For beginners and experienced knitters alike, you can learn how to knit, fine tune your skills, or finish that unfinished project with certified knitting instructor, Lise Roussell.

Old-time music, also known as Appalachain stringband music, is traditionally played on the fiddle, banjo, guitar and bass. Tunes are learned by ear and are ideal for community participation. The music is the sort that one would naturally hear at a square dance or a contra dance.

Acoustic musicians of all ages and abilities are encouraged to attend. The session is free and open to the public. Listeners are encouraged to attend as well.

The East Craftsbury old-time jam session is supported by Cabot Arts’s Music Mentoring Program whose mission is to revive community fiddling and to encourage participatiton in traditional music. The session will occur every 1st and 3rd Wednesday from 6 - 8pm

For beginners and experienced knitters alike, you can learn how to knit, fine tune your skills, or finish that unfinished project with certified knitting instructor, Lise Roussell.

Old-time music, also known as Appalachain stringband music, is traditionally played on the fiddle, banjo, guitar and bass. Tunes are learned by ear and are ideal for community participation. The music is the sort that one would naturally hear at a square dance or a contra dance.

Acoustic musicians of all ages and abilities are encouraged to attend. The session is free and open to the public. Listeners are encouraged to attend as well.

The East Craftsbury old-time jam session is supported by Cabot Arts’s Music Mentoring Program whose mission is to revive community fiddling and to encourage participatiton in traditional music. The session will occur every 1st and 3rd Wednesday from 6 - 8pm

What better way to start the day than an early morning bird walk with Dave Brown! We will meet at 495 Hanks Hill Road, Greensboro, Vt. We’ll be walking on some trails in the woods, wet in places, so please wear good walking shoes! If you don’t have a pair of binoculars, we’ll have two pairs of library binoculars available to borrow.

Enjoy spring's celebratory start with the annual Old Fashioned Barn Dance on May 17! Dave Rowell opens his Brassknocker Farm in East Craftsbury to benefit 3 great Craftsbury non-profit organizations: the Craftsbury Public Library, the Craftsbury Chamber Players and the JW Simpson Memorial Library.

This year's event features The Radio Rangers for great dance music, and a silent auction featuring a wide range of items to bid on, including beautiful hand-made quilts, a Burley tandem road bike, and a framed Craftsbury Fiddler's Contest pennant.

Hungry? The Craftsbury School's PTO will be selling baked goods and The Farmer and the Spud will have meals to buy. Blackbird Bistro is returning to provide the cash bar. Due to licensing and insurance restrictions BYOB is not allowed.

Tickets are a suggested donation of $10-$20, children under 12 free. You can purchase tickets in advance here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/old-fashioned-barn-dance-tickets-1286571302399?aff=oddtdtcreator

For beginners and experienced knitters alike, you can learn how to knit, fine tune your skills, or finish that unfinished project with certified knitting instructor, Lise Roussell. Pre-registration is encouraged, please fill out this form to register. 

For beginners and experienced knitters alike, you can learn how to knit, fine tune your skills, or finish that unfinished project with certified knitting instructor, Lise Roussell.

Old-time music, also known as Appalachain stringband music, is traditionally played on the fiddle, banjo, guitar and bass. Tunes are learned by ear and are ideal for community participation. The music is the sort that one would naturally hear at a square dance or a contra dance.

Acoustic musicians of all ages and abilities are encouraged to attend. The session is free and open to the public. Listeners are encouraged to attend as well.

The East Craftsbury old-time jam session is supported by Cabot Arts’s Music Mentoring Program whose mission is to revive community fiddling and to encourage participatiton in traditional music. The session will occur every 1st and 3rd Wednesday from 6 - 8pm

Just Getting By, a new documentary film by Bess O’Brien focused on Vermonters struggling with food and housing insecurity will play at the East Craftsbury Presbyterian Church on Sunday, May 4, 2025, at 7 pm. This screening is free. It is a collaboration between the John Woodruff Simpson Memorial Library, the Community Housing Forum, the Hardwick Area Food Pantry and the East Craftsbury Presbyterian Church. It is supported in part by Vermont Humanities. Director Bess O’Brien will be part of a special Q and A after the film.

Just Getting By is a sweeping, and yet intimate look at the lives of Vermonters who are struggling with food and housing insecurity. The film has been touring the state over the last year and is raising consciousness about the pressing issues that working and low income people are dealing with every day in their lives.

