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With just enough time to hold lease sales before leaving office, Trump admin seeks industry interest in ANWR by Angela K. Evans

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Can planting trees make a city more equitable? by Patrick Sisson, CityLab

Outside the boxes by Alex Sakariassen, The Montana Free Press

Gloria Allen is showing the world on Transgender Day of Remembrance that there is hope by Kate Sosin, The 19th

Lousville’s Punch Buggy Shave Ice turns to waffles for the winter by Matt Cortina

weed between the lines:

New research suggests cannabis can abate symptoms of OCD by 50%, offering potential alternative to antidepressants by Will Brendza

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departments 5 Guest Column: BLM abdicates obligation to manage wild horses 22 ‘Unhoused’ podcast: Episode 4 — Recognizing realities 22 Events: ‘Rocks Karma Arrows’ from Motus Theater, ugly sweater decorating, Small Business Saturday in Longmont and more 23 Heavy Rotation: Four new tracks to hear 24 Books: Learning to love sci-fi with Octavia E. Butler 25 Words: ‘Tierra Nueva’ by Robert Porath 26 Astrology: by Rob Brezsny 27 Film: Filmmaker Sara Sugarman on ‘Very Annie Mary’ 29 Food/Drink: What to try this week along the Front Range 31 Beer: Local brews (and one cider) for the holiday season 35 Savage Love: Blocked BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

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Publisher, Fran Zankowski Editor, Matt Cortina Circulation Manager, Cal Winn EDITORIAL Senior Editor, Angela K. Evans Arts and Culture Editor, Caitlin Rockett Contributing Writers, Peter Alexander, Dave Anderson, Emma Athena, Will Brendza, Rob Brezsny, Michael J. Casey, Sarah Haas, Jim Hightower, Dave Kirby, John Lehndorff, Rico Moore, Amanda Moutinho, Katie Rhodes, Leland Rucker, Dan Savage, Alan Sculley, Ryan Syrek, Christi Turner, Betsy Welch, Tom Winter, Gary Zeidner SALES AND MARKETING Market Development Manager, Kellie Robinson Account Executives, Matthew Fischer, Sami Wainscott Advertising Coordinator, Corey Basciano Mrs. Boulder Weekly, Mari Nevar PRODUCTION Art Director, Susan France Senior Graphic Designer, Mark Goodman Graphic Designer, Daisy Bauer CIRCULATION TEAM Dave Hastie, Dan Hill, George LaRoe, Jeffrey Lohrius, Elizabeth Ouslie, Rick Slama BUSINESS OFFICE Bookkeeper, Regina Campanella Founder/CEO, Stewart Sallo Editor-at-Large, Joel Dyer

November 26, 2020 Volume XXVIII, Number 15 As Boulder County's only independently owned newspaper, Boulder Weekly is dedicated to illuminating 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 queries to: editorial@ boulderweekly.com. Any materials sent to Boulder Weekly become the property of the newspaper. 690 South Lashley Lane, Boulder, CO, 80305 p 303.494.5511 f 303.494.2585 editorial@boulderweekly.com www.boulderweekly.com Boulder Weekly is published every Thursday. No portion may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher. © 2020 Boulder Weekly, Inc., all rights reserved.

Boulder Weekly welcomes your correspondence via email (letters@ boulderweekly.com) or the comments section of our website at www.boulderweekly.com. Preference will be given to short letters (under 300 words) that deal with recent stories or local issues, and letters may be edited for style, length and libel. Letters should include your name, address and telephone number for verification. We do not publish anonymous letters or those signed with pseudonyms. Letters become the property of Boulder Weekly and will be published on our website.

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

Bureau of Land Management abdicates obligation to manage our wild equines humanely by Scott Beckstead and Marty Irby

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e Americans are inspired by our wild horses. We marvel at the sight of them living wild and free on our public rangelands, of stallions fighting for their family bands, of newborn foals learning to stand for the first time, of herds on the move to their grazing grounds and water holes. These incredible animals are living symbols of the American West, of our connection to its vast, untamed rangelands, and of the role horses played in the building I

of our great nation. Decades ago, when the public learned that they were being abused, exploited and even killed by private profiteers, we rallied behind Congress to pass the Wild FreeRoaming Horses and Burros Act and cheered as our beloved wild horses moved into a new era, one in which they would be celebrated and protected. As a result of this new law, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) was charged with managing our wild horses and burros in a way that was humane and preserved their cherished place on our public rangelands. Wild horse advocates believed that protecting and guaranteeing these animals’ freedom would be job one for the agency. So now, 50 years later, where are we? In a word, we are lost. Abdicating its statutory mansee GUEST COLUMN Page 6

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date, the BLM accedes to the demands of for-profit interests, especially Big Ag and oil and gas, and conducts itself in a manner that betrays open disdain for our iconic wild equines, with an unwillingness to listen to the overwhelming majority of Americans, who want them to follow the law and do their job as Congress intended. The BLM has proven it cannot be trusted to do the right thing for the wild horses and burros, nor can it be trusted to tell the truth about the animals or its practices. The agency loves to proclaim in a full-throated way that there are too many horses and burros on our rangelands, without mentioning they occupy just a fraction of the lands the agency manages. The BLM describes a population of fewer than 100,000 wild horses as somehow constituting an “overpopulation” on the millions of square acres it manages, but without mentioning the millions of cattle and sheep that are overgrazing the range and damaging riparian areas. Public observers trying to watch and monitor the roundups and the conditions in the BLM’s barren feedlot holding facilities are thwarted time and again, even though it knows that the public has an established right under the First Amendment to have meaningful opportunity to watch and observe. The agency has long sought to engage in the harshest management practices at its disposal. Its leaders created an “Adoption Incentive Program” that has been abused by unscrupulous kill buyers who are paid $1,000 per horse or burro by the BLM, and who then, after the expiration of the required waiting period, take the horses to slaughter auctions — essentially doubling their money. The BLM knows this is happening but gives those kill buyers a wink and

nod because, after all, in the end it means fewer horses for the agency to have to care for. But it’s the image of BLM helicopters chasing and stampeding wild horses into traps that arouses the greatest public outrage. Unquestionably inhumane, the roundups cause tiny foals to be left behind and orphaned, mother/foal pairs left separated, horses left injured and killed when they panic inside the traps, proud and iconic stallions are taken from their families to be castrated and imprisoned, and enduring, multigenerational family bands are permanently separated. The American public hates the helicopter roundups, and the BLM knows it — indeed, how could it not, with the steady drumbeat of letters, emails and phone calls to the agency and to Congress demanding a better way? It would be one thing if the BLM were only using helicopters for emergency gathers, where the herds have truly grown in number to the point where they cannot be sustained, or where drought conditions have left them without adequate water or forage. But instead, the helicopter roundups have become the agency’s go-to, default tool for managing population growth. Indeed, ignoring the wishes of the public, the BLM has doubled down on its use of helicopter roundups in recent months to chase down and trap unprecedented numbers of wild horses and burros to clear our rangelands for livestock grazing, oil drilling and fracking. The agency just concluded the largest roundup in its history in Wyoming, removing some 2,000 animals and releasing just 90 back to the range, a number far too low to be genetically viable. In that operation, two helicopters tagteamed to chase wild horses to the

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THE BLM has proven

it cannot be trusted to do the right thing for the wild horses and burros, nor can it be trusted to tell the truth about the animals or its practices.

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point of utter exhaustion. The operation resulted in 10 horses killed in the traps or shot by the BLM because they were too old, too thin or had some other problem the agency would rather not have to deal with. For many years, the BLM has had the benefit of proven fertility control to help manage populations, yet still, after seeing how well immunocontraceptives work on other wild animal populations, the agency publicly disputes the effectiveness of fertility control and administers those measures as a token gesture. It has yet to fully implement fertility control in a consistent and uniform way, despite the enormous cost savings the agency would realize over the cost of helicopter roundups. The BLM’s calculus is simple: its leaders take their cues from groups like the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA). The NCBA represents wealthy ranching companies that resent wild horses for competing with cattle for forage. And now, the NCBA has allied itself with national animal groups like The Humane Society of the U.S., Humane Society Legislative Fund and ASPCA to promote the so-called “Path Forward,” a disastrous political handshake deal that is producing harsh, massive round-ups of wild horses and burros right now. Those big animal lobbying entities are now actively lobbying with the NCBA to deny funding for more fertility control, and to increase funding for roundups. But there is hope. In July, U.S. Reps. Steve Cohen (D-Memphis), Dina Titus (D-Las Vegas), Animal I

Wellness Action and other wild horse protection groups led the charge to successfully pass an amendment through the U.S. House that would require the BLM to utilize $11 million of its 2021 funding to implement immunocontraceptives in the field. The measure’s passage was a historical feat clearing the chamber by a voice vote. We’re now headed into the final battle in the 116th Congress and must secure the $11 million provision in the final yearend spending package that’ll be voted on in the coming weeks. We at Animal Wellness Action are committed to forcing the BLM to reform, and we are proud to stand not with the NCBA or the big animal lobbying entities, but with the advocates and the American public who are sick and tired of seeing those helicopters harassing our wild herds. Together we are fighting to bring the BLM to heel, to expose the lies of the NCBA and the broken promises made by the swampy big animal lobbying entities, and to give our wild herds the protection that Congress intended all those many years ago. Scott Beckstead is a lifelong horseman and the director of campaigns at Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy. Marty Irby is the executive director at Animal Wellness Action and an eight-time world champion equestrian. Follow him on Twitter @MartyIrby. This opinion column does not necessarily reflect the views of Boulder Weekly. BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

FROM THE BOTTOM OF OUR HEART, WE WANT TO THANK OUR COMMUNITY FOR SUPPORTING LOCAL BUSINESSES!

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

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PHOTOS BY WILL BRENDZA

Nothing is guaranteed

With just enough time to hold lease sale before leaving office, Trump administration asks fossil fuel companies to submit intent in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

by Angela K. Evans WITH THE BROOKS RANGE in the background, native caribou roam the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska.

