Host Lissa Weinmann welcomes listeners to the Brattleboro Words Trial Podcast and describes how hundreds of community members share their talent to produce these delightful audio stories celebrating the rich and unique legacy of writing printing and publishing in Brattleboro - America's most storied small town.
This trailer podcast was produced by LIssa Weinmann and Jack Pombriant with help from Sally Seymour. The Brattleboro Words Trail theme song is by Ty Gibbons. The Trail is a product of the Brattleboro Words Project, which was inspired and supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities. It has worked with hundreds of local citizens to produce more than 100 audio stories linked to places one can explore through a free, gps-triggered app and website, 'Brattleboro Words Trail'. Large ceramic landscape murals exhibited in the town are updated as new content is added; Free printed maps based on the murals guide folks along. The Project also published a 278-page, richly illustrated companion book called "Print Town: Brattleboro's Legacy of Words." Lissa Weinmann directs the Brattleboro Words Project with an Advisory Team comprised of William Edelglass PhD, Shanta Lee, Starr LaTronica, Rolf Parker-Houghton and Sally Seymour. Partners in the Project include the Brattleboro Literary Festival, Brooks Memorial Library, Brattleboro Historical Society, Write Action. Marlboro College was a principal partner until it closed in 2020. The Vermont Folklife Center is now the Brattleboro Words Project's fiscal sponsor.
BRATTLEBORO WORDS TRAIL PODCAST TRAILER
Every small town has its stories. We call Brattleboro Vermont “America’s most storied town” for all the books, periodicals, newspapers, printing, publishing and writing that’s happened here.
Back in the day, Brattleboro was known far and wide as a “print town.” Rudyard Kipling wrote The Jungle Book here. The first American edition of Harry Potter was printed here. That legacy continues today as this red-brick town of 12,000 people supports two newspapers, bookstores, an acclaimed annual literary festival, regular poetry readings and other such events all year long. And its true that an unusual number of writers, editors, book designers, printers and publishers still call Brattleboro home
A few years ago, several local groups got together to try to document the town’s love affair with words. With support from a National Endowment for the Humanities matching grant and other local support, we helped hundreds of citizens research and create short audio stories celebrating the people and places important to this history of words. That work became the award-winning Brattleboro Words Trail. We also published a richly illustrated book called “Print Town: Brattleboro’s Legacy of Words.”
If you are in Brattleboro, you can download the free Words Trail app on your cell phone, grab a Words Trail map, and listen to over 100 stories as you walk, bike or drive around town. Now, with this podcast, you can easily explore the area's rich literary culture from anywhere you happen to be.
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We’ll introduce you to people like Lucy Terry Prince, the nation’s first known African American poet, who broke free from slavery to become a landowner and eloquent defender of equal rights.
You’ll savor the words of Saul Bellow, one of the greatest writers of all time whose Brattleboro gravesite is itself a literary destination.
We’ll introduce you to the dramatic story of William Apess. His early 1800s book ‘A Son of the Forest’ was the first Native American autobiography published in the United States.
We’ll wander into some weird places too, like the world of John Humphrey Noyes. His ideas about sex and group marriage provoked locals to run this charismatic leader and his followers out of town, but didn’t stop him from founding a tableware company that’s a household name today.
That’s just a taste of the fascinating characters you’ll meet along the Trail. Visit our website at brattleborowords.org to learn about how the Words Trail came to be and how it continues to grow. You can order a copy of the Print Town book there too.
So please continue listening to hear our first episode. It features the story of Jody Williams, a little girl from a struggling Brattleboro family who grew up to win the Nobel Peace Prize. We’ll share a new story every month and look forward to meeting you on the Brattleboro Words Trail.