Brattleboro in Stitches
2025-06-07 13:00 - 16:00, 2025-06-14 13:00 - 16:00, 2025-06-21 13:00 - 16:00, 2025-06-28 13:00 - 16:00, 2025-07-05 13:00 - 16:00, 2025-07-12 13:00 - 16:00, 2025-07-19 13:00 - 16:00, 2025-07-26 13:00 - 16:00 (America/New_York) | Meeting Room A – Community Meeting Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
Bring a work in progress to sew, knit, crochet, embroider, or mend. Sewing machines, irons, and companionship will be provided.

Multigenerational Civics Class
2025-06-09 10:15 - 11:30 | Meeting Room A – Community Meeting Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
Who has power over us? What power do we have to create the world around us? The Vermont Village School welcomes villagers of all ages to participate in a people’s Civics class with us this spring at Brooks Memorial Library. We will be untangling the different institutions that exert power over us, past and present, official and unofficial, and brainstorming how we move forward together.

Join us Monday at 10:15am @ Brooks Memorial Library, Brattleboro. This will be the first of a series–we will plan future gatherings based on collective interest and energy.

What's Cooking at Brooks?
2025-06-12 18:00 - 20:00 | Brooks Memorial Library, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
The Friends of Brooks Memorial Library invite you to join us for a special after hours spring party where guests will explore the Library of Things collection by experiencing live cooking demonstrations and enjoying a grand selection of sweet and savory treats and refreshments.
The Library of Things is a collection of non-traditional items which can be borrowed from the library, such as kitchen and gardening tools, technology and electronics, memory kits, and even a telescope!
Take home some seeds for the garden and vote on new items to purchase for the Library of Things!
Admission is by donation. Everyone is welcome.

Sci-Fi Reading Group
2025-06-16 19:00 - 20:30 | Meeting Room D – Quiet Reading Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
The Sci-Fi Reading Group will meet in the Quiet Reading Room from 7:00pm – 8:30pm to discuss The Resisters by Gish Jen!
The time: not so long from now. The place: AutoAmerica, a country surveilled by one “Aunt Nettie,” a Big Brother that is part artificial intelligence, part internet, and oddly human—even funny. The people: divided. The “angelfair” Netted have jobs and, what with the country half under water, literally occupy the high ground. The Surplus live on swampland if they’re lucky, on water if they’re not.
The story: To a Surplus couple—he once a professor, she still a lawyer—is born a girl, Gwen, with a golden arm. Her teens find her happily playing in an underground baseball league, but when AutoAmerica faces ChinRussia in the Olympics, Gwen finds herself in dangerous territory, playing ball with the Netted even as her mother battles this apartheid-like society in court.
The Sci-Fi Reading Group meets the third Monday of every month and is open to curious minds, whether or not they’ve read this month’s selection.

Exploring the Afterlife: Learning from Experts and Personal Experiences
2025-06-17 18:00 - 19:15, 2025-06-24 18:00 - 19:15, 2025-07-01 18:00 - 19:15, 2025-07-08 18:00 - 19:15, 2025-07-15 18:00 - 19:15 | Meeting Room D – Quiet Reading Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
Have you had a near-death experience or communicated with a deceased loved one through a medium? Have you contemplated the possibility of reincarnation or had an experience about a past life? Do you wonder what awaits us in the afterlife? Western culture tends to dismiss or even disparage paranormal phenomena. But evidence is available to answer many questions about the afterlife.
In this five-part evening series on Tuesdays from June 17th to July 15th, we will do three things: 1) read books by experts on near-death experiences, scientific instruments and experiments in paranormal research, out-of-body experiences, and the work of reputable mediums; 2) raise questions and concerns about the evening’s topic; and 3) share personal experiences of paranormal phenomena in a safe environment. Each participant will choose a book from a provided list to report on. Participants are strongly encouraged to attend all sessions.
The group will be led by hospice chaplain and former social worker Diane Southard and Valerie Abrahamsen, author of Paranormal: A New Testament Scholar Looks at the Afterlife (2015).
Participants are encouraged to contact Valerie at www.wisdomwordsppf.org/contact/ as soon as possible to obtain the book list and additional information. Adults over 18 are invited!