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ossil fuel development in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) is one step closer to becoming a reality as of Nov. 17. With less than two months left in office, the Trump administration announced its intent to conduct a lease sale with a call for nominations so companies can indicate which parcels they are interested in developing despite the industry’s current financial turmoil and widespread public pressure to combat the climate crisis. The announcement comes with just enough time to meet federal regulations for public comment, while also holding the sale before president-elect Joe Biden is inaugurated in January. “What it looks like from my perspective is that [Secretary of the Interior] David Bernhardt is trying to throw as much sand in the gears as he can on his way out the door,” says Aaron Weiss, deputy director of Denver-based Center for Western Priorities (CWP), which has been unabashedly critical of Bernhardt’s Department of the Interior (DOI). Lease sales in the area have been teased for years (See News, “Drilling in an Arctic Eden,” Nov. 7, 2019), especially since an additional provision in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 authorized exploration and drilling. According to Bernhardt’s Interior, the “leasing program is required by law,” and this current push is by far the closest it’s come to actually occurring. At 19.6 million acres, roughly the size of South Carolina, ANWR was established by President Eisenhower in 1960 and to date is the largest parcel in the federal National Wildlife Refuge system. It’s largely roadless, undisturbed by human development and home to a diversity of animals including hundreds of bird species, caribou herds that migrate from Canada each year to calving grounds on the coastal plain and the endangered polar bear. “We’re concerned because the national wildlife refuge is one of the last intact pristine ecosystems in this country and even in the world,” says Mary Greene, public lands attor-

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ney with the National Wildlife Federation (NWF). “It provides habitat for numerous species, and oil and gas leasing is incompatible with what the refuge represents and what it preserves.” The drilling is proposed in a 1.56-million-acre coastal plain region, or about 8% of the refuge according to DOI. BLM estimates the area has up to 11.8 billion barrels of recoverable crude oil. In August, the NWF, as part of the consortium Trustees of Alaska, filed a lawsuit against Bernhardt, the BLM and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, charging the agencies violated a host of federal laws, including the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the Endangered Species Act, the National Wildlife Refuge Administration Act and the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act when finalizing the final environmental impact statement (EIS) that allows the lease sales to proceed. “Preferably you’d have the BLM waiting to see what happened with the litigation before offering new sales, because their future is not known right now,” Greene says. “If they lose the litigation, then they may be in the position of having given lease sales that are no longer viable.” But that’s not what’s happening with ANWR. The call for nominations announced on Nov. 17 initiated a 30-day public comment period in which comments have to be sent to Alaska’s BLM state director in Anchorage by mail. No electronic comments are allowed. “It’s pretty malicious,” Greene says. “It’s pretty much trying to do everything it can to cut the public out of this.” Although the date of the lease sale hasn’t been formally announced, it could come as early as Jan. 17 (30 days after the public comment period ends), squeezing it in just before the Trump administration leaves office a few days later. “They are doing this faster than I have ever seen. And absolutely the idea is to get this lease sale done before the new administration,” Greene says. Given the extent of development required, it’ll take at least a decade before any company actually extracts oil from ANWR, according to most estimates. Plus, the prospect comes at a time of uncertainty for the oil and gas industry. “The ANWR opportunity is more attractive to the historical standard model for oil exploration and production a decade ago,” says Morgan Bazilian, director of the Payne Institute for Public Policy at the Colorado School of Mines. “That model no longer exists.” For one, there’s mounting public pressure to move away from fossil fuel development in light of the climate crisis. A recent Yale and George Mason universities’ poll found that 67% of Americans oppose drilling in ANWR specifically. What’s more, financial institutions are facing similar pressure to divest from fossil fuel companies. Earlier this year, Morgan Stanley joined Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup in refusing to invest in Arctic drilling projects. BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

Where the oil companies were once “heavily supported both by Wall Street and by their shareholders,” Bazilian says, “both of those enabling environments are no longer there.” Add in historically low prices in the midst of a global pandemic and the demand outlook for the oil market is not bright. “While there will likely be a rebound from the lows due to the pandemic, the longer-term demand outlooks all show declines over the next decades — some, very substantial ones,” Bazilian says. Recent lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico, for example, have been scant, as fewer companies are bidding less. The Trump administration offered its final sale in the region on Nov. 18, leasing slightly more than half a million acres for $121 million. But as Sami Yahya, a senior energy analyst for S&P Global Platts Analytics, told the Texas Tribune: “Back in the 2014 era, we used to have billion-dollar auctions. We’re really scraping the bottom of the barrel here.” Applying this to ANWR, Weiss from CWP says, “Even if there are bidders on these lease sales, we could find them going very cheap because oil and gas companies know there are going to be a lot of barriers to actually drilling there, both regulatory and financial.” Still, the American Petroleum Institute said the ANWR lease sale and subsequent development in the region is “long overdue and will create goodpaying jobs and provide a new revenue stream for the state — which is why a majority of Alaskans support it,” according to several news outlets. (Alaskan support of drilling in ANWR is often cited by proponents of the plan, although it’s unclear where they get their data, and as stated earlier, the vast majority of Americans are against it.) There are several indigenous corporations eyeing parcels in ANWR for potential oil and gas development, despite vocal opposition from other native tribes like the Gwich’in. In October, the Kaktovik Iñupiat Corporation (KIC) applied for a seismic testing permit in the coastal plain, which could start as early as January, according to Greene, I

at great risk to winter polar bear dens. It still remains unclear, however, whether or not there will be financial backing to develop these fossil fuel prospects. “Looking at the oil and gas markets in general, I think we are in a framework of structural decline,” adds Kyle Tisdel, an attorney with the Western Environmental Law Center. “With the cost of oil and gas at what it is, it is a losing proposition to drill even in areas like the Permian Basin, which you think of as being sort of gang-

ANWR, as seen busters. The proposition that from a helicopter, you’re going to go move into “is one of the last ANWR, which has a far high- intact pristine ecosystems in the er cost per well, the economics country,” according of this are not favorable on to Mary Greene industry as a whole.” from NWF. The Law Center recently won an injunction on drilling in Wyoming after a federal judge ruled for the second time that the federal government didn’t adequately consider the indirect and cumulative climate impacts as required by NEPA when conducting lease sales on public lands. The lawsuit was filed back in 2016 challenging a handful of oil and gas sales in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming approved under the Obama administration. As a matter of process, the litigation started with 300,000 lease sales in Wyoming, before moving to the other states. In March 2019, a federal district court judge ruled in favor of environmental nonprofits, saying there were some core deficiencies in the government’s climate analysis. Essentially, “the federal government had to take a look at things at both a regional and a national scale,” Tisdel says. “You can’t look at a lease sale in isolation. This is obviously a part of a broader oil and gas leasing program. And so you’ve got to consee ANWR Page 10

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sider all of that together.” The Trump administration’s BLM was then required to do an EIS addressing the court’s concerns for the Wyoming lease sales, and voluntarily did so on the Colorado and Utah sales as well. But the agency rushed the process, Tisdel says, and the most recent legal win for environmental groups came on Nov. 13, when the courts ruled again that BLM did not sufficiently address climate change impacts in its supplemental EIS. “Because they rushed this analysis through, there were errors that were littered throughout the supplemental analysis in just simple math or failing to check themselves,” Tisdel says. Any single error could be overlooked, he continues, but the sheer number of mistakes amounted to a broad failure of the BLM in its analysis. Specifically, Tisdel says, the agency only accounted for accumulative emissions released by individual wells over one year, instead of the lifespan of the well and failed to consider other national and regional lease sales outside of Wyoming. “The coal, oil and gas emissions off our public lands together make up about 25% of annual U.S. emissions,” Tisdel says. “You start to aggregate or add these things up and you get to a very significant picture of what these emissions mean.” The agency also didn’t contextualize the raw emissions data to increase public understanding, similar to what has been done by the IPCC in its analysis of the climate crisis, he adds. This legal theory of cumulative climate impacts has also been successfully used in a number of cases across the country challenging other Trump administration-approved oil and gas leases, resulting in millions of acres of oil and gas leases that have been 10

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invalidated by the courts, Tisdel says. In Weiss’ estimation, Bernhardt’s Interior has cut corners to such a degree that it’s lost 70% to 80% of court cases when it comes to oil and gas development on public lands. It’s a track record that — combined with campaign promises from President-elect Biden — many hope will save ANWR should the lease sale go through before Trump leaves office. “This is another example of rather poorly designed and transacted policies by the Trump administration,” Bazilian says. “Any companies who do take leases understand that the Biden administration can take regulatory actions that make it very unattractive.” As part of Biden’s plan for a clean energy revolution and environmental justice, released in July, the president-elect vowed to permanently protect ANWR, while also banning new oil and gas permitting on public lands and waters. These measures could reduce the country’s greenhouse gas emissions 280 million metric tons or 5% by 2030, according to a 2018 study from the Stockholm Environment Institute that looked at the potential effects of a ban on new and renewed oil and gas leases on public lands. While these policies don’t go as far as outright banning fracking across the entire country, as suggested by the more progressive wing of the Democratic party in the Green New Deal, it would be a significant step in addressing the climate crisis. There’s still the fact, however, that developing oil and gas production in ANWR is part of federal legislation that can only change by an act of Congress, not the executive branch. “But I do think that under the Biden administration, they certainly start at the beginning and

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EVEN IF the lease conduct an EIS that is much sale goes through more substantial,” Greene says. before Biden takes Tisdel adds that even if the office, many hope his administration lease sales do go through, they will protect ANWR would only be conditionally from drilling as he promised in his granted, with the expectation campaign. that they comply with the law and a provision allowing the Interior Secretary to cancel them following environmental analysis. “I think, and certainly my hope would be, that we’re going to get a far more aggressive position on the management of our public lands and oil and gas leasing and development,” under Biden’s leadership, he says. Although, an incoming administration will also have to deal with significantly weakened NEPA regulations pushed through by Trump’s DOI (See News, “Death by a thousand cuts,” Jan. 16, 2020), which are still facing litigation. And ANWR is not the only area the Trump administration, under its energy dominance policy, is preparing for oil and gas lease sales. BLM has scheduled several other lease sales in New Mexico, California and the Eastern states before Trump leaves office, while also planning sales in a variety of regions in March, including in Colorado. Regardless of what Biden is able to reverse once he takes office, the climate crisis has only worsened in the last four years as public tolerance for inaction has waned. Many expect the new administration to take bold steps toward addressing climate change, while reversing much of the damage left in the wake of the Trump administration. But if history has taught us anything, it’s that nothing is guaranteed. BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

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Can planting trees make a city more equitable?

By Patrick Sisson, CityLab

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

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s the U.S. grapples with natural disasters and racial injustice, one coalition of U.S. cities, companies and nonprofits sees a way to make an impact on both fronts: trees. Specifically, they committed to planting and restoring 855 million of them by 2030 as part of the Trillion Trees Initiative, a global push to encourage reforestation to capture carbon and slow the effects of global heating. Announced on Aug. 27, it’s the first nationwide pledge to the program, and additionally noteworthy because the U.S. group — which includes Microsoft Corp. and Mastercard Inc. — will focus on urban plantings as means of improving air quality in communities that have been disproportionately affected by pollution and climate change. “We’re passionate about urban forestry and the goal of tree equity,” says Jad Daley, president and chief executive officer of American Forests, the longtime conservation group that’s helped organize the pledge. “It’s not just about more trees in cities. If you show me a map of tree cover in any city, you’re showing me a map of race and income levels. We see this as nothing less than a moral imperative.” While the urban commitments to trees make up a small fraction of the 855 million trees I

pledged thus far, they do represent a significant investment in greening urban America. Tucson, Arizona, will plant 1 million trees, with Mayor Regina Romero specifically calling out a commitment to “front-line and low-income communities.” Dallas is pledging more than 18 million trees, Detroit will plant 50,000 citywide, and Chicago promised to boost its tree canopy by 4%. Boise, Idaho’s, City of Trees challenge promises to add 335,000 new trees to the city’s landscape. The Arbor Day Foundation also pledged to plant 25 million trees in urban areas nationwide. Daley specifies that, like all commitments to the group, the urban pledges represent a combination of new plans and existing ones that have already been announced; the overall 855 million figure represents trees that participants have said will be “conserved, restored or grown” in the next decade. Urban forestry has become a popular part of initiatives to lower carbon emissions, fight air pollution and improve quality of life: Both the U.K. and Paris have also outlined significant initiatives. Research demonstrates the return on investment of such schemes, says Adrian Benepe, see TREE EQUITY Page 14

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It goes without saying that we would not be here without the support of our Boulder community. To express our gratitude, we’re on a mission to give away $100,000 in gift cards to our local frontline heroes and others impacted by the pandemic by the end of February. Want to help? For every $100 in gift cards you buy, we’ll give away $50 in gift cards. To learn more or to order gift cards, visit BoulderJapango.com/Grateful TREE EQUITY from Page 13

Thank you!

