Brooks Memorial Library - Brattleboro VT

POETRY OUT IN THE OPEN
2025-10-29 17:30 - 19:30 (America/New_York) | Main Reading Room
All are invited to gather to celebrate poems of hope and warmth. Join James Crews and his husband, Brad Peacock, co-editors of Love Is for All of Us: Poems of Tenderness & Belonging from the LGBTQ+ Community & Friends, as they share poems about love of all kinds—romantic love, self-love, family & friend love, as well as reverence for the natural world.
James and Brad will talk with local poet (& Out in the Open organizer!) Diana Whitney, and James will lead participants in a short writing experience based on several of the poems shared. Everyone is welcome– no poetry experience necessary!
ABOUT THE BOOK:
Edited by James Crews with his husband, Brad Peacock, and illustrated by Lisa Congdon, these compassionate poems of connection and affirmation are a celebration of all kinds of love—romantic, family, friendship, self-love, and love for nature. The poems are gathered from a diverse group of contemporary writers, both part of and allied with the LGBTQIA+ community, with a special focus on queer, nonbinary, and transgender poets.
Contributors include Andrea Gibson, Ellen Bass, Nikita Gill, Mark Doty, Audre Lorde, Richard Blanco, Gabrielle Calvocoressi, Danez Smith, Joy Ladin, Carl Phillips, Li-Young Lee, and many others. Brief essays called “Stories of Becoming” act as touchstones throughout the book, telling the inspiring and touching stories of LGBTQIA+ people whose experiences may bring hope to others.
About James & Brad:
James is the editor of several bestselling books, including The Wonder of Small Things, The Path to Kindness, and How to Love the World, which has over 100,000 copies in print. He is also the author of a collection of essays, Kindness Will Save the World, available as a hardcover and audiobook. He has been featured in The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, The New York Times Magazine, People Magazine, The Christian Science Monitor, and on NPR’s “Morning Edition.” The author of four prize-winning books of poetry, James also leads an online writing community called The Monthly Pause (themonthlypause.com). For more info, visit jamescrews.net. Find him on Facebook and on Instagram: @james.crews.poet.
Brad is a writer, veteran, and long-term organic farmer, whose passion is to bring people closer to one another and the natural world. His poems have been published in several anthologies, and his op-ed pieces have appeared in newspapers across the United States. Find him on Instagram: @theheartofafarmer.
James and Brad live on forty rocky acres in the woods of Southern Vermont.

CLOSED FOR STAFF TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT
2025-10-30 10:00 - 18:00 | VT
Library will be closed for staff training and development.

CANCELLED - Sing & Dance With Robin
2025-10-30 10:30 - 11:30 | Meeting Room A – Community Meeting Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
SING AND DANCE WITH ROBIN WILL BE CANCELLED ON THURSDAY, OCTOBER 30th.
Please come back next week for more Sing and Dance!

Designed for ages under 6- all ages welcome! Free and open to the public.
This lovely class is an enriching musical experience for toddlers and preschoolers, designed to support healthy cognitive, physical, and social development. Children will sing, clap, stomp, dance, and play along with the curriculum of traditional and modern folk songs. Parents will be encouraged to fully sing and participate with their child in the class.
Sponsored by the Friends of Brooks Memorial Library.

Introduction to Buddhist Mindfulness Meditation
2025-10-31 16:00 - 17:30 | VT
10/31 Canceled – Call Serenity Central regarding the 11/07 session. (802-368-2015)
This offering will be led by Bhante Rathana, a Buddhist monk originally from Sri Lanka and currently residing at Serenity Central of New England in Jacksonville, Vermont. He has been dedicated to the path of Dhamma since the age of 13, and his journey includes over two decades of monastic training, study, and teaching in Sri Lanka and the United States.
At these sessions, Bhante will be offering practical guidance in breathing meditation (ānāpānasati), loving-kindness meditation (mettā bhāvanā), and walking meditation, rooted in the original teachings of the Buddha as preserved in the Pāli Canon. His approach draws directly from early Buddhist texts, focusing on mindfulness, compassion, and inner peace.
With gentle, step-by-step instruction, Bhante aims to help participants develop calm, clarity, and deeper awareness—whether you are new to meditation or wish to strengthen your practice.

