Listening Parties

Come and Listen with Vermont Folklife

Listening Parties invite you, your friends and neighbors to come together and listen deeply to the sounds of everyday life in Vermont—voices, music and the world around us.

We draw from the Archive and research work of Vermont Folklife to select audio clips and craft Listening Parties for specific sites or topics. Parties might have a thematic focus such as general stores, traditional art, experiences of poverty; or a regional focus, partnering with local institutions to include materials from their own collections reflecting life on a local level.

Listening Party at the Lincoln Library, October 2023

Upcoming Listening Parties:

Upcoming Listening Parties
Stories from Vermont Folklife’s Archive - A Listening Party
May 28
Stories from Vermont Folklife’s Archive - A Listening Party

Join Vermont Folklife, the Manchester Historical Society, and the Green Mountain Academy for Lifelong Learning as we hear about maple sugaring with horses, a fiddle tune at a Franco-American music jam, the strains of a Burmese lullaby, or the many generations of shopkeepers at the H.N. Williams store in Dorset.

Past Listening Parties

Upcoming Listening Parties
Stories of Life and Work in Winooski - A Listening Party

Vermont Folklife Listening Parties bring people together to share the experience of listening deeply. A bit like a DJ set of the spoken word, we share stories, music, and sounds of the world around us drawn from the Archive at Vermont Folklife and other collections around the state. In partnership with the Heritage Winooski Mill Museum, hear stories of everyday life in Winooski through the voices of its own residents, past and present.

Turkey Tales: Stories From the Field - A Listening Party (Burlington)

VT Folklife, VT Fish & Wildlife, and the National Wild Turkey Federation are celebrating the 51st anniversary of the reintroduction of the wild turkey in Vermont with a series of Listening Parties at breweries across the state. A bit like a DJ set of the spoken word, we’ll share recorded stories drawn from an oral history project that documents the history of Vermont’s turkey restoration, and also invite YOU, our audience, to share your own stories from the field, be it a successful hunt, a near miss, or a simple moment of appreciation for these magnificent birds.

Turkey Tales: Stories From the Field - A Listening Party (Windsor)

VT Folklife, VT Fish & Wildlife, and the National Wild Turkey Federation are celebrating the 51st anniversary of the reintroduction of the wild turkey in Vermont with a series of Listening Parties at breweries across the state. A bit like a DJ set of the spoken word, we’ll share recorded stories drawn from an oral history project that documents the history of Vermont’s turkey restoration, and also invite YOU, our audience, to share your own stories from the field, be it a successful hunt, a near miss, or a simple moment of appreciation for these magnificent birds.

Hey Kids, Comics! Vermont Comic Book Cultures, a Listening Party

Join Mirthful Mary Wesley and resident Folklife Comic Nerd Andy Kolovos for a Listening Party featuring the voices of well-known Vermont cartoonists describing how Vermont shapes their art, along with clips of Vermont comic book fanatics sharing tales of the nerd life here in the 1950s, 60s, 70s and 80s.

Stories from Vermont Folklife’s Archive: A Listening Party

Vermont Folklife Listening Parties bring people together to share the experience of listening deeply. A bit like a DJ set of the spoken word, we share voices, music, and sounds of the world around us drawn from the Archive at Vermont Folklife.

In our words, in our community, a Listening Party

In 2023 and 2022, Vermont Folklife partnered with CVOEO on a project to explore poverty in Vermont through the voices of their clients and employees. Come and listen to the experiences of your neighbors who struggle with and work to alleviate the impacts of poverty in our state.

Lincoln General Store Memories and Listening Party

Join us for an afternoon of sharing stories and memories to celebrate the Lincoln General Store and explore the role of community stores in Vermont.

Below is a setlist from a recent Listening Party in Manchester Vermont, showcasing the broad range of material in the Vermont Folklife Archive:

  1. Riding to School - Mildred Wilcox Orton

    Mildred Orton, born in 1911, grew up on the Wilcox farm in Manchester. She married Vrest Orton and together they founded the Vermont Country Store in 1946. This interview was recorded by a student at Manchester Elementary Middle School in the early 2000s following a workshop given by late VT Folklife folklorist Greg Sharrow.

  2. Boiled Cider - Derry Hazelton Dickinson

    Derry Hazelton Dickinson was born in 1938 and raised in Londonderry at Hell's Peak Farm, the eldest child of Everett and Grace Hazelton. She left the state with her husband, Skip, in 1965, and returned to Vermont in 1999 to retire in Dorset.

  3. Cleo and Lady - Cleo Johnson

    Late game warden and hunter, Cleo Johnson talks about his special relationship with an orphaned doe he raised from birth. Greg Sharrow conducted this interview in 1997 as part of a project exploring the experiences of deer hunters across the state.

