documented in literature and film more than World War II. But when Wales-born journalist Jack Fairweather first heard the true tale of Witold Pilecki, a Polish resistance fighter who volunteered to be imprisoned in the Auschwitz concentration camp in order to report back to Allied forces what…
New weather patterns are affecting Vermont, according to the state’s climate change website. Some locals might welcome rising average temperatures and shorter winters, but more intense storms? Not so much. Increasing precipitation means more flooding in basements and backyards. Cities and towns must work harder to manage and clean stormwater before it reaches our waterways.…
The hardwood floors were gleaming, and the heavily insulated walls were painted a fresh white. The townhouse at 14 Lily Lane in South Burlington was in cream puff shape — and for a reason. It’s going up for sale this spring. Just a few years ago, the house and six others in the small development…
The makers of The Way Back clearly hope you have a lot on your plate — that you’re so busy you’ve barely got time to buy a ticket, shed a tear, feel inspired and race to the next thing on your to-do list. The last thing anyone involved with this movie wants is for members…
Seven Days writers can’t possibly read, much less review, all the books that arrive in a steady stream by post, email and, in one memorable case, a maelstrom of salamanders. So this monthly feature is our way of introducing you to a handful of books by Vermont authors. To do that, we contextualize each book…
Soren Pfeffer, owner of Bagitos Bagel and Burrito Café at 28 Main Street in Montpelier, announced on February 22 on Facebook that he would close the café on March 15. The restaurant, which opened in 2011, has been for sale for six months. The post reads in part: “I am writing to our larger Bagitos…
Music-video director Autumn de Wilde has made the perfect version of Jane Austen’s Emma for the Instagram era. If that sounds like a slam, it’s not. The movie is a gallery of carefully curated visuals — towering pastel cakes you can almost taste, jutting hats and Empire-waist dresses to match, light-filled Georgian interiors, flowers galore.…
Here’s your chance to nab some memorabilia from Silicon Valley’s heyday. Burlington resident Jerry Manock is auctioning off some of the stuff he collected while working as an Apple design engineer under the tutelage of one Steve Jobs. While that Jobs guy gets all the credit for building Apple into the tech behemoth it is…
By the end of the month, corner business Nelly’s Pub and Grill in St. Albans will have rebranded as two side-by-side establishments: La Casa Loco Bar & Grill at 50 Kingman Street and Red Brick Tavern at 51 Federal Street, owner Shannon Smith said. Smith and her husband, Jason, purchased the business in summer 2019,…
Ray Brown’s exhibit at the Front in Montpelier will close on March 29, two weeks before his 80th birthday. Though currently recovering from heart and lung ailments in a rehab facility, Brown came out in a wheelchair last Friday to attend his opening. The show’s title references the last volume of poetry by his friend…
Some take a new name to escape the past. Others rebrand to signal a new future. When Burlington indie rockers Community Garden — formerly known as Entrance to Trains — changed their name last year, a little of both was at work. “It definitely feels like a new project,” explains singer, guitarist and lyricist Alex…
Vergennes Laundry by CK, which has been for sale since early December, is now permanently closed. Chef-owner Christian Kruse ceased weekend brunch service shortly after announcing that the restaurant was for sale, but he offered pop-up-style dinners there several nights a week in February. A banner on the restaurant’s website, dated March 2020, states: “We…
Was it the Carhartts that did it, or the work boots and sparkly dress? The Elmer Fudd hat? Maybe just the broad grins, with tongue firmly in cheek. Whatever the appeal, the Vermont-style pinup-girl calendar that Julie Gagnon Prior put together last year was a resounding success. At 10 bucks a pop, she’s made more…
(Self-released, LP, digital) One of the most enticing things about the Bubs is their live show. The Burlington punk group first began as a home recording project of front person (and Chittenden County forester) Ethan Tapper. Since then, it’s grown into one of the most vibrant Queen City groups. At the moment, no other local…
Four years ago, chilly Vermont was one of the hot spots in the nation’s solar industry. Fields of dark, shiny panels were popping up with surprising frequency in pastures where heifers had grazed. Homeowners and businesses around the state, enticed by generous federal and local subsidies, proudly bolted photovoltaic cells on their rooftops or to…
The quote “Laws are like sausages. Better not to see them being made” is often attributed to 19th-century German political leader Otto von Bismarck. However, according to a 2008 New York Times “On Language” column, the popular phrase may actually have originated with a Vermonter: John Godfrey Saxe. The poet and (briefly) Chittenden County state’s…
Anyone who’s eaten a Hubbardston Nonesuch, Knobbed Russet or Sheep’s Nose apple in Vermont in the past 20 years has likely tasted Zeke Goodband’s work. The orchardist is legendary and a champion of old and odd varieties of heirloom apples. His fruit has brightened up apple bins in co-ops around the state, and his influence…
After decades of work in the restaurant business, St. Albans resident Eben Hill will open his own restaurant, the Drake, in late April at 30 South Main Street in St. Albans, he told Seven Days. Hill will run the 25-seat restaurant and bar with his wife, Tessa Hill, in the space that was previously home…
