VT Untapped

In the run up to election day 2022 VT Folklife is re-releasing our audio series Under the Golden Dome: The Stories Behind Vermont's Citizen Legislature.  In 2004 the Snelling Center for Government commissioned Vermont Folklife to interview 35 former legislators. VT Folklife founder Jane C. Beck along with audio editor and musician Bob Merrill then worked together to create this ten-part radio series. It allows a rare, very human view, of our Legislature and its workings over the prior fifty-plus years.  The series demonstrates that within our state house the only constant has been change. Yet under the golden dome a unique citizen legislature where anyone can serve continues to thrive. Funding for radio production was provided by The Vermont Community Foundation and The Windham Foundation. We'll be releasing the full series over the next week to accompany you during the countdown to election day on November 8, 2022. We urge everyone to vote! You can learn more about this series and listen to other episodes of VT Untapped at www.vtfolklife.org/untapped.

In the run up to election day 2022 VT Folklife is re-releasing our audio series Under the Golden Dome: The Stories Behind Vermont's Citizen Legislature.  In 2004 the Snelling Center for Government commissioned Vermont Folklife to interview 35 former legislators. VT Folklife founder Jane C. Beck along with audio editor and musician Bob Merrill then worked together to create this ten-part radio series. It allows a rare, very human view, of our Legislature and its workings over the prior fifty-plus years.  The series demonstrates that within our state house the only constant has been change. Yet under the golden dome a unique citizen legislature where anyone can serve continues to thrive. Funding for radio production was provided by The Vermont Community Foundation and The Windham Foundation. We'll be releasing the full series over the next week to accompany you during the countdown to election day on November 8, 2022. We urge everyone to vote! You can learn more about this series and listen to other episodes of VT Untapped at www.vtfolklife.org/untapped.

In the run up to election day 2022 VT Folklife is re-releasing our audio series Under the Golden Dome: The Stories Behind Vermont's Citizen Legislature.  In 2004 the Snelling Center for Government commissioned Vermont Folklife to interview 35 former legislators. VT Folklife founder Jane C. Beck along with audio editor and musician Bob Merrill then worked together to create this ten-part radio series. It allows a rare, very human view, of our Legislature and its workings over the prior fifty-plus years.  The series demonstrates that within our state house the only constant has been change. Yet under the golden dome a unique citizen legislature where anyone can serve continues to thrive. Funding for radio production was provided by The Vermont Community Foundation and The Windham Foundation. We'll be releasing the full series over the next week to accompany you during the countdown to election day on November 8, 2022. We urge everyone to vote! You can learn more about this series and listen to other episodes of VT Untapped at www.vtfolklife.org/untapped.

In the run up to election day 2022 VT Folklife is re-releasing our audio series Under the Golden Dome: The Stories Behind Vermont's Citizen Legislature.  In 2004 the Snelling Center for Government commissioned Vermont Folklife to interview 35 former legislators. VT Folklife founder Jane C. Beck along with audio editor and musician Bob Merrill then worked together to create this ten-part radio series. It allows a rare, very human view, of our Legislature and its workings over the prior fifty-plus years.  The series demonstrates that within our state house the only constant has been change. Yet under the golden dome a unique citizen legislature where anyone can serve continues to thrive. Funding for radio production was provided by The Vermont Community Foundation and The Windham Foundation. We'll be releasing the full series over the next week to accompany you during the countdown to election day on November 8, 2022. We urge everyone to vote! You can learn more about this series and listen to other episodes of VT Untapped at www.vtfolklife.org/untapped.

In the run up to election day 2022 VT Folklife is re-releasing our audio series Under the Golden Dome: The Stories Behind Vermont's Citizen Legislature.  In 2004 the Snelling Center for Government commissioned Vermont Folklife to interview 35 former legislators. VT Folklife founder Jane C. Beck along with audio editor and musician Bob Merrill then worked together to create this ten-part radio series. It allows a rare, very human view, of our Legislature and its workings over the prior fifty-plus years.  The series demonstrates that within our state house the only constant has been change. Yet under the golden dome a unique citizen legislature where anyone can serve continues to thrive. Funding for radio production was provided by The Vermont Community Foundation and The Windham Foundation. We'll be releasing the full series over the next week to accompany you during the countdown to election day on November 8, 2022. We urge everyone to vote! You can learn more about this series and listen to other episodes of VT Untapped at www.vtfolklife.org/untapped.

In the run up to election day 2022 VT Folklife is re-releasing our audio series Under the Golden Dome: The Stories Behind Vermont's Citizen Legislature.  In 2004 the Snelling Center for Government commissioned Vermont Folklife to interview 35 former legislators. VT Folklife founder Jane C. Beck along with audio editor and musician Bob Merrill then worked together to create this ten-part radio series. It allows a rare, very human view, of our Legislature and its workings over the prior fifty-plus years.  The series demonstrates that within our state house the only constant has been change. Yet under the golden dome a unique citizen legislature where anyone can serve continues to thrive. Funding for radio production was provided by The Vermont Community Foundation and The Windham Foundation. We'll be releasing the full series over the next week to accompany you during the countdown to election day on November 8, 2022. We urge everyone to vote! You can learn more about this series and listen to other episodes of VT Untapped at www.vtfolklife.org/untapped.

