What lies hidden beneath the popular images of New England with its white spires and Yankee frugality? More than meets the eye! Featured novel: I'm a Stranger Here Myself: Notes on Returning to America After 20 Years Away by Bill Bryson
Sometime in November each year, holiday music -- mostly Christmas carols, but others as well -- begins to saturate the soundscape of North America. Every song has a story; what's the story of this music? Why does it have such a cultural hold? Is it a kind of folk tradition? How is it related to dance and drama? This presentation will include singing and will offer lore about the origins of these songs, their practice, and the resonance they have in our lives.
This discussion series examines the treatment of populations outside the cultural norms of the late 19th and early 20th century America. The books cover the historical conditions and treatments of Native Americans, women deemed mentally ill and locked away, and those considered developmentally handicapped, mentally handicapped and/or genetically inferior.
Have you ever wondered how the internet works, where electricity comes from, or how there's (mostly) enough water for everyone all the time? Where did these systems comes from, and how do they affect our challenges like inequality and climate change? Join Vermont author and artist Dan Nott for a look at these questions and more as he discusses his new nonfiction graphic novel, Hidden Systems for this all-ages event.
Miguel de Cervantes’ Don Quixote de La Mancha, published in the early 1600s, is often considered the first modern novel. Scholar and author Ilan Stavans discusses the novel’s origins, structure, and characters, and the way it continues to redefine us.
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.
With the introduction of AI and constant Zoom meetings, our lives have become more fractured and isolated. In Hanging Out: The Radical Power of Killing Time, author Sheila Liming shows us what we have lost to the frenetic pace of digital life, and how to get it back.
Historian Jill Mudgett tells the story of an Indigenous man from southern New England who came to central Vermont during the late 19th century and was the victim of a murder. Recreating community connections in a rural Vermont hill town, this story is about poverty, racism, disability, and gendered violence against women, but is also an account of Indigenous movement and choice despite great obstacles.
A monument depicting Massasoit welcoming the Pilgrims was installed in Plymouth, MA in 1921 to mark the 300th anniversary of the landing of the English. Historian Jean O’Brien considers if the monument prompts us to reckon with the structural violence of settler colonialism, or further entrenches celebratory narratives of national origins.
Hitchcock famously said “Some films are slices of life; mine are slices of cake.” His career spanned forty years and many film eras. Film expert Rick Winston will discuss the evolution of Hitchcock’s craft, exploring his favorite themes, his relationship with his collaborators, and his wry sense of humor no matter how grisly the subject matter.
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.
