Vermont Humanities
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.”

Bill Mares and friend with beer

From Homebrew to the House of Fermentology

Bill Mares began making his own beer 45 years ago, when homebrewing was illegal and there were no microbreweries in America. Today there are over 7,000 such breweries nationwide, and Vermont has the highest percentage of breweries per capita in the country. In this presentation, Mares will discuss the American beer revolution, Vermont’s small but significant contribution, and his co-ownership of a brewery.

Painting of Lucy Terry Prince

Lucy Terry Prince: Witness, Voice, and Poetics within the American Tradition

This exploration starts with a question: what is the arc from Lucy Terry Prince to the modern moment of the spoken word within poetry? Lucy’s poem “Bars Fight” survived for 100 years in oral tradition before appearing for the first time in 1854 in the Springfield Daily Republican.

Rajnii Eddins beside a brick wall

The Value of Our Stories

Each one of us has a story that is valuable. In this presentation, Rajnii Eddins will share his poetry, and will discuss how our stories can be used to confront racism and other injustices, affirm diversity and equity, and initiate community dialogue.

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.