Brooks Memorial Library - Brattleboro VT

Town Arts Committee
2022-10-25 17:00 - 19:00 (America/New_York) | 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!

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

Game Cafe!
2022-10-22 14:00 - 16:45, 2022-10-15 14:00 - 16:45, 2022-10-08 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!

Engaged Buddhism: The Buddha's World
2022-10-19 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.

New Yorker Discussion Group
2022-10-19 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.

New Yorker Discussion Group
2022-10-19 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.

Scrabble
2022-10-19 18:00 - 20:00, 2022-10-12 18:00 - 20:00, 2022-10-05 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.

Rhyme Time
2022-10-19 10:30 - 11:00, 2022-10-12 10:30 - 11:00 | Children’s Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
Join us on Wednesday mornings @ 10:30 am for 30 minutes of stories, songs, and fun!
Rhyme Time is for kids 5 & under and their caregivers.
Here is a handout featuring the different songs, fingerplays and movement games we use!

CANCELLED: Southeastern Vermont Audubon Society
2022-10-18 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.

Sci-Fi Reading Group
2022-10-17 19:00 - 20:30 | Meeting Room D – Quiet Reading Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
This month’s title is A Psalm for the Wild-Built, by Becky Chambers. Pick up a copy of the book or download an ebook or audio book.

Brattleboro Stamp Club
2022-10-17 18:00 - 20:00 | Meeting Room A – Community Meeting Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States

Design-a-Plate DUE TODAY
2022-10-17 10:00 - 20:00 | Children’s Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
You can return your packet and payment to the library at any time up to 8pm on Monday, October 17th.
Design-A-Plate is a Pay-What-You-Can event; Suggested cost is $6 per item.

See our FAQ for more information

Tomas Q. Morin and Cindy House - Brattleboro Literary Festival
2022-10-16 16:30 - 17:45 | 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
Tomás Q. Morín is the author of the collection of poems Machete and the new memoir Let Me Count the Ways, as well as the poetry collections Patient Zero and A Larger Country.
He is co-editor with Mari L’Esperance of the anthology, Coming Close: Forty Essays on Philip Levine, and translator of The Heights of Macchu Picchu by Pablo Neruda.
He teaches at Rice University and Vermont College of Fine Arts.

Cindy House is an essayist, short story writer, artist, and a regular opener for David Sedaris on his tours across the country. Her memoir, Mother Noise, tells the story of what life looks like twenty years after recovery from addiction in essays and graphic shorts.
She studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and earned an MFA from Lesley University in 2017. She lives in New Haven, Connecticut, with her son.

Nicholas Dawidoff - Brattleboro Literary Festival
2022-10-16 15:30 - 16:15 | 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
Nicholas Dawidoff is the author of six books, including his new book, The Other Side of Prospect: A Story of Violence, Injustice, and the American City. His book, The Fly Swatter, was a Pulitzer Prize finalist, and another, In The Country of Country: A Journey to the Roots of American Music, was named one of the greatest all-time works of travel literature by Condé Nast Traveller.
His first book, The Catcher Was a Spy: The Mysterious Life of Moe Berg was a national bestseller and appeared on many 1994 best book lists. His 2013 book Collision Low Crossers: A Year Inside the Turbulent World of NFL Football, was a finalist for a PEN America literary award. He is also the editor of the Library of America’s Baseball: A Literary Anthology.
A graduate of Harvard University, he has been a Guggenheim, a Civitella Ranieri, and a Berlin Prize fellow and is a contributor to the New Yorker, the New York Times Magazine, and the American Scholar

Jordan Salama and Ben Shattuck - Brattleboro Literary Festival
2022-10-16 14:00 - 15:15 | 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
Jordan Salama’s work has appeared in outlets including The New York Times, National Geographic, and Scientific American. His book, Every Day the River Changes, was a Kirkus Best Book of the Year.
A 2019 graduate of Princeton University, he lives in New York.

Ben Shattuck, a former Teaching-Writing Fellow and graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, is a recipient of the PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize and a 2019 Pushcart Prize. He is the director of the Cuttyhunk Island Writers’ Residency and curator of the Dedee Shattuck Gallery.
His writing can be found in the Harvard Review, The Common, the Paris Review Daily, Lit Hub, and Kinfolk Magazine. He lives with his wife and daughter on the coast of Massachusetts, where he owns and runs a general store built in 1793.
His most recent book is Six Walks: In the Footsteps of Henry David Thoreau.

