ANDREW KOPKIND & THE KOPKIND COLONY
A Brattleboro Words Trail Site
Andrew Kopkind & The Kopkind Colony:
Guilford, VT
From left to right: Andy Kopkind, Daisy Cockburn, Alexander Cockburn and John Scagliotti at Treefrog Farm, Vermont, 1981. Courtesy of Kopkind Colony.
America’s oldest weekly magazine, The Nation—where Andrew Kopkind wrote and published from 1980 until his death in 1994—called this Guilford man, “one of the gutsiest, most talented, most radical journalists the United States has ever seen.”
Andrew Kopkind gained renown for his reporting in leading magazines on controversial topics including the anti-Vietnam War protests, the Civil Rights Movement, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, Students for a Democratic Society, the Black Panther Party, the Weathermen, President Johnson’s “Great Society“ initiatives, and California gubernatorial campaign of Ronald Reagan.
In 1974, Kopkind bought Tree Frog Farm in Guilford, Vermont, a town already well-acquainted with colonies and radical movements thanks to communities like Packer Corners. Like many of the newly-founded communities of the time, Kopkind Colony began as a casual hangout for the likeminded—journalists, filmmakers, and other culture workers who shared Kopkind’s passion for social justice and leftist media.
After Kopkind’s death in 1994, his loved ones decided to memorialize his communal spirit and his journalistic legacy by founding the Kopkind Colony, which lives on today as “an educational summer residency program for nonpartisan, independent journalists and community organizers.”
Site research in progress. Check back soon for more of the story.
On The Map
Kopkind Road, Guilford, VT. Kopkind Colony is not open to the public; please respect the owners’ privacy. Contact the Colony directly to inquire about visiting.
Kopkind Colony
About the Research sites
The Brattleboro Words Project is working with the community to identify specific sites and themes significant to the study of words in Brattleboro and surrounding towns. Research Teams – classrooms/teachers, amateur historians, veterans, writers, artists and other community members — will produce audio segments and other work to be incorporated into audio walking, biking and driving tours tours.