First Meeting of the Kids Fishing Club
2025-11-01 11:00 - 12:30 | Meeting Room A – Community Meeting Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States

Brattleboro in Stitches
2025-11-01 13:00 - 16:00, 2025-11-08 13:00 - 16:00, 2025-11-15 13:00 - 16:00 | 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.

BookMarked: A Book Club for Children and Tweens!- Into the Rapids Discussion
2025-11-03 16:00 - 17:00 | Meeting Room A – Community Meeting Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
Join us on Monday, November 3rd at 4 pm to discuss Ann Braden’s novel, Into the Rapids. We will work on generating some questions for Ann when she comes to visit on November 17th! BookMarked is intended for ages 8 and up. Please register at the Children’s Room desk or contact us by phone or email:

(802) 254-5290 EXT 1210
cr@brookslibraryvt.org

Financial Empowerment - Holiday Budgeting
2025-11-03 17:30 - 19:00 | Meeting Room A – Community Meeting Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
All are welcome to this collabortive program with representatives from Mascoma Bank and SEVCA. In this month’s specially scheduled class – prior to the start of the holiday season, participants will learn practical strategies to manage finances and avoid holiday debt while still enjoying the season. From budgeting tips to smart shopping hacks, we’ll help you navigate the holiday frenzy with confidence and financial peace of mind.
These sessions are usually held on the 4th Mondays of the month throughout 2025, with different topics for each session and peer support encouraged throughout. During the month of November, we are meeting earlier to give participants ample time to utilize the learnings.
A light meal will be served from 5:30 PM, followed by the focused discussion from 6:00 – 7:00 PM. (Please note the new start time, going forward.)
Registration is required. To sign-up, you can call (802-254-5290), stop by the circulation desk, or email us at circ@brookslibraryvt.org

Brattleboro Great Books Group
2025-11-03 19:00 - 21:00 | Meeting Room D – Quiet Reading Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
Monthly discussion of “Great Books”

Clown Around Book: A Circus Book Reading for Kids
2025-11-04 13:30 - 14:00 | Meeting Room A – Community Meeting Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
Bring the little ones and enjoy circus themed children’s books read aloud by a real circus clown! A NECCA Vermont Circus Festival event supported in part by Vermont Humanities.

Mineralogical Society
2025-11-04 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!

Rhyme Time
2025-11-05 10:30 - 11:00, 2025-11-12 10:30 - 11:00 | Meeting Room A – Community Meeting 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.
Free and open to the public.

Vermont Pastel Society
2025-11-05 15:30 - 17:30 | Meeting Room A – Community Meeting Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
pastel painting of a still life

Vermont Circus 2025 Festival - Circles of Sawdust: A Book Discussion
2025-11-05 18:00 - 19:30 | Main Reading Room
With Rob Mermin & Karen E. Gersch
All are welcome to this exciting Vermont Circus Festival event. Come and hear Rob Mermin – founder of Vermont’s Circus Smirkus – and illustrator Karen E. Gersch for a discussion of Mermin’s autobiographic book and stories from their long careers in the circus ring. Prior reading of the book is not necessary – all are welcome!

A Lifeline for Difficult Times: The Taking Solace Series
2025-11-05 18:00 - 20:00 | Meeting Room A – Community Meeting Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
Starting this November, Center for Solace (formerly Brattleboro Area Hospice) & Brooks Memorial Library
are inspired to begin an 8-month collaboration on the first Wednesday of each month, from 6-8 pm.
Come join us for a wide range of conversations
on tender topics, from Death Cafes, to film & discussion nights,
speaker panels, a climate-grief dialogue, and more.
Together we’ll explore some of the challenges of being alive in our time.
For instance, how might we navigate illness, caregiving, or loss?
Or beyond that, face a much broader anguish for our fragile planet itself?
Because we know that at least one form of solace
stems from staying connected.
To quote poet David Whyte, “Solace is not meant to be
an answer, but an invitation, through the door of pain and difficulty,
to the depth of suffering and simultaneous beauty in the world
that the strategic mind by itself cannot grasp or make sense of.”
We begin November 5th from 6-8pm
with a Death Cafe in the Community Room.
And to find out about further topics, please follow
Center for Solace or Brooks Memorial Library on Facebook:
centerforsolace.org, or brookslibraryvt.org.

