Boulder Weekly 11.17.2022

Not even past

History

Colorado brings tribal citizens to the table for a new look at the Sand Creek Massacre

Publisher, Fran Zankowski

Circulation Manager, Cal Winn

EDITORIAL

Editor-in-Chief, Caitlin Rockett

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Mrs. Boulder Weekly, Mari Nevar

PRODUCTION

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Nov. 17, 2022

Volume XXX, number 14

Cover photo, History Colorado

As Boulder County's only independently owned newspaper, Boulder Weekly is dedicated to illuminat ing truth, advancing justice and protecting the First Amendment through ethical, no-holds-barred journalism, and thought-provoking opinion writing. Free every Thursday since 1993, the Weekly also offers the county's most comprehensive arts and entertainment coverage. Read the print version, or visit boulderweekly.com. Boulder Weekly does not accept unsolicited editorial submissions. If you're interested in writing for the paper, please send que ries to: editorial@boulderweekly.com. Any materials sent to Boulder Weekly become the property of the newspaper.

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by Mark Fearer

In my June 30 column ( e Unrepentant Tenant, “Inter est on deposits and repairs for tenants”), I was skipping through the issues the Boulder Tenants Union (BTU) raised in 1982, namely trying to get interest on deposits, and warranty of habitability (something I went into much more detail in my Sept. 8 column). Neither was attained that year, but would gain traction later.

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Now I want to return to an issue I mentioned in my June 2 column, a petition BTU started calling for a fair standardized lease in 1980. First some context, that requires my standard disclaimer: I’m not an attorney, and none of what I write is legal advice.

Leases/rental agreements are generally accepted as binding legal contracts, and as such, parties to any contract

should have the right to negotiate. In home sales, both seller and buyer are seen as equal, and usually have an attorney and/or realtor negotiate between them. No such equality exists between landlord and tenant — especially in a tight housing market, which is perpetually the state of Boulder’s (and most of the Front Range’s) housing market. Landlords would likely smother a chuckle if tenants asked to negotiate such terms as the rent, fees, deposits, duration or rules. eir attitude is generally “sign our lease as it is, or live somewhere else.”

When I counseled many tenants during the rst half of the 1980s for BTU, one issue they would raise would be about leases they were required to sign (or had al ready signed, to their regret). It was often full of legalese,

Is your lease fair, and what’s the alternative?

and written to the advantage of the landlord. While the vast majority of leases are created/approved by attorneys hired by landlords, it is rare for a tenant to run a lease by a lawyer before signing. And even if they did, and were empowered enough to try and negotiate the worst parts, see my smothered chuckle observation.

On one end of the spectrum, rental agreements ranged from hand written one-page (or less) notebook paper, to generic leases used by small landlords bought in o ce supply stores (that were not even speci c to Colorado). On the other end of that spectrum were complex six-page (or more) documents drafted by corpo rate lawyers for property manage ment companies. is is still the case, underscoring the wide variety and complexity of these kinds of contracts.

Additionally, since many leases were written for the advantage of the landlord, there might well be illegal and/or unenforceable clauses in them. For example, the lease might state that tenants are nancially responsible for all repairs regardless of cause (in cluding landlord negligence); cleaning fees charged regardless of how clean it was on move out; or agreeing to waive legal rights or notice. Courts would generally not enforce these kinds of clauses, but since tenants don’t know that, they felt they had no recourse.

While landlords have reasonable expectations and concerns about renting out their units, their leases may not re ect that reasonability. BTU believed tenants shouldn’t be coerced into signing unreasonable leases, and started a petition that would require Boulder’s City Council to create a standardized lease that was fair to both parties. Again, my June 2 column gives more history, and a link to the 1982 outcome of that e ort, the Boulder model lease.

But there were other leasing issues that needed to be addressed.

While most landlords required a tenant sign a lease, some landlords didn’t. Where there was only an oral agreement or handshake, some land lords would claim the tenant broke a rule, even though there was nothing in writing. And landlords would sometimes refuse to give a written lease.

So BTU brought the issue to Boulder’s Human Relations Com mittee (HRC), which is where City Council dumped referred tenant issues. HRC recommended City Council pass the BTU-sponsored

proposal to require written leases for any occupancy that would be more than 30 days, and a copy of that lease be given to the tenant within seven to 10 days. Although landlords opposed such a common sense proposal, City Council nally passed it in 1983. Boulder likely has the only such ordinance requiring that — it is not a state law.

is opinion column does not necessarily re ect the views of Boulder Weekly.

It’s never too late to save a river by Rebecca Lawton

An old river-running motto says, “Old boaters never die, they just get a little dinghy.” And some never lose their passion for keeping rivers wild.

Consider California’s Stanislaus River. In the 1970s, people of all ages and abilities reveled in running its 13 miles of rapids bearing scary names like Widowmaker and Devil’s Staircase. Not far from Sacramento and San Francisco, the limestone canyon o ered renewal and adven ture to people nearly year-round.

But back in 1944, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation authorized 625-foot-high New Melones Dam for the Stan, though lling it would drown the beloved canyon. Dam construction began in 1966, and spirited opposition grew, giving rise to the grassroots organization Friends of the River. Advocates argued that a smaller, existing dam could meet ood control and energy production needs, without drowning the wild stretch of river.

Despite actions ranging from cit izen’s initiatives to lawsuits and even a favorable Supreme Court ruling, New Melones Dam was built.

As water in the reservoir rose in 1979, Friends of the River co-found er Mark Dubois chained himself to bedrock below the high-water line to force dam operators to stop lling. Fifteen-year-old Sue Knaup also went to work, “rescuing wildlife day and night for two months from ooded trees and islands.” But she could not save them all, and Dubois could not hold back the reservoir.

e river canyon and priceless prehistoric and historic cultural sites were inundated.

Now, with New Melones logging its fourth decade of broken promises in water delivery, ood control and energy production, hundreds of river advocates from the old campaign hope to reclaim the Stan. In their teens and twenties back then, and today in their sixties and seventies, they believe the timing has never

been better.

“It’s now a matter of ‘well, of course,’” says Dubois, vice-president of the new nonpro t Restoring the Stanislaus River. “National momen tum is growing for dam removal and expanding economically and ecologically wise oodplains.”

Knaup, president and chief instigator of the new group, has moved her activism into lmmaking. “When Mark wanted the Stanislaus story to be told as it should be—in pictures—I o ered to create a movie about the 1970s ght.”

Beginning work on the lm re awakened their long-held dream of reclaiming the river, so now, mem bers are proposing a full-watershed approach: revegetating reaches of the upper river, removing sections of New Melones to maintain lower reservoir levels and working with downstream farmers to protect oodplains.

Promoting the deconstruction of large dams attracts plenty of media attention. ink of the Klamath River in California and Oregon, and the Snake and Columbia rivers in Washington. Taking down smaller dams receives less fanfare, though some 1,100 small dams have come down in the past 20 years in the United States alone.

As California becomes ever drier, many people agree that the New Melones Dam should go. Only 26% full today, the reservoir has been near capacity only ve times since rst lling. Power-production capa bilities, based on 40 years of in- ow data, have never been achieved. Even Interior Department engineers ad mit they underestimated the river’s drought and demand cycles “by a signi cant amount.”

Roy Tennant, a former Stanislaus River guide and now secretary for Restoring the Stanislaus River, ac knowledges that successful full-wa tershed restoration will “take a ton of work and money … but we have to begin while we’re alive and have the passion to do it.”

Kevin Wolf, former river-guide organizer for the 1970s campaign and current treasurer of Restoring the Stanislaus River, says billion dollar ballot measures might be what it takes to change the state’s water infrastructure, but “big ideas like taking dams down start with small groups of wild-eyed activists moving ideas forward.”

Dubois, whose civil action in the 1970s inspired many river protection e orts, adds that it’s time “to repair the good intentions of the outmoded dam-building era — to restore the wild rich abundance that rivers have always been.”

As for Knaup, she says “healing

has already begun as both the lm and the push to restore the Stanis laus River have come alive.” And the river? “I have total faith that it will know what to do.”

Becca Lawton is a contributor to Writers on the Range, writerson therange.org, an independent nonpro t dedicated to spurring lively conversa tion about the West. A former Grand Canyon river guide and ranger, she began as a Stanislaus River guide and advocate.

is opinion column does not necessarily re ect the views of Boulder Weekly.

ZACHARY COLLIER

Chautauqua receives federal grant for re mitigation projects by Will Matuska

The NCAR Fire caused thousands of people to evacuate homes and businesses on March 26. Included in the order was all of Chau tauqua — the rst evacuation the historic institution has ever made.

“I think that really brought it home for all of us of the urgency of this issue,” says Liza Purvis, direc tor of marketing and communications at Colorado Chautauqua Association (CCA).

Both the NCAR and Marshall res showed the increased wild re risk throughout the county as they burned residential areas outside of the typical re season. e iconic National Historical Land mark sits in what is known as the wildland-urban interface, an area where a built environment meets a natural environment.

Sta at Chautauqua were forced to assess their own vulnerability to wild re.

“Basically we’re a wooden village, an ember away from destruction,” says Debbie Stewart, the director of development and community partner ships at CCA.

Earlier this fall, CCA, the nonpro t steward of the Colorado Chautauqua, received a $280,721 Save America’s Treasures grant from the Depart ment of Interior, National Park Service to protect Chautauqua from wild re threats.

“We have a strong responsibility to help care and preserve [Chautauqua] for the community,” Stewart says. “It’s both a local and national treasure, and we really hold that in high regard. We try to do everything we can to make sure we’re doing our part to be good stewards.”