Healthy Living for Brain & Body: Tips from the Latest Research
2025-06-18 18:30 - 19:30 | Meeting Room A – Community Meeting Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
June is Brain Health History Month! Join us for a presentation on lifestyle choices and their impact on the aging process. learn the latest research in the areas of diet and nutrition, exercise, cognitive activity and social engagement to bolster brain health, stay connected, and age well.
This event is part of a collaborative program with the Vermont Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association and Brooks Memorial Library – and all are welcome.

Green Carnation Reading Group
2025-06-23 19:00 - 20:30 | Meeting Room D – Quiet Reading Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
Discussions of books by and for queer people. For more information, please visit the Green Carnation Reading Group Facebook page.

POSTPONED Traces of the Trade Documentary Film - by Katrina Browne
2025-06-24 19:00 - 21:00 | Meeting Room A – Community Meeting Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
POSTPONED
This event will take place at a later time. Thank you for your understanding.
TRACE IT! FACE IT! LET’S HEAL OUR COMMUNITY!
First time filmmaker Katrina Browne makes a troubling discovery – her New England ancestors were the largest enslavement trading family in U.S. history. She and nine fellow descendants set off to retrace the Triangle Trade from the family’s historic hometown in Rhode Island to enslavement forts in Ghana to sugar plantation ruins in Cuba. Step-by-step, they answer the vast extent of northern complicity in slavery while also stumbling and stretching their way through the minefield of contemporary race relations.
The film aired nationally in 2008 on PBS’ acclaimed non-fiction series, POV, and is now serving as a catalyst for education, dialogue, and action throughout the U.S. and overseas. Beacon Press has published Tom De Wolfe’s memoir of the journey, Inheriting the Trade. Visit: www.tracesofthetrade.org and www.tracingcenter.org
In addition, all are welcome for an heart-to-heart dialogue on film and a community healing art activity on the following day, Wednesday June 25, from 12:30 – 3:30 PM in Brooks Memorial Library’s Community Room.
Facilitated by: Naima K Wade, Project Director, Teaching Artist of
Legacies: Reckoning+ Resilience Project ( LRRP)
For more event information, please contact: naimawade11@gmail.com

POSTPONED--Community Healing Arts Event
2025-06-25 13:00 - 15:30 | VT
This event has been postponed. Please check back for rescheduled time. Thank you for your understanding.
“Powerful is an inadequate word to describe the impact of the Traces of the Trade…
{This} clear- headed film represents an intense and searing call for a national
dialogue.” – Kirk Honeycutt, The Hollywood Reporter
As part of the Legacies Project, this is the follow-up event to the viewing of the documentary, Traces of the Trade, in an effort to create a healing dialogue in our communities.
Facilitated by: Naima K. Wade, Project Director, Local Poet, Teaching Artist, Humanities Educator, Creator of Legacies: Reckoning+ Resilience Project (LRRP)
For more event information, please contact: naimawade11@gmail.com

