John Harner explores the relict history of Colorado Springs
Musician Joy Oladokun is redefining folk pop
play contracts cult, family discord
History lessons and a few surprises for oenophiles
County an overlooked hiking destination
Courtesy: School of Rock
Rence | Credit: Sean Cayton
EDITOR’S NOTE
By BEN TROLLINGER ben.trollinger@ppmc.live
I’ve been thinking about the JFK assassination a lot lately. This isn’t unusual for me. I went to high school only a few blocks from Dealey Plaza in downtown Dallas, the so-called City of Hate long before Colorado Springs was painted with that dubious distinction. At lunchtime, I could — and sometimes did — visit the grassy knoll. I could peer down from the sixth-floor corner window of the Texas School Book Depository, which at that time had been converted into a kind of museum for trauma tourism. My conservative Christian private school even offered an elective course on the subject for upperclassmen. The teacher, the late Carl Henry, introduced us to a seedy but fascinating underworld of mafia figures, Cuban counterrevolutionaries, CIA operatives and the mysterious Umbrella Man. Since then, I’ve read multiple books on the subject, and while I’m convinced there’s more to the story than a lone gunman, I still can’t tell you what happened. The longer you look at the picture, the blurrier and more Byzantine it gets. But really, I’m not thinking about any of that these days. The assassination’s
CORRECTIONS .
DALLAS DOESN’T LOVE YOU
not on my mind, as one might assume, because of the recent discovery of a trove of FBI documents that may shed light on one of the biggest whodunits in American history. I’m thinking about that dark day in Dallas because of an NBA superstar.
Twenty-five-year-old Luka Dončić — riding high on a Finals run with the Dallas Mavericks and poised to receive the largest contract in league history — was ignominiously traded to the LA Lakers on Feb. 1 for pennies on the dollar. I’m reminded of the first lady of Texas Nellie Connally’s infamous words to Kennedy right before he was shot: “Mr. President, you can’t say Dallas doesn’t love you.”
The city will never be the same. So long, Luka. (Note to Texas-phobic Colorado readers: Just imagine if this happened to our beloved Joker.)
Emotionally devastated Mavs fans are now in the denial and anger stages of grief. They’re staging protests, gnashing their teeth and swearing blood oaths to never again support the team. Some are getting kicked out of home games for their unruly behavior. Nico Harrison, the general manager who orchestrated the trade, has even received death threats. My 14-year-old son, who has a closet full of Luka gear and has seen him play multiple times in person, is now a Lakers fan, shock of all shocks.
Why did this happen? So far, there have been few satisfying answers, especially from the owners. He was out
of shape, some say. He was rude to the refs. He liked his “recovery beer” too much. His Achilles tendon is on the brink of catastrophic rupture. He didn’t play defense. If you follow the team closely, none of this really adds up — the Mavericks have had great success with the Slovenian wunderkind.
During the 2024 playoffs, Luka led all players in points, rebounds, assists and steals — a first in NBA history. Journalists are just as baffled as the fans by this turn of events, many of them calling it the worst trade in NBA history. Some are even putting on their so-called tinfoil hats and claiming that
the Mavericks’ new billionaire owners, Miriam Adelson et alia, betrayed the team’s fans to gain leverage in their quest to legalize gambling in Texas. Nice team your state has here. Be a shame if we had to move it to Nevada. Or so the theory goes.
"THEY’RE STAGING PROTESTS, GNASHING THEIR TEETH AND SWEARING BLOOD OATHS TO NEVER AGAIN SUPPORT THE TEAM. SOME ARE GETTING KICKED OUT OF HOME GAMES FOR THEIR UNRULY BEHAVIOR."
Adelson, the fifth-richest woman in the U.S., is the heir to her late husband Sheldon Adelson’s Las Vegas casino fortune. She’s famously one the biggest contributors to Trump’s presidential campaigns. She’s also spending millions on lobbyists in the Texas Legislature in an effort turn the Lone Star State into the next branch of her empire. It’s apparently not going well. What all that has to do with trading arguably the NBA’s best player, I have no idea. When the facts don’t add up, we tend to fill in the blanks with wild ideas, just like with the ever-expanding constellations of JFK theories. We follow the money. We ask questions. We pore over the documents. We break out the red yarn and thumbtacks. And when that doesn’t work — when the answers elude us — we invent narratives that help us make sense of overwhelming and confusing circumstances. But that’s inevitably what happens when there’s a lack of transparency, whether it’s with a sports franchise or the U.S. government. What are they covering up? The smart money is guided by Hanlon’s razor: “Never attribute to malice what can be attributed to incompetence.” The truth is out there, and it’s usually just embarrassing.
