Live Culture | Seven Days | Vermont's Independent Voice
Friday, October 6, 2017

Posted By on Fri, Oct 6, 2017 at 10:26 AM


Around a year ago, Chance McNiff's thoughts count was the feature of my first ever Playtime post. Brattleboro's psychedelic sound farmer is back with another harvest of cosmic carrots for you to snack on with visceral pleasure. This one's called Seasons ¢hange and it's a voyage, a real headphone tripper, a modern passageway to the eschaton.

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Posted By and on Fri, Oct 6, 2017 at 7:00 AM

click to enlarge October 2017 First Friday Roundup: Cordwood, Caves and Carpets
Courtesy of 571 Projects
"rettungsboot /3" by Melora Griffiths

A slight chill in the air makes for pleasant evening strolls. But this Friday, October 6, might be the time to shake up your art-viewing patterns and drive somewhere. Below you'll find a handful of outside-Burlington shows and events, followed by our Queen City picks.


P.S. In truth, we can’t get to all of these locations in a single night, but if we had Hermione Granger’s Time-Turner, we definitely would.

Outside Burlington

"SiteTime: Cordwood" Opening, Montpelier

Most shows in traditional galleries last a month, maybe three months tops. Not so with “SiteTime.” This outdoor artwork, organized by the Vermont Arts Council and installed in its State Street courtyard-cum-sculpture garden, will evolve in full view of the public over two years. Talk about slow art. The installation is a collaboration of Vermont artists Erika Senft Miller, Nancy Winship Milliken and Michael Zebrowski, who will contemplate an entity familiar to most Vermonters: the woodpile.

Each will each alter and interact with the site, using choreography, video and sound installation and other sculptural elements to address the fuel source in its living and posthumous states. How the site will change through the seasons remains to be seen —  we're rooting for a bonfire.

Artist Talk With Melora Griffiths, Stowe

The Brooklyn-based artist speaks about recent paintings, now on view in “beyond all walking” at 571 Projects. Of particular interest for Griffiths is the cave — as primitive shelter, portal and explosive allegorical symbol. Sound interesting? We think so.

Middle Eastern Textile Pop-Up, Vergennes

Time to get cozy, and colorful. This Friday through Sunday, Mouawia Bouzo and Deborah Felmeth (author of Syria Remember Me) fill Northern Daughters gallery with tribal rugs, vintage carpets and kilims from Syria, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Iran. It's a great opportunity to soak in the craftsmanship, patterns and rich colors of traditional Middle Eastern textiles, even if you’re not buying.

"Of Land and Local" Opening Reception

October 2017 First Friday Roundup: Cordwood, Caves and Carpets
Burlington City Arts
"Five-Part-Bloom" by Rebecca Hutchinson

The annual exhibition, which features exhibitions at both Shelburne Farms and the BCA Center (the latter opens later this month) will home in on the same theme it explored last year: Watersheds. The show features 16 artists, some whom also contributed work last year.

Water is as universal as it gets, and these artists will explore its various aspects — as a commodity, a resource, life giver and destroyer. At least that’s what we think … but who knows? It’s a broad topic, and we’re curious to see what they've come up with this year.

Burlington

Steamroller Printing Benefit Show

Last year, Noah Lagle of Public Works Press coordinated his first-ever Steamroller Printing event. His gig is by no means the only one in the area (Helen Day Art Center and Sushi Yoshi in Stowe continue to host a similar, annual event), but it’s the only one in Burlington. This year, Lagle brought back

the event, aided again by a BCA Community Fund grant.



Last weekend, participants pressed their carved plywood printing blocks under an industrial steamroller — the kind used to flatten cement — at Pine Street Studios. This Friday at the Karma Bird House Gallery, the resulting prints are on display and will be auctioned off to benefit the King Street Center in what will surely be an animated evening.

"Dark Matter"

click to enlarge October 2017 First Friday Roundup: Cordwood, Caves and Carpets
Courtesy of S.P.A.C.E. Gallery
"When Silence Is Betrayal" by Matt Larson
In lieu of its annual “Art of Horror” show curated by artist Beth Robinson (maker of the wonderfully creepy Strange Dolls), the S.P.A.C.E. Gallery is opting for an equally spooky assemblage of arts under the curatorial direction of gallery owner and artist Christy Mitchell.

“'Dark Matter,' in a scientific sense, has never been directly observed,” Mitchell writes in her curatorial statement. “However, its existence would explain a number of otherwise puzzling astronomical observations. We've asked artists to consider how existence and puzzling realities … and fantasies play into their own work and interpretation of the universe.”

Sounds like a bewitching way to kick off the seasonal — and for some, spiritual — transition from light to dark. A reception is Friday evening.

Last Chance: Diane Al-Hadid + Dave Kennedy, Burlington City Arts

If you haven’t popped into the current round of BCA Center shows, now would be the time to do it. The work comes down on Sunday to make way for the downtown component of "Of Land and Local."

The First Friday Roundup is a monthly compilation of art openings and events. It is by no means comprehensive (check the Seven Days art listings for the full picture), but presents a few shows and events we’re particularly excited about.


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Thursday, October 5, 2017

Posted By on Thu, Oct 5, 2017 at 3:19 PM

click to enlarge Comedian Krish Mohan on Mental Illness, Politics and Sports
Tara Arseven Photography
Krish Mohan
Krish Mohan tackles a big topic on his latest standup comedy record: mental illness. Approaching  Happiness was released in August and features some of the sharpest material to date from the India-born, Pittsburgh-based comedian, writer and self-described social vigilante.