Vermont Butterfly Atlas Workshop & Butterfly Bioblitz
2025-06-28 11:00 - 15:00 | Meeting Room A – Community Meeting Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
The Brattleboro and Guilford Conservation Commissions, Bonnyvale Environmental Education Center (BEEC), and Brooks Memorial Library are presenting an exciting opportunity to participate in community science!
Join Dana Williams from the Vermont Center for Ecostudies for a fun-filled day of learning about the butterflies of Windham County and how you can contribute to the Vermont Butterfly Atlas. Volunteers are needed to help search fields and fens, mountains and meadows, and even their own backyards to document the status of Vermont’s butterflies. Your efforts will help scientists detect changes in butterfly populations and provide essential information to protect butterflies and preserve their habitat.
Vermont Butterfly Atlas Workshop
11am at Brooks Memorial Library
This indoor workshop will introduce the Vermont Butterfly Atlas and teach us how to observe and identify butterflies in the wild and report our sightings using eButterfly and iNaturalist. The Vermont Butterfly Atlas has already documented four species new or rediscovered in the state! Learn about community science field work and conservation efforts, and ask questions about the finer points of butterfly identification and natural history.
Butterfly Bioblitz
12:30pm at Hogle Wildlife Sanctuary (entrance at Eaton Avenue, Brattleboro)
Discover the fascinating world of butterflying by joining an expedition at our local wildlife sanctuary. This hands-on exploration will help us survey the butterfly and insect populations and identify host plants and anything interesting we encounter. We will investigate the trail and meadows for butterflies nectaring or using a host plant (egg-laying or caterpillars feeding). Searching for butterflies in the field is a great way to spend time with other nature lovers and get motivated to document the butterflies in the field.
For the bioblitz, please bring:

water and sun protection
a smartphone/camera or binoculars if you have them
your questions and curiosity!

These events are part of the Brooks Memorial Library’s “Summer of Community Science” Adult Summer Reading program.
No registration is required and you may attend one or both events. Free and open to all ages.
Butterflies prefer warm and sunny weather. There will be a rain date of Saturday, July 12th. Updates will be posted on the Brooks Memorial Library website and Facebook page.

Dana Williams is the Community Science Coordinator at the Vermont Center for Ecostudies, where she helps community members contribute to conservation efforts across the state of Vermont. Previously, she worked in nature education for all ages as the programs director at Williamstown Rural Lands, a small land trust in Massachusetts. She holds a PhD in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of California, Los Angeles, where she researched the social relationships of animals.

Mineralogical Society
2025-07-01 18:00 - 20:45 | Meeting Room A – Community Meeting Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
Join the Brattleboro Mineralogical Society to discuss Minerals and other Geological topics!

Speak up: Empowering Patients in Healthcare
2025-07-07 18:00 - 19:30 | Meeting Room A – Community Meeting Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
Join us to explore the critical role of self-advocacy in the healthcare process, as well as strategies to enhance communication with medical providers. The workshop is free and open to the public.
This program is presented by The Center for Solace, formerly Brattleboro Area Hospice.

Vermont Butterfly Atlas Workshop & Butterfly Bioblitz
2025-07-12 11:00 - 15:00 | Meeting Room A – Community Meeting Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
The Brattleboro and Guilford Conservation Commissions, Bonnyvale Environmental Education Center (BEEC), and Brooks Memorial Library are presenting an exciting opportunity to participate in community science!
Join Dana Williams from the Vermont Center for Ecostudies for a fun-filled day of learning about the butterflies of Windham County and how you can contribute to the Vermont Butterfly Atlas. Volunteers are needed to help search fields and fens, mountains and meadows, and even their own backyards to document the status of Vermont’s butterflies. Your efforts will help scientists detect changes in butterfly populations and provide essential information to protect butterflies and preserve their habitat.
Vermont Butterfly Atlas Workshop
11am at Brooks Memorial Library
This indoor workshop will introduce the Vermont Butterfly Atlas and teach us how to observe and identify butterflies in the wild and report our sightings using eButterfly and iNaturalist. The Vermont Butterfly Atlas has already documented four species new or rediscovered in the state! Learn about community science field work and conservation efforts, and ask questions about the finer points of butterfly identification and natural history.
Butterfly Bioblitz
12:30pm at Hogle Wildlife Sanctuary (entrance at Eaton Avenue, Brattleboro)
Discover the fascinating world of butterflying by joining an expedition at our local wildlife sanctuary. This hands-on exploration will help us survey the butterfly and insect populations and identify host plants and anything interesting we encounter. We will investigate the trail and meadows for butterflies nectaring or using a host plant (egg-laying or caterpillars feeding). Searching for butterflies in the field is a great way to spend time with other nature lovers and get motivated to document the butterflies in the field.
For the bioblitz, please bring:

water and sun protection
a smartphone/camera or binoculars if you have them
your questions and curiosity!