  4. Maple Sugar Pie - Thelma Neil and Jane Beck

    Thelma Neil lived in Warren, VT. Jane Beck conducted this interview with her in 1992 as a part of our Mad River Valley project.

  5. Waffles - Gussie Levarn

    Gussie Levarn was born and brought up on a farm in Hinesburg. She served in the Army Nurse Corps during WWII and after the war was sent to the Czech-Austrian border to care for survivors of the Holocaust. She returned to live with her husband Leonard "Rosie" Levarn in Bristol where her nursing career continued. Gussie was also a folk artist known for crafting “apple dolls” out of wire and paper mache.

  6. Sap Beer - Edgar Dodge

    Edgar Dodge grew up in the Depression era and lived and farmed with his wife, Elizabeth “Libby” Gilman Dodge in Tunbridge, Vermont. The Dodge-Gilman building on the Tunbridge Fair Grounds is named in their honor. 

  7. Daisy and the Doll - Daisy Turner

    Daisy Turner was born in 1883 on Turner Hill in Grafton, VT and lived for more than a century, dying in February, 1988. Her parents had been slaves before the Civil War and she was raised on stories of bondage, of escape, and of war and became a storyteller in her own right. From the very first she was proud of her heritage, and nourished a deep love of family. With a strong sense of self, she was feisty and spirited, always standing up for her rights as a matter of course.

  8. “Son of a Bear” - Louis and Willie Beaudoin

    Brothers Louis (fiddle) and Willie (guitar) Beaudoin were born in Quebec and settled in Burlington, VT in the 1950s. They performed together and with their families until Louis’s untimely death in 1980. This track was recorded in Lowell, MA at Willie’s wedding in 1946.

  9. First Generation Franco American - Martha Pellerin

    Martha Pellerin was a musician, scholar, educator and song collector. Her family immigrated to Vermont from the Eastern Townships of Quebec in the 1960s, settling in Barre. Martha’s family spoke French at home and maintained strong ties to Quebec but she also spent much of her life immersed in American culture. Having a foot in both worlds allowed her to become a powerful advocate for Franco-American heritage. Martha died of cancer in 1998 at 37 years old.

  10. “Mommy It's Sleep Time” and explanation - True Tender Htun

    True Tender Htun was born in Burma. She spent time in a refugee camp in Thailand before being resettled in Colchester, Vermont. As well as a singer, True is a master of traditional Burmese weaving in the ‘Karen’ tradition and has participated in the Vermont Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program.

  11. Integration vs Assimilation - Mohamed Abdi

    At the age of 14 Mohamed fled the Jilib region in Somalia without his family and arrived in Kenya by himself. He learned English at UNHCR schools in the Kenyan camps and has become important in the political life of the Somali Bantu community since coming to Vermont.

  12. Buying Bread in Barre - Ramiz Mujkanovic

    Ramiz Mujkanovic was born in 1966 in the city of Doboj, Bosnia. Trained as a baker, Ramiz left home as a young man and worked throughout Europe. He eventually returned to Bosnia but was forced to emigrate in the 1990s by the Bosnian war. He brought his family to Barre, VT, in 1999 and worked at various trades, including bricklaying, before opening a bakery, first in Williamstown, VT,  and then in Barre. Ramiz is also a singer of traditional Bosnian songs known as “sevdah.” He and his family have since returned to Bosnia.

  13. H.N. Williams Store - Ada Rumney and Ruth Brownlee

    Ada Rumney ran the H.N. Williams store in Dorset for nearly 40 years, carrying on the family tradition begun by her grandfather, the store’s founder William Williams, followed by her father, Herbert Norton Williams. At the time this interview was recorded Ada’s daughter Ruth Brownlee was running the store with her husband, Dennis. Today the store is owned by Ruth and Dennis’s sons, Billy and Gerritt Brownlee. This interview was part of an early interview project conducted by Jane Beck to explore the history and culture of general stores across the state.

  14. Purdy’s - John Rovnak

    John Rovnak was raised in Manchester, graduating from Burr and Burton in 1992. After high school he opened the Comics Route comic shop in Manchester, which he ran until 1998. John lives in Essex with his family.

  15. Coming to Burr & Burton - Benjamin Beers

    Benjamin Beers was born in Peru, VT and moved to Manchester with his parents in 1949. He attended Burr and Burton and came to join the maintenance crew as a student in 1959, taking a part-time job to help support his gravely ill mother. The position turned into a full-time job after a very eventful June weekend in 1961. He was married on Saturday, June 9, graduated high school on Sunday, the 10th, and took a full-time position on the maintenance staff on Monday, the 11th. 60 years later Benjamin is still a beloved fixture at the school. In 2022 the Benjamin Franklin Beers Maintenance Shop was dedicated in his name.

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