Issuu

Bodycam footage sheds light on March 11 ICE raid

RETURN of the KING

Back in Vermont after 15 years in LA, indie rocker Kyle Thomas — aka King Tuff — eyes a new stage of his music career

BY CHRIS FARNSWORTH,

PAGE 26

4T-chroma021126 1 2/9/26 5:38 PM THE 7TH ANNUAL

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We do not support public funding for infrastructure based on speculative population numbers that would encourage the building of expensive homes affordable to wealthy buyers and real estate investment companies.

Housing developments should be constructed in or near village, town, or city centers. Building on our remaining open and natural spaces has created more housing sprawl, dramatically altering the rural, peaceful character of our state.

To prevent higher tax burdens on current Vermont residents, developers should be required to cover the “carrying costs” associated with expanded municipal services expected by new residents.

Economic activity needs to support the long-term sustainability of Vermont families and must not adversely impact the availability of clean water, clean air and fertile soils needed by future Vermonters to live healthy and digniﬁed lives.

For more information about Better (not bigger) Vermont ,please visit our website. betternotbiggervt.org We welcome new members!

BARUTH SEEKS STATEWIDE BAN ON GUNS IN BARS

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IN THE STACKS

That’s the approximate number of acres burned in a wildﬁre near Ripton last week.

In March, Williston voters approved a $13.9 million library expansion, but they’ll reconsider the decision with a second vote on May 19. Check it out.

START HER UP

Senate Democrats prodded their House colleagues on Tuesday to support a bill that would ban guns from bars and restaurants that serve alcohol in Vermont.

Burlington voters have sought such a measure within city limits for more than a decade but need the legislature to authorize a change to the city’s charter. State lawmakers and Gov. Phil Scott have opposed the restriction. Scott has argued that municipalities shouldn’t be allowed to pass their own ﬁrearms regulations, warning that a confusing patchwork of restrictions would be difﬁcult to enforce.

Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Baruth (D/PChittenden-Central), a gun-control advocate, has been frustrated that Burlington’s charter change, which city voters favored by a large margin in 2025, has been passed by the Senate but not the lower chamber.

“ at’s why we are here,” Baruth said. “An extremely commonsense measure cannot, for some reason, clear the House.”

Baruth is now proposing a statewide ban in bars and restaurants that serve alcohol, which eliminates concern about consistency, he said. He said he expects the Senate to pass bill S.329 this week.

e bill contains additional measures, including restricting access to ﬁrearms by people who used guns in

violent crimes or who have been determined to be a danger to themselves and others. It would also prohibit machine guns.

Baruth noted that 14 other states ban guns in bars, including deep-red Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana and Texas.

“ is is not some cockamamie liberal idea,” Baruth said. He added that “there is no logical reason” people should be allowed to bring guns into places where they are getting intoxicated.

Rep. Matt Birong (D-Vergennes), chair of the House Committee on Government Operations and Military Affairs, said the Burlington bill lacks the votes to clear his committee. Time is running out for the House to take the bill up this session.

Speaker Jill Krowinski (D-Burlington) noted that the bill did not make the crossover deadline. She said she’s proud of the House’s work on a similar gun safety bill, H.606, and will consider proposed changes if they pass the Senate.

“I support the Burlington charter change to ban guns in bars,” she said in a statement, “and while the votes are not there to pass it out of committee, it’s important to note that current law allows for owners of bars to ban a ﬁrearm on their premises.”

Read Kevin McCallum’s full story at sevendaysvt.com

Vermont is selling 21 pickup trucks on Saturday, May 9, at its annual Surplus Vehicle & Heavy Equipment Auction. Plenty of other vehicles will be going, going, gone.

ROAD TRIP

As of Monday, Route 108 — aka Smugglers’ Notch — is open to vehicles for the season. As long as the trucks stay out!

FEDERAL INTERVENTION

Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, came to Vermont last week to meet with state and local police about the March ICE raid, the Boston Globe reported. A lot to discuss…

TOPFIVE

TOWNCRIER

LOCALLY SOURCED NEWS

Snow and Mud Align for Rare Four-Sport ‘Triathlon’

On April 12, America’s “only four-sport triathlon” took place, celebrating spring and sports in Vermont. Between the end of ski season and the beginning of mud season, it’s unusual for the weather to align to host all four sports. Some years, the water level has been too high, or there has not been enough snow. is year, the conditions allowed the unique four-sport “triathlon” to take place in full: a six-mile run, a six-mile paddle down Mad River, a 12-mile bike ride and a 2.5-mile ski. Finishers celebrated on Mount Ellen at Sugarbush with beer, music and awards. Read more at waterburyroundabout.org.

WEATHER OR NOT

Vermont is upgrading its ability to forecast the weather.

At the Caledonia County Fairgrounds in Lyndonville on Tuesday, officials unveiled the first of 21 advanced weather stations they plan to erect around the state as part of a “mesonet” — a network that can observe meteorological events such as floods, drought and snowstorms in real time, according to Joshua Beneš, associate director of research facilities and networks at the University of Vermont’s Water Resources Institute. e publicly available data will help Vermonters prepare for dangerous weather and aid farmers and others in ag.

“As we’ve been seeing with this increased

ﬂooding across the state, we really need this type of infrastructure to … know what the active conditions are on the ground to respond better to extreme weather events in the state,” Beneš said.

Vermont is one of just 12 states without a mesonet. New York has one with 127 stations. It will take three years to roll out the 21 stations around Vermont at a cost of about $4 million, according to Beneš.

e 30-foot-high stations will each have a camera and will update every ﬁve minutes. ey’ll be powered by solar panels and batteries, and they can measure wind speed, snow and rain amounts, soil moisture, relative humidity, temperature, and solar radiation, which can help electric utilities know how much they can depend on solar power at a given time.

e ﬁrst station went up in the Northeast

Kingdom in part because weather radar is blocked by Mount Mansﬁeld, meaning it’s harder to predict conditions in that part of the state, Beneš said. He pointed to localized ﬂooding last July that dumped several inches of rain in places such as Sutton.

UVM is running the project in partnership with Vermont State University and several state agencies, plus the National Weather Service. Beneš said he has been in touch about hosting stations on college campuses in Bennington, Middlebury and Norwich, and Crossett Brook Middle School in Duxbury has also expressed interest in having one on-site.

“I’m thrilled to support our state being a safer place and doing something that can potentially save lives in the future,” Beneš said. SASHA GOLDSTEIN

Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Baruth

GREAT THAW THE

TUFF LOVE.

Paula Routly

Cathy Resmer

Don Eggert, Colby Roberts

NEWS & POLITICS

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SHOP ONLINE

Cannabis has not been analyzed or approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). For use by individuals 21 years of age or older or registered qualifying patient only. KEEP THIS PRODUCT AWAY FROM CHILDREN AND PETS. DO NOT USE IF PREGNANT OR BREASTFEEDING. Possession or use of cannabis may carry significant legal penalties in some jurisdictions and under federal law. It may not be transported outside of the state of Vermont. The effects of edible cannabis may be delayed by two hours or more. Cannabis may be habit forming and can impair concentration, coordination, and judgment. Persons 25 years and younger may be more likely to experience harm to the developing brain. It is against the law to drive or operate machinery when under the influence of this product. National Poison Control Center 1-800-222-1222.

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ARTS & CULTURE

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RIDING WITH RICK

[Re From the Publisher: “Human Touch,” April 22]: Rick Woods needed a lift to an in-town doctor; I think it was during one of the times he was contending with cancer. He wasn’t going to book a return ride because his wife, Alice, would be available to drive them home.

We chatted amiably on the ride from Colchester. Pulling to a stop at the doc’s, I turned to face Rick, who was sitting shotgun, as did nearly all my regular customers and friends, a category for which he qualiﬁed on both accounts.

Taking in his broad and welcoming ursine visage, I smiled back and said, “Well, good luck, man. The fare’ll be 18 bucks.”

He pulled out a single folded bill and passed it to me. I opened it up to ﬁnd that familiar gray-and-green cameo of Benjamin Franklin gazing up at me. I reached into my shirt pocket to remove my wad of bills to make change. Rick saw what I was doing and said, “No, Freddy — just keep it.”

“No way, Rick. That’s super-generous, but I can’t take 100 bucks from you.” I didn’t know his ﬁnancial status, but I didn’t think he had that kind of money to throw around.

Rick smiled, his kind eyes locking on mine. “Consider it a token of gratitude for all the rides you’ve given me, and also your column.” He paused for a moment as if to gather his thoughts before adding, “Those stories mean a great deal to me.”

That hit me right smack in the center of my chest. I could have insisted, but it wasn’t the $82 tip he was giving me. It was a shot of his love, and that was a tip I couldn’t refuse.

Fred Solomon COLCHESTER

Solomon, aka Jernigan Pontiac, wrote the biweekly “Hackie” column for Seven Days from 2000 to 2020.

CORRECTIONS

“Ciao Down,” published last week, gave an incorrect surname for Alimentari Café & Provisions team member Pat Markley. In last week’s Nest supplement, an article about Moss Home Goods in Morrisville, “Fully Furnished,” incorrectly described nearby Peoples Academy. It is a public school.

INSURANCE ALTERNATIVE?

[Re “Tax Burdened: Education Reform Won’t Address Property Tax Rates for Years. As Delinquencies Rise in Pockets of Vermont, Leaders Seek Both Shortand Long-Term Solutions,” April 8]: Health care costs have so much to do with the high costs of our education system. Federally we are probably safe to assume that insurance companies will never cost less and never cover more. Is there a possibility that the teachers’ union could opt out of expensive insurance coverage and instead invest in direct primary care [“Back-to-Basics Medicine: An Affordable Model for Primary Care Bypasses Health Insurance Companies. Doctors and Patients Say They’re Happier,” April 1]?

So many Vermonters are forgoing health insurance due to cost, and this movement of direct primary care could be a di erent direction for us to support health care facilities and the professionals within them. Nothing is a fail-safe, and no answer is “the one” to ﬁx it all, but I would rather pay directly to the facility I’m going to than an insurance company that is designed to deny, defend, depose. Just a thought.

Kelsey Crelin ALBANY

‘NO MORE POVERTY’

[Re “Tax Burdened,” April 8]: We need more job opportunities in Addison County. We need small manufacturing jobs in Addison County. We must be smarter. We must be sustainable. The Democrats have not balanced the budget and have created a climate where citizens are more dependent on the government. We must promote our civil rights, our independence. We want jobs. We want to be employed. No more poverty.

Lesley Bienvenue LEICESTER

PULLING FOR SMIRKUS

As the parent of a former Circus Smirkus performer who toured for eight summers beginning in 1998, I read Seven Days ’ recent coverage with mixed feelings [“Up in the Air: An Accident and Near Bankruptcy Forced Circus Smirkus to Cancel Its Big Top Tour. Can the Greensboro Youth Circus Bring It Back?” April 22]. While the article raises important concerns, it also risks deﬁning an organization by a single painful chapter without fully acknowledging the decades of meaningful experiences that shaped so many young people.

My daughter joined Smirkus at age 9 and performed in aerial acts, tightwire, tumbling and ensemble work. The discipline, confidence, teamwork and resilience she developed stayed with her long after her circus years ended. She went on to compete in college athletics and today works as a registered nurse in a Vermont cancer center.

Circus Smirkus was never without risk. Touring youth performers lived demanding lives that required maturity, trust and strong support systems. Even in the early years, many recognized the need for clearer safeguards. I became involved behind the scenes and created the first homestay handbook to formalize placements with host families during tours.

The world has changed since the late 1990s, and expectations around youth safety, supervision and accountability have rightly evolved. Smirkus, like many long-standing institutions, has had to adapt.

Circus Smirkus was not perfect, but it was unique. Few experiences asked so much of young people while giving so much in return. I hope the conversation continues with room for both accountability and perspective — and with recognition of the generations of young performers whose lives were positively shaped by the experience.

Sean-Marie Oller BENNINGTON

AFTER

FROG & TOAD

[Re “Burlington Childcare Center Closes Amid Probe of Former Teacher,” March 23; “After Teacher Abuse Probe, Parents

Want Childcare Owner Banned,” April 14; “Teacher Cited for Abusing Toddlers at Burlington Childcare Center,” April 30]: I was a very short-term parent at the Frog & Toad Burlington childcare center before it closed. From my understanding, if owner Tiffany Corbett applied to the state for a childcare license now, she would likely be denied. But somehow there is no institutional concern that she continues to hold the license for the Essex center. It seems that the licensure rules need to be revisited in the interest of child safety.

There are many parents who are fervently hoping that the City of Burlington will continue to lease the former Frog & Toad space to a childcare center. We have too few spots for children, especially infants and toddlers. It would be a huge loss to the city, and the New North End in particular, to have that location disappear as an option for our kids.

Caitlin Morgan BURLINGTON

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Asparagus Days

In Grand Isle, Pomykala Farm starts its 49th season without a beloved cofounder

NEWS+POLITICS

Man in the Middle Body camera footage from the March 11 ICE raid shows how South Burlington Deputy Police Chief Sean Briscoe tried to keep the peace

Trouble in ‘Coneville’ e increasing popularity of Palmer Lane Maple’s creemee stand is creating trafﬁc problems on a Jericho street

RETURN KING

BY CHRIS FARNSWORTH

Judge Allows Insanity Defense in Shooting of Palestinian Americans

Teacher Cited for Abuse of Toddlers at Burlington Childcare

ARTS+CULTURE 38

Herd Mentality

eater review: Rhinoceros Vermont Stage

Vermont Book Award Winners In Harmony

After 30 years, Brattleboro Harmonia founding director Becky Graber passes her pitch pipe to Anna Patton

New England Family Theatre Festival Debuts

Pool Party

Optical Allusion

Citizen-scientists explore a vernal pool in Salisbury

Brooklyn artist Michael Hambouz’s enigmatic Kishka Gallery show encourages discombobulation Dark Side

Comedian Laurie Kilmartin on death, the Oscars and Clavicular

SUPPORTED BY:

Biologist Kevin Tolan from the Vermont Center for Ecostudies and herpetologist Jim Andrews led a ﬁeld trip to a vernal pool in Salisbury on Earth Day. Seven Days’ Eva Sollberger and the volunteers saw some spotted salamander egg masses and learned about monitoring these vibrant ecosystems in the online Vernal Pool Atlas.

MUST SEE,

MUST DO THIS WEEK DRISCOLL

MAGNIFICENT

SATURDAY 9

TWO FOR THE ROAD

SEE CALENDAR LISTING ON PAGE 59

Veteran singer-songwriters and longtime friends Dave Alvin and Jimmie Dale Gilmore bring their Almost Acoustic Duo to Bellows Falls Opera House. e potent pair — described by Texas Monthly as “a modern-day Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson” — bridge the gap between country and blues in a folkforward performance punctuated by story swapping and reﬂective interludes.

THURSDAY 7

e Doctor Is In

Innovative event series Café Sci calls curious minds to its inaugural discussion, “AI + Medicine,” at ECHO Leahy Center for Lake Champlain in Burlington. Guests grab a drink and pull up a chair to hear an expert panel of pioneering researchers — helmed by computer scientist Chris Danforth — ponder the clinical and ethical implications of using artiﬁcial intelligence in the exam room.

SEE CALENDAR LISTING ON PAGE 58

THURSDAY 7

Ghost With the Most

Fun fact: In 1775, the Continental Congress appointed Benjamin Franklin as the first postmaster general of the U.S. At Spruce Peak Performing Arts Center in Stowe, the founding father’s spectral presence presides over a debate of modern ideologies in e Post Office, a new opera featuring a pianist and five singers — all coworkers grappling with hot-button topics in their one-room postal station.

SEE CALENDAR LISTING ON PAGE 58

SATURDAY 9

Role Models

Scale model makers and Lego lovers connect at CAN-AM Con at Williston’s National Guard Armory, where seminars and vendors complement a display contest honoring late Japanese producer Shunsaku Tamiya. Junior builders and veterans show off their ﬁnest constructions from any Tamiya kit for consideration in categories such as Best of Class and People’s Choice.

SEE CALENDAR LISTING ON PAGE 61

MONDAY 11 & TUESDAY 12

rails when he falls for the local librarian.

e Music Man

SATURDAY 9

Drawn Together

Popular children’s book author and illustrator Rosemary Wells engages young readers at Pierson Library in Shelburne with hands-on activities, whimsical stories and a festive signing session. Best known for her indelible Max & Ruby series, the proliﬁc writer has contributed more than 120 titles to the kid-lit canon, often using animal characters to address real-life human issues.

SEE CALENDAR LISTING ON PAGE 61

SUNDAY 10

Love Is an Open Door

Dozens of talented artists- and writers-inresidence at Vermont Studio Center in Johnson invite the public to peek into their creative worlds during Vermont Week Open Studios. is rare opportunity for visitors to take self-guided tours closes out the week of fully funded fellowships the center offers to Vermonters every spring to strengthen the state’s cultural landscape.

SEE ART LISTING ON PAGE 48

SEVEN DAYS MAY 6-13,

Free Press, Free People

Vermonters in pickup trucks and Subarus honked their horns for World Press Freedom on Saturday, at the urging of a small but enthusiastic group assembled at the top of Burlington’s Church Street Marketplace. Almost a dozen of us from Seven Days joined members of Third Act Vermont and the general public to raise our voices for independent media. With tuba accompaniment, we marched four blocks south to City Hall Park and back, wielding signs and chanting slogans to call attention to the essential work of journalists here and across the globe.

We were about 24 hours ahead of Pope Leo XIV, who acknowledged the increasing risks reporters face at the end of his weekly Sunday prayer at the Vatican. “Today we celebrate World Press Freedom Day ... unfortunately, this right is often violated,” he said of the perilous pursuit of truth. “We remember the many journalists and reporters who have been victims of war and violence.”

ANNE BOCANDÉ

Indeed, a record 129 media professionals died on the job in 2025, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. The same group reports that the IsraelHamas War has claimed 232 since it started on October 7, 2023, making it the deadliest conﬂict in history for working journalists. Vermont Sen. Peter Welch called out both “somber” milestones in a statement for the Congressional Record, noting: “Two-thirds of the journalists who died last year were killed by Israeli security forces.”

For the past 25 years, Reporters Without Borders has compiled a World Press Freedom Index that ranks countries according to how well they protect their media professionals. This year the average score among the countries and territories surveyed reached an all-time low. Norway is at the top of the list, followed by the Netherlands, Estonia, Denmark, Sweden and Finland. The United States fell seven places to 64th out of 180, behind Liberia, Ukraine and Poland. The situation for U.S. journalists is coded as “problematic.”

Deadly weapons are an obvious threat to reporters and photographers who cover war. But there are so many other forces and trends eroding access to information, “even in democratic countries,” as Reporters Without Borders notes. It mentions “the expansion of increasingly restrictive

legal arsenals — particularly those linked to national security policies.” Most U.S. reporters no longer work out of the Pentagon, for example, after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth established new rules that restrict where they can go, and whom they can talk to, in the building.

Closer to home, over the past decade Seven Days has fought two frivolous legal challenges that could be categorized as Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation. Vermont has an anti-SLAPP law to protect local news outlets such as ours, but it only applies in state court, so plainti s ﬁle their complaints in federal court.

Battling them has cost Seven Days years of anxiety and tens of thousands of dollars. Even though we’ve been successful on both counts, the price of our libel insurance has gone up, and the annual deductible has increased from $15,000 to $50,000 — per case

For a small independent media company, that’s the equivalent of a falling bomb.

In a statement accompanying the Reporters Without Borders index, editorial director Anne Bocandé warned of the “criminalisation of journalism: the misuse of national security laws, SLAPPs, and the systematic obstruction of those who investigate, expose and name names. Current protection mechanisms are not strong enough; international law is being undermined and impunity is rife. We need ﬁrm guarantees and meaningful sanctions. The ball is in the court of democracies and their citizens. It is up to them to stand in the way of those who seek to silence the press.”

Echoing Bocandé’s warning, Seven Days consulting editor Ken Ellingwood took the megaphone at Saturday’s march and shared some extemporaneous remarks. He spent 10 of his 20 years on sta at the Los Angeles Times based in Mexico and the Middle East, where reporters face real risks. Earlier this year, he was one of the ﬁve judges who evaluated contenders for the 2026 Pulitzer Prize for international reporting.

In 2021, Ellingwood wrote a book about the ﬁrst U.S. editor to die in the line of duty. Presbyterian minister Elijah Lovejoy left his native state of Maine in the early 1800s to set up a newspaper in St. Louis, Mo., to share his abolitionist views. Pro-slavery mobs destroyed his press — four times — and Lovejoy died in the ﬁnal mêlée.

Noting the timeliness of Lovejoy’s story, Ellingwood called him the “ﬁrst martyr” to the free press in the United States.

“It’s in the Constitution, but it’s never guaranteed,” Ellingwood told the sympathetic crowd. “People have died to make sure this right continues alive with us. And we will continue to have to ﬁght to protect it.”

Paula Routly

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Seven Days employees at the march

ird Act Vermont organizer Lois Price (right) leading the World Press Freedom Day march on Burlington’s Church Street

news

Man in the Middle

Body camera footage from the March 11 ICE raid shows how South Burlington Deputy Police Chief Sean Briscoe tried to keep the peace

BY LUCY TOMPKINS • lucy@sevendaysvt.com

On March 11, federal immigration agents raided a South Burlington home surrounded by hundreds of protesters in a dramatic display of force that captured broad media attention.

In the weeks since, local and Vermont State Police have come under fire for their roles, facing accusations that they aided U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in violation of state policy and that some used excessive force against protesters. In mid-April, state police and the South Burlington Police Department issued after-action reports absolving their o cers of wrongdoing. They also released a combined 120 hours of bodycam footage.

The footage o ers a rare look at how o cers navigated the competing interests of federal and local law enforcement.

This story follows one o cer in particular: South Burlington Deputy Police Chief Sean Briscoe. Through hours of his bodycam footage, we witness Briscoe’s attempts to walk a tightrope in his role as the senior South Burlington o cer at the scene, caught between federal agents and local residents protesting the ICE action. At one point, Briscoe appears to break down in tears.

Briscoe was among the first to respond to a 7:30 a.m. car crash along Dorset Street that ignited the day’s turmoil, after ICE agents attempted to

How we reported this story

Seven Days reviewed about six hours of footage from the bodycam of South Burlington Deputy Police Chief Sean Briscoe, who was his department’s highest-ranking ofﬁcer on the scene. In some places, dialogue has been cut for brevity or clarity, but the words have not otherwise been edited. In places where we jumped ahead within a conversation, we marked gaps with ellipses.

LAW ENFORCEMENT

arrest a man whom they suspected of being in the country illegally. The driver sped away, crashing into several cars, including an ICE vehicle, before he and a passenger fled into a home. ICE agents described the crashes as an assault on law enforcement officers.

Briscoe’s footage begins hours after the crashes. By the time he turns on his camera at 12:24 p.m., a large crowd has gathered outside the home and tensions are rising.

12:24 p.m.

Briscoe approaches David Johnston, an ICE agent and supervisor on the scene, and asks for a private conversation.

BRISCOE: What is the plan?

JOHNSTON: We’re getting a warrant; we’re going to fucking enforce the warrant. We’re going to fucking take those dudes.

BRISCOE: At what point does it become not worth it for one person?

JOHNSTON: When my management says it’s not. It’s two people, No. 1. They hit our guys and fucking run.

An unidentiﬁed ICE agent joins the conversation.

OTHER ICE AGENT: We’re getting them today; there’s no question about it. And I think you would feel the same way if they hit one of your guys.

BRISCOE: I’m just asking a question.

ICE AGENT: It sounds like you’re on their side, and it’s very frustrating.

BRISCOE: No, I’m not on their side. I’m just trying to make sure that this shit doesn’t escalate. That’s all.

ICE AGENT: Then you guys make sure it doesn’t escalate, too. Right? … We are getting that guy today because he attacked one of our agents, right? That’s an assault.

If it was one of you guys, you guys would wait for the warrant, too. It’s very clear.

e two agents get in a car and leave but say they’ll be back in a few minutes.

12:41 p.m.

Briscoe walks over to the car where the same unidentiﬁed ICE agent is sitting.

BRISCOE: Hey, I just wanted to make sure there’s no bad blood between us. I wasn’t trying to take sides on this.

ICE AGENT: You know it sounded that way though, right? Think about the way that sounds.

BRISCOE: And I’m sorry if it sounded that way. I wanted to come apologize to you for coming o that way. I was just trying to say what my perspective is on trying to weigh the risk. That’s all. I apologize if it came out the wrong way or if it was taken the wrong way.

ICE AGENT: I understand. I appreciate that, thank you.

BRISCOE: And I certainly don’t want there to be any bad blood between us.

ICE AGENT: No, but we will be here. We won’t leave this spot because we have two vehicles with airbags deployed.

BRISCOE: No, I get that. I get that. I was there at the scene this morning.

ICE AGENT: That’s assault on a federal o cer. Someone’s going to jail today. And hopefully nobody else. But if anyone else gets in the way when we get that warrant in hand, so be it. We don’t want it to get ugly, but we need to get who caused this. Seems fair.

BRISCOE: I’m Sean, by the way.

ey shake hands.

12:43 p.m.

Briscoe has a short conversation with a protester, who tells him that he can join the “singing side” if he wants.

South Burlington Deputy Police Chief Sean Briscoe

BRISCOE: I would enjoy that. Well, you know what I mean by that. But thank you for being out here and supporting your neighbors.

ICE agent David Johnston has returned, and Briscoe walks up to a car where he’s sitting.

BRISCOE: Hey, you doing all right?

JOHNSTON: Yeah, I’m good. I just had to go take a leak real quick, man. I was about to piss myself.

BRISCOE: I know. It’s a rough fuckin’ day. I’m sorry you’re going through this.

JOHNSTON: It happens.

BRISCOE: And I’m sorry that one of your agents got hurt this morning. That’s bullshit.

JOHNSTON: Yeah. That’s kinda why we’re holding fast.

BRISCOE: No, I understand. I’m just trying to walk the middle line and keep the peace, man.

JOHNSTON: I know you are.

Conversation turns to a young child in the house, whom school officials want to remove. Briscoe says it would be best to get her out first.

JOHNSTON: Sure. And we’re not interested in the child. We’re interested in the two males that were in the car and did their business. That’s what we’re interested in. We have no other interest in anybody else. That’s what I’ve been trying to tell these people. We’re not trying to do anything that any other law enforcement agency wouldn’t be doing at this point either.

BRISCOE: I get you 100 percent. I’m there. I just didn’t want you to think I was having an attitude that I don’t have.

JOHNSTON: No, no. I know you got put in a predicament. We’re all in kind of a shit situation today.

BRISCOE: And this is my retirement job. I left my former agency cuz I was tired of getting hit in the head with rocks at protests and shit.

1:11 p.m.

ICE AGENT TO BRISCOE: Just to let you know, a judge is reviewing the warrant now. We should have them in hand in a minute. We have SRT [a SWAT-style team] down the road. And once that happens we should be fairly quick, OK?

BRISCOE: Any more details on what your plan is for going in?

ICE AGENT: It’s going to be the SRT guys’ decision, but they’re probably going to do a traditional [bodycam audio of his explanation is bleeped out]. We don’t wanna do that, obviously.

BRISCOE: OK. Well, we will stand by and, yeah, just make sure everybody stays safe.

Briscoe tells a fellow South Burlington officer that the warrant is coming soon and events may move quickly.

BRISCOE: We are not getting involved with it. However, if they unnecessarily attack anyone, we intervene. If someone attacks them, we intervene. I mean, they should be able to handle themselves. And we don’t get involved unless we have to. But if we have to, we protect everyone’s safety.

Briscoe has a phone call with his chief, then talks with SBPD Sgt. Matthew Plunkett.

BRISCOE: The state police’s team is going to be assembling. They should have the warrant shortly. The chief has coordinated with an ICE director down in Boston. They’re going to let us know when they

clips from Briscoe’s body camera footage.

An unnamed ICE agent (left) and ICE agent David Johnston (right) talking with Briscoe

Trouble in ‘Coneville’

The increasing popularity of Palmer Lane Maple’s creemee stand is creating traffic problems on a Jericho street

BY AARON CALVIN • calvin@sevendaysvt.com

Every year as the weather warms, people craving creemees flock to Palmer Lane Maple at the corner of Route 15 and Old Pump Road in Jericho.

The ever-increasing popularity of the creemee stand brings a cascade of traffic each spring as pedestrians, cyclists and cars jockey for position. The business has only a few designated parking spots, leading patrons to pull over wherever they can along Old Pump Road. Residents have nicknamed the area “Coneville” — not for the sweet treats served there but for the orange traffic cones meant to deter would-be parkers from using their driveways or lawns.

The throngs on the gravel road can be a nuisance, and some neighbors see it as something worse: a legitimate safety concern.

“None of us wants to be the person who hits some little child who runs out into the road or hits somebody who’s crossing to get to the creemee stand,” said Beth Demas, who lives down the way from the Palmer Lane stand.

Neighbors have gotten more aggressive in their tactics to keep the peace on their street. They’ve proposed a permitting system to limit parking on Old Pump, something the Jericho Selectboard will consider at its meeting this week. One household, with the support of neighbors, has gone as far as to take legal action by calling into question whether Palmer Lane has the proper zoning approval to operate the creemee window at all. They’re also attempting to block the business from building a 54-spot parking lot nearby, even though that would, in theory, eliminate the helter-skelter parking along the street.

Palmer Lane’s owners, Dan and Jessica Phelan, bought the popular stand last summer. They say they are dedicated to being good neighbors. An entire section on their website instructs people on where — and where not — to park. And they’re open to a compromise that would temper the impact of traffic on the neighborhood. But without a solution that both sides can agree on, the Phelans worry that a combination of restrictive parking rules and litigious neighbors could prevent them from keeping the stand in Jericho.

“We need parking to have a business,” Dan said. He added: “I’m trying to stay as positive as possible with what’s looming. It’s my family’s livelihood.”

The previous owners, Paul and Colleen Palmer, opened the store in 2012 in a historic former Congregational church. They initially sold syrup and homemade maple candy, using sap from their Jeffersonville sugar bush. Though creemees weren’t part of the original plan, the Palmers quickly discovered that their soft serve was a hit. They built two porches on the side of the building that allowed customers to order at one window and receive their sweet swirl at the other.

Neighbors say the traffic snarls started soon after. But the problems accelerated

after the pandemic as Palmer Lane creemees became widely recognized as some of the region’s best. The stand has been voted Chittenden County’s best creemee in the Seven Daysies every year since 2022. And in “A Hater’s Guide to the Burlington Creemee Scene” article, Seven Days writer Chelsea Edgar admitted that Palmer Lane’s sweet treats were “unassailably good.”

Once sampled, she averred, “other maple creemees will turn to ash in your mouth.”

But Palmer Lane’s sugar high has been a definite low for many Old Pump Road homeowners.

Once the business’ four official parking spots have been occupied, cars wedge into places across the street. On the busiest summer days, customers park well down Old Pump Road, which is lined with homes. The traffic sometimes backs up onto Route 15 as drivers double-park so their passengers can secure a place in line.

Old Pump is often mistaken for a dead end, and visitors to Palmer Lane frequently treat it that way, neighbors say. At one Jericho Selectboard meeting last July, Demas described seeing a group of teenagers, cones in hand, set up lawn chairs in the middle of the road as cars tried to maneuver around them.

“The overall problem is that people who are getting creemees don’t really think that they’re on a public road where traffic goes down,” Demas said in an interview. “They assume it’s a parking lot.”

The selectboard first discussed the concerns at meetings in 2023. Last June, Old Pump residents Leslie Dunn and Coddy Marx led a petition drive, signed by 35 of their neighbors, that called on the town to commission a traffic study of the area. The Palmers had conducted their own traffic study that found traffic and parking arrangements were “reasonable,” but the neighbors questioned its accuracy.

The selectboard has rejected repeated requests for an official study and instead pursued other strategies. It proposed paving some of Old Pump Road as a safety measure that would improve the parking situation. But neighbors came out in force against the idea last July, saying it would only exacerbate the traffic woes. The proposal was later scrapped.

The Palmers tried to come up with an answer of their own last year, before selling the business to the current owners. They proposed building a 54-spot gravel parking lot behind the post office across the street from the stand.

Neighbors don’t consider the parking lot a solution. Its entrance, as proposed, would be off Old Pump Road instead of Route 15, meaning cars would still need to use their road. Dunn and Marx immediately appealed the decision to environmental court and are now in active litigation with the town of Jericho to prevent the lot from being built. They believe that people will continue to prefer to park closer to Palmer Lane rather than use the designated lot.

The Palmers, who still own the building that houses the maple business, could not be reached for comment. The Phelans declined to discuss the parking lot proposal, citing the current legal dispute.

In a separate appeal to environmental court, Dunn and Marx allege that Palmer Lane does not have the proper permits to operate its creemee window in the first place. They argue in court filings that the business is licensed as a retail establishment when it should have a restaurant permit.

Dunn and Marx also argue that Palmer Lane’s parking spots are illegal because they require vehicles to back out “onto a public way” — forbidden under town code.

The appellants “do not want to discourage Palmer Lane Maple’s success,” they say in court filings, but town zoning administrator Chris Flinn sees it differently.

Traffic cones on Old Pump Road

Palmer Lane Maple

NONE OF US WANTS TO BE THE PERSON WHO HITS SOME LITTLE CHILD WHO RUNS OUT INTO THE ROAD.

BETH DEMAS

Though he declined to comment on the pending litigation, Flinn said in an interview that certain people want to put Palmer Lane out of business.

Along with their lawsuit, Dunn and Marx also crafted a proposed ordinance that would effectively limit all public parking on the portion of Old Pump Road up to the bridge over the Browns River only to homeowners and guests with permits.

At a meeting in January, the selectboard tabled the discussion without a vote and called for mediation among Old Pump Road residents, the Phelans and the town. That mediation never got o the ground, and the draft ordinance will be considered again by the selectboard at its meeting on Thursday, May 7. One board member, Laura Crain, lives on Old Pump and has had to consistently recuse herself from the discussions. Selectboard chair Erik Johnson did not return a request for comment.

Dunn and Marx, who have lived on Old Pump Road for more than three decades, said they’re simply the avatars of a broader e ort and that their neighbors are helping fund the legal battle. But some on the street want a more amicable solution. Courtney Newman, who moved next door to Palmer Lane two years ago, said she supports those “who have lived here for years and years.” But she is also supportive of the Phelans “having a business that makes

people happy.” Carolyn Subin, who lives at the end of the road, said she thought Palmer Lane had outgrown its current space but was tired of “the war” over tra c and parking.

Nearly everyone, including Old Pump Road residents and the Phelans, would prefer that Palmer Lane customers park across Route 15 in the Jericho Elementary School parking lot, which is mostly empty during peak creemee season. On Palmer Lane’s website and social media, it encourages people to park there, but there are no signs directing drivers to the lot.

The Phelans have some measures planned for the summer to ease the congestion, such as putting up a short snow fence to keep lines from spilling into the road. Jessica said the couple are close to an o cial agreement with the school to use its parking lot. Demas, meanwhile, wants the Phelans to hire a tra c coordinator to manage the ﬂow of vehicles and people.

Even on an overcast and cool spring afternoon last Sunday, Palmer Lane Maple had a steady ﬂow of customers. People lined up at the order window, and children ran along the edge of the road. The four o cial parking spots next to the business ﬁlled up quickly, and some people parked down Old Pump Road. Orange tra c cones sat ready next to driveways and in flowerpots outside several homes, in anticipation of the summer’s creemee crush. ➆

Judge Allows Insanity Defense in Shooting of Palestinian Americans

BY COLIN FLANDERS • colin@sevendaysvt.com

Jason Eaton can mount an insanity defense when he goes on trial for the shooting of three Palestinian American college students in Burlington even though he missed the deadline to raise the issue, a judge ruled last Friday.

Eaton, 51, has been in prison since November 2023, when prosecutors say he stepped off the front porch of his Burlington apartment and opened fire on the young men, all 20 at the time, as they walked by. The shooting left one of them paralyzed from the waist down.

Eaton has since claimed that he was acting on behalf of the CIA but had repeatedly rejected the idea of arguing that he was legally insane at the time of the crime. He relented last month upon learning that he had been deemed competent to stand trial a second time, and his attorneys notified the court on April 17, just six weeks before his trial was set to begin, of their intention to raise the defense.

Prosecutors said the notice came far too late and urged Judge John Pacht to deny Eaton the ability to raise the defense. Pacht said he appeared to have a strong legal justification for doing so. But citing the “extraordinarily serious” nature of the crimes, and the fact that Eaton’s mental health has been in question, Pacht said he would allow the defense.

Pacht left open the question of whether he would delay the trial from its current June 1 start. He will defer on that to state prosecutors.

It’s been difficult to find an expert who is willing to testify on Eaton’s state of mind at the time of a crime committed nearly three years ago and also complete the necessary evaluations in such a short time frame, prosecutors say. They told Pacht last Thursday that calls to a dozen psychiatrists and psychologists around New England yielded no takers. ➆

Teacher Cited for Abuse of Toddlers at Burlington Childcare

BY ALISON NOVAK • alison@sevendaysvt.com

A former teacher is due in court over criminal allegations that he physically abused seven young children at the now-shuttered Frog & Toad Child Care & Learning Center in Burlington.

Gary L. Pasquale III, 29, of Champlain, N.Y., faces 14 counts of cruelty to a child and a single charge of second-degree unlawful restraint. His seven victims were 1 and 2 years old, according to a press release from the Chittenden Unit for Special Investigations, which oversees criminal cases involving children. Pasquale is due for arraignment in Chittenden County Superior Court on May 12.

Pasquale was an employee of Frog & Toad for 11 years. The criminal investigation found probable cause that he “willfully assaulted, unlawfully restrained, and ill-treated” toddlers in his care, “causing pain, suffering [and]

distress,” and “neglected children by failing to provide proper care and support.”

The probe began after another Frog & Toad teacher — who was fired in February — called the Department for Children and Families’ child abuse hotline to report Pasquale for pushing children into a snowbank and mistreating them in other ways. DCF subsequently launched its own investigation and alerted police.

The DCF investigation also found, using video footage and interviews, that Pasquale had physically abused toddlers in his care.

The center’s owner, Tiffany Corbett, abruptly closed the Burlington program on March 20. She also owns a Frog & Toad center in Essex, despite calls from parents for her to sell.

The director of the Burlington center was Pasquale’s mother, Erin Pasquale. Both declined to speak to detectives on advice of their attorneys, according to investigators.

Jake and Corinne Clark, parents of a toddler at the Burlington center, said that when they heard about Gary Pasquale’s arrest, they felt “relief that what these children experienced is being taken seriously enough to warrant action, but heartbreak because it confirms that something deeply wrong happened in a place where we trusted our child would be safe.” ➆

CRIME

Frog & Toad operated out of the Miller Center in Burlington.

Jason Eaton

have that warrant to give us time to prepare to make sure we have enough people nearby in case shit goes bad.

1:21 p.m.

An SBPD officer approaches Briscoe to update him about some of the protesters blocking the house.

LT. PATRICK MULCAHY: Just to put it on your radar, the folks that are the most die-hard are saying that they’re going to prevent [ICE] from going in there and they’re going to have to beat the shit out of them, tase them, whatever, to move them out of the way to get into the house. So, there will be uses of force happening as soon as they arrive. I can guarantee it.

Several school administrators arrive to help remove the child from the house. They check with Briscoe to make sure ICE won’t impede. Briscoe checks with ICE agent Johnston, who is sitting with another ICE agent in a car.

BRISCOE: Are y’all still good with the school people taking that child out before this goes down?

JOHNSTON: Yeah, I mean as long as — OTHER ICE AGENT INTERRUPTS: The problem is, once we start, once we have our guys, we’re going to have an SRT, so once these guys start, everybody’s going to be seen as a target or impeding. So there are going to be charges and stuff.

I wouldn’t let them do it. Not now, not at this time.

Briscoe checks in with protesters at the front of the house, then walks back over to Johnston and whispers that the school official went in before he could stop her.

JOHNSTON: [Shrugs.] It is what it is at this point.

BRISCOE DICTATES A TEXT MESSAGE: A school official and the Marcotte school principal went inside to facilitate the removal of the child. Period. ICE is not happy about it. Period.

1:36 p.m.

The child is driven away with school administrators. Protesters applaud.

BRISCOE: Thank God that got done.

Briscoe walks up to Lt. Cory Lozier of the Vermont State Police, who just arrived.

LOZIER: I’ve never seen something like this in my life.

BRISCOE: No, this is a new one. I’ve been involved in a lot of protests. Well, they still called them protests, but they were riots. I’ve never been involved in this. This is different. Different for me.

1:53 p.m.

Lozier goes to the front of the house to warn protesters that ICE will arrive soon with a warrant and asks them to move aside when the time comes. He warns that a federal tactical force will be coming from out of state. Then he returns to the road as Briscoe approaches.

LOZIER: They’re not moving.

BRISCOE: Nope. What did they say, specifically?

LOZIER: They want to see the warrant, but no matter what shows up here, they’re not moving. They will be peaceful, and they will not assault law enforcement, but they’re not moving. I tried to give them a heads-up that you might get moved by somebody, not South Burlington or VSP, and they’re putting us in a bad spot, but they’re going to do their thing. So this is going to get challenging, to say the least.

