The effort, called the “Citizens Agenda,” is a departure from the conventional political reporting that Kinzel has made a career on, spending days calling politicians, advocates, and experts. But in August he and Patterson, the outlet’s executive editor, set up a table outside of Montpelier’s Federal Building with a sign that asked passersby: “What do you love about Montpelier?”
Most pedestriansdeclined to stop. But those that did made an impression.
“We all feel property taxes are an issue,” Kinzel said. “But when you actually meet somebody who says, ‘I’m not sure I can stay in my house any longer because the property taxes are so high’ … it reinforces the belief that this is a very important issue.”
In following the Citizens Agenda, Vermont Public is trying to forge relationships with the public at a time when trust in the media has never been lower and the business has never been harder. The effort, which aims to strengthen democracy and civic engagement, comes as traditional news organizations have lost large shares of their audiences, contributing to job losses and cutbacks across the industry.
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Journalists at the outlet — which includes a news website, TV station, and radio station — have spent the year speaking to more than 600 residents at diners, gas stations, and concerts about state and local politics across all 14 Vermont counties.
“They’re really able to dig into these local issues that people are concerned about, as opposed to how is [Donald] Trump pronouncing Kamala [Harris’s] name right now,” said Michael Wood-Lewis, CEO of the Front Porch Forum, a Vermont social network that counts nearly half of the state’s adults as active members and is helping amplify Vermont Public’s election coverage.
Hearken, a company that builds technology for audience engagement, and Jay Rosen, a journalism professor at New York University, established a guide forthe Citizens Agenda ahead of the 2020 elections to give newsrooms a blueprint for changing their political coverage. The goal is to hear directly from news consumers about the issues most urgent to them, then use those responses to shape coverage.
Vermont Public reporter Bob Kinzel spoke to a resident in Montpelier during one of the publication’s “office hours” to engage residents in conversations about what they want politicians to address.Aidan Ryan
”No longer as news organizations can we presume to understand what our public needs from us, nor can we assume that being first with the latest salacious turn in a campaign is what actually matters,” Rosen and Hearken CEO Jennifer Brandel wrote.
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The initiative was, in part, born out of the 2016 election, when many traditional new organizations wereshocked that Donald Trump beat Hillary Clinton. That was a prime example of broken political coverage, Rosen and Brandel wrote, illustrating a lack of understanding about issues that resonated with wide swaths of voters and gaps in polling quality.
“It’s not compelling enough to organize your coverage around who’s ahead and who’s likely to win, and tactics needed to win,” Rosensaid. “That’s part of politics, but it’s not enough.”
Several other newsrooms across the country have adopted the Citizens Agenda this year, including Spotlight PA, Washington state’s Cascadia Daily News, and over 30 newsrooms in Colorado including The Denver Post and Colorado Public Radio.
Elodie Reed, a Vermont Public reporter who hosted one of the outlet’s “office hours” in northern Vermont this summer, said she usually starts by asking people how they spend their days. She jots down notes and asks residents if they mind being contacted later.
Reed recalled talking to one woman who said she doesn’t usually vote or otherwise participate in politics.
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“I was like, ‘Well, everyone cares about things. So what do you care about? Are there things in your life that could be easier, that you’d like to see change?’” Reed said.
The woman began talking about howher grandkids couldn’t get into pre-kindergarten. She added she has a disability and applying for disability benefits is difficult. Those were all important public policy issues, Reed said, but the woman didn’t think of them that way.
A flash flood destroyed two bridges and multiple private residences in Plainfield, Vt., in July. Climate change has been a top concern voiced by Vermonters, Vermont Public has found. Dmitry Belyakov/Associated Press
After the conversations, reporters enter notes into a database. The top issues for Vermonters, gleaned during the conversations and an online form, were climate change, housing, taxes and affordability, education, and health care. While Patterson and others expected most ofthese issues to be important — especially in a state that’s seen devastating floods — hearing directly from residents helped validate their coverage.
The bulk of Vermont Public’s reporting from the effort is still to come, but some takeaways arealready reflected, like in a voter guide that focuses on candidates’ responses to top issues. Patterson alsosaid an environmental reporter is devising a climate glossary. And a section of Vermont Public’s Democratic gubernatorial debate focused exclusively on climate change.