In the run up to election day 2022 VT Folklife is re-releasing our audio series Under the Golden Dome: The Stories Behind Vermont's Citizen Legislature.  In 2004 the Snelling Center for Government commissioned Vermont Folklife to interview 35 former legislators. VT Folklife founder Jane C. Beck along with audio editor and musician Bob Merrill then worked together to create this ten-part radio series. It allows a rare, very human view, of our Legislature and its workings over the prior fifty-plus years.  The series demonstrates that within our state house the only constant has been change. Yet under the golden dome a unique citizen legislature where anyone can serve continues to thrive. Funding for radio production was provided by The Vermont Community Foundation and The Windham Foundation. We'll be releasing the full series over the next week to accompany you during the countdown to election day on November 8, 2022. We urge everyone to vote! You can learn more about this series and listen to other episodes of VT Untapped at www.vtfolklife.org/untapped.

In the run up to election day 2022 VT Folklife is re-releasing our audio series Under the Golden Dome: The Stories Behind Vermont's Citizen Legislature.  In 2004 the Snelling Center for Government commissioned Vermont Folklife to interview 35 former legislators. VT Folklife founder Jane C. Beck along with audio editor and musician Bob Merrill then worked together to create this ten-part radio series. It allows a rare, very human view, of our Legislature and its workings over the prior fifty-plus years.  The series demonstrates that within our state house the only constant has been change. Yet under the golden dome a unique citizen legislature where anyone can serve continues to thrive. Funding for radio production was provided by The Vermont Community Foundation and The Windham Foundation. We'll be releasing the full series over the next week to accompany you during the countdown to election day on November 8, 2022. We urge everyone to vote! You can learn more about this series and listen to other episodes of VT Untapped at www.vtfolklife.org/untapped.

In the run up to election day 2022 VT Folklife is re-releasing our audio series Under the Golden Dome: The Stories Behind Vermont's Citizen Legislature.  In 2004 the Snelling Center for Government commissioned Vermont Folklife to interview 35 former legislators. VT Folklife founder Jane C. Beck along with audio editor and musician Bob Merrill then worked together to create this ten-part radio series. It allows a rare, very human view, of our Legislature and its workings over the prior fifty-plus years.  The series demonstrates that within our state house the only constant has been change. Yet under the golden dome a unique citizen legislature where anyone can serve continues to thrive. Funding for radio production was provided by The Vermont Community Foundation and The Windham Foundation. We'll be releasing the full series over the next week to accompany you during the countdown to election day on November 8, 2022. We urge everyone to vote! You can learn more about this series and listen to other episodes of VT Untapped at www.vtfolklife.org/untapped.

In the run up to election day 2022 VT Folklife is re-releasing our audio series Under the Golden Dome: The Stories Behind Vermont's Citizen Legislature.  In 2004 the Snelling Center for Government commissioned Vermont Folklife to interview 35 former legislators. VT Folklife founder Jane C. Beck along with audio editor and musician Bob Merrill then worked together to create this ten-part radio series. It allows a rare, very human view, of our Legislature and its workings over the prior fifty-plus years.  The series demonstrates that within our state house the only constant has been change. Yet under the golden dome a unique citizen legislature where anyone can serve continues to thrive. Funding for radio production was provided by The Vermont Community Foundation and The Windham Foundation. We'll be releasing the full series over the next week to accompany you during the countdown to election day on November 8, 2022. We urge everyone to vote! You can learn more about this series and listen to other episodes of VT Untapped at www.vtfolklife.org/untapped.

MEET VERMONT'S MASK MAKERS In spring of 2020, face masks were one of the few tools we had against covid-19, and you couldn't buy one. Anywhere.  When hospitals started calling for homemade fabric masks amid a world shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE), people with sewing skills in Vermont and around the world began to respond. In early April when the CDC changed its guidance and encouraged all Americans to wear a mask in public, sewers quickly expanded to sew for family, friends, and neighbors. At a time when anyone who could was asked to stay home, this work was one of the few active ways for individuals to help keep others safe.  In this three-part mini-series we'll explore the pandemic experience through the voices of some of Vermont's mask makers. You'll hear how and why they joined the sewing effort, learn about the Great Elastic Shortage of 2020, and explore how they expressed themselves creatively through the masks they made (what, you didn't have a mask with spikes on it!?).  The Mask Makers is co-produced and co-hosted by material culturalist and mask maker Eliza West.  MASKS AND IDENTITY Mask wearing is now a part of daily life and it's easier to get masks. The global supply chain has caught up with the demand for filtered face masks and CDC guidelines encourage the use of N-95/KN-95 masks. But many people still choose to wear a cloth mask over their filtered mask, as a way to share something about themselves.  In this episode we learn how mask makers began expressing themselves creatively through the masks they made, and how they helped others affirm their identities in the middle of a global crisis. amid the isolation of  the early pandemic.   VT Untapped is produced by the Vermont Folklife Center. Click here to learn more. 