Briscoe walks around the house and through the crowd, talking with protesters who ask about his department’s role. Then he walks back out to the road and stands with his officers.

2:22 p.m.

SBPD SGT. PLUNKETT TO BRISCOE: Just so you’re aware, they did not complete the warrant yet. It needed further review. The judge had a hearing. So, the next time it’ll potentially be reviewed is at 3.

BRISCOE: [Under his breath.] Fuuuck.

PLUNKETT: But according to VSP, it sounds like their plan once they have their bodies assembled was to potentially have the [Critical Action Team] and BPD clear a path to the front of the house by pushing, creating a channel for them.

BRISCOE: So they’re going to have BPD do that for them?

PLUNKETT: With VSP. Create a path. Well, [the warrant is] going to be criminal. But clear a path to the front door so then they can do their thing.

3:02 p.m.

Briscoe huddles with his officers down the road from the house.

BRISCOE: When this does get to the flash point, when they bring their team in and they decide they’re going to enter that house and do what they’ve got to do, we need to set our rules of engagement and what is expected of us.

We all know what our use-of-force policy is. We all know what our fair and impartial policing says. We know what the Vermont law says about assisting immigration.

This is now a criminal warrant. Once they get that signed, that is a criminal arrest warrant. It’s no longer the civil warrant that we’re prohibited from engaging in. What the ICE agents and their team are going to expect is a path to be cleared for them so they can get to the front door.

It is my understanding that the state police and Burlington PD are taking care of that. We are not going to be directly involved, and we are not going to put our hands on anyone unless we see someone being unlawfully assaulted.

If we see anyone being unlawfully assaulted, if it is a civilian that is being unlawfully assaulted by a police officer from any agency — our agency or any other agency, whether it be local, state or federal — we still have that legal mandate to intervene.

Keep that in mind. Your first priority is your own safety. Everybody goes home. Second priority is the safety of the people that we are sworn to protect.

4:10 p.m.

An hour later, South Burlington City Councilor Andrew Chalnick approaches Briscoe.

A protester (left) and state Senate candidate Nikhil Goyal

CHALNICK: I hope this doesn’t get out of control. So the plan is, presumably, we’ll wait for a warrant and then you guys are going to go in and arrest him?

BRISCOE: No, no, no, no, no. This is totally and completely an ICE operation.

CHALNICK: I thought once it’s criminal, we get involved.

BRISCOE: Once it’s criminal, we are legally allowed to get involved. But we don’t intend to. This is an ICE operation. Our main, primary and only goal here is to make sure everybody’s safe.

…

CHALNICK: But if they come in with tactical gear and tear gas, they’ll do it much uglier than you guys would, right? And what power or control do we have over that?

BRISCOE: Little to none.

5:05 p.m.

Briscoe has another huddle with his officers.

BRISCOE: I’ve been told that the state police has been told by the colonel, who was told by the governor: Under no circumstances are they to use gas. However, we don’t know what the feds are going to do. If gas is deployed, we have an order from the chief to turn around and get the fuck out of there.

5:07 p.m.

The officers resume their wait outside the house for ICE to return with the warrant.

BRISCOE TO ONE OF HIS OFFICERS: This has the potential to be a gigantic fuckin’ shit show.

5:25 p.m.

A line of federal and state vehicles arrives carrying an ICE SWAT team and state police Critical Action Team. State police in riot gear clear protesters from the front of the house, allowing ICE to break down the door and enter.

About 20 minutes later, ICE agents lead three detainees — two women and a man — out and into a waiting vehicle. Briscoe helps shut the car’s door as protesters close in around it.

5:50 p.m.

BRISCOE: All right, get these cars the fuck out of here. They’re secure; get them out.

Protesters start to link arms in the road to block the ICE vehicles from leaving. State police try to push

them out of the road, and a standoff ensues. Briscoe walks to an area where a woman is on the ground being arrested and others are rinsing pepper spray from their eyes. Briscoe positions himself between protesters and police making the arrest.

6:25 p.m.

Nikhil Goyal, a state Senate candidate, walks up.

GOYAL: All of the goodwill your department has built! Nobody is doing any violence! Nobody!

You are our neighbors. You are our neighbors! You are collaborating! They will write the fucking history books. They will put your face. They will put your fucking face, Officer Briscoe. Officer Briscoe!

BRISCOE: God, fuckin’ … All right, you didn’t see this. I don’t even know you, but thank you for being there for me.

He tells the woman and several others nearby that he left his previous job in Saratoga Springs after 27 years.

BRISCOE: This is the reason I left. It was constant protests and a political shit show where the politicians were firing things up, and I left there and came here to get away from this. From overzealous law enforcement.

7 p.m.

As darkness falls, the last ICE vehicle, a white SUV, is still stuck in the road, surrounded by protesters. Minutes later, the ICE SWAT team returns, throwing stun grenades and shooting pepper balls into the crowd.

BRISCOE SPEAKS INTO HIS RADIO: Pepper spray deployed. South Burlington, retreat.

Briscoe coughs from the pepper spray and stands on the edge of the crowd as they scream and blow whistles. Another round of stun grenades is deployed before the SUV drives off. Down the road, another group is surrounding a state police tactical truck. Briscoe walks toward it, passing several protesters.

7:09 p.m.

PROTESTER TO BRISCOE: Fuck you, complacent-ass bitch. Grow some balls.

BRISCOE: Thank you!

ANOTHER PROTESTER TO BRISCOE: Respectfully, I think you’re doing a terrible job, and I hate you.

6:47 p.m.

Twenty minutes later, Briscoe walks away from the commotion and can be heard sniffling and breathing heavily. He takes off his glasses. A woman sees him and pulls him in for a hug.

WOMAN: Are you OK? Here, give me a hug. Hug.

BRISCOE: [Through sniffles:] Jesus fucking Christ.

WOMAN: You smell like pepper spray, but you’re good.

BRISCOE: I’m sorry. OK, I’m good. Thank you. I needed that.

WOMAN: You’re good. It’s rough. People are nuts.

BRISCOE: Thank you!

7:15 p.m.

The last state police truck drives away. Briscoe gets into a car with Sgt. Plunkett.

7:17 p.m.

BRISCOE: Hey, Matt. Fuck today.

Briscoe turns off his bodycam. Lucy Tompkins covers immigration, the border and new American communities in Vermont for Seven Days. She is a corps member of Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms. Find out more at reportforamerica.org.

ICE agents deploying flash-bangs and shooting pepper balls at the crowd

Briscoe attempting to detain a protester

lifelines OBITUARIES,

OBITUARIES

Barbara Jean (Comstock) McKinstry

AUGUST 5, 1938APRIL 26, 2026

BURLINGTON, VT.

With heavy hearts, we announce the passing of Barbara Jean (Comstock) McKinstry, our beloved mother, Grammy and Gigi. She left peacefully into the arms of the Lord on April 26, 2026, at the age of 87, with family surrounding her at the Converse Home, Gardenview Memory Care, in Burlington, Vt.

She was born in Proctor, Vt., on August 5, 1938, the daughter of Carroll and Hazel (Parker) Comstock. She was as tough as the marble quarry she was raised in and had stories from a bygone era that enriched our lives. She married Irving McKinstry on December 1, 1956, on his three-day leave from the 101st Airborne Division. She dedicated her life, like a strong Vermont woman would, to her years with her husband on two dairy farms in Colchester, Vt., later retiring to Milton, Vt. She loved tending to her vegetable garden while her four children frolicked in the beans. (We knew to stay out

of the ﬂowers.) She pickled the best pickles and baked the best pies. She was devoted to being a farmer’s wife and raised us with love, honesty and hard work. She kept us on our toes with her feisty sense of humor, and her practical ways were never in short supply to keep us centered.

We will miss her chocolate chip cookies and cranked ice cream from our Jersey milk; her cooking like no other; the smell of coffee brewing and buttered toast when we woke in the morning; seeing her at the table reading the newspaper, embracing us as we came to hug her; and doing all kinds of puzzles. She made the farm life with Dad (kept him on his toes, too) a beautiful, nurturing place.

For many years she served at and was a member of the United Church of Colchester, Vt. rough the years they were lucky to have the very pies mentioned earlier and the potluck dishes we so loved at home.

She was predeceased by her husband of 64 years, Irving “Mac” McKinstry. She is survived by her four children, Kevin McKinstry (Jill), Kelly Fournier (Lance), Lisa Chaffee

Richard Paul Labrecque

APRIL 3, 1941-MAY 1, 2026

WILLISTON, VT.

Richard Paul Labrecque, age 85, passed away peacefully on May 1, 2026, at the McClure Miller Respite House in Colchester, Vt. Known affectionately to all as “Dick,” he was born in Boston on April 3, 1941. He was later adopted from St. Joseph’s Orphanage in Burlington, Vt., by Paul and Emily Labrecque of West Charleston, Vt. Dick graduated from Sacred Heart High School in Newport in 1959 and went on to pursue a career in ﬁnance, earning an associate degree from Champlain College and a bachelor of science in accounting from Trinity College. After a brief tenure with the State of Vermont, he began a distinguished 30year career at IBM, retiring in 1995. In 1962, Dick married the love of his life, Jackie. Together they built a beautiful life, welcoming their son, Wade, in 1967 and

their daughter, Lori, a year later. After his retirement from IBM — and much to the relief of Jackie, who worried about him being left to his own devices at home — Dick embarked on new adventures. He worked for a carrier service delivering across Vermont before ﬁnding a deeper calling in health care. He became a licensed nursing assistant and worked for the Visiting Nurse Association, eventually transitioning from individual cases to volunteering his time at the Respite House.

A man of many passions, Dick was a dedicated member of the Green Mountain Chorus for decades and a longtime usher for Lyric eatre. He was a talented gardener and ceramic artist, but he found his greatest joy in quilting, a craft he practiced up until the ﬁnal week of his life. Dick and Jackie cherished their time with family and friends, whether they were traveling across the country or hosting summer barbecues by the pool. Dick’s faith was a cornerstone of his life; he was a

(Angela) and Lori Heerschap (Richard). She had nine grandchildren and nine greatgrandchildren, whom she loved immensely. She did, however, send many muddy farm feet and wet swimsuit-clad grandies out under the hose and wrapped in a towel.

She was born into a family of 10 siblings — six sisters and four brothers — giving her many nieces and nephews, whom she adored. Stories of them ranged from baseball games, where she was known as “Slugger,” to waiting on the train tracks in Proctor for the circus train.

We hope for her all the books, gardens, pumpkin spice coffee and buttered toast in heaven. Oh, and maybe a small herd of Jersey cows with Papa and Kurt.

We want to deeply thank the Gardenview Memory Care ﬂoor at the Converse Home for the dedicated, professional, genuine and loving care they provided.

A Christian burial will be celebrated on June 19, 2026, noon, at Riverside Cemetery in Proctor, Vt., with, weather permitting, a picnic lunch after the service. Please contact her daughters Kelly or Lisa for details if the weather doesn’t cooperate for the picnic outside.

In lieu of ﬂowers, please donate to Smiles Fur Miles (kodatheﬂuff.com).

Arrangements are in the care of Ready Funeral & Cremation Services. To share online condolences, please visit readyfuneral.com.

devoted member of St. Joseph’s and later St. John Vianney. As a eucharistic minister, he took great pride in bringing communion and companionship to shut-ins, and as a 4th Degree Knight of Columbus, he dearly valued the camaraderie of his brothers and their many bingo nights.

Dick is survived by his beloved wife of 63 years, Jackie; son, Wade, and his wife, Debra Brewbaker; daughter, Lori, and her husband, Marcel Whipple; and his grandchildren, Ethan and Leela. Later in life, Dick was blessed to connect with his biological family, gaining a whole new circle of brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles and cousins. He was predeceased by his parents, Paul and Emily Labrecque; brother, Ronald; motherin-law, Marion Joyal; father-in-law, Omar Joyal; and grandson Luke Whipple.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated on May 12, 2026, 11 a.m., at Saint John Vianney Church in South Burlington, immediately followed by an inurnment at Resurrection Park Mausoleum and a luncheon at the parish hall. All are welcome to join the family and share stories of a life well lived.

Arrangements are in the care of Ready Funeral & Cremation Services. To send online condolences, please visit readyfuneral.com.

Peter R. Hannah

JULY 29, 1936-APRIL 19, 2026 NEW HARBOR, MAINE

Peter R. Hannah, former professor in the Rubinstein School of the Environment and Natural Resources at the University of Vermont and resident of New Harbor, Maine, passed away on April 19, 2026, at the age of 89 after a long illness.

Beginning his forestry education at UVM in 1955, Peter went on to achieve degrees in forestry from the University of Maine and Yale University and a PhD at the University of Michigan. He then returned to Burlington in 1967 to join the faculty of UVM as a teacher-researcher in the Forestry Program.

Peter remained on the UVM faculty, teaching courses related to silviculture and publishing his research, while living in Shelburne, Vt., in the home he built for his family: his wife, Kay; daughters Leslie and JoLynn; and son, Ian.

Upon his retirement in 1999, Peter and Kay lived in Bristol, Maine, and later in New Harbor. ere he served six years as chairman of the local land trust, was chairman of his church board and copresident of the historical society, and also enjoyed being a forestry consultant and being in the great outdoors. e memorial web page for Peter can be seen at everloved.com. A celebration of life service and reception will be held at the New Harbor United Methodist Church on May 24, 2026, 3 p.m.

Sarah Persing Shea

JANUARY 27, 1953-NOVEMBER 29, 2025 COLCHESTER, VT.

A Mass of Christian Burial and celebration of Sarah Persing Shea, who passed away on November 29, 2025, will be held on Friday, June 5, 11 a.m., at Our Lady of Grace Church in Colchester, Vt. Burial will follow at Lakeview Cemetery in Burlington.

Arrangements are in the care of LaVigne Funeral Home and Cremation Services. To view service details or send condolences to the family, please visit vtfuneralhomes.com.

Henry Thomas Sorrell

AUGUST 8, 1948-APRIL 6, 2026

JERICHO AND ESSEX JUNCTION, VT.

Henry Thomas Sorrell died on the Monday after Easter, April 6, 2026, after a long and valiant struggle with Alzheimer’s disease. Originally diagnosed in 2014, this disease made itself known quietly in the beginning: lapses in memory here and there, eventually leading to greater concerns with getting lost and not knowing members of his own family. Cherie, his wife of almost 57 years, worked hard at keeping him home. Always independent, with a true love of the outdoors and being active, sitting still was not an option for him. Unfortunately, as the disease progressed, it was no longer possible. The decision to move him into a facility was a difficult one, but as he became increasingly a danger to himself and his spouse, it became the right one. His longtime physician and friend at the Burlington Veterans Administration, Dr. James Rustadt, took charge of the situation and was able to get him admitted to the VA hospital in White River Junction. The staff worked daily with him, extending their kindness and care during his stay.

knowing she made the right choice. Henry was safe, and he was happy.

In this obituary, Cherie wanted to detail the long, arduous journey that Alzheimer’s presents, not only to the individual but its impact on family members and close friends as well. Everything changes!

Henry’s personal journey lasted 12 long years, to the point where he no longer recognized family members and could no longer write his name or do simple addition.

Now Henry is gone. No longer in pain, no longer in a state of total confusion, and what remains is a sense of relief, as well as guilt, that can’t be put into words and a deep sense of sadness for a bright, intelligent man who did not deserve to die this way.

U.S. Army, not knowing where it would take him. After months of training, he was assigned to a missile site in Sausalito, Calif., just across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco, thinking they would be there for the rest of his time in the military. However, within a short time frame his entire unit received orders for overseas. Most of them got orders for Vietnam; Henry and a few others headed for a headquarters unit in West Germany, departing the very next month. Given the circumstances, Cherie and Henry moved their wedding up to the end of May, only three weeks away. Somehow, someway, it all came together, and they were married on May 30, 1969, Memorial Day, the only date available at St. Stephens Church in Winooski.

A short month later they found themselves living in the beautiful and historic city of Worms, Germany. Here they made many lifelong friends, both German and American.

beginning to change for both of them. Cherie was now working in continuity and programming for Vermont Public Television, and Henry’s job continued but with a brand-new owner and local businessman, Ray Pecor, who took over the company in 1976.

With it came an exciting new level of responsibilities. As the years continued, the kids graduated from college, and they moved to North Carolina and Hawaii, bringing new travel adventures and challenging careers for both of them.

Henry spent 41 years at Lake Champlain Transportation and assumed many different titles during that time. He retired in 2013 as Treasurer and Vice President of the company.

Carol Ann Otoka

FEBRUARY 11, 1939APRIL 14, 2026

BURLINGTON, VT.

Carol Ann Otoka, a woman of profound intellect and unwavering devotion to her family and faith in God, passed away peacefully on April 14, 2026. Born on February 11, 1939, in Buffalo, N.Y., Carol inspired others through service, education and love.

Carol was a lifelong learner who earned her bachelor’s degree from Rosary Hill College. She worked as a medical technologist and later served as a licensed nursing assistant at Eden Park in Rutland, Vt. Her career reflected her deep work ethic and nurturing spirit.

Henry and Cherie became involved with an Alzheimer’s support group through the years. They were like family. With the help of social services and Age Well, Cherie continued to work at finding a suitable facility for Henry, never anticipating it would be so difficult and so time-consuming. Months went by, and finally a place came into being 100 miles away in the Northeast Kingdom, in the tiny village of Glover. The management and staff at Union House welcomed Henry and settled him in. He made many friends among the staff and residents. He could be found most days on his red walker, covering one end of the building to the other, always smiling and always a friend to everyone he ran into — so typical of Henry. While the distance made things difficult, Cherie made the long drive over and back once a week,

Henry was born on August 8, 1948, to Leon and Hortense (Myott) Sorrell of Sheldon. Almost exactly one year to the day later, he was joined by a brother, James. The two boys grew up side by side, spending time on their grandparents’ (Myott) farm in Enosburg with lots of their cousins. These were happy days spent ice skating on the pond, sliding down the hills and helping out on the farm. Henry loved talking about these times. Henry, his brother, and his parents moved into a new home in Winooski, where the boys attended high school. Henry graduated from high school in 1966. That fall, he began at Champlain College. It was the Vietnam War era, and Henry wanted to serve his country in the military. He took a deferred enlistment, enabling him to complete college before joining the U.S. Army.

Henry worked part time during high school and college for Merle Wood, whom many will remember as the owner of the infamous Country Store, where groceries were a bargain. It was during Henry’s first year of college that he met his wife, Cherie (Tanner), on a blind date. Some things are just meant to be, and this was certainly one of them. She had already started her career in copywriting at WCAX-TV (the local CBS affiliate). Following graduation from college, Henry joined the

Henry settled in at his job ordering and maintaining military supplies for all of Europe. He also became a member of the military Honor Guard, practicing weekly on the parade grounds just outside Cherie’s office windows. Cherie had secured a government job as a tour coordinator and event planner for enlisted men and their spouses. This position allowed them to travel all over Germany and Europe: a week in Paris, tulip festival in Holland, Oktoberfest in Munich, taking the train over the Alps to Italy and the night train through East Germany to West Berlin, and so many other adventures.

Two years passed quickly, and Henry’s call to duty was sadly over — back to Vermont in the fall and off to finish his education at the University of Vermont. Cherie began working as a copywriter at an advertising agency on Church Street in Burlington. In February of the following year Cherie found she was pregnant with their first child. Henry needed to leave school and found an accounting position with Lake Champlain Transportation, the ferry boat company.

They welcomed a daughter, Cynthia, in October 1972, and three and a half years later, in 1975, their son, Scott, was born. Family life began in Jericho. They eventually built their second home just a mile up the hill, with acreage looking out over Mount Mansfield and the village of Underhill. Here they lived on Orr Road for over 40 years, all while things were

Henry had many interests over the years. He and Cherie were both downhill and crosscountry skiers, and Henry loved snowshoeing in the woods behind his property. In the summer, there was lots of mowing across their six acres with his big John Deere tractor. Henry loved all outdoor sports, including horseback riding and the upkeep of two horses for a number of years.

Eventually, Scott got him into Harley-Davidson motorcycles, and Henry decided he wanted to have a Harley of his own. He also loved boating on Lake Champlain with the family. He and Cherie both loved traveling, with many trips to Hawaii to see Scott and to North Carolina to catch up with Cyndi. And above all, Henry loved his job and the people he worked with all those years.

He leaves his wife, Cherie; daughter, Cyndi (Jarvis), and her husband, Chris Jarvis, of North Carolina; and son, Scott, and his wife, Shandy, both formerly of Hawaii and currently residents of Essex Junction, Vt. He also leaves three beloved grandsons, Henry, Colton and Connor; his brother, Jim, and his wife, Ann; a nephew and niece, Justin and Sabreena, all of Indianapolis, Ind.; many Myott and Sorrell cousins; and countless dear friends who were like family.

A funeral service will be held on Thursday, June 4, 2026, 11 a.m., at Holy Family Church in Essex Junction, Vt., with Father Charles Ranges presiding. A gathering will be held following the service at the Essex Community Center next door. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Henry’s honor to the Vermont Alzheimer’s Association; the Vermont chapter of Age Well; the VA Medical Center in White River Junction, Vt.; or the veterans’ medical facility in Burlington, Vt.

Family was the center of Carol’s world. She was the beloved wife of the late John J. Otoka and predeceased by her parents, Edward Ralicki and Isabelle Panus, and her brother, Edward Ralicki. Her legacy lives on through her children: son John Otoka and Amy of Barre, Vt.; son Robert Otoka and Tara of Hingham, Mass.; daughter, Kathleen Otoka Gibbs, and Joshua of Essex Junction, Vt.; and son Thomas Otoka and Sarah of Bolivia, N.C. She was the proud grandmother of Hannah Gibbs and Isabella, Olivia and Natasha Otoka.

Carol was a voracious reader with a deep love for all music — especially rock and roll. She had a fiery passion for sports as a loyal, lifelong fan of the Buffalo Bills, Buffalo Sabres, New York Yankees and her children’s teams. By passing on meaningful traditions to her descendants, Carol instilled pride for her Polish Catholic heritage. Her infectious wit, spirit, humor and enthusiasm for learning inspired her children and grandchildren to excel in their own pursuits.

Over the last 30 years, Carol battled inclusion body myositis with extraordinary courage, faith and resilience. Despite this challenge, she never allowed the disease to dampen her spirit or commitment to those she loved.

She passed away peacefully at the McClure Miller Respite House, surrounded by her family. Carol will be remembered as a matriarch who led with grace, selflessness and an abiding love.

In lieu of flowers, donations in Carol’s memory may be made to McClure Miller Respite House at uvmhomehealth.org/give or the Myositis Association at myositis.org/donate.

A funeral Mass will be held on May 1, 2026, 3 p.m. ET, at St. Lawrence Church, 158 West St., Essex Junction, VT 05452.

Want to memorialize a loved one in Seven Days?

Post your remembrance online and in print at sevendaysvt.com/lifelines. Or contact us at lifelines@sevendaysvt.com or 8651020, ext. 10.

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OBITUARIES

Peter Allan Bouyea

MARCH 19, 1948APRIL 28, 2026

BURLINGTON, VT., AND ESTERO, FLA.

Peter Allan Bouyea, 78, of Burlington, Vt., and Estero, Fla., passed away on April 28, 2026. Born in 1948 in Plattsburgh, N.Y., he was the son of Leander A. Bouyea Jr. and Marjorie (Sanger) Bouyea.

As a boy, Peter served as ﬁrst mate on his father’s boat Priscilla, manning the grill on long summer afternoons off Valcour Island, where as many as 30 friends and family members might be aboard. Peter attended Mount Assumption Institute, where he played varsity football and varsity tennis, founded a chess club, and was elected senior class president. Inspired by his father, who taught Marines how to ﬂy during the war, Peter soloed an Aeronca Champ plane at age 16. At age 18, Peter started working for Bouyea Bakery, the family business that his

Angela Mier

OBITUARIES, VOWS, CELEBRATIONS

Under the mentorship of “Murph” Lorry, his father’s closest friend, he learned the business from the inside out.

father and grandfather built by hand the very year he was born. Peter earned a degree in economics from LeMoyne College in Syracuse, where he was chairman of Winter Weekend (when he recruited the Lovin’ Spoonful to headline the most successful festival LeMoyne’s dean had ever experienced). Shortly after graduation, Peter married Linda McCormick, the love of his life, on October 17, 1970. e day after he graduated, he reported for work at Fassetts, the family bakery in Burlington, Vt., that Bouyea Bakery acquired in 1963.

SEPTEMBER 26, 1934-APRIL 25, 2026 BURLINGTON AND ESSEX JUNCTION, VT.

Angela Mier, 91, of Burlington and Essex Junction, Vt., passed away peacefully on April 25, 2026, at her home. She was born the daughter of Victoriano and Angela in La Cavada, Santander, Cantabria, Spain, where she lived until 1958, when she met and married the love of her life, Juan Mier, originally of Hardwick, Vt., and together they moved to the U.S. ey initially lived in Burlington, then moved to Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., followed by Nassau, Bahamas, and eventually settled again in Burlington on South Union Street, where they lived for 53 years.

e Bouyea-Fassetts Baking Co. became a major supplier of baked goods throughout most of New England and northern New York, including supplying hot dog rolls to Celtics games at Boston Garden. As president, Peter guided the company to a successful sale to Freihofer’s in 1989, which was owned by Kraft Foods.

Peter retired from the bread business in 1994 after 24 years but remained active in his community, serving as president of the Jaycees, receiving the Presidential Recognition Award from the United Way of Chittenden County, becoming an instructor for Dale Carnegie & Associates, and serving on the Ronald McDonald House Board. From 1993 to 2015, he was a member of the board of directors for Merchants Bancshares Inc.

Over the past 25 years, Linda and Peter divided their time between their houses in Vermont and Florida. While in Florida, Peter enjoyed perfecting his golf game, becoming a teacher’s assistant at the local elementary school and

Barbara (Warrender); and grandchildren

Victoria Mier and Rebecca Mier.

She was a devoted mother and parishioner of Christ the King parish (RC) in Burlington and was always family focused. When the opportunity arose, she became a lunch lady at Adams School starting in 1974 until it closed in 1980, while also teaching Spanish to the kids on a volunteer basis there. She continued on as a lunch lady at Edmunds School until 1990, when her scleroderma made it too difﬁcult to use her ﬁngers for work.

She was preceded in death by her parents and her husband in 2024. She is survived by children Juan III and wife Holly (LaFrance), and Angelo and wife

In staying connected with her and her husband’s Spanish roots, the family spent several summers over the years in Spain, where her sons were able to form and maintain close relationships with their Spanish relatives and overall culture.

achieving Sapphire status as a contract bridge player.

Peter was an incredibly supportive, generous and loving presence for his family. He taught them all so much and was truly dedicated to setting his kids up for success in life, which he accomplished four times over. He is survived by his beloved wife of 55 years, Linda; children, Petra Bouyea, Lee Bouyea (Laura), Brad Bouyea (Jocelyn) and Lauren Bouyea (Jordan); grandchildren, Ben, Luke, Charlie, Talon, Sam and Mira; and siblings Michele Simpson, Jim Bouyea and Suzanne Kasprzak. He was predeceased by his parents, Leander and Marjorie Bouyea, as well as his brother Mark Bouyea.

Peter was a devout Catholic and committed to the faith throughout his life. A funeral Mass will be held on Saturday, May 16, 2026, 11 a.m., at St. Anthony’s Parish in Burlington. A reception will follow at the Burlington Country Club. In lieu of ﬂowers, the family requests that memorial contributions be made to the charity of your choice. Arrangements are in care of LaVigne Funeral Home. To send condolences to his family, please visit vtfuneralhomes.com.

She earned her U.S. citizenship in 1983.

Beyond being a homemaker and raising her two sons, she extended her love to friends and family, acting as a trusted caregiver for their children and providing beloved afterschool care for her granddaughters.

She loved pedaling her three-speed bicycle all around Burlington and on the bike path; loved relaxing in the sun at North Beach or in the backyard; was an exceptional cook, using her Spanish inﬂuence in every dish; and was well known for her homemade French fries.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be directed to Bayada Hospice. We are profoundly grateful to the Bayada team and the staff at Mansfield Place; their combined care allowed her to feel truly comfortable, supported and loved throughout her final year and a half.

Funeral services will be held on Wednesday, May 20, 2026, 11 a.m., at des Groseilliers Funeral Home, 97 Church St., Hardwick VT, followed by a burial at the Hardwick Main Street Cemetery.

Randall “Randy” Duval

FEBRUARY 3, 1962-DECEMBER 21, 2025 COLCHESTER, VT.

Randall “Randy” Duval of Colchester, Vt., passed away on December 21, 2025, from a sudden illness, at the University of Vermont Medical Center at the age of 63.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be held on Saturday, May 9, 2026, 11 a.m., at St. Francis Xavier Church, 3 St. Peter St., Winooski, VT. Burial will follow at St. Francis Xavier Cemetery.

Arrangements are in care of LaVigne Funeral Home. To view the complete obituary and send condolences to his family, please visit vtfuneralhomes.com.

Tristram G. Jensvold

1978-2026

Tristram G. Jensvold died at his home in Nashville, Tenn., on April 16, 2026. He is survived by his parents, Candis C. Leopold (James) of Colchester, Vt., and Christopher G. Jensvold (Betsy) of Jericho, Vt.; and his sister, Kaetlin C. Jensvold of Berryville, Va.

A complete obituary will follow at a later date, as will a celebration of Tristram’s life.

IN MEMORIAM

Judith P. Hebert

1940-2025

In October, we said goodbye to Judith P. Hebert of 1883 Crosstown Road, Berlin. Family, friends and neighbors are invited to a Celebration of Life in her gardens on Saturday, June 6, 11 a.m. is will be an informal gathering, with lunch and refreshments following a short ceremony. Garden hats and casual attire are warmly encouraged.

Ramon Gomez

APRIL 4, 1932-APRIL 23, 2026

GRAND ISLE, VT.

Ramon Gomez, 94, of Grand Isle, Vt., passed away peacefully with his loving family by his side on April 23, 2026, at his home.

Ramon was born in Montpelier, Vt., to Santiago and Carmen Gomez on April 4, 1932. He is survived by his children, Carey Haug and her husband, James Haug Jr., of Williston, Vt.; Ramon Jr. of Grand Isle; Rita Crawley of Severn, Md.; Craig Gomez of South Carolina; and Marie Prescott and her husband, David, of Grand Isle. He also leaves his sister Chiquita, brother Noel and special sister-in-law, Vonna Coburn. Ramon was predeceased by his wife, Joyce; daughter Tammy; sister Consuelo; brothers Santiago, Domingo, Richard and Manuel; twin brother, Rudy; and granddaughter Angela Schmehl and

Ronald James Saxon I

SEPTEMBER 15, 1951-APRIL 21, 2026 ESSEX JUNCTION, VT.

It is with profound sadness that we announce the sudden passing of Ronald James Saxon I, 74, on April 21, 2026, at his home in Essex Junction, Vt. Ron will be remembered for his unwavering devotion to his family and his sense of duty to help others.

Ron was born on September 15, 1951, in Spangler, Pa. He attended Northern Cambria High School. Upon graduating in 1969, he proudly served in the U.S. Marine Corps. The brotherhood he found in the military, after losing his father at age 16, deeply shaped his life and was a primary foundation of his strong work ethic.

Ron married the love of his life, Eileen (Mandrick), on April 20, 1974. For over 52 years, his

James Clemons

JUNE 13, 1951 -MAY 1, 2026

EAST MONTPELIER, VT.

James Clemons of East Montpelier, Vt., chose to die peacefully on Friday morning, May 1, 2026, with his family by his side. He lived with Parkinson’s disease for 10 years.

Nine of those years were lived fully and actively — downhill skiing at Sugarbush and out West, crosscountry skiing on the trails near his home in East Montpelier, cycling the back roads (eventually upgrading to an e-bike), sailing and kayaking on Big Averill Lake, and traveling the world with his best friend, Bud. It was only in the 10th year of his diagnosis that Jim was no longer able to

her infant son, Ronin. Ramon loved his family, including his grandchildren, Dawn Phillips, Sean Phillips, Kyle Crawley, Zachary Hutchinson, Katie Ballard and Connor Haug; 13 great-grandchildren; and five great-greatgrandchildren. Ramon graduated from Montpelier High School in 1950. Ramon proudly served in the U.S. Marines during the Korean War. Ramon married Joyce Coburn of Chelsea, Vt., on July 22, 1955. They began their journey together in Montpelier, moved to Websterville and then to Essex Junction, and finally lived in Grand Isle for the last 49 years.

He worked for Green Mountain Power and then Burlington Electric Department at the Moran Plant. Ramon loved life and lived it to the fullest. He was competitive and never settled for second place. He adored being outside in the sun, spending time with the people he loved and picking up new hobbies. In his happiest moments, he was either outside enjoying nature, spending time at various family barbecues or birthdays, playing racquetball with his friends, or doing anything that involved him moving or being in the sun.

He always said he lived a good life

life was centered around her and their three children. He found joy in making home-cooked meals at “Dad’s Deli” for family and those in need. He was the loudest cheerleader at his daughters’ field hockey games, and target shooting with his son was a lifelong passion. His Episcopalian faith provided a guiding light, and he was a longtime member of St. Andrew’s in Colchester.

For 33 years, Ron was a steadfast employee at IBM. Working the night shift allowed him to earn bachelor’s degrees in psychology and business management from Trinity College in Burlington. He was also a Mason

with the Ethan Allen Lodge for many years and served as a past master. Ron was a member of the American Legion, VFW, RVA and the Moose Lodge. He could often be seen taking early morning walks throughout Essex Junction. He enjoyed Sunday drives with his wife and took her on many outings to buy antique sewing machines. Each fall, he looked forward to hunting in Pennsylvania with his brother-in-law, Mike Mandrick. Ron also found gratification in mowing lawns for several neighbors. He loved classic cars and had a special knack for keeping orchids in full bloom. He was a loyal friend. Above

do the things he loved. He accepted the narrowing of his physical world with grace and broadened his focus on preserving the natural world he cherished.

Jim was born in Montpelier, Vt., on June 13, 1951. He was a lifelong learner, graduating from Williams College, earning a master’s degree from the University of Vermont and receiving his law degree from Vermont Law School.

His intellect was matched by his humility, and he carried his accomplishments lightly.

Jim built a distinguished legal career spanning more than three decades. As an attorney, he focused on business, corporate, banking and insurance law, earning a reputation

and not to be sad when he died. His wishes were to die in his home, and, with help from Bayada staff Tom, Jessica, Fred and Michelle, we honored that wish, so big thanks to them.

A memorial service will be held on May 20, 2026, at Ready Funeral Home, 261 Shelburne Rd., Burlington, VT, with calling hours from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. and the service following. There will be a military service on May 21, 2026, 9 a.m., in the chapel at the Vermont Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Randolph.

If you would like to make a donation, please consider C.I.D.E.R, 12 Carter Ln., South Hero, VT 05486, which helped with loaning equipment and sponsored the Live Strong exercise class where Ramon met many new friends.

Arrangements are in the care of Ready Funeral & Cremation Services. To send online condolences, please visit readyfuneral.com.

all else, Ron loved spending time with family and friends. It was his wish that those who knew him remember the good times they shared and raise a glass in his honor.

Ron leaves behind his beloved wife, Eileen; daughters, Destiny Saxon (Paul Sayler) and Lindsay Crimmins (Michael); son, Ronald; brother, Frederick (Anna); and sister Wendy Griffiths (Art).

Ron was preceded in death by his parents, Peter Saxon and Louise (Jackson); sister Judith (Roberts); dear Aunt “Jay” Julia Gearhart; “Uncle” Mike Saxon; and cousin Paul Saxon.

The family wishes to extend a sincere thank-you to Essex Rescue, Essex Police, and all who sent cards and offered support. A private burial will follow at Fairview Cemetery in Essex Junction.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to Essex Rescue.

IN MEMORIAM

Janet Tudhope Austin

JUNE 8, 1933OCTOBER 23, 2025

Celebration of life for Janet Tudhope Austin. We invite you to join us as we gather to celebrate and honor her life.

Saturday, May 16, 2026, 11 a.m.

First Congregational Church, 38 South Winooski Ave., Burlington, VT A reception will follow at the church.

IN MEMORIAM

for thoughtful counsel and a steady, principled approach. He practiced with Primmer Piper Eggleston & Cramer PC in Montpelier and was a respected member of both the Vermont and American Bar Associations.

To those who knew him best, Jim was defined not by his résumé but by his presence. He was a devoted husband, a proud father and a deeply engaged grandfather. He valued time outdoors, meaningful conversation and the quiet rhythms of Vermont life. He was also funny — often quietly so — and, to many, an absolute legend. Jim liked to be busy, always working on something with his hands or his mind, and those closest to him will remember

the colorful language that could emerge when a project didn’t go quite the way he planned.

He is survived by his wife, Joni; son, Chandler (Lauren), and granddaughter Annie; daughter, Kathryn Lagerstedt (Marty), and their daughters, Grace, Kate and Julia; and siblings, Martha (Charlie), Patty (Don), David (Janet) and Janet; as well as many nieces and nephews.

Jim lived a life of purpose, curiosity, humor and quiet strength. He faced the end of his life the same way he lived it — with intention, dignity and grace.

A private gathering to celebrate Jim’s life will be held at a later date. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Vermont Foodbank.

John Roger Floyd

1952-2026

A celebration of life for John Roger Floyd of South Burlington, Vt., will be held on Saturday, June 6, 2026, 2 p.m., at First Congregational Church, 38 South Winooski Ave., Burlington, VT 05401. His family warmly invites friends and relatives to gather in his memory, with a reception to follow.

RETURN of the KING

Back in Vermont after 15 years in LA, indie rocker Kyle omas — aka King Tuff — eyes a new stage of his music career

BY CHRIS FARNSWORTH

• farnsworth@sevendaysvt.com

The mug, half full of cold co ee, had been abandoned beside a stack of artwork and newsletters, forgotten in the rush of creation. An electric guitar rested on the couch, still plugged into e ects pedals splayed out across the carpet, the instrument cables running across the ﬂoor like a nest of black snakes. Another guitar was propped up against shelves stu ed with books, papers and music. Early spring sunlight through the living room window bathed a drum set in a golden haze.

At the center of it all, holding court in an o ce chair surrounded by archaic tape-recording machines, Kyle Thomas cut a contented figure. He was in the living room of his new home, down a long dirt road in the Northeast Kingdom.

Dressed in a black vest over a hoodie, with a Traveling Wilburys cap crowning a nest of long brown hair, Thomas — better known to the music world as stoner-rock royalty King Tu — caressed a piece of his vintage gear. Beneath a graying beard, he smiled.

“I made my ﬁrst record on this bad boy,” he said, gesturing with a wave of a tattooed hand to a Tascam 388 analog eight-channel recording console. He bought the ’80s-era machine 20 years ago, when he ﬁrst started making music as King Tu . It sat unused for more than a decade in his parents’ Brattleboro basement before he found and repaired it to record his latest album, MOO, which came out in March. As part of his cross-country tour to promote the new album, he plays the Higher Ground Showcase Lounge in South Burlington on

May 19 with bandmates Corey Rose and Noel Friesen.

“I’m planning on making a lot more records on it,” he said of the old Tascam. “I want to get all my friends from LA, from Brattleboro, from everywhere. I want them to make records here. That’s part of why I came back to Vermont ... I just want to make cool shit in my own house.”

For the past 20 or so years, Thomas, 43, has forged a career that places him among the most successful rock musicians ever to call Vermont home. Emerging from the

Kyle omas

same early 2000s Brattleboro indie scene that produced acts such as Tune-Yards and Sam Amidon, he became a critical darling, the toast of Pitchfork, BrooklynVegan and Rolling Stone. After a 2011 move to Los Angeles, he released his 2012 self-titled breakout on iconic record label Sub Pop; it’s an album full of T. Rex-meets-theStooges-style lo-fi rock, big guitar riffs and some seriously stoned vibes. He seemed poised to join the likes of indie-rock royalty Courtney Barnett and Kurt Vile, the latter to whom he’s often compared.

While that coronation never quite came, King Tuff’s career has been enviable. He’s produced a string of well-received records and toured the world, and he pals around with indie luminaries such as Ty Segall. But last year, 15 years after setting out for LA to chase dreams of rock stardom, Thomas moved back to Vermont, where he’s started his own record label and aims to launch the next stage of his career. He follows in the footsteps of a few other eminent indie musicians, including Neko Case and Big Thief’s Adrienne Lenker, who’ve landed in the Green Mountains, seeking refuge from an increasingly troubled music industry, an increasingly troubled society or both.

But unlike those artists, Thomas’ arrival is a homecoming. And he told us it was going to happen — and not just by naming his new album after a lowing cow.

Starting with 2018’s The Other and continuing with the 2023 record Smalltown Stardust, his muscular sound took a contemplative turn, with shades of the Beatles, Electric Light Orchestra and R.E.M. All the while, his lyrics suggested a yearning to come home.

“Headlights in an open field / Blizzard on the 91,” he sang on “Smalltown Stardust,” an ode to his old stomping grounds in an album full of them.

Along with Thomas’ literal homecoming is an aesthetic one: a return to the hardrocking feel of his earlier albums. MOO is a guitar-heavy, retro-sounding masterpiece, a record that looks back at the crust-punk kid with a Marshall stack in Brattleboro and reconciles him with the older, wiser middle-aged rocker in the woods.