These events are part of the Brooks Memorial Library’s “Summer of Community Science” Adult Summer Reading program.
No registration is required and you may attend one or both events. Free and open to all ages.
Updates will be posted on the Brooks Memorial Library website and Facebook page.

Dana Williams is the Community Science Coordinator at the Vermont Center for Ecostudies, where she helps community members contribute to conservation efforts across the state of Vermont. Previously, she worked in nature education for all ages as the programs director at Williamstown Rural Lands, a small land trust in Massachusetts. She holds a PhD in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of California, Los Angeles, where she researched the social relationships of animals.

Vermont Environmental Justice Law Public Meeting
2025-07-14 16:30 - 17:45 | Meeting Room A – Community Meeting Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
All are invited to this public information meeting held by the Agency of Natural Resources (ANR) Civil Rights and Environmental Justice Unit (CREJU) to discuss the Environmental Benefits Spending Guidance (EBSG).
Vermont’s Environmental Justice Law (VT EJ Law) from 2022 requires the Agency to develop guidance – the EBSG – to help designated Vermont state agencies to report on the investments that support communities, especially those most affected by environmental issues.
The guidance explains how agencies should document and share information about the investments that result in environmental benefits for Environmental Justice Focus Populations. The EBSG does not tell each agency what investments they should make.
The EBSG is mainly for state agencies that need to follow the VT EJ Law, however, the law requires a public comment period. The EBSG is also a resource for anyone interested in how environmental benefits are reported. ANR’s CREJU encourages the public to share their feedback on this document. This will be one of two in-person meetings this summer to do that.

Brattleboro Housing Providers - Renter Feedback Session
2025-07-15 18:00 - 20:00 | Meeting Room A – Community Meeting Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
Brattleboro Renters! We want to hear from you.
This event is hosted by a collaborative group of non-profit and private Brattleboro Housing Providers and will be facilitated by Rachel Trill, from Interaction. It is an opportunity to discuss some ideas that have the potential to improve resident and building safety, the pros and cons of these ideas and the steps needed to implement them. If you are a Brattleboro renter and are interested in this topic, we want to hear from you. This event is open to the public with priority given to renters. Brought to you by:

Brattleboro Housing Partnership
Housing Providers Alliance of Southern Vermont
M&S Development
Windham & Windsor Housing Trust

Report-back from the Global March to Gaza
2025-07-16 18:00 - 19:30 | Meeting Room A – Community Meeting Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
On June 13th, thousands of people from across the globe gathered in Cairo to march to the border with Gaza and break the Israeli siege and genocide against the people of Gaza…or at least they tried to. The Egyptian regime came down hard on organizers and participants, thwarting their efforts, subjecting them to surveillance, arrests, beatings, kidnappings, and deportation, preventing them from even peaceably assembling in Cairo.
Brattleboro resident Fhar Miess was part of the US contingent of the Global March to Gaza and will report back on his experiences there and lessons for organizing in repressive conditions that seem headed our way here. Sumer Mobarak from Washington DC and Lana Bilbo from Kaua’i for Palestine and the Hawaii pod of JVP will also be joining remotely to share their experiences with the March.
Fhar’s blog post reflecting on the Global March to Gaza is here.
This is a hybrid event. Masks are requested in-person.
Zoom link will be shared with registrants before the event. Registration can be found here.