MEET VERMONT'S MASK MAKERS In spring of 2020, face masks were one of the few tools we had against covid-19, and you couldn't buy one. Anywhere.  When hospitals started calling for homemade fabric masks amid a worldwide shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE), people with sewing skills in Vermont and around the world began to respond. In early April when the CDC changed its guidance and encouraged all Americans to wear a mask in public, sewers quickly expanded to sew for family, friends, and neighbors. At a time when anyone who could was asked to stay home, this work was one of the few active ways for individuals to help keep others safe.  In this three-part mini-series we'll explore the pandemic experience through the voices of some of Vermont's mask makers. You'll hear how and why they joined the sewing effort, learn about the Great Elastic Shortage of 2020, and explore how they expressed themselves creatively through the masks they made (what, you didn't have a mask with spikes on it!?).  The Mask Makers is co-produced and co-hosted by material culturalist and mask maker Eliza West.  ADAPTATION AND COLLABORATION You remember the toilet paper shortage, but did you know about the great elastic shortage of 2020? For home sewers, the global state of emergency elicited by the pandemic felt a lot like a war effort. On the “home front” (most often literally inside their homes) mask makers combated shortages of PPE to help those on the front lines of the pandemic as well as their family and friends.  Like other global crises, the pandemic caused shortages of goods and disrupted supply chains, but makers found countless creative ways around those problems. In this episode, we hear from mask makers who shared resources and solutions when elastic or fabric were hard to find and offered mutual support amid the isolation of the early pandemic.   VT Untapped is produced by the Vermont Folklife Center. Click here to learn more.

In spring of 2020, face masks were one of the few tools we had against covid-19, and you couldn't buy one. Anywhere.  When hospitals started calling for homemade fabric masks amid a world shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE), people with sewing skills in Vermont and around the world responded. In early April when the CDC changed its guidance and encouraged all Americans to wear a mask in public, sewers quickly expanded to sew for family, friends, and neighbors. At a time when anyone who could was asked to stay home, this work was one of the few active ways for individuals to help keep others safe.  In this three-part mini-series we'll explore the pandemic experience through the voices of some of Vermont's mask makers. You'll hear how and why they joined the sewing effort, learn about the Great Elastic Shortage of 2020, and explore how they expressed themselves creatively through the masks they made (what, you didn't have a mask with spikes on it!?).  The Mask Makers is co-produced and co-hosted by material culturalist and mask maker Eliza West.  SEWING IN A CRISIS In Episode 1 we explore the experiences of a handful of Vermont mask makers, learning about how mask making became an outlet for anxiety, while also forming an essential part of Vermont's efforts to stem the spread of the virus. We also consider the complexities of mask makers earning money, or not, in exchange for their labor and the pressure some people felt to join the cause.    VT Untapped™ is a production of the Vermont Folklife Center. To learn more click here.

This year for our annual SPOOKY HALLOWEEN SPECIAL We teamed up with our friends at Vermont Public Radio and put out a call to all Vermonters, inviting them to get in touch and tell us their scariest ghostly encounters and supernatural sightings. We spoke with folks all over the state and we share four of the stories we heard in this episode. You'll meet a traveling ghost, attend an elegant dinner party, and might think twice about going skiing in the Adirondacks. Thanks to Liz, Susannah, Gerry, and Tony for telling these tales. And speaking of spooky—did you catch last year's Spooky Halloween Special featuring Floyd Cowdrey telling a tale of the haunted house he lived in as a boy? If not, hit the link below, turn off the lights and tune in. And if you'd like to hear Andy's favorite Halloween song, you can give a listen here: “It's Halloween!” by The Shaggs. VT Untapped™ is produced by the Vermont Folklife Center. Learn more on our website: www.vtfolklife.org/untapped 

This episode is the second in a pair of shows in which we reflect on the impact and legacy of Tropical Storm Irene. In Mendon Remembers, we hear from a group of Mendon, VT residents who gathered for a story circle in July, 2021 to share how their perspectives on Irene and its impacts have unfolded over the past ten years. Everyone who participated had also taken part in the story circles recorded by the Vermont Folklife Center immediately after the storm as part of the Irene Storytelling Project. If you missed it, make sure to listen to the previous episode, Revisiting Irene: “Weathering the Storm.” THE IRENE STORYTELLING PROJECT Organizing Story Circles was one part of the Irene Storytelling Project. In addition to recording these events, our engagement was also an effort to support community-initiated documentation projects that explored the impact of Irene, and to maintain Irene Digital Memory, an online repository for media generated about Irene and the human response to the storm.  VT Untapped™ is produced by the Vermont Folklife Center. For more information visit www.vtfolklife.org/untapped