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currently vice president and director of national programs for the Trust for Public Land and a former New York City parks commissioner during the city’s MillionTreeNYC initiative. (Michael R. Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York and founder of CityLab owner Bloomberg LP, continues to support tree-planting initiatives through his philanthropic foundation.) A U.S. Forest Service study found that trees in urban areas reduce the energy spent on heating and cooling by 7%, or $7.8 billion annually. “It’s the fastest way that you can address not just mitigating climate change, but reversing it,” Benepe says. “There isn’t a machine invented that can suck down carbon better than trees.” The Trillion Trees initiative has come together fast; born during discussions in Davos last January, it immediately sparked “intense interest” in the U.S., says Daley, encouraging a diverse coalition to quickly move toward making an announcement. (One champion of the idea: Marc Benioff of Salesforce.com Inc.) But can a plan coming out of one of the most exclusive confabs in the world, a symbol of the elites, truly

deliver on its promise of both equity and environmental impact? Recent research shows that without an equity component, urban treeplanting efforts can fall short. While every tree certainly helps, advocates say they need to be part of a larger suite of actions, and shouldn’t be a reason to stop or stall efforts to reduce carbon emissions. To truly address climate change, large-scale plans like Trillion Trees must reach traditionally disinvested neighborhoods and communities that need cooling, shade and green space. But those leading such efforts also need to devote resources to managing and expanding urban forests — areas of denser woods, like those found in city parks and nature reserves. These provide more efficient carbon mitigation. “It’s not binary,” Benepe says. “Street trees and trees in forests have different advantages. Street trees provide cooling and carbon capture, and are especially positioned to capture particulate matter. For a real urban drawdown in emissions, preserving existing urban forests and expanding them can get more bang for the buck.” New research by the Natural

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Areas Conservancy, a New Yorkbased group focused on preserving and protecting urban forests, highlights just how much more efficient they can be at storing carbon. The roughly 6 million trees in New York City’s 7,300 acres of natural forested areas represent a quarter of the city’s tree canopy, due to their density, but they account for 69% of the stored carbon and 83% of the sequestered carbon across the city. (Think of stored and sequestered like a savings versus checking account, with stored representing more long-term carbon capture.) According to Clara Pregitzer, a conservation scientist with the Natural Areas Conservancy (NAC), this study underscores why urban forests, dense areas of native trees which provide such effective carbon mitigation, require more care and maintenance. NAC created a maintenance plan with the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation in 2018 focused on forested parkland, with a greater focus on supporting natural regeneration and lower-cost interventions such as clearing away vines and invasive species. The plan found the city’s parks at a tipping point; if the city didn’t invest in forest management and care, it could lose extensive amounts of stored carbon, setting back the larger goals of overall tree-planting initiatives. “Our urban forests are under a lot of stress,” Pregitzer says. “Similar to state parks, they’re dominated by old trees that need a lot of care, and it’s often thought that they can take care of themselves.” Sarah Charlop-Powers, the NAC’s executive director, believes the group’s research shows that an urban tree agenda should work on multiple fronts, with a focus on equity and climate. First, make sure to expand tree planting and shade in vulnerable neighborhoods, but also add a real focus on improving the management of natural areas, protecting them from development (between 2015 and 2019, Nashville lost 8,000 acres of natural area, and Houston lost 20,000, according to analysis of Trust for Public Land data) and funding efforts that make them more accessible to more residents, such as improving the trail system and wayfinding and investing in transit access. BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

“There’s lots of overcrowding in New York City parks right now, and we have 10,000 acres of natural area parkland that isn’t up to the task of accommodating people,” she says. “We have 1.7 million acres of these natural areas in the 100 largest U.S. cities. Think about all the people living in those cities that need the space to recreate outdoors. Think about all the mutual benefits.” In addition to maintaining existing urban forests in parks, cities should also focus on ways to increase dense tree cover outside of parklands, says Benepe. They can use areas such as abandoned railways, utility corridors and public right-ofways: Every bit counts, and “trees are pretty good at growing in inhospitable places.” In places like New York City, finding room for new, dense forests is increasingly challenging. But Pregitzer says in cities like Detroit, which has shrunk dramatically from a previously larger footprint, forests can be part of the answer to the question of how to reuse vacant space — as long as community members are directly involved and engaged in this process, and resources for a proper management plan are put in place. The U.S. commitment to the Trillion Trees pledge is a sign of the value being placed on trees; the true success of the initiative will be in how it strategically positions them. Participating entities need to submit data about their forestry practices, how the trees being planted will respond to climate change, and their community engagement plans, all of which will be reported annually and released as part of an annual report. American Forests is also developing a national tree equity score that factors in the heat island effect and neighborhood income levels, and can be used by cities and other groups to evaluate their work. Daley expects many more cities to come forward and join the movement; after all, at the local level, there are few actions governments can take that fight climate change, improve air and water quality, advance equity, and improve the mental health of citizens, all at once. “This isn’t about scenery,” he says. “This is about adding life-saving infrastructure for cities.” I

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s it does for most high schoolers today, Jocelyn’s world came at her in a rush. The early morning alarm gave way to the crush of classes, and that in turn to the flood of homework, a dizzying flurry of touchscreen activity running through it all like the unending connective sinew of 21st century life. Debilitating headaches and severe chest pains drove Jocelyn to the emergency room, but tests turned up no physical explanations for her symptoms. Her pediatrician, Dr. Robert Zarr with the Washington, D.C.-based practice Unity Health Care, determined Jocelyn’s panic attacks were rooted in stress. The solution he prescribed didn’t come in pill form, but rather in the shape of a hammock in her father’s backyard. The hammock time that led to the subsidence of Jocelyn’s panic attacks wasn’t just a casual recommendation from a doctor. Zarr sent her home with a literal prescrip-

tion including a dosage of 60 minutes, a frequency of once a week and a strict condition that Jocelyn take each dose sans digital devices. It wasn’t the first time he’s filled out a scrip for time outdoors, and it’s far from the last. Zarr has spent much of the past decade at the forefront of an international movement to tap the restorative powers of nature, helping to clear a path in the treatment of physical and mental illness that’s become all but overgrown since the advent of modern pharmaceuticals. And he’s adding trailside flourishes of his own along the way. Earlier this spring, Montana Free Press (MTFP) reported on the surge in outdoor recreation prompted by Montana’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, and how that surge spoke to the connection between wild spaces and mental health. The fact that social distancing and fear of disease transmission are taking a toll on people across the country is

Outside the boxes By Alex Sakariassen, The Montana Free Press

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abundantly clear, whether the news comes from the Centers for Disease Control as tips for coping with the pandemic or polling by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Speaking with MTFP in April, Whitefish therapist Sara Boilen speculated that the wave of pandemicinduced stress, anxiety, isolation and substance abuse would continue to wear on the public’s mental well-being for some time to come. We’re going to be processing the effects of this pandemic, Boilen said at the time, “for a while.” Predictions of a mental health crisis following on COVID-19’s heels present not only a challenge for the health care community, but an opportunity to explore seemingly less conventional options more fully. If an hour of hammock time once a week in an urban backyard can ease a 17-year-old’s panic attacks, what role might the West’s wealth of undeveloped public lands hold for a population looking to heal from social, financial and societal upheaval? “I see it as being foundational to our recovery, not just on a day-to-day level, but longer term as well,” says Florence Williams, author of the 2017 book The Nature Fix. “I think one thing we’re seeing is that people are appreciating that the outdoors is one of BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

the only safe places they can be, and that it’s in fact making them feel a lot better. These are ripple effects that are going to really last beyond the current crisis.” While Zarr’s experience bringing the outdoors into his exam room may seem novel at first, it’s just one example of a trend that’s gained traction in the United States over the past decade. In October 2013, California’s Institute at the Golden Gate, a conservation program run by the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, joined with local and national partners in the recreation, conservation and health care communities to develop a model for deploying parks as a physical and mental health intervention. That early experiment with park prescriptions led to the formation of the National Park Rx Initiative, a nonprofit and government agency collaborative designed to cultivate similar prescriptive park programs elsewhere in the country. According to Diane Mailey, director of Institute at the Golden Gate, the initiative’s first National Park Rx Census in 2018 revealed that in just five years 87 park prescription programs had taken root across 32 states, including Colorado and Montana. The terminology varies from place to place, with programs adopting titles such as “Outdoor Rx” or “Trail Rx,” and the depth of their efforts ranges widely. Mailey says the movement has also started to evolve beyond an initial focus on the physical health benefits of parks to incorporate the psychosocial benefits as well. “I think there is definitely growing evidence that the concept is working and it’s gaining momentum,” she says. “Although I would also say we have a ways to go before this could really be seen as some form of systemic change” in the health care industry’s approach to treatment. In other words, the concept of park prescriptions remains somewhat new, supported locally by community leaders and grassroots coalitions, but still faces financial hurdles and struggles to gain wider traction with insurance companies and policymakers. Zarr notes that funding continues to be a major issue for the D.C.-based nonprofit Park Rx America, which he founded in 2017 and serves as mediBOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

cal director. Even so, the organization has succeeded in registering 815 prescribers around the world, offering them an online platform to fill out digital outdoor prescriptions for patients exactly as Zarr did for Jocelyn. The platform serves a two-pronged purpose: to help overcome the potential “woowoo” reaction some doctors may have to elevating nature exposure to the same dose-and-frequency formulation as pharmaceutical medications, and to encourage patients to take the

park prescriptions. Numerous studies worldwide have provided compelling insights into the positive relationship between nature and human health, from reductions in negative emotional reflection after 90-minute walks in a green space near Stanford University to discoveries about the importance of the quality of the nature experience in promoting mental well-being. The latter study suggests that nature’s beneficial effects may vary depending on whether you’re in a backyard setting or a full-

recognized the potential of such programs, it is public land agencies and nonprofits that have so far led the park Rx charge. Zarr is in the early stages of a randomized controlled clinical trial now, though he acknowledges the results won’t be available for some time. He and others in the health care field are optimistic the results will reinforce what they have gleaned anecdotally in their exam rooms. “I have a young mom with anxiety who was having a lot of side

script more seriously than they might take a less formal recommendation. Despite Montana’s glut of public trails, rivers and forests, a demo of Zarr’s prescription platform showed only 16 prescribable parks and trails, all of them in the Bozeman area where the Bozeman Trails Rx program operates. The national Park Rx website lists a similar Trails Rx program in Livingston, as well as a statewide Montana Trails Rx program spearheaded by Bike Walk Montana, with both promoting healthier lifestyles with walking prescriptions. According to Zarr, there are currently two health care professionals registered with Park Rx America in Montana. One of the biggest obstacles to mainstreaming the movement is securing buy-in from health care professionals, who may be unconvinced of the legitimate health outcomes of

on forest environment. Such examinations, however, are scattered and predominantly smallscale, a point stressed by researchers at Appalachian State University in a 2019 review of park prescriptions published in the Journal of Leisure Research. That review stated that absent a randomized controlled clinical trial — the gold standard for establishing efficacy in medical literature — health care providers “may be extremely reluctant” to recommend nature as a medical intervention. According to the Park Rx Initiative’s 2018 census, a majority of the 71 responding park Rx programs reported working with multiple health care or social services professionals, but public health agencies were noted as leaders in less than 15% of those efforts. In other words, while some individuals in the health care sector have

effects to anxiolytic medication that I was prescribing, and so one day we tried our park prescription,” says Greg Anderson, a family medicine specialist with Family Care Network in Bellingham, Washington. “It really quickly stabilized her mood and she felt better, and she attributed a lot of her improved mood just to being outside walking with her family on a regular basis.” These U.S.-based anecdotes line up perfectly with what Williams discovered on the other side of the Pacific Ocean. In The Nature Fix, she discusses the Japanese notion of shinrin-yoku, or “forest bathing,” and the work of physical anthropologist Yoshifumi Miyazaki, vice director of the Center for Environment, Health and Field Sciences at Japan’s Chiba University.

