Using the humanities, we connect with people across Vermont to create just, vibrant, and resilient communities and to inspire a lifelong love of learning.
Dive into our two humanities podcasts to engage and learn about new perspectives.
September 25
Vermont sent far more sharpshooters to the Union armies than any other state, on a per capita basis. Sharpshooters from this state played a little-known but major role at Gettysburg. Historian Howard Coffin will discuss his recent research into this little-recognized group and consider the reasons why Vermont may have been so well-represented in this elite group of marksmen.
October 1
Join us for a festival on the New Haven Village Green in honor of the contributions of the migrant workers in our community. Our celebration will include food and music from Mexico and Central America, bilingual storytime, booths from local organizations, children’s crafts, first-hand sharing from migrant workers, all culminating an a community soccer game.
October 3
#1 New York Times bestselling author Jason Reynolds discusses his collaborative work on the book Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You, a reimagining of Ibram X. Kendi’s Stamped from the Beginning, “remixed” for a Young Adult audience.
October 5
The First Amendment prevents Congress from passing any laws that abridge the freedom of speech. But what does that actually mean? Professor Meg Mott considers the history of speech laws in the United States, how states and municipalities have tried to curb offensive speech, and how the Supreme Court has ruled on those efforts.
October 5
Author and theologian Damian Costello explores how the practice of maple sugaring in Vermont connects us to the land, our ancestors, and all that surrounds us. In conversation with the bestselling book “Braiding Sweetgrass,” he suggests that sugarmaking—which is informed by Indigenous wisdom—is a communal medicine of connection that teaches mutual reciprocity with the land.
October 5
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.
October 5
Vermonter Jason Chin has written and illustrated many acclaimed children’s books, including Grand Canyon, Redwoods, and Your Place in the Universe. He received the 2022 Caldecott Medal for illustrating Watercress by Andrea Wang. In this presentation he describes his passion for nature, science, and art, and discusses the impact of his work with young people.
October 5
On his farm overlooking Brattleboro, Rudyard Kipling wrote the Jungle Book and many of his Just So Stories, and began to draft his great novel, Kim. Christopher Benfey, author If: The Untold Story of Kipling’s American Years, answers hard questions about Kipling’s time in this country, including whether he should be considered partly an American writer.
October 5
UVM professor Cheryl Morse—who studies how people perceive, co-produce, and experience rural places—reports on how different groups of Vermonters have engaged with land as landscape, place, and environment in recent years, and why these engagements matter in contemporary land debates.
October 5
Author and cartoonist Rachel Lindsay explores the themes of mental illness and psychopharmaceutical advertising, as chronicled in her book RX: A Graphic Memoir.
October 5
Members of the agrarian community share stories about food sovereignty, resilience, and being rooted in the land in this Fall Festival 2022 event hosted by Rural Vermont. Join us for an evening of storytelling and connection! Light snacks will be served.
October 5
Father and son storytellers and musicians Joseph and Jesse Bruchac of the Nulhegan Abenaki Nation use traditional music, storytelling, and the Abenaki language to describe the continuing connection of their people to Ndakinna (our land.) They share greeting and friendship songs and tell stories that relate to the creation of the place now called Vermont.
We recently gave a $5000 project grant to the Center for Cartoon Studies in White River Junction to print and distribute a comic to schools and literacy organizations throughout Vermont.
How We Read, A Graphic Guide To Literacy will help kids experience the joy of reading and overcome the stigma of struggling to read.
Learn more about our Project Grants
Image courtesy Center for Cartoon Studies
Vermont Humanities has developed a broad range of programs that serves Vermonters of all ages and backgrounds. In 2021, 31,365 people took part in 562 activities hosted by us or by our community partners.
The Anne Commire Fund for Women in the Humanities supports projects that focus on women writers. Anne (at far left) is shown with the cast of her play “Melody Sisters” in 1984.
The fund was created through a legacy gift of $125,000 from Anne’s estate, one of the largest individual gifts ever made to Vermont Humanities.
By giving to Vermont Humanities, you support education for people of all ages through early literacy programs, Humanities Camps for middle-school children, and programs held in libraries, community centers, schools, and correctional facilities.
Poet Sarah Audsley joined us at the Taconic Mountains Ramble State Park for Words in the Woods.
Humanities Camps are filled with reading and writing projects, field trips, and outdoor activities.
We won a 2020 Schwartz Prize for best public humanities programming in the U.S. for Vermont Reads 2019: “March: Book One.”
We supported Historic New England’s “More than a Market” project that explored the experiences of new Americans through food markets.
Our free public events help bring the power of the humanities to communities across Vermont.