Vermont has the second highest rate of homeless people in the United States, right after California. One third of Vermonters struggle to put food on the table. These are big issues for a small state. Just Getting By focuses on these issues in the lives of everyday people.

The film tells the stories of working families, folks who are homeless and accessing food shelves and soup kitchens and people who are living in temporary hotel/motel programs. In addition, the film focuses on New Americans grappling with the cost of living in America, Native people creating innovative farming practices and folks on the ground providing services to their fellow Vermonters in need.

Just Getting By explores the day to day challenges and incredible resiliency that low-income Vermonters bear witness to every day.

The film was shot during 2022-23 by director Bess O’Brien and cinematographer Patrick Kennedy. “We wanted to capture the day to day lives of Vermonters who were living paycheck to paycheck and who were struggling to keep food on the table and a roof over their head. We also wanted to show the incredible resiliency and courage of folks who have very little and still manage to get up every day and strive for a better life.” O’Brien says.

The movie is produced by Kingdom County Productions and has garnered rave reviews as it crosses the state.

Vermont LT. Governor David Zuckerman says, “This film puts our societies’ realities into a visible and real format for people to see. It is such critical work for Vermonters to see. ”

Seven Days movie reviewer Margot Harrison said “Bess O’Brien’s film presents us with vivid case studies that give life to economic facts and figures. For anyone concerned about the state's future, this film is an important watch!” 

For more information go to: www.kingdomcounty.org or email Bess at bobrien@pshift.com.

oin us for a fun and interactive six-week Spanish Conversation Class at the Simpson Library in East Craftsbury! Designed for beginners to early intermediate learners (but open to all levels), these sessions will introduce practical vocabulary through engaging activities like tortilla making, craft projects, and map-making. Native Spanish speakers are encouraged to join and share their experiences. Participation in activities is optional—come to learn, practice, and have fun!

This class is for all ages, and you can come to one or all six of them. Please email jwsimpsonmemorial@gmail.com to register, and note in your email what dates you plan to attend.

For beginners and experienced knitters alike, you can learn how to knit, fine tune your skills, or finish that unfinished project with certified knitting instructor, Lise Roussell.

Join Don and Mabel Houghton to explore the wonderful world of French songs! From Don and Mabel:

We’ve loved French songs - la Chanson Française - for a good number of years - since the 70s. Besides being a great way to practice language, many are individual works of art: combinations of lyrics, music and interpretation that make them worthy of appreciation, whether one is fluent with the language or not.

So, this class will be open to anyone who’s curious to learn why they’re special. We’ll choose someone like Edith Piaf, Charles Aznavour,  Jacques Brel, Francis Cabrel, Maxime Le Forestier, or Brassens…there are many artists to choose from! We’ll use Google Translate to get the meaning out of the way, and then we’ll focus on the text, in English or in French, as appropriate. Discussion will be in English, or French, as the group prefers, and when it’s time to sing along, we’ll raise our voices.… Our hope is that by presenting la Chanson in this fashion, folks will wind up loving the songs as much as we do, and leave the class wanting to listen and sing along at home. 

Can you imagine yourself in the shower, singing in your loudest voice “Quand il me prend dans ces bras, et me parle tout bas, je vois la vie en Rooo…se.”?

Join us for a fun and interactive six-week Spanish Conversation Class at the Simpson Library in East Craftsbury! Designed for beginners to early intermediate learners (but open to all levels), these sessions will introduce practical vocabulary through engaging activities like tortilla making, craft projects, and map-making. Native Spanish speakers are encouraged to join and share their experiences. Participation in activities is optional—come to learn, practice, and have fun!

This class is for all ages, and you can come to one or all six of them. Please email jwsimpsonmemorial@gmail.com to register, and note in your email what dates you plan to attend.

For beginners and experienced knitters alike, you can learn how to knit, fine tune your skills, or finish that unfinished project with certified knitting instructor, Lise Roussell. Pre-registration is encouraged, please fill out this form to register. 

Old-time music, also known as Appalachain stringband music, is traditionally played on the fiddle, banjo, guitar and bass. Tunes are learned by ear and are ideal for community participation. The music is the sort that one would naturally hear at a square dance or a contra dance.

Acoustic musicians of all ages and abilities are encouraged to attend. The session is free and open to the public. Listeners are encouraged to attend as well.

The East Craftsbury old-time jam session is supported by Cabot Arts’s Music Mentoring Program whose mission is to revive community fiddling and to encourage participatiton in traditional music. The session will occur every 1st and 3rd Wednesday from 6 - 8pm.