Nine years ago the Vermont Folklife Center released Weathering the Storm - an audio documentary created with Vermonters from towns across the state hard hit by tropical storm Irene. In this special episode of VT Untapped we are re-presenting “Weathering the Storm” in its entirety to mark the 10th anniversary of this historic event. Tropical Storm Irene struck Vermont on August 28, 2011 causing widespread, catastrophic damage. At VFC we struggled with how to respond to the storm - how could we employ our skills in a way that might actually help people in the present? Through our conversations we developed what we called the Irene Storytelling Project, at the heart of which resided a series of in person story-sharing events across the state we called “Story Circles.” Late VFC folklorist Greg Sharrow and staff member Aylie Baker developed and refined the idea of Story Circles - structured, community storytelling gatherings where people embroiled in the experience of storm recovery could come together and share. The Folklife Center sponsored Story Circles in Mendon, Stockbridge, and Rochester, Vermont. In partnership with Starting Over Strong Vermont (an emergency response organization that provided free, short-term support communities impacted by flooding from Irene) we worked with residents of Athens, Brattleboro, Ludlow, Plymouth, Waterbury and Wilmington. These events were as much about being heard as they were about listening to others. As we came to learn, the Story Circles provided people with a way to give collective voice to the shared trauma of natural disaster. A place to reflect, connect with one another and find strength to move through—and beyond—the storm and its impacts. We were honored to be witnesses to the process. In many ways the Irene Storytelling Project was some of the most significant work we have ever done. VT Untapped is produced by the Vermont Folklife Center. For more information visit www.vtfolklife.org/untapped

Over a year since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic we take a moment to look back on a year of the Listening in Place project, focusing on submissions to our Sound Archive. This facet of Listening in Place began with a small collection of audio recordings submitted via a portal on our website in response to an invitation to sit down and interview someone in your household, or remotely, during our first weeks of lockdown.  We received about 30 recordings from across the state. College students interviewing their classmates or their parents who they were suddenly living with again after campus shut down; a father talking to his two kids; people connecting remotely with friends who were far away or who were quarantining just across town. In this episode of VT Untapped™ we revisit and reflect on these records, which we now think of as the first seeds planted in what has become the Listening in Place collection in our archive, documenting people’s experiences in Vermont during the pandemic. VT Untapped™ is produced by the Vermont Folklife Center. Learn more on our website: www.vtfolklife.org/untapped   

Sugaring is a central part of life in Vermont. Anthropologist Marge Bruchac tells us that the Abenaki people, the indigenous group native to Vermont, called the fourth new moon of the year the “maple sugar-making moon.” The Abenaki were the first people in the place we now call Vermont to boil down sap and make syrup, and they taught European settlers this practice--one unique to North America. Today in Vermont sugaring is an important economic activity and a seasonal milestone that marks the transition from winter to spring--not to mention it’s how we create our best known, homegrown, sweet treat. Along with syrup, candy and other maple products, the seasonal pastime of visiting the sugar house is often evoked as a classic ‘Vermont’ activity for tourists and locals alike. It’s no surprise then that there are songs about sugaring or even that the Vermont Folklife Center might make reference to the activity in the name of its own podcast, VT Untapped™! In our case we’re not tapping trees, but our archive, which contains thousands of interviews with Vermonters talking about their everyday lives and experiences. This episode brings you a seasonal selection of audio excerpts from our collection that reflect the sugaring tradition and its prominence in Vermont life across generations.  VT Untapped™ is produced by the Vermont Folklife Center. Visit www.vtfolklife.org/untapped to learn more. 

It’s that time of year again! Although our annual “Meet Cute” episode is a bit different this year, isn’t everything? We’re coming up on one year of living through the Covid-19 pandemic, and as a part of our Listening in Place project, we’ve focused on hearing from Vermonters about their experiences of this tumultuous time, in their own voices. We know that Vermonters have continued to cultivate new romantic connections during this time but, to be honest, we paused a bit around asking people to tell us their touching stories of new flowering love in the midst of the pandemic. Would anyone really want to put a spotlight on a newly forged connection by sitting down for an interview with us? So instead, our 2021 Meet Cute focuses on two themes that have consistently emerged through Listening in Place: resilience and human connections. Less of a “meet cute,” this year’s February episode of VT Untapped explores Covid as a catalyst for strengthening an existing relationship—a story about love across distance and across borders. We hope you enjoy!   VT Untapped™ is produced by the Vermont Folklife Center. Learn more on our website: www.vtfolklife.org/untapped 

Back in March 2020, Pete Sutherland opened up the voice memo app on his phone, hit record and said “This is just day-one of one person's journal about isolation in the time of the Coronavirus outbreak worldwide.” In the following nine months, Pete continued to hit record and share his thoughts with what he calls “the vault” on his phone. Sometimes he discusses the COVID-19 Pandemic, other times he reflects on walks in the woods, his family, teaching, or the 2020 election. In this episode of VT Untapped™, we bring you excerpts of Pete’s COVID Diary. Pete is a longtime friend of the VFC and a vastly influential contributor to traditional culture in Vermont. He is prolific as a musician, teacher, visual artist, composer, writer, and storyteller and his way with words comes through in this diary. Beyond the words, the sonic experience of the diary transports us right into Pete’s world; many of his entries are made “on site” as he goes about his daily life. So take a seat and join Pete on his journey through COVID times. In addition to providing material for this podcast, Pete has donated his diary in its entirety to the VFC archive where it will add to our growing collection of materials documenting the COVID-19 pandemic and our Listening in Place project. We are profoundly grateful to Pete for agreeing to share this personal account with us.   VT Untapped™ is produced by the Vermont Folklife Center. Visit our website for more information.