Albert Samaha and Thirii Myint - Brattleboro Literary Festival
2022-10-16 12:30 - 13:45 | 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
Albert Samaha is an investigative journalist and inequality editor at BuzzFeed News and author of Concepcion: An Immigrant Family’s Fortunes, whose work has appeared in The New York Times, the Village Voice, San Francisco Weekly, and the Riverfront Times, among other outlets.
A Whiting Foundation Creative Nonfiction Grant recipient, he is also the author of Never Ran, Never Will: Boyhood and Football in a Changing American Inner City, which was a finalist for the 2019 PEN/ESPN Literary Sports Writing Award and winner of the New York Society Library’s 2019 Hornblower Award. He lives in Brooklyn.

Thirii Myo Kyaw Myint was born in Yangon, Myanmar and grew up in Bangkok, Thailand and San José, California. She is the author of the lyric novel The End of Peril, the End of Enmity, the End of Strife, a Haven, which won an Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature in the category of Adult Fiction.
Her second book, Names for Light: A Family History was the winner of the 2018 Graywolf Press Nonfiction Prize. She is the recipient of a Fulbright grant to Spain, residencies at Hedgebrook and Millay Colony, and fellowships from Tin House and Summer Literary Seminars. She holds a Ph.D. in english-creative writing from the University of Denver, where she served as the associate editor of the Denver Quarterly.
She is an Assistant Professor of English at Amherst College, where she teaches creative writing and literature.

Kathryn Davis and Eleanor Henderson - Brattleboro Literary Festival
2022-10-16 11:00 - 12:15 | 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
Kathryn Davis is the author of eight novels, including The Silk Road and Duplex. She has received the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize, the Morton Dauwen Zabel Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and a Guggenheim Fellowship.
Her new book is Aurelia, Aurelia a memoir. Davis won the Lannan Literary Award for Fiction in 2006 and is the senior fiction writer on the faculty of the writing program at Washington University.

Eleanor Henderson grew up in Florida and has taught in the Department of Writing at Ithaca since 2010. Her latest book is the memoir Everything I Have Is Yours: A Marriage, which was selected for the New York Times Group Text Book Club and named a New York Times Notable Book.
She is also the author of the novels The Twelve-Mile Straight and Ten Thousand Saints, which was named one of the 10 Best Books of 2011 by The New York Times, was a finalist for the Award for First Fiction from The Los Angeles Times, and was adapted into a movie starring Ethan Hawke. With the novelist Anna Solomon she is also co-editor of Labor Day: True Birth Stories by Today’s Best Women Writers.
She lives in Ithaca with her husband and two children.

Ellyn Gaydos - Brattleboro Literary Festival
2022-10-16 10:00 - 10:45 | 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
Ellyn Gaydos received an M.F.A. in nonfiction from Columbia University. Her work has received the Richard J. Margolis Award for nonfiction writers of social justice journalism, and appeared in The Texas Review, Columbia Journal, and Ninth Letter, where she received the 2017 award for creative nonfiction.
She is the author of a new memoir, Pig Years and lives in New Lebanon, New York.

David Sipress and Tad Friend - Brattleboro Literary Festival
2022-10-15 15:30 - 16:45 | 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
David Sipress was born and raised in New York City. He graduated from Williams College in 1968 and went on to study Russian History in the Department of Soviet Studies at Harvard University. He left Harvard before completing his degree to pursue a career as a cartoonist and has been staff cartoonist since 1998 for The New Yorker, where he has published nearly 700 cartoons.
He lectures widely on cartooning, and his autobiographical writing has appeared frequently on newyorker.com. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife, Ginny Shubert, an attorney and activist who works on issues of health and housing.
Library Journal calls his latest book, What’s So Funny: A Cartoonist’s Memoir. “An intimate and engaging memoir by an artist who understands that personal thoughts and feelings often lead to remarkable ideas.” The New York Times called it, “An endearingly vulnerable tale of being molded by one’s family of origin…economic and amiable (and occasionally devastating).

Tad Friend is a longtime staff writer for The New Yorker. His memoir, Cheerful Money: Me, My Family, and the Last Days of Wasp Splendor, was chosen as one of the year’s best books by The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle, and NPR. His new memoir, In The Early Times, was published in May.
He lives in Brooklyn with his wife, Amanda Hesser and their twins, Walker and Addison.

Sofi Thanhauser - Brattleboro Literary Festival
2022-10-15 13:00 - 13:45 | 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
Sofi Thanhauser teaches in the writing department at Pratt Institute. She has received fellowships from the Fulbright Program, MacDowell, and Ucross Foundation. Her writing has appeared in Vox, The Guardian, Observer Magazine, and Dame among other publications.
Her new book is Worn: A People’s History of Clothing. She lives in Brooklyn.

