Brattleboro Words Trail

At A Glance

Location: 

Brattleboro, Vermont

Primary Issue Area:

  • Living Economies

Active since:

2017

Core volunteers:

38

Our Purpose

Our purpose is to highlight marginalized voices in our area's storied past so all citizens feel they belong. From Abenakis using writing to defend their homeland, and the woman regarded as the first African-American poet, to Nobel Prize winners and contemporary authors, the central Connecticut River Valley has a rich and varied history of writing. Visitors and residents are unaware of this history because it has not been collected and is nowhere visible. The Brattleboro Words Trail will explore how this history is embedded in particular places and will share its results widely through accessible, participatory media. We won a National Endowment for the Humanities matching grant in late 2017, and we've been building community through collaborative humanities activities since then with local teachers/schools and community members researching, organizing, and sharing the history of words and stories in their many forms. The research is focused on particular places, and will be mapped and shared via audio recordings for web-based, mobile accessible, walking, biking, and driving tours which will bring to light the writings and history of less documented groups, including Abenakis, African Americans, and women in addition to more prominent local authors. The collaborative research, public events, and tours will enable a more rooted connection to the history and places we share as a community today.