Driving turkeys THANKSGIVING SPECIAL! As we’re all gearing up for what is likely to be one of the most, shall we say “unusual,” Thanksgivings of our lifetimes (thanks again, 2020), here at VT Untapped™ we reached out VFC founder Jane Beck once more in search of suggestions for a seasonal story. Not surprisingly, once again Jane came through! Jane directed us to a series of interviews she conducted with Earle Fuller of Warren, VT between 1979 and 1983. Jane interviewed Earle over 45 times during that period, discussing his family’s history in the area, and the Fuller family tradition of raising, training and trading horses during the era of horse power. Earle was born in Warren in 1888. In two interviews, one from 1979 and one from 1981, Earle recounted to Jane the experience of driving turkeys from Vermont to market in Boston. To be clear, when we say “drive” we mean “herd”—literally marching a flock of (in Earle’s account) over 500 turkeys by road, through towns, over bridges on a journey that lasted 10 days round trip. Turkey drives were a seasonal sight to behold in New England in the 18th and 19th centuries, with flocks as large as 2,000 birds traveling from farms to cities for slaughter and sale. As Earle shares, even railroads were unwilling to transport the live birds, so herding turkeys through the countryside persisted as the simplest way to transport them to urban markets. Based on a number of clues embedded in the stories we’re honestly not sure if Earle is reporting from personal experience or if he is recounting someone else’s. For one, Earle begins his initial account in the third person—as if he is talking about someone else—then gradually shifts to telling it in the first person, setting himself in the tale. In addition, Earle states that he was 11 when the drive he describes occurred, which would set the date around 1899. As we understand it, the turn of the century would have been pretty late for a turkey drive like this to have taken place. This stated, we really just don’t know with any certainty and—truly—we don’t think it really matters all that much. Earle’s evocative account of trouping a bunch of red-headed, gobbling turkeys from VT to Boston rings true to other sources that describe similar trips, so what he shares is accurate based on comparison. Earle’s own story or not, it’s a trip well worth joining him on. VT Untapped™ is produced by the Vermont Folklife Center. For more information visit www.vtfolklife.org/untapped

Established in 1991, our Vermont Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program (VTAAP) was created to support the vitality of Vermont's living cultural heritage. In this episode we explore VTAAP by talking with some of the program participants—master artists and their apprentices—to explore their perspectives on these time-honored art forms, and the experience of teaching and learning during a global pandemic. Traditional arts are often perceived as primarily—or even exclusively—tied to the past, but we see them as living practices, constantly evolving and changing to meet the unfolding needs of the people who care about them. Traditional art draws on the past, but is continually refined and shaped by needs and perspectives of the present.  Over the years the program has supported traditional forms ranging from Abenaki basketry and dance, Yankee and Franco-American fiddling, Somali Bantu instrument making, memorial stone carving in Barre, Japanese Ikebana, Congolese Dance, and Tibetan dranyan performance among hundreds of others. VTAAP is supported by the National Endowment for the Arts and donors around the state. Despite the current challenges of the pandemic, 13 collaborations between master artists and apprentices are being supported in the 2020-2021 VTAAP cycle (you can see the full list of projects here). In this episode you’ll come along with VFC staff on three "virtual site visits” to meet a few of this year’s cohort of artists and apprentices and hear about the art forms and projects they’ll be working on over the course of the next 10 months.   VT Untapped™ is produced by the Vermont Folklife Center. Visit our website for more information. 

It’s Halloween! Which means it’s time for our annual SPOOKY HALLOWEEN SPECIAL! This year we reached out to VFC founder Jane Beck to see if she could think of any extra spooky stories in the archive—and boy did she come up with a corker! Jane interviewed Floyd Cowdrey on November 14, 1994. It’s a wide ranging interview, with Floyd recounting events from the late 19th and early 20th century including family stories, grisly details of a few local murders, some off-color (and by today’s standards frankly offensive) jokes and, importantly, a pretty darn good haunted house story. The events described by Floyd took place in the mid 1920s in Hartland, VT. We won’t go into the details here—we’ll leave those to Floyd—but we will say that you might find yourself thinking differently about that mysterious, late night knock on your bedroom door after hearing what Floyd has to say… VT Untapped™ is produced by the Vermont Folklife Center. Visit our website for more information.

