Fall/winter speaker series 24/25

Exciting new speaker series coming to Rutland Free Library for Fall / Winter 2024/25

Rutland Free Library is bringing live speakers back to the Fox Room, with an eclectic and fascinating lineup of talks. These talks vary between in-person only and hybrid, and are at a variety of days and times, to allow everyone to attend. All programs at the library are free and open to everyone.

Stripping Like Nobody’s Business

Thursday, Oct. 3, 6:30 PM – Author, dancer, daughter, and mother Bambi Rehak will be discussing her autobiography, Stripping Like Nobody’s Business: A true story about a mother with no conscience and a stripper with too much. The book looks back at a truly one-of-a-kind life, full of tragedy and joy. A single mom twice over as a teen, Bambi started dancing in “gentlemen’s clubs,” and it became her profession.

Join us for Bambi’s story, with special guest moderator Carol Tashie guiding a Q&A to follow. Unique is an overused word. But it’s the right one in this case. Don’t miss this unique experience.

An Evening of Bicycles & Pumpkins

Wednesday, Oct. 23, 6:30 PM — Just in time for Halloween!

Angus Chaney, storyteller, mountain biker, and adjunct faculty at West Goshen University, and Ethan Nelson, illustrator, mountain biker, president of VT’s Giant Pumpkin Growers’ Association, present a whimsical evening’s entertainment. Their Proto-Cycology books are farcical accounts of feral, post-apocalyptic mountain bike gangs roaming the wilds of Brandon Gap.

It’s hard to predict just where this could go.
One might expect Angus to share some excerpts from the novellas; maybe talk about the fast-growing genre of mountain biking comparative mythology; share a grammar lesson or two from his journey; discuss composing along the trail, and try to answer the great “Why?”

Ethan will be there to keep it on the trail with his inimitable joie de vivre — sharing the backstory on these clever illustrations and the pain and agony of working with Angus. We might also hear a little about what it takes to grow big — like really big — pumpkins, as well as the scandalous details on what happens to certain giant pumpkins after they’re weighed.

Readers looking to borrow any of the above titles can find them on the brand-new local creators’ shelf at Rutland Free Library!

Fifty Years that Transformed Vermont — Hybrid Event

Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2 PM — In 1974, when Vermont Humanities opened its first office, Vermont was still solidly Republican. Journalist and historian Chris Graff traces the transformation of Vermont and its image over the past 50 years from “red to blue,” from Silent Cal to Bernie, from Robert Frost to Julia Alvarez, from “Moonlight in Vermont” to Phish and Noah Kahan.

Chris Graff is the author of Dateline Vermont, which chronicles Vermont’s political history from the 1960s through the 2000s. He worked for The Associated Press for 28 years and hosted Vermont Public Television’s “Vermont This Week” from 1992 through 2006. He has interviewed nine former Vermont governors for the public television series, The Governors, telling the story of Vermont from 1959 through 2011.

This event is part of the Vermont Humanities Snapshot series. It is the only hybrid event on the calendar. Registration is required for both in-person and online attendees and is free at https://www.vermonthumanities.org/event/fifty-years-that-transformed-vermont/

Cold Case Files: The East Middlebury Murders of 1935

Wednesday, March 26, 6:30 PM On an early summer day in 1935, a mother and daughter picking mayflowers stumbled across a skull. Police soon found three bodies, a woman and two children, all shot in the head, wrapped in a store awning.

The remains have never been identified, but intriguing details abound: Police had to station a deputy at the scene to deter souvenir hunters who arrived with scissors to snip off bits of the awning; Harvard professors were called in to try to identify the bodies, and one of the skulls went missing while being shipped to dental conferences. It was a big deal, and Rutland-based Investigator Almo Franzoni of the State’s Attorney’s Office was on the case, identifying but never able to charge suspects.

Join State Archivist Tanya Marshall and Investigator Kris Bowdish of the Vermont Secretary of State’s Office as they follow the work of the original sleuth and catch us up on details that have emerged since. They’ll bring out the twists and turns, trace the leads and dead ends of one of Vermont’s most sensational unsolved murder cases.