A Goodman Isn't Hard to Find

The Burlington Book Festival [1] has found its new headliners to replace the late Frank McCourt: Amy and David Goodman [2]. The journalist host of progressive news show “Democracy Now!” [3] (on Air America) and her brother have coauthored three New York Times bestsellers that read deep into the post-9/11 U.S. cultural landscape: The Exception to the Rulers: Exposing Oily Politicians, War Profiteers, and the Media That Love Them [4] (2004); Static: Government Liars, Media Cheerleaders, and the People Who Fight Back [5] (2006); and Standing Up to the Madness: Ordinary Heroes in Extraordinary Times [6] (2008).

Amy Goodman is known for on-the-street journalism: Last September she was arrested while covering protests at the Republican National Convention. David Goodman lives in central Vermont, and his globe-trotting sister is no stranger to the state: She delivered the keynote address for the state’s “Big Read” program in January and spoke at the Human Rights Film Festival at Waitsfield’s Big Picture Theater [7] in 2008. The siblings should impart some free-speech fervor to Burlington’s annual celebration of the written word.

In other lit news, a Pulitzer winner — Richard Russo [8], the New York-based author of Empire Falls [9] and other acclaimed novels — comes to Vermont College of Fine Arts [10] on August 7. He’ll read from his new book, That Old Cape Magic [11], a contemplative novel about family, failure and reminiscence.

Heading south this weekend? Kristen Kaza [12], a native Vermonter who grew up in Shelburne and graduated from CVU, reports that a documentary she produced, Fish Out of Water [13], will play the Rhode Island International Film Festival [14] on Saturday, August 8. Directed by Ky Dickens, with a score by Kaki King, the film delves into the gay-marriage debate with a skeptical look at the biblical passages used to condemn homosexuality. It premiered at Los Angeles’ Outfest [15]last month.

Speaking of GLBT themes on screen, Upper Valley Arts [16] just received $1000 from the Samara Foundation of Vermont [17] to help fund the production of “Why Vermont?” a segment of Freedom and Unity: The Vermont Movie [18], the ongoing collaborative mega-project coordinated by Norwich filmmaker Nora Jacobson [19]. “Why Vermont?” examines “the story of gay culture and activism in Vermont ... through the prism of the life of Ron Squires [20],” the Guilford state rep who fought successfully for Vermont’s law prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation; he died of complications from AIDS in 1993. Sounds like a chapter in state history that deserves to be remembered.