After asking candidates Peter Duval and Esther Charlestin if they supported the state’s Climate Superfund Act, host Mitch Wertlieb asked: “Christina from Barre City is concerned about energy costs. … Esther, how do you propose addressing climate change while keeping affordability top of mind?”
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Duval, who lost the Democratic primary held on Aug. 13for governor to Charlestin, said he appreciated the substantiveness of the questioning.
“I was pleased not to be asked a horse-race question,” he said.
The Citizens Agenda effort is aimed not only at providing voters with more information about candidates, but also trying to establish trust with residents. Thatincludes visiting some of the more remotenorthern parts of the state.
A 2023 Gallup poll found that only 32 percent of Americans trust the media “a great deal” or “a fair amount.”
“One tried and true way that we have of building back that trust is to just talk with people and be in the communities as best we can and take the veil off of the work that we do,” Patterson said.
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Vermont Public is one of several news outlets across the country that has adopted the Citizens Agenda for the 2024 election, an effort to center voters and their concerns in political coverage.Aidan Ryan
Paul Heintz, editor of the VTDigger, said the publication is watching Vermont Public’s coverage and trying to incorporate some of the Citizens Agenda approach into its own reporting. He cited an expanded voter guide, which this year includes more campaign finance information and translations into different languages.
“It’s important to respect your readers and to not assume that they’re just looking for entertainment,” Heintz said.
Not every residentwants to take part. The vast majority of the people who walked by Vermont Public’s table in Montpelier didn’t even glance at it, reflecting how much work it takes to reach voters. But for those who did, the chats forced them to think of what questions they had for candidates.
“I had to stop and think, well, I mean, there’s a million questions,” said Gary Hass, a Barre resident and publisher of the weekly newspaper The World, who stopped by the table. He suggested asking how candidates can prevent efforts to overturn the election and how spending programs passed by state Democrats affect affordability.
“This is good,” Hass said. ”Reaching out to the public right here.”
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Aidan Ryan can be reached at aidan.ryan@globe.com. Follow him @aidanfitzryan.
Drag queen Lavender Homicide in Bethel on Saturday, Dec. 7, 2024. Photo by Natalie Williams/VTDigger
Three young drag performers are hosting a Christmas party in the small town of Bethel. They say they would rather do it in rural Vermont than in any big city.
“I feel like it’s really important to show up and show that there are people here,” said drag queen Ima Hoar, known offstage as Elijah Reed. “I’ve heard so many people say that we’re all just hiding in the hills a little bit.”
Ryder Faster, a 22-year old drag king also known as AJ Holbrook-Gates, said the trio, who all live in Bethel, want to bring drag to smaller communities to let people “who are under the radar” know that they’re seen.
The 18+ party is scheduled to take place Friday at the White Church.
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Ima Hoar has taken the lead on logistics, overseeing essentials like the sound system and venue setup. Reed is married to Adam Messier, who’s also performing in Friday’s show as Lavender Homicide. The pair’s drag journey began during the isolation of Covid-19, when they started performing at home and hosting karaoke nights. Their creative spark, born in private, has since grown into a dynamic partnership bringing drag to Vermont’s rural communities.
“We wanted to have a similar vibe to that, where it’s like a relaxed space where people can have fun and just do whatever kind of makeup you want and do whatever kind of songs you want,” Lavender said.
This Friday’s party will mark Ima Hoar’s second performance, where she’ll swap the glitz of traditional burlesque drag for her signature style: comedy. Her specialty? “Grandma drag,” a playful homage to her childhood memories, performed in a nightgown.
“That kind of comes from when my grandmother had wigs growing up, and so I would always dress up as her essentially,” she said. “I would wear the wigs and put on both my sisters’ princess heels and walk around with a cane.”
Ima described her drag queen persona as leaning heavily into comedy, embodying the awkwardness and playful allure of a “sexy grandma.”
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As a nonbinary performer, Ima sees drag as an exploration of extremes, where gender becomes a playful exaggeration. “It feels very nice to do this polar opposite of this super gender thing, where you’re just dressing up as gender personified a little bit,” she said. “I definitely find it very healing in a gender way.”
Lavender Homicide, 22, on the other hand, describes herself as an “80s hooker in a horror movie.”
Drag queen Ima Hoar in Bethel on Saturday, Dec. 7. Photo by Natalie Williams/VTDigger
“I’ve always loved the rock and roll and the punk aesthetic of it all,” she said, adding that seeing the women wearing fishnet tights and miniskirts with crazy hair was inspiring.