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Since 2004, Miyazaki has studied physiological changes in hundreds of research subjects he’s taken on forest walks, recording significant decreases in heart rates and cortisol levels (the body’s natural alarm system) compared to those he’s taken on walks in urban areas. Miyazaki’s research, Williams writes, stems from the belief that because humans evolved in natural environments, nature is where we feel most comfortable. It’s still just a theory, known as “biophilia,” but it’s widely and strongly enough held that Japan’s ministry of agriculture, forestry and fisheries has invested $4 million in funding for shinrinyoku research since the early 2000s, lending institutional credence to a private initiative that has established 62 certified “forest therapy” sites across Japan over the past 14 years. When it comes to the “why” behind Japan’s efforts, Williams ties the motivation to some familiar problems: long work hours, intense educational and professional competition, a stubbornly high suicide rate, and the sometimes negative side effects of pharmaceutical interventions, which, based on Williams’ own experience with Zoloft, can include headaches, insomnia and lowered libido. “There’s so much in modern life that really taxes our nervous systems,” Williams says. “We spend so much time in modern life in our prefrontal cortex, the thinking and planning parts of our brains. We don’t spend very much time in our sensory brains. We don’t spend a lot of time paying attention to what we’re smelling and what we’re hearing, and our perceptual systems were really designed by evolution to hear sounds and [see] sights in nature, to sort of experience the senses in nature. So when we’re able to do that, even on a subconscious level it just makes us feel more relaxed and comfortable.” Anderson credits his introduction to the park prescription movement to friend and fellow outdoor enthusiast Todd Elsworth, executive director of the nonprofit Recreation Northwest. Elsworth had been inspired by Zarr’s nature prescription work and approached Anderson’s clinic hoping to find an Rx partner in Bellingham’s medical community. Now, some three years later, Anderson regularly discusses the outdoors with his patients, seamlessly working the topic into

conversations about possible health interventions. Anderson’s approach bears a striking similarity to how physicians began to incorporate new discoveries about the role of diet in health during the first decades of the 20th century — the so-called Golden Age of Nutrition. Anderson, whose work helped inform Recreation Northwest’s development of a Whatcom County-specific “parkscription” platform, is especially fond of citing a study linking visual exposure to morning sunlight with decreased stress and improved sleep to underscore the subtle ways in which human bodies react to the natural environment. Zarr and Anderson have also found that the concept of outdoor recreation as a health intervention is not only easy for patients to understand, but puts them at ease. “It’s almost universally accepted,” Anderson says. “And you compare that to trying to convince them to take a blood pressure pill — and nobody wants to take pills for blood pressure. This is the opposite of that. You get almost a surprised look on the patient’s face. It’s disarming, and you can have a pleasant conversation and you don’t feel so much like a salesman spouting statistics about statin therapy for cholesterol and blood pressure risk reduction.” Anderson came around quickly to the practice, partly due to his personal recreational predilections. But for doctors who don’t regularly prioritize time outdoors, he and Zarr understand that such prescriptions may seem utterly foreign. The health care community as a whole has yet to fully embrace nature exposure as a treatment option, and to create the systemic change Mailey hopes for, there needs to be a broader shift in the collective medical mindset — a shift that places engagement with nature on par with dietary, exercise-based and pharmaceutical interventions in a doctor’s toolbox. To that end, Zarr is developing a continuing education curriculum to give doctors, nurses and other health care professionals a path to expand their knowledge within the process of meeting the licensing renewal requirements of their respective states. He’s also given presentations on the topic to a number of organiza-

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tions around the U.S., and the story behind Jocelyn’s hammock-time prescription became the focus of a short documentary film released this year by the nonprofit Healthy U.S. Collaborative. “It’s really about asking the right questions in the right way and engaging your patient, asking them those important questions about where they feel comfortable and safe,” Zarr says. “And that’s going to change from day to day, person to person, visit to visit, and, as you would suspect, during COVID that’s now an even more important question.” On May 30, The Hill reported on how ill-prepared the U.S. is to meet an impending pandemic-induced mental health crisis, noting that the national Well Being Trust had recently predicted as many as 75,000 “deaths of despair” if pre-pandemic gaps in mental health and substance abuse services are not improved. The Washington Post similarly noted that the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s emergency hotline in April registered a 1,000% increase in activity over April 2019. This attention to the long-term public health effects of the coronavirus supports what a poll conducted in March by Montana State University already indicated: People are stressed, they’re anxious and they’re worried for themselves and others. While acceptance of the outdoors as a critical component in public health is widespread, efforts to promote nature as a medical intervention remain mostly piecemeal. Some insurance companies have offered support for the movement, as in the case of Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina, which is helping collect data on the effectiveness of park prescriptions for kids and offering financial incentives for prescribing physicians. State lawmakers in New York this year passed an Outdoor Rx Act designed to review and remove financial and institutional barriers facing military veterans who want to seek healing in nature. One of the bill’s chief sponsors, Assemblymember Didi Barrett, boasted to MTFP of her state’s abundant outdoor assets — the Adirondacks, the Catskills, the Hudson River, along with scores of beaches — but noted that during a meeting with stakeholders about the BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

Outdoor Rx Act, veterans advocates said they’d been unaware of a number of programs and discounts already offered for vets by various agencies. It seemed to Barrett as though everyone was operating “in their silo.” “I’m hopeful that this kind of a crisis, where everything gets put on the table, will be an opportunity for things that really do work to bubble up to the top,” Barrett says. Mailey, at the Park Rx Initiative, agrees that if there were ever a time to embrace the movement widely, it’s in the face of a looming mental health crisis. Nature prescriptions have long been seen as innovative, she says, “but I think in some way what the pandemic has revealed for us is that it’s not just about recreation, it’s really in some way about our survival. Having access to green space, it’s critical.” Williams fell into her booklength investigation of nature’s healing qualities the way many authors find their subjects: personal experience. After living in Montana and Colorado for more than 20 years, she found her new environment in D.C. to be noisy and frantic. It was as if a “stress bomb” had gone off in her brain, she says, and she began exploring the ways in which landscapes affect people for Outside magazine. Her research led her to Japan and its popular practice of forest bathing, then to other study sites around the globe. Observing the stressors triggered by today’s pandemic, Williams is reminded of a theory she encountered while working on The Nature Fix, one that builds on the idea underpinning Miyazaki’s research. It’s known as “urgent biophilia,” and posits that when humans are faced with crisis, the impulse to seek comfort in nature is exponentially heightened. That inclination can have a profoundly positive influence not just on individuals, but on the communities to which they belong. “So often after devastating tornadoes and hurricanes, communities will come together and build parks and plant trees,” Williams says. “It’s this community effort that I think gives people a lot of hope because of the messages and metaphors in nature. It’s where we find resilience. It’s where we take comfort in the cycles of life. And it’s where we can build our health back up.” I

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FROM ‘MAMA GLORIA’

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ia had read the statistics: The life expectancy for Black transgender women was between 30 to 35 years. So when she was 15, Gia started telling her mom that her life was halfway over. Luchina Fisher was stunned. “When she was mustering the courage to tell us that she was trans, she turned to YouTube, like so many kids do,” Fisher told The 19th. “And all she saw were mostly negative depictions.” Gia is hardly alone in this experience. With a lack of resources at schools and home, many trans kids discover the transgender community through social media like Instagram and TikTok, where many share that their family and friends have rejected them. Often they first meet other transgender people at a Transgender Day of Remembrance event, an observance held every Nov. 20 in cities across the world honoring trans murder victims. Annually, almost all of the victims are trans women of color like Gia. And this year isn’t offering any reprieve: With a month left to go, 37 transgender people have been slain in 2020, making it the deadliest on record for transgender people; 2017 previously held that ominous record with 31 murders, according to the Human Rights campaign. This year, however, the Transgender Day of Remembrance was different for Gia and her mother. Fisher had just released her film Mama Gloria, a documentary about 75-year-old Gloria Allen, a Black trans woman in Chicago who has defied the statistics that Gia and so many trans youth may have felt were inevitable. Allen has lived her life unapologetically, embraced and supported by her family, and she has shepherded countless youth through their own transitions as an advocate working at Chicago’s largest LGBTQ+ community center. Fisher found Allen through E. Patrick Johnson, a renowned LGBTQ+ professor at Northwestern University, who suggested that Fisher ghostwrite Allen’s memoir. Fisher, who lives in Connecticut, happened to be Chicago-bound with Gia for an event for trans youth when she learned of Allen’s story a few years ago. Fisher is a veteran journalist and filmmaker, and she has written and produced a number of documentary films and TV segments. When she met Allen, she knew right away her story could not be confined to a book. She was astounded no one had made a documentary about her. “It was instant kismet,” Fisher said. “We just could relate to one another. I think for me, it was really seeing this relationship she had with her mother. I knew how special that was to her, what that meant to her in her life, and how it carried her through her life. I have that relationship with my daughter.” And Allen’s uplifting message is needed more now