But, making a National Historical Landmark

more re resilient — especially when nearly 60 wood cottages, some more than a century old, are located at the wildland-urban interface — is a steep task.

“Being a National Historic Landmark, we are always trying to balance preservation with sustainability, and this wild re initiative is tricky. It’s an art, really,” says Jason Hill, CCA’s chief operating o cer.

Chautauqua sta have been working with local consultants and volunteers to reach the low hanging fruit of re mitigation — expanding defensible space, trimming and removing ignitable fuels and incorpo rating re-resilient plants (those with high moisture content or deciduous plants).

is summer, the reconstruction of the original 1899 Chautauqua Café implemented re preven tion techniques like using building materials that are less ignitable.

Chautauqua already dipped into grant money to install gutter guards on all CCA-owned buildings — an installation Hill calls a “no brainer” because of its limited visual impact on the buildings.

e best uses for the remainder of the grant mon ey is still being discussed.

Hill says they’ve made e orts to expand irri gation along the perimeter of buildings, and are looking into putting sprinkler heads on buildings to extinguish res.

Citizen science-led study nds ticks expanding into new terrain in Colorado

by Will Matuska

Ticks are already commonplace in Colorado — and they’re becoming more prevalent.

But the state’s terrain can make tracking them di cult, which is why researchers at Colorado State University built a study that would o er a better understanding of

tick populations in the state.

The study, published in the November issue of the peer-re viewed journal Ticks and Tickborne Disease , indicates that the Rocky Mountain wood tick, the most prevalent tick species in Col orado, is expanding into new parts

ey’ve also been experimenting with adding screens around foundations where there are open areas embers could sneak into, a method Hill thinks could be a win-win from a preservation and land mitigation perspective.

But, sta are hesitant to implement other pop ular re-mitigation techniques, like re-siding with a less- ammable material, like cementitious siding, because it could compromise the preservation of the structure.

Hill, who self-describes himself as a “preserva tionist at heart,” says using a material other than the original wood, even if it looks like wood, would be tough for him to swallow.

“ ere’s some real concerns about what [using cementitious siding] means from a preservation per spective, from a historic building perspective,” he says.

But, Chautauqua sta are seeking to understand all the preservation and mitigation tools they could use to protect the grounds.

“Really, it’s a balancing act,” says Stewart. “How do we preserve the historic character of our campus while adopting re prevention initiatives? It’s some thing we take seriously, but it’s a challenge.”

of the state. It also confirmed a new tick species not document ed by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in Colorado: the American dog tick.

e Rocky Mountain wood tick was found in ve new counties (38 total) and the American dog tick in 16 new counties (16 total).

Most of the data analyzed was from people sending in tick samples, known as “citizen scientists.”

But it’s not just the spread that concerns scientists and health experts;

it’s the diseases these ticks can carry with them.

“ e broader impact of this study is that these ticks can transmit pathogens that can cause disease in humans,” says Emma Harris, who is a research scientist at Colorado State University in the Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Pathology. Harris was not a co-author on the study, but works in the Center for Vector-Borne Infectious Diseases at CSU and is familiar with the study.

Both ticks are known to carry the

bacteria that causes Rocky Mountain spotted fever and tularemia (“rabbit fe ver”), two potentially life-threatening diseases.

ese ndings are representative of a growing national trend: ticks are mov ing to new areas, and their populations are growing.

e CDC attributes the spread of ticks to a variety of things, including changes in land use patterns like refor estation and subur ban development, and climate change (their life cycle and populations are strongly in uenced by temperature).

Every year, nearly half a million people are diagnosed and treated for a tickborne disease, and between 2004 and 2016, the re ported cases of bacterial and protozo an tickborne diseases doubled.

With no active surveillance pro gram for ticks and tickborne diseases in Colorado, their population and dis tribution were somewhat unknown.

Part of the goal of the CSU study was to get a better picture of the prevalence of these ticks at the county level across the state. When surveil lance maps are accurate and up to date, they can help inform the public of their risk of exposure to ticks.

“ is study is a red ag that, on the county level, it is necessary to increase tick surveillance locally and, on an individual level, to take precautions and know the symptoms of tickborne diseases,” said Daniel Salkeld, co-author of the study, in a press release.

e study relied on citizen-scien tist data collection, a form of passive tick surveillance that increases the geographic scope and lowers costs.

Harris says the willingness of

people to sub mit ticks was instrumental in collecting data that show the spread of the two tick species in Colorado.

TICK SURVEILLANCE:

The American dog tick (above) and the Rock Mountain wood tick (below)

“Just being able to engage the community is really great, because then individuals are able to learn the risks and understand where they’re encountering ticks the most,” she says.

She encourages folks to take preventative measures like tick checks or putting clothes in the drier after an outdoor adventure.

But, not every tick you encounter hosts a harmful pathogen. Harris says people shouldn’t be alarmed by the expansion of the American dog tick and the Rocky Mountain wood tick — it should just inform people to “know the risks for the day.”

“It’s a more well-rounded under standing of the environment around us, which is an amazing thing,” she says. “ at’s the power of science.”

Public access TV is dead, long live public access TV!

Boulder gave up on the concept nearly 15 years ago. Longmont is reimagining the model.

Is there a place for this curio of the cable era in our digital world?

by Caitlin Rockett

Clad in a plaid blazer, ash-blonde hair slicked into a low-volume pompadour, Andy Eppler channels a Colorado-ized version of a late night host as he gestures to his sidekick, Jack, during a live, pre-election special edition of his homegrown talk show, Boulder County Tonight “We’re on public television right now, so I think by the rules you get a monkey puppet — at least one,” Eppler tells the audience gathered at Longmont Public Media (LPM) on Nov. 3. “Mine is my childhood friend, Jack. Put your hands together for my old friend.”

e audience claps. Jack squeaks. Eppler winks.

Boulder County Tonight has been a regular xture of LPM’s programming for the past year, bringing in local politicians, gad ies and journalists (like yours truly, full disclosure, on episode two) to talk about community concerns, all ltered through Eppler’s irreverent, sometimes profane humor.

It’s classic public access pro gramming: local, o beat, corny, funny, awkward.

ough in today’s extremely online world, it’s easy to wonder what function public access TV stations serve. eir creation — and federal mandate in the ’70s — was a response to the monolith of commercial broadcasting. Televi sion was powerful, and public access gave some of that power to the people.

Funded, at least partially, through franchise agreements between municipalities and cable companies, public access TV programming was originally broadcast only to cable subscribers in the city (though the internet has changed this a bit). For cities that have a franchise agreement, between 25 cents and $1 of every cable subscriber’s monthly bill goes toward public, educational and govern mental, or PEG, programming, typically shown on three separate channels. Municipalities can only use this money to purchase equipment, not sta . e governmental channel airs council and commission meetings and announcements from local leadership, while the education channel runs school closures, lunch menus, board meetings and student-produced content.

On the public access side, anyone in the com munity can schedule time to use the studio and equipment to produce content, and, as long as the content is lawful, it’s broadcast to your community.

But cable subscriptions are plummeting, mean ing PEG funding is dwindling, and social media has made everyone a content creator. e Alliance for Community Media found that the number of public access stations has dipped from 2,500 in 1980 to 1,600 nationwide in 2020, many of them operated by a skeleton crew of one to three employ ees — like Longmont Public Media.

on the record about it.

“It’s one of those stories where everyone wants to talk about it, but there’s too many people still alive,” laughs Alan O’Hashi, former head of Chan nel 54.

O’Hashi says he was appointed by City Council to be on the board for Boulder Television’s public access station “to kind of oversee the management of it.”

“But what I didn’t know at the time was they were trying to close down that organiza tion and start something new because — I won’t name names, and maybe you’ve heard some of the names — but there were some producers in town who were causing problems for City Council.”

“It’s a community center,” says LPM board member Anthony Maine. “ at, to us, is what de nes public access; moving beyond cable, engaging with other modalities and creating the opportunity for synergy between those di erent modalities.”

While the media landscape may have shifted seismically, public access operators see their role in society as unchanged: bastions of free speech, a voice to the people, a middle nger to commercial media. LPM, like other public access operators around the country, is broadening its ap proach to services and funding in a bid to stay alive.

But of course not everyone thinks it’s a ght worth waging.

THE LEGACY OF BOULDER’S CHANNEL 54

e City of Boulder’s public access TV station, Channel 54, went o the air in 2009. (However, of the nine sources interviewed for this story, none could remember exactly when the end came.)

Like all the great stories about Boulder, this one is mired in controversy and over-the-top personal ities. And like all great stories, no one wanted to go

3.

According to a Daily Camera article from August 2009, Tony Perri resigned from his position as head of Boulder Television’s Channel 54 to concentrate on education-based content for Boulder’s Channel 22, which is still in operation today (although not under Perri). e article addresses an investigation into allegations by former producers who accused Perri of mistreat ing women and refusing to air their shows.

Perri told the Camera the complaints were being or chestrated by a producer he suspended for misconduct.

e archived comments of the article seem to address the controversy to which O’Hashi alludes, with many people sounding o angrily about Jann Scott, a reg ular producer on Channel 54 who went on to form his own freewheeling community media group, Boulder Channel 1.

“I remember growing up in high school and my mom talking about Jann Scott,” says local adven ture legend and bike enthusiast Ryan Van Duzer, who got his start in outdoor TV on Channel 54 in 2006 with his show Get Out ere, now a YouTube channel with 165 thousand subscribers.

“He may have covered some important topics in Boulder, but he was a rabble rouser.”

But did Jann Scott kill Boulder public access TV?

“I really don’t think it was his fault,” says Van Duzer, “but he was de nitely a Boulder character for a long time.”

