Vermont Humanities

Speakers Bureau Talks

Man giving a talk in a bike shop
Speakers Bureau

Booking a Talk

  1. Browse the catalog below, and review our Speakers Bureau Guidelines and FAQs.
  2. Contact a speaker to set a tentative date and time, and discuss any special arrangements.
  3. Request the program using our online form at least six weeks in advance. We’ll respond within one week.

Talks A to Z

Image of Vermont field in winter

1800 and Froze to Death: The Cold Year of 1816

1816 has long been known as the year without summer. This talk includes scores of anecdotes about the dark year of failed crops, scarce food, and religious revival.

Image of preamble to the Constitution

A Dramatic Constitution

We often are divided on the merits of the Constitution: can it redeem us or is it a convenient cloak for white supremacy? Meg Mott explains that the Constitution might be seen as an invitation to develop the habits of political engagement through deliberation and adjudication.

Image of old car in Cuba

A Playground for Empire: Historical Perspectives on Cuba and the U.S.A.

Tim Weed explores Cuba’s long struggle for sovereignty, from the Spanish-American war of 1898 to the 1959 Cuban Revolution.

Image of Walt Whitman

An Evening with Walt Whitman

The audience is a visitor in Walt Whitman’s room as he prepares for his seventieth birthday celebration and questions his success as a man and a poet. Through Whitman’s poetry and letters, actor Stephen Collins helps us experience the poet’s growth into a mature artist who is at peace about “himself, God and death.”

Painting of Lucy Terry Prince

Bearing Witness and the Endurance of Voice

Lucy Terry Prince was born in Africa, where she was kidnapped by slave traders and transported to Rhode Island. While still enslaved in 1746, she wrote “Bars Fight,” the oldest known poem by an African American. Prince later regained her freedom and moved to Vermont with her husband. Shanta Lee illustrates Prince’s importance as a poet and orator, and as one unafraid to fight for her rights within the landscape of early Vermont, New England, and America.

Image of beekeeper with hive

Bees Besieged: A History of Beekeeping

Bill Mares, writer, and a beekeeper for 45 years, tells of the origins and evolution of beekeeping, with a particular emphasis on his research in Vermont. 

Vermont Humanities*** December 1, 2021