As transgender people mark deadliest year on record, one elder fights for the living

terrorized her for half of it, beating her relentlessly if he found an undusted surface in the house. She said she finally left after he tried to kill her. “I hit walls that were up against me, but I pressed through the walls and made myself known to everybody because I’m not ashamed, and I want people to know that,” she told The 19th. These are the stories she passes along to trans youth today. Allen made a career as a licensed practice nurse at the University of Chicago, but her life’s calling was perhaps in her work with youth at Chicago’s LGBTQ+ organization the Center on Halsted. The Center, which shares its lobby with the dining area of the adjoining Whole Foods, is one of few indoor places in the city where LGBTQ+ homeless youth can sit for free without a time limit. It’s also a favorite place for LGBTQ+ seniors in the neighborhood to have lunch, which is where Allen first conceived of her now-famous “charm school.” The idea came to her over lunch one day with some friends, she said. The lobby is often bustling with the chatter of young people, and as Allen was eating her lunch she noticed a group of “rowdy” trans teens “exposing themselves” and causing a scene. “I went over to them, and I told them they need to behave and be ladylike,” she said. She told them to go clean up and not to come back until they had put on something decent. That’s when, she said, a bell went off in her head. “They need some charm.” Allen decided she would teach these young kids manners. She thought about how her mother, grandmother and aunt had helped her navigate femininity, and decided she could do the same with some good oldfashioned lessons in “charm.” She took the idea to the Center’s youth director. The Center’s CEO Modesto Tico Valle signed off on the program. Allen didn’t just teach the youth about manners, but about hormones, safe sex, makeup, drugs, alcohol and self-esteem. She talked about navigating healthy relationships and preparing for gender-affirming surgery. Boystown, the city’s gay enclave, offered myriad programming and resources for LGBTQ+ youth in the early 2010s. In addition to the Center, homeless service provider the Night Ministry operated a drop-in shelter. Howard Brown, the city’s queer health provider, was running a host of youth programs out of its Broadway Youth Center. But charm school was unique, because Allen wasn’t a counselor or service provider. She was, as many in the queer community put it, “chosen family.” “It’s so antiquated,” said Fisher, laughing. “Manners? Really? When you need a home or a bed? But, you know, it’s not about manners. It’s about love. It’s about somebody who hears these kids and loves them for who they are. It’s about caring, mothering.” Charm school undoubtedly inspired the youth that

Gloria Allen is showing the world on Transgender Day of Remembrance that there is hope

by Kate Sosin, The 19th

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than ever. “This is the film that I wanted Gia to be able to see before,” Fisher said. “But it’s also the film she needs to see now as she’s growing up and is about to enter the world on her own, to know that she can have a long, meaningful life like Gloria — that things don’t have to end in violence.” Allen grew up in the 1950s in Chicago and came out as transgender in the days of the Stonewall uprising. The love from Allen’s family was unfaltering. Before Allen came out, her mother — who suspected Allen might be sneaking into her closet to try on clothes — hinted over the dinner table that another woman must be in the house. As Allen took the first steps toward embracing her femininity, the women in the family coached her. “I had my mother and grandmother and great aunt there for me,” Allen told The 19th. “I was glad that these women were so strong. And so caring about me.” Allen’s mother was by her side when she recovered from gender-affirming surgery. Allen and her cousins, still close, are now navigating aging together. Even her extended community — her high school friends, including her prom date — remain in her life. In Mama Gloria they repeatedly state that she was always Gloria, even before she told them she was. Allen’s life was not without turmoil. Other kids teased her relentlessly. During her sophomore year of high school, four boys followed her home from a theater and abducted and raped her. Early in her transition she fell in love and moved in with a man Allen described as “beautiful,” but dangerous. The two spent a decade together, and Allen said he

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Allen worked with, but the program had a further-reaching impact than Allen intended. In 2012, Chicago Tribune reporter Dawn Turner Trice profiled Allen and her program. The article inspired Philip Dawkins’ play Charm. In 2017, celebrated actor Sandra Caldwell auditioned for the part of Mama Darleena, the lead based on Gloria. It was Caldwell’s first audition as an out transgender woman — and she got the part. Fisher’s film is an antidote to an otherwise bleak year for transgender Americans, who are facing staggering rates of violence and still reeling from four years of policy rollbacks under the Trump administration. Human Rights Campaign President Alphonso David said his organization has been recording transgender homicides since 2013. “This year, we reached two grim milestones — the Human Rights Campaign has recorded the most deaths of transgender and gender non-conforming people of any year since we began tracking this violence, and we have documented more than 200 total deaths,” David said in a statement to media. Experts are unclear why this year’s violence has hit an all-time high, said Christina DeJong, an associate professor at Michigan State University who studies violence against transgender people. The nonpartisan Council on Criminal Justice found that homicide rates among the general population spiked dramatically as the pandemic set in; killings rose by as much as 37% in cities from May to June. Transgender murders followed that trend, with 10 murders spread out across less than 60 days. Those homicides, however, also follow another pattern that has long troubled advocates. June, historically celebrated as Pride Month, often sees an uptick in hate crimes against LGBTQ+ people. Last year, when celebrations honored the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising, the New York City Anti-Violence Project reported that transgender homicides tripled. In 2019, antiLGBTQ+ protests soared in what the organization feared was a backlash against queer visibility. Conversely, the pandemic in 2020 has forced many transgender people into the shadows, said Zahara Green, executive director of the trans advocacy nonprofit TRANScending Barriers Atlanta. “A lot of trans people are working in service work, and a lot of them have BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

TRADITIONAL VIETNAMESE PHO HOUSE

been laid off and been terminated from their positions, and they’re unable to find work,” Green said. “That often leads to being in the underground economy. That often leads to dealing with homelessness and dealing with a host of issues.” Even before the pandemic, transgender people faced three times the unemployment rate as the general population, according to the 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey. Green said COVID-19 has exacerbated that inequality and pushed transgender women of color, in particular. But the big question, and one of critical importance, is why gender and race are such a particularly dangerous intersection for Black trans women. This year, Black women make up two-thirds of the victims, according to data from the Human Rights Campaign. People of color make up 78% of the total victims for the year. “That, to me, as a researcher, is the overwhelming part, that so many of these victims are women of color,” she said. “What are the factors that really lead to that? How does their race increase their risk so much that we so rarely see trans white women who are murdered?” Green is asking another question this year: How, when you have to honor so many dead, can you support those living? “I think it’s nice to see these great stories of what’s happening around the world,” Green said. “But I think it was also important to point out that it’s not enough to address this issue.” In Mama Gloria that balancing act is present throughout the film. In all her success, Allen still cleans houses to get by. She lives in senior housing in the literal shadow of The Center. She’s on a fixed income. “She definitely didn’t live a charmed life,” Fisher concludes. “And yet, she lives with such joy and optimism for where she is now and her future. She’s always planning. She’s got things she wants to still achieve and places she wants to live and things she wants to do. She’s not stopped living.” At a Transgender Day of Remembrance event in Chicago, a young person introduced Allen. “As the cliché saying goes, you cannot know where you’re going until you know where you’ve been,” the youth said. Allen stepped up and gave her own intro. “I’m known as Mama Gloria,” she said. “And I’ve been here since the prehistoric existence.” This story was originally published by The 19th at 19thnews.org. I

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events

If your organization is planning an event of any kind, please email Caitlin at crockett@boulderweekly.com. ‘UNHOUSED’ EPISODE 4: “RECOGNIZING REALITIES.”

The increased visibility of street homelessness as a result of the coronavirus pandemic has motivated a wave of new conversations about the feasibility of sanctioned encampments in Boulder and elsewhere. The idea of a sanctioned campground for the unhoused is one that’s been loudly and routinely rejected by the larger Boulder community for decades. Concentrated public pressure has even motivated elected officials to move in the opposite direction, creating stricter anti-encampment policies over the years. But in a city where there are no day shelters, and the number of nighttime shelter beds have been reduced over the course of the last year while the criteria for who is eligible to sleep in those beds has also narrowed, many unhoused individuals feel they have no choice but to sleep outside. Homeless advocates have long argued a reliable and indiscriminate space for people to rest would go a long way in reducing the number of random camps that pop up in downtown Boulder. And sanctioned encampments are used elsewhere in the country, with dozens created to support the growing unhoused populations since the coronavirus pandemic began. Join host Emma Athena as she analyzes how COVID-19 has changed the conversation around homelessness solutions in Unhoused, a new podcast from Boulder Weekly and KGNU. Episode 4, “Recognizing realities” is available this week. Find it at boulderweekly.com or wherever you get your podcasts.

ROCKS KARMA ARROWS: A MULTIMEDIA THEATRE PRESENTATION.

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Through Dec. 13, boulderpottersguild.org Join the Boulder Potters’ Guild as it hosts its first ever online show and sale. About 20 members of the Boulder Potters’ Guild will be showing and selling their recent work online through their websites. The show will include functional, decorative and sculptural ceramic work as well as jewelry, fused glass objects, hand-painted silk scarves and embossed note cards. This sale is a great opportunity to support local artists, purchase gifts for the upcoming holidays, and connect virtually with the Boulder Potters’ Guild community.

UGLY SWEATER DECORATING DIY CLASS & FUNDRAISER FASHION SHOW.

6 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 10, firehouse.org. This holiday season, Firehouse Art Center is getting creative with its virtual event offerings. Join Firehouse Executive Director Elaine Waterman for a free livestream DIY Sweater Decorating class on Dec. 10, where she’ll decorate a holiday sweatshirt with viewers at home and spread the seasonal cheer. Before Dec. 9, purchase a Holiday Sweatshirt Making kit for $15 (or $35 to include a sweatshirt) with pom poms, glitter and other fun decorative supplies. Kit fees include the $5 entry fee for the virtual Ugly Sweater Fundraiser Fashion Show on Dec. 17 at 6 p.m. You can also pay $5 directly to enter your own creation. This live online event will connect the community with past artists, art students and the Firehouse Art Center family. Throughout the event, photographs of your ugly holiday sweaters will be shown for the fundraiser, allowing viewers and participants to vote on best design, ugliest design, most colorful and best family picture. Donate $1 for each vote, enter to win fabulous prizes and help support local art and culture. —Katie Rhodes

COURTESY MOTUS

6 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 29, motustheater.org. On the 156th anniversary of the Sand Creek Massacre, Motus Theatre has partnered with the Native American Rights Fund to present a free livestream of the award-winning 2009 film Rocks Karma Arrows. A poignant multimedia contemporary theater experience, this film explores the history of the Sand Creek Massacre and its pivotal role in the founding of Boulder County. Using historical photographs and film to see Boulder’s history through the lens of race and class, this film incorporates first-hand accounts of the massacre with commentary from local historians to create a well-rounded picture of the events and time period. While the immersive experience of this production isn’t available on-location due to COVID-19, Motus will let viewers be swept back to 1864 from the comfort of their homes. Educating the community on Boulder’s history and offering them the opportunity to reckon with its bloody past, this film also encourages viewers to come together and look forward into a more peaceful and equitable future. —Katie Rhodes

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BOULDER POTTERS’ GUILD 2020 FALL ONLINE SHOW AND SALE.

NOVEMBER 26, 2020

BLACK FRIDAY, SMALL BUSINESS SATURDAY AND ARTISTS SUNDAY IN LONGMONT.

COURTESY DOWNTOWN LONGMONT

Nov. 27, 28 and 29, Downtown Longmont, downtownlongmont.com. Put on your mask and support local small businesses and creatives in Longmont this holiday season. In Downtown Longmont, beginning on Friday, Nov. 27, there will be ice-carving demonstrations and photo opportunities in St. Stephen’s Plaza; street performers and entertainment; and prizes and giveaway drawings, all to enjoy while you pop into local stores to grab gifts for loved ones. On Artists Sunday, you can visit artisan pop-ups in businesses throughout Downtown Longmont and leave with some perfect handcrafted goods and gifts.