Illustration for Science! Workshop I: Butterflies + Moths
2025-07-19 10:30 - 12:00 | Meeting Room A – Community Meeting Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
THIS WORKSHOP IS FULL. PLEASE CONTACT US TO JOIN THE WAITLIST.
Workshop I: Butterflies + Moths — Saturday, July 19
In this drawing and watercolor workshop presented in collaboration with The River Gallery School, we will explore the delicate beauty of butterflies and moths, learning to capture their intricate patterns and structures through careful observation. Participants will develop a deeper understanding of these creatures’ forms and behaviors, which are essential for community science projects tracking species populations.

Illustration for Science!
Summer of Community Science Art Workshop Series
Adult Summer Reading Program
Workshop I: Butterflies + Moths — Saturday, July 19
Workshop II: Birds — Saturday, July 26
Workshop III: Local Botanicals — Saturday, August 23
Join us for a series of three nature-inspired classes designed for adults and youth ages 15 and up. These hour-and-a-half workshops will focus on the skill of close observation, a vital gift of drawing from life, which connects the visual arts with the sciences. Each workshop provides an opportunity to explore the natural world while learning to create detailed illustrations that could contribute to community science projects.
Throughout these workshops, the emphasis is on learning how to see the natural world through a new lens. Drawing from observation will enhance participants’ attention to detail, fostering a deeper connection between art and science while contributing to the understanding of our local environment.
Participants are welcome to attend one or all workshops, and all sessions are free.
Registration is required. Please contact the Circulation Desk (in person, 802-254-5290, circ@brookslibraryvt.org) to register by Monday, July 14.

Sci-Fi Reading Group
2025-07-21 19:00 - 20:30 | Meeting Room D – Quiet Reading Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
The Sci-Fi Reading Group will meet in the Quiet Reading Room from 7:00pm – 8:30pm to discuss The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain by Sofia Samatar!
The boy was raised as one of the Chained, condemned to toil in the bowels of a mining ship out among the stars. His whole world changes—literally—when he is yanked “upstairs” and informed he has been given an opportunity to be educated at the ship’s university alongside the elite.Overwhelmed and alone, the boy forms a bond with the woman he comes to know as “the professor,” a weary idealist and descendent of the Chained who has spent her career striving for validation from her more senior colleagues, only to fall short at every turn.Together, the boy and the woman will embark on a transformative journey to grasp the design of the chains that fetter them both—and are the key to breaking free.
The Sci-Fi Reading Group meets the third Monday of every month and is open to curious minds, whether or not they’ve read this month’s selection.

Illustration for Science! Workshop II: Birds
2025-07-26 10:30 - 12:30 | Meeting Room A – Community Meeting Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
THIS WORKSHOP IS FULL. PLEASE CONTACT US TO JOIN THE WAITLIST.
Workshop II: Birds — Saturday, July 26
In this drawing and watercolor workshop presented in collaboration with The River Gallery School, we will focus on the dynamic world of birds, where participants will practice observing bird anatomy, posture, and movement. Through the process of sketching and watercolor painting, we will learn how to render birds with accuracy and appreciation, linking art with the study of local avian species for community science efforts.

Illustration for Science!
Summer of Community Science Art Workshop Series
Adult Summer Reading Program
Workshop I: Butterflies + Moths — Saturday, July 19
Workshop II: Birds — Saturday, July 26
Workshop III: Local Botanicals — Saturday, August 23
Join us for a series of three nature-inspired classes designed for adults and youth ages 15 and up. These hour-and-a-half workshops will focus on the skill of close observation, a vital gift of drawing from life, which connects the visual arts with the sciences. Each workshop provides an opportunity to explore the natural world while learning to create detailed illustrations that could contribute to community science projects.
Throughout these workshops, the emphasis is on learning how to see the natural world through a new lens. Drawing from observation will enhance participants’ attention to detail, fostering a deeper connection between art and science while contributing to the understanding of our local environment.
Participants are welcome to attend one or all workshops, and all sessions are free.
Registration is required. Please contact the Circulation Desk (in person, 802-254-5290, circ@brookslibraryvt.org) to register by Monday, July 21.
