FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Jul 3, 2025

Andrew Ingall
Pandamonium Productions

917.902.3991; zydek@me.com

www.warleinc.com

Honoring Vermont LGBTQ+ Elders and Ancestors; Envisioning Support for Aging and Caregiving in the Future

Bellows Falls and Middlebury, VT – This fall, a set of events shine a light on Vermont LGBTQ+ Vermonters whose stories and legacies serve to reimagine care for LGBTQ+ elders today and in the future. “Looking Back/Moving Forward: Vermont Stories of LGBTQ+ Caregiving & Community” will take place on October 24 at the Rockingham Free Public Library in Bellows Falls and on November 8 at the Henry Sheldon Museum of Vermont History in Middlebury. 

These gatherings – featuring a performative talk with slides by scholar, writer, and performer Andrew Ingall, discussions with community leaders about LGBTQ+ aging and caregiving, Q&A, and receptions – are part of “Resilient Patterns,” a state-wide festival presented by Vermont Humanities centered on the theme of finding hope and solace in a changing world of social and environmental crisis. Ingall states, “My hope is that these events illuminate patterns of queer resilience across time and function as guideposts for the future of LGBTQ+ caregiving.” The October 24 Bellows Falls event will conclude with a reception and dance party at Ciao Popolo, located on the former site of the Andrews Inn and produced by Fallsland, the team behind a monthly T-DANCE in this same historic space. From the mid-1970s to the early 1980s, the Andrews Inn was a renowned LGBTQ+ hotel, bar, and disco both locally and across the Northeastern United States. 

The primary focus of Ingall’s lively presentation is on his distant cousins Warren Kronemeyer and Leon Ingall, who lived in Townshend, Vermont from 1980 to 2002. In his multi-platform project “Warlé”, Andy uses genealogical research, archival documents, photography, artifacts, oral history, movement, and creative nonfiction to “re-member” ancestors he never met and conjure their spirit. According to Christopher Kaufman Ilstrup, Executive Director of Vermont Humanities, “At a time when LGBTQ+ people are facing unprecedented challenges, when healthcare, senior housing, and caregiving support are unaffordable, when loneliness and social isolation are the most pressing public health issues, a public humanities program like Warlé is critical to increasing awareness, discussion, and grassroots civic action. Vermont Humanities is proud to include these events in our Resilient Patterns Fall Festival of the Humanities.”

For the Bellows Falls and Middlebury events this fall, Andy explores how Warren and Leon’s struggles and successes compare with two other notable couples in Vermont history: Charity Bryant and Sylvia Drake of Weybridge, whose relationship as “help-meets” was considered a sacred marriage by their 19th century neighbors hundreds of years before the introduction of same-sex civil union and marriage into state law; and Thom Herman and Jeremy Youst, who owned and operated the Andrews Inn in Bellows Falls from 1979 to 1984.

Warren Kronemeyer and Leon Ingall – partners in life and work for 58 years – co-founded Warlé, a small mid-century Manhattan boutique specializing in antiques, contemporary objects, art framing, restoration, and interior decoration. Leon was a Jewish refugee and fashion designer who fled Bolshevik Russia, relocated to Weimar Berlin, and escaped to the U.S. in 1940; Warren was a writer, journalist, antiques dealer, and an operative of the WWII-era U.S. Office of Strategic Services. After several decades together in New York, they left in 1980 and relocated to Townshend, Vermont and became beloved citizens of this rural community. The people of Townshend – who took care of Warren and Leon at the end of their lives – were in the words of writer Armistead Maupin “logical” family. The legacy of Warlé is to repair broken branches in our family trees, graft new ones, and think expansively about kinship and caregiving.  The desired impact of Warren and Leon’s story is to aid audiences in broadening perspectives on sexual and gender diversity within families and ensuring that the needs of LGBTQ+ elders are included in community-based health care programs and initiatives. 

The Warlé legacy lives on today at Valley Village, a senior housing community in Townshend, VT serving as co-host of these events and as fiscal sponsor of the project. Executive Director JoAnne Blanchard acknowledges that, “Thanks to the vision and generosity of two extraordinary individuals, Warren and Leon made the remarkable decision to donate their property at 457 Grafton Road to help create affordable housing for older adults. Their gift laid the foundation for Valley Village to become a safe, welcoming, and inclusive home for seniors in this beautiful rural community.”

Coco Moseley, Executive Director of the Henry Sheldon Museum of Vermont History and presenter of the event in Middlebury, states: “Andrew Ingall’s creative engagement with his ancestors serves not only as a tribute to the lives of Warren and Leon, Charity and Sylvia, andThom and Jeremy, but as an innovative form of historical recovery—one that connects past and present through intimate storytelling and artistic expression. The art of drawing ties between many generations -- the past, present and future is exactly the vision of the Henry Sheldon Museum.” 