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BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

heavy

“SUITE POUR L’INVISIBLE,” ANA ROXANNE

rotation

The experience of identifying as intersex informs L.A.-based Ana Roxanne’s sophomore album, Because of a Flower. She opens the album with an exploration of dualism (“these two have joined, and bound at their juncture has come a third”) and later on seemingly uses water as a metaphor for the mutability of gender. The lyrics are sparse and never heavy-handed, often fading into droning wordlessness that allows these ambient tracks to transport the listener on their own out-of-body experience. Otherworldly vocals and a barely-there guitar melody make “Suite Pour L’invisible” more meditation than song — a perfect escape from 2020.

Four new tracks to hear

by CAITLIN ROCKETT

“CARDBOARD CASTLE,” NANA ADJOA

Driven by a moody, lower-register piano melody and eventually giving way to an anguished, Reznor-esque guitar riff, “Cardboard Castle” is perhaps the moodiest track on Dutch-Ghanaian multi-instrumentalist Nana Adjoa’s debut album, Big Dreaming Ants. As an American, it’s difficult not to think of the current state of politics when listening to “Cardboard Castle”: “Words bend / Coming out of your mouth / Bullshit / Through the tourist route / A dissonant chord / Your battle sound / Your last reward / Has been handed out / Your cardboard castle is coming down.” But the tenor of Adjoa’s album is one of hope, even in a track as brooding as “Cardboard Castle” — you reap what you sow, so plant mindfully.

“WE BUILD OUR HOUSES WELL,” RACHEL DADD, ROZI PLAIN, KATE STABLES (THIS IS THE KIT)

If you’re finding it hard to get into the holiday spirit this year, see if this track by folk multi-instrumentalist Rachael Dadd and friends can warm your cold heart. Dadd and a whole cadre of friends (including bassist Rozi Plain and banjoist Kate Stables) eschew the chintzier trappings of traditional holiday music (no bells or French horns here) and home in on a sensation of togetherness. Dadd slowly builds a choir, layering vocal tracks over a lilting piano melody warmed by thoughtful touches of clarinet, harp and trumpet. The lyrics cut to the heart of our seasonal celebrations: “We build our houses well / Things cooking in the kitchen ... We like to do our own thing / We clear a space for dancing / We sing, we sing / And the whole house makes a choir.” The track is featured on indie record label Memphis Industries’ holiday box set Lost Christmas. (A portion of proceeds from album sales go to the Home For All Campaign, providing support to those experiencing homelessness in the U.K.)

“PAID THE RENT / GOING OUT,” AUGENWASSER

Swiss musician Elias Raschle takes on the guise of Augenwasser (German for eyewash) for his newest solo release, Sleepdancer. In this minimalist breakdown, Raschle grapples with selfworth, penning what feels like an anthem for 2020: “Paid the rent and counted the days spent in a haze / Counting the times I’ve fought off the doubt / And told myself I’m allowed / I’ve paid my dues / Now how to get rid of these blues? / I’m going out / Going out / Going out of my head / I’m going out / Going out / Going out of my body.” see EVENTS Page 24

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

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books

EVENTS from Page 23

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HOMEVIEWING

Learning to love science fiction with Octavia E. Butler by Angela K. Evans

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lmost two decades ago, my sister gifted me Octavia E. Butler’s Kindred for Christmas and I admit I was skeptical. My preference for nonfiction and magical realism in a family of avid sci-fi and fantasy readers means that I often can’t finish recommended books from relatives. I enjoy the genre in movies and television, but often become disinterested reading it on the page. But I promised to give Kindred a chance, and I’m glad I did. It follows a young black woman in an interracial marriage through time travel back to the Antebellum South, where she’s tasked again and again with saving the life of the plantation owner, also her ancestor, who eventually takes one of his slaves as his mistress. Challenging her readers to reckon with America’s history, Kindred introduced slavery into science fiction, as she draws on elements of African and African American mysticism and mythology in all her work. It took me years to pick up another one of Butler’s books, still skeptical of the genre, but intrigued by the concept behind Parable of the Sower, the first of two books in the Earthseed series. In some ways a precursor to recent bestsellers like Hunger Games and Divergent, Butler’s Parable follows a young girl in the post-apocalyptic, climate-destroyed world of the 2020s as she leaves the tribalism and safety of her neighborhood to head north, attracting others — the outcast, the vulnerable, the lonely — on the journey. Possessed with hyperempathy — or the ability to physically, viscerally, feel others’ pain and sensations — she becomes the de facto leader of the group as she develops a wholly new belief system (Earthseed) to prepare the group for life on another planet. Although she personally disliked being called a prophet, Butler’s work is prescient, warning us about human impacts on the changing climate and the leaders we’ve chosen, while urging mutual and communal reliance despite complex differences. Her characters are deeply human — fallible, resilient, nuanced. Her stories expansive and evocative. In 1995, she became the first science-fiction writer to receive a MacArthur Fellowship, or “Genius Grant,” setting the stage for the many who have followed. Throughout her career, Butler won multiple Hugo and Nebula awards, recognizing her contribution to the science-fiction genre. Just this summer I found another trilogy of hers, Lilith’s Brood, at a small gift and coffee shop in Salida on the shelf next to this year’s required reading like Me and White Supremacy and How to be an Anti-Racist. As the state begins to shut down again this fall, I’ve been lost in the world of the Oankali: unearthly beings, extraterrestrials, who rescued Lilith, along with hundreds of other humans, from Earth 250 years ago following nuclear destruction. Now on the Oankali’s living ship, the humans, led by Lilith, are being prepared to repopulate the Earth by mixing genetically with the empathetic and healing beings whether they want to or not. A treatise on human transformation, it’s mesmerizing, haunting, visionary. Thanks to Butler, I guess I’m a sci-fi reader after all.

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Refugee-pers Creepers

‘His House’ is a very, very, very fine house

Ryan Syrek

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he most satisfying response to a horror movie scare is not a jump, a shriek or a recoil. It is a verbal “Nope!” It is that one-sided dialogue in which an audience member declares “Nuh-uh” in response to a scene of pure terror, as if to say, “I do not agree with you that I am seeing what I am seeing.” Writer/director Remi Weekes’ His House is at least a quadruple “No thank you please” recipient. Without ever sinking to the depths of a single, manipulative jump scare, the relentlessly chilling film repeatedly tells you — in no uncertain terms — that something absolutely panic-inducing is about to happen. Then that thing happens. Then you say, “Absolutely not.” The most insane thing? The fact that this film is the year’s scariest is not anywhere near its best feature. His House operates from the underlying fundamental principle that made Get Out brilliant: It literalizes a real-world social horror. In this case, the brutality of assimilation experienced by refugees, as well as the PTSD that haunts them, is made supernaturally manifest. Bol (Sope Dirisu) and Rial Majur (Wunmi Mosaku) escaped South Sudan only to find themselves held in a lingering detention in England. Out of the blue, they are told they will be released, given a wickedly meager weekly allowance, and must reside in a demon-filled hell house or they’ll be kicked out of the country. OK, so the bureaucrats don’t specifically say that Satan is the landlord of the decrepit manor the Majurs will be forced to live inside. But that is totally Beelzebub’s property. The first night, Bol hears things inside the walls, so he reaches his hand in there. Shockingly, things do not get better from there! His House is a Russian-nesting-doll of terrors; every layer unpacks a fresh-and-awful trauma and at least one level reveals a legitimately shocking plot point. Working from a story by Felicity Evans, Weekes’s film inverts the grotesque attempts by certain politicians to reposition refugees as the monsters. If fleeing from genocide is too abstract to trigger some folks’ empathy toward these tortured people, chances are high that seeing a “night witch” do some icky boogey woogie to them isn’t going to awaken them from their moral coma. Still, seeing their struggle play out in hyperbolic, mythological fashion somehow legitimizes their plight. All that said, if you want to chuck social responsibility and being a good person out the window, His House can be enjoyed as nothing more than a bangin’ haunted house jam. The cinematography by Jo Willems is often downright poetic, the acting is multiple light years beyond most performances in this genre, and it is jam-packed with so much “Nope” that you absolutely should say “Yes.” This review first appeared in The Reader of Omaha, Nebraska.

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BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

Tierra Nueva

by Robert Porath In this random pick-up-sticks, double helix Melting pot amalgam and gene pool diaspora Of multiracial physiognomy, skin color, And multilingual saga, rhythm, and song Of European, African, Asian, Semitic, And Native Peoples world and voice That is La Tierra Nueva, Las Americas, What is it, here today, to be a person, To be, certifiably, a human being, And can we, that being, intervene Upon our predisposed tribal fears, Prejudice, and self judgement of value And humanity based on heritage, Wealth, gender, and skin tone? Are we, the People, This mixed breed Born of diversity, Are we to be deemed A rich tapestry Or merely a tattered, Battle-torn crazy quilt? History is waiting to see.

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BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

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reviewing in detail the various historical threads that give such rich meaning to your web of life.

BY ROB BREZSNY ARIES

MARCH 21-APRIL 19: “A little too much is just enough

for me,” joked poet and filmmaker Jean Cocteau. I suspect that when he said that, he was in a phase similar to the one you’re in now. I bet he was experiencing a flood of creative ideas, pleasurable self-expressions and loving breakthroughs. He was probably right to risk going a bit too far, because he was learning so much from surpassing his previous limitations and exploring the frontiers outside his comfort zone. Now here’s your homework, Aries: Identify two actions you could take that fit the profile I’ve described here.

TAURUS

APRIL 20-MAY 20: Biologists believe that no tree can

grow more than 436 feet tall. As much as an individual redwood or spruce or mountain ash might like to sprout so high that it doesn’t have to compete with other trees for sunlight, gravity is simply too strong for it to pump enough water up from the ground to its highest branches. Keep that in mind as a useful metaphor during the next 10 months, Taurus. Your assignment is to grow bigger and taller and stronger than you ever have before — and know when you have reached a healthy level of being bigger and stronger and taller.

GEMINI

MAY 21-JUNE 20: I haven’t felt the savory jolt of

bacon in my mouth since I was 15, when I forever stopped eating pigs. I still remember that flavor with great fondness, however. I’ve always said I’d love to find a loophole that would allow me to enjoy it again. And then today I found out about a kind of seaweed that researchers at Oregon State University say tastes like bacon and is healthier than kale. It’s a new strain of a red marine algae called dulse. If I can track it down online, I’ll have it for breakfast soon. I bring this to your attention, Gemini, because I suspect that you, too, are primed to discover a fine new substitute — something to replace a pleasure or resource that is gone or taboo or impossible. What could it be?

JUNE 21-JULY 22: By age 49, Cancerian author

Norman Cousins had been struck with two debilitating diseases. His physicians gave him a one-in-500 chance of recovery. He embarked on a series of unconventional attempts to cure himself, including “laugh therapy” and positive self-talk, among others. They worked. He lived lustily for another 26 years, and wrote several books about health and healing. So perhaps we should pay attention to his belief that “each patient carries his own doctor inside him” — that at least some of our power to cure ourselves resides in inner sources that are not understood or accredited by traditional medicine. This would be a valuable hypothesis for you to consider and test in the coming weeks, Cancerian. (Caveat: But don’t stop drawing on traditional medicine that has been helping you.)