Sing & Dance With Robin
2025-11-06 10:30 - 11:30 | Meeting Room A – Community Meeting Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
Designed for ages under 6- all ages welcome! Free and open to the public.
This lovely class is an enriching musical experience for toddlers and preschoolers, designed to support healthy cognitive, physical, and social development. Children will sing, clap, stomp, dance, and play along with the curriculum of traditional and modern folk songs. Parents will be encouraged to fully sing and participate with their child in the class.
Sponsored by the Friends of Brooks Memorial Library.

LEGO-Palooza
2025-11-06 15:00 - 17:00 | Meeting Room A – Community Meeting Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
Join us on the first Thursday of every month after school from 3-5pm to play with LEGOs!
We provide the LEGOs. You build. Do not bring your own LEGOs.
Children cannot keep LEGOs, but if there is enough room, we will display them in the window.
Free and open to the public!

Introduction to Buddhist Mindfulness Meditation
2025-11-07 16:00 - 17:30 | VT
This offering will be led by Bhante Rathana, a Buddhist monk originally from Sri Lanka and currently residing at Serenity Central of New England in Jacksonville, Vermont. He has been dedicated to the path of Dhamma since the age of 13, and his journey includes over two decades of monastic training, study, and teaching in Sri Lanka and the United States.
At these sessions, Bhante will be offering practical guidance in breathing meditation (ānāpānasati), loving-kindness meditation (mettā bhāvanā), and walking meditation, rooted in the original teachings of the Buddha as preserved in the Pāli Canon. His approach draws directly from early Buddhist texts, focusing on mindfulness, compassion, and inner peace.
With gentle, step-by-step instruction, Bhante aims to help participants develop calm, clarity, and deeper awareness—whether you are new to meditation or wish to strengthen your practice.

Finding a Place in the Natural World as a Huntress - with Deborah Lee Luskin
2025-11-07 18:30 - 20:30 | Main Reading Room
Celebrate the launch of the new memoir, Reviving Artemis: The Making of a Huntress, with local author Deborah Lee Luskin in an inspiring discussion and book signing. Books will be available for purchase.
About Reviving Artemis: The Making of a Huntress:
Reviving Artemis is the unlikely story of a woman raised in mid-twentieth-century suburbia who lived in New York City as a young adult and moved to Vermont in 1984. For more than thirty years, she raised domestic livestock, kept bees, and cultivated fruits and vegetables while teaching literature and telling stories. But when she turned sixty, something shifted. Luskin was overtaken by a primal urge to step out of the garden, off the blazed trails, and into untracked forest by learning to hunt deer. Deeply personal, lyrically told, and funny, Reviving Artemis reveals Luskin’s ambivalence about guns and her fear of entering the forest alone in the dark.
She persisted, using her literary acumen to read the forest and, as thoughtfully as she hunts for words, to hunt for deer. With the stories of Artemis, goddess of the hunt, childbirth, and wild nature to inspire her, Luskin became a huntress, determined to age fiercely and compelled to tell this story of finding her place in the natural world.
About Deborah Lee Luskin:
Deborah Lee Luskin moved from New York City to Vermont in 1984 to write, keep bees, and raise daughters. She has been an editorial columnist, radio commentator, pen-for-hire, and blogger. Her first novel, Into the Wilderness, won the Independent Publishers Gold Medal for Regional Fiction. Luskin has also enjoyed a long career as an educator, teaching writing and literature-based humanities classes to gifted elementary writers, college students, new adult readers, life-long learners, healthcare workers, and prison inmates. She holds a PhD in English Literature and expected to become an academic, not a deer hunter. She lives in Vermont with her husband, their dog, usually a cat, and a variable number of chickens.

Celebrating Community, Addressing Stereotypes: A Meal and Talk with VINE Sanctuary
2025-11-10 17:30 - 20:15 | Meeting Room A – Community Meeting Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
Join Compassionate Dining as we enjoy a delicious vegan potluck meal and welcome two wonderful speakers from VINE Sanctuary in Springfield, VT. Potluck begins at 5:30pm followed by speakers at 6pm. Come to the meal and stay for the speakers or just come for the speakers. All are invited!
From Cheryl Wylie, Animal Care Coordinator, hear about how residents of the sanctuary work together to create community. Learn all about the different species that coexist with one another and listen to unexpected and illuminating stories that show how animals–human and non-human–can build lives together.
From climate change to persistent social problems like discrimination, domestic violence, and genocide, the habits of human supremacy make it harder for people to analyze and solve the problems that people have created. The flip side of every stereotype about animals is a stereotype about humans. Those myths make it harder to diagnose and solve social problems. At this event, VINE Sanctuary cofounder pattrice jones will show how myths about roosters, turkeys, and cows contribute to sexism, ableism, and racism right here in Vermont.
pattrice jones is an ecofeminist scholar and activist as well as cofounder of VINE Sanctuary in Springfield. A winner of a 2024 “Spirit of the AD” Award from the Governor’s Committee on the Employment of People with Disabilities that was recently featured on Vermont Public for its work with former fighting roosters, VINE cares for more than 500 animals while also working for social and environmental justice. A recent VINE Press book, Bird’s-Eye Views, collects dozens of essays relevant to the subject of this event.
This event is sponsored by Compassionate Dining, a local grassroots group working to build demand for and availability of plant-based options in area restaurants so that people can eat healthfully, compassionately, and sustainably.

