Gyedu Blay Ambolley and Sekondi Band will play at the Drake in Amherst on Saturday, September 12 at 8 p.m. Tickets are $30 in advance. Most people in the audience will dance, some will sit, according to the Drake web site. A video of a concert by Gyedu Blay Ambolley and Sekondi Band is at:
August 21, 2026
Valvoline May Damage Engines
Valvoline Corp. paid its CEO just under $5 million in the most recent fiscal year, according to its SEC filing. The company is building an oil change facility next door to Brattleboro's beloved, locally-owned, Fletcher's Auto Repair. Across the street is the Home Depot and its vast parking lot, both of which have been vacant for nearly two decades thanks to a locally-organized boycott. The beloved, Vermont-owned, Brown and Roberts hardware store is thriving on Main street. Lumber is available at two locally-owned sawmills in Brattleboro and from deconstructed vacation homes at Renew Salvage.
August 19, 2026
No Kings March Set for September 12
Some of the 16,000 people who marched and rallied in Brattleboro,
Keene, Greenfield and Northampton on March 28 will attend a No Kings march on Saturday, September 12 at 10 a.m., rain or shine. If at least 1,000 people show up (estimated by the organizers), they will march in the street (not on the sidewalk), otherwise on the sidewalk: from the park that is directly between the Brattleboro food co-op and the Brattleboro art museum to the Town Common.
Masked secret police terrorizing our communities; an illegal,
catastrophic war putting us in danger and driving up our costs;
August 14, 2026
Dark Skies
Northampton resident and state senator Joanne Comerford supports a Dark Skies bill that was approved by the state senate last month, her spokeswoman told the Valley Post on August 10. An Arizona-based group that has a web site at www.DarkSky.org says, “Since 1988, we’ve been advocating for more responsible outdoor lighting, raising awareness about light pollution, and protecting the night sky. DarkSky has protected 160,000 square kilometers of land and night sky.”
One goal is better stargazing.
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August 08, 2026
Reggae Singer from Jamaica to Play Near Brattleboro
When N.L. Dennis was singing in a recording studio with Toots and the Maytals, Bob Marley stopped by to listen. Marley praised Dennis's delivery. Today, Dennis lives in his native Jamaica and joins hundreds of Jamaicans who come to Vermont every summer in search of better paying work. Most of them work on vegetable farms and at apple orchards. Dennis works as a reggae musician.
On August 9 at 11:30 a.m., Dennis and the Thunderballs will play at the Putney Farmers' Market near Brattleboro.
August 08, 2026
ICE Arrests Five People in County That's Home to Brattleboro
On August 7 in Londonderry, Vermont, ICE arrested five people. Londonderry is in Windham county. So is Brattleboro. The news was first reported by the Vermont group Migrant Justice.
In Brattleboro, outside the main post office on July 25, more than 100 people “gathered to pay tribute to the lives of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo and Johan Sebastian Guerrero, killed this month by ICE agents,” organizer Mary Moriarty told the Valley Post by email on July 26. She did not immediately reply to an email sent on August 8. The Valley Post will update this article when Moriarty replies.
August 07, 2026
Marching for Native American Rights
Protesters are walking across Massachusetts from west to east. They want Native American rights, a ban on new nuclear reactors in the state, ICE out of the state, and an end to sand minding in eastern Massachusetts pine barrens that are sacred to Wampanoag people. This page
https://changethemassflag.com/2026/07/30/listen-to-indigenous-voices-def...
July 30, 2026
100 Take to the Street to Express Grief and Rage at ICE
In Brattleboro, outside the main post office on July 25, more than 100 people “gathered to pay tribute to the lives of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo and Johan Sebastian Guerrero, killed this month by ICE agents,” organizer Mary Moriarty told the Valley Post. “Attendees brought flowers for a shrine in honor of the men, and recognized not only four others killed by immigration enforcement, but the 52 who have died since January 20, 2025 in ICE detention.
July 24, 2026
Victory Over ICE
People in Brattleboro were arrested for nonviolent civil disobedience earlier this year. Their goal was to get Citizen's Bank to stop loaning money for construction of ICE prisons. Last week, the protesters won. The protesters have a web page at:
www.facebook.com/de.ice.citizensbank
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In Amherst, about 200 people were at a rally to protest ICE on July 16. One of the groups that organized the rally has a web site at www.LuceMass.org.
July 17, 2026
150 at Brattleboro Union Rally
In Brattleboro on July 14, about 150 people attended a rally that was organized by local unions and the Vermont Workers' Center. The goal was to stop a scheme announced recently by the leaders of Brattleboro Memorial Hospital to close the hospital's birthing center. The main union that organized the rally has a web site at www.aftvermont.org.
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