What does a vibrant camp sound like without its campers? Camp Killooleet sits on the banks of the Hancock Branch, a tributary to the White River in Hancock, Vermont. Since 1927 it’s welcomed kids ages 9-14 for a classic summer camp experience. Hiking and swimming, arts and woodworking, sports, horse-back riding and a particularly strong music and song culture due in large part to the longtime connection of the Seeger family with Killooleet. John and Ellie Seeger bought the camp in 1949 and today their daughter, Kate Seeger and her husband Dean Spencer are the camp directors. John Seeger was the brother of the legendary folk singer, Pete Seeger.    Back in August, Mary Wesley and assistant producer Abra Clawson drove down to Hancock to meet with Kate, Dean and Kate’s brother, Tony Seeger. Tony is an anthropologist and audio-visual archivist and he serves on the Board of Directors for the VFC. It was an unusual visit because for the first time in 93 years, Camp Killooleet was closed, due to Covid -19. Where you’d expect to hear splashing and shouting in the pond and music in the camp house there was only birdsong and a slight breeze.    This episode explores the ways in which a summer camp community, an inherently ephemeral group, stays connected over time and distance. Camp Killoolleet in particular offers a unique site of observation and reflection thanks to two albums recorded in 1958 available from Smithsonian Folkways: Songs of Camp and Sounds of Camp. These historical recordings feature documentary soundscapes and sing-alongs that allow us to travel back in time to hear just what was missing from Killooleet during this “camper-less” summer of 2020.   THE RECORDINGSWe thank Smithsonian Folkways for granting us permission to feature selections from Sounds of Camp and Songs of Camp in this episode. You can find both albums--as well as the entire Smithsonian Folkways catalog here on their website.  The campers and counselors featured in this episode are Charlie, Kim, Smitty, Danny and Avi. You can sit in on one of the Killooleet Virtual Campfires here on YouTube.    Vermont Untapped is produced by the Vermont Folklife Center. For more information visit our website. 

This episode of VT Untapped™ is the first in a six-part series built around our “Listening in Place” project. We’ll take you into six different Vermont communities where we’ve spent some time listening to what people are going through and what they’re thinking about during the pandemic and beyond. Since mid May the VFC has been working in partnership with Project Independence, an elderly day center in Middlebury, as part of our Listening in Place project, which seeks to document the everyday lives of Vermonters as they live through the extraordinary events of 2020. Project Independence serves over 100 participants with the goal of keeping elderly people independent and at home for longer. However after the COVID-19 pandemic hit, it was clear that they had to greatly adapt their in-person programming in order to keep their participants and staff safe. Project Independence transitioned to Zoom video calls, which required much technical support and providing people with new devices that would fit their needs. Now each day, participants can take part in a large array of activities online. Between May 12 and August 5, one of these activities was to participate in an online interview with the VFC. We spoke with 22 different people, participants, staff and volunteers who shared their perspectives on life during Covid. Having a conversation and recording online could be tricky and many times we heard the common refrain, “Can you hear me? Are you there?” But when technology cooperated the connection went deeper than just a clear internet signal. People shared about the impact of suddenly having to stay home (for some, visiting Project Independence was their only outing), missing family and friends, honest confessions of loneliness and powerful messages of resilience that perhaps only the perspective of age can allow. We hope you enjoy hearing some of these perspectives in this episode of VT Untapped™. This podcast is produced by the Vermont Folklife Center. Please visit our website to learn more.   

This special episode of VT Untapped shares three stories that were recorded during a “Virtual Story Circle” in early April during the Covid-19 pandemic. A Story Circle is a supported space where participants respect the testimony of others as each person is invited to speak about their own experience. In this case, people are speaking about their experience living in Vermont during the COVID-19 global pandemic. The VFC first used this model of group storytelling as a response to Tropical Storm Irene, finding that it offered a unique opportunity for individuals trying to process and understand a shared traumatic experience, both by talking about their own experience and listening deeply to the experiences of others. Although we can’t safely form in-person circles at this time, the widely available video conferencing platforms to which many of us have turned to stay connected can also connect us to share our experiences. Just as each person’s experience of this time differs, every participant will relate their story in their own unique way. We hope that by bringing forth a multitude of perspectives in a group setting, participants and observers will encounter the broad scope of experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic as it unfolds—and that will come to define our collective understanding of this period in time. These Story Circles are part of the VFC’s Listening in Place project, developed in response to the pandemic. VFC will be holding Circles on an ongoing basis according to public interest. We have also developed a facilitator’s guide for community members wishing to host their own. Learn more at www.vtfolklife.org/listening

‘How did you meet?’ is probably one of the most common questions couples receive. In the spirit of Valentine’s day we’re sharing another round of these love stories recorded by VFC staff through interviews with friends and neighbors. So what do we mean by “Meet Cute”? Well, the term refers to the conditions under which two potential partners meet—trust us, it’s in the Oxford English Dictionary. Last year in Episode 4 we shared three stories of Vermonters finding love, and this year we’ve got three new ones for you. It’s 2020 after all, so some folks meet on Tinder, some owe it to the Seven Days personals, and thank goodness, some still meet in a good, old fashioned, hipster coffee shop! Hear them all in this month’s episode! We are slowly growing our “meet cute” collection and we have more stories than we could fit in the episode so be sure to check out this playlist to hear them all! Some are from earlier interviews and some more recent. All are pretty darn cute!