“I have so few expectations anymore,” he admitted. “I honestly don’t give a shit about the rat-race aspect of the business anymore.”

Funny thing is, nothing about Thomas’ genial personality gives the sense he ever did. Whether he’s producing a record or sitting around the blunt rotation, Thomas exudes natural bonhomie. He’s a good hang, an artist without artifice. Only when you look at his body of work does his ambition become visible, but that ambition has mutated from what it once was.

As he stepped over guitars and cords on the floor, he offered a reporter his

I don’t need to be rich and famous or on some kind of rock-star trip.

KYLE THOMAS

homemade ice cream and pickles — two Vermonty hobbies he’s picked up since returning — while lamenting the lack of pizza delivery in his neck of the woods. Then, with a mischievous smile, he turned to offer an insight.

“You know, I think it was Cyndi Lauper who said it, but all it takes to be a legend is to just stick around long enough,” he said. “I don’t need to be rich and famous or on some kind of rock-star trip. I just want to do what I love and have my small group of people who buy my records and come to shows. I think that was the initial mission, and I’m just getting back to it, in a way.”

THE PRINCE OF BRATTLEBORO

A kick drum thumping like a beating heart heralds the start of MOO. Jagged, ropetaut distorted guitars come in snarling before the song erupts in a hard-charging groove. Thomas’ idiosyncratic, slightly askew-yet-melodic vocal arrives to give the listener a quick check-in on King Tuff.

“Don’t talk to me / Let me remain just another stranger,” Thomas sings. “I don’t have a name, and I’m headed down to destiny.”

“Twisted on a Train,” the album’s opening track, is a primordial slice of rock and roll. Warm and gloriously lo-fi, it serves as a proclamation: The mellow, power popleaning King Tuff of the past few years is dead. In his stead, the stoner-rock guru has been resurrected, changed by experience.

“Rock and roll is imperfect and messy, but it can also be really pure in this unique way,” Thomas said. “I’m not trying to reinvent the wheel. I’m just trying to make songs that I want to hear, you know? I like cheese pizza. I like vanilla ice cream. And cheese pizza and vanilla ice cream are unbeatable in their pure form, just like rock. You don’t need anything else when you have the pure thing.”

He first discovered his love of rock listening to his father, John’s, records. There was a lot of classic rock played in his house, particularly of the psychedelic variety. Jimi Hendrix and Blue Cheer were two early favorites, but things got serious when his dad brought 10-year-old Thomas to his first concert: North Carolina metal act Corrosion of Conformity.

Even more influential was his dad’s purchase of a Fender Stratocaster, which Thomas quickly claimed as his own. In no time, he was working out simple, onestring riffs and writing his first song. He debuted the composition at a school dance in fifth grade, dubbing it “Pickle Boy.”

“I got one of my friends to play ... maybe a snare drum?” Thomas said, laughing as he tried to remember the song. “Another friend got up and rapped a verse: Yo, Pickle Boy / He’s too salty.”

Two foundational events happened at that school dance.

First, the band that played after Thomas and his friends was made up of older kids. One of the guitarists showed 11-year old Thomas how to play a power chord, an essential part of hard rock, metal and punk music.

“That was a true holy shit moment for me,” Thomas said, forming his left hand into the shape of the chord in a reflexive airguitar moment. “You mean I can play three strings at once? Changed everything, man.”

The other life-changer happened as Thomas stood by the punch bowl at the dance, feeling that first postshow adrenaline rush he would come to know so well over his career. A girl approached him with a smile and said, “That was really cool.”

“It was immediate,” he recalled. “I was like, Yeah, I’m doing this. This is what I do now.”

In high school, Thomas formed his first punk band, Ludicrous, playing music inspired by the nearby Boston punk scene and bands such as the Unseen and Dropkick Murphys. Next up was the hardcore band Tomorrow’s Mayhem with his childhood friend Matt Johnson, who would go on to perform in the New York City electronic duo Matt and Kim.

Brattleboro proved a perfect incubator for Thomas. The southern Vermont mill

RETURN of the KING

town has long been a magnet for creative types, from writer Rudyard Kipling to painter Wolf Kahn. And it retains a scruffy bohemian vibe that stems either from the influx of hippies in the 1960 and ’70s or, as legend has it, the giant magical crystal on which the town was built.

Much as it has been an economic hub throughout its history, Brattleboro is also a musical crossroads where the southern Vermont and western Massachusetts music scenes meet. A young Thomas logged many miles between Brattleboro and places such as Northampton and Amherst, Mass., touring out of a Honda Civic with his friends.

In 2003, Thomas put together a freakfolk group called Feathers with Kurt Weisman, with whom he worked at a local record shop. The eight-member band featured a slew of Brattleboro songwriters and musicians, including Ruth Garbus, Asa Irons and Chris Weisman, Kurt’s brother. Two years later, Thomas formed the stoner-metal outfit Witch with Dinosaur Jr. guitarist and singer J Mascis on drums, along with Kurt Weisman, Irons and Dave Sweetapple, who died in 2024.

The memory of Mascis, one of rock music’s great guitarists, hauling a massive drum set down the stairs to the basement of Thomas’ parents’ house in Brattleboro still makes Thomas smile all these years later. “And then I had to play lead guitar in front of J fucking Mascis,” he said. “Like, what? How?”

Those bands caught the attention of freak-folk auteur Devendra Banhart, who enlisted Feathers to appear on his 2005 album, Cripple Crow. He later signed them to Gnomonsong, his label with Vetiver’s Andy Cabic, which released Feathers’ 2006 self-titled debut. Feathers’ success spurred national interest in the Brattleboro scene, and, before long, Sub Pop came calling for another Thomas project: Happy Birthday, his garage-rock trio with Garbus and her partner, Chris Weisman. The Seattle label that introduced the world to Nirvana, Soundgarden and the Shins released Happy Birthday’s self-titled debut in 2010.

Garbus, an experimental folk musician, first met Thomas in 2001, shortly after she moved to Brattleboro. Her sister Merrill Garbus, one half of the indie duo TuneYards, made the connection.

“He needed a roommate,” Garbus said. “Within five minutes he had changed my name from ‘Ruth’ to ‘Ruthie,’ and we lived together.”

In no time, the two were playing music together. Along with other area musicians and artists, Garbus and Thomas rented a rehearsal space at a building called the Tinderbox, in a massive room they

The way he works is inspiring.

RUTH GARBUS

dubbed “Vegetable Street.” The original Vegetable Street sign hangs in Thomas’ Vermont living room today, just above his workstation.

“Kyle is really special,” Garbus said. “I’ve just always felt really held by him — I get emotional. He’s just had a huge impact on my life. He’s such a supportive person, and the way he works is inspiring.”

To Garbus, the secret to Thomas’ success isn’t just his talent, or even that natural stoner charm that draws others into his orbit. It’s his dedication to the craft and his willingness to put his nose to the grindstone.

“People like Kyle, they’re driven,” she said. “They write music, they do their own artwork, they rehearse all the time … they’re definitely obsessed.”

Thomas’ compulsion to make music remains as steadfast as it was 20 years ago.

“You have to be obsessed and relentless,” Thomas said from his Vermont studio, with heaps of promotional material for his record label and new album stacked

WESTERN DAZE

“Chasing rainbows, chasing dreams / Now it’s catching up to me / ’Cause I’m so tired of spinnin’ my wheels / Negative numbers, dead-end deals.”

The opening lyrics to MOO’s second track, “Stairway to Nowhere,” find Thomas reaching a tipping point.

He wrote the classic rock-leaning jam featuring Rough Francis and Iggy Pop drummer Urian Hackney toward the end of his time in LA. The song is seemingly an admission of defeat, of time wasted striving toward a goal he no longer desires. His West Coast adventure started out well enough. Thomas chose LA not just for its importance in the music and entertainment world but also because he already had friends living there, including garage rocker Ty Segall. The two would go on to play on each other’s records — Segall plays drums on MOO — and Thomas joined Segall as part of his backing band for a tour.

His own records were garnering attention, too. King Tuff’s 2012 Sub Pop debut peaked at No. 2 on the CMJ New Music Report charts. A 2014 follow-up, Black Moon Spell, hit No. 1 on the Billboard Heatseekers Albums chart and received critical praise pretty much all around.

But something was missing. The sense of community he felt in the Brattleboro music scene was, for the most part, absent in the frenetic, often segmented LA musical ecosystem.

nearby. “You have to be ready to fail over and over again. Each record is like starting over in some ways, so, for me, I need to have this weird obsession. I need to keep making music.”

In his Brattleboro days, that drive propelled Thomas to start or join as many bands as he could. By the end of the decade, he had an impressive catalog of records from Witch, Feathers and Happy Birthday to show for it. He’d also completed his 2008 King Tuff debut, Was Dead , finally using the moniker he came up with as a teenager, combining his initials with a play on the name “King Tut.”

Feeling the pull of success, the lifelong Brattleboro resident was ready to take his shot at rock stardom. Los Angeles was calling. In 2011, he moved out west.

“It was a tough decision in the sense that I had built this really cool world around me of musical friends,” Thomas said. “But yeah, you have to do scary stuff and jump into the abyss sometimes.”

“Los Angeles is a funny place,” said indie singer-songwriter Sasami Ashworth, an LA native and Thomas’ friend and former roommate. “Everyone living there isn’t from there, and everyone is sort of hustling and hungering for a carrot that’s far away. So when you’re with people, there’s this sense that they’re kind of looking past you.”

Thomas had friends and collaborators, but they were all ships in the night, he said, each heading out on their own tours all the time. He missed the deep connection he treasured with Garbus, Wiseman, Irons and other Vermont musicians.

“The truth is, I never felt super inspired in California,” he admitted.

Nevertheless, he remained productive. Following Black Moon Spell, he released a live album with Segall in 2015 and a studio album, The Other, in 2018.

As the pandemic hit in 2020, Thomas moved into a house in the Mount Washington neighborhood in northeast LA with Ashworth and singer-songwriter and guitarist Meg Duffy of the bands War on Drugs and Hand Habits. Stuck in quarantine, the three musicians worked on and influenced each other’s records: The classically trained Ashworth’s 2022

Thomas on New Year’s Eve, 2022

Happy Birthday, circa 2010. From left: Ruth Garbus, Thomas and Chris Weisman

album, Squeeze , was a guitar-heavy, metal-leaning album à la Thomas. Taking cues from Ashworth, the largely self-taught Thomas’ Smalltown Stardust, released a year later, displayed a more nuanced, complex sonic profile for the rocker.

Thomas pushed the boundaries of his sound on Smalltown Stardust, an album that treads more in the indie and folk-rock terrain of contemporaries such as Kurt Vile or Andy Shauf. But Thomas doesn’t concern himself much with comparisons to other artists, partly to guard against his own insecurities: “I don’t necessarily like my voice,” he admitted.

Thomas is not a “great” singer in the classic sense. While he’d never win “The Voice,” he effectively suffuses his hightoned, slightly nasal timbre with punk grit and a dash of folk whimsy. “There have definitely been times where I hate it, even,” he continued about his voice. “But I’ve come to realize that it’s all about showing my personality when I sing. I don’t worry about sounding like anyone else, because my weird voice just overrides that.”

Despite the thrill of their collaborations, Ashworth could tell Thomas wouldn’t be on the West Coast much longer.

TUFF STUFF

Wanna hear more? Check out a Seven Days playlist featuring choice King Tuff songs and cuts from Feathers, Happy Birthday, Witch and others from throughout Kyle Thomas’ career.

“Kyle is like a forest wizard,” Ashworth said. “He sprouted out of a frozen cauldron in the mysterious woods of Vermont. So you get this sense that he doesn’t really fit in the city. It’s like seeing moss on a sidewalk: It’s cool that it’s there, but it doesn’t really belong.”

And Thomas didn’t hide his growing sense of disillusionment with the city. For all the hubbub around Vermont native Noah Kahan’s 2022 breakout, Stick Season, as a love letter to the Green Mountain State, Smalltown Stardust might be an even more passionate tribute from a prodigal son.

After playing at an all-star 83rd birthday party for no less a luminary than Beatles drummer Ringo Starr, Thomas started planning his return east. The Palisades Fire last year, which destroyed

BEVS P ticipates in ACVO-SAVES

Free Eye Exams for Service Animals This May

This May, Burlington Emergency & Veterinary Specialists (BEVS) is proud to be a participating location in the annual ACVO/Epicur Service Animal Volunteer Eye Screening (ACVO-SAVES) program — and our own board-certiﬁed veterinary ophthalmologist, Dr. Sarah Hoy, is volunteering her time and expertise to make it happen.

The ACVO-SAVES program provides complimentary screening eye exams each May for qualifying service and working animals across the U.S., Canada, and select international locations. Exams are performed exclusively by ACVO® Diplomates — board-certiﬁed veterinary ophthalmology specialists — who donate their skills in honor of the animals who serve and protect us every day.

Service animals depend on sharp, healthy vision to do their jobs safely and effectively. These screenings can catch early signs of eye disease before they affect an animal’s ability to work — and potentially their handler’s safety.

“We’re honored to support the hardworking animals in our community through this program,” said Dr. Hoy. “These animals give so much to the people they serve. This is one small way we can give back.”

To learn more about the program, visit acvo-saves.org.

Dr. Sarah Hoy

From left: Thomas, Corey Rose and Noel Friesen

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RETURN of the KING

whole neighborhoods and wreathed LA in flames and smoke, was a tipping point.

“It felt a little like hell,” Thomas said. “The air was hot. The sky was orange and black in the day. You couldn’t breathe. I’m super asthmatic too, so it just got to the point where nothing out there felt sustainable.”

In addition to the environmental strain, the growing challenges of operating as an independent musician in the modern music industry forced Thomas to rethink his approach to his career. Like many of his peers, he’s up against diminishing streaming revenue, increasing touring costs, venue closures across the country and pressure to self-promote through social media.

Moving to Vermont would represent a step back, career-wise, as would leaving Sub Pop and starting his own label.

“It can be hard, I’m sure, to readjust once you get a taste of the big venues, the sweet tour bus, all of that,” Thomas said with a sardonic smile. “Luckily, I never really got to that level.”

But along with homesickness, Thomas said his decision was motivated by a desire to break it all down, take full control and build something more enduring.

“It’s weird, but for me, I realized there’s more opportunity, in a sense … back in Vermont,” Thomas said. “It’s a blank page. I feel like I could do anything.”

NORTHEAST OF ORDINARY

Back in the Northeast Kingdom, Thomas swung open a back door to show off his sprawling yard. Piles of dirty snow spotted the ground as he pointed out the landmarks of his new realm: construction equipment, shovels, wheelbarrows and a blue compost bucket. He looked unmistakably content as he surveyed this properly rural scene in the chill of early spring.

When he first announced he was leaving LA, most assumed he would take up residence in Brattleboro. Thomas instead chose the Northeast Kingdom, a place he’d barely visited and knew nothing about, despite having grown up in Vermont.

“I’d come up to Burlington to see shows and hang, but that was about as far north as I’d go back then,” he explained.

Life in the woods suits him, but the decision to settle in the Northeast Kingdom was based less on vibes and more on feasibility.

“My girlfriend is from here originally,” Thomas said. “We actually met in LA,

which is funny, but we had some mutual Vermont connections. Her family owns all this property.”

He also loved the notion of coming back to Vermont but starting a new chapter in an unfamiliar place. While he’s already reconnected and started working with many of his old Brattleboro friends, including Garbus and Chris Weisman, he’s clearly infatuated with his new locale.

“The dude who lives over that hill is a roofer,” Thomas said with a strange sort of glee, pointing past the dirt road leading to his house. “I met a weaver the other day. Weaving is fucking awesome, man.”

Hell, I’ll play the damn farmers market.

KYLE THOMAS

Thomas is thrilled to be surrounded by people who work with their hands. “I feel like Vermont has always been a place where people know what they want to do, and they figure out how to make it happen,” he said. “In my soul, that’s what I’m doing: I’m a craftsman.”

His new label, MUP, which may or may not stand for Many Unusual People, depending on when you ask him, is a total DIY effort. Thomas, also a talented visual artist, designs everything. He wrote and printed The Daily MOO, a newsletter that went out with vinyl copies of the record, and he even directs his own music videos.

“I have to figure out a way to sustain this career,” Thomas said. “For me, that involves bringing it back into my own hands more, finding my niche.”

That niche includes helping others make music. Thomas recently produced Garbus’ forthcoming LP, Profound, for Orindal Records. She drove up from Brattleboro to record at her old friend’s new digs.

“Recording on the same old Tascam that we did the Happy Birthday and Feathers records with was just so cool,” Garbus enthused. “That thing has, like, 30,000 miles on it!”

She and Weisman have cameos as Thomas’ backing band in the music video for “Invisible Ink,” making it a sort of unofficial Happy Birthday reunion. Thomas said Weisman plans to record a new album at his studio, as well.

“I just want to make some weird little records with my friends,” he said. “And maybe I’ll become a sort of regional artist — those old-school days where musicians would have a sort of circuit. Hell, I’ll play the damn farmers market; that sounds like a tight little scene. I’ll play for tips, baby!”

Self-deprecation aside, Thomas isn’t exactly slipping off into obscurity. He’s been grinding to self-promote MOO ’s release, fighting his urge to wander outside and instead making obligatory social media promos that album releases now demand and getting ready to tour the country with a backing band. Thomas might be content to bow out of the rat race, but he’s still running a marathon — just one of his own design.

Whether MOO is a hit or a flop doesn’t seem to matter much to him, which likely isn’t something he would have said in his LA days. “I’ve put out enough records to know that you can’t expect anything,” he

said, “so I don’t have any expectations other than I’m going to always make music.”

The response to MOO has largely been overwhelmingly positive; Pitchfork claims the album “sounds like the natural evolution of an artist who wandered into experimentation but has found his way back to his gut impulses.”

For Thomas, freed from the ambition of his youth, that’s enough. Or, as he puts it near the end of the record on “East of Ordinary”:

“There’s a wind gonna come around / Lift you up, lay you down, fly you away to a little town / And you won’t need a whole lotta wealth / Just little green leaves and books on the shelf.” ➆

. engaging . 1nsp1nng

Always free. Always vibrant. stimulating inviting evocative

Tiffany Alfonseca (Dominican-American, born 1994), Dafiamos la amistad, 2023, acrylic paint, colored pencils, and glitter on canvas, 40 x 30 inches. Collection of Middlebury College Museum of Art, VT. Purchase with funds provided by the Christian A. Johnson Memorial Art Acquisition Fund, 2025.023. Copyright© Tiffany Alfonseca.

Thomas at his home in the Northeast Kingdom

food+drink

Asparagus Days

In Grand Isle, Pomykala Farm starts its 49th season without a beloved cofounder BY MELISSA PASANEN • pasanen@sevendaysvt.com

The ﬁrst asparagus spears of the season tentatively poked their green-purple tips from the soil at Pomykala Farm in Grand Isle early last week. But Ben Pomykala wants everyone to know that almost all of this year’s harvest is already spoken for.

“I’ve got to ration this stuff,” the second-generation farmer said as he plucked a spear and took a bite. “It’s so sweet out of the ground,” he marveled.

Pomykala, 48, was standing in one of three asparagus ﬁelds on the family farm that is one year his senior. That speciﬁc plot won’t be harvested this spring, he explained, because the 3,500 asparagus crowns planted last May need to mature.

The field tops a small hill on the farm’s 40 production acres. The family cultivates about 24 of them each year, rotating annual crops such as basil, sweet

FOOD LOVER?

CHEFS TRUSTED JANE.

corn, leeks, herbs and cantaloupe around perennial asparagus and strawberry beds. At the hill’s base, below 60 peach trees, ﬁve greenhouses were nurturing ﬂats of tiny seedlings, and six unheated high tunnels protected neat rows of cucumbers and tomatoes.

On April 28, in one high tunnel, new crew member Oli Ramming was learning to trellis cucumbers. He’d found out about the farm from friends who cook at Frankie’s in Burlington. “They’re always talking about these folks,” Ramming said.

Restaurants accounted for more than 70 percent of Pomykala Farm’s $463,000 gross revenue last year, Pomykala said. Every May, his phone pings with texts from chefs eagerly asking about the vegetable herald of spring.

“It’s the most beautiful asparagus I’ve ever seen,” said longtime customer Tim Elliott, co-owner of Zabby & Elf’s Stone Soup in Burlington, “and it starts the season.”

Although asparagus is no longer the farm’s top seller, it remains identiﬁed with the Pomykalas in the public mind. Ben’s dad, Bob, began growing it from seed in the early 1980s — when most farmers bought plants, or crowns — and his mom, Jane, doggedly peddled it to chefs door-to-door.

“It’s such a unique crop,” said Vern

VERN GRUBINGER Ben, Jane and Bob Pomykala in 2017

Asparagus at Pomykala Farm

Ben Pomykala with his dog, Moona, and his dad, Bob, at their family farm in Grand Isle

Sabah’s House to Take Over

Burlington’s Church Street Kiosk

The family-run SABAH’S HOUSE catering and food cart operation will replace Leunig’s Petit Bijou in the city-owned kiosk at the corner of Church and College streets in Burlington. Church Street Marketplace, which requested proposals for the 135-square-foot space earlier this year, awarded a three-year lease to MUSTAFA KHUDAIER, who runs Sabah’s House, a business founded by his mother, SABAH ABBAS

Khudaier, 19, said he hopes to open by the end of the month with a menu of Middle Eastern fare, such as shawarma and cardamom tea, and what he described as “American classics”: breakfast pastries, sandwiches, salads and co ee drinks. The kiosk will serve year-round, Tuesday through Sunday.

LEUNIG’S BISTRO had operated the kiosk seasonally since 2017 under the previous 10-year-lease. Co-owner AMY BERNHARDT told Seven Days in February that sta ng, competition and the “struggling” downtown population challenged the spin-o operation.

Khudaier, a 2025 Burlington High School graduate, has been running a seasonal shawarma cart on the same corner as the kiosk for two years. Before that, he vended at the BTV MARKET Sabah’s House also makes regular appearances at Vermont Green games and the SOUTH END GET DOWN

“I always wanted this spot,”

Khudaier said of the kiosk at 180 College Street.

The family moved to Vermont in 2014 as refugees from the Iraq war. Abbas, who is also an artist, started a small catering business in 2019, doing pop-ups and selling food such as chicken and vegetable sambusas at the OLD NORTH END FARMERS MARKET. “She’s the one with the recipes,” her son said.

His mother is designing an eye-catching mural that will be painted on the kiosk. “I want people who come by to remember it,” Khudaier said. Follow @sabah.house on Instagram for updates.

MELISSA PASANEN

Dumpling Café to Replace Asiana House in Burlington

After a seven-month closure, GARY MA will reopen the former Asiana House at 191 Pearl Street in Burlington as DUMPLING CAFÉ. The new restaurant will o er a menu mostly consisting of housemade dim sum, such as soup dumplings, chicken feet, steamed rice rolls with shrimp and golden egg custard sesame balls; plus noodle soups, crispy roasted pork belly and roasted half ducks. Ma aims to open this week for takeout

CONNECT

Mustafa Khudaier at the future Sabah’s House kiosk on Church Street

Grubinger, University of Vermont Extension vegetable and berry specialist. “They put the energy in to figure out how to do it successfully and became a big fish in a very small sea.”

The first week of harvest often overlapped with Jane’s May 8 birthday. But this spring, for the first time in its 49 years, Pomykala Farm is gearing up for the season without Jane, who died on March 19, at age 77, of lung cancer.

At a celebration of life on April 4 at the Grand Isle School — where Jane was a substitute teacher in the offseason for many years — a crowd of at least 250 overflowed from the auditorium into the gym. A poster-size photo of Jane holding an armful of farm-grown tulips hung behind a basketball hoop. Two long rows of tables held a potluck parade of dishes brought by about three dozen chefs and a number of local farmers mentored by Jane and Bob.

The gathering demonstrated the family’s deep connections in the restaurant and farming community and testified to the impact of Pomykala Farm as a quiet, steady leader of the farm-to-table movement for almost half a century.

Lahi Ibrahim, chef de cuisine at August First in Burlington, listened to the service while occasionally stirring a massive pot of soup. “All for Jane,” he said, gesturing at the feast.

‘AN ARRANGEMENT OF EQUALS’

Jane and Bob met at a UVM blood drive in 1971 or 1972. Bob can’t pinpoint which, though he vividly remembers his surprise when she spoke to him. Jane was a graduate student in education, and he, an undergraduate studying civil engineering. While chatting, they learned they were both vegetarians, and Bob mustered the nerve to call Jane a couple of weeks later.

The two had strikingly different backgrounds, but they clicked. “It was not infatuation,” Bob, 74, said of the couple’s relationship. “It was an arrangement of equals. It was a person that you could confide in and enjoy life with. We loved each other.”

Jane had grown up in Old Greenwich, Conn., “in a family of means,” said Ben, the elder of the couple’s two sons. Her father, a Yale University graduate, sold architectural aluminum. Her mother taught art. Jane and her three siblings attended private schools and had ponies.

The family spent summers in Quogue on Long Island, though their cottage

was not fancy, Ben said. Jane loved the outdoors and, as a teenager, worked at the Quogue Wildlife Refuge, where she got her first taste of teaching. After graduating from the University of New Mexico, she moved to Vermont to pursue her master’s.

Bob came to UVM from West Rutland, to which his paternal grandparents had emigrated from Poland in the early 1900s. His father had one shriveled leg due to childhood polio, but “that never stopped him,” Bob said. Money was scant, and Bob remembers running the family shoeshine stand during grade-school summers.

Encouraged by his Catholic school teachers, Bob was the first in his family to apply for college and had to convince his

parents to sign loan and grant paperwork. He also paid his way by working on dairy farms.

Bob proposed to Jane on Church Street in Burlington with a ring he bought on layaway. In 1975, they married in Quogue, where Bob said he always “felt like a fish out of water.”

THE ASPARAGUS KING

Bob never completed his degree and decided that he wanted to farm, though not dairy. In 1977, the couple scraped together a down payment, mostly from Jane’s teaching pay, on a ramshackle hired man’s house with two acres in the

Champlain Islands. It cost $25,000 — “all we could afford,” Bob said.

They had Ben the following year, and Bob began working for Sam Mazza’s in Colchester, where he helped manage the egg and vegetable operation for six years. After working full days, Bob tended his own crop of peas on three-quarters of an acre that the younger Sam Mazza, known as Sonny, let him use.

Although he had never tasted asparagus, Bob noticed that no one was growing it locally and “figured I could sell it,” he said. The young farmer did it the hard, slow way by growing his own crowns. “Asparagus

Ben Pomykala and his dad, Bob, picking asparagus

Strawberry patch signs painted by Jane

Pomykala Farm

SIDEdishes

with on-site dining soon, depending on staffing, he said.

Asiana House was a downtown destination known for its sushi rolls and creative cocktails. But Ma, 48, said he needed a change after owning the restaurant for about 20 years.

“I’ve been doing sushi since I was 18,” he said. “I wanted to do something a little different.”

Ma said he’s observed dim sum gaining popularity in other cities. A chef friend with that type of cooking experience agreed to move from Boston to work with him.

Unlike at Asiana House, Ma plans to serve only beer and wine. While his new liquor license is pending, customers can bring their own alcohol to supplement the restaurant’s tea service.

Follow Dumpling Café Dumpling on Facebook for updates.

Peace Burger to Close at Afterthoughts in Waitsfield

The weekend of May 8 will be the last for Mad River Valley smash burger biz PEACE BURGER at its location inside AFTERTHOUGHTS, a Waitsfield venue and bar. A menu of fast-food and classic

drive-in favorites will be available for dinner, with a “fryer sale” of one-off specials, to use up the restaurant’s food before it closes, owner AARON ZURCHER said.

Zurcher launched Peace Burger as a pop-up in spring 2024 and opened at Afterthoughts in January 2025. The business started as a way for the

remote-working creative director to “find a sense of place and belonging,” Zurcher said, adding that in that respect, “it’s been such a success.”

But business was random and inconsistent, he continued, even accounting for the valley’s seasonal traffic fluctuations. And as a food biz within a bar, Peace Burger saw no income from alcohol sales — a lifeline for restaurants as costs rise.

In an April 20 Instagram post, Zurcher wrote that he didn’t expect to open the following weekend due to low sales. The post went viral, and customers rallied and made contributions. After meeting with several experienced restaurateurs to go through his financials, Zurcher decided to close the Waitsfield location for good.

He thanked Afterthoughts for giving him “an opportunity to come in there and do something with our brand” and lamented that “I couldn’t keep financially supporting what [the business] needed to keep growing.”

Zurcher will take a break to find outside work. But he plans to keep the Peace Burger name out there by hosting pop-ups again starting in midsummer — two or three per month.

Next fall or winter, he hopes to raise enough money to open a “full version of Peace Burger” in a new location, Zurcher said, adding, “I feel like this is how Peace Burger actually becomes what it was supposed to be.”

JORDAN BARRY

Smash burgers at Peace Burger

Gary Ma at Dumpling Café

Asparagus Days

seed was cheap, and crowns were expensive,” Bob said. “Remember, I didn’t have boo.”

Over three years, Bob nurtured his asparagus and transplanted it to the Grand Isle property with borrowed equipment. In 1980, the couple’s second son, Jon, was born, and Mazza helped Bob apply for a $15,000 loan to buy another 18 acres.

With 3.5 acres of asparagus, plus a smattering of annual crops, “I was the asparagus king,” Bob said with a grin.

BUILDING TRUST

Even though Jane’s family had money, the couple never asked for help. “We would run out of gasoline for the tractor, go pick up bottles on the side of the road to cash in, go buy some gas and then keep going,” Bob recalled.

While working for Mazza, Bob plotted his own path. He and Jane decided to try to build a business on direct sales, instead of selling wholesale to stores. They also resolved to keep the operation relatively small, both because they wanted to stay hands-on and because they couldn’t afford much equipment.

“Being dinky,” Bob said, “you could get by with a seed, a piece of dirt and a fork if you had to.”

Throughout their farming careers, Bob and Jane “exemplified the best of Yankee frugality,” Grubinger of UVM Extension said. He pointed to their modest farmstand and a small caterpillar hoop house Bob built from low-cost pipe and scrap lumber, which functioned as well as a kit tunnel “for a fraction of the cost.”

When the Burlington Farmers Market launched in 1980, the Pomykalas signed up. Bob remembers being wowed by their first market take of $15. Jane would remain a fixture at its various locations for almost 40 years.

As the farm grew and Jane left full-time teaching, the couple started to show up unannounced at local restaurants with crates of veggies. Jane described her approach as “pleasant and persistent,” Ben said. “She would just keep going until she sold everything,” his father added. Their early Burlington accounts included Leunig’s Bistro, the Daily Planet, and the now-shuttered Déjà Vu Café and Ice House Restaurant.

Stone Soup’s Elliott worked for Origanum Natural Foods on Burlington’s Main Street in the mid-1990s, when many farmers didn’t yet understand what chefs needed. Elliott recalled receiving dirty lettuce, beets

with wilted greens and mismatched carrots that doubled prep time.

By contrast, he said, “Jane would come in with our case of broccoli crowns beautifully cleaned and on ice. The professionalism was way ahead of its time.”

Jane cultivated her relationships with chefs as carefully as she cultivated the flowers that became her farm domain. Restaurant accounts “require really good communication and trust,” Grubinger said. “Chefs trusted Jane.”

A SURPRISE NEXT GENERATION

Much has changed over the decades since Pomykala started, such as the rebrand of kale from salad bar décor to superfood. In the old days, Bob quipped, “You would

Clockwise from top: Bob and Jane at the farm in 2022 with a harvest of asparagus; a young Jane; Jane and Bob at their farmstead with asparagus circa 1990; Jane and her granddaughter Maggie in 2019; Jane at the Burlington Farmers Market in 2014

bring three bunches of kale to the farmers market and bring five home.”

While chefs still eagerly await Pomykala’s six-week asparagus harvest, the vegetable has gradually slipped to No. 10 on the sales list, as old crowns have petered out before new fields reach full production.

The biggest change, however, was Ben’s return to the farm in 2013 — something no one anticipated, least of all Ben.

Ben and Jon grew up helping on the farm and at market. As they got older, their parents gave them responsibility for tending a specific crop from start to finish and let them keep the sales dollars. The brothers bought soccer balls and a VCR. Their pinnacle purchase, for $1,000, was a beat-up powerboat they named Snoopy

Ben said he had “zero thought” of following his parents into farming and admitted to being somewhat embarrassed by the farm through middle school. “There were a lot of really lean Christmases,” he said. “The farm was struggling, and it seemed like extremely hard work.”

Both Pomykala boys left Vermont for college and said they never felt pressure to farm. Jon now lives in Alexandria, Va., and works in legal consulting. Ben earned a degree in communications from American University in Washington, D.C., and landed a two-year Peace Corps post in Lesotho, where he met his wife, Susan.

Back in the D.C. area, Ben started a landscaping business, creating and managing vegetable gardens on suburban lawns. He also worked in management for FedEx. When the couple’s daughter was around 2, they came home for vacation. After seeing little Maggie “helping” the farm crew, they decided they needed to move back. Ben transferred with FedEx but soon found himself spending all of his free time at the farm. “It just drew me back in,” he said. His parents were grateful for the help. They had anticipated slowing down as they aged, but, Bob said, “We found it wasn’t in our body to slow down.” Even after Jane’s 2017 cancer diagnosis, Bob said, “she never complained about anything. She would just get up in the morning and work me under the table.”

Ben focused on growing sales “to prove that the farm could support my parents and my family,’’ he said. He inherited his mother’s talent for building relationships and helped her with the books. From 2015 to 2025, revenue jumped 65 percent, to just under half a million dollars, a sweet spot that works for the Pomykalas. “We want to keep our hands in the dirt,” Ben said. Bob remains owner for now, with Ben his only year-round employee. “He’s making

most of the decisions,” Bob said. “I never wanted to get involved with any monetary stuff. I just wanted to grow crops.”

Pomykala is not certified organic, although Ben and Bob said they use many sustainable practices, such as cover cropping, and apply chemicals only when absolutely necessary. “We’ve found that it’s oftentimes easier to outwit the particular problem than to try and bludgeon it to death,” Bob said.

From the start, he said, “The most important thing for me was to keep the farm, and if that meant that I would have to do something which was not certified organic, then, by golly, I would do it.”

Not being organic has become a business advantage, too, Ben said. On average, Pomykala prices are lower than organic local equivalents. “Restaurants are always looking at their bottom line,” he said.

The farm’s current biggest challenge, Ben said, is saying no to new restaurant accounts, especially when devoted chef customers move to new spots.

Henry Long first called Ben about buying tomatoes for his Burlington catering and pop-up operation, Good Grocery, in summer 2021. “He allowed me to put in laughably small orders sometimes, like

delight in filling the workshop with birthday balloons, and the back-of-the-cocoa-box brownies and blueberry-corn muffins Jane baked for daily crew coffee break.

At heart, though, she was a teacher.

Tunbridge sheep farmer, shearer and butcher Mary Lake grew up in South Hero and met Jane in her first-grade classroom. Unlike other substitutes, Lake recalled, “She held the room and had complete control. You didn’t want to disappoint Mrs. Pomykala.”

Lake later worked at the farm for several summers, and she credits Jane with helping her see farming as a viable profession for a woman. “I channel her more than anyone,” Lake said. “She showed me how you could be strong but extremely gentle, stern sometimes but also open, understanding and generous.”

Amanda Gervais worked for the Pomykalas for eight seasons before starting Savage Gardens in North Hero with her husband in 2005. Every day brings reminders of Jane’s wisdom, Gervais said, from her way of sharpening her hoe to her use of clamshells when planting to hold the tiniest seeds without static.

Gervais tries to manage her crew like Jane did, she said. “She was just always a teacher. She took time to explain things, to make sure we knew why we were doing it.”

$80,” Long said. “Most people would have told you to piss off.”

When the young chef went on to become a partner in Café Monette in St. Albans, Ben recalled saying, “I love you, man. I’m so happy for you. We’re not driving to St. Albans.”

These days, Long commutes to work from Burlington via Grand Isle twice a week to pick up his produce orders. It’s worth it for Pomykala’s “unbeatable” quality, price and service, the chef said. “His watermelon really changed my life.”

LEGACY OF A TEACHER

Despite the deeply felt loss of Jane, Pomykala Farm goes on. There may be fewer flowers, but the asparagus will come up, the cucumbers will vine up their trellis lines, and Ben and Bob will zip between fields on Club Car golf carts with Ben’s French bulldog, Moona, riding shotgun.

“I have two great loves of my life, and I lost one of them, but I still have the farm,” Bob said. “I don’t think Jane would want me to just fold up and die.”

Jane’s legacy lives on, too, in the many young people she mentored. Crew members fondly recall her joyfully silly jokes, her

When chef Jackie Major came to work at the farm in 2022, she was going through a rough personal patch, which included closing Butch + Babe’s, the Burlington restaurant where she had cooked for seven years. The Pomykalas, Major said, “wrapped me up in a cocoon of growth.”

Major worked there until she landed a chef job at Shelburne Farms last year. Initially, she said, she “sucked” at farming, but Jane took her under her wing. “She said, ‘Come right next to me. You’re gonna figure it out.’”

When she was a customer, Major said, Pomykala’s pristine produce seemed to come from a magical place. As a crew member, she realized “it takes a lot of really hard work to make the magic happen.”

But as they worked, Major recalled, Jane always made sure that the crew paused to watch a monarch butterfly in flight, or to marvel at a bird’s nest in the middle of the asparagus field. ➆

INFO

Pomykala Farm, 197 East Shore North, Grand Isle, 802-372-5157, pomykalafarm.com. The farmstand will open around the second week of May, and the Pomykalas will host a strawberry social in Jane’s honor in June. Follow the farm on social media for updates.

Jane Pomykala and Amanda Gervais in 1999

culture

Eugène Ionesco’s 1959 classic Rhinoceros pushes realism overboard to leave humor as humanity’s last hope in an absurdist world. The play begins as a crowd of bustling townspeople turn from their café conversations and shopping to observe a rhinoceros galloping past the town square. “Well, of all things!” they each say in turn, a chorus of individuals sharing the same vacuous thought. The Vermont Stage production unleashes the wild comedy ticking beneath this sly commentary on conformity.

The preposterous invades a provincial town. At first, people reject what they don’t want to believe and the journalists who report it. What the townspeople do next o ers a satirical lesson in accommodating a crushing outside force. Human after human transforms into a rhinoceros, and the mystery isn’t why but how easily people adapt. An o stage rhinoceros wrecks an o ce staircase, but the workers, still on deadline, file out the window on a fireman’s ladder. Even a mass metamorphosis doesn’t rattle people who prize normalcy.

Tricky but satisfying staging is crucial. Director Cristina Alicea uses theatrical space, sound and light to help us imagine what can’t be staged and performance to convey how characters make sense of the senseless.

big reactions. Yet this is no clown act; the characters are essentially convincing as people. Their extreme predicament never erodes their most human quality: reliance on clichés and pomposity. Characters are often propelled by single-minded energy, like jackin-the-box puppets subject to outside forces. The net e ect is a destabilized world spinning so wildly that we have to laugh.

Alicea uses zones of single colors to convey the uniformity of an o ce and radical lighting to assert the limits of reality. Sarah Sophia Lidz’s excellent costume design ﬁnds the quintessence of each town stereotype. The thundering sound of the rhinoceroses is powerfully enhanced by vibration.

Most actors play multiple characters, all of them perfect cartoons. Brayden Crickenberger, Jon Francois, Saﬁya Jamali, Aleah Papes and Laura Roald add distinctive polish to their caricatures.

Fred Patchen plays Jean on his selfimportant journey from bureaucrat to rhinoceros, including a powerful ﬁnale. Abby Maurice, with a keen instinct for comic pauses, plays the secretary who enchants both Bérenger and his o ce rival. Mark Roberts and Ian Walls are two selfstyled intellectuals whose murky ideological di erences subsist on passion alone.

She unlocks the play’s humor by rendering Ionesco’s repetitive, looping language as vocal choreography, played against physical choreography designed by Carissa Bellando. The more people onstage, the better — a wide vista of tedious arguments and frilly philosophy demonstrates how easily people are satisﬁed with a superﬁcial view of the world. A rhinoceros sticks out as odd, of course, but it’s nothing a logician can’t bury inside a temple of extraneous propositions or an intellectual can’t rationalize. It’s language that engulfs the stage, not pachyderms.

Bérenger is the central character, though he lacks any obvious heroic virtues. An unshaven, unambitious man in a rumpled shirt and drooping jacket, he drinks too much and must listen to his good friend Jean’s instruction on overcoming his manifold ﬂaws. Jean presents himself as a paradigm of reﬁnement. Bérenger is weak precisely where Jean pokes him, but it’s up to us to notice that Jean is nothing more than a fussy functionary who has accepted society’s easy recipe for purpose in life.

Ionesco’s three-act satire operates on many levels. In the aftermath of World War

Herd Mentality

eater review: Rhinoceros, Vermont Stage BY ALEX

BROWN

II and the start of the Cold War, some saw the play as a shock to the complacent, including the French who accepted the German occupation. These rhinoceroses aren’t gray but green, the color of the Wehrmacht.