She chose the name Lavender Homicide not only because she likes the flower, but also because she tries to mix sweet names with scary ones.
She also wears a lot of perfume, mainly the scent Champagne Toast, out of fear of smelling bad while performing.
Lavender recalled being encouraged years ago to perform by Emoji Nightmare, a drag entertainer in Vermont whom she has known since she was 15. “She’s the big game in Vermont,” Lavender said.
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“She kind of was all the time, like, ‘Hey, when are you going to come perform?’ And I’m like, ‘I’m a teenager. I can’t do that,’” she said.
Lavender recalled struggling with finding her identity when she was young. While she wasn’t ready to perform as a teenager, she started at 15 with drag makeup and has been perfecting it for seven years now. “I love wearing dresses and heels and makeup, but I’m also fine with the body that I was born with and how I dress day to day,” she said. “And I went through a lot of inner turmoil with that.”
It wasn’t until Bethel Pride Fest 2023 — an event Lavender was helping run — that her mindset started to shift. She received a surprising message from another drag performer the following week asking if she wanted to be part of an upcoming show. Lavender’s response? “Absolutely.”
Lavender’s former classmate at Randolph Union High School will also be taking the stage Friday night.
Drag king Ryder Faster poses with a Christmas tree in Bethel on Saturday, Dec. 7. Photo by Natalie Williams/VTDigger
The Christmas party will be Ryder Faster’s second themed event, following a Halloween party where he missed a memo about the dress code.
“It was supposed to be a spooky Halloween theme, and I dressed up as Donald Trump,” he said. “And then everybody else was wearing black dresses and such.”
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Ryder’s drag persona draws inspiration from other performers, particularly fellow drag king Prince Muffin, who also plans to perform at the Christmas party. With his cowboy hat, chaps, and bold contouring, Ryder hopes his performances share the message of self-acceptance.
“I hope to encourage people to love themselves for who they are,” he said. “Because I certainly didn’t do so for a while.”
The Christmas party is hosted together with Babes Bar, which will have a pop-up bar at the party. The collaboration blossomed out of an initial favor the owners of the bar, Jesse and Owen McCarter, did for Ima and Lavender in real life. They helped the couple buy a house.
“I’m super excited to support younger folks who move into town,” said Owen McCarter. He has seen them all perform and believes they all complement each other.
“Ryder is the Western manly character. Lavender brings very fierce energy. She’s very bold and confident, and Ima, she’s hilarious and has a lot of jokes,” he said.
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Breaking barriers
In Bethel, these drag performers are carving out an inclusive space in a community that might initially seem an unlikely stage for their art, Ima said. The choice to settle in a rural town rather than a city like Burlington, known for its openness and established LGBTQ+ community, was practical and intentional.
“We moved here last year, and Bethel has a very engaged community just all around,” Ima said. “It’s very supportive of just little projects everywhere.”
With initiatives like the Juneteenth Celebration and Pride Fest, Ima and others are not only fostering connections but also challenging the perception that rural spaces lack inclusivity.
For Lavender Homicide, drag is not just performance — it’s a statement of visibility and resilience in a time when mainstream attention has brought both celebration and backlash.
Drag queen Lavender Homicide applies lashes in Bethel on Saturday, Dec. 7. Photo by Natalie Williams/VTDigger
“I think drag is very important nowadays. I think more than ever,” Lavender said, reflecting on how shows like RuPaul’s Drag Race have catapulted drag from the underground bar scene into the cultural spotlight.
But with that visibility comes scrutiny.
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“With most things, because it’s mainstream now, people are upset about it,” she said. Lavender and her fellow performers are determined to counter narratives painting drag as harmful or inappropriate.
“We’re trying to just push the community, especially with the whole ‘drag queens are dangerous to children’ narrative,” she said. “But we’re not, though.”
For Ima, bringing drag to small towns is about bridging distances — both literal and metaphorical. She said there are many drag performances in Burlington, but for many rural residents, attending these events involves lengthy drives, something not everyone can do regularly.
The goal, instead, is to create moments of joy closer to home — whether in Bethel or neighboring towns like Williamstown — where drag performers engage with local businesses, recognizing that these residents, too, exist in their own “bubble,” Ima said. Beyond convenience, there’s also a quiet defiance in this choice.
“I feel like some of it is semi-passive resistance against just the idea that rural communities aren’t super accepting,” Ima said. “We’re not doing anything super political, but we’re just existing in a way that holds space.”