Maria Scrivan - Brattleboro Literary Festival
2022-10-15 11:30 - 12:30 | 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
Maria Scrivan is a New York Times bestselling author, award-winning syndicated cartoonist, and speaker based in Greenwich, Connecticut. Her laugh-out-loud comic, Half Full, appears daily in newspapers nationwide and on gocomics.com.
Maria licenses her work for greeting cards, and her cartoons have appeared in MAD Magazine, Parade, and many other publications. Nat Enough, her debut graphic novel, was an instant New York Times bestseller, and the follow-ups, Forget Me Nat and Absolutely Nat, also released to great acclaim.

Melany Kahn - Brattleboro Literary Festival
2022-10-15 10:00 - 11:00 | 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
Mason Goes Mushrooming

This first-of-its kind foraging story from Melany Kahn and Ellen Korbonski, Mason Goes Mushrooming takes us on a woodland treasure hunt.
Join Melany Kahn for an interactive kid -friendly activities about mushrooms. Examine and identify real local mushrooms. Grab provided materials to make your own wooden, paper or model mushrooms to take home. And the author will be available to lead a mushroom walk in the woods following the event, if you are interested.
A brilliant introduction to mushrooms for children!

Melany Kahn started hunting for mushrooms in Vermont in 1968 when her family bought a farm in West Brattleboro. She attended Wesleyan University, (BA, English/Creative Writing). She holds a Masters in Social Work from Boston College and MFA in Film from The Tisch School at NYU where she met her illustration collaborator, Ellen Korbonski.
Melany lives in New Hampshire with her husband and children, and you can find her leading mushroom walks or foraging at every opportunity. Mason Goes Mushrooming is her first book.

William Mundell: Life and Poetry - Brattleboro Literary Festival
2022-10-12 18:00 - 20:30 | 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
William Mundell (1912-1997) is one of Vermont’s finest native-born poets. He lived his entire life in South Newfane, unusually combining his career as a poet with work as a carpenter, stone mason, and State highway foreman. He served on the town selectboard, as an auditor, and justice of the peace, and was also editor of Poet Lore magazine. In 1989, he was named Vermont Poet Laureate, by the Poetry Society of Vermont; the previous recipient of the award had been Robert Frost.

This event features a roundtable discussion on Mundell’s life and career, with reminiscences by nephews Merrill Mundell, jr and Malcolm Mundell, and great-nephew Eric Mundell.
Also joining the panel will be Andy Burrows of Guilford, who guided the publication of Mundell’s first volume of poetry by the Stephen Greene Press. There were three volumes all together.
An exhibit will highlight the poet’s other achievements as a photographer — his work was featured in Life magazine.

The evening will conclude with a reading/lecture by Don McLean of Guilford, a Vermont based independent scholar and composer. As part of the Brattleboro Words Project McLean contributed to the research of three 19th century Guilford/Brattleboro literary personalities, which included Lucy Terry Prince, 18th century African American poet of Guilford; Royall and Mary Tyler, who lived in both Guilford and Brattleboro in the early 19th century; and the fiction author Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, who lived in Brattleboro later in that century.
His lecture on the 20th century Vermont poet, William Mundell, scheduled for 2020, was interrupted during the Covid crisis.

Parenting 4 Social Justice Reading-Discussion Group
2022-10-12 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!

First Wednesdays: The Electric Period of Miles Davis
2022-10-05 19:00 - 21:00 | Brooks Memorial Library, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
With Reuben Jackson
The ever-changing music that Miles Davis recorded from 1969 to 1975 angered and bewildered many critics and fans, who accused the trumpeter of “selling out.” Jazz archivist and poet Reuben Jackson shares how recordings from Davis’ “Electric Period”—including 1974’s Get Up With It—prove otherwise.

Reuben Jackson is the Archivist with the University of The District of Columbia’s Felix E. Grant Jazz Archives. For 20 years he was archivist and curator with the Smithsonian Institution’s Duke Ellington Collection. He was also host of Vermont Public Radio’s Friday Night Jazz from 2012 until 2018. His music reviews have appeared in The Washington Post, Jazziz, Jazz Times, and on National Public Radio’s All Things Considered. He is also the author of two books of poetry- 1990’s fingering the keys (Gut Punch Press)-and 2019’s Scattered Clouds (Alan Squire Publishing).
The First Wednesdays series includes in-person events in Fall and Spring with virtual events in the Winter. Director of Programs Ryan Newswanger said of the new format: “Many of our attendees in recent years have told us they value viewing First Wednesdays talks from the comfort of their homes, especially during the winter months.” Click for the full First Wednesdays schedule for 2022-23
The Brattleboro series is funded by the Friends of Brooks Memorial Library.

The program is free of charge 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
Underwriter: Peter Gilbert Endowment Fund
Miles Davis Image by r2hox
