Brattleboro Great Books Group
2025-05-05 19:00 - 21:00 (America/New_York) | Meeting Room D – Quiet Reading Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
Monthly discussion of “Great Books”

Mineralogical Society
2025-05-06 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
2025-05-07 10:30 - 11:00, 2025-05-14 10:30 - 11:00, 2025-05-21 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.

Lifelong Learning - Families First
2025-05-07 13:30 - 14:30 | Mezzanine Conference Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
Lifelong Learning provides ongoing educational opportunities for adults with developmental disabilities. Participants become experts in areas of interest and share their knowledge with peers!

Vermont Coverts Passing Lands Pop-up
2025-05-07 15:00 - 19:30 | Meeting Room A – Community Meeting Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
Passing Lands Pop-Up: What will your legacy be?
Wednesday May 7
Session 1: 3:00pm – 5:00pm
Session 2: 5:30pm – 7:30pm
Brooks Memorial Library Community Room

Planning for the future can be a daunting task. VT Coverts: Woodlands for Wildlife and Windham Regional Woodlands Association are hosting a passing lands pop-up where you can meet with professionals to talk about the future of your woodlands. You will have the chance to meet one-on-one with financial and estate planning professionals and a landowner who has been through the planning process, all ready to answer your questions about passing your woodlands to the next generation. Want to understand options for the land? Wondering what it would mean to conserve your land with a land trust? Have questions about Current Use? Have no heirs but want to see the land remain intact? These and other questions can be addressed as you rotate between the experts, allowing you to identify your next steps. The program is run through two sessions; one from 3:00 – 5:00 and the other 5:30 – 7:30 with refreshments in between. Participants will receive a copy of “For the Future of Your Forest.” The program is free, but space is limited. Register here today! Questions – email laura@vtcoverts.org.

Registration link:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfOBWUZGkkx1_Z3mCGXi4PHXZt76ap4-Bgh5-PA0g5ktu8maA/viewform?usp=header

The Unfinished Revolution: The Deep Work of Non-Violence
2025-05-07 18:30 - 20:00 | VT
The America 250 Town Hall Series, a collaboration with Brooks Memorial Library and Vermont Independent Media, publisher of The Commons, is made possible, in part, through a generous grant from the Vermont Humanities Council.
This town hall will consider the theory and practice of Lewis’s unfinished revolution. We’ll consider the philosophical underpinnings to non-violence, drawing on Gandhi’s satyagraha and Catholic understandings of natural law. We’ll also think practically about what it would take for us to engage in a revolution in which our current enemies are seen as future friends.
In 1963, John Lewis envisioned a non-violent revolution that would achieve the ends of freedom and liberty without taking up arms. In this “unfinished revolution,” current enemies are seen as future friends. Black and white, men and women, rich and poor, he argued, must learn to work together for their mutual benefit.
After twenty years of teaching political theory and constitutional law to Marlboro College undergraduates, Meg Mott has taken her love of argument to the general public. She attended the University of New Hampshire in the 1970s and is currently teaching at Keene State College. Meg’s award-winning series, Debating Our Rights, on the first ten amendments, brings civil discussions on contentious issues to public libraries and colleges.

Sing & Dance With Robin
2025-05-08 11:00 - 12:00, 2025-05-15 11:00 - 12:00, 2025-05-22 11:00 - 12:00 | 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.

Brattleboro in Stitches
2025-05-10 13:00 - 16:00, 2025-05-17 13:00 - 16:00, 2025-05-24 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.

Multigenerational Civics Class
2025-05-12 10:15 - 11:30, 2025-05-19 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.

Alzheimer's Action Plan - Community Education & Input Session
2025-05-13 10:30 - 12:15 | Meeting Room A – Community Meeting Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
The Vermont Department of Health and the Alzheimer’s Association need your help to develop strategies that support the needs of those living with dementia, their caregivers, and families. This session will begin with a presentation from the Alzheimer’s Association; afterward, there will be a guided discussion during which folks may share their experiences about navigating healthcare, finding community supports, the stress of being a family caregiver and more.

Library Board of Trustees
2025-05-13 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. Citizen attendance and commentary welcome!
Board of Trustees

District 9 Forum
2025-05-14 19:00 - 20:45 | Meeting Room A – Community Meeting Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
District 9 residents in Brattleboro are cordially invited to attend a forum to express their opinions about the revised budget prepared for a special Representative Town Meeting (RTM); the new budget is intended to replace an earlier version that was voted down by RTM and will, if approved, guide spending in the next fiscal year which begins 1 July. The forum will be held in the Community Room (third floor) of the Brooks Memorial Library at 7 pm on Wednesday 14 May. RTM members from District 9 are encouraged to attend to hear their constituents’ opinions. For more information, contact Robert Oeser (robt.oeser@gmail.com, 518.505.9031) or David Levenbach (fideladelphia@gmail.com, 413.559.1533).