• In the February 6 issue, in our cover story “There’s a River in Our Creek,” we made three errors: (1) The amount of sediment deposited at Southmoor Drive was 55,000 tons/year, not 100,000, which is the amount that was deposited at "The Great Wall" further downstream. (2) The Director of Colorado Springs Utilities in 1999 was Phil Tollefson, not Phil Tullis. (3). Richard Skorman was originally an at-large councilor, and later became the District 3 representative.
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Saving FAC
by NOEL BLACK • noel.black@ppmc.live
November 20, 2013. It was a brisk afternoon on the sculpture garden lawn at the Fine Arts Center (FAC) in Colorado Springs. The FAC was just coming off a banner year. The Floyd Tunson retrospective overseen by then-Curator Blake Milteer brought national attention not only to the museum, but to one of Colorado Springs’ greatest local artists. And the theater, under the leadership of director Scott Levy, was more popular than ever, selling out shows and earning standing ovations. Ticket sales were up. Membership was up. Everything was on the up.
Warren Epstein — former arts editor for the Gazette, film buff, dabbler in a wide variety of the arts, and an unrepentant ham — had recently become the director of marketing at the FAC and didn’t mind putting himself on the line for a publicity stunt like donating blood on the streets
of downtown to promote a production of "Dracula."
For an upcoming production of "The Wizard of Oz" that would be one of the theater’s most popular productions of the season, he arranged for a hot air balloon carrying several members of the cast to land on the FAC’s lawn.
Not long after the balloon touched, the wind picked up suddenly and Epstein noticed the basket carrying the cast members was starting to tip over. He reached for the edge to steady it. But as soon as he grabbed hold of it another strong gust jerked the balloon and basket, whipping him along with it.
“My arm shattered in five places,” said Epstein. The doctors told him he was lucky it wasn’t his spine.
Epstein had to have surgery to set the fractures in place, but the stunt made the
After a rocky transition to Colorado College stewardship, the Fine Arts Center may finally be moving forward again
evening news, got written up in the paper, and the production sold out.
But for all the success of that event, and of the many shows and productions at the Fine Arts Center that year, Epstein’s injury was a painful metaphor for what was going on behind the scenes: the center’s finances were badly broken. A mountain of debt they couldn’t dig their way out of had accumulated over the past decade, and another $5-million-dollar bond was about to come due.
Over the next decade, a handful of community leaders hatched a daring rescue plan that seemed like it would set the beloved local arts institution on solid financial ground. And they pulled it off. But as soon as financial woes had been resolved, another, far more complicated set of cultural problems threatened to break the center’s bond with the community.
IN ADVANCE OF THE BROKEN ARM
This story is well documented, and Epstein himself recounted it in a recent column in The Gazette, but in 2003, Michael DeMarsche, a charismatic arts champion with a mane of hair that would make Fabio blush, took the helm of the Fine Arts Center. He was charged with bringing the center into the 21st century and raising the funds for a much-needed renovation and expansion.
Something of a wizard in his own right, DeMarsche quickly brought the FAC to heel. From the time of the Broadmoor Academy in 1919, which first brought the best painters in the US to Colorado Springs for summer residencies, to the founding of the center by Julie Penrose, Alice Bemis Taylor, and Elizabeth Sage Hare in 1936, the FAC has been supported largely by
The Fine Arts Center at Colorado College as it looks today. | Courtesy of Colorado College
NEWS .
wealthy patrons. And this culture persisted for nearly a hundred years. DeMarsche moved easily in this world. He bought some Chihulys, hosted wine tastings, gave VIP tours of the collection, arranged exclusive art trips, brought in a few blockbuster shows including Andy Warhol and Fernando Botero and did all the private glad handing and ego stroking that capital campaigns for big building projects require.
Exotic new arts buildings like Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim in Bilbao, Spain were seen as the key to urban revitalization efforts. The Denver Art Museum was building Daniel Liebskind’s menacing and sub-practical “Imperial Destroyer,” and it seemed like Little London, a city not wont to be more than 20 years behind the times at any given moment, might actually keep pace.
And in 2007, DeMarsche hosted a gala to celebrate the elegant 55,000 square-foot expansion and renovation of John Gaw Meem’s original 1936 Taos revival building to great fanfare.
Then, before anyone had a moment to catch their breath, DeMarsche and his fabulous hair moved to Armenia to start another museum.