COURTESY ANDY EPPLER

TV GUIDE: Andy Eppler with co-host Jack during a special pre-election edition of Boulder County Tonight, which aired on LPM on Nov.

Scott didn’t respond to requests for an interview.

O’Hashi says that by 2009, Boulder City Coun cil wasn’t interested in hosting a “traditional public access TV station” anymore and absorbed the PEG money and equipment into the governmental and educational channels.

“I was surprised — the station was going pretty well,” O’Hashi says. “We had some pretty set pa rameters and programming. And I’m a rm believer that there should be more of an outlet for people to just say what’s on their mind, as long as it’s lawful. So that went kind of outside the box that some of the city people thought we should [be in.]”

Sarah Huntley, director of communications for the City of Boulder, says the City’s franchise agreement with Comcast does not require the City to run a public access station. Instead, the City “re ally lean[s] into our government access television,” Channel 8, which shows City Council meetings, boards and commissions, plus some city announce ments from Inside Boulder News and other programming developed by city agencies.

Channel 22, the educational station, is man aged by the Boulder Valley School District.

Huntley questions the relevance of pub lic access TV in today’s world.

“ e decision of whether we bring back a public access channel is not mine to make,” she says. “ e franchise is signed by the City, to be approved by the city manager and City Council. It’s not something that I really have a signi cant voice in. From the ‘should we do it perspective,’ I would have a lot of questions about how we would do it, and what the impact would be on our cur rent day resources, and whether it’s actually even the best use of those resources given all of the access to streaming that we currently have in society. But, you know, if we were directed to do that, and there was value seen in that by the folks who get to make that decision, we would be left to implement it.”

A NEW PUBLIC ACCESS IN LONGMONT

“When you’re saying that maybe public access isn’t important in the modern age, you’re really assuming a lot about your community,” count ers Boulder County Tonight host Eppler. “And probably the number one problem with that assumption is the idea that everybody in your community can a ord modern tools to express through and knows how to use them. Whereas Longmont Public Media, they are able to provide cutting-edge tools and cutting-edge training, largely by volunteers. at’s, I think, just the epit ome of communication in the modern age with a focus on community.”

Longmont Public Media is a nonpro t “mak erspace” where members of the community can do more than just make public access TV program ming, like learn video or audio editing, create pod casts or even host concerts. e org, which in 2019 won the contract to operate all three of Longmont’s

PEG channels, gets a portion of its funding from PEG fees, but also through membership fees.

“I think what makes us unique is our change in membership model,” says Sergio R. Angeles, executive director of LMP and one of its three sta members. “Most of the other [public access] stations, from what I’ve seen, just charge one yearly fee, and it’s like 25, 35 bucks a year, which is not sustainable as franchise and cable fees decline. Be cause cable subscribers are unsubscribing, there will be no money to sustain public access or a commu nity media center. So we said let’s increase the dues — which are still extremely a ordable — and see if we can sustain a public access station primarily through a membership model.”

Memberships are o ered on a sliding scale, from $25 per year to $25 per month, depending on your needs, with a free option available.

Longmont Mayor Joan Peck has publicly voiced concerns over the sustainability of LPM’s business

“We are very community focused, and we want to broadcast and distribute as much local content as possible,” says Angeles. “And that means that content is created by the residents, for the residents. And if there are sometimes [producers], like Andy — what’s the right word to describe his content?”

“Colorful?” o ers Maine.

“Colorful,” Angeles agrees. “I mean, you know, the whole point of public access was free speech.”

Maine says LPM is starting to branch out more into the community, hosting its rst in ternship program this past summer, with plans to partner with Longmont’s OUR Center to help teach digital production skills to those who don’t have the means. Maine also points to The Shake down , a locally produced podcast where hosts discuss the criminal justice system from their experiences inside and out.

“A focus on accessibility, I think, is key. Our intent is to always have a free tier membership, so that no matter what, people have access to this equipment and learning,” Maine says. “It’s a di cult balance trying to gure out what we should focus on. In the end, it’s about having the time to do it.”

Despite “having my concerns,” Peck says she hopes LPM succeeds.

PUBLIC ACCESS 2.0?

model, voting as recently as this September not to renew LPM’s franchise contract for another two years. (She was the sole “no” vote.)

“ ere has been slow growth, and I wouldn’t actually make that an issue with LPM as much as COVID, because they came in right at the start [of the pan demic,]” Peck says. “So they had di culty with their membership. ey came back to us for more operating money twice and we said, ‘Yeah, we got it,’ but I per sonally suggested they needed to look at their business model because they were only counting on member ships. Do some more research before just coming and asking for more money.”

LPM board member Maines says the organiza tion is looking to replace dwindling cable fran chise fees with a diversi ed matrix of funds, from memberships to grants to corporate sponsorships “and whatever else we can come up with.” Angeles believes the next two years “will show whether or not a model like what we’re doing is viable.”

Angeles says there’s also been pushback around some of the content created through LPM, par ticularly Eppler’s Boulder County Tonight, which Peck has called out in City Council meetings. But as long as the content adheres to LPM standards, Angeles says “we’re not limiting anyone.”

In a 2015 short documentary by e A.V. Club, Barbara Popovic, a nearly 40-year veteran of Chicago’s public access world, said, “ e conversion of people from being consumers to creators of con tent, which continues to this day through social media and through YouTube, public access has not received its just due as one of the rst triggers of that horizon.”

Popovic and other media experts wax poetic on the role of public access in the 21st century, wondering why cable companies, which have now become internet service providers, aren’t federally mandated to provide video hosting and produc tion services online in the same way they were required to provide that space on cable airwaves.

“Will YouTube continue to present all of this work for free, or will it come up with some system to limit the amount of producers on this site?”

wonders Aymar Jean Christian, a professor of communication studies at Northwestern University. “And unlike public access, that limiting will not be in the interest of the public, it will be framed in the interest of YouTube.”

“ e model that was established, which is that the industry that pro ts from our public rights of way, needs to set aside something for the public,” Popovic says.

e documentary ends with a hypothetical vi sion of the future, where YouTube becomes “Video Commons,” a “free, noncommercial video hosting and production service funded by Internet Service Providers as required by federal mandate.”

Maybe that’s public access 2.0.

LONGMONT PUBLIC MEDIA

Not even past

After objections led to the closure of an earlier exhibition on the Sand Creek Massacre, History Colorado brings tribal citizens to the table for a new look at the atrocity of 1864 by Jezy J. Gray

The Centennial State was born in bloodshed. On a cold morning in late November during the run-up to Colorado statehood, more than 230 women, chil dren and elders of the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes were killed near Fort Lyon in a surprise attack by the United States military. The slaughter was part of a broader campaign to carve a new map as white settlers pushed into tribal homelands throughout the American West.

ABOVE: A tipi recreation at the Sand Creek Massacre

National Historic Site includes a white fag beneath the Stars and Stripes, which Cheyenne Chief Black Kettle few as a symbol of non-hostility.

“Colorado isn’t an accident. It didn’t just appear out of thin air,” says Sam Bock, public historian and exhibit developer at History Colorado, where a new gallery show on the Sand Creek Massacre opens Nov. 19 at the state-run historical society’s fagship Denver museum. “There was a historical process by which the state came to be, and the early part of that process, unfortu nately, involves the extremely violent removal of Native people.”

This ethnic cleansing was a national project, but it was brutally expressed that fall morning in 1864 along Big Sandy Creek on the southeastern plains of Colorado. That’s where non-combatant

“The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” — William Faulkner

Cheyenne and Arapaho citizens had gathered under the false promise of safety while an illusive peace deal was brokered among tribal and military leaders in Denver. Cheyenne Chief Black Kettle was instructed to fy a white fag beneath the Stars and Stripes, a peacekeeping gesture to ward off American aggression, outside the encampment that would become the site of the deadliest day in Colorado history and one of the bloodiest massa cres in the so-called Indian Wars.

“Our people were butchered. They were butchered,” says Northern Arapaho citizen Gail Ridgely, whose ances tor Lame Man was among the survivors. “Babies were cut out of their mothers. It was devastating — horrifc.”

ABOVE: Northern Arapaho citizen Gail Ridgely, who was among the tribal consultants assisting History Colorado’s new Sand Creek Massacre exhibition.

Despite the ghastliness of the atrocity and the rich tribal traditions preceding and surviving it, today there’s little evidence in Colorado of its once-thriving Indigenous nations that have since been scattered across Oklahoma, Wyoming and Montana. Aside from a cluster of street names in Front Range cities like Denver and Boulder, if the violence hadn’t touched your family’s life like it did Ridgely’s, you might not know the Cheyenne and Arapaho were ever here.

That’s part of what the new History Colorado Center exhibition seeks to rectify. But the road to this historical reckoning hasn’t been a straight one for the nonproft division of the Colorado Department of Higher Education. The center’s frst gallery exhibition on the Sand Creek Massacre was shuttered not long after its debut in April of 2012.

“The main criticism was that it was not done in consultation with the tribes,” says Shannon Voirol, director of exhibit planning. “They wanted to be part of the conversa tion and share their perspective, and at that point, History Colorado hadn’t done that.”

From his home on the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming, Ridgely notes historical inaccuracies in the original Sand Creek Massacre exhibition and says the institution “put the cart before the horse” by not consulting tribal representatives. For the 72-year-old Northern Arapaho citizen and many other Indigenous people, it’s a familiar grievance connected to a larger erasure of Native histories and traditions in North America.

“The Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes have pride in our language, our culture, our heritage and our ceremonies. Each of us is unique,” he says. “But the history has been distorted since 1492. … Our people don’t want to be portrayed as a fairy tale.”