LEO

JULY 23-AUG. 22: In accordance with astrological

rhythms, I’m giving you permission to be extra regal and majestic in the coming weeks. You have a poetic license to be a supremely royal version of yourself, even to the point of wearing a jeweled crown and purple silk robe. Would you prefer a gold scepter with pearls or a silver scepter with rubies? Please keep in mind, though, that all of us non-Leos are hoping you will be a noble and benevolent sovereign who provides enlightened leadership and bestows generous blessings. That kind of behavior will earn you the right to enjoy more of these lofty interludes in the future.

VIRGO

AUG. 23-SEPT. 22: In the coming weeks, I will refer

to you as The Rememberer. Your task will be to deepen and refine your relationship with the old days and old ways — both your own past and the pasts of people you care about most. I hope you will take advantage of the cosmic rhythms to reinvigorate your love for the important stories that have defined you and yours. I trust you will devote treasured time to

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SEPT. 23-OCT. 22: “Those who build walls

are their own prisoners,” wrote Libran author Ursula K. Le Guin. She continued, “I’m going to fulfill my proper function in the social organism. I’m going to unbuild walls.” I hope that sounds appealing to you, Libra. Unbuilding walls is my first choice for your prime assignment in the coming weeks. I’d love to see you create extra spaciousness and forge fertile connections. I’ll be ecstatic if you foster a rich interplay of diverse influences. If you’re feeling superplucky, you might even help unbuild walls that your allies have used to half-trap themselves.

SCORPIO

OCT. 23-NOV. 21: “If you can’t help me grow, there’s

no point with you being in my life.” Singer and actress Jill Scott said that. In my view, Scorpios may be the only sign of the zodiac that can assert such a sentiment with total sincerity and authority. For many of the other tribes, it might seem harsh or unenforceable, but for you it’s exactly right — a robust and courageous truth. In addition to its general rightness, it’s also an especially apt principle for you to wield right now. The coming weeks will be a potent time to catalyze deep learning and interesting transformations in concert with your hearty allies.

SAGITTARIUS

NOV. 22-DEC. 21: “You live best as an appreciator

of horizons, whether you reach them or not.” Those words from poet David Whyte would be a perfect motto for you to write out on a piece of paper and tape to your bathroom mirror or your nightstand for the next 30 years. Of all the tribes in the zodiac, you Sagittarians are most likely to thrive by regularly focusing on the big picture. Your ability to achieve small day-by-day successes depends on how well you keep the long-range view in mind. How have you been doing lately with that assignment? In the coming weeks, I suspect you could benefit from hiking to the top of a mountain — or the metaphorical equivalent — so you can enjoy seeing as far as you can see.

CAPRICORN

DEC. 22-JAN. 19: Sensible Capricorn author E. M. Forster

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(1879–1970) said, “Passion does not blind. No. Passion is sanity.” That’s the opposite of what many poets and novelists have asserted down through the ages, which is that passion isn’t truly passion unless it renders you half-crazy, driven by obsession, and subject to delusion and irrationality. But in offering you counsel in this horoscope, I’m aligning myself with Forster’s view. For you in the coming weeks, Capricon, passion will help you see clearly and keep you mentally healthy.

AQUARIUS

JAN. 20-FEB. 18: Alpine swifts are small birds that

breed in Europe during the summer and then migrate long distance to Africa for the winter. Ornithologists were shocked when they discovered that at least some of these creatures fly for more than 200 days without ever once landing on the ground. They’re not always flapping their wings — sometimes they glide — but they manage to do all their eating and drinking and sleeping and mating in mid-air. Metaphorically speaking, I think it’s important for you to not act like the alpine swifts in the coming months, dear Aquarius. Please plan to come all the way down to earth on a regular basis.

PISCES

FEB. 19-MARCH 20: There’s substantial evidence that

when people talk to themselves out loud in the midst of doing a task, they improve their chances of succeeding at the task. Have you ever heard athletes giving themselves verbal encouragement during their games and matches? They’re using a trick to heighten their performance. In accordance with astrological omens, I invite you to experiment with this strategy in the coming weeks. Increase your brainpower by regularly offering yourself encouraging, supportive instructions. It’s fine if you just sort of whisper them, but I’d love it if now and then you also bellowed them.

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

CANAL+

Boulder’s Local Music Shop Since 1971

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n Dec. 1, TCM’s 14-week series Women Make Film comes to a close with movies on death, endings and a little song and dance. When it’s all said and done, TCM’s series will have screened 100 movies from all six filmmaking continents, and it’ll be up to the 2001 screwball comedy Very Annie Mary to bring down the curtain. “It meant an awful lot to me,” Welsh writer/director Sara Sugarman says. “I mean, I wrote all my little films, and Annie Mary, sitting in Wendy’s kitchen, listening to her and her friends talk.” Wendy is Wendy Phillips, a cleaning lady in Wales who Sugarman happened across while en route to a community center that a dramaturge at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts told her about. It was the mid-’90s, and Sugarman was looking to make the leap from acting to directing. She had a script, now she needed faces and a place. “But before I got there, I saw a sign of the name of this village,” Sugarman recounts. A friend of hers used to live there, so Sugarman called her up. “And she went: ‘Go and knock on Wendy’s door at number 65 and send my love.’ And I knocked on Wendy’s door at 65, and she said, ‘Come in, love, have a cup of tea.’ And I never got to the top of the valley. I never got to that community center.” In Wendy, Sugarman found what she was looking for and made a film — a “little film” in Sugarman’s parlance — and won the Welsh International Film Festival Best Short Film prize. That netted her enough money to make another little film, Valley Girls (1996), also starring Wendy, alongside Gemma Jones, as two Welsh cleaning ladies who win a free trip to Hollywood. Wendy became a sensation. “She was on the front of every newspaper in Britain,” Sugarman says with a laugh. “She was so funny ... the more she spoke, the more they wanted to run television [spots].” Fast forward to 1999 and Sugarman has another little film ready to go: Very Annie Mary, a comedy based on another valley local, a 33-year-old woman living with her overbearing father (Jonathan Pryce), who happens to be a top-shelf opera singer — “The best in the valley and the second best in Rome.” For the role of Annie Mary, Sugarman flew to Los Angeles to woo Australian actress Rachel Griffiths. Griffiths was in town for the Academy Awards ceremony, and offers for future projects were coming in droves. “And her mum said, ‘Do the little Welsh one,’” Sugarman says. “And she came straight after being nominated for an Oscar to Wales.” And where did Griffiths stay when she got to the valley? At Wendy’s, naturally. “It was the best time in my life,” Sugarman recalls. “Making a little film in the village in Wales with a bunch of local people and actors.” They give Very Annie Mary charm, flavor and warmth. TCM’s broadcast is set for Wednesday, Dec. 2 at 6:45 a.m., not a bad way to end a series and start the day.

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A little film about lovely people

Filmmaker Sara Sugarman on ‘Very Annie Mary’

by Michael J. Casey

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

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TRY THIS WEEK:

Osaka’s Lunch @ Osaka’s

OSAKA’S. 2460 Canyon Boulevard, Suite 1, Boulder, 720-398-9115, osakasrestaurant.com

BOULDER COUNTY’S food scene benefited when Osaka’s came in two years ago with its Japanese cuisine, unique burgers and flavor-forward menu. If you haven’t been, we recommend the handy to-go lunch offering, Osaka’s Lunch. You get two mini okonomiyaki, which are browned cabbage pancakes flavored with your choice of pork belly, scallion and shiso, beef or seafood. We went for the pork belly, and the umami is off the charts in each crispy bite. But the lunch doesn’t end there. You also get two takoyaki, which are flour and octopus balls topped with bonito flakes — again, more umami. Paired with a side salad with a punchy vinaigrette and a robust miso soup, this is better than any lunch you can pack in a brown bag.

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Take-out packs from The Rio

The Tender Project comes to Boulder LAST WEEK, we wrote about the closing of Zolo, which Big Red F (the restaurant group that owned Zolo and plenty of others) owner Dave Query said would be the only outpost in the empire to shutter its doors in the pandemic. That said, Big Red F is making moves to ensure the vitality of the whole operation, launching a series of pop-ups and ghost kitchens to get good food into the hands of the community. On Nov. 27, The Tender Project will open at Centro, featuring chicken fingers and waffle fries from executive chef Kyle Mendenhall. There’s also The Cheesesteak Project, which launched at West End Tavern, as well as the forthcoming Lasagna Project. Head over to bigredf.com for all the details.

BOULDER WEEKLY

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IF 2020 calls for anything, it’s a margarita or two from the Rio. Luckily, the muchheralded cocktails are available in new to-go packs from the restaurant, including in a six-pack, aptly named “survival kit” of Big Tex and Classic margs. Also, there’s a family four-pack of cheese enchiladas ($35) or mix-andmatch fajitas ($40), which come with beans and rice. And the Rio recently launched a build-your-owntaco kit for three to five people; for $35, you can get your choice of protein with all the fixings, plus salsa, rice, beans and 16 tortillas. Head over to riograndemexican.com for more info.

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High end quality meats Catering also available

2426 Arapahoe Ave. Boulder 303-443-0596 www.kalitagrill.com

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BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

Local brews (and one cider) for the holiday season

Celebrate Small Brewery Sunday

by MATT CORTINA

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e scoured the seasonal section of our local beer store to round-up some of the best holiday beverage options Boulder County (and a little beyond) have to offer. What’s striking is how many beverage styles brewers have managed to get holiday flavors into — there’s strong ales, por- MATT CORTINA ters, stouts, IPAs, even a cider. That, and they’ve figured out how to balance the flavors to create drinks you’ll want to consume more than once. AVERY BREWING CO.: OLD JUBILATION Old Jubilation — Old Jube, for those in the know — might just be my favorite beer, no matter the time of year. An English strong ale, this 8.3% ABV winter warmer is remarkably drinkable, and the notes of hazelnut, chocolate and toffee (lots of toffee) make for a well-rounded and interesting sip. Best of all, Old Jube has no added spices — all the flavor comes from the five malts and Bullion hops, an English variety that’s known for exhibiting the flavors of spiced and dark fruits. All that flavor comes through in Old Jube. TWO FROM UPSLOPE BREWING: SPRUCE TIP IPA AND WILD CHRISTMAS ALE There is immense anticipation for

Upslope’s Christmas Ale every year, which changes with each vintage. This year, it’s a sour ale aged in oak barrels and brewed with bergamot orange juice, orange peel and cinnamon. At 9.4% ABV, and sold in tall cans, one’ll warm you up and may be enough for the night. It’s well-balanced; the tart sour ale is cut by the citrus, and there’s just enough cinnamon to let you know it’s there. Upslope’s holiday beer for everyday drinking is the Spruce Tip IPA. Upslope brewers double down on the refreshing pine flavor from the fresh spruce tips with Simcoe hops, which have a similar, floral flavor. The pine doesn’t overwhelm, though, as the beer’s malty backbone helps smooth out the edges. FINKEL & GARF: PECAN PIE IMPERIAL STOUT Stout’s the only beer type that could handle what Finkel & Garf did to it in its Pecan Pie Imperial Stout. First, you get a blast of nuttiness on the nose, and then all the smooth chocolate comes through once it’s on your tongue. Finkel & Garf ages this stout on cocoa nibs and finishes with a hint of vanilla, which is what keeps you coming back for the next sip. It packs a delicious punch at 9.8% ABV.