Fascism was no theoretical menace to Ionesco, who immigrated to France from Romania, where he saw the rise of the Iron Guard. Contemporary audiences will miss such allusions, as well as Ionesco’s intricate deﬂation of intellectual arguments justifying Stalin or blindly advancing unions. This production wisely cuts some repetition Ionesco used to embody grandiose, hollow intelligence.

The term “theater of the absurd” refers to work by playwrights such as Ionesco and Samuel Beckett who tackled existential themes by squeezing characters into hopeless or fantastical settings and giving them nearly nothing with which to chip their way out. If life is meaningless, these plays contend, let’s put the audience face-to-face

• alex@sevendaysvt.com

with what meaningless means: hyperbole, silliness and societal collapse.

Staging the play now pours it into the new context of society’s current accommodation of authoritarianism. But Ionesco’s satire of rationalization is a product of its time. Today, we’re left with his central trick, a method for tipping the audience o balance. The political overtone slips into the background as Alicea emphasizes the bright comedy of the bourgeois succumbing to near-vaudevillian oddity sprouting up in everyday life.

All hints of realism, in costume, speech and manner, coexist with the inexplicable.

Scenic designer Chuck Padula fills the upstage wall with windows and doors, branching o a platform with two sets of stairs that send actors to ﬂoor level. As the play progresses, scene settings keep narrowing, from a town square to an o ce to a ﬂat to a character all alone.

A thrust stage obliges Alicea to keep actors moving, while stylization impels

Jordan Gullikson plays Bérenger in full untidy glory. Bérenger is our Everyman, and as such his character is a mess of blurred needs, unlike the crisply stylized folks around him. With everything else in the play drawn in primary colors, Bérenger’s mottle sometimes doesn’t register clearly. Gullikson puts so much anti in this antihero that Bérenger seems more hapless bystander than the audience’s lens, but he does focus us in the end.

In Rhinoceros, science, math, logic and philosophy all melt away. What survives is the ridiculous, poking its head in anywhere one bothers to look. The play’s raw materials allow each director to take it in di erent directions, and Alicea has chosen to send us home smiling, unperturbed by what we might have in common with these characters. Faced with a meaningless existence, laughter is perhaps not just the best response but the only one. ➆

INFO

Rhinoceros by Eugène Ionesco, translated by Derek Prouse, directed by Cristina Alicea, produced by Vermont Stage. rough May 17: ursdays through Saturdays and Wednesday, May 13, 7:30 p.m.; and Saturdays and Sundays, 2 p.m., at the Black Box eater, Main Street Landing Performing Arts Center, in Burlington. $34-54. vermontstage.org

e cast of Rhinoceros

Vermont Book Award Winners Announced

BY MARY ANN LICKTEIG

Vermont authors Sasha Hom, Carlene Kucharczyk, Mima Tipper and Helen Whybrow have won 2025 Vermont Book Awards. The recipients of the state’s highest literary prize were announced in a ceremony on Saturday at Greenway Institute in Montpelier.

Each wins $1,000 and a trophy created by local artist Bess French. The prize, administered by Vermont Humanities, was given in four categories for work published in 2025. The winners were selected from a field of 14 finalists. Three of the four were honored for their debut works.

Vermont poet laureate Bianca Stone delivered the keynote address at the event, where each award was presented by its 2024 winner.

Hom, who lives in the Northeast Kingdom, won the fiction prize for her first novella, Sidework. It follows a Korean American mother and adoptee who hustles to make money waiting tables while living on the West Coast in a van with her four children, two dogs and husband. Some details of the story reflect aspects of the author’s own life.

The novel follows 14-year-old Kat, whose plans to spend the summer training for her school’s cross-country running team are upended when her mother announces that the family will be exploring their roots in Greece. Tipper, who splits her time between South Hero and Waitsfield, is half Greek and based her story loosely on her own childhood summers visiting family in Greece. The result, Kirkus Reviews said, is “a well-balanced drama with plenty of heart.”

As Seven Days reviewer K.C. Phipps noted, “Hom’s writing is so intimate, so precise, you’d be forgiven for thinking Sidework is entirely autobiographical.” The book takes place over a single morning shift at the restaurant. “While the plot only covers seven hours,” Phipps wrote, “the story itself encompasses a vast life.”

Kucharczyk, of Woodstock, won the poetry award for Strange Hymn, her debut collection exploring morality and humanity that also won the Juniper Prize for Poetry from the University of Massachusetts Press. On the publisher’s website, Vievee Francis, winner of the 2023 Vermont Book Award for poetry, wrote, “Kucharczyk doesn’t shy away from painful insights, she states things straightforwardly, and quietly, which somehow makes the book’s keen observations, both harder to bear and clear.”

The children’s literature prize went to Tipper for her debut, Kat’s Greek Summer

Whybrow, who has written three works of nonfiction and edited four anthologies, won the creative nonfiction award for The Salt Stones: Seasons of a Shepherd’s Life, which also made the National Book Award longlist. The memoir recounts her life at Knoll Farm, the 200-acre organic farm in Fayston where she and her husband, Peter Forbes, raise Icelandic sheep. Seven Days reviewer Margot Harrison wrote that Whybrow “reminds us that the best memoirs tell stories while placing them in richly detailed contexts to show us why they matter.”

In her keynote address, Stone referenced a time when there were no books. “When we began to write things down on such lush paper with ink and words, a whole new aspect of our sense of self began,” Stone wrote in the script for her remarks.

Still, language always falls short, Stone continued, concealing something even as it reveals. The key is to keep asking questions and, “following where it leads, in its multiplicity, in language, from book to book — let the command to read be sensed in all of us. Not just the words on the page, but what lingers behind them.” ➆

From top: Sasha Hom; Carlene Kucharczyk; Mima Tipper; Helen Whybrow COURTESY PHOTOS

INFO

Learn more at vermonthumanities.org.

Award trophies

In Harmony

30 years, Brattleboro Harmonia founding director Becky Graber passes her pitch pipe to Anna Patton

BY JENNIFER SUTTON

repertoire of global folk songs, classical music, spirituals and the occasional pop song. The group changed its name earlier this year to broaden its mission and welcome nonbinary and genderqueer singers alongside women and girls. Its members have ranged in age from 10 to 93. Some have sung in choirs all their lives; others have zero experience.

say you saw it in

The doors to the First Congregational Church of West Brattleboro swung open on a Thursday evening in April, and close to 90 people streamed in, settling into the sanctuary’s curved wooden pews. They quieted only when Anna Patton, clad in a T-shirt and swingy skirt, stepped in front of them.

“Did any of you have long, complicated days?” she asked. Heads nodded. “OK,” Patton responded sympathetically, “let’s do some breathing exercises.” She guided the group through a series of inhales and exhales, followed by stretches, scales and a warm-up chant. She then lifted her arms, and the group began to sing.

Becky Graber, 71, stood quietly at the back of the church, observing the younger

woman lead the chorus Graber has helmed for 30 years. A musician, educator, composer and unofficial mentor to hundreds of singers, Graber founded Brattleboro Women’s Chorus — now Brattleboro Harmonia — three decades ago and, until recently, has been its only director. She’ll pass her pitch pipe to Patton, 46, after the two codirect Harmonia’s spring concert this Sunday, May 10, at Latchis Theatre in Brattleboro. The show, titled “The Sound Shelter of a Thousand Songs,” will feature nearly 100 singers, an instrumental ensemble, and premieres of new work by both Graber and Patton.

Under Graber, the chorus has become something of a southern Vermont institution known for its community spirit, its twice-annual concerts, and an expansive

Graber doesn’t hold auditions or use sheet music, instead teaching every song by ear. She doesn’t like written music to “get in the way,” she said.

“Becky encourages everybody to believe they can sing, and they pretty much can,” said Elizabeth Pittman, who’s been part of the chorus since its first rehearsal.

Inspired by one of her teachers, Ysaye Maria Barnwell of Sweet Honey in the Rock, Graber started the Brattleboro Women’s Chorus in 1996 and directed her first concert in the middle of a blizzard. She grew up singing in choirs in Minnesota and Connecticut and always knew she wanted to do work that combined music and people. After college, she landed in Brattleboro, left for a decade and then returned, all the while singing and playing piano and French horn in one ensemble or another, as well as teaching music in schools.

She met Patton when the chorus was still in its early years. Patton, then a student at the now-closed Marlboro College, interviewed Graber and other chorus members for an ethnography project. A clarinetist as well as a singer, Patton later earned a master’s degree at the New England Conservatory in Boston. After grad school, she started her own ensembles and joined the faculty of Vermont Jazz Center in After

Becky Graber

Brattleboro, where Graber took one of her classes.

A few years ago, Graber began to contemplate retiring from the chorus and feared she might have to shut it down. But a friend in the chorus who also sang in one of Patton’s groups suggested Patton as a successor. Graber loved the idea, as did Patton, and they’ve been collaborating for the past two years, preparing for Patton to take over the director’s role.

“Anna is a consummate musician, with an ability to arrange things in a really interesting way, using voices as instruments,” Graber said. “But she’s also good with people. Sometimes directors forget to care about the people they’re working with when they’re aiming to make beautiful music.”

BECKY

That friendly environment was a lifeline for Bonnie Garrapy, who joined the group 14 years ago when she was living in a motel and struggling with an opioid addiction. She saw a local newspaper ad inviting singers to check out the chorus and, on a desperate whim, called the number listed in the ad. Graber answered and cheerfully urged Garrapy to show up for a rehearsal.

“I thought, What is wrong with this woman? She’s too nice,” Garrapy recalled.

ENCOURAGES

Garrapy went to the rehearsal. She returned the following week, then kept going. Singing is not the only reason she’s been sober since 2014, but she cited the chorus as a big part of her recovery.

EVERYBODY TO BELIEVE THEY CAN SING, AND THEY PRETTY MUCH CAN.

That awareness and sense of connection are crucial when it comes to Graber’s signature practice of singing by ear. “You have to be very methodical and keep close track of what you’ve already taught and to what degree people are getting it,” Patton said. She called Graber’s way of teaching “a virtuosic listening exercise — hearing all the parts at once and perceiving what needs more work.”

ELIZABETH PITTMAN

“That community is one of the best things that’s ever happened to me,” she said.

At the Congregational Church rehearsal last month, Graber eventually took over for Patton. She cracked jokes, played piano with one hand and conducted with the other, and called out instructions that were gentle — “We’re floating on this line” — but also direct.

“That wasn’t too bad,” she said of one particular rendition, grinning. “But not too good, either.”

New England Family Theatre Festival Debuts in Middlebury

BY MARY ANN LICKTEIG • maryann@sevendaysvt.com

When the team at Middlebury’s Town Hall Theater set out to create a family theater festival, the inaugural event was expected to include two or three shows over the span of a weekend. But the programmers got so enthused about presenting a wide variety of disciplines “that we got a little carried away,” executive and artistic director Lisa Mitchell said.

The New England Family Theatre Festival will present nine shows and two workshops over nine days: Friday, May 8, through Saturday, May 16. Most of the music, magic, puppetry, dance, theater and circus arts events were created for children, but they are “of such a high quality that anyone at any age could come and enjoy it and have a remarkable experience,” said Mitchell, who curated the lineup.

Putney’s Sandglass Theater will open the festival with Feral, a show aimed at teens and adults that employs actors, puppets and shadow puppetry to tell the story of a woman torn between her intuitive knowledge and the societal behaviors she has learned. Members of the Feral creative team will run a free workshop on Saturday, May 9, to teach their shadow puppetry, projection and sound-looping techniques.

On Sunday, May 10, high-energy globe-trotting entertainer Mario the Maker Magician will spin DIY robotics, comedy and audience interaction into what one UK reviewer called “instant and infectious chaos in the best possible way.” Would-be scientists and magicians can explore the magic of light, color and optical illusions at a free preshow pop-up led by Middlebury STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics) tutor Carol Buzby.

Other festival headliners include Cirque Us, a New England troupe whose jugglers, acrobats, aerialists and clowns go dumpster diving to create a junkyard adventure called “One Man’s Trash”; and Show Up, Kids!, a New York City company that will stage an interactive comedy in which audience members help create the show.

A family festival complements current Town Hall Theater programs, said Lindsay Pontius, director of the theater’s Center for Learning and Engagement. The theater brings students in to see professional shows, and it launched and continues to

support an enterprise that takes the work of William Shakespeare into schools.

When the theater schedules a family event, Mitchell added, “we are packed, so we know that there’s demand for this here.”

Inspired by the Edinburgh International Children’s Festival, Mitchell hopes to grow her event. She has contacted a Dutch circus she saw in Edinburgh about coming next year — “so ’27 is already in the works,” she said.

This year, she is proud to present several local performances, including Little Women by Town Hall Theater’s Young Company; now-hOW-HOWL!, a blend of voice, movement and imagination by composer-vocalist Moira Smiley and dancer-choreographer Laurel Jenkins; and My Sister Heracles, a play written and performed by the high school students of Addison Repertory Theatre, a program of the Patricia A. Hannaford Career Center in Middlebury. The play, which follows a young girl who faces the loss of a beloved family member to a drug overdose, was named one of the top two shows at the 2026 Vermont Drama Festival and selected for last weekend’s New England Theatre Festival.

The Hokum Bros. close out the fest with a vaudeville-style family dance party at the theater’s Maloney Plaza. ➆

INFO

New England Family Theatre Festival, Friday, May 8, through Saturday, May 16, at Town Hall Theater in Middlebury. Prices vary. To receive free or reduced-price tickets, call 802-382-9222 or email tickets@ townhalltheater.org. townhalltheater.org

Learning by ear is hard for singers, too; they’re memorizing up to a dozen songs at a time. But the benefit, Pittman said, is that “we’re not fumbling with sheet music all the time. We’re looking up, and we can sing out in a different way — more confidently.”

Izzy Snyder joined the chorus in 2025, a couple of years after finishing college and moving home to Vermont. She was one of the youngest singers in the room, “but people kept coming up to me and saying they were happy that I was there,” she said. “They were enjoying themselves, like they were taking the music seriously but not so seriously that they couldn’t have fun with it and with each other.”

After codirecting Harmonia with Graber, Patton said she’s ready to lead the group on her own, knowing exactly the legacy she’s stepping into. “Becky has held the group with her caring and humor and an expectation about hard work,” Patton said. “I’ve been sitting in rehearsals, taking notes and thinking, OK, I can do that. And I can do that . And then something will happen, and I’ll be like, Well, that was magic.” ➆

INFO

Brattleboro Harmonia: “The Sound Shelter of a Thousand Songs,” Sunday, May 10, 4 p.m., at Latchis Theatre in Brattleboro. $15-40. brattleboroharmonia.org

Becky Graber and Anna Patton

Feral

Mario the Maker Magician

COURTESY PHOTOS

Pool Party

Citizen-scientists explore a vernal pool in Salisbury

On Earth Day, a group of volunteers met at a parking lot next to Lake Dunmore in Salisbury for a ﬁeld trip to a vernal pool. Also known as ephemeral pools, they are temporary, shallow wetlands that appear in the spring and are fish-free breeding grounds for amphibians. The pools have no permanent inlet or outlet, and they generally dry up by late summer.

perhaps a foot and a half deep. Tolan wore thigh-high waders to fetch spotted salamander egg masses from the center of the water. He showed them to the volunteers and used photos to help distinguish them from wood frog and Je erson salamander eggs.

These gatherings encourage people to become volunteer community scientists who will help monitor vernal pools in their area and gather data for the atlases, leading to better conservation of these rich wildlife habitats.

SEEING THE VERNAL POOLS AND SEEING THE EGG MASSES, I FEEL LIKE IT’S HOPEFUL.

KIM CALLAHAN

In the latest episode of “Stuck in Vermont,” Seven Days senior multimedia producer Eva Sollberger was there to meet all the creepy-crawlies. On the walk back to their cars, the volunteers passed a stream and uncovered a few northern two-lined salamanders, which will soon lay their eggs in the river.

She spoke about ﬁlming the episode.

Whom did you encounter?

It was an eclectic group of people. Some had science backgrounds and were from the Salisbury Conservation Commission, but there was also a young girl with her family and even a dog. One person was doing research for a children’s book and took a lot of notes.

I’d heard Jim Andrews on the radio — he was recently a guest on “Vermont Edition” — but never met him in person. He has spent more than 40 years working tirelessly to document herps, and his enthusiasm is palpable. As Tolan is busy mapping vernal pools, Andrews is adding herps to the Vermont Reptile & Amphibian Atlas. Both of them ask for help from the community to improve their databases.

What drew you to this event?

The expedition was organized by Vermont Center for

Ecostudies biologist Kevin Tolan, who has been observing and mapping these vibrant ecosystems online in the Vermont Vernal Pool Atlas and Vermont Vernal Pool Monitoring Project. Herpetologist Jim Andrews, who manages the Vermont Reptile & Amphibian Atlas, led the group along the quarter-mile scenic walk through the woods to the vernal pool. Along the way, folks checked under logs and found an eastern red-backed salamander, which doesn’t need water to reproduce.

The pool was about 20 by 35 feet and

I grew up in Johnson, and there was a small pond behind our apartment complex. As a child, I spent every warm day in that swampy muck, catching eggs and tadpoles and exploring. In 2017, I covered the spring amphibian migration on a damp night in Huntington. That evening, we met many “herps” — amphibians and reptiles — and it ﬁlled me with childlike glee. Spending the afternoon at a vernal pond sounded like a perfect Earth Day activity.

Kim Callahan, a volunteer from New Haven, has vernal pools in her area and was excited to learn about what life they contain. “Seeing the vernal pools and seeing the egg masses, I feel like it’s hopeful,” she said.

When will the eggs hatch?

The eggs we saw will probably hatch into larvae in early and late May and will be born with external gills. Once they become juvenile salamanders, they will leave the pond in late July or early August. If the water dries up before then, they won’t make it. Good luck to them all. ➆

Christie Mitchell has helped thousands of homebuyers realize their dream of homeownership throughout Vermont

“There’s nothing I love more than seeing you smile when the keys are handed over at closing.”

Seven Days senior multimedia producer Eva Sollberger has been making her award-winning video series, “Stuck in Vermont,” since 2007. New episodes appear on the Seven Days website every other ursday and air the following night on the WCAX evening news. Sign up at sevendaysvt.com to receive an email alert each time a new one drops. And check these pages every other week for insights on the episodes.

766: Vernal Pool Field Trip

on screen

The Devil Wears Prada 2 ★★★

Hollywood’s term for sequels that lag behind the original ﬁlm by decades is “legacy sequels.” Or, as I like to call them, cash grabs. Yes, movies such as Top Gun: Maverick, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice and Practical Magic 2 (coming this fall!) can be just ﬁne in their own right and o er generational bonding opportunities. But their rise speaks eloquently of the industry’s fight for survival: When all else fails to coax people into theaters, o er them second helpings of stories they already know and love.

And it works. The Devil Wears Prada 2 , released 20 years after the original and again directed by David Frankel and scripted by Aline Brosh McKenna, grossed about $77 million domestically last weekend.

The deal

Two decades ago, recent college grad Andy Sachs (Anne Hathaway) took a job as assistant to Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep), the terrifyingly exacting editor of Runway magazine. After a transformative and often abusive experience in the haute couture world, Andy left to pursue her down-market dream of “real” journalism.

When we meet the older Andy, she’s receiving an award for her hard-hitting work — and learning that her job has fallen prey to media downsizing. Meanwhile, Miranda and Runway have landed in hot water after running a story touting a sweatshop brand.

To restore the ailing magazine’s credibility, Miranda’s boss hires Andy as Runway’s features editor. While Andy is happy to reunite with her editor friend Nigel (Stanley Tucci) and excited to wow her old nemesis, Miranda remains unimpressed.

Even that cold stare, however, is no match for the market forces that took Andy’s job and soon threaten even Miranda’s lofty position. Andy’s former Runway coworker, Emily (Emily Blunt), saw the writing on the wall: She left journalism long ago and is dating a billionaire tech bro (Justin Theroux). As for Miranda and Andy, fashion maven and fashion victim may have to put aside their di erences to survive.

Will you like it?

Probably. I saw The Devil Wears Prada 2 with an enthusiastic crowd who applauded when the credits rolled. The original is a smart and spirited comedy, and fans greet the characters like old friends. Real

REVIEW

locations in New York and Italy, over-thetop costumes, and model and celebrity cameos lend the film plenty of frothy escapism.

Frankel and McKenna also deserve credit for acknowledging all the ways the real world has changed since 2006 and making the woeful state of print journalism the crux of their story. Unlike the makers of Sex and the City 2, say — which reveled in hedonistic excess in the wake of the Great Recession — these ﬁlmmakers read the room.

And yet, as the continuation of a workplace comedy about the heroine’s conﬂicted relationship with her thorny boss, The Devil Wears Prada 2 just never gels. The core problem is that the two central characters haven’t evolved in any cohesive way, and their relationship seems to mutate with the needs of each scene rather than those of the overarching story.

Initially, Miranda claims not to remember Andy, which makes for a good laugh line in the trailer. But this plot point threatens to lead the movie o a cli , because how can two people build on a previous relationship that exists for only one of them? Clearly realizing this, McKenna dismisses the problem in a single line: Apparently Miranda does remember Andy after all. How she

feels about her former employee remains unclear, however, as Streep spends the film’s first half mainly just aiming moues of refined disgust at everything and everyone.

While Miranda seems disconnected, as if she’s grown beyond this nonsense, Andy might as well not have aged a day. The acclaimed journalist is still puppyishly desperate for her ﬁrst boss’ approval. The ﬁlm’s lack of realism about professional writing can be forgiven, and it’s refreshing to see Andy portrayed as happily single. But then she gets a token love interest (Patrick Brammall) who takes screen time away from the relationships we actually care about.

Because Andy and Miranda’s interactions no longer crackle with tension, our attention may wander. It doesn’t help that the screenplay is peppered with one-liners that sound like a chatbot: “I love that for you.” “Stockholm called, they want their syndrome back.”

Blunt and Theroux become the movie’s MVPs simply by playing their comically unlikable characters to the hilt. When Emily confronts Miranda with her own grievances, we ﬁnally get ﬂashes of the intensity we’ve been missing. These two women feel like they have an embattled history in which Andy was only a footnote.

In the ﬁlm’s second half, Miranda ﬁnally gets a few juicy scenes, and Streep delivers a stirring defense of the value of human craft in a mechanized capitalist hellscape. If only the movie itself felt less like it was made in a factory and more like it was lovingly stitched by hand.

MARGOT HARRISON margot@sevendaysvt.com

IF YOU LIKE THIS, TRY…

THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA (2006; HBO Max, rentable): In case you didn’t already rewatch it in preparation…

THE SEPTEMBER ISSUE (2009; the CW, Kanopy, Philo, Pluto TV, PLEX, Prime Video, Roku Channel, Sling TV, YouTube, rentable): If you’re curious about longtime Vogue editor Anna Wintour, the inspiration for Miranda, watch R.J. Cutler’s documentary that follows her as she meticulously oversees a single massive issue of the magazine.

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ANDRÉ (2017; Fandango at Home, Kanopy, Tubi, YouTube, rentable): Another Vogue ﬁxture was late writer and editor André Leon Talley. is documentary portrait of him features many fashion icons.

Anne Hathaway reprises her role as an idealistic journalist in this middling sequel set two decades after the original.

NEW IN THEATERS

BILLIE EILISH: HIT ME HARD AND SOFT — THE TOUR LIVE IN 3D: The singer-songwriter codirected her concert film with James Cameron. (114 min, PG-13. Essex, Majestic)

BLUE HERON: Sophy Romvari’s semi-autobiographical festival favorite explores the dynamics of a family on Vancouver Island. Eylul Guven stars. (90 min, NR. Savoy [all week], VTIFF [Thu only])

DJ AHMET: Music is an escape for a teen in rural Macedonia in Georgi M. Unkovski’s comedy-drama from Turkey. (99 min, NR. Partizanfilm)

EAGLES OF THE REPUBLIC: In this political thriller from Egypt, a prominent actor (Fares Fares) is forced to star in a propaganda film. Tarik Saleh directed. (129 min, NR. Partizanfilm)

MORTAL KOMBAT II: Martial artists have to save the world. Karl Urban and Ludi Lin star; Simon McQuoid directed. (116 min, R. Bijou, City Cinema, Essex, Majestic, Paramount, Star, Sunset, Welden)

OMAHA: John Magaro stars in Cole Webley’s Sundance Film Festival premiere about a dad taking his kids on a spur-of-the-moment road trip. (83 min, PG-13. Savoy)

THE SHEEP DETECTIVES: A flock sets out to solve the murder of their shepherd in this mysterycomedy-family flick starring Hugh Jackson. (109 min, PG. Bijou, Capitol, City Cinema, Essex, Majestic, Marquis, Star, Sunset, Welden)

CURRENTLY PLAYING

THE AI DOC: OR HOW I BECAME AN APOCALOPTIMISTHHH A father-to-be wonders if artificial intelligence will make humans obsolete in this documentary. (103 min, PG-13. Catamount)

ANIMAL FARMH1/2 Angel Studios offers an animated take on George Orwell’s barnyard allegory. (96 min, PG. Big Picture, Essex, Majestic, Paramount)

THE CHRISTOPHERSHHHH Michaela Coel plays a forger hired to complete the unfinished work of a still-living renowned artist (Ian McKellen). (100 min, R. Partizanfilm; reviewed 4/22)

DEEP WATERHH1/2 The survivors of a plane crash must fight off sharks in Renny Harlin’s disaster flick. (110 min, R. Capitol, Essex, Majestic, Sunset)

THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA 2HH1/2 A journalist (Anne Hathaway) reunites with her one-time boss from hell (Meryl Streep) in David Frankel’s sequel. (119 min, PG-13. Big Picture, Bijou, Capitol, City Cinema, Essex, Majestic, Marquis, Playhouse, Star, Stowe, Sunset, Welden; reviewed 5/6)

ERUPCJAHHH1/2 Lena Góra and Charlie XCX star in this sapphic romance from Poland. (71 min, NR. Partizanfilm)

FANTASY LIFEHHH1/2 Matthew Shear wrote, directed and stars in this rom-com about a New York actor (Amanda Peet) falling in love with her kids’ babysitter. (91 min, R. Savoy)

HOKUMHHHH Adam Scott plays a horror writer who visits a reportedly haunted inn to scatter his parents’ ashes in this scare film from Damian Mc Carthy (Oddity). (107 min, R. Essex, Majestic, Paramount)

KONTINENTAL ’25HHHH A bailiff’s eviction of a homeless person has unforeseen consequences in Radu Jude’s award-winning drama. (109 min, NR. Partizanfilm)

MICHAELHH This drama from Antoine Fuqua chronicles the life of pop legend Michael Jackson (Jaafar Jackson). (127 min, PG-13. Essex, Majestic, Star, Stowe, Sunset)

MIROIRS NO. 3HHHH In this suspense drama, a young woman (Paula Beer) moves in with a witness to the car accident that killed her boyfriend. (86 min, NR. Savoy)

PROJECT HAIL MARYHHHH A science teacher (Ryan Gosling) finds himself on a mission to save Earth. (156 min, PG-13. Bijou, Capitol, Essex, Majestic, Sunset)

THE SUPER MARIO GALAXY MOVIEHH Mario explores space in the sequel to the animated adventure hit. (98 min, PG. Bijou, Capitol, Essex, Majestic, Stowe)

OLDER FILMS AND SPECIAL SCREENINGS

COEXISTENCE, MY ASS! (Partizanfilm, Mon only)

DOUBLE INDEMNITY (VTIFF, Sat only)

FRIED GREEN TOMATOES 35TH ANNIVERSARY (Essex, Sun & Wed 13 only)

NAKED (Partizanfilm, Wed 6 only)

THE PIANO (VTIFF, Fri only)

THE SECRET OF KELLS (Partizanfilm, Sat only)

SERIAL MOM (Partizanfilm, Sun only)

THE UNKNOWN (1927) (VTIFF, Wed 6 only)

OPEN THEATERS

(* = upcoming schedule for theater was not available at press time)

*BIG PICTURE THEATER: 48 Carroll Rd., Waitsfield, 496-8994, bigpicturetheater.info. Closed through April 29.

BIJOU CINEPLEX 4: 107 Portland St., Morrisville, 888-3293, bijou4.com

CAPITOL THEATER: 93 State St., Montpelier, 229-0343, fgbtheaters.com

CATAMOUNT ARTS: 115 Eastern Ave., St. Johnsbury, 748-2600, catamountarts.org

CITY CINEMA: 137 Waterfront Plaza, Newport, 334-2610, citycinemanewport.com

ESSEX CINEMAS & T-REX THEATER: 21 Essex Way, Suite 300, Essex, 879-6543, essexcinemas.com

MAJESTIC 10: 190 Boxwood St., Williston, 878-2010, majestic10.com

MARQUIS THEATER: 65 Main St., Middlebury, 388-4841, middleburymarquis.com.

PARAMOUNT TWIN CINEMA: 241 N. Main St., Barre, 479-9621, fgbtheaters.com

*PARTIZANFILM: 230 College St., Unit 13, Burlington, 276-4588, partizanfilm.org

PLAYHOUSE MOVIE THEATRE: 11 S. Main St., Randolph, 728-4012, playhouseflicks.com

SAVOY THEATER: 26 Main St., Montpelier, 2290598, savoytheater.com

THE SCREENING ROOM @ VTIFF: 60 Lake St., Ste. 1C, Burlington, 660-2600, vtiff.org

STAR THEATRE: 17 Eastern Ave., St. Johnsbury, 748-9511, stjaytheatre.com

*STOWE CINEMA 3PLEX: 454 Mountain Rd., Stowe, 253-4678, stowecinema.com

SUNSET DRIVE-IN: 155 Porters Point Rd., Colchester, 862-1800, sunsetdrivein.com

WELDEN THEATRE: 104 N. Main St., St. Albans, 527-7888, weldentheatre.com

Billie Eilish: Hit Me Hard and Soft

Optical Allusion

Brooklyn

artist Michael Hambouz’s

enigmatic Kishka Gallery show encourages discombobulation

BY PAMELA POLSTON • ppolston@sevendaysvt.com

The phrase “Things are not always what they seem” can sound promising or unsettling. In the exhibition “Michael Hambouz: Like Literally Figuratively,” that duality is a motif. White River Junction’s Kishka Gallery & Library currently features wall-hung works by the Brooklyn artist, and every one of them is enigmatic — in a good way. That is, in a way that makes you want to linger and scrutinize until you can answer the questions What am I looking at here? and How did he do that? Even if you can’t, that’s OK; the exploration alone is pleasantly discombobulating.

“Personally and selfishly, what I’m drawn to in a gallery or museum is work where I don’t know what I’m looking at,” Hambouz, 49, said in a phone interview. “I like being tricked into looking carefully around a piece. Sometimes you miss some beautiful work because you didn’t take the time.”

His nine-piece exhibition at Kishka consists of one screen print and eight paintings on wood panel that come in two dimensions or three.

Installed near the gallery entrance, Hambouz’s seven-layer print titled “Daylight” immediately draws the viewer into its captivating composition: A red, black and white-striped snake covers

nearly all of the square image, but the typically sinuous creature is channeled into straight lines and right angles, nestling into successively smaller squares. At the center, the serpent’s head pokes into a white space, which might be read as a portal — or just a place to rest the eyes. If the design of “Daylight” is rectilinear, its visual e ect is anything but. Hambouz creates the appearance of dimension with meticulous shadowing, and the irregular placement of black and red markings is a choreography you can’t quite follow. Anticipating an M.C. Escher-like illusion, this viewer stood in front of the piece and visually traced the snake’s path like a child with a pencil

and a printed maze. But Hambouz has subverted Escher; there is no impossible construction, just a relentless directionality, around and around, toward the core. And then freedom?

“Daylight” is not the only piece in the exhibition that evokes metaphor.

“Current Mood,” made with gouache, acrylic ink and wood on a 36-inch-square panel, presents a similarly labyrinthine composition with two tracks. One is painted a vivid yellow and slashed with pointy isosceles triangles of orange and reds, giving it a ﬁ ery appearance. The other, in green, turns out to be a garden hose. Hambouz has painted a cartoony facsimile of gleaming brass hardware at both ends: one at the “entrance” on the right side of the piece, the other at the center. This portal looks surprisingly turbulent, painted in brushy white and gray. Three blue drips fall from the end of the hose.

In “N/C,” Hambouz returns to the tricolor snake, but this time it weaves through parallel structures painted in earthy browns and greens. This forced order recalls the security queue at an airport. Its “barricades” are made of balsa wood, cut in triangular strips à la Toblerone chocolate bars.

Viewers are advised to examine not only the fronts but also the sides of Hamouz’s constructions; he extends the paintings onto the frames, usually including delightful surprises. Case in point: “C’s Still Got Your T.” This 24-inch-square maze is simpler but is built up in layers six inches deep. Its alternating tracks are pink and black, and the latter decidedly references cats. One clue is that the end of this balsa-wood cat is painted to resemble a furry tail. Another is nine scattered pairs of yellow eyes, which peer from the matte black as if from an abyss. Viewers who check out the right side of the frame will be met with a toothy grin.

In a way, Hambouz’s sly humor is diversionary. A deeper consideration of his work suggests darker themes. The random entrances and exits, the claustrophobic pathways, the tightly coiled energy all hint at a pursuit of outcomes

Embrace Your Inner Artist

not readily found. Most viewers can relate to this quandary for any number of reasons.

For Hambouz, a recent struggle has been visual — literally. “I had back-toback detached retinas, which made the precision pretty tricky,” he said. Surgeries saved Hambouz’s vision, but he still experiences distortion. “The hope is the brain will ﬁgure it out,” he added. “But I can drive, ride a bike, paint.” Boy, can he paint. He can also make 2D look 3D and vice versa. His two 12-inch-square watermelon pieces, tipped sideways to hang like diamonds, seem identical. But “I Hope (You Don’t Mime)” is an acrylic gouache painting on ﬂat panel; “B/W/R/G” is constructed

I LIKE BEING TRICKED INTO LOOKING CAREFULLY AROUND A PIECE.

MICHAEL HAMBOUZ

with wood strips, but Hambouz painted its crenellated surface to match the 2D painting. Observed from a little distance, or in photographs, both look simultaneously ﬂat and sculpted. Call them fraternal twins.

These works are about more than perceptual trickery; subtle political symbolism is also afoot.“B/W/R/G” represents black, white, red and green — the colors in a watermelon. They are also the colors in the ﬂag of Palestine.

Hambouz, whose father was a Palestinian refugee to the U.S., explained that at points in history when their ﬂag was forbidden, Palestinian artists painted watermelons in its stead. There is even coding in the patterns of black seeds, he noted.

In “Like Literally Figuratively,” it seems there are messages both lost and found. ➆

INFO

“Michael Hambouz: Like Literally Figuratively,” on view through May 23 at Kishka Gallery & Library in White River Junction. kishka.org

Find joy in self-expression with support from encouraging instructors.

Enrolling all levels for Drawing, Painting, and Fused Glass Classes.

Clockwise from left: “N/C”; “Daylight”; “Current Mood”

OPENINGS + RECEPTIONS

PAUL MARKOWITZ AND CHIP HAGGERTY: “Letting

Loose: The Art of Intuition, Imagination, and Fun,” featuring kinetic works focused on balance, movement, color and line by Markowitz and narrative paintings created from paper bags by Haggerty. River Arts, Morrisville, through June 17.

RACHEL RODI AND A FELLOW TRAVELER: A show featuring two artists from the Howard Center Arts Collective. Rodi was a founding member of the collective; her work is lovingly presented posthumously. A Fellow Traveler (Jason Kekac), a newer member of the group, offers both a personal narrative and a message of outward support. Flynndog Gallery, Burlington, through July 17.

LENNY CHRISTOPHER: “Together Across Time: A Century of Vermont State Parks,” an exhibition of photographs taken on the artist’s tour of all 55 parks with his family. Reception: Thursday, May 7, 3-5 p.m. Vermont Statehouse Cafeteria, Montpelier, through May 29.

MARY JANE OWENS: “Echoes of a Flying Jewel,” a senior capstone project in the Art & Design program. Reception: Thursday, May 7, 6-7 p.m. McCarthy Art Gallery, Saint Michael’s College, Colchester, Through May 10.

‘FINDING HOPE WITHIN’: An exhibition of art that has emerged through the carceral system in Vermont and includes drawings, mixed media, poetry and narrative writing. Closing reception features short presentations by curators Heather Newcomb, Ashley Messier and A Revolutionary Press. Closing Reception: Friday, May 8, 5 p.m.; curatorial presentations at 4 p.m. MAC Center for the Arts, Newport, through May 8.

‘ON POINT: NEEDLEWORK FROM THE GARTHWAITE FAMILY COLLECTION’: A detailed exhibition exploring the artistry, education and lived experiences of young women in 19th-century Vermont through examples of needlework and related decorative arts. Shelburne Museum, May 9-October 25.

‘A FAREWELL TO THE WESTERN WORLD’: An exhibition featuring approximately 70 artworks in painting, drawing, sculpture and photography that depict imagery suggestive of global shifts and an irreverence toward systems of established order. Hall Art Foundation, Reading, May 9-November 29.

CHRISTIAN MARCLAY: “Made to Be Destroyed,” a film compilation of scenes of real and fictional artworks being smeared, broken, torn, toppled, burned or otherwise damaged. Hall Art Foundation, Reading, May 9-November 29.

PIOTR UKLANSKI: “The Nazis,” a large-scale photographic installation featuring 164 images of Nazis as depicted by Hollywood over the course of decades. Hall Art Foundation, Reading, May 9-November 29.

HOMER WELLS: A retrospective celebrating the artist’s career, including works from his time as a Burlington sign maker and his later etched, engraved and painted aluminum panels that shift with the light. Reception: Saturday, May 9, 3-5 p.m. Edgewater Gallery at the Falls, Middlebury, May 9-July 5.

‘ART IT UP!’: An exhibition of works in the SecondFloor Gallery created and donated by local artists for a silent auction to benefit the organization’s programs. Online and in-person bidding through the end of the exhibition. Reception: Saturday, May 9, 4:30-6 p.m. Studio Place Arts, Barre, through June 5.

‘MILK CANS, BEES AND MAPLE TREES’: A group show, in the Main Floor Gallery, in which 33 artists delve into the beauty and challenges associated with Vermont farms. Reception: Saturday, May 9, 4:30-6 p.m. Studio Place Arts, Barre, through June 13.

‘ROADS TAKEN: TRAVEL, PASSAGE AND THE RURAL ROUTE’: An exhibition that reflects on the open road,

Mother-Daughter Dance

From construction-paper collages to flat pinch pots, on Mother’s Day we receive and unequivocally adore our children’s heartfelt handmade gifts. But what if our kids actually grow up to be artists? This month, Burlington’s Katharine Montstream and her daughter Charlotte Dworshak present a show with two distinct stylistic voices drawn from the same creative lineage.

Montstream offers nocturnal landscapes that glow with moonlight, fireflies and aurora borealis — aspects of night she said inspire gratitude rather than fear. Dworshak contemplates iconic red flowers, painted large, in her series: Each 4-by-5-foot canvas is a statement about how she was doing on a given day while grieving the loss of her grandmother. These disparate ways of grappling with emotional truths look very different but share a bold, unhesitant approach to palette and composition.

On a gallery visit, Dworshak said Montstream didn’t teach her to paint but did teach her to look at the color of the lake every morning on the way to school. Montstream, as proud and mystified as any mom, put it more bluntly: “She didn’t learn anything from me.”

‘NOCTURNE: KATHARINE MONTSTREAM & CHARLOTTE DWORSHAK’

On view through May 30; artist talk, Wednesday, May 27, 6-7:30 p.m., at the SEABA Center in Burlington. seaba.com

from country lanes to secret byways, on view in the Main Gallery. Reception: Sunday, May 10, 1-3 p.m. Bryan Memorial Gallery, Jeffersonville, May 6-July 5.

‘SUMMIT LINES: THE PEAKS OF NEW ENGLAND’: An exhibition celebrating New England’s mountain ranges, including views of the Green Mountains, the White Mountains, the Adirondacks, the Appalachians and the Berkshires, on view in the Main Gallery.

Reception: Sunday, May 10, 1-3 p.m. Bryan Memorial Gallery, Jeffersonville, May 6-July 5.

JOEY MORGAN: “Forgotten Not Gone,” an exhibition by the Brattleboro artist of a series of 12 mixedmedia collages that transform fragments of a flood-damaged project into an exploration of loss, memory and personal transformation. Reception: Sunday, May 24, 5-7 p.m. Next Stage Arts, Putney, May 8-August 9.

VISUAL ART EVENTS

ESSEX ART LEAGUE: A group of Vermont artists and enthusiasts who meet monthly for presentations, critique sessions and discussions. First Congregational Church of Essex Junction, Thursday, May 7, 9-11 a.m. Free; $25 annual dues after two free meetings.

LIFE DRAWING AND PAINTING: A drop-in event for artists working with the figure from a live model. T.W. Wood Museum, Montpelier, Thursday, May 7, 7-9 p.m. Free; $15 suggested donation.

ARTIST TALK: JOHN UMPHLETT: A discussion with the artist of his installation, video, performance and sculpture, which explore the intersections of the body, mechanics and conceptual experimentation. Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, Thursday, May 7, 8-9 p.m. Free.