The long arc of history

History Colorado Center’s inaugural Sand Creek Mas sacre exhibition closed in June of 2013. Tribal consultation for a new display began soon after, with Cheyenne and Arapaho representatives — including Ridgely — meeting with History Colorado leadership to discuss a path forward.

“The purpose of the consultation was to begin address ing concerns from the tribes regarding the exhibit, and to develop a plan together for the future relations between History Colorado and the tribes,” Ridgely says. “We all agreed these were encouraging and productive meetings.”

From there, Bock says History Colorado put tribal citi zens behind the wheel as the new Sand Creek Massacre exhibition came slowly into view over the following years. He describes the frequent consultations as a mutually benefcial partnership that strengthened the quality of the resulting gallery show while honoring the true story of the long-misunderstood atrocity of 1864.

ON VIEW: The Sand Creek Massacre: The Betrayal that Changed Cheyenne and Arapaho People Forever. Opens Saturday, Nov. 19, History Center Colorado, 1200 N. Broadway, Denver. Tickets: $14, historycolorado.org

“The tribal representatives really drove a lot of this process. Many of them are descendants of the survivors and victims of the Sand Creek Massacre, so they were really the experts in the story,” Bock says. “We were the ones bringing the knowledge of how to turn those histories into an exhibit.”

When it came to translating this tragic and sacred story into a curated display, tribal members like Ridgely had no shortage of suggestions for framing an accurate and respectful narrative of the massacre and its victims. Among them was the idea that the exhibition should take care to depict life among the tribes before settler-colonial violence destroyed many of their proud and time-honored traditions.

“One thing we heard loud and clear from the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribal reps is that they wanted the exhibit to begin before the massacre,” Voirol says. “They wanted it to show the richness of their lives: the civility, the deep trade relationships and all those kinds of things from before the violence started. And so that is where the exhibit begins — Cheyenne and Arapaho lives, before the massacre.”

To that end, visitors to History Colorado Center’s new Sand Creek Massacre exhibi tion can expect a panoramic view of tribal life contextualized through everyday objects, artworks and historical photographs. The long-awaited gallery show also includes extensive oral histories by late Cheyenne and Arapaho elders, along with video of contemporary tribal citizens discussing what the massacre means to them today. One thing museumgoers won’t fnd is artifacts from the day or site of the killings, which are far from a distant memory for many living descendants.

“The Sand Creek Massacre isn’t just a piece of history that happened a long time ago,” Bock says. “It’s a very real, current family history for many of the tribal represen tatives we worked with and many of the tribal members we’ve spoken to. It continues to have enduring impacts in the tribal communities today.”

Ultimately for Ridgely, whose family story became intertwined with the unspeakable violence of late November 1864, the new Sand Creek Massacre exhibition is about more than setting the record straight. It’s also an opportunity to suture old wounds and forge a better future for Native people in the United States and beyond.

“It’s about historical remembrance, educational awareness and spiritual healing,” he says. “And the healing goes on.”

ON STAGE:

ZOTTO — A Supernatural Immersive Folktale. Various times, Nov. 19-Dec. 11, Sakura Square, 905 Lawrence St., Denver. Tickets: zottofolk.com

The ghosts of Sakura Square

The historic heart of Denver’s Japanese American community becomes an immersive theatrical site in the supernatural ‘ZOTTO’

by Toni Tresca

Denver’s Sakura Square is haunted. But it’s not the usual apparitions stalking the city’s historic Japanese American neighborhood in ZOTTO, the new immersive production opening this weekend. Instead, it’s the ghosts of racial strife, past and present: historical horrors like Japanese internment during World War II, alongside the discriminatory inheritances of redlining, resettlement and gentrifcation.

The show follows Dr. Kitsu, a kitsune (a fox spirit from Japanese folklore) who invites the audience to journey through the ZOTTO Holistic Health Offce. They are tasked with helping a ffth-generation Japanese American patient named Miya locate her grandmother. This leads visitors into an interactive world where they come face to face with our troubled past. And it all takes place inside a Sakura Square building full of vacant offces in Denver’s LoDo District, where the city’s once-thriving Chinatown was destroyed by a white mob in 1880.

The Front Range may not be top of mind when it comes to such cutting-edge theatrical experiences. But with outside-the-box productions like DCPA’s The ater of the Mind — whose run was recently extended through January due to public demand — and interac tive art mainstays like Meow Wolf Denver’s Conver gence Station, the region is making a case for itself as a hub for experiential art.

“Denver is becoming known as a place to create new immersive work,” says Courtney Ozaki, founder of the Japanese Arts Network, and creative producer of ZOTTO The group recently took part in the Denver Immersive Gathering, an international networking event and exhibi tion for immersive creators.

ZOTTO was presented there as a work-in-progress, attended and critiqued by immersive and experiential en tertainment professionals from all over the world. “It was super exciting to have a Disney Imagineer in the audience during the convention,” Ozaki says. “We were honored to get their perspective and receive positive validation from other creators at the top of their feld about our work.”

But Ozaki hopes ZOTTO will do more than validate the artistic efforts of her team. She hopes it will raise awareness of Colorado's lesser-known histories by explor ing the trauma and joys of three generations of Japanese American women in Denver.

Immersion and reflection

ZOTTO is a group effort in the truest sense of the word. The work was produced by the Japanese Arts

Network — a national organization that brings together communities, stake holders and artists to support Japanese arts in America — in collaboration with Control Group Productions, Luster Productions and Theatre Artibus.

After the success of a previous drive-through iteration of the project during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Ozaki put together a team to produce a more developed version of the show. She asked Akemi Tsutsui-Kunitake to be the project’s cultural consultant, and Meghan Frank and Buba Basishvili to co-produce. Leah Podzimek came on board to co-produce and serve as director of fow and fund raising, while Patrick Mueller and Caroline Sharkey were brought in to support the technical elements.

The result of this all-hands-on-deck approach is a celebration of how the Japanese community survived in America after World War II. The experience's script was written by Ozaki but revised by actors through improvisa tion, producer collaboration and community interviews. The narrative was inspired, in part, by Ozaki relatives’ stories about being detained during the war.

“People have a hard time relating to stories of incarcerated individuals when told from textbooks or other traditional forms of media,” Tsutsui-Kunitake says. “That’s what’s so great about immersive experiences. We get to put people in these true stories … that allow people to refect on their actions; that’s more powerful than if we just told the story to them.”

To that end, attendees should prepare themselves for a multi-sensory experience. “We want folks to engage all fve of their senses,” Podzimek says. "People will taste things; we're using next-level sensescapes so you can smell elements of the journey; you'll hear all sorts of things through sound design and dialogue; you'll see the actors and set, and we're working on creating compo nents for people to touch along the way."

This style of immersive theater is a relatively new art form, and the group realizes this will be a new experience for many. “It can be exciting, but it can also be uncomfort able at times,” Tsutsui-Kunitake says.

Part of that intentional discomfort comes from direct interaction between the actors and audience members, who are a crucial part of the experience.

“This is a show with only 12 audience members at a time, which will be very intimate," Ozaki says. “You are not a voyeur. You are in the show and will be acknowledged.”

Ultimately, the team behind ZOTTO says such an intimate, immersive experience was made possible by community members and partners with an appetite for social justice and experimental storytelling.

“The reason that we were able to tell this story now is that there was such an immense amount of support for the story,” Frank says. “I am very excited for the audience to be able to experience this particular story in Sakura Square, one of the last visual spaces that represents the deep and rich culture of Japanese American history.”

‘It’s my sanctuary’

Brighton filmmaker Matt Sauter draws on his Front Range upbringing in the

trauma-colored ‘Dylan & Zoey’

by Gregory Wakeman

At frst blush, the synopsis of Dylan & Zoey sounds like a warm and uplifting tale of a rekindled connection. With only 24 hours left in Los Angeles, Zoey (Claudia Doumit) reaches out to her estranged best friend Dylan (Blake Scott Lewis). He is initially dubious, but the pair soon pick up where they left off, laughing and drinking, as they embark on a night that will truly change their lives.

But there’s also a dark side to Dylan & Zoey that writer-director Matt Sauter, who was born and raised in Brighton, Colorado, was intent on bringing to the fore of the flm.

“I was molested as a child,” Sauter says. “I’m very open about this. I would speak to my friends ad nauseam about it. They would often tell me to write about my take on it. But I didn’t feel comfortable tell ing my story at the time. So it was a bit of a waiting game, trying to fnd the right time to talk about it.”

Sauter fnally felt ready after watching Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise trilogy. Written by the cele brated director alongside co-stars Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy, the three flms revolve around a couple who fall in love, rekindle their relationship, and then deal with the realities of marriage.

“All of the flms opened up my eyes to a story between two people that’s very intimate and in real time. They were just so charming,” Sauter says. “I knew this was how I wanted to tell my story. Because, whenever I told it to people, it was in a one-on-one situation, and in a very intimate setting. That's what Dylan & Zoey is: intimate conversations, going back and forth between two old friends.”

When it came time to write the flm, Sauter ventured back to Colorado from his home in Los Angeles, where he’s lived for years while working as an actor and writer. “You can leave Colorado, but it doesn't leave you,” Sauter says. “I keep fnding myself back here to recharge my batteries. This is where I get my writing done. This is where Dylan & Zoey was written. It's my sanctuary.”

Colorado renaissance

The Centennial State is also where Sauter’s passion for storytelling and acting was born at a very young age. After performing in his frst play in the third grade, Sauter became a theater major at col lege in Wyoming, then went to the renowned Stella Adler Academy in Los Angeles. This is where he met both Doumit and Scott Lewis. It was around this time

that Sauter started to write more.

“Acting was the foundation that everything else was built upon,” he says. “But I just had this passion to tell stories in my own vernacular.”