The debt DeMarsche left for the Fine Arts Center and its donors was in the millions. And the new utilities bill for the glass atrium alone was, by all accounts, jaw dropping, never mind the new staffing needs and costs to fill the new gallery space.
But for the next 10 years, the FAC scraped by in its beautiful new building. But then things changed, and quickly.
“Sam Gappmayer basically came in to cut the budget,” said Epstein of DeMarsche’s first successor. “And it was like, OK, we’re not going to do anything big anymore. We’re just going to tighten our belt.”
There were periods of promise. But, said Epstein, while “they asked the right questions, they came up with the wrong answers.”
Things got so desperate, Epstein learned, that the FAC board gave serious consideration selling Arthur Dove’s “Fog Horns,” one of the most iconic pieces in its art collection, for $10 million to a private collector. It would likely have torn the FAC apart, and it very well could have lost its accreditation. Ultimately, the board rejected the idea.
THE DEAL
David Dahlin took over as director of the FAC in July 2014. He saw right away that
making payroll would be a heroic act on any given month, never mind the slightest glance toward paying down the debt from the expansion or addressing its growing catalog of deferred building maintenance.
Around that time, an unnamed individual with connections to the boards of both the Fine Arts Center and the Colorado College (CC) floated the idea of an “alliance”: Colorado College had a sizable endowment, a facilities department, and a large administrative infrastructure and capacity; The Fine Arts Center had a historic architectural treasure, a spectacular art collection, a professional theater, and the longstanding support of the community. Plus, they were already neighbors.
“The deal was: How do we create longterm, permanent footing for the FAC? The FAC had been on the edge for decades and decades financially,” said Dahlin.
President Ron Brasch, a local mergers and acquisitions specialist and art collector with style to match his last name — began to meet with Tiefenthaler and Colorado College CFO Robert Moore.
“We weren’t naïve,” says Dahlin. “We knew this was going to radically change the governance and management of the FAC. And if it happened, we would both end up not having jobs. And the board, as an entity, would go away.”
Though the word “alliance” was used throughout the negotiations, Brasch’s commercial real estate career had taught him that “there’s no such thing as a merger; it’s always an acquisition.”
And they weren’t the only arts institution that had explored an alliance, or merger, or whatever it was with a college or university, says Brasch. The Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale and Nova Southeastern University merged in 2008, and the Hammer Museum and UCLA had done the same in the mid-90s. And as talks went on, a similar alliance in Colorado Springs began to feel inevitable.
Tiefenthaler couldn’t be reached for comment, but Dahlin said she was excited about the possibility of changing the college’s reputation in the community, and that she hoped the FAC was going to be “the new front door to Colorado College.” And it didn’t hurt that that new door was worth $175 million — the largest gift CC would have ever received.
For Colorado College, the FAC wouldn’t be just another cultural jewel in their crown, but what President Jill Tiefenthaler called “a bridge to the community.” Despite its many cultural offerings that are available to the public, CC often struggles with the perception that it operates in a bubble, concerned only with its own internal culture, which some perceive as elitist.
Meanwhile, the FAC, though it was built and supported largely by local elites, has always had a reputation as the local center of creative life. Almost every kid who grew up here got their first exposure to art on a school field trip, or saw their first musical, or rolled down the grassy hill out back during a summer symphony.
An alliance between the two institutions seemed like a potential win-win.
A small group of representatives from the FAC — including Dahlin and Board
When the deal was finally closed and announced in 2017, everyone involved held the highest hopes that the new front door to Colorado College would truly be open and inviting to all.
TWO OUT OF THREE
I spoke to many people from both the longstanding community of employees, volunteers and donors that supported the Fine Arts Center before the alliance, and to many staff and faculty from Colorado College, past and present. Some of them went on record, and others asked to remain anonymous to protect relationships. But all agreed that Colorado College has largely lived up to two out of three of the major promises it made in the agreement that all parties signed when the Fine Arts Center was gifted to the college on July 1, 2017. Though we were unable to obtain a copy of the agreement itself, parties we spoke with said that the three broad areas of commitment from CC were:
1.To assume the existing debt of roughly $10 million dollars, to commit to
Michael Christiano, Director of Visual Arts and Museum in front of The Fine Arts Center at Colorado College. | Credit: Noel Black
addressing all deferred maintenance on the building and to assume responsibility for all future upkeep and preservation of the building.
2.To provide for the long-term sustainability and public accessibility of the entire institution to include The Bemis School of Art, the theater, the museum, and the museum’s collection of art and to assume payroll responsibilities for existing staff.