ARTIST TALK: JIMMIE JAMES: A discussion of the artist’s exhibition, “Stories Change,” followed by a musical performance by James with guitarist Jackson FitzGerald. 571 Projects, Stowe, Friday, May 8, 5-7 p.m. Free.

ARTIST TALK: MELANY KAHN: “Tiny Talk, Big Story,” a discussion with the founder and director of the Brattleboro Festival of Miniatures of the world of miniatures and the festival’s evolution. Chaffee Art Center, Rutland, Friday, May 8, 5:30 p.m.

COMMUNITY DAY: An all-ages celebration at which visitors can explore the museum’s galleries and new exhibitions and take part in curator-led tours, art-making sessions, games and performances. Shelburne Museum, Saturday, May 9, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Free.

GREEN MOUNTAIN WOODCARVERS CARVE-IN: A drop-in demonstration by members of the group, who work on their own carving projects and answer questions about the craft. Birds of Vermont Museum, Huntington, Saturday, May 9, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Museum admission; free for members.

FANTASY ART GOUACHE CLASS WITH JAMES BEIHL: A workshop by the artist, including a demonstration of how to paint a whimsical mushroom house and a lesson in sketching a scene in the medium. Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, Saturday, May 9, 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Free; registration required.

ART SOCIAL: A reception with the artists celebrating three new exhibitions and a student pop-up show in the classroom. Studio Place Arts, Barre, Saturday, May 9, 4:30-6 p.m. free.

EMPTY BOWLS FUNDRAISER: An event at which participants receive a handmade pottery bowl with homemade soup, bread, beverage and dessert, to benefit Marthat’s Community Kitchen in St. Albans. St. Paul’s United Methodist Church of St. Albans, Saturday, May 9, 4-6:30 p.m. $30; $15 for kids under 12.

SOCIAL SUNDAY: An opportunity for children and caregivers to stop in and complete a 15- to 30-minute activity during the two-hour workshop. Milton Artists’ Guild Art Center & Gallery, Sunday, May 10, 1-3 p.m. Free.

FIGURE DRAWING: Artists at all levels of experience are invited to draw from a live model. Drawing boards and easels provided; participants bring drawing materials. 18-plus; preregistration required. Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, Sunday, May 10, 2-4 p.m. $20; $5 for current VSC residents.

VERMONT WEEK OPEN STUDIOS: Self-guided studio tours of work by the more than 50 local artists- and writers-in-residence. Refreshments from the Alchemist, Plymouth Artisan Cheese, Vermont Cookie Love and Zero Gravity. Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, Sunday, May 10, 2-4 p.m. Free.

PORTRAIT DRAWING AND PAINTING: A drop-in event where artists can practice skills in any medium. T.W. Wood Museum, Montpelier, Monday, May 11, 10 a.m.-noon. Free; $15 suggested donation.

CARVING CIRCLE: A space for printmakers to carve, glue or incise blocks together. Studio tools available; no printing takes place. Two Rivers Printmaking Studio, White River Junction, Tuesday, May 12, 6-8 p.m. Free.

CALL TO ARTISTS

PROPOSALS FOR ‘EXPOSED’ 2026: Now accepting proposals for outdoor sculpture, site-specific installations, interventions and participatory works to be part of “Exposed,” the annual exhibition of artwork on the grounds of the art center and throughout Stowe Village from June to October. Selected artists receive a $1,000 stipend to offset transportation costs. Apply at thecurrentnow.org. The Current, Stowe. Deadline: May 17. ➆

Detail of “Loon With Moon” by Katharine Montstream; detail of “Over & Out” by Charlotte Dworshak

Dangerous Characters: A Conversation with Elizabeth Allen

WED., MAY 6

PHOENIX BOOKS, BURLINGTON

Understanding Cannabis with Dr. Riley Kirk

THU., MAY 7

PHOENIX BOOKS, BURLINGTON

Benefit for Planned Parenthood w/ DJ Love & Dr. Elizabeth Hunt, Candidate for State Senate

FRI., MAY 8

THE SEABA CENTER, BURLINGTON

Mathias Dubilier: 'This Way but Not Here: An Ode to Lake Champlain': Book Launch!

FRI., MAY 8

PHOENIX BOOKS, BURLINGTON

2026 Comedy Play Fest

FRI., MAY 8 - SUN., MAY 10

GRANGE HALL CULTURAL CENTER, WATERBURY

The Pharcyde with Konflik and Nasteelovesyou

FRI., MAY 8

AFTERTHOUGHTS, WAITSFIELD

Valley Prom with Craig Mitchell

SAT., MAY 9

AFTERTHOUGHTS, WAITSFIELD

Dances in Bloom

SUN., MAY 10

CASELLA THEATER AT VTSU CASTLETON

Side

Kilmartin

on death, the Oscars and Clavicular

In 2022, when Politico leaked Justice Samuel Alito’s draft opinion that stated Roe v. Wade was “egregiously wrong,” comedian Laurie Kilmartin had something to say about it. In her 2024 standup special “Cis Woke Grief Slut,” she repeats what she said on live TV to a panel on MSNBC: “I hope that leaker is a Republican, because I’m gonna ﬁnd him, have sex with him, get pregnant and joyfully abort the fetus.”

Naturally, conservatives went nuts. But for Kilmartin, a mother, it was just another joke — an ironic one, considering she was in her late ﬁfties at the time. Not exactly a woman’s prime childbearing years.

Kilmartin’s standup regularly plunges into dark topics, notably death. Her 2017 live album is titled 45 Jokes About My Dead Dad. But she’s also part of the writing team responsible for the catty zingers and clever bons mots Conan O’Brien and other celebrities ﬁred o at the past two Academy Awards ceremonies. A longtime collaborator, Kilmartin served for many years as a sta writer on the carrot-topped host’s TBS late-night show, “Conan.”

Kilmartin, who is based in Los Angeles,

I GREW UP WITH A DARK CATHOLIC FAMILY THAT MADE A LOT OF JOKES ABOUT EVERYTHING, AND SO THAT’S WHAT I LIKE TO DO ONSTAGE.

LAURIE KILMARTIN

performs four shows on Friday and Saturday, May 8 and 9, at Vermont Comedy Club in Burlington. Seven Days recently caught up with her by phone.

What do you say to people who have no sense of humor about death?

I think everyone has a comfort level, and if someone has no sense of humor about death, they probably just haven’t heard the right jokes for them, you know? It depends on how you were raised and what kind of family you’re from. All of our senses of humor are informed by our parents, our family. I grew up with a dark

fury away from her for a second, and I remember that as a great victory.

Congrats on two years back-to-back in the Oscars writers’ room. How familiar are you with the nominated ﬁlms on the ﬁrst day you all sit down?

What’s really fun is, the Oscars has an app with every possible movie that could be nominated, so you can watch at home. So I watched all the full-length ﬁlms, for sure, and a lot of the shorts. We just wanted to have the right jokes ready in case a certain ﬁlm got on a run. And then, as soon as the Oscars were over, they turn the app access o . As writers, it’s like, “All right, you guys were temporary hires.”

Do you and the other writers watch stuff together?

We’ve mostly watched on our own. If we watch something together, it’s because we’re making fun of it.

You sometimes talk about your Gen Z son in your comedy. What’s a current youth trend that you ﬁnd disturbing or ridiculous?

Catholic family that made a lot of jokes about everything, and so that’s what I like to do onstage.

I liked your 9/11 joke in “Cis Woke Grief Slut.”

You know what? I just reposted that yesterday, and it’s so funny, because everyone on Instagram gets it and almost everyone on Facebook was enraged. I feel like Facebook pushes my jokes out to people that don’t like me or my sensibility, and then they just get vile in the comments. But I guess that’s social media engagement, so I’ll accept it.

What’s the earliest memory you have of something that you thought was funny or when you made other people laugh?

There was this gang of girls that were really mean to me in fourth grade, and we had a creative writing assignment. And I wrote a story, and it made the top girl laugh, and I immediately felt like I had won, even if she continued to be mean to me. Like, I got her for a second. She let her guard down, and I snatched her

I don’t know. I mean, if you threw something at me, I could tell you if I approved of it or not. My son is 19. I guess the only thing I’m sort of bummed about is, they just don’t hang out together in person. They go online, and he’s hanging out with his friends, but they’re not in person. They’re losing something — the ability to make small talk and just being bored with each other. So that kind of bums me out. But in terms of, like — I know [eating] Tide Pods was, like, 10 years ago. I can’t think of something o the top of my head that they’re doing.

I read that this guy Clavicular is smashing his face with a hammer to achieve “looksmaxxing” — i.e., looking as handsome as possible. Oh, right. I mean … that is so sad. If you don’t have a kid that age, you start to think all people that age do that. My son is almost exactly the same age as Clavicular. Not only can I not imagine my son hitting himself with a hammer, but also none of his friends. They all think that’s insane.

I got about a quarter of the way through his New York Times proﬁle, and I was like, I can’t read this anymore

No, it’s bad for your brain. It’s bad for him. I mean, I feel like this isn’t — whatever’s happening with him is a disorder, and he should be hospitalized. And we should give him privacy, not watch him hit

Laurie Kilmartin

On the Beat

Ah, the Daysies. Our annual readers’ choice awards are, by and large, a pretty fun exercise in local democracy, a survey of the best of Vermont that culminates in a big summer party on the scenic Burlington waterfront. What could possibly piss people off about that?

Well, let me tell you: a lot, homies. The Daysies seem to ruffle feathers in the music community every year. Sometimes people are peeved that their favorite artist didn’t win or that a particular band wasn’t even nominated. This year, as the write-in nomination round wrapped up on Sunday, it’s the categories themselves that have generated a bit of online ire.

For those who didn’t notice, some categories from previous years have been retired. In particular, we cut ones for specific genres of music — rock, jazz, hip-hop, etc. In their stead, we used the broader category of best band and preserved other categories such as best instrumentalist, best vocalist and so on.

Why? As I’ve made clear many times in the past, I’m not the dude who calls the Daysies shots. But when the top brass approached me about doing away with some of the music categories, I had no qualms.

The logic was simple: The categories

Eye on the Scene

Last week’s highlights from photographer Luke Awtry

SOME THINGS LAST A LONG TIME AT FOAM BREWERS, SATURDAY, MAY 2: Damn, it feels good to have too much music going on in and around Burlington on a single day. On Saturday, Burlington Odd Fellows in the New North End celebrated its anniversary with ASSORTED FRUIT, MR. DOUBTFIRE and PHANTOM SUNS. Over the bridge in Winooski, Standing Stone Wines hosted Breaking Windows, where rotary locals and fans of the late, great Waking Windows music festival were treated to WW regulars, including BLUE BUTTON SEAN HOOD, JESSE TAYLOR and MISSY BLY. But the weekend’s musical epicenter was at the Burlington waterfront: Foam Brewers celebrated its 10th anniversary with a three-day festival called Some Things Last a Long Time. Saturday’s slate started at 11 a.m. with DJ KANGANADE. Then the HIGH BREAKS (pictured) played their controversial Smirk of the Dolphin album from start to finish, followed by sets from MC MATT HAGEN, WILD LEEK RIVER BOB WAGNER and others. Capping the evening was the official bash at the Higher Ground Ballroom in South Burlington, headlined by indie favorites — and the namesake of Foam’s flagship IPA — BUILT TO SPILL, with local opener Lily Seabird. I couldn’t catch it all, but cheers to you if you did.

music+nightlife

himself with a hammer to make his cheekbones stand out.

What’s something you used to worry about that you just don’t anymore? And what’s something you used to not worry about that you now do?

I kind of don’t worry about my career anymore because it went a di erent way than I thought it would. And I’m OK with it. I can look back on my life and be like, Yeah, that’s cool that I was able to do that. In the beginning, I was very worried. Would anything happen? Would there be anything good, you know? What’s going to happen to me? And now I have a little bit to look back on and go, OK, you know, it wasn’t what I thought it would be, but it’s really cool, and I’m so grateful for that.

And the flip side, I guess … death. Like, when you’re 25, you don’t think you’re gonna die. And now, I know I’m going to die. It’s on the horizon. I just try to work out a lot so my last ﬁve years aren’t super feeble. My mother moved in with me; I was her caretaker for her last four years. I learned a lot from watching her navigate the last years of her life. I just don’t want to be falling all the time.

Do you ever feel like you reach the end of a topic and are done making jokes about it?

There’s always a new angle. Whatever topic you’re working on, the jokes you’re using about that topic are getting in the way of the other jokes that are waiting to be written — you know, like they’re underneath. So you’re always peeling away layers. Like, I thought I would be done talking about motherhood after my son turned 18, but it’s just di erent now.

As humans, there’s not that many topics. Like, you want to be in love. You want to have sex. You want to be loved. And that’s about it. ➆

This interview was edited for clarity and length.

INFO

Laurie Kilmartin, Friday, May 8, and Saturday, May 9, 7 and 9 p.m., at Vermont Comedy Club in Burlington. $25. 18+ recommended. vermontcomedyclub.com

vote themselves. You can see our catch-22.

will deﬁnitely be no prizes involved. It might actually hurt your brand! OK, I’m warming up to this. Stay tuned for my undemocratic, completely arbitrary awards. And vote in Round 2 of the Daysies from June 2 to 15 at sevendaysvt.com.

In other news, the Burlington Discover Jazz Festival announced on April 30 — International Jazz Day, no less — the “Around Town” programming for its 43rd iteration. The Flynn has partnered with a collection of local venues and businesses, as well as Burlington City Arts, to showcase the local jazz scene during the fest, which runs from June 3 to 7.

Well over 30 local acts, including SOULE MONDE, the DAN RYAN EXPRESS, JANÉA HUDSON, EVNGWEAR, BIRDCODE, CONNOR YOUNG & THE RESTLESS TRIO, and the ALEX STEWART BAND, are set to perform at nightclubs and restaurants all over town.

on the chopping block weren’t getting robust voter engagement. And thus each year some folks in the music scene would grumble that the results didn’t represent it well. Even local musician and DJ CRAIG MITCHELL, a perennial Daysies winner, often beseeched his fans to vote for other DJs … only to win anyway.

That’s not to say Mitchell isn’t deserving of recognition — he certainly is, and there’s still a DJ category this year that he may just run away with again. The problem is that the average Seven Days reader generally only knows the biggest names in local music and couldn’t parse who should win in nine very speciﬁc music genres. And local musicians who are in the know tend to be shy about campaigning for votes or

Streamlining the music categories was our attempt to simplify things for readers. Because at the end of the day, you, the reader, decides who gets nominated and who wins. A strong push from fans can turn anything around. But that requires participation. To quote the great BLACK SHEEP, “The choice is yours.”

For years, I’ve threatened to do my own version of the Daysies music awards. And there’s precedent for such an endeavor: Former music editor and current culture coeditor DAN BOLLES once went this route himself and called it the Dandelions. Maybe this is the year I take a stab at rating the scene. I’ll dub it, uh, the Chrisanthemums? Or maybe the Farnsworthlesses, because yeah, there

“It’s critical that we continue to support and showcase all of the great local places and players during the festival,” said MATT ROGERS, the Flynn’s director of programming. “There are so many magical nooks to discover, whether in the South End at Venetian Soda Lounge and Zero Gravity, up in the New North End at Upper Pass Brewing, or at a Sun Ra ﬁlm screening at Main Street Landing.”

To see the full schedule, check out ﬂynnvt.org.

CHRIS FARNSWORTH

“too cool” to

1. “ALL THEM HORSES” by Noah Kahan 2. “THE JOKE” by Dari Bay

Soule Monde COURTESY EVNGwear

Dark Side « P.50 On the Beat « P.51

CLUB DATES

live music

WED.6

e Balconiers (funk, jazz) at the Alchemist, Stowe, 4 p.m. Free.

Bluegrass & Pizza (bluegrass) at Four Quarters Brewing, Winooski, 6:30 p.m. Free.

Carmina Burana on the Rocks (classical) at Venetian Cocktail & Soda Lounge, Burlington, 7 p.m.

$12/$18.

Frail Talk, Izzy Jones (indie) at Radio Bean, Burlington, 8 p.m. $12/$15.

Jazz Night with Ray Vega (jazz) at Hotel Vermont, Burlington, 8:30 p.m. Free.

Jazz Sessions (jazz) at the 126, Burlington, 9 p.m. Free.

THU.7

Blue Plate Special (jazz, folk) at Julio’s Cantina, Montpelier, 5 p.m. Free.

Dan Parks (covers) at On Tap Bar & Grill, Essex Junction, 6 p.m. Free.

Justin Martin (Americana) at Charlie-O’s World Famous, Montpelier, 8 p.m. Free.

Sparks the Rescue, Taken Alive, Major Moment (punk) at Higher Ground Showcase Lounge, South Burlington, 7 p.m. $20.

e Suitcase Junket (psych folk) at Light Club Lamp Shop, Burlington, 8 p.m. $15/$20.

FRI.8

90 Proof (covers) at On Tap Bar & Grill, Essex Junction, 9 p.m. Free.

All Night Boogie Band, Rhythm on 90 (R&B, pop) at Zenbarn, Waterbury Center, 8 p.m. $15/$18. Annie in the Water, Sophistafunk (indie rock) at Higher Ground Showcase Lounge, South Burlington, 8 p.m. $20.

Bob & Shane (covers) at On Tap Bar & Grill, Essex Junction, 5 p.m. Free.

Bob Gagnon (jazz guitar) at Venetian Cocktail & Soda Lounge, Burlington, 7:30 p.m. Free.

COOKED, Clock Out, Full Nelson, Bruiserweight, GEEKED OUT, Prove to Be (hardcore) at Radio Bean, Burlington, 8:30 p.m. $15.

Dave Mitchell’s Blue’s Revue (blues) at Red Square, Burlington, 2 p.m. Free.

Dead Man Strumming (Grateful Dead tribute) at River Roost Brewery, White River Junction, 5 p.m. Free.

Freeway Clyde, Parker Shper (jazz fusion) at Light Club Lamp Shop, Burlington, 6 p.m. $10. Hot Neon Magic (’80s tribute) at the Old Post, South Burlington, 8 p.m. Free.

John Lackard Blues Band (blues) at Moogs Place, Morrisville, 8 p.m. Free.

Find the most up-to-date info on live music, DJs, comedy and more at sevendaysvt.com/music. If you’re a talent booker or artist planning live entertainment at a bar, nightclub, café, restaurant, brewery or coffee shop, send event details to music@sevendaysvt.com or submit the info using our form at sevendaysvt.com/postevent.

Let Them Eat Cake

Burlington riot-grrrl rockers BURLY GIRLIES are back with Femme Fest, their recurring showcase of queer punk and hardcore music. The theme this time is “Eat the Rich,” and attendees are encouraged to either dress up in full Marie Antoinette regalia, as some form of wealthy elite, or to “sharpen your pitchfork and join the angry mob as the peasants who revolted,” according to the event description. Philadelphia power trio FROGGY, New York City’s queer grunge act PLEASURE DEATH and Vermont punks

BLOSSOM round out a lineup ready to rage against the class war. It all goes down on Saturday, May 9, at the Higher Ground Showcase Lounge in South Burlington.

Lowell ompson (singersongwriter) at Hotel Vermont, Burlington, 4 p.m. Free.

Matt Hagen Duo (folk) at Two Heroes Brewery & Public House, South Hero, 6:30 p.m. Free.

Nate Michaud (acoustic) at Gusto’s, Barre, 6 p.m. Free.

e Night Shift (rock) at CharlieO’s World Famous, Montpelier, 9 p.m. Free.

North Beach Dub Allstars (Sublime tribute) at the Alchemist, Stowe, 3 p.m. Free.

e Pharcyde, Konﬂik, Nasteelovesyou (hip-hop) at Afterthoughts, Waitsﬁeld, 8 p.m. $45.

Pluto Rising (rock) at Bent Nails Roadhouse, Middlesex, 8:30 p.m. Free.

e Pyros, Dad?! (rock) at Standing Stone Wines, Winooski, 8 p.m. $10.

Rap Night Burlington (hip-hop) at Drink, Burlington, 9 p.m. $5. Swell (acoustic) at 1st Republic Brewing, Essex, 6 p.m. Free.

Two Towns (folk, pop) at the Alchemist, Stowe, 3 p.m. Free. Vundabar, Slow Fiction (indie rock) at Higher Ground Ballroom, South Burlington, 8 p.m. $25. Willverine, Snakefoot, DeLuca (electronic) at Foam Brewers, Burlington, 9 p.m. Free.

SAT.9

Baby Fearn, SARU, Julia Randall (indie) at Monkey House, Winooski, 7 p.m. $10.

Bad Luck Bliss (rock) at Bent Nails Roadhouse, Middlesex, 8:30 p.m. Free.

Bob Cotton (covers) at On Tap Bar & Grill, Essex Junction, 5 p.m. Free.

Chest Fever, Seth Yacovone (Bob Dylan and the Band tribute) at Zenbarn, Waterbury Center, 8 p.m. $25/$30.

Chris Powers (acoustic) at Gusto’s, Barre, 9 p.m. Free.

Clive (dance rock) at Radio Bean, Burlington, 10:30 p.m. $10/$15.

Femme Fest VI (punk) at Higher Ground Showcase Lounge, South Burlington, 7:30 p.m. $10/$15.

Gallison Hill Band (Americana) at Hugo’s, Montpelier, 7:30 p.m. Free.

Left Eye Jump (blues) at Red Square, Burlington, 3 p.m. Free.

Rangus, Blowtorch, Collin Hagood (punk) at Foam Brewers, Burlington, 8 p.m. Free.

Reese Fulmer (singer-songwriter) at the Den at Harry’s Hardware, Cabot, 7 p.m. Free.

Remember Baker (folk) at Two Heroes Brewery & Public House, South Hero, 6:30 p.m. Free.

Start Making Sense, the Ocean Avenue Stompers (Talking Heads tribute) at Higher Ground Ballroom, South Burlington, 8:30 p.m. $28.

Sweet Petunia, Fern Maddie (folk) at Radio Bean, Burlington, 8 p.m. $12/$15.

SUN.10

Frankie White (singer-songwriter) at Foam Brewers, Burlington, 1 p.m. Free.

Kirk Flanagan and Lars Murdock (folk) at Lawson’s Finest Liquids, Waitsﬁeld, 3 p.m. Free.

e Rough Suspects (rock) at Red Square, Burlington, 6 p.m. Free.

Seth Yacovone (acoustic) at the Alchemist, Stowe, 4 p.m. Free.

Sunday Brunch Tunes (singersongwriter) at Hotel Vermont, Burlington, 10 a.m.

Wine & Jazz Sundays (jazz) at Shelburne Vineyard, 5 p.m. Free.

TUE.12

Big Easy Tuesdays with Jon McBride (jazz) at the 126, Burlington, 9 p.m. Free.

Bluegrass Jam (bluegrass) at Poultney Pub, 7 p.m. Free.

Dead Is Alive with Dobbs’ Dead (Grateful Dead tribute) at Einstein’s Tap House, Burlington, 8 p.m. $15.

Honky Tonk Tuesday with Otter Creek (country) at Radio Bean, Burlington, 9 p.m. $10.

Joshua Quimby (singersongwriter) at Higher Ground Showcase Lounge, South Burlington, 7:30 p.m. $15.

Victoria Park, english major (indie) at Radio Bean, Burlington, 7 p.m. $12/$15.

Zack Tyler (singer-songwriter) at Lawson’s Finest Liquids, Waitsﬁeld, 5:30 p.m. Free.

WED.13

Bluegrass & Pizza (bluegrass) at Four Quarters Brewing, Winooski, 6:30 p.m. Free.

Buckethead (rock) at Higher Ground Ballroom, South Burlington, 9 p.m. $39.

Emerson Woolf & the Wishbones, Cricket Blue (folk) at Higher Ground Showcase Lounge, South Burlington, 8 p.m. $20.

Jazz Night with Ray Vega (jazz) at Hotel Vermont, Burlington, 8:30 p.m. Free.

Jazz Sessions (jazz) at the 126, Burlington, 9 p.m. Free.

djs

WED.6

DJ Chalango, DJ Tarzana Salsa Night (salsa DJ) at Hugo’s, Montpelier, 7:30 p.m. Free.

THU.7

Aiden, DJ Chaston (DJ) at Red Square Blue Room, Burlington, 9 p.m. Free.

DJ Two Sev, JP Black (DJ) at Red Square, Burlington, 9 p.m. Free. irsty ursday (DJ) at Rí Rá Irish Pub & Whiskey Room, Burlington, 10 p.m. Free.

Vinyl Night (DJ) at Poultney Pub, 6 p.m. Free.

FRI.8

DJ Stevie B (DJ) at Rí Rá Irish Pub & Whiskey Room, Burlington, 10 p.m. Free.

DJ Taka (DJ) at Light Club Lamp Shop, Burlington, 11 p.m. $10/$15.

DJ Two Rivers (DJ) at Gusto’s, Barre, 9 p.m. Free.

DJ Two Sev, Ron Stoppable (DJ) at Red Square, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free.

Friday Night at Specs (DJ) at Specs Cafe & Bar, Winooski, 7 p.m. Free.

Queer Night Dance Party (DJ) at Hugo’s, Montpelier, 7 p.m. Free.

SAT.9

DJ Kwame (DJ) at On Tap Bar & Grill, Essex Junction, 9 p.m. Free.

DJ Two Rivers (DJ) at Rí Rá Irish Pub & Whiskey Room, Burlington, 10 p.m. Free.

Roost.World (DJ) at Light Club Lamp Shop, Burlington, 10 p.m. $10/$15.

Valley Prom with DJ Craig Mitchell (DJ) at Afterthoughts, Waitsﬁeld, 8 p.m. $15.

TUE.12

Bashment Tuesday (DJ) at Akes’ Place, Burlington, 6 p.m. Free.

SAT.9 // FEMME FEST VI [PUNK]

Job of theWeek

THIRD GRADE TEACHER

Lake Champlain Waldorf School

Get the scoop on this position from Enrollment & Communications Director, Lindsay

What are some speciﬁc challenges of this position and why is it important?

Teaching third grade at LCWS is a dynamic and important role in our school, as class teachers hold the delivery of the curriculum for the core content, including English, math, science and more. ird grade is a year of growing independence, conﬁdence and capability, and the teacher’s attentiveness to their social and emotional development is an important aspect of the work. e teacher brings the curriculum to life through hands-on, experiential learning that helps children connect meaningfully to the world around them. Farming is a major theme of the year, which culminates in a weeklong overnight trip to Hawthorne Valley in New York. is is a role that requires creativity, adaptability and a strong commitment to understanding child development.

Dwight + Nicole, Day or Night

(WESTWALK RECORDS, CD, DIGITAL, VINYL)

You know those year-end best-of lists music writers are required to churn out each November? Failure to do so gets you moved to the ballet beat, which, as Timothée Chalamet points out, is a cultural wasteland.

Editors like the lists because they attract views, but writers can be ambivalent. Most of us do want everyone to see how piercingly superior our tastes are, but there are also queasy tides of self-doubt when we realize some cooler journalist has outhipstered us again.

low-key vocal approach that lulls with its campﬁre warmth. There’s not a weak cut on the album.

“One Morning” was inspired by a dream Nelson had about the end of the world. Good thing the album came out before we were all atomized, because this wistful meditation o ers a hooky church-organ chorus and glorious hymnic textures.

“Beautiful” applies searingly mournful Je Beck-style guitar lines to Ritcher’s soft-rain meditations, and “Wasting All My Time” is the e ortlessly perfect pop lagniappe Neil Finn forgot to write.

“Fuck! I didn’t realize Stephen Malkmus had a spoken-word album of nature poems!” Or “Wait! Horsegirl rerecorded Van Halen II?”

Sometimes, though, the posing and pontiﬁcation fade away, and all that’s left is a simple truth like this one: It’s only May, but you can jot it down now with indelible ink that Day or Night, the new 12-song album by Burlington’s Dwight + Nicole, is gonna be near the top of a lot of 2026 lists.

“Silver Rocket” is Nelson’s ever-ascending exercise in melodic seduction. Underscored by a serpentine singlenote guitar ﬁgure, the song delivers the sort of surprises one might expect if a Hollywood special e ects unit brought timed pyrotechnics to the studio.

What is unique about working for Lake Champlain Waldorf School?

Lake Champlain Waldorf School offers a distinctive educational journey from early childhood through grade 12 rooted in our developmentally aligned philosophy, where evidence-based academics are integrated with the arts, movement, nature and practical skills. Students study fractions, which is strengthened by their study of music; learn history through class plays; and explore science through direct observation and experimentation. Our beautiful campus on 22 acres of preserved land in Shelburne, Vt., and our commitment to cultivating curiosity, creativity and critical thinking create an environment where education feels alive and deeply connected to the world.

Apply for this great local job and many more: jobs.sevendaysvt.com

As one of the state’s most dominant acts for more than a decade, Nicole Nelson and Dwight Ritcher put the organic back in (musical) chemistry. Their distinctive songs and performances blend timeless soul and thoughtful pop, erudite “Dear Diary” lyrics and iridescent melodies. While they very much have their own DNA, there are impressive reminders of Donny Hathaway and Roberta Flack, Christine McVie and Bob Welch, and even a ﬂashbulb pop or two of Bruno Mars and Lady Gaga.

Nelson, with her octave-spanning range and liquid-gold tone, is a veteran of Season 3 of “The Voice” and exhibits all the performance qualities one could ask for in a contemporary powerhouse. Ritcher, a ﬁne guitarist and the principal songwriter, counters with a deceptively

There are two covers: Nelson sounds playful on synth-poppist Vince Clarke’s lovely “Only You,” but you can’t miss the plaintive quality underpinning her e orts. And on Jenny Lewis’ “Melt Your Heart,” Nelson’s delivery almost makes romantic resignation something to strive for.

With each repeated listening of Day or Night, I have a new favorite song. As I type this, “Straight Back to You,” with its tricky descending chord variations and swelling strings, is on repeat.

Masterfully produced by Nelson, Ritcher and compatriot Joel Hamilton, and boasting ﬁne work from bandmates Leon Campos (keys) and Ezra Oklan (drums), as well as guest contributions from Jon Solo (keys) and Ali McGuirk (vocals), Day or Night takes the pressure o my year-end list responsibilities. The album is available on major streaming services. Visit dwightandnicole.com for upcoming shows.

RICK KOSTER

Francescutti

open mics & jams

WED.6

Celtic Session (open jam) at Bent Nails Roadhouse, Middlesex, 6 p.m. Free.

Open Mic (open mic) at Poultney Pub, 7 p.m. Free.

e Ribbit Review Open Mic & Jam (open mic) at Lily’s Pad, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free.

THU.7

Open Mic (open mic) at the Whammy Bar, Calais, 7 p.m. Free.

SUN.10

Olde Time Jam Session (open jam) at the Den at Harry’s Hardware, Cabot, noon. Free.

MON.11

Bluegrass Etc. Jam with Ben Kogan (bluegrass jam session) at Ottauquechee Yacht Club, Woodstock, 6:30 p.m. Free. Monday Night Open Mic (open mic) at Pearl Street Pub, Essex Junction, 6 p.m. Free.

TUE.12

Doug’s Open Mic (open mic) at Two Heroes Brewery & Public House, South Hero, 6 p.m. Free.

WED.13

Open Mic (open mic) at Poultney Pub, 7 p.m. Free.

comedy

WED.6

$5 Improv Night (comedy) at Vermont Comedy Club, Burlington, 7 p.m. $5. Standup Open Mic (comedy open mic) at Vermont Comedy Club, Burlington, 8:30 p.m. Free.

THU.7

Brian and Nic’s Little Treasures (comedy) at Standing Stone Wines, Winooski, 7 p.m. Free. Comedy Open Mic Night Part V (comedy) at Frost Beer Works, Hinesburg, 7 p.m. Free.

Foundational Flow

Coming out of South Central Los Angeles, the PHARCYDE are one of the most influential rap groups of the early ’90s. Their debut LP, Bizarre Ride II the Pharcyde, is considered a masterpiece of alternative hip-hop, blending jazz samples and irreverent humor at a time when rap was ruled by grim gangsta rap. Working with legendary producers such as J-Swift and the late J Dilla, the group stretched the bounds of what modern rap could sound like, heavily influencing the likes of Kanye West and Kendrick Lamar. After reuniting in 2022, the Pharcyde are back on the road and perform at Afterthoughts in Waitsfield on Friday, May 8. Locals KONFLIK and NASTEELUVZYOU open the show.

e Kingdom Kids (comedy) at Vermont Comedy Club, Burlington, 7 p.m. $5.

FRI.8

2026 Comedy Play Fest (comedy) at Grange Hall Cultural Center, Waterbury Center, 7:30 p.m. $20. Laurie Kilmartin (comedy) at Vermont Comedy Club, Burlington, 7 & 9 p.m. $25. Love’s A Joke (comedy) at the Mill ADK, Westport, N.Y., 7 p.m. $30.

SAT.9

2026 Comedy Play Fest (comedy) at Grange Hall Cultural Center, Waterbury Center, 7:30 p.m. $20.

Laurie Kilmartin (comedy) at Vermont Comedy Club, Burlington, 7 & 9 p.m. $25.

Love’s a Joke (comedy) at the Mill ADK, Westport, N.Y., 7 p.m. $30.

SUN.10

2026 Comedy Play Fest (comedy) at Grange Hall Cultural Center, Waterbury Center, 2 p.m. $20.

TUE.12

All at Jazz Open Mic Comedy (comedy) at the 126, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free.

WED.13

Standup Open Mic (comedy open mic) at Vermont Comedy Club, Burlington, 8:30 p.m. Free.

trivia, karaoke, etc.

WED.6

Karaoke Friday Night (karaoke) at Park Place Tavern & Grill, Essex Junction, 8 p.m. Free.

Karaoke with Cam (karaoke) at Monopole, Plattsburgh, N.Y., 9 p.m. Free.

Trivia (trivia) at Two Heroes Brewery & Public House, South Hero, 6 p.m. Free.

Trivia (trivia) at Alﬁe’s Wild Ride, Stowe, 7 p.m. Free.

Trivia (trivia) at Rí Rá Irish Pub & Whiskey Room, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free.

Trivia (trivia) at Venetian Cocktail & Soda Lounge, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free.

THU.7

Country Line Dancing (line dancing) at Zenbarn, Waterbury Center, 7:30 p.m. Free.

Karaoke (karaoke) at Gusto’s, Barre, 8 p.m. Free.

Karaoke Friday Night (karaoke) at Park Place Tavern & Grill, Essex Junction, 8 p.m. Free.

Karaoke with DJ Vociferous (karaoke) at Hugo’s, Montpelier, 7 p.m. Free.

Trivia (trivia) at Einstein’s Tap House, Burlington, 6 p.m. Free.

Trivia (trivia) at Four Quarters Brewing, Winooski, 6 p.m. Free.

Trivia Night (trivia) at 1st Republic Brewing, Essex, 6 p.m. Free.

Trivia Night (trivia) at McKee’s Island Pub & Pizza, South Hero, 6:30 p.m. Free.

Trivia Night with College (trivia) at Bent Nails Roadhouse, Middlesex, 7 p.m. Free.

FRI.8

Boogie Bingo (bingo, DJ) at the Alchemist, Stowe, 5 p.m. Free.

Karaoke Friday Night (karaoke) at Park Place Tavern & Grill, Essex Junction, 8 p.m. Free.

Untapped: A Night of Drag and Burlesque (drag) at Monkey House, Winooski, 8 p.m. $15.

SAT.9

History Buff Trivia Hosted by the Poultney Historical Society (history trivia) at Poultney Pub, noon. $10.

Queeraoke with Goddess (karaoke) at Standing Stone Wines, Winooski, 9 p.m. Free.

SUN.10

Country Karaoke (karaoke) at Standing Stone Wines, Winooski, 4 p.m. Free.

Family-Friendly Karaoke (karaoke) at Old Soul Design Shop, Plattsburgh, N.Y., 5 p.m. Free.

Sunday Funday (games) at 1st Republic Brewing, Essex, noon. Free.

Sunday Night Trivia (trivia) at the Lazy Goat Tavern, Essex, 6 p.m. Free.

Trivia (trivia) at Zenbarn, Waterbury Center, 5:30 p.m. Free.

MON.11

Retro Game Night (gaming) at the Den at Harry’s Hardware, Cabot, 6 p.m. Free.

Trivia Monday (trivia) at Black Flannel Brewing & Distilling, Essex, 6 p.m. Free.

Trivia Monday with Top Hat Entertainment (trivia) at McKee’s Original, Winooski, 7 p.m. Free.

Trivia with Brain (trivia) at Charlie-O’s World Famous, Montpelier, 8 p.m. Free.

Trivia with Craig Mitchell (trivia) at Monkey House, Winooski, 7 p.m. Free.

TUE.12

Karaoke with DJ Party Bear (karaoke) at Charlie-O’s World Famous, Montpelier, 9:30 p.m. Free.

Taproom Trivia (trivia) at 14th Star Brewing, St. Albans, 6:30 p.m. Free.

Trivia Night (trivia) at Gusto’s, Barre, 6:30 p.m. Free.

Trivia Tuesday (trivia) at On Tap Bar & Grill, Essex Junction, 7 p.m. Free.

WED.13

Karaoke Friday Night (karaoke) at Park Place Tavern & Grill, Essex Junction, 8 p.m. Free. Karaoke with Cam (karaoke) at Monopole, Plattsburgh, N.Y., 9 p.m. Free.

Trivia (trivia) at Alﬁe’s Wild Ride, Stowe, 7 p.m. Free.

Trivia (trivia) at Rí Rá Irish Pub & Whiskey Room, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free.

Trivia (trivia) at Venetian Cocktail & Soda Lounge, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free. ➆

FRI.8 // THE PHARCYDE [HIP-HOP]

calendar

MAY 6-13, 2026

WED.6

activism

DISABLED ACCESS & ADVOCACY OF THE RUTLAND AREA MONTHLY

ZOOM MEETING: Community members gather online to advocate for accessibility and other disability-rights measures. 11:30 a.m.-noon. Free.

business

VERMONT

WOMENPRENEURS BIZ

BUZZ ZOOM: A monthly virtual networking meetup provides a space for female business owners to connect. 10-11 a.m. Free; preregister.

community

THE MOTH GRANDSLAM: Storytellers compete to be declared the Vermont Grand Champion, telling tales and tugging heartstrings in this battle of wits and words. Flynn Main Stage, Burlington, 8 p.m. $49.

crafts

FIBER ARTS NIGHT: Knitters, crocheters and weavers make progress on projects while soaking up creativity and connection. Kellogg-Hubbard Library, Montpelier, 5:30-7 p.m. Free.

YARN & YAK: A weekly club for fiber fanatics of all skill levels makes knitting and crocheting more sociable. Milton Artists’ Guild Art Center & Gallery, 5-7 p.m. Free.

YARN CRAFTERS GROUP: A drop-in meetup welcomes knitters, crocheters, spinners, weavers and other fiber artists. BYO snacks and drinks. Must Love Yarn, Shelburne, 5-7 p.m. Free.

environment

‘EMERGING ISSUES IN NEPA

IMPLEMENTATION’: A panel of experts explores the growing role of artificial intelligence in National Environmental Policy Act processes. A Q&A follows. Hosted by Vermont Law & Graduate School. Noon-1:30 p.m. Free; preregister.

FREE SOLAR TALK: Renewablecurious attendees learn how to harness the power of the sun at a casual seminar hosted by Hellbrook Solar. The Granary Gallery, Jeffersonville, 6-8 p.m. Free.

etc.

CHAMP MASTERS

TOASTMASTERS CLUB: Those looking to strengthen their speaking and leadership skills gain new tools. Virtual option available. Dealer.com, Burlington, 6-7:30 p.m. Free; preregister.

‘OFF THE WALL’: A fast-paced lottery of fine art features a mosaic of 12-inch panels showcasing the breadth of Vermont’s creative community. Mad River Valley Arts Gallery, Waitsfield, 1-5 p.m. $150.

film

See what’s playing at local theaters in the On Screen section.

‘BEST DAY EVER’: A locally made 2025 documentary follows adaptive athletes Greg Durso and Allie Bianchi as they tackle the daily challenges of disability and find joy in Vermont’s mountain biking community. A panel discussion with filmmaker Berne Broudy follows. Hula, Burlington, 5 p.m. $15; cash bar.

GREAT ART WEDNESDAY SERIES: ‘GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING’: David Bickerstaff’s 2015 documentary pursues

LIST YOUR UPCOMING EVENT HERE FOR FREE!

All submissions must be received by Thursday at noon for consideration in the following Wednesday’s newspaper. Find our convenient form and guidelines at sevendaysvt.com/postevent

Seven Days calendar writer

Rebecca Driscoll selects and writes calendar spotlights. To help process the hundreds of event submissions we receive each week, some listings are compiled with the help of AI. Driscoll reviews, edits and verifies every entry before publication.

Learn more about highlighted listings in the Magnificent 7 on page 11.

language

ELL CLASS: Fletcher Free Library invites learners of all abilities to practice written and spoken English with trained instructors. 6:30-8 p.m. Free; preregister.

answers to the unresolved riddles surrounding Johannes Vermeer’s Dutch Golden Age masterpiece. Town Hall Theater, Middlebury, 11 a.m. $15.

