Posted By Sadie Williams on Fri, May 25, 2018 at 1:10 PM

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Chief Don Stevens

Items given to State of Vermont in 2011: soapstone pipe, fur tobacco pouch, peace wampum belt

In early May, Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger's office announced a new partnership with the Vermont Abenaki Alliance. The collaboration grew out of controversial discussions over the "Everyone Loves a Parade!" mural on Church Street, which not everyone loves.

(If you haven't been keeping up: Calling the artwork racist, Albert Petrarca vandalized the mural's identification plaque in October 2017. Since then, community members and City Council representatives have been debating whether to replace or alter the mural to depict a more accurate history of Burlington.)

The focus of the City and Abenaki Alliance collaboration will be public events and education about native people and history. The release notes a July 7 event on Church Street and, in the future, a permanent exhibition at the Burlington International Airport.

Tags: Vermont Abenaki Alliance , Abenaki , Church Street Marketplace , mural , Burlington International Airport , Chief Don Stevens , Image , Web Only

Posted By Kymelya Sari on Thu, May 24, 2018 at 5:06 PM

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Kymelya Sari

Abraham Awolich

In 2011, Abraham Awolich left the U.S. to return to his native South Sudan. He confessed that he had thought about moving back to Vermont since then. Intense clashes between rival political factions in 2014 and 2015 had left him "sometimes scared," and living conditions in the capital, Juba, remain difficult, he said.

Awolich is in Burlington for a week to reconnect with his friends, as well as to ask the public to continue to support his projects in South Sudan. On Tuesday, he gave a presentation to a group of about 30 people at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul. Many, if not all, in attendance had known Awolich and his peers since they first arrived in Vermont 17 years ago.

What has kept him in South Sudan these past few years, Awolich said, is a sense of purpose and commitment. In the wake of the country's independence in 2011, he wants to help negotiate what he calls "rapid" and "dramatic" transitions.

Tags: Abraham Awolich , South Sudan , Juba , Sudd Institute , Sudan Development Institute , Image , Web Only

Posted By Dan Bolles on Fri, Apr 20, 2018 at 1:38 PM

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Courtesy of Clayton Trutor

Clayton Trutor

Vermont baseball nerds, rejoice! This weekend, the Vermont chapter of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) takes the field after a long rain delay, metaphorically speaking. The Gardner-Waterman (Vermont) SABR chapter holds its spring meeting at the Robert Miller Community and Recreation Center in Burlington this Sunday, April 22.

The local SABR chapter was founded in the 1990s by noted local baseball historian Tom Simon and others. But according to current chair Clayton Trutor, the collective of baseball researchers, historians and statisticians had fallen dormant in recent years. Trutor is attempting to jumpstart the chapter and hopes to hold meetings at least twice per year.

"It's an opportunity for members to present their research on the history of baseball and the statistics of the game," Trutor tells Seven Days. He adds: "There will also be a trivia contest."

Tags: Baseball , Major Leagues , minor leagues , Society for American Baseball Research , Red Sox , Vermont , Image , Web Only

Posted By Rachel Elizabeth Jones on Tue, Mar 13, 2018 at 12:36 PM

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UVM Center for Digital Initiatives

Covers of Out in the Mountains

In February 1986, the first issue of Out in the Mountains: Vermont's Newspaper for Lesbians and Gay Men hit mailboxes, corner stores, coffee shops and other rural newsstands. The free monthly newspaper would continue to serve Vermont communities for more than 20 years, folding in 2007 due to financial difficulties. Now, thanks to the University of Vermont's Center for Digital Initiatives, the entire Out in the Mountains archive can be accessed online.

"Not too many papers like [this] have been digitized," said Prudence Doherty, public service librarian for UVM's special collections. "Certainly it has Vermont significance," she said, "but it [also] has much wider significance and will be used by people who are tracking the history of LGBTQ movements."

Tags: Pride Center , Out in the Mountains , print media , LGBTQ , Image , Web Only

Posted By Pamela Polston on Tue, Dec 12, 2017 at 3:43 PM

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Courtesy of Catherine Brooks

Catherine Brooks (at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa, Japan)

The Rokeby Museum in Ferrisburgh might not be known for festive parties, but that's exactly what took place on November 30. The occasion was to honor outgoing director Jane Williamson for 20 years of tireless devotion to the museum — not to mention achievements that earned the venue national acclaim.

A highlight of the evening was a big surprise: Staffers pulled down a temporary banner to reveal the words "Jane Williamson Gallery" installed in relief over the entrance of said gallery. The room, used for exhibitions and events, is on the first floor of the museum's newest building. The capacious contemporary venue is a far cry from Williamson's tiny, cramped former quarters in the bathroom-less historic former farmhouse.

The event's other surprise, at least to many of the assembled guests, was from Williamson herself: She announced that the new director would be Catherine Brooks, former president of the Rokeby's board of trustees.