ST. VRAIN CIDERY: GINGERBREAD CIDER You want this. I don’t know what conjures in your mind when you hear “gingerbread cider,” but you’re probably thinking the cider can’t tamp down the spice and that its sweetness will be cloying. Of course you’d be wrong... at least when it comes to St. Vrain Cidery’s Gingerbread cider. It’s a dry cider with just the faintest hint of gingerbread spices, which pair perfectly with the bold apple flavor. By offering just the right amount of spice, and nothing more, St. Vrain over-delivers. SKA BREWING: EUPHORIA PALE ALE Not every seasonal beer around this time needs to be imbued with holiday flavors. It can just be a solid beer. Take Ska’s Euphoria Pale Ale. Sure you’ll get a bit of pine, but it’s just a solid IPA, with a dry crunch of hops and a drinkability that makes it perfect for consuming after a hike or ski or, OK, cutting down a Christmas tree in the forest. TOMMYKNOCKER: HO HO COCOA CANE Of course you could dive straight into holiday flavors too, as Idaho Springs’ Tommyknocker Brewery did with its Ho Ho Cocoa Cane. This porter is brewed with cocoa and candy cane. Again, we applaud the restraint on the bold candy cane flavor — you just get the faintest aftertaste of it — but the abundant chocolate makes it a bona fide dessert option. Underneath it all is a solid porter, which makes the Ho Ho Cocoa Cane worth picking up.

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he Brewers Association (BA) will host the second annual Small Brewery Sunday on Nov. 29, a day to support local craft breweries by buying a pint, growler or sixpack (or two). The BA, a nonprofit trade organization representing American small brewers, has found that craft beer sales are down roughly 22% globally. But small breweries contributed about $82 billion to the U.S. economy last year, and employed 580,000 people. Furthermore, the BA found in a recent survey that only a fraction of U.S. microbreweries are confident they can stay open in the next 12 months. And those numbers were buoyed by summer sales — about two-thirds of craft brewery sales occurred outdoors over the last few months. With winter approaching, craft breweries need a lift. Thus, Craft Brewery Sunday, which simply encourages you to buy local beer. Visit smallbrewerysunday. com to learn more about how you can support your neighborhood brewer.

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Louisville’s Punch Buggy Shave Ice turns to waffles for the winter

by Matt Cortina

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ouisville’s Neige LaRue thought she might get some skeptical glances when she opened a shave ice shop out of a walk-up window on Main Street last year. It is Colorado, after all, and the Hawaiian treat may go well with our blistering summer days, but for the other eight months... well, scraping ice off the car every day dampers the appetite for it, even if its smothered in delicious toppings. Yet, Punch Buggy was a success in its first year. “It was a wonderful first season, LaRue says. “Lots of repeat, loyal customers. Very quickly we were able to be on a first-name basis with so many of the people and kids who came by, almost daily. We feel like we got to know our community pretty well.” Then, of course, the coronavirus came. But Punch Buggy’s walk-up format proved pandemic-proof; guests ordered at the front, picked up in the back, and the sweet treats flew off the ice block (so to speak) as people looked to get out safely. In fact, all seemed, dare I say, normal when the City of Louisville closed down Main Street and allowed LaRue and other restaurants to take over the street. Now, winter comes. And with folks looking for warmer treats, LaRue is turning Punch Buggy into a pop-up waffle shop. You’ll be able to stop by for super-long waffles on a stick, loaded with your choice of toppings. And you can pair that with a hot cocoa if you want before, say, hitting Louisville’s outdoor skating rink. “I wanted to be able to have someBOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

thing fun to do in light of current events, maybe provide a little bit of a distraction, safely,” LaRue says. You can get the “Plain Jane,” a waffle with powdered sugar and syrup on the side for under $5; order a rotating special of the week; pick from some signature styles (Nutella, birthday cake, chocolate and strawberries); or build your own, all for under $6 — though, LaRue says, if a bold soul wants to build their own with everything Punch Buggy has, it’ll be $9.70. (Send us a picture, folks.) LaRue taste-tested waffles for weeks ahead of the launch (officially with a soft launch Dec. 10-20, and a full opening Jan. 7). The mother-of-two has naturally had some eager guinea pigs at home to refine the recipe. “We’ve been taste-testing all kinds of different recipes and concoctions,” she says. “It’s been fun to see the kids’ reactions and also think about flavor combos that’ll appeal more to adults.” It didn’t take much to pivot to waffles from shave ice — some new ingredients and an investment in specialty sprinkles, which LaRue is excited for. She bought a specialty waffle iron, too, to make waffles that are stick-able. Overall, it’s a fun move from a local business in a not-sofun year. “If hopping in the car and going and getting this crazy, weird, new, great thing that no one’s ever seen before is what we can do for families, that’s great,” LaRue says. Because 2020 is what it is, you can order your waffle pop for delivery via Door Dash. This iteration of Punch Buggy will be open Thursday-Sunday. I

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BY DAN SAVAGE Dear Dan: My marriage of 10 years recently fell apart. My ex, who is a piece of shit, told me she would have to leave or I would have to leave. I moved out but continued to pay her bills and rent for a year on top of my own expenses. We both agreed not to see other people until we either reconciled or divorced. On more than one occasion she convinced me that we might be close to reconciling. She basically led me on. Unfortunately, she was shacking up with a “Dom” who was old enough to be her father and this was going on long before we separated. When I confronted her she told me she did it because you said sometimes cheating can save a relationship. She tried to get me to agree to having a poly relationship with them but the trust was gone. I know she was just saying things to cover her ass and I moved on. Now I am looking for your advice on what steps to take, please. —Your Fan The Quiet Mouse Dear YFTQM: I’ve said cheating is sometimes “the least worst option” for all involved. But to say something isn’t always the worst option isn’t exactly a ringing endorsement. And I’ve said it’s foolish to define cheating as unforgivable considering how common cheating is. But to say something is forgivable is not to say it isn’t wrong. Quite the opposite, in fact, as non-wrongs do not require forgiveness. And, yes, I’ve said that cheating can sometimes save a relationship. For example, a person in an otherwise loving, low-conflict relationship that has become sexless might, after exhausting all other options (difficult conversations, couples counseling, etc.), cheat in order to “stay married and stay sane.” It’s not ideal, of course, BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

but it may make it possible for the cheater to remain in a relationship that neither the cheater nor the cheatee wants to end. That’s not what your wife did. She lied, she cheated, and only floated the idea of an ethically nonmonogamous relationship after she got caught being non-ethically non-monogamous. While this has been known to work — there are couples out there that were able to create functional and healthy open relationships in the wake of messy and painful affairs — it’s not the kind of cheating that typically saves relationships. This kind of cheating, the kind your wife engaged in, more often than not destroys relationships. Sorry — I’m issuing clarifications, not answering your question. You asked about next steps. I don’t have to tell you to give yourself permission to be angry, as you sound pretty in touch with your anger, so I’ll just tell you to feel the shit out of your feelings. Ask your friends to let you freely vent for the next few months. After three months they’re allowed to gently change the subject when you start in on your ex; after six months they’re allowed to insist you talk about something else; after a year they’re allowed to block your calls if you can’t get through a conversation without rehashing your divorce for the millionth time. You should also eat a lot of ice cream while getting enough exercise to neutralize its effects, YFTQM, and remind yourself every day that an ex who treated you like shit is no excuse for treating your next like shit. On the Lovecast, Elle Chase on dating for large ladies, savagelovecast.com. Send emails to mail@savagelove. net, follow Dan on Twitter @ FakeDanSavage, and visit ITMFA.org. I

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Stone your compulsions

New research suggests cannabis can abate symptoms of OCD by 50%, offering potential alternative to antidepressants

by Will Brendza

T

hose who suffer from obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), know that it’s far more than just a random impulse to organize pencils or color code laundry. For many, OCD is an overwhelming anxiety; a fearful, distressing and paranoid experience that disrupts every day. It’s a mental health condition that affects roughly 2.2 million adults of all ages and genders in the U.S. (or 1% of the population), according to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America. Traditionally, it’s treated with antidepressants and a specific form of therapy known as exposure and response prevention therapy. However, a recent study from Washington State University (WSU) suggests there may be another treatment option, a natural alternative that could dramatically reduce OCD symptoms among users: cannabis. The study, recently published in the Journal of Affective Disorders, is titled “Acute Effects of Cannabis on Symptoms of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.” In it, the researchers conclude that, “Patients reported a 60% reduction in compulsions, a 49% reduction in intrusions [and unwanted thoughts], and a 52% reduction in anxiety from before to

after inhaling cannabis.” Which is a significant reduction by almost any measure — if a temporary one. Carrie Cuttler is the study’s corresponding author and an assistant professor of psychology at WSU. While she remains excited by these results, she points out that the observed benefits

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were short-lived and seem to dissipate with the high. “The results overall indicate that cannabis may have some beneficial shortterm but not really long-term effects on obsessive-compulsive disorder,” Cuttler said in a press release on the findings. “To me, the CBD findings are really promising because it is not intoxicating. This is an area of research that would really benefit from clinical trials looking at

changes in compulsions, intrusions and anxiety with pure CBD.” That is exciting. Because while cannabis is still illegal federally, CBD is legally available all over the country. In 2018, Congress removed hemp from the definition of marijuana in the Controlled Substance Act, essentially de-scheduling CBD. Today, that medicine is available in every state. Anyone who suffers from OCD anywhere in the U.S. can try CBD worry-free: because it’s safe to use, it’s naturally derived, doesn’t produce the psychoactive effects and doesn’t require any kind of prescription to obtain. The research also found that higher doses and concentrations of CBD equated to larger reductions in compulsive behaviors — meaning the more, and the more potent, the better. This research spanned 31 months and drew from 87 people with OCD who logged more than 1,800 cannabis sessions. That length of study offered the researchers a long-term data set to draw from and enabled test subjects to experiment with and reflect on the side-effects of cannabis. Test subjects were also permitted to use commercial cannabis products from the comfort of their own homes instead of government-provided cannabis

NOVEMBER 26, 2020

in a lab setting. The researchers did note that this isn’t a perfect data set: They didn’t have a means of using a placebo control in this study, which may have skewed the results. That’s why Cuttler says this observation deserves a much deeper investigation. Her team found one other similar study that explored this thesis, but it was a small clinical trial of just 12 people. Confoundingly, that trial found that while there were notable reductions in OCD behavior with cannabis use, those reductions weren’t much better than those produced by the placebo — raising questions about whether “expectancy effect” played a role in the dramatic success of WSU’s study. At best, this research suggests that scientists may have stumbled onto a powerful, natural new treatment for a mental health condition that affects millions of people across the country. At worst, it means that far more research needs to be done in this area. Because of the Schedule 1 status of cannabis in the U.S., medical research cannot easily be done on THC or even CBD products. That has hampered the medical adoption of these substances and has barred our scientific community from exploring all their possible uses. Add OCD abatement to that list of potential uses, which grows the more we learn about this superflower.

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