VTIFF MUSICAL SILENTS: ‘THE UNKNOWN’: A live improvised score by Wren Kitz and John Flanagan enriches this screening of Tod Browning’s 1927 horror mystery starring Lon Chaney as a carnival knife thrower. The Screening Room @ VTIFF, Main Street Landing Performing Arts Center, Burlington, 7 p.m. $10-20.

food & drink

COMMUNITY COOKING: Helping hands join up with the nonprofit’s staff and volunteers to make a yummy meal for distribution. Pathways Vermont Morgan’s Place Peer Support Center, Burlington, 6-8 p.m. Free.

CUPPA ON CAMPUS: Community members mingle over tea and coffee, swapping bright ideas for the future of the property. The Creative Campus at Goddard, Plainfield, 8-10 a.m. Free.

health & fitness

CHAIR YOGA: Waterbury Public Library instructor Diana Whitney leads at-home participants in gentle stretches supported by seats. 10 a.m. Free.

GENTLE YOGA: Inhale relaxation and exhale tension with slow-paced movements and restorative postures designed to wake up weary muscles. Pillar Pilates Studio, Brandon, 9-10:15 a.m. By donation.

RECOVERY DHARMA: Folks struggling with addiction gather weekly for an evening of meditation, topical readings and open discussion in a supportive environment. First United Methodist Church, Burlington, 6-7 p.m. Free.

SPANISH CONVERSATION: Fluent and beginner speakers brush up on their vocabulario with a discussion led by a Spanish teacher. Presented by Dorothy Alling Memorial Library. 5-6 p.m. Free; preregister.

lgbtq

THE ALL INCLUSIVE DYKETACULAR: A weekly get-together and listening party celebrates the LGBTQ+ community with feelgood tunes, dancing and drinks. Doma Bar, Burlington, 5-10 p.m. Free; cost of food and drink.

music

RECITAL SERIES: FRANCESCO LIBETTA: An acclaimed pianist navigates the technical peaks of the Romantic era while alternating between a vintage 19th-century piano and a modern Steinway to highlight the evolution of the instrument. Morris Recital Hall, Hopkins Center for the Arts, Hanover, N.H., 8 p.m. $35-45.

ST. J BLUEGRASS JAM: Players and fans get together for some old-time picking and fiddling. St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church of St. Johnsbury, 6:30-8:30 p.m. Free; donations accepted.

québec

FESTIVAL ACCÈS ASIE: The 31st annual Asian Heritage Month extravaganza includes art shows, film screenings, play readings and food tastings. See accesasie.com for full schedule. Various Montréal locations. Various prices.

seminars

BIKE-SAFE NEIGHBORHOOD: Local family physician and health advocate John Raser shares how communities can implement street-level changes to protect vulnerable cyclists and pedestrians. St. Johnsbury Athenaeum, 6:30-7:30 p.m. Free.

sports

GREEN MOUNTAIN TABLE TENNIS

production of Rhinoceros. Main Street Landing Performing Arts Center, Burlington, 7:30 p.m. $3444 sliding scale.

‘WHITE’: Between the Willows mounts Pulitzer Prize winner James Ijames’ play exploring white privilege and appropriation in the art world. Off Center for the Dramatic Arts, Burlington, 7:30 p.m. $14-35.

words

BIANCA STONE: Vermont’s poet laureate continues her “State of Poetry” tour with a deep dive into her craft. Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, 8 p.m. Free.

DANILYN RUTHERFORD: An author and anthropologist discusses her academic memoir, Beautiful Mystery: Living in a Wordless World, exploring life with her nonverbal daughter, Millie, in conversation with University of Vermont faculty members. South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, 5 p.m. Free.

ELIZABETH A. ALLEN: A Vermont historian and author beckons true-crime buffs for a conversation about her 2025 book, Dangerous Characters: The Life and Crimes of Williston’s Notorious Outlaw Duo Phoenix Books, Burlington, 7 p.m. $3; preregister.

POETRY AT BENNINGTON SERIES: GABRIELLE

CALVOCORESSI: A decorated poet and editor from North Carolina shares selections from their lyrical portfolio. Bennington College, 7 p.m. Free.

THU.7

cannabis

‘UNDERSTANDING CANNABIS WITH DR. RILEY KIRK’: Curious consumers cultivate a higher understanding of strains and safe usage at a guided exploration of the plant’s storied history and pharmaceutical potential. Phoenix Books, Burlington, 6 p.m. $3; preregister.

crafts

FIND MORE LOCAL EVENTS IN THIS ISSUE AND ONLINE: art

Find visual art exhibits and events in the Art section and at sevendaysvt.com/art.

film

See what’s playing in the On Screen section. music + nightlife

Find club dates at local venues in the Music + Nightlife section online at sevendaysvt.com/music.

= ONLINE EVENT

= GET TICKETS ON SEVENDAYSTICKETS.COM

CLUB: Ping-Pong players block, chop and lob in singles and doubles matches. Rutland Area Christian School, 7-9 p.m. Free for first two sessions; $30 annual membership.

talks

J. KEVIN GRAFFAGNINO: An author and historian shines new light on politician Ira Allen’s prominent role in the Green Mountain frontier. Refreshments provided. Arrowhead Senior Citizen Center, Milton, 6:30 p.m. Free.

theater

GHOSTLIGHT RESIDENCY: ‘ITERATION 5: YOUR ATTENTION

PLEASE’: Vermont Stage presents a bold, experimental performance starring Abby Paige and Leah Souffrant, using an existing set from the company’s concurrent

WOODWORKING LAB: Visionaries create a project or learn a new skill with the help of mentors and access to makerspace tools and equipment. Patricia A. Hannaford Career Center, Middlebury, 5-8 p.m. $7.50.

dance

SPRING DANCE CONCERT: Student choreographers showcase original movement at an evening of collaborative performance art. Dance Theatre, Mahaney Arts Center, Middlebury College, 7:30-9 p.m. $5-15.

environment

BTV CLEAN UP CREW: Good Samaritans dispose of needles, trash and other unwanted objects. BYO gloves encouraged. Top of Church St., Burlington, 7:30-10 a.m. Free.

etc.

GIVE-EAT-LOVE: A FAMILY ROOM FUNDRAISER FOR LOVE & CONNECTION: Community members enjoy a multicultural meal, specialty beverages, live storytelling hosted by Susanne Schmidt and a silent auction to benefit the Burlington parent-child center. ONE Community Center, Burlington, 6-8 p.m. $65; preregister.

NIGHT OWL CLUB: Astronomers and space exploration experts discuss the latest in extraterrestrial news with curious attendees. Presented by Fairbanks Museum & Planetarium. 7 p.m. Free.

‘OFF THE WALL’: See WED.6. OPEN HOUSE: Neighbors meet advocates championing civil rights at this guided look at the inner workings of the nonprofit’s headquarters. Legal Services Law Line of Vermont, Burlington, 4-7 p.m. Free.

KNIT FOR YOUR NEIGHBORS: From clicking needles to looping looms, participants hook into a mission of goodwill by creating handmade winter wear for the South Burlington Food Shelf. Materials provided. South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, 2-5 p.m. Free.

KNITTING GROUP: Knitters of every experience level get together to spin yarns. Latham Library, Thetford, 7 p.m. Free.

VOLUNTEER & MATES ORIENTATION: Prospective helping hands dive into the fundamentals and specialized breakout trainings to prepare for a season of service and leadership. Community Sailing Center, Burlington, 5-7 p.m. Free; preregister.

film

See what’s playing at local theaters in the On Screen section.

‘BACKYARD WILDERNESS 3D’: Cameras positioned in nests, underwater and along the forest floor capture a year’s worth of critters coming and going. Dealer.com 3D Theater, ECHO Leahy Center for Lake Champlain, Burlington, 11:30 a.m., 1:30 & 3:30 p.m. $3-5

These community event listings are sponsored by the WaterWheel Foundation, a project of the Vermont band Phish.

plus regular admission, $17-23; free for members and kids 2 and under.

‘BLUE HERON’: A family’s internal dynamics are slowly revealed through the eyes of the youngest child in Sophy Romvari’s 2025 drama. Film House, Main Street Landing Performing Arts Center, Burlington, 4 & 7 p.m. $6-12.

‘DINOSAURS OF ANTARCTICA

3D’: Join scientists on a journey through a surreal world of bug-eyed giants and egg-laying mammals. Dealer.com 3D Theater, ECHO Leahy Center for Lake Champlain, Burlington, 11 a.m., 1 & 3 p.m. $3-5 plus regular admission, $17-23; free for members and kids 2 and under.

‘SEA MONSTERS 3D: A

PREHISTORIC ADVENTURE’: Footage of paleontological digs from around the globe tells a compelling story of scientists working as detectives to answer questions about an ancient and mysterious ocean world. Dealer.com 3D Theater, ECHO Leahy Center for Lake Champlain, Burlington, noon, 2 & 4 p.m. $3-5 plus regular admission, $17-23; free for members and kids 2 and under.

‘SHARK KINGDOM 3D’: A highstakes investigation into the underwater realm reveals how humanity’s future hinges on the fate of the ocean’s toothiest inhabitants. Dealer.com 3D Theater, ECHO Leahy Center for Lake Champlain, Burlington, 10:30 a.m., 12:30, 2:30 & 4:30 p.m. $3-5 plus regular admission, $17-23; free for members and kids 2 and under.

food & drink

BEER & CHEESE PAIRINGS: Reps from Hill Farmstead Brewery and Jasper Hill Farm deconstruct the flavor profiles of local brews and artisanal wedges at a deep dive into the craft of the two regional

producers. Hill Farmstead Brewery, Greensboro, 6-8 p.m. $30; preregister.

BILLINGS AFTER HOURS:

MIXOLOGY WORKSHOP: Guests ages 21 and up shake, stir and sip their way through farm-fresh cocktails inspired by seasonal flavors. Billings Farm & Museum, Woodstock, 5:30 p.m. $110-225; preregister.

games

BRIDGE CLUB: A lively group plays a classic, tricky game in pairs. Waterbury Public Library, 12:304:30 p.m. Free.

CHESS FOR FUN: Players of all abilities select an opening gambit, go on the attack and protect their king in friendly competition. Cobleigh Public Library, Lyndonville, 5-8 p.m. Free.

DUPLICATE BRIDGE GAMES: Snacks and coffee fuel bouts of a classic card game. Burlington Bridge Club, Williston, 12:30 p.m. $6.

FRIENDLY GAME OF BRIDGE: Strategic thinkers have a blast with the popular card game. Heineberg Senior Center, Burlington, 1-3 p.m. Free.

PEER SUPPORT DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: Beginners wanted! Players get lost in the fantasyfilled tabletop role-playing game while focusing on teamwork, connection and community building. Morgan House, Burlington, 6-8 p.m. Free.

‘THE PRICE IS RIGHT LIVE!’: Randomly selected contestants “come on down” at an interactive, live stage version of the legendary television game show. Flynn Main Stage, Burlington, 7:30 p.m. $38.36-274.45.

SOLARPUNK BOOK CLUB & GAME NIGHT: Neighbors dream up a socially conscious, ecological future

FAMI LY FU N

Check out these family-friendly events for parents, caregivers and kids of all ages.

Plan ahead at sevendaysvt.com/family-fun

• Post your event at sevendaysvt.com/postevent.

WED.6

CO-PARENTING DADS: Experiencing separation, divorce or long-term co-parenting? Fathers assemble virtually to connect, build community and share experiences in a supportive environment. Hosted by Dad Guild. 8:45-10 p.m. Free.

burlington

‘CHAMP: AMERICA’S LAKE MONSTER’: Curious minds dive into the science and history of Vermont’s most iconic legend at this family-friendly exhibit featuring interactive games, a design studio, multimedia displays, a 30-foot sculpture and photo ops. ECHO Leahy Center for Lake Champlain, Burlington, 10 a.m.-5

Step to It

Aspiring and seasoned performers combine feisty fiddles and fleet feet in a display of multicultural heritage at the Young Tradition Festival, a weekend of all-ages activities hosted by Vermont Folklife. Friday evening’s community dance party at Burlington City Hall Auditorium invites neighbors to cut loose with participatory choreography taught by local artists. Saturday kicks off at the farmers market with a student-mentor showcase featuring global rhythms and unique instruments, followed by a family jam sesh at the SEABA Center. The day concludes back at the auditorium with a concert headlined by acoustic duo Alex Kehler and Nicholas Williams.

YOUNG TRADITION FESTIVAL

Friday, May 8, 6:30-9:30 p.m., and Saturday, May 9, 10 a.m.-9:30 p.m., at various Burlington locations. Various prices. Info, ytv@vtfolklife.org, vtfolklife.org.

with readings and a short round of Solarpunk Futures. Peace & Justice Center, Burlington, 5-6:30 p.m. Free.

WEEKLY CHESS FOR FUN: Players of all ability levels face off and learn new strategies. United Community Church, St. Johnsbury, 5:30-9 p.m. Free; donations accepted.

p.m. Regular admission, $17-23; free for members and kids 2 and under.

‘SHREK THE MUSICAL JR.’: Preteen performers bring the swamp to the stage with this high-energy musical quest featuring a grumpy ogre and a cast of eccentric fairytale characters. ONE Community Center, Burlington, 6:30 p.m. Free.

DINOSAUR SAFARI EXHIBIT: Young explorers take an unforgettable journey through a hands-on prehistoric world where lifesize animatronic dinosaurs come to life.

ECHO Leahy Center for Lake Champlain, Burlington, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Regular admission, $17-23; free for members and kids 2 and under.

LIBRARY LITTLES PLAYGROUP: A weekly program brings babies, toddlers and their caregivers together for songs, stories, play and community building in a nurturing environment. Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 11-11:45 a.m. Free.

MAGNATILE MASTERPIECES: Future architects ages 3 and up build imaginative creations with magnetic toys. Fletcher Free Library New North End Branch, Burlington, 10-10:45 a.m. Free.

chittenden county

BABY TIME: Nonmobile infants and their caregivers embark on a slow-paced social hour featuring songs, rhymes and

health & fitness

COMMUNITY

MINDFULNESS: Volunteer coach Andrea Marion leads a weekly practice for stress reduction, followed by a discussion and Q&A. 5-6 p.m. Free; preregister.

restorative connection. South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, 10:30 a.m. Free.

PLAY TIME: Young builders and their caregivers share a story before diving into co-construction with oversize blocks. Brownell Library, Essex Junction, 10-10:45 a.m. Free.

READ TO A DOG: Young readers sharpen their literacy skills and gain confidence by sharing stories with a patient, four-legged listener in ten-minute sessions. South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, 3:304:30 p.m. Free; preregister.

barre/montpelier

BABY & CAREGIVER MEETUP: Wiggly ones ages birth to 18 months play and explore in a calm, supportive setting while adults relax and connect on the sidelines. Jaquith Public Library, Marshfield, 10:30-11:30 a.m. Free.

FAMILY CHESS CLUB: Players of all ages and abilities test their skills with instructor Robert and peers. Kellogg-Hubbard Library, 2nd Floor, Children’s Library, Montpelier, 3:30-5 p.m. Free.

mad river valley/ waterbury

TEEN QUEER READS: LGBTQIA+ and allied youths get together each month to read and discuss ideas around gender, sexuality

SEATED TAI CHI: Adina guides at-home participants — including those with limited mobility or difficulty standing — through a sequence of slow, connected movements. Sponsored by the Dorothy Alling Memorial Library. 1 p.m. Free; preregister.

and identity. Waterbury Public Library, 6-7 p.m. Free; preregister.

upper valley

STORY TIME: Early literacy takes center stage as infants and toddlers engage in a melodic mix of books and songs. Norwich Public Library, 10:30-11:30 a.m. Free.

THU.7 burlington

‘CHAMP: AMERICA’S LAKE MONSTER’: See WED.6.

BABY & ME CLASS: Parents and their infants ages birth to 1 explore massage, lullabies and gentle movements while discussing the struggles and joys of parenthood. Greater Burlington YMCA, 9:45-10:45 a.m. $10; free for members.

DINOSAUR SAFARI EXHIBIT: See WED.6.

GROW PRESCHOOL YOGA: Colleen from Grow Prenatal and Family Yoga helps toddlers and their caregivers find their flow through a playful blend of song, movement and stretching. Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 11-11:30 a.m. Free.

TWEEN GROUP: A new program for queer and gender-creative youths ages 10 to 12 offers space to make new friends, join in fun activities and build community.

The Float Away wellness spa owner dives into the science of silence, sharing how salt-water suspension and sound waves can help chronic pain sufferers find their “off” switch. Osher Center for Integrative Health, Burlington, 3:30-4:30 p.m. Free.

WISDOM FLOW YOGA: Curated music sets the tone for a mindful sequence that unites breath, body and spirit. Cornwall Town Hall, 9:30-10:45 a.m. By donation. language

ENGLISH CONVERSATION GROUP: Practitioners make strides and new friends at a stress-free discussion circle hosted by Fletcher Free Library. 10:30-11:30 a.m. Free; preregister.

ITALIAN CONVERSATION GROUP: Parla Italiano? Language learners practice pronunciation and more at a friendly gathering. Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, noon-1 p.m. Free.

Outright Vermont, Burlington, 4-6 p.m. Free.

chittenden county

‘THE POWER OF PLAY: MUSIC & MOVEMENT ARE LITERACY!’: Infants and toddlers get a head start on reading at an interactive workshop demonstrating how singing and dancing can help build foundational skills. South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, 10:30-11 a.m. Free.

PRESCHOOL MUSIC WITH LINDA BASSICK: The singer and storyteller extraordinaire guides wee ones ages birth to 5 in indoor music and movement. Dorothy Alling Memorial Library, Williston, 10:30-11 a.m. Free.

PRESCHOOL PLAY TIME: Pre-K patrons play and socialize after music time. Dorothy Alling Memorial Library, Williston, 11-11:30 a.m. Free.

STORY TIME: Young listeners and their caregivers explore the building blocks of reading through a curated selection of songs, rhymes and hands-on crafts. Brownell Library, Essex Junction, 10-10:30 a.m. Free.

TODDLER TIME: Tykes bypass the “stay seated” rule at a morning of short stories, familiar songs, rhymes and finger plays.

WHOLE HEALTH CONNECT SERIES: JUSTIN MORGANPARMETT:

MANDARIN CONVERSATION

CIRCLE: Volunteers from Vermont Chinese School help students learn or improve their ﬂuency. South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, 11 a.m.-noon. Free.

SPANISH CONVERSATION GROUP: Conversationalists of all levels practice the Romance language in a welcoming environment. Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 4:30-5:30 p.m. Free.

lgbtq

POP-UP HAPPY HOUR: Locals connect over drinks at a speakeasy-style bar, hosted by OUT in the 802. Lincolns, Burlington, 5:30-7 p.m. Free.

music

ELEANOR FREEBERN: A Celtic harpist delights listeners with striking artistry and commentary. Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Burlington, noon-1 p.m. Free.

KEVIN DEVINE: A veteran of indie and power pop brings his introspective catalog to the secluded recording studio for an intimate performance. Destroy Audio, Wolcott, 7 p.m. $35.

outdoors

SPRING BIRD WALK: Binoculartoting beginners and experts alike scout for migrating species while observing the results of habitat restoration and invasive species management. Whetstone Woods, Brattleboro, 7-9 a.m. Free; preregister.

québec

FESTIVAL ACCÈS ASIE: See WED.6.

tech

CAFÉ SCI: ‘AI + MEDICINE’: A panel of pioneering researchers embarks on a thought-provoking conversation helmed by Chris Danforth, inviting listeners to consider the “what-ifs” of AIassisted health care. Ages 18 and up. Refreshments provided. ECHO Leahy Center for Lake Champlain, Burlington, 6:30 p.m. $10 suggested donation; cash bar.

TECH HELP: Users with digital dilemmas seek expert guidance about everything from smartphone settings to e-book downloads. Norwich Public Library, 1-4 p.m. Free.

theater

‘EUREKA DAY’: A progressive elementary school board descends into anarchy as parents clash in Jonathan Spector’s sharp-witted satire presented by Middlebury Acting Company. Town Hall eater, Middlebury, 7:30 p.m. $15-39.

‘THE POST OFFICE’: e ghost of Benjamin Franklin materializes in a rural mail room during a contemporary clash over civil rights and free speech in this provocative new work by American Opera Projects. Spruce Peak Performing Arts Center, Stowe Mountain Resort, 7 p.m. Free; donations accepted; preregister.

‘RHINOCEROS’: Vermont Stage mounts Eugène Ionesco’s absurdist classic about a lone holdout who refuses to join the herd when neighbors begin sprouting horns and hides. Main Street Landing Performing Arts Center, Burlington, 7:30 p.m. $34-54 sliding scale.

‘THE WAVERLY GALLERY’: A grandson recounts the decline of his irascible grandmother in this poignant memory play exploring the realities of Alzheimer’s disease, staged by Shaker Bridge eatre. Briggs Opera House, White River Junction, 7 p.m. $25-45.

‘WHITE’: See WED.6.

words

NATURE POETRY WORKSHOP: A two-part series facilitated by local artist Toussaint St. Negritude helps participants connect with the natural world to ﬁnd inspiration for their written works. North Branch Nature Center, Montpelier, 10 a.m.-noon. Free; preregister.

YANNICK MURPHY & VICTORIA

REDEL: Two accoladed authors read from their new novels, ings at Are Funny on a Submarine But Not Really and I Am You, respectively. See calendar spotlight. e Norwich Bookstore, 7 p.m. Free.

FRI.8 cannabis

NECANN: THE VERMONT CANNABIS & HEMP CONVENTION:

New England’s largest event of its kind puts the green in Green Mountain State with two days of dope exhibitions, seminars and speakers. Ages 21 and up. Champlain Valley Exposition, Essex Junction, 2:30-6:30 p.m. Free; preregister.

crafts

FIBER ARTS FRIDAY: Knitters, crocheters, weavers and felters chat over passion projects at this weekly meetup. Waterbury Public Library, noon-2 p.m. Free. dance

PERSIST (DANCE) PARTY: Supporters of all ages gather for a rhythmic rally to beneﬁt essential health and wellness services provided by Planned Parenthood of Northern New England. e SEABA Center, Burlington, 6 p.m. $10 suggested donation; preregister. SPRING DANCE CONCERT: See THU.7.

etc.

55TH ANNIVERSARY PARTY: Community-minded neighbors raise a glass to the Rotary Club of Charlotte-Shelburne-Hinesburg at an informal celebration of service. Fiddlehead Brewing, Shelburne, 4-7 p.m. Free; cost of food and drink.

KALEIDOSCOPE: Steps to End Domestic Violence celebrates 50 years of service with refreshments, live music and a silent auction at this annual beneﬁt party. BCA Studios, Burlington, 6 p.m. $40-60.

MAY 7 | WORDS

In Their Own Words

At the Norwich Bookstore, Vermont writer Yannick Murphy and Sarah Lawrence College professor Victoria Redel read from their new novels: One features sailors grappling with ocean-deep secrets; the other, 17th-century lovers entangled in forbidden romance. For fans of dark humor, Murphy’s ings at Are Funny on a Submarine but Not Really delivers with the story of shipmates navigating the high-stakes psychological pressures of life on the Paciﬁc Ocean. Half a world and several centuries away, Redel’s historical novel, I Am You, grabs attention with a reimagining of the life of Dutch Golden Age painter Maria van Oosterwijck.

YANNICK MURPHY & VICTORIA REDEL

ursday, May 7, 7 p.m., at the Norwich Bookstore. Free. Info, 802-649-1114, norwichbookstore.com.

LEAGUE OF LOCAL HISTORICAL SOCIETIES & MUSEUMS ANNUAL

MEETING: Vermont’s largest gathering of history experts explores the practical tools and social value of the past. Saint Albans Museum, 9 a.m.-3:30 p.m. $35-50.

MUDSTOCK GALA: Local supporters toast the end of Vermont’s ﬁfth season with live music by BettySoo and dessert by Splendid Bakes. Proceeds beneﬁt Pentangle Arts. Woodstock Town Hall eatre, 6-10 p.m. By donation. ‘OFF THE WALL’: See WED.6.

fairs & festivals

YOUNG TRADITION FESTIVAL:

From lively jam sessions to diverse dance workshops, students and mentors strike a chord at this annual fête honoring traditional arts. See calendar spotlight. Various Burlington locations, 6:30-9 p.m. Various prices. ﬁlm

See what’s playing at local theaters in the On Screen section.

‘BACKYARD WILDERNESS 3D’: See THU.7.

‘DINOSAURS OF ANTARCTICA 3D’: See THU.7.

‘THE PIANO’: Jane Campion’s steamy 1993 period drama follows an electively mute Scottish woman who expresses her innermost feelings through music. e Screening Room @ VTIFF, Main Street Landing Performing Arts Center, Burlington, 7 p.m. $6-12.

‘SEA MONSTERS 3D: A PREHISTORIC ADVENTURE’: See THU.7.

‘SHARK KINGDOM 3D’: See THU.7.

games

DADS & DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: New and experienced dad-venturers try their hand at the riveting tabletop role-playing game. Premade characters and extra dice available. e Guild Hall, Burlington, 7-9:30 p.m. Free.

DUPLICATE BRIDGE GAMES: See THU.7, 10 a.m.

health & ﬁtness

GUIDED MEDITATION

ONLINE: Dorothy Alling Memorial Library invites attendees to relax on their lunch breaks and reconnect with their bodies. Noon-12:30 p.m. Free; preregister.

MINDFULNESS MEDITATION: Community members gather for

an informal session combining stimulating discussion, sharing and sitting in silence. Iyengar Yoga Center of Vermont, Burlington, 4:30-5:30 p.m. Free.

WEEKLY MEDITATION: Expert Zac Ispa-Landa shares tools to quiet the mind, slow down and reset. Outright Vermont, Burlington, 8-8:45 a.m. Free.

WISDOM FLOW YOGA: Curated music sets the tone for a mindful sequence that unites breath, body and spirit. Pillar Pilates Studio, Brandon, 9-10:15 a.m. By donation.

lgbtq

RPG NIGHT: Members of the LGBTQ community get together weekly for role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons and Everway. Rainbow Bridge Community Center, Barre, 5:308:30 p.m. Free.

music

ANA GUIGUI: An acclaimed pianist and vocalist entertains listeners with a wide variety of styles and genres. e Brandon Inn, 7-8 p.m. Free.

DARTMOUTH SYMPHONY

ORCHESTRA & DANCE ENSEMBLE: Artistic forces unite to reimagine

Igor Stravinsky’s 1910 composition e Firebird as a pair of simulcast performances, featuring a real-time orchestral score and a live projection of choreography. Spaulding Auditorium, Hopkins Center for the Arts, Dartmouth College, Hanover, N.H., 7:30 p.m. $30.

SARASA ENSEMBLE: A collective of international instrumentalists and vocalists performs “All in the Family,” featuring riveting works by Johann Sebastian Bach and members of his extended family. Brattleboro Music Center, 7 p.m. $25.

outdoors

CAMP FOR FREE WEEKEND: Volunteers trade sweat equity for starlit campﬁres and the company of rescued animals at an annual spring maintenance retreat. Willoughby Farm Animal Rescue, Fairlee. Free.

québec

FESTIVAL ACCÈS ASIE: See WED.6.

sports

CHAMBER CHALLENGE GOLF

TOURNAMENT: Individuals and teams hit the links in hopes of a hole in one to kick off the season. Barre Country Club, 10 a.m. Various prices; preregister.

theater

‘EUREKA DAY’: See THU.7. THE NEW ENGLAND FAMILY THEATRE FESTIVAL: A multidisciplinary showcase brings worldclass performers to local students and families through interactive workshops and accessible, community-focused events. See townhalltheater.org for full schedule. Town Hall eater, Middlebury. Various prices.

NEW STAGE PLAYERS’ COMEDY PLAY FESTIVAL: eatergoers experience a healthy dose of

From left: Yannick Murphy; Victoria Redel

comic relief as local talent brings nine world-premiere short plays to life, proving that laughter remains the best medicine. Grange Hall Cultural Center, Waterbury Center, 7:30 p.m. $20 suggested donation.

‘RHINOCEROS’: See THU.7.

‘THE SPITFIRE GRILL’: We the People Theatre raises the curtain on the moving musical about second chances, unexpected friendships and the courage to begin again, based on the film by Lee David Zlotoff. Eclipse Grange Theater, Thetford, 7:30 p.m. $15-30.

‘THE WAVERLY GALLERY’: See THU.7.

‘WHITE’: See WED.6.

words

BOOK SALE: Avid readers hunt through thousands of pre-owned titles and antique rarities to support library programs and collections. Rutland Free Library, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Free; cost of books.

MATHIAS DUBILIER: A Vermont journalist and tour boat captain launches his pocket-size volume, This Way but Not Here: An Ode to Lake Champlain, exploring the history and mythology of Vermont’s largest body of water. Phoenix Books, Burlington, 7 p.m. $3; preregister.

MICHAEL FREED-THALL: A local author launches his new novel, The Queen of New York, tracing two women across generations through civil rights movements. Hotel Vermont, Burlington, 5-6:30 p.m. By donation.

VICTORIA REDEL: An acclaimed author discusses her new novel set in 1600s Amsterdam, I Am You, in conversation with fellow writer Robin MacArthur. Next Stage Arts, Putney, 7:30 p.m. $10.

WALKING BOOK CLUB: Bibliophiles lace up their sneakers to clock miles and chapters at a mobile session pairing physical

activity with audiobooks. South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, noon-1 p.m. Free.

SAT.9 bazaars

BIPOC ARTIST MARKET: Locavores browse a diverse selection of fine art, baked goods, jewelry, candles, pottery and other unique treasures. Intervale Center, Burlington, noon-4 p.m. Free.

cannabis

NECANN: THE VERMONT CANNABIS & HEMP CONVENTION: See FRI.8, 10 a.m.3 p.m.

community

SISTERHOOD CAMPFIRE: Women and genderqueer folks gather in a safe and inclusive space to build community through journaling, storytelling, gentle music and stargazing. Leddy Park, Burlington, 7-9 p.m. Free.

dance

CONTRA DANCE FUNDRAISER: Indivisible Calais hosts an evening of community building through movement, featuring live music by Turning Stile and calling by Don Stratton. Proceeds benefit Vermont Public Interest Research Group. Bring clean, soft-soled shoes. A potluck follows. Capital City Grange, Berlin, 2-5 p.m. By donation.

‘FIREBIRD’: See FRI.8. SATURDAY SWING DANCE: Folks jive and jitterbug the night away to jazz, big band and contemporary tunes played by Red Hot Juba. Bring clean shoes. North Star Community Hall, Burlington. Free lesson, 7 p.m.; music, 7:30-10 p.m. $10-20 sliding scale.

environment

BACKYARD COMPOSTING: Mad River Resource Management Alliance administrator John Malter digs into how to turn kitchen scraps into garden gold and keep those hungry bears at bay. Waterbury Public Library, 10 a.m. Free; preregister.

etc.

THE FELINE CONNECTION: Animal lovers meet cute and cuddly kitties available for adoption and learn more about the rescue org’s important work. Phoenix Books, Rutland, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Free.

LABOR OF LOVE EVENT:

Community members volunteer their time, talents and expertise at a day of repairs, maintenance and sprucing up. Dog Mountain, St. Johnsbury, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Free; preregister.

‘OFF THE WALL’: See WED.6.

fairs & festivals

KINGMAN FEST: A street fair full of food and family-friendly fun ends in a blowout concert by powerhouse vocalists Jesse Agan, Morgan Myles and April Cushman. Kingman St., St. Albans, 5-9 p.m. Free; cash bar.

YOUNG TRADITION FESTIVAL: See FRI.8, 10 a.m.-9:30 p.m.

film

See what’s playing at local theaters in the On Screen section.

‘BACKYARD WILDERNESS 3D’: See THU.7.

‘DINOSAURS OF ANTARCTICA 3D’: See THU.7.

‘DOUBLE INDEMNITY’: Billy Wilder’s 1944 crime drama follows an insurance representative who is talked into a fatal scheme. The Screening Room @ VTIFF, Main Street Landing Performing Arts Center, Burlington, 7 p.m. $6-12.

‘HOPEVILLE: HOW TO WIN THE READING WARS’: The Upper Valley Educators Institute presents a screening of Harvey Hubbell V’s powerful 2023 documentary about the U.S. literacy crisis. A panel discussion follows. Billings Farm & Museum, Woodstock, 4-6:30 p.m. $25 suggested donation.

‘SEA MONSTERS 3D: A PREHISTORIC ADVENTURE’: See THU.7.

‘SHARK KINGDOM 3D’: See THU.7. ‘SING SING THANKSGIVING’: This riveting music documentary features B.B. King, Joan Baez and other luminaries during an iconic concert at New York’s Sing Sing Correctional Facility in 1973. A discussion with the film’s sound recordist, Alan Dater, follows. Next Stage Arts, Putney, 7 p.m. $10.

food & drink

BURLINGTON FARMERS MARKET:

Dozens of stands overflow with seasonal produce, flowers, artisanal wares and prepared foods to the tune of live local music. 345 Pine St., Burlington, 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Free.

EMPTY BOWLS: A scrumptious meal of locally made soups served in handcrafted vessels raises funds for Martha’s Community Kitchen. St. Paul’s United Methodist Church of St. Albans, 4-6:30 p.m. $15-30; preregister.

games

CHESS CLUB: Proficient players of all ages face off and learn new strategies. South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, 11 a.m. Free.

CORNHOLE TOURNAMENT: Teams take turns pitching bean bags at a friendly competition benefiting students in the trades. Vermont Construction Academy, Winooski, 9 a.m. $50-450; preregister.

D&D & TTRPG GROUP: Fans of Dungeons & Dragons and

other tabletop role-playing games embark on a new adventure with a rotating cast of game masters. Virtual option available. Waterbury Public Library, 1-5 p.m. Free.

holidays

BUILD A BOUQUET: Cultivate the perfect personalized gift for mom using complimentary blooms and greenery from participating retailers. Church Street Marketplace, Burlington, noon. Free.

MOTHER’S DAY MARKET:

Shoppers find the perfect gift at a curated showcase of local artists’ handmade goods. The Great Hall, Springfield, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Free.

MOTHER’S DAY MARKET: Womenowned businesses and artisans offer everything from Ayurvedic botanicals to handcrafted fiber arts, just in time to celebrate mom. Blossom Wellness Center, Montpelier, noon-4 p.m. Free.

MOTHER’S DAY POP-UP MARKET:

Gift-seekers support regional makers, forge glass keepsakes and find the perfect present in an assemblage of unique goodies. AO Glass, Burlington, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Free.

MOTHER’S DAY WEEKEND

GARDEN LUNCHEON & TEA:

Diners toast the holiday amid blooming blueberry bushes and apple trees at a scenic midday meal featuring sandwiches and scones. BYOB. Blueberry Hill Inn, Goshen, 1 p.m. $15-45; preregister.

language

FRENCH CONVERSATION FOR ALL:

Native French speaker Romain Feuillette guides an informal discussion group for all ages and abilities. Dorothy Alling Memorial Library, Williston, 10:30-11:30 a.m. Free; preregister; limited space.

music

‘THE ’80S ROCK SHOW’: A highoctane ensemble from Québec

revives the stadium-rock era with a powerhouse tribute to iconic voices from the likes of Tina Turner and Billy Idol. Haskell Free Library & Opera House, Derby Line, 8-11 p.m. $42.99.

ANA GUIGUI: See FRI.8.

CATAMOUNT ARTS BLUEGRASS NIGHT: NEW LOST NATION: An old-time string band from central Vermont boasts an all-star lineup of genre stalwarts. Alexander Twilight Theatre, Vermont State University-Lyndon, 7 p.m. Free; donations accepted.

DARTMOUTH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA & DANCE ENSEMBLE: See FRI.8.

DAVE ALVIN & JIMMIE DALE

GILMORE: The veteran singersongwriters and longtime friends bring their “Almost Acoustic Duo” to the stage for a folk-forward performance. Bellows Falls Opera House, 7:30 p.m. $32-57.

GREEN MOUNTAIN CHAMBER

PLAYERS: Artist faculty from the Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival perform works for string and piano by Michael Schachter, Anton Arensky and Antonín Dvořák. College Street Congregational Church, Burlington, 2-5 p.m. $20-35; free for students.

RAD FOLK SONGS: Fans of the genre receive a booklet with chords, lyrics and historical context, then sing along with the traditional tunes. Peace & Justice Center, Burlington, 2 p.m. Free. ‘SCENES AND SONGS’: The school’s vocal students present a spirited showcase of musical theater hits, from operatic arias to Broadway showstoppers. Virtual option available. Robison Concert Hall, Mahaney Arts Center, Middlebury College, 7:30 p.m. Free.

TRADITIONAL MUSIC SHOWCASE: Farmers market shoppers sample a global smorgasbord of sound as Vermont Folklife students and SAT.9 » P.60

instructors perform everything from West African drumming to Bollywood dance. 345 Pine St., Burlington, 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Free.

VERMONT SYMPHONY

ORCHESTRA: Andrew Crust directs the ensemble in “O Fortuna!,” a thunderous season finale featuring a medieval-inspired masterpiece and music by Mexican composer Gabriela Ortiz. Flynn Main Stage, Burlington, 7:30 p.m. $10-62.

outdoors

COMMUNITY BIRD WALKS: Seekers join expert Lachlan Ziegler for a morning trek to sharpen their identification skills. Rock Point Center, Burlington, 8-10 a.m. Free; preregister.

SPRING BIRD WALK: Spotters of all abilities decode the songs and sights of returning feathered friends at a guided trek through the preserved sanctuary. Pratt Forest, Duxbury, 7:30-9:30 a.m. Free; preregister.

québec

FESTIVAL ACCÈS ASIE: See WED.6.

‘WINE & HALVA’: Coffee and sharp social satire abound in this revival of Deniz Başar’s thought-provoking play about the unlikely friendship between a white gay man and a Turkish immigrant woman. Rangshala Studio, Montréal, 7 p.m. $20-35.

seminars

LONG TRAIL END-TO-ENDER’S

PANEL: Aspiring trekkers pick the brains of seasoned thru-hikers at an informative Q&A about tackling Vermont’s rugged spine. Green Mountain Club Headquarters, Waterbury Center, 10 a.m.-noon. Free; preregister.

sports

COMMUNITY FISHING DAY:

Aspiring anglers hook into the basics of regulations and techniques at a hands-on introduction to waterfront casting. Gear provided. Lake Champlain Maritime Museum, Vergennes, noon-3 p.m. Free; preregister.

SPORTS CARDS & COLLECTIBLES

EXPO: Hobbyists hunt for elusive additions to their personal collections at an expansive assembly of rare and unique artifacts. Highgate Sports Arena, Highgate Center, 11 a.m.-6:15 p.m. $5 for early entry; free at noon.

tech

CODING CLUB: Participants put on their thinking caps and get some hands-on experience with the BBC micro:bit — a pocket-size computer that makes learning fun and interactive. Haskell Free Library & Opera House, Derby Line, 1-2:30 p.m. Free.

theater

‘THE DANGEROUS DIVORCEE’: Theatergoers don 1930s Hollywood garb for a glamorous murder mystery dinner party featuring a three-course meal. The Wilburton Inn, Manchester, 6:30 p.m. Various prices; cash bar.

‘EUREKA DAY’: See THU.7, 2 & 7:30 p.m.

THE GERMAN THEATER GROUP: ‘DIE PHYSIKER’: Swiss playwright Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s darkly comic thriller explores the ethical responsibilities of scientists in a world capable of nuclear destruction. Le Château, Middlebury College, 7:30 p.m. Free.

THE NEW ENGLAND FAMILY

THEATRE FESTIVAL: See FRI.8.

NEW STAGE PLAYERS’ COMEDY PLAY FESTIVAL: See FRI.8.

‘RHINOCEROS’: See THU.7, 2 & 7:30 p.m.

‘THE SPITFIRE GRILL’: See FRI.8, 3 & 7:30 p.m.

‘THE WAVERLY GALLERY’: See THU.7.

‘WHITE’: See WED.6, 2 & 7:30 p.m. words

BOOK SALE: See FRI.8. NATURE POETRY DROP-IN PROGRAM: Writers cultivate their creative voices by translating the nuances of the natural world into verse at an open-ended session led by local artist Toussaint St. Negritude. North Branch Nature Center, Montpelier, 1-3 p.m. Free; preregister.

THE POETRY EXPERIENCE: Local wordsmith Rajnii Eddins hosts a supportive writing and sharing circle for poets of all ages. Pickering Room, Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 1-3 p.m. Free.

RICK CEBALLOS & LAUSANNE

ALLEN: A veteran folk musician and his collaborator spin yarns and strike up traditional tunes to celebrate The Rising Steam, an anthology of original jigs, reels and waltzes. Refreshments provided. Art on Main, Bristol, 3-5 p.m. Free; donations accepted.

WRITE NOW!: Wordsmiths of all experience levels hone their craft in a supportive and critique-free environment. Kellogg-Hubbard Library, Montpelier, 10-11:30 a.m. Free.

ZINE SCENE: Instructor Nico Lima helps prospective publishers of all ages master the art of the mini-magazine. Materials provided. The Satellite Gallery, Lyndonville, 3-5 p.m. Free; donations accepted.

