Tapping Community Talent to Create Audio Stories
The Project harnesses local talent to produce stories for the Brattleboro Words Trail app and the monthly Brattleboro Words Trail Podcast. They are available for free on all major app platforms. This results in a ‘deep mapping’ of multiple voices and perspectives on places as it grows over time.
Communicating to the Public
The Project fosters public outreach to attract participants by managing apps, websites, social media, community relations and marketing for the Trail, Podcast and the book Print Town: Brattleboro’s Legacy of Words.
Managing Maps and Murals
The Project produces Trail maps and commissions hand-carved ceramic landscape murals which are created and updated by local artist Cynthia Parker Houghton, lead designer at Brattleboro’s famed Natalie Blake Studios. The murals are currently on exhibit at 118 Elliot gallery in Brattleboro.
Mounting the Permanent Amtrak Exhibit
The large murals will anchor a permanent ‘Brattleboro Words Trail’ exhibit at the new Brattleboro Amtrak Station, scheduled to open Fall 2024. The Project is partnering with Amtrak, Hatch Space, Muse Arts and other institutions and our continuing partners at Brooks Memorial Library, the Brattleboro Historical Society and the Brattleboro Literary Festival, will all assist in the design and durable encasement of the exhibit. Additional support comes from the Vermont Humanities Council and the Vermont Arts Council Digital Capacities Grant.
Placing Historic Markers
The Project collaborates with community groups to place location markers at sites on the Trail, and augments existing state historic markers with audio experiences. We initiated the Vermont state historic marker for Lucy Terry Prince (the nation’s first known African American poet) and the Prince family at the ‘Gateway to Vermont’ Welcome Center at Exit 1 off Interstate 91 (N-bound). We placed a marker for Nobel Peace Laureate Jody Williams at the Green Street School (which she attended as a child), and another marker in West Brattleboro recognizing author Mary Wilkins Freeman.
Promoting Brattleboro as a Unique Literary Destination
The Project is an active partner with the Downtown Brattleboro Alliance’s Community Marketing Initiative to help attract regional, national and international interest in the Brattleboro area. The Trail has appeared in national media including USA Today, Forbes and the National Endowment for the Humanities’ international magazine HUMANITIES. Interest in the Project continues to grow. Other area organizations often use Project-created audio stories to promote their work.
Working with Schools and Youth
The Project works with teachers and students at all levels. It has donated digital audio sets and sound editing training to public schools and libraries, sometimes in conjunction with our fiscal sponsor, the Vermont Folklife Center. Project personnel mentor and train interns at high school and college levels who have learned skills while working on the Project; skills which are beneficial when seeking employment.
Sharing the Brattleboro Words Trail Model with Other Communities
The Project attends national conferences and other events to share the positive experience of bringing together community members of all ages to research and create stories. Having a shared vision to create things together helps build and strengthen community.
Raising Support and Contributing to Vermont’s Creative Economy
The Project seeks and administers grants, sponsorships and individual donations to support its work and pay area professionals for creative services. We welcome in-kind donations and rely mainly upon volunteers to further the work. Please consider becoming a sponsor, donor, partner or participant at any level in the Brattleboro Words Project. All donations are 100% tax deductible through our fiscal sponsor, the Vermont Folklife Center. Checks can be mailed to Brattleboro Words Project / 118 Elliot Street / Brattleboro, Vermont 05301.
Learn more about the Projects Advisory Team. Our 501-c-3 fiscal sponsor is the Vermont Folklife Center.
Watch the Brattleboro Words Trail’s Community ZOOM launch video (1 hour) with more than 30 community members telling stories for the Trail
“I can honestly say, for a project developed by a group of citizens, the Brattleboro Words Trail is the most impressive piece of public humanities work I’ve ever seen. This project did not come out of an institution with a professional staff of historians, oral historians, or folklorists – it sprang from the community and continues to engage new people in its growth. It is a remarkable achievement.”
Mara Williams, Curator Emerita, Brattleboro Museum & Art Center
“The Brattleboro Words Project’s breadth and impact on our community is great. It has introduced our history to a wider audience, weaving together previously disparate threads to create a compelling narrative about the Brattleboro area's identity as a hotbed of writers, books, publishing, printing and progressive ideas in general, an identity we still feel and feed to this day.”
U.S. Representative Becca Balint
“From the start, we’ve worked to identify the disparate threads of what makes this area special. We involve diverse voices. We weave a tapestry that reinforces Brattleboro’s unique identity and bring it to the world, enriching the experience and deep appreciation of ‘home’ for those who live here. That is the work of the Brattleboro Words Project.”
Lissa Weinmann, Project Director