Tags: Rokeby Museum , Rowland and Rachel Robinson , Underground Railroad , anti-slavery , Ferrisburgh , Image , Web Only

Posted By Sally Pollak on Tue, Oct 17, 2017 at 6:30 AM

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Courtesy of Norbert Putnam

Norbert Putnam

Norbert Putnam, a session musician and record producer, played bass guitar on 120 Elvis Presley tracks.  He was the bassist on J.J. Cale's 1971 classic "After Midnight" and produced Jimmy Buffett's 1977 hit "Margaritaville."

Putnam recorded Kris Kristofferson's first demos in Nashville and once discussed bass levels with a 13-year-old Michael Jackson. "Michael Jackson was a great genius," Putnam told Seven Days. 

Putnam, 75, is a repository of stories about music and the people who made it back in the day. He brings his tales to Vermont on Friday, October 20, for two events at the McCarthy Arts Center at St. Michael's College: an afternoon bass summit with Mike Gordon of Phish and an evening presentation/performance based on his book, Music Lessons: A Musical Memoir. Both events are free and open to the public.

Tags: Muscle Shoals , Elvis Presley , St. Michael's College , Mike Gordon , Phish , Norbert Putnam , bass guitar , Neil Young , "Margaritaville" , Image , Video , Web Only

Posted By Amy Lilly on Tue, Aug 8, 2017 at 11:21 AM

Courtesy of Geoffrey Gross, NYC

House II in Hardwick

Not many house hunters are in search of an experimental, white, modernist home built in 1969-70 that one listing described as a “live-in artwork.” But, after four years on the market, as Seven Days reported earlier this year, architect Peter Eisenman’s House II in Hardwick finally found its ideal caretakers.

The New England-based couple who purchased the iconic house would prefer to remain anonymous. Andrew Ferentinos, the architect they hired to make the house both truer to Eisenman’s original drawings and more livable, describes them this way: “They are the rare people who are deeply and passionately interested in architecture, and in being stewards of modern architecture.”

That’s fortuitous, for only pure love was going to save this building.

Tags: architecture , modernism , Peter Eisenman , House II , Devin Colman , historic preservation , Docomomo , Andrew Ferentinos , Hardwick , Image , Web Only

Posted By Sally Pollak on Tue, Jun 6, 2017 at 12:42 PM

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Courtesy of Peacham Congregational Church

Peacham Congregational Church

Once upon  a time, before tourists took pictures of themselves, they took pictures of church steeples, autumn leaves and village greens — particularly in Vermont. Many of those images depict the Northeast Kingdom town of Peacham, an off-the-main-road slice of paradise that is said to be the most photographed town in New England.

Who's to argue? (Except maybe Craftsbury.)

"The church has been photographed a lot," local historian Johanna Branson said. "A lot, a lot, a lot."

Now the Peacham Congregational Church is seeking selfies — that is, asking photographers to submit images of the handsome white clapboard structure whose spire pierces the village sky,  and whose glory days are perhaps behind it. In the "Most Photographed" competition, money will be raised by people voting for their favorite picture at the July 16 Peacham Community Picnic, paying $1 each to cast a ballot.

The contest will raise money to help repair the building's clapboards and foundation, and to spruce up the paint job.

Tags: Northeast Kingdom , Peacham , Vermont , church , tourism , image , photographs , Image , Web Only

Posted By Kymelya Sari on Thu, Nov 17, 2016 at 7:56 AM

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Kymelya Sari

Lucy Cannon-Neel (far right) and Melody Brook (second from right) leading the drumming workshop

Lucy Cannon-Neel travels all over the Green Mountain State to teach Abenaki history and culture to elementary school students. But on Wednesday, she found herself co-leading an Abenaki drumming workshop to a much older audience at Champlain College.

The workshop was the last in a series of events organized by Melody Brook, operations manager of residential life and adjunct professor with the Division of Education and Human Studies at Champlain College, to commemorate Native and Indigenous Heritage Month. Cannon-Neel, a registered nurse, is the chair of the Vermont Commission on Native American Affairs. Brook is the commission's vice-chair.

"We say the drum is the heartbeat of Mother Earth and it keeps everything equal, sound," said Cannon-Neel, when asked about the importance of drumming in Abenaki culture. Drumming can be done at any time, the Holland resident added.

Tags: Drumming , Abenaki , Lucy Cannon-Neel , Melody Brook , Alexa von Essen , Champlain College , Image , Video , Web Only

Posted By Sadie Williams on Fri, Sep 30, 2016 at 12:05 PM

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Sadie Williams

In a small, well-lit space deep inside Burlington's Soda Plant, artist Kyle Sikora settles the skull of an extinct female North American lion onto a blue, padded frame. The Conant Metal & Light employee disappears behind the massive skeleton, more than nine feet long, as he crouches down to adjust its 17-inch noggin.

Alan Stout of Rome, Georgia, owner of the skeleton, keeps a vigilant watch from the room's entrance as he simultaneously entertains this reporter. A retired food-safety official,Stout now operates an online business called Dinoland Plus. It offers "museum-quality reptile and mammal pieces for sale, fossil preparation [and] knowledge of animals in all time periods."

But this lion reconstruction won't be for sale. At least, not for a while.

Tags: Pleistocene , extinct animals , North American lion , skeleton preparation , sculpture , Image , Web Only