Sauter got encouragement from others in his acting class, which is where he met the crew that would eventually work on Dylan & Zoey. “The tentacles from the people in the class reached out to other people that we brought on board. That’s how I built my community,” he says. “I always tell people who are trying to break into the industry, if you’re moving to a new town, get into a writing, acting or directing program. It’s a great springboard to meet like-minded people who all want to work in the industry.”

At the same time, Sauter says creative people in smaller states should all band together and form their own artistic communities, too. Especially in Colorado, where he says the flm scene is lagging behind artforms like music and comedy. For the time being, anyway.

“I feel like we're ripe for Colorado to have its own little renaissance in flm. That'll come with tax structures in the state and tax incentives,” he says. “But there are great directors from Boulder and a lot of creatives of all ages in the state. And, of course, Colorado has a beautiful backdrop for flm.”

Sauter says his Colorado roots have enhanced his writing, especially when it comes to fnding empathy in all of his characters, whether he likes or agrees with them. “Being from Brighton, you don’t judge people on their thoughts on issues. You judge them for their heart and who they are,” he says. “That’s something as a storyteller I'm very interested in. I want to have empathy for a wide breadth of people and not just be, ‘Oh, well, you think this way. That doesn't jive with where I'm at.’ Colorado has always had a very communal and accepting community.”

Sauter is hopeful there are lessons to be taken away from Dylan & Zoey, too, especially when it comes to giving a voice to people who have gone through sexual abuse.

“I believe that if I talk about it this way, there's got to be other people out there who have the same feeling about it,” he says. “Most flms deal with it in a very serious way. I appreciate those stories. But I wanted to show people just talking about it, making jokes about it, and dealing with it on a day-to-day basis. Hopefully it’ll make people not feel alone in that regard. Even if it’s just one person.”

ON SCREEN: Dylan & Zoey is playing in select theaters and available on demand through Prime Video.

ON STAGE: It’s the fnal weekend to catch BETC’s ongoing production of The Royale. The award-winning play set during the Jim Crow era is based on the true story of Jack Johnson, the frst African American heavyweight world champi on. It follows Jay “The Sport” Jackson, who dreams of taking home the title. The 2015 piece by playwright Marco Ramirez is an action-packed drama about one boxer’s refusal to be held back by systemic racism.

The Royale Dairy Arts Center, 2590 Walnut St., Boulder. Through Nov. 19. Tickets: $17-$30, betc.org

Mary Poppins. The Spark, 4847 Pearl St., Boulder. Through Nov. 20. Tickets: $18-$34, thesparkcreates.org

Adaptation: A New Love Story. Dairy Arts Center, 2590 Walnut St., Boulder. Nov. 18-20. Tickets: $16-$33, thedairy.org

The Crown Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Garner Galleria Theatre,1101 13th St., Denver. Through Nov. 20. Tickets: $42, denvercenter.org

Theater of the Mind. York Street Yards, 3887 Steele St., Denver. Extended through Jan. 22. Tickets: $65, theateroftheminddenver.com

Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story. BDT Stage, 5501 Arapahoe Ave., Boulder. Through Jan. 28. Tickets: $70-$75

H Boulder Symphony: ‘Tchaikovsky’s Fourth’

7:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 18, Grace Commons Concert Hall, 1820 15th St., Boulder. Tickets: $5-$25, eventbrite.com

Join the Boulder Symphony for a stirring performance of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4, bringing the dance between good and evil to Grace Commons. The performance will also present Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini with International Odyssiad Key board Festival Competition winner Shangru Du, and Hans Zimmer’s Interstellar theme.

H Ephrat Asherie Dance: ‘Odeon’

7:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 18, Macky Auditorium, 1595 Pleasant St., Boulder. Tickets: $18-$78, cupresents.org

Odeon takes a hybrid approach to movement — mixing romantic music with samba and other Afro-Brazilian beats. With its rapid-fre rhythms, the performance shows what happens when street and club dance cultures come together to reach new choreo graphic heights.

H ‘The Last Waltz’ Revisited 8 p.m. Friday, Nov. 18, Boulder Theater, 2032 14th St. Tickets: $17 to $25

The Last Waltz documented the fnal concert played by The Band. Due in part to its numerous guest appearances, the flm is regarded as one of the greatest concert flms of all time. Kick off the weekend by joining Polytoxic and over 70 guest musicians from across Colorado as they perform songs from the flm.

H ‘The Lightning Thief’

Various times, Friday, Nov. 18 and Saturday, Nov. 19, Broomfeld Auditorium, 3 Community Park Road. Tickets: $15-20, backstorytheatre.org

Join Backstory Theatre at the Broomfeld Auditorium for their performance of The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical. Watch the story about a half-blood son of a Greek god play out on stage with a cast of young actors, all ages 9-18.

MICHAEL ENSMINGER

H 10K Turkey Trek

7:30-11:30 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 19, Long Lake Regional Park, 17850 W. 64th Ave., Arvada. Tickets: $20-$60, runsignup.com

Earn that extra plate of turkey and stuffng at your Thanksgiving meal by pushing yourself to the limit this Saturday morning at the 10K Turkey Trek. About 1.5 miles of race are on gravel, and the remainder is on concrete.

H Birds of Prey Driving Tour

9 a.m.-noon, Saturday, Nov. 19, location provided at registration

Take a ride around Boulder County and observe some of the birds surrounding us with Boulder County Parks and Open Space. Bring a pair of binoculars and an identifcation guide to get your best chance at observing raptors in the wild.

problems like the water crisis in ways lawmakers can’t? That’s the central question driving Is Life, a group exhi bition ending its run at the Dairy Arts Center

Nov. 19. Showcasing a diverse slate of artists from across the country, the eco-conscious show explores the politics of water access in a changing climate.

Marcella Marsella: Aqueous Bodies. BMoCA at Macky, 1595 Pleasant St., Boulder. Through Nov. 13. Tickets: $2, bmoca.org

Water is Life. Dairy Arts Center, 2590 Walnut St., Boulder. Through Nov. 19. Free

Homelands Creative Nations Sa cred Space, Dairy Arts Center, 2590 Walnut St., Boulder. Through Nov. 26. Free

H Mixed Tape Trilogy: Stories of the Power of Music

7-9 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 19, Etown, 1535 Spruce St., Boulder. Tickets: $15, etown.org

This documentary screening ex plores the journey of three artists as they meet the fans who have been infuenced by their music. Learn to hear the music and perspectives of others on a new level through the Stories of the Power of Music. Following the screening there will be a Q&A with Kathleen Ermitage and Alan Cogen, the director and executive producer of the flm.

Quantity of Life: Nature/Supernat ure Canyon Gallery, Boulder Library, 1001 Arapahoe Ave. Through Nov. 27. Free

Juan Fuentes: Pride on Your Side. BMoCA at Aurora Central Library, 4949 E Alameda Parkway. Through Dec. 31. Free

Lived Experience. Boulder Public Library, 1001 Arapahoe Ave. Through Jan. 14. Free

Karen Breunig: Woman in the Water BMoCA at Frasier, 350 Ponca Place, Boulder. Through Jan. 15. Tickets: $2, bmoca.org

Kristopher Wright: Just As I Am BMoCA East Gallery, 1595 Pleasant St., Boulder. Through Jan. 22. Tick ets: $2, bmoca.org

Saints, Sinners, Lovers, and Fools: 300 Years of Flemish Masterworks Denver Art Museum, 100 W. 14th Ave. Pkwy., Denver. Through Jan. 22. Tickets: $21 (Colorado resident), denverartmuseum.org

Yvens Alex Saintil: Photographs The New East Window Gallery, 4550 Broadway Suite C, Boulder. Through Jan. 29. Free

The Dirty South: Contemporary Art, Material Culture, and the Sonic Impulse Museum of Contempo rary Art Denver, 1485 Delgany St., Denver. Through Feb. 5. Tickets: $10, mcadenver.org

Her Brush: Japanese Women Artists from the Fong-Johnstone Collection. Denver Art Museum, 100 W. 14th Ave. Pkwy., Denver. Through May 13. Tickets: $12-$19

Lasting Impressions CU Art Muse um, 1085 18th St., Boulder. Through June 2023. Free

Onward and Upward: Shark’s Ink. CU Art Museum, 1085 18th St., Boul der. Through July 2023. Free

ON THE BILL: New York pop-punk quar tet State Champs bring their Kings of the New Age tour to the Gothic Theatre in Englewood on Nov. 22. The band will be supported by openers Hunny, Between You and Me and Games We Play. Learn more in the listing below.

n

H Ninja Sex Party

8 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 19, Boulder Theater, 2032 14th St. Tickets: $42-$45, axs.com

One of the self-described “most popular comedy bands of all time,” Ninja Sex Party is hitting the stage this weekend at Boulder Theater. Vocalist Danny Sexbang and keyboardist Ninja Brian have toured around the world entertaining sold-out audiences with mature content and headbanging.

H ‘Buried: The 1982 Alpine Meadows Avalanche’

4 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 20, Dairy Arts Center, 2590 Walnut St., Boulder. Tickets: $15.00, thedairy.org

Follow the heroic 1982 Alpine Meadows Avalanche crew who sprung into action in the spring of 1982 to try and save the lives of seven individuals caught under one of the most devastating avalanches in California history. The screening is presented as part of the Boulder Environmen tal Nature Outdoors Film Festival.

FRIDAY, NOV.