Developing A Personal and Home Protection Plan
2025-05-15 16:00 - 17:45 | Meeting Room A – Community Meeting Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
What You’ll Learn:
Are you prepared for the unthinkable: an intrusion into your home? Not In My House is a comprehensive course designed to provide you with tools and tips on staying safe when you’re out and about in public, as well as remaining safe when you return home. Learn some simple best practices so that you can minimize the risk of becoming a victim.

From Overthrow to Blowback: How U.S. led Regime Change Has Historically Sown the Seeds of Instability and Backlash
2025-05-15 18:30 - 20:00 | 118 Elliot, 118 Elliot Street, Brattleboro, 05301, United States
“Global Blowback: Understanding the Long Tail of U.S. Intervention and Regime Change.” Happening at 118 Gallery, Elliot Street, Brattleboro.
As part of the America 250 series, Windham World Affairs Council in collaboration with Brooks Memorial Library, Vermont Independent Media and the Vermont Humanities is creating a two-year series around the theme of global blowback.
The first speaker in the series will be esteemed author and journalist – Stephen Kinzer.
Kinzer is an award-winning foreign correspondent who has covered more than 50 countries on five continents. His articles and books have led the Washington Post to place him “among the best in popular foreign policy storytelling.”
Kinzer spent more than 20 years working for the New York Times, most of it as a foreign correspondent. His foreign postings placed him at the center of historic events and, at times, in the line of fire.
This event is happening at 118 Elliot Gallery. There is a $10 suggested donation. No one, however, will be turned away for lack of funds.
Registration link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/global-blowback-the-long-tail-of-us-intervention-and-regime-change-tickets-1305915230609?aff=oddtdtcreator

More about the Global Blowback series:
“Why do they hate us?” That’s the question that many US citizens express in response to political and terrorist attacks on the U.S. Many students and citizens do not understand the ways that U.S. foreign policy, particular during periods of aggressive military intervention and regime change, have sowed long seeds of instability, authoritarianism, migration, and resentment. While we in the US have a short-term historical memory or lack knowledge of historic interventions, the rest of the world has a long memory for 20th century U.S. intervention and regime change.
Central to deepening a global understanding of these events is the concept of “blowback.” The US intelligence community defines blowback as the “unintended consequences resulting from covert or direct action.” In his 2000 book, Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire, the late Chalmers Johnson, who was a eminent scholar of Asia, former CIA consultant and self-described “cold warrior,” described the blowback concept:
Officials of the Central Intelligence Agency first invented [the term blowback] for their own internal use… [It] refers to the unintended consequences of policies that were kept secret from the American people. What the daily press reports as the malign acts of ‘terrorists’ or ‘drug lords’ or ‘rogue states’ or ‘illegal arms merchants’ often turn out to be blowback from earlier American operations.”
For example, the US covertly aided in the overthrow of a democratically-elected government in Iran in 1953, which led to the 1979 Iranian revolution and taking of the U.S. embassy and hostages –and two generations of instability.
Over the next two years, WWAC will host conversations around significant anniversaries of U.S. intervention and examples of long-term consequences or “blowback.” We propose a series of educational events, some tied to these anniversaries (but not rigidly).

Should I Shoot
2025-05-16 16:00 - 17:45 | Meeting Room A – Community Meeting Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
“Should I Shoot?” is focused on developing an understanding of Use of Force as a whole. While we always suggest you seek Legal Counsel, Use of Force has similar theory in law state to state. We cover Reasonable Force, Deadly Force, How Prosecutors Evaluate your Case, Defense of Your Home and Property.

Teen Movie Night! - Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
2025-05-16 19:00 - 21:00 | Meeting Room A – Community Meeting Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
The Teen Advisory Board invites you to join us for a Teens Only movie night showing of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse!
The movie will start at 7pm. Snacks and comfy chairs provided!

District 8 Meeting
2025-05-17 10:30 - 12:00 | Meeting Room A – Community Meeting Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
Please join Brattleboro District 8 Chair Gary Stroud and District 8 RTM member Cristina ShayOnye for an important community discussion about the town budget and how it will affect property taxes. This meeting is a chance for Brattleboro residents—especially those in District 8, represented by Rep. Mollie Burke—to learn about and share their views on the newly revised Town Budget coming before Representative Town Meeting at the end of May. Come to ask questions, share your thoughts, and ensure your voice is heard! This is a valuable opportunity to connect with your Town Meeting representatives before the town budget is voted on.

Brattleboro Planning Commission's Town Plan 2026 Community Conversation
2025-05-17 12:00 - 12:45 | VT
Immediately after the morning’s District 8 Informational Meeting, RTM members – and any interested community members – are invited to remain in the room to join and participate in this 30-45 minute Community Conversation.
The Brattleboro Planning Commission is updating the Town Plan. This plan will lay out a vision for Brattleboro’s future. There will be opportunities to get involved, including open monthly meetings of the Planning Commission, community surveys, community conversations, and workshops.
See https://brattleboro.gov/town-plan-2026 for more info and other ways to be involved.
If you are part of another group that would like to have their own Town Plan Community Conversation conducted by a Planning Commissioner, please contact the Planning Services Department (802-251-8154, planning@brattleboro.gov).