Voices of the People
2025-11-10 18:30 - 20:30 | Main Reading Room
WSESU and Spark Teacher Education
Presents Voices of the People
Making Connections to Stories of Resistance in The Past and Present
Performed readings from Howard Zinn and Beyond

Readings by Local Community Members, WSESU Students and Brattleboro Solidarity,
for more information email: Sparkteacheredvt@gmail.com

LIBRARY CLOSED
2025-11-11 10:00 - 21:00 | Brooks Memorial Library, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
The library will be closed on November 11th in observation of Veterans Day/Armistice Day.

Library Board of Trustees--POSTPONED
2025-11-11 16:30 - 18:00 | Meeting Room A – Community Meeting Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
Monthly meeting of the Brooks Memorial Library Board of Trustees has been rescheduled for November 18 due to Veterans Day closure.
Board of Trustees

Brattleboro Selectboard - FY27 Budget Listening Session
2025-11-12 18:15 - 20:00 | Main Reading Room
The Brattleboro Selectboard will host a listening session on the FY27 budgeting process in the Main Reading Room. This is an opportunity for the public to share their ideas directly with the Selectboard outside the typical meeting format.
This is an in-person event only; there will not be a Zoom or livestream option for this meeting. The session will be recorded and available to view at a later date on BCTV and BCTV’s YouTube channel.
Background for the listening session:
A proposed FY27 General Fund Budget will be presented to the Selectboard during its regular meeting on Nov. 4. Then, on Wednesday, Nov. 12, the Selectboard will hold its second listening session of the budget season at Brooks Memorial Library at 6:15 p.m. You can view the first listening session here or check the FY27 project page for updates.
Continuation of the budget process:
The conversation will continue during Selectboard meetings throughout the remainder of 2025 and into early 2026. Future updates about the FY27 budget process will be available at Brattleboro.gov/fy27budget.

CANCELED - Sing & Dance With Robin
2025-11-13 10:30 - 11:30 | Meeting Room A – Community Meeting Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
SING AND DANCE WITH ROBIN WILL BE CANCELLED ON THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13TH.

Designed for ages under 6- all ages welcome! Free and open to the public.
This lovely class is an enriching musical experience for toddlers and preschoolers, designed to support healthy cognitive, physical, and social development. Children will sing, clap, stomp, dance, and play along with the curriculum of traditional and modern folk songs. Parents will be encouraged to fully sing and participate with their child in the class.
Sponsored by the Friends of Brooks Memorial Library.

Vermont Agency of Agriculture and VDOL H-2A Info Session
2025-11-14 16:00 - 18:00 | Meeting Room A – Community Meeting Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
Postponed and Rescheduled to Thursday, December 11 from 4-6 PM.
The public is invited to this informational session provided by the Vermont Agency of Agriculture and the Vermont Department of Labor for farmers to attend who may be interested in learning more about the H-2A application/certification process.

Needle Felting Workshop
2025-11-15 14:00 - 16:00 | Meeting Room A – Community Meeting Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
Learn the art of needle felting. In anticipation of the miniature worlds springing up along Main St., attendees will have the opportunity to make a simple shape, a cute critter or a fuzzy friend from a ball of wool.
The class will be held concurrently with the weekly Stitchers meet-up and is open to anyone 13 years old and up. Materials will be provided, but space is limited and advance registration is required. To sign up, email circulation@brookslibraryvt.org or call 802.254.5290 ext. 0, or come by the library in person.
The event is free, thanks to the generosity of the Friends of Brooks Memorial Library.