18

Rocky Mountain Cho rale Presents- Simple Gifts. 7:30 p.m. Heart of Longmont UMC, 350 11th Ave., Longmont. Tickets: $10-$50

Vince Herman Band. 8 p.m. The Caribou Room, 55 Indian Peaks Drive, Neder land. Tickets: $25

Jon Gauer Octet. 7 p.m. Muse Performance Space, 200 E. South Boulder Road, Lafayette. Tickets: $10-$20

Jake Leg. 8:30 p.m. Gold Hill Inn, 401 Main St., Boulder. $10 cash

Disco Lines. 9 p.m. Ogden Theatre, 935 E. Colfax Ave., Denver. Tickets: $27-$75, axs.com

AFI. 7 p.m. Filmore Auditorium, 1510 N. Clarkson St., Denver. Tickets: $60, fllmoreauditorium.org

n SATURDAY, NOV. 19

Joe Hertler and The Rainbow Seekers. 8 p.m. Roots Music Project, 4747 Pearl Suite V3A, Boulder. Tickets: $22, eventbrite.com

Covet with The Velvet Teen, The Speed of Sound in Seawater. 8 p.m. Fox Theatre, 1135 13th St., Boulder. Tickets: $22-$25, axs.com

Cup-a-Jo. 7 p.m. Gold Hill Inn, 401 Main St., Boulder. Free

Daniel Rodriguez. 8 p.m. Bluebird Theater, 3317 E. Colfax Ave., Denver. Tickets: $10, bluebirdtheater.net

n

SUNDAY, NOV. 20

Victor Wooten feat. Steve Bailey & Derico Watson Bass Extremes with Dandu. 8 p.m. Boulder Theater, 2032 14th St., Boulder. Tickets: $30-$40, z2ent.com

Fly in the Ointment. 7 p.m. Gold Hill Inn, 401 Main St., Boulder. Free

Penny and Sparrow. 8 p.m. Gothic Theater, 3263 S. Broadway, Engle wood. Tickets: $20-$25,

n

MONDAY, NOV. 21

The Garden. 7 p.m. 1902 Blake St. Summit Denver, 1902 Blake St. Tickets: $55, livenation.com

Jazz Jam Session with Host Brad Goode. 7 p.m. Muse Performance Space, 200 E. South Boulder Road, Lafayette. Free

n TUESDAY, NOV. 22

State Champs. 7 p.m. Gothic The ater, 3263 S. Broadway, Englewood. Tickets: $29-$34, gothictheatre.com

n WEDNESDAY, NOV. 23

Hot Flash Heat Wave with Sports. 7 p.m. Marquis Theater, 2009 Larimer St., Denver. Tickets: $20, livenation. com

Blanke. 8 p.m. Ogden Theatre, 935 E. Colfax Ave., Denver. Tickets: $35$80 axs.com

H ‘Apotheosis of the Dance’

7:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 19, Mountain View United Methodist Church, 355 Ponca Place, Boulder. Tickets: $5-$25, promusicacolorado.org

Join members of the community at Mountain View Methodist Church (with the option to tune in online) for a performance of Florence Price’s Piano Concerto in One Movement. The concert will kick off with a premiere of The Hill of Three Wishes by Ben Morris, the 2021 CU Composi tion competition winner.

H Dance Night — Learn Salsa and Bachata

6:30-9 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 22, R Gallery + Wine Bar, 2027 Broadway, Boulder. Tickets: $15, eventbrite.com

Have a drink to loosen up and get ready to shake it while learning salsa and bachata. Be sure to check out artwork from local artists at the R Gallery and Wine Bar.

H New Moon Ritual

5:30-6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 23, The Healing Studio, 18 Garden Center, Broomfeld. Tickets: $25, insightfulinspirations.com

Release pains and woes from the past month and plant new seeds of hope and excitement on the new moon. Learn to open your senses to the beauty surrounding you, bringing in peace, freedom and resolution for the new month ahead.

by Rob Brezsny

ARIES

MARCH 21-APRIL 19: One of your callings as an Aries is to take risks. You’re inclined to take more leaps of faith than other people, and you’re also more likely to navigate them to your advantage—or at least not get burned. A key reason for your success is your keen intuition about which gambles are relatively smart and which are ill-advised. But even when your chancy ven tures bring you exciting new experiences, they may still run you afoul of conventional wisdom, peer pressure, and the way things have always been done. Everything I have described here will be in maximum play for you in the coming weeks.

TAURUS

APRIL 20-MAY 20: Your keynote comes from teacher Caroline Myss. She writes, “Becoming adept at the process of self-inquiry and symbolic insight is a vital spiritual task that leads to the growth of faith in one self.” Encouraging you to grow your faith in yourself will be one of my prime intentions in the next 12 months. Let’s get started! How can you become more adept at self-inquiry and symbolic insight? One idea is to ask yourself a probing new question every Sunday morning, like “What teachings and healings do I most want to attract into my life during the next seven days?” Spend the subsequent week gathering experiences and rev elations that will address that query. Another idea is to remember and study your dreams, since doing so is the number one way to develop symbolic insight. For help, I recommend the work of Gayle Delaney: tinyurl.com/ InterviewYourDreams

GEMINI

MAY 21-JUNE 20: The TV science fction show Legends of Tomorrow features a ragtag team of imperfect but effective superheroes. They travel through time trying to fx aberrations in the timelines caused by various villains. As they experiment and improvise, sometimes resorting to wildly daring gambits, their successes out number their stumbles and bumbles. And on occasion, even their apparent mistakes lead to good fortune that unfolds in unexpected ways. One member of the team, Nate, observes, “Sometimes we screw up—for the bet ter.” I foresee you Geminis as having a similar modus operandi in the coming weeks.

CANCER

JUNE 21-JULY 22: I like how Cancerian poet Stephen Dunn begins his poem, “Before We Leave.” He writes, “Just so it’s clear — no whining on the journey.” I am offering this greeting to you and me, my fellow Cancerians, as we launch the next chapter of our story. In the early stages, our efforts may feel like drudgery, and our progress could seem slow. But as long as we don’t complain excessively and don’t blame others for our own limitations, our labors will become easier and quite productive.

LEO

JULY 23-AUG. 22: Leo poet Kim Addonizio writes a lot about love and sex. In her book Wild Nights, she says, “I’m thinking of dating trees next. We could just stand around all night together. I’d murmur, they’d rustle, the wind would, like, do its wind thing.” Now might be a favorable time for you, too, to experiment with ever green romance and arborsexuality and trysts with your favorite plants. When was the last time you hugged an oak or kissed an elm? JUST KIDDING! The coming weeks will indeed be an excellent time to try creative innovations in your approach to intimacy and adoration. But I’d rather see your experiments in togetherness unfold with humans.

VIRGO

AUG. 23-SEPT. 22: In her book Daughters of the Stone, Virgo novelist Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa tells the tale of fve generations of Afro-Cuban women, her ancestors. “These are the stories of a time lost to fesh and bone,” she writes, “a time that lives only in dreams and mem ories. Like a primeval wave, these stories have carried me, and deposited me on the morning of today. They are the stories of how I came to be who I am, where I am.” I’d love to see you explore your own history with

as much passion and focus, Virgo. In my astrological opinion, it’s a favorable time for you to commune with the infuences that have made you who you are.

LIBRA

SEPT. 23-OCT. 22: In accordance with astrological omens, here’s my advice for you in the coming weeks: 1. Know what it takes to please everyone, even if you don’t always choose to please everyone. 2. Know how to be what everyone wants you to be and when they need you to be it, even if you only fulfll that wish when it has selfsh value for you. 3. DO NOT give others all you have and thereby neglect to keep enough to give yourself. 4. When others are being closed-minded, help them develop more expan sive fnesse by sharing your own reasonable views. 5. Start thinking about how, in 2023, you will grow your roots as big and strong as your branches.

SCORPIO

OCT. 23-NOV. 21: Even if some people are nervous or intimidated around you, they may be drawn to you nonetheless. When that happens, you probably enjoy the power you feel. But I wonder what would happen if you made a conscious effort to cut back just a bit on the daunting vibes you emanate. I’m not saying they’re bad. I understand they serve as a protective measure, and I appreciate the fact that they may help you get the cooperation you want. As an experiment, though, I invite you to be more reassuring and welcoming to those who might be inclined to fear you. See if it alters their behavior in ways you enjoy and beneft from.

SAGITTARIUS

NOV. 22-DEC. 21: Sagittarian rapper and entrepreneur Jay-Z has stellar advice for his fellow Sagittarians to contemplate regularly: “Ain’t nothin’ wrong with the aim; just gotta change the target.” In offering Jay-Z’s advice, I don’t mean to suggest that you always need to change the target you’re aiming at. On many occa sions, it’s exactly right. But the act of checking in to evaluate whether it is or isn’t the right target will usually be valuable. And on occasion, you may realize that you should indeed aim at a different target.

CAPRICORN

DEC. 22-JAN. 19: You now have extra power to exorcise ghosts and demons that are still lingering from the old days and old ways. You are able to transform the way your history affects you. You have a sixth sense about how to graduate from lessons you have been studying for a long time. In honor of this joyfully tumultuous opportunity, draw inspiration from poet Charles Wright: “Knot by knot I untie myself from the past / And let it rise away from me like a balloon. / What a small thing it becomes. / What a bright tweak at the vanishing point, blue on blue.”

AQUARIUS

JAN. 20-FEB. 18: In accordance with current astrological rhythms, I am handing over your horoscope to essayist Anne Fadiman. She writes, “I have always felt that the action most worth watching is not at the center of things, but where edges meet. I like shorelines, weather fronts, international borders. There are interesting fric tions and incongruities in these places, and often, if you stand at the point of tangency, you can see both sides better than if you were in the middle of either one.”