Join us for a fun and interactive six-week Spanish Conversation Class at the Simpson Library in East Craftsbury! Designed for beginners to early intermediate learners (but open to all levels), these sessions will introduce practical vocabulary through engaging activities like tortilla making, craft projects, and map-making. Native Spanish speakers are encouraged to join and share their experiences. Participation in activities is optional—come to learn, practice, and have fun!

This class is for all ages, and you can come to one or all six of them. Please email jwsimpsonmemorial@gmail.com to register, and note in your email what dates you plan to attend.

For beginners and experienced knitters alike, you can learn how to knit, fine tune your skills, or finish that unfinished project with certified knitting instructor, Lise Roussell. Pre-registration is encouraged, please fill out this form to register. 

Join us for a fun and interactive six-week Spanish Conversation Class at the Simpson Library in East Craftsbury! Designed for beginners to early intermediate learners (but open to all levels), these sessions will introduce practical vocabulary through engaging activities like tortilla making, craft projects, and map-making. Native Spanish speakers are encouraged to join and share their experiences. Participation in activities is optional—come to learn, practice, and have fun!

This class is for all ages, and you can come to one or all six of them. Please email jwsimpsonmemorial@gmail.com to register, and note in your email what dates you plan to attend.

What do you do when your big feelings overwhelm you? Do you shut down? Do you yell? Do you take a deep breath, work through your feelings, and move on? As adults, we don't always know what to do with our big emotions, so why do we expect young children to know what to do with their big feelings? During this session, we will learn skills for self-regulation and develop tools to help guide the children's big feelings in our care.

Old-time music, also known as Appalachain stringband music, is traditionally played on the fiddle, banjo, guitar and bass. Tunes are learned by ear and are ideal for community participation. The music is the sort that one would naturally hear at a square dance or a contra dance.

Acoustic musicians of all ages and abilities are encouraged to attend. The session is free and open to the public. Listeners are encouraged to attend as well.

The East Craftsbury old-time jam session is supported by Cabot Arts’s Music Mentoring Program whose mission is to revive community fiddling and to encourage participatiton in traditional music. The session will occur every 1st and 3rd Wednesday from 6 - 8pm.

This month, the Travel Adventure book group discusses Brave the Wild River: The Untold Story of Two Women Who Mapped the Botany of the Grand Canyon by Melissa Sevigny.

“In the summer of 1938, botanists Elzada Clover and Lois Jotter set off down the Colorado River, accompanied by an ambitious expedition leader and three amateur boatmen. With its churning rapids, sheer cliffs, and boat-shattering boulders, the Colorado was famed as the most dangerous river in the world. But for Clover and Jotter, it held a tantalizing appeal: no one had surveyed the Grand Canyon’s plants, and they were determined to be the first.

Through the vibrant letters and diaries of the two women, science journalist Melissa L. Sevigny traces their forty-three-day journey, during which they ran rapids, chased a runaway boat, and turned their harshest critic into an ally. Their story is a spellbinding adventure of two women who risked their lives to make an unprecedented botanical survey of a little-known corner of the American West at a time when human influences had begun to change it forever.”

Old-time music, also known as Appalachain stringband music, is traditionally played on the fiddle, banjo, guitar and bass. Tunes are learned by ear and are ideal for community participation. The music is the sort that one would naturally hear at a square dance or a contra dance.

Acoustic musicians of all ages and abilities are encouraged to attend. The session is free and open to the public. Listeners are encouraged to attend as well.

The East Craftsbury old-time jam session is supported by Cabot Arts’s Music Mentoring Program whose mission is to revive community fiddling and to encourage participatiton in traditional music. The session will occur every 1st and 3rd Wednesday from 6 - 8pm.

The Dartmouth Rude Mechanicals present….A Comedy of Errors at the East Craftsbury Presbyterian Church.

The Dartmouth Rude Mechanicals are the oldest student-run theater group on the Dartmouth College campus. Dedicated to producing at least one Shakespeare play a term, which is always free to the public, our goal is to spread our love for the Bard within our community for newcomers and superfans of Shakespeare alike. Our 90s sitcom-inspired production of The Comedy of Errors follows two sets of identical twins—Antipholus and Dromio—who were separated at birth and unknowingly reunite in the city of Ephesus. Following the show is a workshop in which we'll do some theatre exercises and work on acting out a Shakespearean scene together! 

Please email jwsimpsonmemorial@gmail.com if you’d like to participate in the workshop, thank you!