The project is supported in part by the Vermont Humanities, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities and receives fiscal sponsorship from Valley Village, a non-profit organization committed to providing affordable housing and supportive services to residents who want to age in place with others. 

Co-hosts of the event at Rockingham Free Public Library in Bellows Falls include Bellows Falls Pride, Fallsland T-Dance, Senior Solutions, and Valley Village. Co-hosts of the event at the Henry Sheldon Museum of Vermont History in Middlebury include MiddPride, Middlebury Teen Center, Project Independence, and Porter Medical Center.

Live streaming in each respective community are courtesy of Falls Area Community Television and Middlebury Community Television.

EVENT SPEAKERS

Scott Belt (Bellows Falls Event Only) 

Scott is a registered nurse with 25 years of practice with older adults and hospice patients. He currently serves as a case manager for Senior Solutions in Brattleboro. He is also a bodyworker and healer specializing in reiki, massage, and sound. He serves as a deacon in the Progressive Episcopal Church.

Eva Garcelon-Hart (Middlebury Event Only)

Eva has overseen the Henry Sheldon Museum of Vermont History’s Stewart-Swift Research Center archival collections since 2011. She earned her Master’s Degree in History of Art and MLIS from the University of California at Berkeley. In her work at the Research Center, she is particularly interested in bringing to public attention its overlooked stories and collections through exhibits and public programing. While at the Sheldon she has curated several exhibits including: “Charity & Sylvia: A Weybridge Couple.” 

Gail Golec

Gail is creator, writer, editor, producer, researcher, and filmmaker. She hosts and produces the podcast The Secret Life of Death (TSLoD). She was born and raised in New Hampshire and has been a professional archaeologist in the Northeast for over 20 years. She is currently in pre-production on a new documentary film project about the history of the Andrews Inn, a gay-friendly bar and hotel, open from 1974-1984 in the downtown area of Bellows Falls, Vt. She serves as a member of the Bellows Falls Pride committee.

Thom Herman (Bellows Falls Event Only)

Based in Northampton, Thom is a therapist who helps individuals, couples, families and communities challenged with issues of depression, addiction and interpersonal conflicts. The clients in his private practice range in age from 10 to 80 and beyond. With Jeremy Youst, he was the co-owner of the Andrews Inn in Bellows Falls from 1979 to 1984.

Andrew Ingall 

Andy has been working in arts, culture, and community engagement for over twenty years as a curator, scholar, writer, performer, and producer. He received a B.A. from Columbia College and an M.A. in Performance Studies from Tisch School of the Arts, New York University. His collaborators have included cultural workers, artists, scholars, faith leaders, activists, health care and end-of-life professionals. He has organized conversations and public programs for the nonprofit organizations Reimagine including a 2024-2025 series on the loneliness epidemic, as well as series on aging and family caregiving. In 2024 he participated in a panel discussion on end-of-life issues at On Aging, the annual conference organized by the American Society on Aging. 

With a background in theater, performance, and museum studies, Andy has organized exhibitions and public programs for The Brooklyn Museum, Electronic Arts Intermix, The Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art at SUNY New Paltz, and other cultural institutions. He is an Associated Artist at Culture Push, an organization that creates programs to nurture artists and other creative people approaching common problems through hands-on civic participation and imaginative problem-solving. In 2022 he was a Fellow at LABA NY, a laboratory for Jewish culture based at Manhattan's 14th Street Y and part of a global cluster of hubs that includes Berlin, Buenos Aires, and Northern California. In Vermont he has presented various iterations of the Warlé story at Grace Cottage Family Health & Hospital, Brooks Memorial Library in Brattleboro, and Epsilon Spires, a nonprofit arts organization in Brattleboro that serves as a center of communication, illuminating the relationships between creative arts, natural sciences, social equality, and sustainability.

Coco Moseley (Middlebury Event Only)

Coco is the Executive Director of the Henry Sheldon Museum of Vermont History. She holds a Master’s Degree in Women’s Studies/History of Science from UW-Madison, where her research interests focused on the history of health education and material depictions of illness and well-being. 

Jeremy Youst (Bellows Falls Event Only)

Based in Shelburne Falls, MA, Jeremy is an artist and healer who created  Somatic Breath Therapy. He is the founder of the internationally accredited Power of Breath Institute in Spofford, New Hampshire. With Thom Herman, he was the co-owner of the Andrews Inn in Bellows Falls from 1979 to 1984.

Images available upon request by contacting Andrew Ingall 917.902.3991; zydek@me.com

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