Join Essex resident Leonora Dodge for a discussion of The Most Costly Journey / El viaje más caro - a nonfiction graphic novel anthology which presents stories of survival and healing told by Latin American migrant farmworkers in Vermont.
Join award-winning cartoonist & educator Marek Bennett for a closer look at the Vermont Reads 2022 book The Most Costly Journey. This hybrid event will focus on visual narration. Personal narratives have great power both to the teller and the receiver. Marek will help participants see that there are many different ways to tell a story.
The Milk with Dignity Program, created by Migrant Justice, brings together farmworkers, consumers, farmer owners and corporate buyers with the principal goal of fostering a sustainable Vermont and Northeast dairy industry that advances the human rights of farmworkers, supports the long-term interests of farm owners, and provides an ethical supply chain for retail food companies and consumers.
Many communities recently have questioned the value of long-standing monuments. These debates can strike at the heart of history and memory. Seeking dialogue instead of a shouting match, author Raffi Andonian suggests four simple questions for communities to consider as they evaluate historic sites, famous figures, and public monuments.
In his book The Haymakers: A Chronicle of Five Farm Families, Steven Hoffbeck shows that haymaking was more than just harvesting grass, alfalfa, and clover. It was about toil, fears, and the fragile nature of human life. Anyone who grew up on a farm—or wishes they had grown up on a farm—will enjoy the insights and humor of this multimedia presentation.
Jayna Zweiman, founder of Welcome Blanket and the Pussyhat Project joins us from California for this special in-person event about craft and activism.
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.
The Waterbury Public Library wraps up its Vermont Reads 2022 programming with a movie night “Under the Cloak of Darkness” (2008), a feature-length documentary about Vermont’s migrant Mexican farm worker population that aims to humanize this invisible community and bring to light the issues surrounding migrant labor. The movie will be followed by a discussion and refreshments.
“Finding Jesse: A Fugitive from Slavery in Vermont” traces Jesse’s life from enslavement in North Carolina to freedom in Vermont. His story is told through letters in the collection at Rokeby Museum and documents at the North Carolina State Archives. The illustrated talk brings the narrative of one slave out of anonymity and explores his life and pursuit of freedom.
In this special Farmers' Night presentation at the Vermont State House, Andrew Aydin, co-author of The March Trilogy with civil rights icon John Lewis, describes the creation of the next book in the series, RUN! Aydin also relates becoming an author, how he became involved in politics, and his experiences working with Congressman Lewis.
In this presentation, Andy Kolovos from the Vermont Folklife Center and Julia Grand Doucet from the Open Door Clinic provide an overview of the goals of the El Viaje Más Caro Project.
In this free live-streamed presentation for Vermont middle and high school students, Andrew Aydin, co-author of The March Trilogy with civil rights icon John Lewis, describes the creation of the next book in the series, RUN! He'll be joined by a panel of students from Rutland Union High School.
Local dinner by donation (no one turned away) and Presentation on Farmer Organizing in Nicaragua with Yorlis Luna and Nils McCune, focused on building relationships between farmers internationally through their work with the Nicaragua Farmworkers’ Association, Ixim Ulew Agroecology School, and La Via Campesina
Join Stowe Library to read and discuss Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace. The novel chronicles the French invasion of Russia and the impact of the Napoleonic era on Tsarist society through the stories of five Russian aristocratic families.
Join a discussion with James Sturm at Hartford High School & virtual gathering at the Quechee Library. A multi-generational talk about the art of the graphic novel and how it lends itself to portraying personal stories, difficult issues and historical events.
This participatory educational event is presented by Carol Adinolfi, facilitator of The Voices of St. Joseph’s Orphanage Writers Group and its members. A short presentation about the process of trauma-informed creative writing workshops with excerpts from the group’s recent virtual theatrical evening will be followed by a discussion and q and a with the writers.
Join award-winning cartoonist and educator Marek Bennett as he presents some of the many comics documenting human migrations and struggles throughout the ages, and lead a hands-on demo to show how YOU can cartoon the stories of your own family, neighborhood, and wider world.
Join award-winning cartoonist and educator Marek Bennett as he presents some of the many comics documenting human migrations and struggles throughout the ages, and lead a hands-on demo to show how YOU can cartoon the stories of your own family, neighborhood, and wider world.
In this presentation Dr. Frederick Wiseman will demonstrate the ways that Indigenous and positivist (scientific) ways of knowing can work together to preserve a legitimate American Abenaki biocultural history and worldview.
In the film "Who is Dayani Cristal?" an anonymous body in the Arizona desert sparks the beginning of a real-life human drama. The search for identity leads us back across a continent to seek out the people left behind and the meaning of a mysterious tattoo.
This presentation examines the many meanings of maple sugaring. Maple is enormously important to Vermont’s economy, ecology, and heritage. Champlain College professor Michael Lange will discuss sugaring ethnographically, based on over five years of research among sugarmakers all over the state, to learn from them what sugaring really means to Vermont.
The history of what and how we eat encompasses everything from the prehistoric mammoth luau to the medieval banquet to the modern three squares a day. Find out about the rocky evolution of table manners, the not-so-welcome invention of the fork, the awful advent of portable soup, and the surprising benefits of family dinners – plus some catchy info on seasonal foods.
Join fellow community members in Essex Junction and Williston for a discussion of this year's Vermont Reads book, "The Most Costly Journey." This discussion is offered as a collaboration between Brownell Library and Dorothy Alling Memorial Library. Attendees may join in person at Dorothy Alling Memorial Library where we will discuss the book over a cup of Mexican Hot Cocoa, or register to receive the virtual link.
The Stono Rebellion has been called the most important slave revolt in North American history. In this lecture, Damian Costello examines the events and the deep African roots of the 1739 uprising in South Carolina. Costello will also trace the sangamento tradition in the U.S. and throughout the Americas, and discuss how the Kongolese message of liberty can inform present-day efforts to overcome the lingering effects of our colonial inheritance.
Join us for a read aloud of "Lola Out Loud" and "Dolores Huerta: A Hero to the Migrant Workers" and a discussion about migrant workers. Reading will be followed by a themed activity. For ages 6-10, siblings welcome.
South America’s Atlantic Forest is one of the most diverse ecosystems on the planet. Cristian Fretes Ojeda, technical trainer for Peace Corps Paraguay, discusses how civic participation is leading the effort to conserve crucial natural areas like the Atlantic Forest and the Gran Chaco, which span several South American countries.
Greenagers engages young adults in environmental conservation, sustainable farming, and natural resource management. Sarah Monteiro from the Massachusetts non-profit reflects on the importance of getting youth involved in environmental and agricultural industries.
Longtime First Wednesdays favorite Ilan Stavans discusses his new book, an anthology that tells the story of how the English language has been transformed in the United States. The People’s Tongue features essays, letters, poems, songs, speeches, stories, jeremiads, manifestos, and decrees across history, from Sojourner Truth and Abraham Lincoln to Henry Roth and Zora Neale Hurston and beyond.
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.
Singer and historian Linda Radtke, in period garb and a “Votes for Women” sash, celebrates the centennial of the passage of the 19th Amendment, which gave the right to vote to white women.
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.