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Doors open at 6 p.m. and the show, which has a $15 admission fee, starts at 7 p.m.
Nylah Mitchell’s 20 points carry Burlington girls basketball to win
Nylah Mitchell talks about her dominant 20-point outing where she attacked in the paint and the outlook for Burlington this season.
The 2024-2025 Vermont high school winter season has begun. See below for scores, schedules and game details (statistical leaders, game notes) from basketball, hockey, gymnastics, wrestling, Nordic/Alpine skiing and other winter sports.
TO REPORT SCORES
Coaches or team representatives are asked to report results ASAP after games by emailing sports@burlingtonfreepress.com. Please submit with a name/contact number.
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►Contact Alex Abrami at aabrami@freepressmedia.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter:@aabrami5.
►Contact Judith Altneu at jaltneu@gannett.com. Follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter: @Judith_Altneu.
WEDNESDAY’S H.S. GAMES
Girls basketball
Games at 7 p.m. unless noted
Blue Mountain at Sharon, 6 p.m.
Colchester at Mount Mansfield
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Boys basketball
Games at 7 p.m. unless noted
Lamoille at Williamstown, 5:30 p.m.
Lake Region at Lyndon, 6:30 p.m.
Stowe at Richford
Peoples at Hazen
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North Country at U-32
White River Valley at Randolph
St. Johnsbury at Colchester
Montpelier at Rice
Thetford at Oxbow
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Boys hockey
Brattleboro at Rutland, 4 p.m.
Colchester at Rice, 5:20 p.m.
Harwood at Hartford, 5:45 p.m.
Missisquoi at North Country (Jay Peak), 6 p.m.
Burr and Burton at Woodstock, 6:55 p.m.
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Champlain Valley at Spaulding, 7:15 p.m.
Milton at Stowe, 7:15 p.m.
Middlebury at South Burlington, 7:40 p.m.
Girls hockey
Hartford at Spaulding, 5:15 p.m.
Kingdom Blades at Essex, 6 p.m.
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Middlebury at Brattleboro, 7:15 p.m.
Dr. Butsch Tournament at Central Vermont Memorial Civic Center
Stowe at U-32, 4 p.m.
Burr and Burton vs. Missisquoi, 6 p.m.
Burlington/Colchester Tournament at Leddy Arena
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Beekmantown, NY vs Rice, 5:30 p.m.
Franklin Academy, NY at Burlington/Colchester 7:40 p.m.
THURSDAY’S H.S. GAMES
Girls basketball
Games at 7 p.m. unless noted
Randolph at Williamstown, 6 p.m.
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Stowe at Woodstock, 6 p.m.
Milton at Richford, 7 p.m.
South Burlington at Spaulding
Lyndon at Hazen
Montpelier at Harwood
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North Country at BFA-St. Albans
Thetford at Northfield
Oxbow at Rivendell
Boys basketball
Games at 7 p.m. unless noted
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BFA-St. Albans at Milton
Danville at Twinfield/Cabot
Mount Mansfield at Essex, 7:30 p.m.
Girls hockey
Burlington/Colchester Tournament at Leddy Arena
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Franklin Academy, NY vs. Rice, 5:30 p.m.
Beekmantown, NY at Burlington/Colchester, 7:40 p.m.
I am brimming with giggles after having read Sally Giddings Smith’s recent commentary on the imminent demolition of Burlington’s Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. To compare that lifeless monstrosity to Notre Dame de Paris — for half the piece, for God’s sake — is a level of absurd that I could not beat out of Samuel Beckett.
Burlington’s cathedral had decades to turn downtown into an architectural mecca. Indeed, one would have hoped that the demolition of dozens of historic homes for an urban renewal project like the cathedral would generate an indisputable benefit to the downtown: busloads of tourists, shoppers and devotees. Mexico City’s Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe is not the sexiest structure, for example — concrete here, concrete there, on concrete grounds — but it rises to the challenge! Burlington? Not so much.
Let us not let a small cabal of historic preservation fundamentalists derail the demolition. Whatever takes the place of the cathedral, and I hope it is housing, will be worth far more to the city than whatever the status quo has provided.
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And let us send the old apse ‘n nave to a farm up north where it can frolic with the architectural marvels of yesteryear: the original Penn Station, the Library of Alexandria and the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.
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