SUN.10

dance

‘DANCES IN BLOOM’: Regional movers and shakers from Marble Valley Dance Collective debut an eclectic program of contemporary choreography. Casella Theater, Vermont State University-Castleton, 2 p.m. $5-30; preregister.

etc.

FREE ADMISSION DAY: History buffs of all ages bypass the admission fee and embark on guided tours at a day celebrating the anniversary of the Green Mountain Boys’ victory at Fort Ticonderoga. Ethan Allen Homestead Museum, Burlington, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Free.

OPENS MAY 13 | THEATER

Seas the Day

Northern Stage concludes its season with the world premiere of up-and-coming playwright Talene Monahon’s bold new comedy, Wonder! A Woman Keeps a Secret, at Barrette Center for the Arts in White River Junction. Tony Award winner Will Brill and acclaimed actor Martha Burns add their talents to the high seas farce based on 18thcentury poet Susanna Centlivre’s work. A cast of colorful characters — including a pair of jealous lovers, a fearful captain and a shifty mother-in-law — must swap secrets, avoid suspicion, and navigate waves both literal and metaphorical when a famous painting aboard their Lisbon-bound cruise goes missing.

‘WONDER! A WOMAN KEEPS A SECRET’

Wednesday, May 13, 7:30 p.m., at Byrne Theater, Barrette Center for the Arts, in White River Junction. See website for future dates. $10-80. Info, 802-296-7000, northernstage.org.

film

See what’s playing at local theaters in the On Screen section.

‘BACKYARD WILDERNESS 3D’: See THU.7.

‘DINOSAURS OF ANTARCTICA 3D’: See THU.7.

‘SEA MONSTERS 3D: A PREHISTORIC ADVENTURE’: See THU.7.

‘SHARK KINGDOM 3D’: See THU.7.

DUPLICATE BRIDGE GAMES: See THU.7, 1 p.m.

health & fitness

KARUNA COMMUNITY

MEDITATION: A YEAR TO LIVE

(FULLY): Participants practice keeping joy, generosity and gratitude at the forefront of their minds. Jenna’s House, Johnson, 10-11:15 a.m. Free; donations accepted.

NEW LEAF SANGHA

MINDFULNESS PRACTICE: New

and experienced meditators alike sit together in the Plum Village tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh. Hot Yoga Burlington, 6-7:45 p.m. Free. NEW MINDFULNESS MEDITATION

GATHERING: Certified instructors lead hour-long sessions of the ancient contemplative practice rooted in compassion and generosity. North Star Community Hall, Burlington, 5:30-6:30 p.m. By donation.

holidays

MOTHER’S DAY BRUNCH: Moms, grandmas and caregivers of all kinds are the guests of honor at a feast of elevated breakfast favorites. The Lodge at Spruce Peak, Stowe, 11 a.m.-2 p.m. $45-90; free for kids under 5.

MOTHER’S DAY BRUNCH: Brunch-goers toast to mom while indulging in a premium buffet of fresh seafood, artisanal cheeses, homemade pastries and more. The Essex Resort & Spa, 10 a.m.-1 p.m.

$35-80; free for kids 3 and under; preregister.

MOTHER’S DAY BRUNCH BUFFET: Diners honor motherhood over a lavish spread ranging from lobster bisque and beef tenderloin to charcuterie and a dedicated dessert table. Black Flannel Brewing & Distilling, Essex, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. $30-60; free for kids under 5. lgbtq

CRAFT CLUB: Creative queer folks work on their knitting, crocheting and sewing projects. Rainbow Bridge Community Center, Barre, 10 a.m.-noon. Free.

music

ALAN CHIANG: An accomplished pianist from South Burlington plays a reflective program of works by Johann Sebastian Bach. Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Burlington, 4 p.m. $10-25; preregister.

GREEN MOUNTAIN CHAMBER PLAYERS: Artist faculty from the Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival perform works for string and piano by Michael Schachter, Anton Arensky and Antonín Dvořák. Unitarian Church of Montpelier, 3-5 p.m. $20-35; free for students.

HINESBURG ARTIST SERIES: Listeners revel in popular hits spanning decades, performed by the Hinesburg Community Band and the South County Chorus. Champlain Valley Union High School, Hinesburg, 4 p.m. Free; donations accepted.

outdoors

EARLY BIRDERS MORNING WALK: You know what they say ... Now get that worm! New and experienced avian admirers take a stroll to observe the area’s flying, feathered friends. BYO binoculars. Birds of Vermont Museum, Huntington, 7-9 a.m. $10 suggested donation; preregister.

québec

FESTIVAL ACCÈS ASIE: See WED.6.

‘WINE & HALVA’: See SAT.9, 2 & 7 p.m.

tech

DROP-IN TECH SUPPORT: Techsavvy library staff provide oneon-one guidance and support in 30-minute sessions. Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 4-6 p.m. Free. theater

‘EUREKA DAY’: See THU.7, 2 p.m.

The cast of Wonder! A Woman Keeps a Secret

FAMI LY FU N

South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, 9:15-9:45 & 10:30-11 a.m. Free.

barre/montpelier

POKÉMON CLUB: I choose you, Pikachu! Elementary and teenage fans of the franchise — and beginners, too — trade cards and play games. Kellogg-Hubbard Library, Montpelier, 3:30-5 p.m. Free.

STORY TIME: Kids and their caregivers meet for stories, songs and bubbles. Kellogg-Hubbard Library, 2nd Floor, Children’s Library, Montpelier, 10:30-11 a.m. Free.

stowe/smuggs

WEE ONES PLAY TIME: Caregivers bring kiddos under 4 to a new sensory learning experience each week. Morristown Centennial Library, Morrisville, 10 a.m. Free.

mad river valley/ waterbury

BUSY BEES PLAYGROUP: Blocks, toys, books and songs engage little ones 24 months and younger. Waterbury Public Library, 10-11:30 a.m. Free.

northeast kingdom

‘CARDTOPIA’: The center’s studio space transforms into a giant interactive cardboard building, complete with secret chambers, tunnels and a ball run. Highland Center for the Arts, Greensboro, noon-4 p.m. Free.

ACORN CLUB STORY TIME: Youngsters 5 and under play, sing, hear stories and color. St. Johnsbury Athenaeum, 10:30-11 a.m. Free.

FRI.8

burlington

‘CHAMP: AMERICA’S LAKE MONSTER’: See WED.6.

DINOSAUR SAFARI EXHIBIT: See WED.6.

DROP-IN: An afterschool hangout space invites teens ages 13 to 19 to relax, connect, grab a snack or browse the nonprofit’s clothing closet. Outright Vermont, Burlington, 2:30 p.m. Free.

FAMILY FRIDAY WITH LINDA BASSICK: Caretakers and wee ones enjoy a weekly morning mashup of muffins and music played by the local legend. Pingala Café North Avenue, Burlington, 9-9:30 a.m. Free.

chittenden county

FRIDAY LEGO BUILDERS: Weekly sessions invite creative minds to stack, connect and build their way to structural masterpieces using interlocking blocks.

Recommended for ages 6 and up. South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, 3-4:30 p.m. Free.

VERMONT DRINKING WATER FAIR: Fourth through sixth graders soak up knowledge through hands-on outdoor activities that plumb the depths of conservation and aquatic careers. Veterans Memorial Park, South Burlington, 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Free.

barre/montpelier

BASEMENT TEEN CENTER: A drop-in hangout session welcomes kids ages 12 to 17 for lively games, arts and crafts, and snacks. Kellogg-Hubbard Library, Montpelier, 2-8 p.m. Free.

LEGO CLUB: Budding builders create geometric structures with snap-together blocks. Kellogg-Hubbard Library, Montpelier, 3:30-5 p.m. Free.

STORY TIME & PLAYGROUP: Participants ages 5 and under enjoy themed science, art and nature activities. Jaquith Public Library, Marshfield, 10:30 a.m. Free.

middlebury area

SPRING HOMESCHOOL DAY: Budding naturalists ages 6 and up explore the intricacies of the lake’s ecosystem at a day of hands-on environmental education tailored to kids who learn at home. Lake Champlain Maritime Museum, Vergennes, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Free.

upper valley

STORY TIME: Preschoolers take part in tales, tunes and playtime. Latham Library, Thetford, 11 a.m. Free.

northeast kingdom

‘CARDTOPIA’: See THU.7.

PRESCHOOL STORY TIME: Youngsters and their caregivers delight in beautiful books, silly songs, creative crafts and unplugged play in the library’s cozy children’s room. Craftsbury Public Library, Craftsbury Common, 10 a.m. Free.

brattleboro/okemo valley

‘CIRCUS SPRINGBOARD: BROKEN OPEN’: Gravity-defying feats and everyday objects tell a mythic tale of human ingenuity as performers navigate the complexities of rebuilding connections. New England Center for Circus Arts, Brattleboro, 5 & 8 p.m. $20-40.

SAT.9

burlington

‘CHAMP: AMERICA’S LAKE MONSTER’: See WED.6.

DADS & KIDS BOARD GAME EVENT: Players ages 4 to 7 and 8 and up divide and conquer across two gaming groups to test their competitive mettle alongside their fathers. The Guild Hall, Burlington, 10 a.m.-noon. Free.

DINOSAUR SAFARI EXHIBIT: See WED.6.

FLYNNZONE KIDS HOUR: LINDA

BASSICK: Little ones shake their sillies out at a high-energy morning of movement and melody led by the veteran educator and musician. The Flynn, Burlington, 10 a.m. Free.

PARTIZANFILM JR.: ‘THE SECRET OF KELLS’: A young boy in a remote medieval outpost is drawn into a dangerous quest when a stranger arrives with an ancient book in this 2009 animated adventure flick. Partizanfilm, Burlington, 12:10-1:30 p.m. $6-8.50.

chittenden county

CAN-AM CON: Vendors and seminars complement a showcase of scale models crafted by junior and veteran builders alike. Williston National Guard Armory, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. $5; free for kids under 12.

FRENCH STORY TIME: Kids of all ages listen and learn to native speaker Romain Feuillette raconte une histoire. Dorothy Alling Memorial Library, Williston, 10:1510:45 a.m. Free.

ROSEMARY WELLS: A titan of children’s literature shares the stories behind her iconic animal protagonists at this intimate reading for all ages. Pierson Library, Shelburne, 10-11 a.m. Free.

barre/montpelier

IT TAKES A VILLAGE: Families in the early parenting years meet with local orgs at an activity-filled bash featuring Mother’s

THE GERMAN THEATER GROUP: ‘DIE PHYSIKER’: See SAT.9.

THE NEW ENGLAND FAMILY

THEATRE FESTIVAL: See FRI.8.

NEW STAGE PLAYERS’ COMEDY PLAY FESTIVAL: See FRI.8, 2 p.m.

‘RHINOCEROS’: See THU.7, 2 p.m.

‘THE SPITFIRE GRILL’: See FRI.8, 3 p.m.

‘THE WAVERLY GALLERY’: See THU.7, 2:30 p.m.

‘WHITE’: See WED.6, 2 p.m.

words

SCREEN-FREE WEEK BOOK

DISCUSSION: A digital specialist leads a timely conversation on Catherine Price’s book How to Break Up With Your Phone: The 30-Day Plan to Take Back Your Life South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, 1-2 p.m. Free.

MON.11

crafts

COLLAGE COLLECTIVE: Creatives of all experience levels cut, paste and make works of wonder. Virtual options available. Expressive Arts Burlington, 6:30-9 p.m. Free; donations accepted.

FUSE BEADS CLUB: Aspiring artisans bring ideas or borrow patterns to make beaded creations. Kellogg-Hubbard Library, Montpelier, 3:30-5 p.m. Free. film

See what’s playing at local theaters in the On Screen section.

‘BACKYARD WILDERNESS 3D’: See THU.7.

‘DINOSAURS OF ANTARCTICA 3D’: See THU.7.

‘SEA MONSTERS 3D: A

PREHISTORIC ADVENTURE’: See THU.7.

‘SHARK KINGDOM 3D’: See THU.7. games

BURLINGTON ELKS BINGO: Players grab their daubers for a competitive night of card stamping for cash prizes. Burlington Elks Lodge, 6 p.m. Various prices.

MAH-JONGG MONDAYS: Tile traders gather for friendly bouts of the ancient game of skill, strategy and luck. St. Albans Free Library, 1-3 p.m. Free.

health & fitness

MONDAY NIGHT LIVE: The Burlington Dharma Collective hosts an inspiring monthly talk, meditation and group discussion. Outright Vermont, Burlington, 7-8:30 p.m. Free; donations accepted.

WISDOM FLOW YOGA: See FRI.8.

language

GERMAN LANGUAGE LUNCH: Willkommen! Speakers of all experience levels brush up on conversational skills over bagged lunches. Kellogg-Hubbard Library, Montpelier, noon-1 p.m. Free.

music

ONION RIVER CHORUS

REHEARSAL: The non-auditioned community ensemble conducted by Richard Riley invites interested vocalists to join in spirited song. Bethany United Church of Christ, Montpelier, 7-9 p.m. Free.

québec

FESTIVAL ACCÈS ASIE: See WED.6.

theater

‘THE MUSIC MAN’: Traveling salesman Harold Hill’s scheming ways come back to haunt him in Meredith Willson’s six-time Tony Award-winning musical comedy. Flynn Main Stage, Burlington, 7:30 p.m. $84.79-114.75. THE NEW ENGLAND FAMILY THEATRE FESTIVAL: See FRI.8.

words

ANIME GROUP: Fans of Japanese animation and comics convene weekly to swap ideas, read stories and connect over shared interests in hand-drawn media. Pathways Vermont Morgan’s Place Peer Support Center, Burlington, 6-8 p.m. Free.

READ LIKE A WRITER: New England Readers & Writers hosts a virtual reading group for bibliophiles to chat about short stories, both contemporary and classic. 6:30-8 p.m. Free.

TUE.12 community

CURRENT EVENTS

DISCUSSION GROUP: Brownell Library holds a virtual roundtable for neighbors to pause and reflect on the news cycle. 10-11:30 a.m. Free.

MEETUP FOR WOMEN, TRANS & NONBINARY TRADESPEOPLE & DESIGNERS: Underrepresented professionals in the trades swap jobsite stories and leadership strategies at an informal gathering. Refreshments provided. TimberHomes Vermont, Montpelier, 5 p.m. Free.

conferences

SOUTHERN VERMONT ECONOMY SUMMIT: Community movers and shakers bridge the gap between business and municipal policy to tackle the region’s toughest fiscal puzzles. Mount Snow, West Dover, 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. $150-200; preregister.

crafts

ALL HANDS TOGETHER

COMMUNITY CRAFTING GROUP: Marshfield spinning maven Donna Hisson hosts a casual gathering for fiber fans of all abilities to work on old projects or start something new. Jaquith Public Library, Marshfield, 6-7:30 p.m. Free.

CRAFTERS DROP-IN: Fiber fans converse and connect through knitting, crocheting, mending, embroidery and other creative pursuits. Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 6-8 p.m. Free.

film

See what’s playing at local theaters in the On Screen section.

‘BACKYARD WILDERNESS 3D’: See THU.7.

‘BEST DAY EVER’: See WED.6. Paramount Theatre, Rutland, 7 p.m. $10.

‘DINOSAURS OF ANTARCTICA 3D’: See THU.7.

‘SEA MONSTERS 3D: A PREHISTORIC ADVENTURE’: See THU.7.

‘SHARK KINGDOM 3D’: See THU.7.

health & fitness

BEGINNER TAI CHI: Weight transference and mindful breathing help practitioners cultivate agility through a contemporary sequence of quintessential martial arts postures. Virtual option available. Unitarian Universalist Church, Springfield, 10-11 a.m. Free.

COMMUNITY MEDITATION: All experience levels engage in the ancient Buddhist practice of clearing the mind to achieve a state of calm. First Unitarian Universalist Society of Burlington, 5:15-6 p.m. Free; donations accepted.

TAI CHI: Practitioners get a feel for the Chinese martial art combining controlled breathing, meditation and slow, gentle movements. Ida Boch Park, Bradford, 10-11 a.m. Free.

language

ITALIAN LANGUAGE LUNCH:

Speakers hone their skills in the Romance language over bagged lunches. Kellogg-Hubbard Library, Montpelier, noon-1 p.m. Free.

PAUSE-CAFÉ MARDI:

Francophones and Frenchlanguage learners meet pour parler la belle langue. Burlington Bay Market & Café, 6-8 p.m. Free.

music

INTERPLAY JAZZ JAM NORTH: Instrumentalists tune in for a night of melodies, bringing six to eight copies of sheet music to pass around. Faith United Methodist Church, South Burlington, 6:30-9 p.m. Free.

THE SILO SESSIONS: MAY

ERLEWINE: A soulful Midwestern songwriter brings her poignant lyricism to a family-friendly evening of acoustic music. Bread & Butter Farm, Shelburne, 7 p.m. $12-22.

VERMONT’S FREEDOM & UNITY

CHORUS: Singers come together for a weekly rehearsal inspiring positive change through the power of music. Chapel of Saint Michael the Archangel, Saint Michael’s College, Colchester, 7 p.m. Free.

québec

FESTIVAL ACCÈS ASIE: See WED.6.

seminars

THE ARTIST’S WAY: A weekly study group invites participants to explore Julia Cameron’s celebrated method for unblocking creativity and achieving transcendence. 3 Squares Café, Vergennes, 6-7:30 p.m. Free; preregister.

TENANT SKILLS

WORKSHOP: The Champlain Valley Office of

Economic Opportunity brings renters up to speed on the fundamentals of tenant rights and responsibilities. 5-6:30 p.m. Free; preregister.

sports

DAD GUILD OPEN GYM

BASKETBALL: Local fathers hit the hardwood for weekly sessions of full-court exercise and casual competition. Mater Christi School, Burlington, 7-9 p.m. Free.

tech

AFTERNOON TECH HELP: Experts answer questions about phones, laptops, e-readers and other devices in one-on-one meetings. South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, 1-4 p.m. Free; preregister.

DROP-IN TECH SUPPORT: Library staff field questions about devices of all kinds in face-to-face chats. Fletcher Free Library New North End Branch, Burlington, 12:30-2 p.m. Free.

theater

‘THE MUSIC MAN’: See MON.11. THE NEW ENGLAND FAMILY THEATRE FESTIVAL: See FRI.8.

words

BURLINGTON LITERATURE GROUP: Over the course of nine weeks, readers analyze the works of father-and-son authors Kingsley and Martin Amis, two influential British novelists of the post-war era. 6:30-8 p.m. Free.

DIANA WHITNEY, MEG REYNOLDS & EVE ALEXANDRA: Lit lovers congregate to hear inspired readings from the three acclaimed poets’ latest collections. The Norwich Bookstore, 7 p.m. Free.

LOUISE PENNY & MELLISSA

FUNG: A chart-topping novelist and an award-winning journalist discuss their new cowritten political thriller at a historic landmark straddling the international border. Haskell Free Library & Opera House, Derby Line, 6 p.m. $40; preregister.

WRITER’S CIRCLE: Creative sparks fly as participants tackle curated prompts and read their latest drafts aloud in a collaborative environment. Virtual option available. Pathways Vermont Morgan’s Place Peer Support Center, Burlington, 4-5:30 p.m. Free.

WED.13 business

VERMONT WOMENPRENEURS BIZ

BUZZ BURLINGTON: A monthly networking meetup provides a space for female business owners to connect over coffee and snacks. Deep City, Burlington, 9:45-11:15 a.m. $10; preregister.

WOMEN IN LEADERSHIP

LUNCHEON: Networking opportunities, an awards ceremony and a keynote co-presentation by Emily Bush and Rhoni Basden make for an inspirational affair to remember. Hildene, the Lincoln Family Home, Manchester, noon-2 p.m. $85-600.

community

CURRENT EVENTS: Neighbors have an informal discussion about what’s in the news. Dorothy Alling Memorial Library, Williston, 10:30 a.m.-noon. Free.

crafts

GREEN MOUNTAIN CHAPTER OF THE EMBROIDERERS’ GUILD OF AMERICA: Anyone with an interest in the needle arts can bring a project to this monthly meeting. Holy Family Parish Hall, Essex Junction, 9:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Free.

YARN & YAK: See WED.6.

YARN CRAFTERS GROUP: See WED.6.

etc.

‘OFF THE WALL’: See WED.6. TOASTMASTERS OF GREATER BURLINGTON: Those looking to strengthen their speaking and leadership skills gain new tools. Virtual option available. Generator Makerspace, Burlington, 6-7:30 p.m. Free; preregister.

film

See what’s playing at local theaters in the On Screen section.

MNFF SELECTS SERIES: ‘SECRET

MALL APARTMENT’: Jeremy Workman’s 2024 documentary tells the story of eight artists who created a hidden space to live inside the busy Providence Place Mall in 2003. A virtual Q&A with the film’s director and producer follows. Marquis Theatre & Southwest Café, Middlebury, 7 p.m. $14-16.

food & drink

COMMUNITY COOKING: See WED.6.

CRÊPE NIGHT: Foodies enjoy sweet and savory French pancakes picnic-style at this monthly community meal benefiting local nonprofits. Scott Farm Orchard, Dummerston, 5:30-7:30 p.m. $12-25.

CUPPA ON CAMPUS: See WED.6.

health & fitness

CHAIR YOGA: See WED.6.

GENTLE YOGA: See WED.6. REAL TALK ABOUT SEX: ‘ECOSEXUALITY’: A monthly Zoom gathering facilitated by certified sexuality educator Sarah Goodrich allows for frank, respectful conversations about the topic. 7-8 p.m. Free; preregister.

RECOVERY DHARMA: See WED.6.

language

ELL CLASS: See WED.6.

ITALIAN CONVERSATION GROUP: Practitioners sharpen their skills and connect with neighbors at a morning meetup facilitated by a native speaker. South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, 10-11 a.m. Free.

SPANISH FROM SCRATCH: New England Language Academy teacher Carlos Reyes invites participants to ditch the textbooks and find their voice at an interactive intensive designed for beginners and those wanting to reconnect with

the language. Waterbury Public Library, 6-8 p.m. Free; preregister. lgbtq

THE ALL INCLUSIVE DYKETACULAR: See WED.6.

QUEER WRITERS’ GROUP: LGBTQ authors meet monthly to discuss their work, write from prompts, and give each other advice and feedback. Rainbow Bridge Community Center, Barre, 5:30-7 p.m. Free. outdoors

FOREST RESET: GUIDED NATURE WALKS: Cultivate tranquility among the trees at this gentle weekly wander designed to help busy brains tap into their inner peace. Journey Together VT, Richmond, 9-10:30 a.m. Free; donations accepted; preregister.

québec

FESTIVAL ACCÈS ASIE: See WED.6. ‘WINE & HALVA’: See SAT.9.

seminars

SUSTAINING THE RENT WORKSHOP: The Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity helps tenants financially prepare and access resources to meet their housing needs. Noon-1:30 p.m. Free; preregister.

‘UNDERSTANDING NEURODIVERSITY: A WORKSHOP FOR REGIONAL BUSINESSES & ORGANIZATIONS’: Business leaders and nonprofit organizers gain practical tools for fostering cognitive diversity and implementing inclusivity in their professional environments. Virtual option available. Kellogg-Hubbard Library, Montpelier, 9-10 a.m. Free; preregister for Zoom link.

sports

GREEN MOUNTAIN TABLE TENNIS CLUB: See WED.6.

theater

THE NEW ENGLAND FAMILY THEATRE FESTIVAL: See FRI.8. ‘RHINOCEROS’: See THU.7.

‘WHITE’: See WED.6. ‘WONDER! A WOMAN KEEPS A SECRET‘: A missing masterpiece and a boatload of baggage turn a luxury cruise into a high-stakes farce in Northern Stage’s production of Talene Monahon’s new comedy. See calendar spotlight. Byrne Theater, Barrette Center for the Arts, White River Junction, 7:30 p.m. $10-80.

words

FFL BOOK DISCUSSION

GROUP: Readers convene via Zoom to dissect the plot twists of Virginia Evans’ critically acclaimed epistolary novel, The Correspondent, about a retired lawyer who communicates through letters. Hosted by Fletcher Free Library. 7:30-8 p.m. Free.

LOUISE PENNY & MELLISSA FUNG: See TUE.12, 4 p.m.

POETRY POTLUCK: Got words? Folks gather to swap stanzas and dishes at a community-driven feast of verse. Wandering Vine, St. Johnsbury, 7 p.m. Free. ➆

FAMI LY FU N

Day card making, games, face painting and a bake sale. Proceeds benefit Good Beginnings of Central Vermont. U-32 High School, Montpelier, 9 a.m.-noon. Free.

KIDS TRADE & PLAY: Neighbors swap or shop gently used clothing, shoes, books and toys. Capital City Grange, Berlin, 9:30-11:30 a.m. Free; donations accepted.

NATURE POETRY PROGRAM: Local artist

Toussaint St. Negritude helps teens ages 13 to 19 connect with the natural world to find inspiration for their written works. North Branch Nature Center, Montpelier, 10-11 a.m. Free; preregister.

stowe/smuggs

‘MAGIC SCHOOL BUS: LOST IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM’: Students in grades K through 5 hop on board for a new musical adaptation based on the beloved Scholastic book series. Spruce Peak Performing Arts Center, Stowe Mountain Resort, 11 a.m. $21.05-31.75.

middlebury area

DAD GUILD LIBRARY PLAYGROUP: Fathers and their kids connect over Legos and shared experiences at a dropin social sesh designed to build bonds. Bixby Memorial Library, Vergennes, 10:30 a.m.-noon. Free.

NATIONAL CIVICS BEE REGIONAL

COMPETITION: Future leaders put their knowledge to the test at an intellectual tournament centered on government, public policy and the responsibilities of citizens. Vergennes Opera House, 10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Free; preregister.

PEACEFUL PARENTING WORKSHOP:

Caregivers gain practical tools, confidence and a fresh perspective on the work-family balancing act at a guided session led by life coach Krista Diego. Bixby Memorial Library, Vergennes, 10:30-11:30 a.m. Free.

rutland/killington

QUEER YOUTH PROM: LGBTQ+ and allied youths trade traditional garb for a mystical woodland celebration filled with community building and joy. Camp Sunrise, Benson, 3-8 p.m. Free; preregister.

champlain islands/ northwest

DAD GUILD LIBRARY PLAYGROUP: Fathers forge neighborhood bonds and trade parenting tales while children explore the stacks at a casual morning of making connections. St. Albans Free Library, 10:30 a.m.-noon. Free.

upper valley

DAD GUILD PLAYGROUND TAKEOVER: Upper Valley fathers and their kiddos descend upon an expansive timber playscape to relive classic childhood thrills. Elizabeth’s Park, Bradford, 10 a.m.-noon. Free.

northeast kingdom

‘CARDTOPIA’: See THU.7.

WEEE! DANCE PARTY: Little ones and their caregivers express themselves through movement at this free-wheeling, DJ-driven bash. Highland Center for the Arts, Greensboro, 2-3 p.m. $5 suggested donation; preregister.

SUN.10

burlington

‘CHAMP: AMERICA’S LAKE MONSTER’: See WED.6.

DAD GUILD PLAYGROUP: Fathers (and parents of all genders) and their kids ages 5 and under drop in for playtime and connection. Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 3:30-5 p.m. Free.

DINOSAUR SAFARI EXHIBIT: See WED.6.

DUNGEONS & DRAGONS GROUP A: Tabletop role-players ages 9 to 14 practice their craft with Andrew, the library’s dungeon master. Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 12:15-3:15 p.m. Free; preregister.

FAM JAMS MUSICAL PLAYGROUP: Families drum up connections at a morning of collaborative music making with early childhood educator and musician Alex Baron. The Guild Hall, Burlington, 9:30-11 a.m. Free.

SENSORY-FRIENDLY SUNDAY: Folks of all ages with sensory processing differences have the museum to themselves, with adjusted lights and sounds and trusty sensory backpacks. ECHO Leahy Center for Lake Champlain, Burlington, 9-10 a.m. Free; preregister.

chittenden county

SOCIAL SUNDAYS: Families participate in fun and educational art activities with diverse mediums and themes. All supplies and instruction provided. Milton Artists’ Guild Art Center & Gallery, 12:30-2:30 p.m. Free.

barre/montpelier

DANCE, SING & JUMP AROUND: Live music by Susan Reid and the Vermont Fiddle Orchestra fuels an afternoon of traditional dances and singing games for all ages. Capital City Grange, Berlin, 3-4:30 p.m. $5 suggested donation; free for kids.

GENDER CREATIVE KIDS: Trans and gender-nonconforming kiddos under 12 and their families build community and make new friends at this joyful monthly gathering. See outrightvt.org for full schedule. Various locations statewide, 2-4 p.m. Free.

northeast

kingdom

‘CARDTOPIA’: See THU.7.

outside vermont

‘HARE AND TORTOISE’: UK theater company Tutti Frutti breathes new life into the moral fiber-building fable with upbeat music and endearing characters who learn that slow and steady wins the race. Lebanon Opera House, N.H., 4 p.m. $25-30.

MON.11

burlington

‘CHAMP: AMERICA’S LAKE MONSTER’: See WED.6.

DINOSAUR SAFARI EXHIBIT: See WED.6.

STORY ARTISTS: Wee ones ages 2 to 6 and their caregivers read a selection of books by a featured author, then make art inspired by the theme. Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 10:30-11:30 a.m. Free.

chittenden county

POKÉMON CLUB: Players trade cards and enjoy activities centered on their favorite strategic game. Dorothy Alling Memorial Library, Williston, 4-5 p.m. Free.

THE HANGOUT LAUNCH PARTY: Fourth through eighth graders break in a new Nintendo Switch console and explore fresh activities at a debut of the library’s updated social space. South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, 4-5 p.m. Free.

mad river valley/ waterbury

TODDLER TIME: Little kids ages 5 and under have a blast with songs, stories, rhymes and dancing. Waterbury Public Library, 10:30 a.m. Free.

upper valley

STORY TIME WITH BETH: An engaging bookseller and librarian reads picture books on a different theme each week. The Norwich Bookstore, 10 a.m. Free.

TUE.12

burlington

‘CHAMP: AMERICA’S LAKE MONSTER’: See WED.6.

DAD GUILD WORKSHOP: MENSTRUAL CYCLE CLASS FOR DADS: Fathers get a practical overview of menstruation at this info session covering the mechanics of puberty, reproductive anatomy and the rhythmic shifts of the four-phase cycle. Virtual option available. The Guild Hall, Burlington, 7-8 p.m. Free.

DINOSAUR SAFARI EXHIBIT: See WED.6.

MINECRAFT MEETUP: Fans of the sandbox game from ages 7 to 12 gather with fellow enthusiasts to play on the library’s private server. Snacks provided. Fletcher Free Library New North End Branch, Burlington, 5-6:15 p.m. Free.

SING-ALONG WITH LINDA BASSICK: Babies, toddlers and preschoolers sing, dance and wiggle along with the local musician. Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 11-11:30 a.m. Free.

chittenden county

CRAFTYTOWN: Aspiring artists tackle a rotating menu of tactile projects to explore new techniques, then bring home a finished masterpiece. Recommended for ages 8 and up, or 6 and up with an adult helper. South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, 3-4 p.m. Free.

STORY TIME: Youngsters from birth to 5 enjoy a session of reading, rhyming and singing. Dorothy Alling Memorial Library, Williston, 10:30-11 a.m. Free.

barre/montpelier

BASEMENT TEEN CENTER: See FRI.8, 2-6 p.m.

THE NEST: Good Beginnings of Central Vermont hosts a baby-friendly space where prenatal and postpartum families

can connect. Kellogg-Hubbard Library, Montpelier, 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Free.

mad river valley/ waterbury

WATERCOLOR FOR KIDS: Artist Pauline Nolte leads little painters in grades 2 to 4 in exploration and expression. Waterbury Public Library, 3-4 p.m. Free; preregister.

upper valley

LEGO TUESDAYS: Youth architects tackle construction challenges or follow their own blueprints at a creative building session complete with snacks. Norwich Public Library, 3:30-4:30 p.m. Free.

northeast kingdom

LAPSIT STORY TIME: Babies 2 and under learn to love reading while singing and playing with their caregivers. Siblings welcome. St. Johnsbury Athenaeum, 10:30-11 a.m. Free.

PRESCHOOL STORY TIME: See FRI.8.

WED.13 burlington

‘CHAMP: AMERICA’S LAKE MONSTER’: See WED.6.

BLACK DAD HANG: Dad Guild staff member Marlon Fisher hosts a casual monthly gathering for Black fathers looking to build community and connect with others. The Guild Hall, Burlington, 7-9 p.m. Free.

DINOSAUR SAFARI EXHIBIT: See WED.6.

LIBRARY LITTLES PLAYGROUP: See WED.6.

chittenden county

BABY TIME: See WED.6.

HAFTY CRAFTY DAY: Kiddos ages 6 and up partake in a fun-filled, hands-on art-making activity. South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, 1-2 p.m. Free.

barre/montpelier

BABY & CAREGIVER MEETUP: See WED.6. FAMILY CHESS CLUB: See WED.6. HOMESCHOOL BOOK GROUP: Kids ages 10 to 15 who learn at home bond over their favorite titles. Kellogg-Hubbard Library, Montpelier, 1-2 p.m. Free.

upper valley

STORY TIME: See WED.6. K

classes

THE FOLLOWING CLASS LISTINGS ARE PAID ADVERTISEMENTS. ANNOUNCE YOUR CLASS HERE FOR AS LITTLE AS $21.25/WEEK (INCLUDES SIX PHOTOS AND UNLIMITED DESCRIPTION ONLINE).

NEWSPAPER DEADLINE: MONDAYS AT 3 P.M. POST CLASS ADS AT SEVENDAYSVT.COM/POSTCLASS. GET HELP AT CLASSES@SEVENDAYSVT.COM.

arts & crafts

CLAY SCULPTURE WORKSHOPS:

Welcome, new Super Readers!

ese wonderful people made their ﬁrst donation to Seven Days this week:

Hugh Evans

Rachel Lapidow

Sascha Mayer

Roy Towlen

Carol Truesdell

Bonnie Acker

Peter Booth

Susan Clark

John Davis

Alexandra Collins

Kathleen Heyer

Margaret Hoisington

Kevin Lumpkin

Tyler Machado

Bonnie Reid Martin

Jerrilyn Miller

Raymond Mitchell

Michael Monte

Cathie Peller

William Woolsey

Susan Sova

Make your contribution today! sevendaysvt.com/super-readers

Cynthia Seybolt

Robert Shapiro

Andrew Silva

Mark Twery

Robin Twery

Tessa Valyou

Jeffrey Waite

Or send a check w/note to: Seven Days c/o Super Readers, PO Box 1164, Burlington, VT 05402.

Need more info? Want to give from a donor-advised fund or through a qualiﬁed charitable contribution? Contact Gillian at 802-865-1020, ext. 115 or superreaders@sevendaysvt.com. Join these generous folks and other Super Readers who donate monthly

Learn how to sculpt a clay head that has personality and character. Learn basics of proportion, anatomy and technique and how to incorporate facial expression and gesture to give life to the piece. Clay, tools and ﬁring included. No previous experience necessary. Dates: Tue. & Sat., Jun. 2-20, 4-6 p.m. Cost: $300. Location: Pine Street Sculpture Studio, Burlington. Info: Rachel Morton, 802-825-8030, rachel@ rachelmorton.art, rachelmorton. art/events.

DAVIS STUDIO ART CLASSES: Stay connected to your creative practice this summer. Seasonal camps, classes and workshops offer ﬂexible, supportive ways for art making full of joy and inspiration! Come as you are and use the time to reset, focus and have fun. Now enrolling youths, teens and adults. Info: 802-4252700, info@davisstudiovt.com, davisstudiovt.com.

business

RELATIONSHIPS FIRST WORKSHOP: In this interactive workshop led by Pathways Vermont, we will explore how to navigate and embrace discomfort in professional relationships while engaging with the core values of Pathways Vermont’s relationship-ﬁrst practice: humanity, authenticity, collaboration, humility, curiosity and hope. rough this lens, participants will build empathy, strengthen communication, and develop more meaningful and effective workplace connections. Date: Tue., May 12, 10 a.m. Cost: Free. Location: Hula, 50 Lakeside Ave., Burlington. Info: sevendaystickets.com.

instructor. Madame Maggie offers speaking practice, grammar, pronunciation and culture. She studied at La Sorbonne/ SciPo, with graduate work in francophone Africa, and holds a Vermont teaching license. Private lessons available. Spring into this season, expand your French, exercise your brain and open doors to new adventures. Allons-y! Location: 4 Howard St., Burlington. Cost: $215. Info: maggiestandley@gmail.com, wingspanstudioeduc.com.

martial arts

AIKIDO: FREE WORKSHOPS/ OPEN HOUSE: Workshops on Sat., Jun. 6: youths at 10 a.m.; adults at 12:30 p.m. Beginners’ classes five days a week. Cultivate core power, aerobic fitness and resiliency. e dynamic, circular movements emphasize throws, joint locks and the development of internal energy. Join our community and find resiliency, power and grace. Inclusive training, gender-neutral dressing room/bathrooms and a safe space for all. Visitors are always welcome to watch a class! Vermont’s only intensive aikido programs. Location: Aikido of Champlain Valley, 257 Pine St., Burlington. Info: bpincus@burlingtonaikido.org, burlingtonaikido.org.

language

LEARN FRENCH! LATE-SPRING SESSION AT WINGSPAN STUDIO

Sign up for a fantastique sixweek French class and begin or continue your learning journey! On commence the week of May 11. Multiple levels available, plus an opportunity to join a fullday French trip to the Eastern Townships of Québec. Small, interactive classes with a supportive, fun and knowledgeable

music

TAIKO TUESDAYS, DJEMBE WEDNESDAYS!: Drum with Stuart Paton! New sessions each month. Community Taiko Ensemble Beginner’s Class, Mon., 5:30-7 p.m. Taiko on Tue.: Kids & Parents Taiko, 4-5:30 p.m.; Adult Intro Taiko, 5:30-7 p.m.; Accelerated Intro Taiko, 7-8:30 p.m. Djembe on Wed.: Intermediate Djembe, 5:30-7 p.m.; Beginner Djembe, 7-8:30 p.m. Drums provided. Cost: $92/4 weeks; 90-min. classes; $72 per person for Kids & Parents class. Location: Burlington Taiko, 208 Flynn Ave., Suite 3-G. Info: Stuart Paton, 802-448-0150, burlingtontaiko.org. Find and purchase tickets for these and other classes at sevendaystickets.com.

TICKETED CLASS

Buy & Sell »

ANTIQUES, FURNITURE, GARAGE SALES

Community »

ANNOUNCEMENTS, LOST & FOUND, SUPPORT GROUPS

Rentals &

Real Estate »

APARTMENTS, HOMES, FOR SALE BY OWNER

Vehicles »

CARS, BIKES, BOATS, RVS

Services »

FINANCIAL, CHILDCARE, HOME & GARDEN

Musicians & Artists »

LESSONS, CASTING, REHEARSAL SPACE

Jobs »

NO SCAMS, ALL LOCAL, POSTINGS DAILY

Molly

AGE/SEX: 1-year-old spayed female

ARRIVAL DATE: February 27, 2026

SUMMARY: Molly can be reserved when meeting new people, but with a little space and patience, you’ll see her true self bloom into a charming, affectionate, devoted companion. She thrives in the company of other dogs, so she’s seeking a home with another kind and playful dog she can bond with and learn from. She would also love to ﬁnd a home with a securely fenced yard so she can have the freedom and security she needs as she continues to build trust. Could you have the special home Molly’s been waiting for?

DOGS/CATS/KIDS: Molly is seeking a home with a canine friend who matches her play style. She has experience living with cats. She would prefer to live in an adult-only home but may do well in a home with teens.

Visit the Humane Society of Chittenden County at 142 Kindness Court, South Burlington, Tuesday-Wednesday 1-5 p.m., ursday-Friday 1-6 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Call 862-0135 or visit hsccvt.org for more info.

DID YOU KNOW?

May is Chip Your Pet Month! Microchips provide an extra layer of protection in case your pet loses their collar and tags. ey are linked to your information, so if your lost pet is found, vets and animal shelters can scan the microchip and call you, ensuring a happy reunion!

HEALTH & WELLNESS

y & Se

GARAGE & ESTATE SALES

FABULOUS ESTATE

SALE

Eclectic & antique furniture, rugs, lamps, art, household items, exotic textiles, upholstery fabric, books, women’s clothing, African treasures, Holland wax pillows, & so much more! 94 Green St., Vergennes. Rain or shine. Fri., May 15, & Sat., May 16, 8 a.m.-2 p.m.; Sun., May 17, 10 a.m.-2 p.m.; Fri., May 22, & Sat., May 23, 8 a.m.-2 p.m.; & Sun., May 24, 10 a.m.-2 p.m.