Sci-Fi Reading Group
2025-05-19 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 To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers:
At the turn of the twenty-second century, scientists make a breakthrough in human spaceflight. Through a revolutionary method known as somaforming, astronauts can survive in hostile environments off Earth using synthetic biological supplementations. They can produce antifreeze in subzero temperatures, absorb radiation and convert it for food, and conveniently adjust to the pull of different gravitational forces. With the fragility of the body no longer a limiting factor, human beings are at last able to journey to neighboring exoplanets long known to harbor life.
A team of these explorers, Ariadne O’Neill and her three crewmates, are hard at work in a planetary system fifteen light-years from Sol, on a mission to ecologically survey four habitable worlds. But as Ariadne shifts through both form and time, the culture back on Earth has also been transformed. Faced with the possibility of returning to a planet that has forgotten those who have left, Ariadne begins to chronicle the story of the wonders and dangers of her mission, in the hope that someone back home might still be listening.
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.

Two Rivers-Ottauquechee Regional Commission Flood Regulation Lunch & Learn
2025-05-20 11:00 - 14:00 | Meeting Room A – Community Meeting Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
A lunchtime meeting with zoning administrators and floodplain administrators to discuss Act 121, Vermont’s new Flood Safety Act. Topics covered will include new regulations coming down the pike, how to step into regulations, and how to administer these changes.

The Resplendent Quetzal: Tourism and Land Use in Costa Rica - with Dr. Alan Poole
2025-05-20 19:00 - 20:30 | Main Reading Room
This joint program, co-sponsored by Brooks Memorial Library and Southeastern Vermont Audubon Society (SVAS), provides an accessible, well-illustrated look at the life history of the Resplendent Quetzal — a dazzling, legendary bird of the highland forests of Central America. Aztec and Mayan cultures revered this quetzal, and today’s bird-watchers, thousands of whom visit quetzal forests each year, are only slightly less in awe.
Dr. Alan Poole, the author of a recently published book on Resplendent Quetzals (Cornell Univ. Press, 2023), will describe through the nesting ecology of this bird, its role in Mayan and Aztec religions, and how it fits into the increasingly threatened cloud forests that sustain it. The talk will also take a look at what lies ahead for this (and other) quetzals — how conservation efforts are giving them a boost, and what threats Mesoamerican cloud forests are facing.
Above all this talk will examine land use in Central America, especially Costa Rica, through a quetzal lens — no species does more to bring current land use trends in this region into focus. Understanding these trends is key to maintaining the viability of highland tropical forests in the Americas, and the quetzals that depend on them.
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ALAN POOLE, an Associate of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, was editor of the Birds of North America life history series (18 volumes, 18,000 pages) for 22 years. He lives along the coast of southeastern Massachusetts, and spends winters in the highlands of Costa Rica, where quetzals are a highlight.
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Note: This program will be at 7PM on Tuesday, May 20 in the Main Reading Room, and will take place instead of the monthly SVAS meeting.

Friends of the Library Annual Meeting
2025-05-21 16:30 - 18:00 | Meeting Room A – Community Meeting Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
Annual meeting of the Friends of the Library. Community attendance and commentary is welcome!
Friends of the Library

Big Woods Voices
2025-05-21 19:00 - 20:30 | VT
Big Woods Voices celebrates a cappella vocal harmony through arrangements grown from American roots genres, world folk styles, poets old and new, and Will Danforth’s rich creative well. For this occasion, they will highlight compositions inspired by the poetry of W.B. Yeats, David Whyte, Wendell Berry, Alice Oswald, Daniel Leavens Cady (!) and others. From heart-moving to foot-grooving, prayerful to fun-filled, dissonant to dulcet, Big Woods Voices brings the spirit of poetry to life through rich harmonies and soulful interpretations. From past audiences: “The music last night was extraordinary…the exquisite care each of the four of you put in, your combined harmonic sound, your humility, your bright spirits sending out the hope we are thirsty for. Each song was a jewel, a treasure.” “Singing sublime; songs sophisticated and meaningful; altogether a ‘pinch me, I’m in southern Vermont’ experience!”
The Voices (from high to low) are Amanda Witman, founder of the Brattleboro Pub Sing; Becky Graber, director of the Brattleboro Women’s Chorus; Will Danforth, an award-winning, multi-instrumental solo acoustic artist and a member of the Brattleboro Camerata; and Alan Blood, long-time member of area groups such as the Blanche Moyse Chorale, I Cantori, Blue Moon, and House Blend. You can check their album out on Spotify: Poetry in Harmony. Website: www.bigwoodsvoices.com.