PISCES

FEB. 19-MARCH 20: Over the course of my life, I have been fortunate to work with 13 psychotherapists. They have helped keep my mental health fourishing. One of them regularly reminded me that if I hoped to get what I wanted, I had to know precisely what I wanted. Once a year, she would give me a giant piece of thick paper and felt-tip markers. “Draw your personal vision of par adise,” she instructed me. “Outline the contours of the welcoming paradise that would make your life eminent ly delightful and worthwhile.” She would also ask me to fnish the sentence that begins with these words: “I am mobilizing all the energy and ingenuity and connections I have at my disposal so as to accomplish the following goal.” In my astrological opinion, Pisces, now is a per fect time to do these two exercises yourself.

by Dan Savage

Dear Dan: Young straight dude here. Recently I have come across a ton of ar ticles online about why women shouldn’t shave their armpits. These articles argue that armpit shaving is based on deeply patriarchal anti-feminist notions of female beauty. This leaves me feeling conficted. I fnd women’s shaved armpits extremely erotic, if I’m attracted to the person. I fnd shaved underarms irresistibly smooth and supple. I love the sensation. Plus, I love the warmth of the area, and how the underarms are right next to the shoulders, neck, and breasts — sort of a nexus point. Even visually, I fnd them off-therails sexually arousing. When women grow their armpit hair, it turns off what is for me one of the most sexually attractive parts of a woman’s body. Reading these articles has left me asking: Is it wrong to be so sexually attracted to something if it’s supposedly based on patriarchal beauty standards? Almost all the info I fnd online — shaving product advertise ments aside — seems to be about why women shouldn’t shave their armpits and how a woman shaving her armpits is gender oppression. It’s really left me wondering: Why is this such an issue for some feminists?

—Are Refexive Male Psychosexual Interests That Stupid?

Dear ARMPITS: If you were smart enough to come up with that signoff, ARMPITS, you’re smart enough to hold these two not-quite-conficting ideas in your mind without stroking out from the cognitive dissonance: You like what you

like and you’ve been conditioned to like what you like. Sometimes with a little thought and effort, we can learn to like more than we were conditioned to like (different kinds of people, different kinds of bodies, different kinds of sex), which is a favor we do ourselves, not others. But it’s not always possible for a person to learn to like more than they’ve been conditioned to like. So, what should a person do then?

A person can and should… shut the fuck up.

A person can remind himself that beauty standards evolve, as do gendered norms, and if those standards are evolving away from something he’s been conditioned to think is desirable—some thing like hairless armpits—he can do his level best not to interfere with that evolution. So, don’t think hairy armpits are hot? Or bigger bodies? Or trans people? Great, fne. You can seek out people you do fnd attractive—and luckily enough for you, ARMPITS, most women shave their armpits—without shitting all over people you don’t fnd attractive. Don’t post “no hairy pits” on dating apps, don’t shit-talk with your bros about hairy armpits being gross, don’t post puke emojis all over Instagram when a woman shares a photo that shows armpit hair, and politely pass on potential sex partners who have armpit hair without feeling the need to inform them why you’re passing on them.

Podcasts, columns and more at Savage.Love.

Questions to mail@savagelove.net.

The limits of empathy

Celebrate Noirvember with ‘El Vampiro Negro’ by Michael J. Casey

The man looks unassuming. He’s Teodoro Ulber (Nathán Pinzón), a middle-aged English professor, short and squat with proper manners and nice clothes. He’s timid in the company of women; reserved around men. But little children seem to like him, even trust him. Right up to the moment he cuts their throats.

Much like Truman Capote’s seminal In Cold Blood, 1953’s El Vampiro Negro (The Black Vampire) from Argentinian flmmaker Román Viñoly Barreto is a masterwork that tests the limits of what you might consider “entertainment.” The story retells Fritz Lang’s 1931 German flm, M, about a sick man compelled to kill children. Based on two real-life killers and set during the Weimar Repub lic, M draws parallels between the killer and a deranged society seeking to dole out justice by hook or by crook. Two decades later, Hollywood director Joseph Losey remade M, this time casting the corrupting presence of communist witchhunts over the proceedings.

This might be why Barreto’s take on the compulsive child killer is the fullest and most empathetic portrait of the three versions. And not by further investigating Ulber’s condition, but by placing front and center the women sidelined in previous versions. Specifcally, two cabaret singers: Rita (Olga Zubarry) and Cora (Nelly Panizza). One shields Ulber from harm, while the other chides and humiliates him. It’s quite a reversal when you realize that the one chiding Ulber does so to the public persona, while the one shielding him does so in the face of Ulber’s true nature.

Roger Ebert called movies “empathy machines.” It doesn’t matter who’s on screen, what they have done, or what they will do; cinema asks us to watch, to identify, to understand. Most of the time, we walk away feeling better — about ourselves and about the world — but sometimes, the movies ask us to consider the unthinkable; to look at a monster and fnd the broken humanity underneath.

ON DISC: El Vampiro Negro, available in a Blu-Ray/DVD set from Flicker Alley. Bonus material includes an introduction from Noir Film Foundation presi dent Eddie Muller; “The Three Faces of M,” a critical comparison; an interview with Daniel Viñoa; commentary by Fernando Martin Peña; and an essay by Imogen Sara Smith.

El Vampiro Negro belongs in that conversation. The characters are richly drawn, and Barreto further twists the proverbial knife by juxtaposing Ulber with the lead investigator (Roberto Escalda) tasked with capturing him. Where Ulber is helpless to the voices in his head urging him to commit unspeakable acts, the inspector chooses the path of superfcial righteousness while acting in his own shallow interests.

And with subject matter this unnerving, but artistic value this stunning, we must be in noir territory. Barreto and cinematogra pher Aníbal González Paz pay homage to the German expression ism of Lang’s M with chiaroscuro lighting, wrought-iron shadows and a subterranean world so dirty you want to wipe your shoes on the way out. It’s incredible. And it would’ve been lost if not for the championing of Argentina’s leading cinema archivist, Fernando Martin Peña, restoration work by the Film Noir Foundation and the UCLA Film & Television Archive and a gorgeous new Blu-ray/DVD set from Flicker Alley.

FLICKER ALLEY

Longmont Humane Society

9595 Nelson Road, Longmont, longmonthumane.org

Critter Classifeds is a column where you can meet four-legged friends who need your love and support. Boulder Weekly is working with Longmont Humane Society to feature a few pets each week who are look ing for forever homes. We hope to bring other organizations in on the fun in the future.

Longmont Humane Society provides tem porary shelter to thousands of animals every year, including dogs, cats and small mammals who are lost, surrendered or abandoned. Visit the shelter to learn more about these featured pets and others up for adoption and fostering.

If your organization has volunteer needs and is interested in a similar column, please reach out to us: editorial@boulderweekly.com

Note: The animals you see here may have been adopted since this article was written.

Your support makes a big difference to the Longmont Humane Society. Every donation made to LHS from Nov. 1 through Dec. 6 on ColoradoGives.org gets a boost from the $1.4 Million + Incentive Fund. Schedule your dona tion today at coloradogives.org/organization/ Longmonthumanesociety. Donate and view available animals at longmonthumane.org.

Ziti

Chloe

Chloe is best buddies with Zoe (below) and is required to go home with her. She is 9 years old and loves to spend an afternoon in a cozy bed with Zoe. Chloe could use some encouragement when in new situations, but a few sweet words and a couple of treats work wonders! Chloe would prefer a home with just her and her BFF. Chloe has a heart murmur, and while she current ly does not have symptoms of heart disease, her adopter will need to monitor her for changes as she ages.

This 2-month-old boy is the most mellow kitten we’ve ever met! Ziti loves to have his cheeks rubbed and takes naps like it’s his job. Ziti would love a home with kids of any age and could do well with a dog and/or cat sibling given time and proper introduction.

Zoe

Thank you for being a friend! Golden girl Zoe is one half of a dynamic duo with her BFF Chloe. These two are a bonded pair and need to go home together. At 9 years old, Zoe is looking for a nice spot to retire where she won’t have to compete with a cat for the co ziest spots on the couch. Zoe is shy when meeting new people but within a few minutes of getting to know you she’ll snuggle anyone. Like Chloe, sweet Zoe came to us with a heart murmur. While she currently shows no signs of heart disease, potential adopters will need to keep an eye on her heart health.

By the bowl

Edwin Zoe was already a local legend. But now he’s also a James Beard semifnalist, having been nominated this year for Outstanding Restaurateur. Anyone who has dined at either of his two Boulder restaurants will assure you the honor was a long time coming. Zoe frst opened his original Pearl Street restaurant Zoe Ma Ma in 2010. The menu is largely full of pan-Asian comfort snacks made by his mother Anna. “People just call her mama,” Zoe says.

Zoe was born in Taiwan before moving to the United States as a kid. He and his family bounced around the East Coast before landing in Missouri. He frst moved to Boulder to attend the University of Colorado to get a degree in international business and fnance. It would be some time before the thought of opening a restaurant crossed his mind.

But Zoe has always been passionate about food. “Even before I knew how to read, I insisted on ordering for myself,” he says. “Even now, when I travel, it centers around food.”

Zoe Ma Ma has always been about highlighting his mother’s cooking and the bond the two share through food. It’s magnifcently cozy cuisine, with many of the dishes being items Zoe has eaten since childhood. His new concept, Dragonfy Noodle, is his own thing. “Mama is not the creative force behind Dragonfy’s food. Though she still tells me what to do,” he says with a laugh.

At Dragonfy, which sits next door to Zoe Ma Ma in the same space that previously held his more upscale concept Chimera Ramen, Zoe curates the menu. “It started with ramen and pho then expanded into yaki udon, Singapore noodle and lobster bao,” Zoe says. Food is served in the same hybrid fast-casual style as Zoe Ma Ma where guests place their initial order at the counter and then can enjoy the remainder of the meal with all the joys of a regular seated experience. Edwin says the format was inspired by the many ramen shops he visited in Tokyo.