HOME & GARDEN

PREPARE FOR POWER

OUTAGES

Prepare for power outages today w/ a Generac Home Standby

e Slavic Life Movement is an organization dedicated to the preservation & evolution of Slavic culture.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

ARTIST RETREAT FOR WRITERS & PRINTMAKERS

Chaga Woods on Green Hill Artist Retreat offers writers & printmakers a comfortable & supportive environment immersed in nature w/ uninterrupted time & quiet space to work. Private room, shared full BA, nourishing home-prepared meals, walking trails. Nestled in the northern Taconic Mountains of southwest Vermont. Info, 802-3252603, lawlorschmidt@

appt. appointment apt. apartment BA bathroom BR bedroom DR dining room DW dishwasher HDWD hardwood HW hot water

EQUAL HOUSING OPPORTUNITY

All real estate advertising in this newspaper is subject to the Federal Fair Housing Act of 1968 and similar Vermont statutes which make it illegal to advertise any preference, limitations, or discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, marital status, handicap, presence of minor children in the family or receipt of public assistance, or an intention to make any such preference, limitation or a discrimination. The newspaper will not knowingly accept any advertising for real estate, which is in violation of the law. Our

CAREGIVING

APARTMENTS & HOUSES FOR RENT

BURLINGTON HILL SECTION, SINGLE ROOM FOR RENT

Furnished 1-BR at 27

Latham Ct. Single furnished room w/ a shared BA. No cooking, NS & no pets. Sheets & towels provided. On the bus line. $200/ week or $867/mo. Call 802-862-2389.

1898 HISTORIC CHARM IN WINOOSKI, VT., PRIVATE ENTRANCE, 2ND FLOOR

85 East Spring St., Apt

E. Unfurnished 500 sq.ft. 1-BR, 1 -BA. Cozy 1-BR apt. nestled on 2nd ﬂoor of historic Queen Anne brick building in Winooski. Private entrance & porch. HDWD, 3/4 BA. Heat, hot water, snow removal & rubbish collection incl. Off-street parking. Close to UVM, Saint Mike’s & CCV. On bus line. I-89 & downtown nearby. No pets, NS. Storage unit may be avail. for fee. (Note: 1 owner is a licensed real estate agent.) $1,600. Contact 802-343-7707, edesany@hotmail.com.

SOUTH END BURLINGTON, GREAT LOCATION & FULLY FURNISHED

Furnished 1-BR, 1-BA on Marble Ave. Convenient, cozy & clean. is 2-room studio apt. is

readers are hereby informed that all dwellings advertised in this newspaper are available on an equal opportunity basis. Any home seeker who feels he or she has encountered discrimination should contact:

HUD Ofﬁce of Fair Housing 10 Causeway St., Boston, MA 02222-1092 (617) 565-5309 — OR — Vermont Human Rights Commission 14-16 Baldwin St. Montpelier, VT 05633-0633 1-800-416-2010 hrc@vermont.gov

1-, 2- & 3-BR APTS. AVAIL. NOW IN BURLINGTON, VT. 118 Hyde St. Unfurnished 903 sq.ft. 1-BR, 1-BA, $900 + utils. Also a 1-BR in Winooski at $1,050 + utils. 2-BR in Burlington for $1,650. Heated. We pay cold water; tenants pay utils. 3-BR avail. now for $1,750. Heated. We pay cold water; tenants pay utils. Laundry on-site w/ 3-BR. Info, 802-318-8916.

FAIRFAX APT. FOR RENT

1177 Main St., Fairfax. Unfurnished 700 sq.ft. 1-BR, 1-BA. New, spacious apt. in Fairfax Village. Efficient propane heat, A/C, 2nd-floor unit. Beautiful Mount Mansfield views, W/D in unit. Well built & private. Really nice unit! $1,650. Info, 802-399-8391, timbersww@gmail.com.

Retired nurse avail. for private in-home light caregiving. NS & no heavy lifting. $30/hour, negotiable. Please call 802-495-1954.

GRAND OPENING

Join us at for our Grand Opening at our Shelburne location & get a complimentary herbalism session w/ a massage. We do relaxation & therapeutic massage w/ hot stone incl. Info, 802-829-1849, tara@ahhhmassage.org ahhhmassage.org.

SPRING TUNE-UPS AT ACUWELL BURLINGTON

riparian buffers, lawns to gardens, forest gardens, fungal inoculation, polyculture orchards, hügelkultur & nonchemical opportunist species removal. Fully insured, reasonable rates & timely, ﬂexible schedule. Info, mycoevolve. net, yepeth@gmail, 802-839-8286.

COMMERCIAL ROOF DRAIN CLEANING

When’s the last time you checked your roof drains? Stop leaks before they start by making sure your drains are clear. Fast, reliable service. $250/roof. Call or text 802-207-6603.

PEST CONTROL

Protect your home from pests safely & affordably. Roaches, bedbugs, rodents, termites, spiders & other pests. Locally owned & affordable. Call for a quote, service or an inspection today: 1-833-237-1199. (AAN CAN)

STOP HOME BREAK-INS

ELECTRONICS

WIRELESS HOME INTERNET

Connect to the best wireless home internet w/ EarthLink. Enjoy speeds from 5G & 4G LTE networks, no contracts, easy installation, & data plans up to 300 GB. Call 855-873-2215. (AAN CAN)

FINANCIAL & LEGAL

TIME-SHARE CANCELLATION EXPERTS

Wesley Financial Group, LLC, time-share cancellation experts. Over $50 million in time-share debt & fees canceled in 2019. Get free informational package & learn how to get rid of your time-share! Free consultations. Over 450 positive reviews. Call 888-960-1781. (AAN CAN)

STOP OVERPAYING FOR AUTO INSURANCE

A recent survey says that most Americans are overpaying for their car insurance. Let us show you how much you can save. Call now for

ere’s something special about Vermont coming back to life each spring — but after a long winter, it’s completely normal to feel a little sluggish or stuck. If you’re ready to shake off the winter blues, I’d love to welcome you into the clinic. ese spring acupuncture sessions are designed to give your nervous system deep rest, help clear mental fog & support your body as you move into a new season. It’s also a great time to get ahead of seasonal allergies before they fully set in. If you’re ready for a reset, feel free to book online or reach out for a free 15-min. consultation. I accept many insurance plans & look forward to supporting you on your wellness path. Info, 802-777-7817, acuwell burlington@gmail.com acuwellburlington.com.

SLIDING-SCALE COMMUNITY ACUPUNCTURE

$30-$65: You decide! Acupuncture can help a variety of issues such as pain anywhere in the body, menstrual problems, stress, insomnia & more. We have helped thousands of people feel better. Learn more or schedule on our website. Info, info@casobu.org, casobu.org.

HOME & GARDEN

REGENERATIVE GARDENING, LANDSCAPING SERVICE

To support ecosystem resilience, MycoEvolve offers site assessment, permaculture plans, watershed-friendly features, design, installation, maintenance, pollinator habitats,

Home break-ins take less than 60 seconds. Don’t wait! Protect your family, your home, your assets now for as little as 70 cents a day. Call 1-833-881-2713. (AAN CAN)

NEED NEW WINDOWS?

Drafty rooms? Chipped or damaged frames? Need outside noise reduction? New, energyefﬁcient windows may be the answer! Call for a consultation & free quote today: 1-877-2489944. (AAN CAN)

2013 AIRSTREAM INTERNATIONAL SIGNATURE 23D

Get away in style in this beautiful Airstream, recently serviced & ready for travel! Lots of upgrades, w/ a good history & only 2 prior owners! Stored indoors in climate-controlled environment every winter since new. View listing on RV Trader here: tinyurl.com/2ykfdc9x. Private link to high-res photos below as well. $57,000, negotiable. Info, 802-233-0334, vtwildebeest@ proton.me, tinyurl. com/3xh96sfr

law, public notice of

rules must

given by publication in newspapers of

e purpose of these notices is to give the public a chance to respond to the proposals. e public notices for administrative rules are now also available online at https:// secure.vermont.gov/ SOS/rules/ . e law requires an agency to hold a public hearing on a proposed rule, if requested to do so in writing by 25 persons or an association having at least 25 members.

To make special arrangements for individuals with disabilities or special needs please call or write the contact person listed below as soon as possible.

To obtain further information concerning any scheduled hearing(s), obtain copies of proposed rule(s) or submit comments regarding proposed rule(s), please call or write the contact person listed below. You may also

Using the enclosed math operations as a guide, fill the grid using the numbers 1 - 6 only once in each row and column.

Complete the following puzzle by using the numbers 1-9 only once in each row, column and 3 x 3 box.

WANT MORE PUZZLES?

Try these online news games from Seven Days at sevendaysvt.com/games.

NEW ON FRIDAYS:

Put your knowledge of Vermont news to the test.

CALCOKU BY JOSH

REYNOLDS

DIFFICULTY THIS WEEK: HHH

Fill the grid using the numbers 1-6, only once in each row and column. The numbers in each heavily outlined “cage” must combine to produce the target number in the top corner, using the mathematical operation indicated. A one-box cage should be filled in with the target number in the top corner. A number can be repeated within a cage as long as it is not the same row or column.

SUDOKU BY JOSH REYNOLDS

DIFFICULTY THIS WEEK: HH

Place a number in the empty boxes in such a way that each row across, each column down and each 9-box square contains all of the numbers one to nine. The same numbers cannot be repeated in a row or column.

ON P.68

See how fast you can solve this weekly 10-word puzzle.

Legal Notices

[CONTINUED]

submit comments in writing to the Legislative Committee on Administrative Rules, State House, Montpelier, Vermont 05602 (802-828-2231).

ANR Lands Management Planning Rule. Vermont Proposed Rule: 26P010

AGENCY: Agency of Natural Resources

CONCISE SUMMARY: The purpose of this ANR Lands Management Rule is to codify ANR’s land management planning framework and process, and to set forth the requirements for public input related to land management planning. The proposed rule consolidates existing policy and procedure; proposes an update to the planning framework that formalizes a category of routine management activities (Universal Management Actions); creates a new “Statewide Plan;” and establishes two new land classifications that prioritize resource protection and support development of old forest conditions. This proposed rule will provide clarity to the public regarding the process by which the Departments plan for and manage ANR lands and how the public can provide input in the process.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, CONTACT: Hannah Phillips, State Lands Administration Program Manager, Agency of Natural Resources, 1 National Life Drive, Davis 2, Montpelier VT 05602 Tel: 802- 622-4661 E-mail: Hannah.Phillips@ vermont.gov URL: https://fpr.vermont.gov/ vt-anr-lands-management-planning-rule.

FOR COPIES: Meghan Purvee, General Counsel, Agency of Natural Resources, 1 National Life Drive, Davis 2, Montpelier, VT 05602 Tel: 802-2797-7870 E-Mail: Meghan.Purvee@vermont.gov.

VERMONT SELF STORAGE AUCTIONS

THE CONTENTS OF STORAGE UNIT 01-03548, located at 28 Adams Drive, Williston, VT, 05495 will be sold on or about the 16th of May 2026 to satisfy the debt of Matt Dugener, person claiming a right to the goods may pay the amount claimed

due and reasonable expenses before the sale, in which case the sale may not occur.

THE CONTENTS OF STORAGE UNIT 01-03458 located at 28 Adams Drive, Williston, VT, 05495 will be sold on or about the 16th of May 2026 to satisfy the debt of Thomas & Hope Bathrick, person claiming a right to the goods may pay the amount claimed due and reasonable expenses before the sale, in which case the sale may not occur.

THE CONTENTS OF STORAGE UNIT 01-01327 & 01-04440 located at 28 Adams Drive, Williston, VT, 05495 will be sold on or about the 16th of May 2026 to satisfy the debt of Candy Mayo, person claiming a right to the goods may pay the amount claimed due and reasonable expenses before the sale, in which case the sale may not occur.

THE CONTENTS OF STORAGE UNIT 03-00417 located at 182 Winter Sport Lane, Williston, VT, 05495 will be sold on or about the 16th of May 2026 to satisfy the debt of Yao Ma, person claiming a right to the goods may pay the amount claimed due and reasonable expenses before the sale, in which case the sale may not occur.

STATE OF VERMONT

SUPERIOR COURT FAMILY DIVISION RUTLAND UNIT DOCKET NO. 25-JV-01531 IN RE: B.V., JUVENILE.

NOTICE OF HEARING

TO: Unknown Father of B.V..

The State of Vermont has filed a Motion to Establish Parentage to B.V., born on June 1, 2022. You are hereby notified that the hearing to consider the Motion to Establish Parentage to B.V. will be held on July 2, 2026 at 10:00am at the Vermont Superior Court, Rutland Unit, Family Division, 9 Merchants Row, Rutland VT 05701. You are notified to appear in connection withthis case. Failure to appear at this hearing may result in a finding that your parental relationship with B.V. does not exist, and preclude you from seeking to establish paternity of B.V. in the future. The State is represented by the Attorney General’s Office, HC 2 North, 280 State Drive, Waterbury, VT

05671-2080. Other interested parties include B.V., and Mother, Brianna Van Guilder.

By: /s/ Alexander N. Burke

Alexander N. Burke 4/15/2026

Hon.

Presiding Judge Vermont Superior Court Rutland Unit, Family Division

STATE OF WISCONSIN

CIRCUIT COURT WAUKESHA COUNTY

CASE NO.: 2026CV000525 CASE CODE: 30701

GERALDSON ENTERPRISES, LLC

W340N5347 Township Road O Nashotah, WI 53058 , and

CARL GERALDSON

W340N5347 Township Road O Nashotah, WI 53058,

Plaintiffs,

Adam Geraldson 4 Jackson Street Essex Junction, VT 05452, Defendant.

PUBLICATION SUMMONS

TO: ADAM GERALDSON 4 Jackson Street Essex Junction, VT 05452

You are hereby notified that the Plaintiffs named above have filed a lawsuit or other legal action against you. The Complaint, which is also served upon you, states the nature and basis of the legal action.

Within 40 days after April 29, 2026, you must respond with a written answer, as that term is used in Wis. Stat. Ch. 802, to the Complaint. The Court may reject or disregard an Answer that does not follow the requirements of the statutes. The Answer must be sent or delivered to the Court,

whose address is Waukesha County Courthouse, 515 W. Moreland Blvd., Waukesha, WI 53186, and to Joshua J. Konopacki, Plaintiffs’ attorney, whose address is Cramer Multhauf LLP, 1601 East Racine Avenue, P.O. Box 558, Waukesha, Wisconsin 53187-0558.

If you do not provide a proper Answer within 40 days of April 29, 2026, the Court may grant judgment against you for the award of money or other legal action requested in the Complaint, and you may lose your right to object to anything that is or may be incorrect in the Complaint. A judgment may be enforced as provided by law. A judgment awarding money may become a lien against any real estate you own now or in the future, and may also be enforced by garnishment or seizure of property.

Dated this 21st day of April, 2026. CRAMER MULTHAUF LLP Attorneys for Plaintiffs

By: Electronically signed by Joshua J. Konopacki Joshua J. Konopacki State Bar No. 1125918

CRAMER MULTHAUF LLP 1601 East Racine Avenue • Suite 200 Waukesha, WI 53187-0558 (262) 542-4278 jjk@cmlawgroup.com

TOWN OF ESSEX 2026 PRESCOTT STREET STORMWATER OUTFALL PROJECT

The Town of Essex invites you to prepare a Bid for the Town of Essex 2026 Prescott Street Stormwater Outfall Project. Work associated with this Project is to be completed by September 18th, 2026. Work includes the replacement of 145 LF of stormwater pipe. Bid packages are available at the Town Public Works Office, 5 Jericho Road, Essex Center or by e-mail to dgregoire@essex.org. Sealed bids will be received at the Town of Essex Public Works Office or mailed to the Town of Essex, Department of Public Works, 81 Main Street Essex Jct., VT 05452 until 10:00 AM on Friday, May 22nd, 2026. Questions can be directed to the Town Public Works at (802) 878 – 1344.

NOTICE OF PUBLIC SALE

60 ETHAN ALLEN DRIVE, SOUTH BURLINGTON, VERMONT

By virtue and in execution of the Power of Sale contained in a certain Mortgage (With Future Advance Clause) dated October 26, 2018 (“ Mortgage ”) from J. and E. Enterprises LLC to Vermont Federal Credit Union conveying to Lender, with power of sale, certain property known as 60 Ethan Allen Drive in South Burlington, Vermont and more particularly described in the Mortgage (“ Property ”), of which Mortgage Vermont Federal Credit Union is the present holder:

TIME AND PLACE OF PUBLIC SALE : For breach of the conditions of and for the purpose of foreclosing said Mortgage, the Property will be sold at Public Auction on June 9, 2026 at 11:00 am at 60 Ethan Allen Drive in South Burlington, Vermont

The Public Auction may be adjourned one or more times for a total time not exceeding 60 days by announcement of the new sale date to those present at each adjournment or by posting notice of the adjournment in a conspicuous place at the location of the sale. Written notice of the new sale date shall also be given by first class mail, postage prepaid, to any person who received notice of the sale pursuant to 12 V.S.A. § 4965.

PROPERTY DESCRIPTION: The Property being sold is all and the same lands and premises described in said Mortgage, to wit:

Being all and the same land and premises conveyed to J. and E. Enterprises, LLC by Warranty Deed of Bartlett Realty, LLL, dated March 28, 2011 and recorded on April 4, 2011 in Volume 1001 at Pages 304-306 of the City of South Burlington Land Records.

“Being all and the same lands and premises conveyed to Bartlett Realty, LLC by Warranty Deed of Thompson Leasing, LLC dated March 8, 2007, of record at Volume 777 at Pages 406-407 of the City of South Burlington Land Records, and being more particularly described therein as follows:

Being a parcel of land with all improvements thereon, said property depicted as Lot 2 on a plan entitled “A Portion of Ethan Allen Farm: Plat of Lots 1-8” dated April, 1983, last revised December 6, 1984, and recorded in Map Volume 197 at Page 61 of the South Burlington City Land Records. Said property is more particularly described as follows: Beginning at a point at a monument set in the northeasterly sideline of Ethan Allen Drive and the westerly sideline of a new unnamed roadway and marking southeasterly corner of said Lot 2; thence proceeding westerly in and along the northeasterly sideline of Ethan Allen Drive N 80° 00’ 00” W 35.54 feet to a point; thence proceeding N 78° 07’ 40” W 99.90 feet to a point; thence proceeding N 71° 16’ 00” W 49.50 feet to a point; thence proceeding N 52° 22’ 50” W 65.18 feet to a point marked by an iron pin; thence proceeding N 36° 02’ 00” W 144.88 feet to an iron pin; thence turning to the right and proceeding N 31° 34’ 57” E 106.83 feet to an iron pin; thence turning to the right and proceeding S 58° 25’ 03” E 336.16 feet to an iron pin in the westerly sideline of a new unnamed roadway; thence turning to the right and proceeding on a curve to the left a length of 50.60 feet to a monument; thence proceeding S 10° 00’ 00” W 67.07 feet to a monument marking the point or place of beginning. EXCLUDED from the above-described property is a 5.25 foot strip of land running the entire length of and northerly of and adjacent to the property line of the within lot which is also the northeasterly sideline of the present Ethan Allen Drive right-of-way; and Granters reserve for themselves, their heirs, successors and assigns, appurtenant easements adjacent to and northerly of said strip for the purposes of slope rights and drainage rights in conjunction with any expansion in width of Ethan Allen Drive, an existing city road. The purposes of the exclusion of said strip and the reservation of easement rights is to allow Granters to convey the same to the City of South Burlington at some time in the future. Until conveyance to and acceptance by the City South Burlington of the 5.25 strip for city roadway purposes, Grantees shall have and are hereby granted an unrestricted easement and right of way across and within said 5.25 foot strip at any point(s) for purposes of access to and from Lot 2, and shall have an easement for use and enjoyment of said 5.25 foot strip for any purposes as long as said use or enjoyment will not conflict with the City’s rights to use said strip for city roadway purposes. When said strip is conveyed to the City of South Burlington, the easements of Grantees for use, access and enjoyment over and within said 5.25-foot strip shall terminate, but only when alternate means of access to and from Lot 2, of similar quality and quantity at that time, are provided to Grantees at no cost to Grantees.

The above described property is conveyed subject to and with the benefit of “Protective Covenants For The Belter Industrial Park: South Burlington, Vermont” dated August 22, 1985, and recorded in Volume 213 at Pages 389-393 of the South Burlington Land Records, as amended pursuant to Amendment No. 1 dated September 4, 1985, and recorded in Volume 213 at Page 426 of the South Burlington Land Records.

The above-described property is conveyed subject to the covenant and condition, to run with the land, that no curb cut or access to said property shall be created from the unnamed roadway and cul-de-sac. Access to and from the property and the related curb cuts shall only be from Ethan Allen Drive.

The above-described property is subject to State Subdivision Permit #EC-4-0793 and any amendments thereto, as well as municipal permits and regulations.

The Property is conveyed subject to the rights of the public and others legally entitled thereto in any portion of the Property lying within the boundaries of a public road, way, street, trail, or alley to the extent not otherwise extinguished by

the Vermont Marketable Record Title Act (27 VSA §§ 601-604).

Reference is hereby made to the aforementioned instruments, the records thereof and the references therein contained, all in further aid of this description.

Said lands and premises have an address of 60 Ethan Allen Drive, South Burlington, VT 05403.”

The description of the property contained in the Mortgages shall control in the event of a typographical error in this publication.

TERMS OF SALE : To qualify to bid, prospective bidders must tender to the Auctioneer before the sale the amount of $10,000.00 (the “ Bid Qualifying Deposit ”) in cash, certified funds, bank check, or other primary bank obligation, unless the parties agree on some other amount. The Property shall be sold to the highest bidder, and the high bidder’s Bid Qualifying Deposit will be held as a non-refundable deposit, and will be considered reasonable liquidated damages if the highest bidder fails to close on the purchase of the Property. All other bidders’ Bid Qualifying Deposits shall be returned to the unsuccessful bidders who supplied them.

The successful bidder will be required to sign a “no contingency” purchase and sale agreement at the conclusion of the Public Auction. The sale is “AS IS, WHERE IS,” subject to all liens, encumbrances, unpaid taxes, municipal assessments, and other matters which take precedence or priority over the Mortgage. The closing shall be held, and the balance of the purchase price shall be due and payable in cash, certified funds, bank check, or other primary bank obligation, upon the delivery of a Foreclosure Deed to the purchaser within forty-five (45) days after the sale, unless such date is mutually extended by the parties.

The mortgagor and all junior lienholders are hereby notified that at any time before the foreclosure sale, the mortgagor and all junior lienholders have a right to petition the Civil Division of the Superior Court for the county in which the Property is situated, with service upon the mortgagee, and upon such bond as the Court may require, to enjoin the scheduled foreclosure sale. Failure to institute such petition and complete service upon the foreclosing party, or the party’s agent conducting the sale, prior to sale shall thereafter bar any action or right of action of the mortgagor or any junior lienholder based on the validity of the foreclosure, the right of the mortgagee to conduct the foreclosure sale, or compliance by the mortgagee with the notice requirements and other conditions of 12 V.S.A. §§ 4961 et seq. An action to recover damages resulting from the sale of the Property on the date of the sale may be commenced at any time within one year following the date of the sale, but not thereafter.

The mortgagor is entitled to redeem the Property at any time prior to the sale by paying to the mortgagee the full amount due under the Mortgage, including the costs and expenses of the sale.

Other terms to be announced at the Public Auction. Inquiries may be made with the Thomas Hirchak Company, 1878 Cadys Falls Road, Morrisville, VT 05661. Telephone: 802-888-4662. Email: info@THCAuction.com

VERMONT FEDERAL CREDIT UNION

Date: April 2, 2026

By: /s/ Renee L. Mobbs Renee L. Mobbs, Its Attorney

SHEEHEY FURLONG & BEHM P.C. (802) 865-6323

CITY OF BURLINGTON

IN THE YEAR TWO THOUSAND TWENTY-SIX

AN ORDINANCE IN RELATION TO MINIMUM HOUSING REGISTRATION FEES

BCO CHAPTER 18, ARTICLE II, SECTION 18-30

ORDINANCE 6.6

Sponsor: Dept. of Permitting and Inspections, Board of Finance Public Hearing Dates:

First Reading: 04/13/26

Referred to:

Rules suspended and placed in all stages of passage : 04/13/26

Second reading: 04/27/26

Action: adopted

Date: 04/27/26

Signed by Mayor: 04/28/26

Published: 05/06/26

Effective: 05/26/26

It is hereby Ordained by the City Council of the City of Burlington as follows:

That Chapter 18, Housing, of the Code of Ordinances of the City of Burlington be and is hereby amended by amending Article II, Administration and Enforcement; Section 18-30, Fees; thereof to read as follows: 18-30 Fees.

(a) Registration fee. Pursuant to Section 18-15, a registration fee shall be charged to the owner

of every rental unit in the city that is subject to periodic inspections and to the host of every short term rental. This fee shall be in an amount determined by and dedicated solely to the cost of providing rental housing inspection services, clerical, administrative and mediation support services for the housing board of review and landlord/tenant resource services. Any surplus remaining in this fund at the end of a fiscal year shall remain part of the fund and shall be carried forward to the next fiscal year. This fee shall be reviewed annually by the finance board. The fee shall be in the amount of one hundred ten twenty dollars ($110.00 $120.00) per unit per year except for owner occupied dwellings with two (2) or less units and partial unit short term rentals, in which case the fee shall be eighty dollars ($80.00). For whole unit short term rentals, an additional registration fee shall be charged in the amount of one hundred ten twenty dollars ($110.00 $120.00) per unit per year.

Legal Notices

Phone Number: (802) 863-1836

Email: launa@wsvtlaw.com

Name of Publication: Seven Days Publication Date: 05/06/2026

A rental unit for which a registration fee as required in this section has not been paid shall be in violation of the city minimum housing ordinance and subject to the penalties set forth herein. In addition, if the enforcement agency determines that a person has failed to pay the registration fee due under this section or the transfer fee due under Section 18-15(b), the agency shall mail to such person a statement showing the balance due and shall add thereto a twenty-five dollar ($25.00) late payment or interest at a rate of twelve (12) percent per year, whichever is greater. That unpaid balance and penalty total shall be subject to interest at a rate of twelve (12) percent per year from the due date until the date of payment. The charges levied in this chapter shall constitute a lien upon the property on which the rental unit is situated and may be enforced within the time and manner provided for the collection of taxes on property.

A rental unit shall be exempt from the registration fees required herein if:

(1) That unit is currently maintained as part of a nursing facility or community care home under license from the State; or

(2) That unit meets all three (3) of the following tests:

a. The unit is currently maintained as “affordable” housing for “low-income” or “very low-income” households, as these terms are currently defined by Section 8 programs of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development; and

b. The unit is currently maintained as “affordable” housing for “low-income” or “very low-income” households using public subsidies provided by federal, State or municipal government(s); and

c. The unit is currently owned by a municipal corporation or a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt, nonprofit corporation whose purpose is creating or preserving affordable housing for low-income households;

(3) That unit is the owner-occupied portion of a rental unit which is subject to periodic inspections pursuant to Section 18-16.

(b) - (d) As written.

* Material stricken out deleted.

** Material underlined added.

ks/Ordinances 2026/Housing Code/BCO Ch. 18, Art. II Sec. 18-30 4/23/2026

STATE OF VERMONT

SUPERIOR COURT PROBATE DIVISION CHITTENDEN UNIT DOCKET NO.: 26-PR-02245

In re ESTATE of Dan Wilcox

NOTICE TO CREDITORS

To the creditors of: Dan Wilcox, late of Milton

I have been appointed to administer this estate. All creditors having claims against the decedent or the estate must present their claims in writing within four (4) months of the date of the first publication of this notice. The claim must be presented to me at the address listed below with a copy sent to the Court. The claim may be barred forever if it is not presented within the four (4) month period.

Dated: April 29, 2026

Signature of Fiduciary: /s/ Launa L. Slate r

Executor/Administrator: Kyle Wilcox

Mailing Address: c/o Launa. L. Slater, Wiener & Slater, PLLC 110 Main Street, Suite 4F, Burlington, VT 05401

PLACE AN AFFORDABLE NOTICE AT: SEVENDAYSVT.COM/LEGAL-NOTICES OR CALL 802-865-1020, EXT. 142.

Name of Probate Court: Chittenden Probate Court

Address of Probate Court: 175 Main Street Burlington, VT 05402-0511

ACT 250 NOTICE MINOR APPLICATION #4C1367

10 V.S.A. §§ 6000 – 6111

Marjorie M. LaCasse (L&M, LLC) has filed application #4C1367, deemed complete on April 29, 2026, for a project generally described as “as-built” construction of a five-duplex, ten-unit residential development upon a ±10.00-acre parcel. The project is served by an on-site shared wastewater disposal system and an on-site shared drilled well. No new construction is proposed or authorized. The project is located at 690-720 West Milton Road in Milton, Vermont. The application may be viewed on the Land Use Review Board’s Act 250 Database (https://anrweb.vt.gov/ANR/Act250/ default.aspx) by entering the project number “4C1367.”

No hearing will be held, and a permit may be issued unless, on or before May 26, 2026, a party notifies the District 4 Commission in writing of an issue requiring a hearing, or the Commission sets the matter for a hearing on its own motion. Any person as defined in 10 V.S.A. § 6085(c) (1) may request a hearing. Any hearing request must be in writing, must state the criteria or sub-criteria at issue, why a hearing is required, and what additional evidence will be presented at the hearing. Any hearing request by an adjoining property owner or other person eligible for party status under 10 V.S.A. § 6085(c)(1)(E) must include a petition for party status under the Act 250 Rules. To request party status and a hearing, fill out the Party Status Petition Form on the Board’s website: https://act250.vermont.gov/documents/ party-status-petition-form, and email it to the District 4 Office at: Act250.Essex@vermont.gov. Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law may not be prepared unless the Commission holds a public hearing.

For more information contact the District Coordinator listed below.

Josh Donabedian

District 6 & 9 Coordinator 111 West Street Essex Junction, VT 05452 Joshua.Donabedian@vermont.gov

WARNING POLICY ADOPTION

CHAMPLAIN VALLEY SCHOOL DISTRICT

The Board of School Directors gives public notice of its intent to act on local district policies dealing with the following at its meeting scheduled on May 19, 2026: Code F19 Student Assessment - Repeal Code G2 Use of Copyrighted Work - Repeal Code D13 Employee Unlawful Harassment - Adopt Code F20 Participation of Home Study Students - Adopt Code F6 Education Records - Adopt Code F4 Search, Seizure of Students - Adopt Code F43 Student Distribution of Literature - Adopt

Code B5 Student Representation on School Board - Adopt

Code F41 Communicable Disease Mitigation Measures for Students and Staff - Adopt Code F5 Search, Seizure and Interrogation of Students by Law Enforcement Personnel or Other Non-School Personnel - Reaffirm Copies of the above policies may be obtained for public review at the Office of the Human Resources Dept. in Shelburne, VT.

IN ACCORDANCE WITH VT TITLE 9 COMMERCE AND TRADE CHAPTER 098: STORAGE UNITS 3905.

Enforcement of Lien, Champlain Valley Self Storage, LLC shall host a private auction of the following units on or after May 22, 2026:

Contents: household goods

Location: 78 Lincoln St Essex Jct. VT 05452

Makayla Driscoll: #232

Devon Elizarde: #182

Carissa Mae Tetlow: #241

Location: 2211 Main St Colchester VT 05446

Ashley Langlois: #755

Alexander Kehaya: #536

Christa Kirby: #665

Location: 485 Nokian Tyres Dr Colchester VT 05446

Andy Boyer: #2199 & #2433

Auction pre-registration is required, email info@ champlainvalleyselfstorage.com to register. CVSS,llc reserves the right to reject any bid lower than the amount owed by the occupant or that is not commercially reasonable as defined by statute. Any person claiming a right to the goods may pay the amount claimed due and reasonable expenses before the sale, in which case the sale may not occur.

NORTHSTAR SELF STORAGE WILL BE HAVING A PUBLIC AND ONLINE SALE/AUCTION FOR THE FOLLOWING STORAGE UNITS ON MAY 21, 2026 AT 9:00 AM

Northstar Self Storage will be having a public and online sale/auction on May 21, 2026 at 9am EST at 205 Route 4A West, Castleton, VT 05735 (C138), 130 Tanconic Business Park, Manchester Center, VT 05255 (M229), 681 Rockingham Rd, Rockingham VT 05151 (R09, R33, R51) and online at www.storagetreasures.com at 9:00 am in accordance with VT Title 9 Commerce and Trade Chapter 098: Storage Units 3905. Enforcement of Lien

Unit # Name Contents

M229 John Wellenius Household Goods

C138 Devin Bruno Household Goods

R09 Matthew Quinn Household Goods

R33 Brittanie Fowler Household Goods

R51 Justin Decker Household Goods

ACT 250 NOTICE

MINOR APPLICATION 4C1350-1 10 V.S.A. §§ 6000 – 6111

Application 4C1350-1 from Town of Hinesburg, 10632 VT Route 116 , Hinesburg, VT 05461 was received on March 23, 2026 and deemed complete on April 28, 2026. The project specifically authorizes Hinesburg Well #6 to be placed into service to supplement the Town of Hinesburg’s (the Town) existing water source capacity and improve system reliability. Well #6 was previously drilled and permitted, but has not yet been equipped with a pump, controls, electrical equipment, or physically connected to the Town’s water system. There is no increase in the permitted capacity of the water system. Construction includes a new submersible well pump and associated accessories, new electrical service, new variable frequency drive, controls, and radio telemetry at both Well #6 and the water treatment facility, and a new 8’ x 10’ electrical control building adjacent to Well #6. The project is located at 10004 Rte 116 in Hinesburg, Vermont. The application may be viewed on the Land Use Review Board’s website (https://act250.vermont. gov/) by clicking “Act 250 Database” and entering the project number “4C1350-1.”

No hearing will be held and a permit may be issued unless, on or before May 25, 2026, a party notifies the District 4 Commission in writing of an issue requiring a hearing, or the Commission sets the matter for a hearing on its own motion. Any person as defined in 10 V.S.A. § 6085(c) (1) may request a hearing. Any hearing request must be in writing, must state the criteria or sub-criteria at issue, why a hearing is required, and what additional evidence will be presented at the hearing. Any hearing request by an adjoining property owner or other person eligible for party status under 10 V.S.A. § 6085(c)(1)(E) must include

a petition for party status under the Act 250 Rules. To request party status and a hearing, fill out the Party Status Petition Form on the Board’s website: https://act250.vermont.gov/documents/ party-status-petition-form, and email it to the District 4 Office at: Act250.Essex@vermont.gov. Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law may not be prepared unless the Commission holds a public hearing.

For more information contact Kaitlin Hayes at the address or telephone number below.

Dated this May 4, 2026.

By: /s/ Kaitlin Hayes Kaitlin Hayes District Coordinator 111 West Street Essex Junction, VT 05452 (802) 622-4084 kaitlin.hayes@vermont.gov

NOTICE OF MUNICIPAL CONDEMNATION HEARING

PLEASE TAKE NOTICE that—pursuant to 24 V.S.A. § 2805 et seq.—the City of Winooski plans to condemn portions of a parcel of land owned by The Woolen Mill Associates. Based on municipal records, such parcel is approximately 6.5 acres in size; is located at 20 West Canal Street in Winooski, Vermont; has SPAN number 774-246-11580; and has tax parcel ID number WC020. Pursuant to such condemnation, the City of Winooski has determined that it is necessary for public use and benefit to take portions of the subject parcel on a temporary basis for use in construction of a bridge to replace the current Burlington-Winooski Bridge over the Winooski River. Such temporary basis will last until a project completion date of July 1, 2030, but may be extended depending on project needs. Additionally, pursuant to such condemnation, the City of Winooski has determined that it is necessary for public use and benefit to take a portion of the subject parcel on a permanent basis for a path to be constructed as part of the above-described bridge replacement project. The necessity and compensation due for the abovedescribed condemnation of portions of the parcel will be addressed at a hearing held by the mayor and city council of the City of Winooski at 6:00 pm on Monday, May 18, 2026, located at 27 West Allen Street, Winooski, Vermont. Instructions for remote participation may be provided upon request to the City Clerk’s Office, available at (802) 655-6410 or clerk@winooskivt.gov.

NOTICE

To Parents, teachers, employees, other personnel or their guardians and the public:

The Champlain Valley School District composed of Allen Brook School, Charlotte Central School, Champlain Valley Union High School, Hinesburg Community School, Shelburne Community School, and Williston Central School hereby provide the following notice in compliance with the Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act (AHERA) 40 CPR 763.93 [g.] [4] Requires that written notification be given that the following schools/buildings have Asbestos Management Plans for the safe control and maintenance of asbestos containing materials found in their buildings. These Management Plans are available and accessible to the public at the administrative office of each facility listed above.

May – 2026

ACT 250 NOTICE

MINOR APPLICATION

4C1366-1

10 V.S.A. §§ 6000 – 6111

Application 4C1366-1 from Town of Shelburne 5420 Shelburne Rd, Shelburne, VT 05482 was received on April 13, 2026 and deemed complete on April 30, 2026. The project is generally described as This permit specifically authorizes the Town of Shelburne - Wastewater Treatment Facilities Consolidation, Contract No.2. The project will focus on decommissioning wastewater treatment facility (WWTF) #2, located on 53 Turtle Lane, and upgrading WWTF #1, located on 113 Crown Road. WWTF #2 has an area of 50.88 acres. WWTF #1

has an area of 4.3 acres; a property boundary line adjustment will occur on the north side of WWTF #1 with a property owned by Dubrul Family LLC (Automaster), subject to Act 250 permit series 4C1053. The consolidation of the two facilities involves converting WWTF #2 to a pump station. External work includes the demolition and construction of structures and various internal work. The project is located at 113 Crown Road in Shelburne, Vermont. The application may be viewed on the Land Use Review Board’s website (https://act250.vermont.gov/) by clicking “Act 250 Database” and entering the project number “4C1366-1.”

No hearing will be held and a permit may be issued unless, on or before May 26, 2026, a party notifies the District 4 Commission in writing of an issue requiring a hearing, or the Commission sets the matter for a hearing on its own motion. Any person as defined in 10 V.S.A. § 6085(c) (1) may request a hearing. Any hearing request must be in writing, must state the criteria or sub-criteria at issue, why a hearing is required, and what additional evidence will be presented at the hearing. Any hearing request by an adjoining property owner or other person eligible for party status under 10 V.S.A. § 6085(c)(1)(E) must include a petition for party status under the Act 250 Rules. To request party status and a hearing, fill out the Party Status Petition Form on the Board’s website: https://act250.vermont.gov/documents/ party-status-petition-form, and email it to the District 4 Office at: Act250.Essex@vermont.gov. Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law may not be prepared unless the Commission holds a public hearing.

For more information contact Kaitlin Hayes at the address or telephone number below.

Dated this May 4, 2026.

By: /s/ Kaitlin Hayes

Kaitlin Hayes

District Coordinator 111 West Street Essex Junction, VT 05452 (802) 622-4084 kaitlin.hayes@vermont.gov

NOTICE TO BIDDERS:

The Town of Underhill is now accepting sealed bids for bridge beam paint work Please follow this link to the Town’s website and the invitation to bidders: https://www.underhillvt.gov/ request-proposals-rfps

Sealed bids are due at the Underhill Town Office located at 12 Pleasant Valley Road, Underhill VT No later than 2:00 PM on Friday, May 22, 2026.

OPENINGS

BURLINGTON CITY COMMISSIONS/BOARDS **updated 050526 LO**

Airport Commission Term Expires 6/30/29 One Opening Board of Assessors Term Expires 3/31/29 One Opening Cemetery Commission Term Expires 6/30/29 Two Openings

Support Groups

A CIRCLE OF PARENTS SUPPORT GROUPS

Please join our professionally facilitated peer-led support groups designed to share our questions, concerns & struggles, as well as our resources & successes! Contribute to our discussion of the unique but shared experience of parenting. For more info or to register, please contact Heather at hniquette@pcavt.org, 802-498-0607, pcavt.org/ family-support-programs.

ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS

If you want to drink, that’s your business. If you want to stop, that’s ours. Call the Vermont statewide anonymous hotline: 802-802-2288. Alcoholics Anonymous holds daily meetings all over Vermont, both in person & online. For meetings & events throughout Vermont, see aavt.org.

ANXIETY RELIEF GROUP

Anxiety Relief Group is a safe setting for relaxing & exploring your feelings w/ others through gentle socialization & self-expression, building up what makes you centered & strong. Wed., 4-5:30 p.m. Both in-person & Zoom options avail. In-person meetings are held at the Fletcher Free Library’s Fletcher Room in Burlington. Email us for the Zoom link & more info: pvcc@pathwaysvermont.org.

BRAIN INJURY SUPPORT GROUP

Vermont Center for Independent Living offers virtual monthly meetings, held on the 3rd Wed. of every mo., 1-2:30 p.m. The support group will offer valuable resources & info about brain injury. It will be a place to share experiences in a safe, secure & confidential environment. To join, email Linda Meleady at lindam@vcil.org & ask to be put on the TBI mailing list. Info: 800-639-1522.

BREAST CANCER SURVIVOR DRAGON BOAT TEAM

Looking for a fun way to do something active & health-giving? Want to connect w/ other breast cancer survivors? Come join Dragonheart Vermont. We are a breast cancer survivor & supporter dragon boat team who paddle together in Burlington. Please contact us at info@dragonheartvermont.org for info.

CSWD – full

Term Expires 5/31/28 One Opening

CSWD – alternate Term Expires 5/31/28 One Opening

Church Street Marketplace Term Expires 6/30/28 One Opening

Church Street Marketplace Term Expires 6/30/29 Three Openings

Conservation Board Term Expires 6/30/30 One Opening

Design Advisory Board – full