A guy walks into a bar and…starts singing? If that bar is Brattleboro’s McNeill’s Brewery and it’s the third Saturday of the month between 3-5 pm then the chances of this happening are pretty high. That’s when the Brattleboro Pub Sing meets. And in this episode of VT Untapped you get to come along! The pub-sing or pub-session tradition originates in the British Isles. “The Pub” being a place where people gather as much to socialize with friends and family as to enjoy a local brew, the addition of music seems only natural. A pub-sing isn’t a performance, it’s more like a participatory grown-up sing along—think group karaoke only without a machine—and everyone is welcome. Popular repertoire tends to be songs with a call-and-response structure or with an easily repeated chorus so that the crowd can join in and ‘raise the rafters.’ Amanda Witman and Tony Barrand started the Brattleboro Pub Sing in 2011. Tony is Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, College of Arts and Sciences, Boston University and a prolific musician and performer. He’s best known for his musical collaboration with John Roberts in their duo “Roberts and Barrand,” who recorded ten albums together between 1971 and 2003. A longtime Brattleboro resident, Tony has been teaching English folk song for years through the Brattleboro Music Center and other local events. After several successful one-off pub sings at the BMC’s Northern Roots Festival, Amanda, a local folk song enthusiast, asked if Tony would help her make pub singing a regular occurrence. To learn more about VT Untapped visit: www.vermontfolklifecenter.org/untapped

This month on VT Untapped we hear spooky stories told by Kim Chase of Essex Junction. Kim is a second-generation, bilingual Franco-American and the stories she shares were passed down through generations of her family members. Kim’s maternal grandmother moved from Cap-Santé, Québec to Winooski, VT sometime between 1905-1910. Her mother, Claire Bouffard Chase was born in Winooski. Kim grew up in Massachusetts but spent every summer with her grandparents in Winooski until her family moved back to Vermont in 1970. As well as being a storyteller, Kim has been singing French-Canadian folk songs all her life, which she learned at home as well as through friends and extended family. She has been a French teacher for over 30 years and has taught every age from preschool through college—always incorporating music into her teaching. Kim is also a writer and translator and has published essays, short fiction, articles, poetry and translations for many years. She worked closely with Martha Pellerin as a partner and grant writer, and has received several grants for her own work in gathering oral histories, songs and stories. Recently VT Folklife was lucky enough to collaborate with Kim on a project aimed at revitalizing Franco-American song in Vermont. Selections from her family’s repertoire are part of “A Vermont Franco-American Songbook: Volume 1.” Kim and Carmen Beaudoin Bombardier co-hosted a singing school in Burlington in the fall of 2018 to teach the repertoire to a new group of singers. About the stories: There’s a good chance Kim’s first tale will be familiar to you. Kim and her family call it Abraham et le velours jusqu’au genoux (“Abraham and the velvet up to the knees”), and folklorists generally refer to it using the standard title: Bluebeard. Bluebeard is one of the most widely distributed folk tales in the world. The Aarne-Thompson Uther Types of International Folktales: A Classification and Bibliography identifies it in their numbering system as ATU Tale Type 312: Maiden-Killer (Bluebeard). The version Kim tells is an unusual one—all the more so because it is tied to locations in Quebec and came down to her through an oral tradition traced back through her family’s origins in France. Kim learned the second story from her mother—who learned it from Kim’s great grandmother, Meme Beaudoin. When asked about the title, Kim simply said, “we always called it ‘Meme Beaudoin’s Story’.” In 1995 VT Folklife Center founder, Jane Beck recorded Claire Bouffard Chase telling it, and in 2003 VT Folklife published Claire’s version as an illustrated children’s book under the title, The Ghost on the Hearth.   VT Untapped is produced by the Vermont Folklife Center. For more information visit www.vtfolklife.org/untapped

Hello Vermont Untapped listeners! It's time for a late-summer update. The days are still (sort of) long, the sun is bright and we’ve been pretty darn busy here at the Vermont Folklife Center. Listen in for a short update on our doings (and to hear where to get the best cinnamon rolls in St. Johnsbury!) We’re also taking a moment to let you know that our next full episode of VT Untapped will be released towards the end of September. Following that, we’ll release one more episode in late fall and then call season one of VT Untapped a wrap! We’ll kick off a whole new season in January 2020. VT Untapped is produced by the Vermont Folklife Center.  

VT Untapped is produced by the Vermont Folklife Center. June is a month when we celebrate our fathers, so we would like to use this month's VT Untapped episode to show you Vermont through the eyes of a unique father and daughter team: Perkins Flint (1878-1969) and Katharine Flint DuClos (1907-2010). Perkins Flint lived and farmed in Braintree, Vermont, in the late 19th and early 20th century. His great-great-great-grandfather, William Flint, was one of the first settlers of the town, and Perkins (or Perk, as many affectionately called him) grew up hearing his own father’s stories about the social and geographical landscape of the town. Years later, Perkins brought his daughter up on those same stories and continued to add his own to the growing collection. She interviewed him in the mid-60s and with help from her mother painstakingly wrote down many of the stories he told. When folklorist Greg Sharrow met her in 1974, he began to uncover her family’s unique place as keepers of the town’s history. Perkins was struck with TB when Katharine was very young, and she had to learn essential skills for helping out on the farm, becoming his “right-hand man.” According to Katharine, most women in that day couldn’t hitch up a team or drive a Model T, but she did all of that and more.

