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T H E C O M M O N S • Wednesday, September 12, 2012 THE ARTS B1

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENTWednesday, September 12, 2012 • page B1

S E C T I O N B

By Nell Curley The Commons

TOWNSHEND—Publishing a book is no easy task, and one that is autobi-ographical can be

even more difficult. For Judith Dickerman-Nel-

son, the challenge was decid-ing how to tell the story of her unplanned pregnancy at age 17. Over the years, she kept revis-iting this experience and strug-gled with how to tell the story.

“I was a teen mom, and I was a writer already,” said Dicker-man-Nelson. “I’d always been writing stories and poems. I kept a journal during that time

about what I was experiencing. I think I knew I wanted to write about the experience in terms of time. I was so afraid that being a teen mom would change my whole future.”

She continued: “I had some people telling me it was going to ruin my life, and it didn’t. It certainly changed the direction of my life in many ways, so as I later pursued my education and my writing, I kept coming back to the story in different ways—[for example] I attempted to write it as fiction. At one time, a writing teacher said to me, ‘It’s your story; you should be writing from your perspective.’”

This is the experience that in-forms Dickerman-Nelson’s new

young adult book, Believe in Me: A Teen Mom’s Story .

The plot traces the journey of Judith, a 17-year-old cheer-leader and honors student at a Catholic girls’ school in Massa-chusetts. Her boyfriend Kevin, also 17, gives her a diamond ring before their senior year and both are looking forward to a wonderful future.

Then Judith gets pregnant, and everything changes. Kevin doesn’t want to start a family yet, and Kevin’s mother wants Judith to get an abortion. As both a Catholic and an adopted child, she is conflicted about what to do. That conflict drives the narrative.

Dickerman-Nelson says that

her goal is to send a meaningful message to her readers.

“I really wanted to convey a message of hope,” she said. “It’s a love story, too, so I wanted to tell some truth that I hoped would touch people who had experienced young love.”

Dickerman-Nelson was al-ready a serious writer when she became a student at Emerson College.

“I wrote a column for the school newspaper and founded a literary journal. I earned my MFA from Emerson College in 1993 and began sending out po-ems to literary journals. I go to conferences and I’m an assistant director of a writers’ program.”

A message of hopeTownshend writer’s memoir chronicles how her pregnancy at age 17 changed — but didn’t ruin — her life

‘A catalyst for debate’Brattleboro Film Festival kicks off in November, with a goal of engaging the community with ‘great films’

SITES.GOOGLE.COM/SITE/JUDITHDICKERMANNELSON/

Local author and poet Judith Dickerman-Nelson. ■ SEE BELIEVE IN ME, PAGE B3

By Jeff Potter The Commons

B RATTLEBORO—Come November, the screens of the Latchis Theatre will light up with films

in a new festival that organizers want to reflect the uniqueness of Brattleboro and the social, eco-nomic, and political life of its community.

The Brattleboro Film Festival (BFF), which is in the process of organizing as a nonprofit charity, will show its first series of films from Friday, Nov. 2, through Sunday, Nov. 4. The films — from all genres, from all over the world — “inform, challenge, en-tertain, and inspire, emphasizing viewpoints and characters often unseen in mainstream media,” according to BFF’s mission statement.

The festival is spearheaded by a group who previously served as key volunteers from the Wom-en’s Film Festival, a project of — and for more than 20 years, a fundraiser for — the Women’s Freedom Center.

“For some of us, after 21 years of looking at films only about women, it’s refreshing to con-sider the whole range,” said Lissa Weinmann, a member of the fes-tival steering committee, which also counts counts Merry Elder, Kevin Burke, Gail Haines, Diane LaVerdi, and Jaki Reis among its members.

Instead, organizers will turn their organizational efforts to create a new event that will re-flect, in film, “a real love of and celebration of Brattleboro,” El-der said.

The volunteer-driven festival will look at a broader range of films on issues that may strike a nerve with area residents — and ultimately use the films to stimulate broader community discussion.

“Films are a catalyst for debate that foster audience participa-tion,” Weinmann said, citing the success of forums that were or-ganized around the films shown in the Women’s Film Festival.

“We want to bring a new au-dience in to learn more and to stimulate debate,” she said.

The BFF is assembling an

advisory council, a mix of county leaders and filmmakers that will include Gail Nunziata, the ex-ecutive director of Latchis Arts; filmmaker Andy Reichman; documentary filmmaker Robbie Leppzer of Wendell, Mass.; and Michelle Moyse of the Center for Digital Art in Brattleboro.

Film and community engagement

Elder, who had previously volunteered with the Women’s Film Festival for 21 years and has watched hundreds of mov-ies in the selection process, said the new festival is negotiating the rights to screen the films and cannot release the titles under consideration.

But she readily disclosed some of the themes of the films they want to show — themes that can’t help but resonate with readers of letters to the editor in local media this summer.

“Dogs,” she said, describ-ing what she characterized as “a powerful film about shelter dogs.”

In a nod to local concern about environmental issues, an-other film will look at the effects of a nuclear power plant on a small town. Elder described a third as a “breathtaking film” that illustrates the melting of gla-cial ice around the world.

There will be a film that touches on gay/lesbian/bisex-ual/transgender issues. Another one will look at the life of a Chi-nese arts activist.

A documentary about aging pioneers of the sport of skate-boarding, she said, is intended to bring out “a different side of a tough issue.”

Weinmann and Elder empha-sized that while the films they show will be provocative, they do not seek to indoctrinate viewers with one side of any given issue. The festival will choose films that will connect with a local audi-ence and local issues, but in the end, “The top priority is that they have to be great films — period,” Elder said.

The committee members noted that the festival needs to generate its own resources dur-ing this first festival, truncated to

Madison-based Young Shakespeare Project opens first satellite company in southern Vermont

BARDBrattleboro

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By Richard Henke Vermont Associates for The Commons

B RATTLEBORO—When people move from a be-loved town, they often are filled with regret about what they have to leave behind: their house, a fa-vorite store, or a park.

But when Suzanne Rubinstein had to leave Madison, Wis., because her husband was taking a job at Marl-boro College in Vermont, she had one overriding thought, “I can’t leave Madison without YSP.”

So she took it with her.The Young Shakespeare Players (YSP) is a nationally ac-

claimed youth classical theater that was created in Madison by psychotherapists Richard and Anne DiPrima in 1980. Youth from ages 7 to 18 are invited to learn about and perform in the works of Shakespeare through a program designed to show its participants (and their families and the community) that the classical theater is not dull or above them, but delightful, accessible, and fun.

With the blessings of its founders, Rubenstein is now open-ing YSP’s first branch outside Madison. YSP East-New Eng-land (as the satellite is named) is committed to the mission and values of the original YSP.

Using the same materials and methods, it hopes to inspire young people in southern Vermont to fall in love with the works of Shakespeare, as participants learn to appreciate both the language and the drama in these great works.

This fall in Brattleboro, The Young Shakespeare Players will present young people performing 12 great scenes from

■ SEE FESTIVAL, PAGE B3

■ SEE SHAKESPEARE, PAGE B2

Young Shakespeare Project players perform. The nonprofit drama program has moved from Madison, Wis., to Windham County with the relocation of its founders to the area.

ABOVE AND LEFT:

YOUNG SHAKESPEARE PROJECT

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