Throughout the album, Mohan is in full command of the wit and thoughtfulness that has made him an underground favorite at comedy clubs and festivals around the country.  It's an hourlong exercise in breaking the stigmas associated with mental illness. But Mohan also identifies the ways in which mental illness and other societal ills — such as racism and gun violence — intersect and feed one another.

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Tuesday, October 3, 2017

Posted By on Tue, Oct 3, 2017 at 5:25 PM

click to enlarge 'Motherland' Author Maria Hummel Reads at Rice Memorial High School
Karen Pike
Maria Hummel
This weekend, author Maria Hummel will give a reading from her 2014 novel Motherland as part of the centennial celebrations at Rice Memorial High School in South Burlington.

The book follows the newly married Liesl as she raises her absent husband's three children in the height of World War II in Nazi Germany. Liesl and her husband, Frank, are mitlaufer, "Germans who 'went along' with Nazism," according to the author's website.

While the family is perhaps safe from Nazi persecution, they must survive dwindling food supplies, Allied air strikes and one child's mysterious illness, which puts him at risk of being sent to Hadamar, a psychiatric hospital infamous for mass sterilizations and murder.

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Posted By on Tue, Oct 3, 2017 at 4:05 PM

click to enlarge Old Spokes Home Wins Award for Exceptional Hiring Practices
Courtesy of Old Spokes Home
Chuda Karki (second from left) with colleagues from Old Spokes Home
Every Thursday, Jeremy Kehoe rushes home from his job at Old Spokes Home in Burlington to attend an American Sign Language class organized by Burlington Parks, Recreation & Waterfront. He's been taking ASL lessons since this summer, when the bike shop and nonprofit community center hired Chuda Karki, a deaf Bhutanese man who doesn't speak English, as a technician.

"Chuda had become pretty ingrained in the shop, so I thought it would be much better to be able to communicate with him," said Kehoe. "Once I taught myself the alphabet, it became more and more interesting."

On Tuesday, both Kehoe and Karki were on hand when Donna Curtin, chairperson of the Vermont Governor’s Committee on the Employment of People with Disabilities, presented Laura Jacoby, executive director of Old Spokes Home, with a Spirit of the ADA award.

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Monday, October 2, 2017

Posted By on Mon, Oct 2, 2017 at 1:21 PM

It's Monday, which means it's time for your weekly dose of locavore levity: the Joke of the Week! This week's joke comes from Bristol's Colin McClung. Take it away, Colin…

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Sunday, October 1, 2017

Posted By on Sun, Oct 1, 2017 at 4:38 PM

click to enlarge Every Dog Has Its Day at the Winooski Farmers Market
Sadie Williams
Winning dogs pose with their humans.
The Winooski Farmers Market was overrun by a horde of dogs this morning. Forty canines gathered with their humans to compete in the first-ever Best Pooch in the 'Noosk, an informal dog show organized by Downtown Winooski.

The event was hosted by Emmy Award-winning WCAX anchor Darren Perron, who energetically described each contestant as he or she trotted down the makeshift runway cordoned off in the middle of the market. The doggie destination was a tent that sheltered the four judges from the midday sun.

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Friday, September 29, 2017

Posted By on Fri, Sep 29, 2017 at 7:00 AM

click to enlarge Middlebury's Edgewater Gallery Expands Into Stowe
Courtesy of Edgewater Gallery
Edgewater Gallery in Stowe
Earlier this month, Middlebury's Edgewater Gallery opened a third location in downtown Stowe with the logical name of Edgewater Gallery in Stowe. The gallery's marketing and design manager, Dalton Hartye, said the team has been "discussing the idea of expanding for quite some time, and, after much consideration, we decided that Stowe would be the best location for a good market for us."

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Thursday, September 28, 2017

Posted By on Thu, Sep 28, 2017 at 5:11 PM

click to enlarge Emory Fanning Celebrates 50 Years at Middlebury College, in Concert
Courtesy of Todd Balfour
Emory Fanning
When Emory Fanning was growing up in Wilmington, Del., he sang in a cathedral choir to organ accompaniment. Both the choral and instrumental aspects of this experience shaped his life. Fanning became a consummate organist and choir director, spending most of his post-graduate career at Middlebury College.

In fact, it has been 50 years since Fanning joined the college’s music faculty. Though he retired 20 years ago from his full-time professorship, he has continued to serve as the college organist, direct an alumni choir he founded, and give private organ lessons on campus. Fanning will celebrate a half-century of Midd affiliation with a gala concert this Sunday, October 1, in Mead Chapel.

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Tuesday, September 26, 2017

Posted By on Tue, Sep 26, 2017 at 3:46 PM

click to enlarge What Feminism Can Speak To: Katha Pollitt and Janell Hobson
Janell Hobson (left) and Katha Pollitt
On Wednesday, September 27, the Middlebury College Program in Gender, Sexuality & Feminist Studies will host award-winning columnist, author and poet Katha Pollitt in conversation with author and professor Janell Hobson for the talk "What Can Feminism Speak To?"

Pollitt has written for the Nation since 1980, and many of her columns have been compiled into three volumes:
Reasonable Creatures: Essays on Women and Feminism, Subject to Debate: Sense and Dissents on Women, Politics, and Culture  and Virginity or Death! And Other Social and Political Issues of Our Time. Her most recent book, Pro: Reclaiming Abortion Rights, was published by Picador in 2015 and is a vehement argument for dispelling cultural stigma around abortion.

Hobson teaches in the Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies department at the University of Albany, State University of New York. She is the author of
Venus in the Dark: Blackness and Beauty in Popular Culture and Body as Evidence: Mediating Race, Globalizing Gender, and a contributor to Ms. magazine.

Seven Days spoke with both Pollitt and Hobson by phone, asking some (big) questions prior to their Middlebury appearance.

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