This month on VT Untapped we take a trip to the “Retreat Meadows,” a flooded, marshy area at the convergence of the West and Connecticut rivers in Brattleboro, Vermont, that regularly freezes over in winter. It was on this icy plain that Vermont-based Colombian photographer Federico Pardo noticed a small village of rough, squarish structures spring up each season. These ice “shanties” intrigued him and he began documenting them in 2016. The VFC became involved when Vision & Voice Gallery Curator Ned Castle met Federico and the project expanded to include a series of interviews with shanty owners. In these conversations, the fishers speak of their shanties as structures, remark on the amenities and people they house, detail the practice of ice fishing, and, directly and indirectly, reflect the relationships, connections, and community they reinvent each year at the Meadows. Learn more about the Vermont Folklife Center here on our website. 

Martha Pellerin was a musician, scholar, advocate, educator and song collector—to name just a few of her many roles. Her family immigrated to Vermont from the Eastern Townships of Quebec in the 1960s, settling in Barre. Growing up, Martha navigated a complicated landscape of culture and identity. While her family spoke French at home and maintained strong ties to Quebec, Martha also spent much of her life immersed in American culture and the English language. Ultimately she found her calling, unifying these dual elements of herself and proudly identifying as a Franco-American. Martha worked her whole adult life to understand the nuances therein, to draw out, document and sustain the stories, songs and traditions of her family and community and to help others do the same. She was committed to “progressing the culture” of Franco-Americans in Vermont and beyond. Martha died of cancer in 1998 at 37 years old - much too soon. In this episode we hear recordings of Martha from the VFC archives as well as interviews with her son, Ian Drury, and with Burlington-based musician Michele Choiniere, one of many Franco-American Vermonters whose life was touched by Martha.

Three Extraordinary Vermont Women To celebrate Women’s History Month, we honor the achievements of three extraordinary women: Nellie Staves, Daisy Turner, and Gert Lepine—all of whom were interviewed extensively by Vermont Folklife Center founder (and pioneer in her own right) Jane C. Beck. Nellie Garnet Dunbar Badger Staves was born in West Danville, Vermont, in 1917 and grew up on Walden Mountain. She was an avid outdoors woman and conservationist, as well as an artist known for the engraved images she created on tree fungus. Nellie passed away in 2009. Born in Grafton, Vermont, in 1883, Daisy Turner was one of thirteen children of Sally and Alec Turner, both of whom had been enslaved in Virginia prior to the Civil War. Daisy was a master storyteller whose extensive repertoire included the epic arc of the Turner family—beginning with enslavement in Africa, life in the antebellum South, the Civil War, emancipation, and ultimately freedom on a hill-top farm in Grafton, Vermont. Daisy passed away in 1988 at 104 years old. Gert Lepine was born in Hamsud, Quebec, in 1927 and moved to Vermont with her family in the 1930s. After completing school Gert set out to be a teacher, but the call of farming was strong and she eventually left the profession to farm full time with her family. Gert still lives on the family farm in Morristown, Vermont.  

‘How did you meet?’ is probably one of the most common questions couples receive. In the spirit of Valentine’s day, we share these love stories recorded by VFC staff through interviews with friends, neighbors, and family. So what do we mean by “Meet Cute”? Well, the term refers to the conditions under which two potential partners meet—trust us, it’s in Oxford English Dictionary. Your true love could be on the other side of the desk at a job interview, at the end of a scavenger hunt, or the last one out of the clown car. Yes, these are all true stories and you’ll hear them in this episode! To learn more about the Vermont Folklife Center visit www.vtfolklife.org

Major J. Francis Angier tells the gripping story of being shot down over Germany during World War II, surviving as a prisoner of war, and saving two ships carrying hundreds of soldiers from certain doom. In the early 2000s Greg Sharrow and audio producer Erica Heilman conducted a set of interviews under the auspices of the Vermont Folklife Center for the Veterans History Project of the Library of Congress. From those interviews, an audio documentary was produced called “Prisoners of War: A Story of Four American Soldiers,” which focused on a group of Vermonters who had been captured during the Battle of the Bulge. Over the course of our research, we interviewed several veterans who shared powerful stories with us about their POW experiences but were not included in the documentary. In this episode of VT Untapped, we’re proud to share one those stories through an interview with Maj. J. Francis Angier. For more information visit the Vermont Folklife Center website.

Based on interviews with hunters conducted by the Vermont Folklife Center, Deer Stories doesn’t advocate for or condemn hunting but rather explores the experience from an insider’s point of view. This episode features excerpts from an original twelve part series produced by Greg Sharrow and Erica Heilman. Deer hunters introduce us to their world through stories that illustrate hunting practices and core values.

What's my drag? That’s the question photographer Evie Lovett found herself asking after spending time with Kitty, Mama, Candi, and Sophia, all drag queens at the Rainbow Cattle Company, a gay bar in Dummerston, Vermont.

Welcome to VT Untapped, a podcast from the Vermont Folklife Center that explores the cultures of Vermont through the voices of its own residents. Check out our preview and look for the first full episodes in early December!