ON THE MENU:

Dragonfy Noodle, which serves up fve kinds of ramen, is located at 2014 10th St., Boulder.

Edwin Zoe’s unbeatable broth takes center stage at Dragonfly Noodle by Colin Wrenn

Dragonfy Noodle is an equally brilliant ode as Zoe Ma Ma, though this time Zoe is celebrating his own endless intrigue with all things noodle. “I think about all kinds of food, but if I think about the comfort food I can always eat, it’s noo dle,” he says. So when the pandemic hit, Zoe began shifting his more sit-down-oriented Chimera Ramen into something viable for take-out.

“We had to pivot, so we started working on my core passion, which is noodle,” he says. As time went on, it was clear that he was working on a new project altogether: “Let’s just clear the table. Let’s just do a new brand.”

Dragonfy opened its doors in May 2022, with a Denver location being added to the roster in July.

Each morning, the ramen noodles are made fresh right in the front window from a medium-hard wheat four. “We’re committed to making craft noodles,” says Zoe. Ramen is the star of the show, with each bowl drawing from Zoe’s studied palette. “I went to fve different ramen shops for one lunch,” he says of his last visit to Japan.

While much of the menu is to-go friendly, Dragonfy still has one of the most serene interiors in town. The ceiling is ornamented with fxtures Zoe says were inspired by waves and water, and the restaurant’s compact 60-seat room always seems to support a gentle buzz. The smell of the broth, which is cooked endlessly in massive pots, can be smelled from down the street.

The menu is centered around fve ramens. There’s a black tonkatsu, its robust funk fueled by plenty of black garlic oil, fried shallot, spicy sprouts, cloud ear mushrooms and scallions. It’s topped with a healthy portion of cherrywood smoked pork belly and maintains a more powerful and nuanced favor than some of the soups found in the more trendy and westernized shops. There are three miso variations and a delightful butter lobster option for anyone feeling a little spendy. The smoked brisket pho is divine and there’s a mandarin chicken salad for anyone eating on the lighter side.

Dragonfy Noodle still runs off the same passion instilled by his mother that built Zoe Ma Ma into such a beloved locale. But with his clear dedication to the craft, it’s fun to see Zoe behind the wheel.

ON THE MENU: Edwin Zoe, owner of Dragonfy Noodle, at his Boulder location.

Husband-and-wife writing team Don and Petie Kladstrup have written about wine and Cham pagne in a few bestselling books, including Wine & War: The French, The Nazis and The Battle for France’s Greatest Treasure (2002); and Champagne: How the World’s Most Glamorous Wine Triumphed Over War and Hard Times (2006). Their most recent work, Champagne Charlie: The Frenchman Who Taught Americans to Love Champagne (2021), details how Charles Heidsieck, the founder of Charles Heidsieck Champagne in France, came to have an inextricable tie to the city of Denver, and how his Champagne business was able to survive thanks to a turn of events that grant ed him deeds to a sizable portion of land on which the Mile High City now sits.

“Champagne had been in America prior to Charles’ time here, but in the middle of the 19th century it became very fashionable due to his efforts,” explains Petie Kladstrup, who has lived in Paris with her husband since 1978. “Charlie was the only producer to actually go to the States and present his bubbly to Americans in person. It wasn’t an easy job, because Americans were consid ered to be a bunch of beer-swilling, whiskey-guzzling people unfamiliar with the fner things in life. Champagne became a hit because of him. He was treated like a rockstar during his visits between 1852 and 1860, and newspapers followed him everywhere.”

A larger-than-life fgure who ventured to America from France in the mid-19th Century to sell his fzzy prod uct to the wild denizens of the Land of Liberty, Heidsieck realized incredible success in the States, but not before almost losing his life, and his Champagne company, in events surrounding the Civil War.

As the purveyor of bubbly was traveling through the South in 1862 to collect debts he was owed from previous shipments of his popular bev erage, he was arrested by the Union as a suspected spy. Heidsieck made the unfortunate mistake of agreeing to transport a sealed diplo matic pouch from the French consul in Mobile, Alabama, to the French consul in New Orleans. The pouch contained sensitive information per taining to a French textile company that manu factured Confederate uniforms. Bad timing. The Frenchman was imprisoned and served grueling stints in Fort Jackson (in Louisiana) and Fort Pickens in the Florida Panhandle. He was finally released with the help of the Lincoln administra tion; but by the time he was freed he was broke, physically infirm and the future looked bleak for the once popular peddler of bubbly.

One of Heidsieck’s U.S. import agents, David Bayaud (same name as the Denver avenue), who was in debt to Heidsieck for a considerable amount that he never repaid, had a more honorable brother, Thomas Bayaud, who eventually made good on the family obli gation. The brother sent Heidsieck a stack of deeds to

land in the growing Mile High City. This goodfaith repayment, which translated to about a third of the land in Denver at the time, eventually allowed Heidsieck to sell off the Colorado real estate, recoup enough to pay off his business obligations, and perhaps most impor tantly, keep his vin mousseux fowing. Among other things, he also received cotton in ex change for monetary payment. During the confict-fraught time of the War Between the States, cotton and land were suitable

Heidsieck’s historic journeys to the U.S. were directly responsible for the success of Champagne as the celebratory libation that we know today. His visits to America were legendary, as was his dandifed personality, which made him the toast of the towns he visited. His legendary stateside trips inspired his nickname, given to him by the press: Champagne Charlie.

Heidsieck started his company, Champagne Charles Heidsieck, in 1851, a year before his frst trip to America. The company is still in business today and is one of Les Grande Marques of Champagne — 24 famous merchant houses in the French city.

And there’s no doubt Heidsieck’s splashy visits to the States made the drink extremely popular.

“When he set off for America, people told him he was nuts,” says Don Kladstrup. “They told him America was far away, unsophisticated, full of Indians, and that he was going to fail. He succeeded beyond his wildest dreams, or the dreams of anyone else. He was out there identifying with his product and as a result, sales soared and the money rolled in.”

Food prices are higher than ever, and the holidays are here. The supply chain is snarled and kinked, severe droughts desiccated Europe all summer, war has broken out between one of the world’s largest grain and cooking oil suppliers and the world’s largest fertilizer producer, there is a natural nitrogen shortage due to climate change, and inflation in the U.S. continues to rise.

Happy ‘Danksgiving’

by Will Brendza

All of that has driven grocery store prices up over 13% from last year. It’s getting expensive to eat in this country. And with the holidays at our doorstep, food drives are more important than ever.

Enter: Native Roots and its frst annual Danks giving food-drive/fundraiser.

“Food insecurity is such a prevalent issue right now,” Liz Zukowski, policy and public affairs manager at Native Roots, says. “Food banks are

serving more people now than they did during the pandemic.”

According to Hunger Free Colorado, 33% of Coloradans lack access to nutritious food; 20% of Colorado adults regularly skip meals or cut back because they don’t have enough money to buy food; 16% of children are not getting adequate nutrition because of family financial problems; and 7.5% of older adults often have to make the difficult choice between purchasing medication and food — and that all compounds around the holidays.

To the folks at Native Roots, that meant step ping up and organizing an event to help. As one of the largest cannabis companies in the state (and the nation), Native Roots has the means to help.

“This inspired us to create the Danksgiving campaign, which celebrates what we are ‘dankful’ for,” Zukowski says.

Native Roots will collect non-perishable donations like canned vegetables, canned fruit, canned soup, canned fsh, peanut butter, pasta, canned beans and brown or white rice. Drop them off at any of Native Roots’ 20 dispensaries throughout the state when you swing by to stock up on bud before the holiday.

Native Roots hopes to raise at least 5,000 pounds of food, to be distribut ed to Coloradans in need.

“The average person eats roughly three to fve pounds of food per day, which ends up at about 1.33 pounds per meal,” Zukowski says. “Based on those numbers, the Danksgiving food drive will provide one meal to 3,759 people.”

But the real hope is to provide more than one meal to the families this food drive serves, she

adds The goal is to stock these families’ and indi viduals’ pantries up, and secure food for them from November through December.

To pull off a food drive of this size, Native Roots needed help. The company researched nonprofits, Zukowski explains, and chose four they wanted to partner with: Emergency Family Assistance Association (a Boulder-based non profit working to ensure Boulder County families have access to food, housing and other resourc es), We Don’t Waste (a Denver-based nonprofit collecting unused food and distributing it to the city’s most vulnerable), The K.I.M. Foundation (a nonprofit assisting cancer survivors and sup porting local communities with food), and Care & Share Food Bank for Southern Colorado (a food bank distributing donations to 282 food pantry partners across 31 counties).

“Each of the four nonprofits will receive donations that come in from [Native Roots’] loca tions in their area, which will then be distributed by the nonprofit partner to their local communi ty,” Zukowski says. “Native Roots team members will also help hand out food on Dec. 6 at a We Don’t Waste Mobile Food Bank.”

Native Roots is also doing a fundraiser, on top of the food drive. On Tuesday, Nov. 29 they’ll be donating $1 from every transaction to We Don’t Waste, a nonprofit working to reduce hunger and food waste in Denver by recovering unused food from the food industry and deliver ing it to other nonprofit partners (i.e., food pan tries, soup kitchens, shelters, schools, daycare programs, etc.).

“Rising food costs have made it a challenge for Coloradans to get the nutritious food they need to grow, thrive, and stay healthy,” Zukowski says. “Now, more than ever, we want to support our communities by hosting food drives and boosting resources where they are needed most. Everyone should enjoy a special meal surrounded by loved ones during the holidays.”