Vermont Humanities

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Woman speaking with hand over heart beside statue

Using the humanities, we connect with people across Vermont to create just, vibrant, and resilient communities and to inspire a lifelong love of learning.

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Attend

Come enjoy 400+ humanities
events held across Vermont.

upcoming events

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Watch

Miss an event or discussion? Watch a recording on your
own time.

recorded events

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Listen

Dive into our two humanities podcasts to engage and learn about new perspectives.

discover podcasts

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Book

Bring a speaker or event to your library, community, or school.

find out how

Featured Events

Detail of cover of The Most Costly Journey, showing a drawing of a Mexican man holding a paintbrush and a photo of his family
Live Event

Vermont Reads: Podcast Interviews

Bring a friend or family member to share a short story about finding yourself in new places or situation. Your story will be edited by teens and shared with the wider community as part of our 2023 Vermont Reads Programming about “The Most Costly Journey.” Prompts and easy-to-follow instructions will be available, along with help from a youth librarian.

Black and white cartoon drawing of a farmer in rubber boots with cows in a Vermont barn yard
Live Event

A Round Table Discussion on Graphic Novel Story Telling and Mental Health Communication

A round table discussion facilitated by Dr. Alan Berolzheimer, Project Historian and Assistant Director at The Flow of History, will lead conversation centered on the human experience explored in The Most Costly Journey.

Wall with poster that says "Post No Hate"
Live Event

Must Free Speech Endure Hate Speech?

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.

The cover of Revolution in our Time, featuring images from the black power movement set in a black power fist with an orange background
Live Event

Revolution in Our Time

National Book Award finalist Kekla Magoon discusses her award-winning nonfiction book, Revolution in Our Time: The Black Panther Party’s Promise to the People. The Vermont author also considers the importance of reading as a tool for social change, and our individual and collective power to transform our communities.  

Washing clothes at rear of sharecropper's cabin. Transylvania, Louisiana
Live Event

In Goldleana’s Hands: Black Women and Labor Choices in North Louisiana in 1950s

Jolivette Anderson-Douoning shares the lived experience of Mrs. Goldleana, whose story illuminates the role Black women played as laborers in the Louisiana cotton and timber industries—and in their own families—in the 1940s and 50s. She also highlights geographical differences in Black migration: some left the South while others remained. 

Three stones standing in sand, one with "haiku" painted on it in black letters
Live Event

The Art of the Haiku

Poet Keiselim (Keysi) Montás discusses how to read the traditional Japanese poetic form of haiku, illustrated with works from his haiku collection, Like Water.

Live Event

From Red State to Blue State: Vermont’s Political Transformation

For 100 years—from the 1850s to the 1950s—Vermont was the most Republican state in the nation. But today it is the most Democratic. Journalist Chris Graff considers some factors behind the switch from “red to blue,” including interstate highways, the arrival of IBM in Vermont, and the reapportionment of the Vermont House. 

a path leads out on to a rock ledge that overlooks a bay or ocean at sunset
Live Event

Arribada- A Novel

Author and Middlebury professor Gloria Estela Gonzalez Zenteno discusses her new novel Arribada, about a woman pushed to confront her role in environmental and social injustice, and a well-to-do family’s realization that their comfortable position rests on crimes against the natural world, their town, and their loved ones. 

A character stretches out while sitting on the floor next to a bicycle pump and a pair of skis
Live Event

The Secret to Superhuman Strength 

Celebrated cartoonist Alison Bechdel discusses her work as an illustrator and memoirist, including her most recent book, The Secret to Superhuman Strength, a graphic memoir about her lifelong love affair with exercise that won the 2021 Vermont Book Award. 

two chairs sit on a deck overlooking the water, one chair is overturned
Live Event

Poetry Reflections with Richard Blanco

Selected by President Obama as the fifth inaugural poet in US history, Richard Blanco is the first Latino, immigrant, and gay person to serve in such a role. Born in Madrid to Cuban exile parents and raised in Miami, the negotiation of cultural identity characterizes his four collections of poetry.  

Poet Richard Blanco
Hybrid Event

For Vermont Students: Poetry Reflections with Richard Blanco

In this free live-streamed presentation for Vermont middle and high school students, poet Richard Blanco reads from and discusses his work. 

Selected by President Obama as the fifth inaugural poet in US history, Blanco is the first Latino, immigrant, and gay person to serve in such a role. Born in Madrid to Cuban exile parents and raised in Miami, the negotiation of cultural identity characterizes his four collections of poetry.

a tall rusted wall of metal in the desert
Live Event

Vermont Reads: Book Discussion ‘The Line Becomes a River’

Join us for “The Line Becomes a River” by Francisco Cantu book discussion at the Bugbee Senior Center. We will also be looking at ‘The Most Costly Journey.”

See All Upcoming Events

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

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Our Programs

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.

Learn More about Our Programs

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.

Learn more about this gift

Support Our Work

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.

Learn More about Supporting Us

Vermont Humanities*** January 13, 2015