3.To ensure the Fine Arts Center serve not just Colorado College students and faculty, but that it remain a community asset. To that end, a community advisory board was created.
Again, everyone agreed that Colorado College has largely, if not entirely lived up to the first two of these commitments. It’s on the third point that there has been significant disappointment, hurt feelings and some rancor. However, much of the frustration also seems to stem from misunderstandings, differences of perception and often a reluctance to accept that change was unavoidable. In roughly chronological order, here are the major points on which most frustration has centered:
Branding: Though people close to the deal knew it was inevitable for institutional reasons, the fact that the college immediately changed the center’s name to the Fine Arts Center at Colorado College made many feel that the building and its history had been immediately absorbed into the Colorado College bubble.
Dahlin and others suggested that it might be wise to keep the existing name and branding to avoid any immediate shock to existing patrons, but the college wanted to make it clear to the campus and to the community that it had assumed this significant responsibility and that it was now part of the college.
Staff integration and departures:
Though he was willing to stay on, Dahlin knew that he would likely be out of job when the deal was done. Most of his role as a fundraiser and administrator would be subsumed by the college’s Development and HR departments, and he stepped down shortly after the transition.
But others stayed on and found themselves unmoored not just by the change in administration, but by the way in which their professional expertise was suddenly called into question or devalued. The college brought in many of their own existing staff and faculty to run various departments within the center, and their priorities and expertise were largely
"THE DEAL WAS: HOW DO WE CREATE LONGTERM, PERMANENT FOOTING FOR THE FAC? THE FAC HAD BEEN ON THE EDGE FOR DECADES AND DECADES FINANCIALLY."
— David Dahlin
academic. Some had no management or museum experience at all. Many existing staff with professional degrees and experience in outward-facing museum management and arts programming felt their experience was diminished if not disregarded entirely. They eventually quit or were let go.
Former board member and patron Jim Raughton was incensed by the way staff was treated.
“It was stupid because all the institutional memory was there,” he said.
Others were surprised that the college was slow to create a collegial work environment.
“It was such an incredibly toxic environment. My hair was falling out and I was crying in the parking lot after work,” said one former employee who asked not to be named.
Culture clashes during mergers are one
of the reasons that existing staff is often let go under these kinds of circumstances. But again, though all involved wished it could have been handled better, the college found itself in a difficult position where any changes they made were likely to upset some people.
A hasty, improperly vetted Executive Director hire just before COVID-19: Though there were many bumps in the first three years, there was consensus that things were going well under Executive Director Erin Hannan’s leadership. But when Hannan stepped down at the end of 2019, President Tiefenthaler, for reasons that are still unclear, decided to circumvent a hiring committee that included community members and named former CC Professor Idris Goodwin as the new director. And Tiefenthaler did that just as she announced her own resignation.
Goodwin is an award-winning playwright, poet and author who had previously taught at the college for six years before leaving. He was widely respected among staff, faculty and students. But his administrative and leadership experience was limited, and some were concerned that Tiefenthaler had named him unilaterally.
Goodwin declined to comment for this story, but Ron Brasch, who still serves on the Fine Arts Center Foundation Board, which oversees a $20 million investment that gives the center roughly $1 million per year, said that it was a mistake to circumvent the process.
“Idris was the wrong person in the wrong place, and I’m grateful that he left so early.” Others who worked with Goodwin felt he was hamstrung by several factors, including the simultaneous departure of Tiefenthaler and the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic just before he was set to start.
“I think that CC could’ve better supported that transition from on high,” said one person close to the FAC. “To be fair, this was during the pandemic. And that was a detriment to Idris’ process. But I don’t think there was enough attention paid to people who were raising questions about his leadership.”
Real and perceived failures of donor and docent relationships: Perhaps the most talked about breakdown in relations between the Fine Arts Center’s old guard and the college came in 2021 after the museum re-opened. A 1935 mural painted by WPA artist Ward Lockwood depicts a minstrel and an image said to be from
Artists Pat Musick, daughter of early Fine Arts Center artist Archie Musick, in front of one of her father’s murals on the lower level of the center. | Credit: Noel Black
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Harriet Beecher-Stowe’s “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” of a slave on his knees with an angel above him. Though Lockwood’s intentions seemed to be the deliberate inclusion of Black art and music of the time, the college had decided to cover the mural with curtains. But Raughton and others thought it more appropriate to leave the images in place and provide context and interpretation. At a private event in the theater lounge that November, Raughton asked for the murals to be unveiled to let the other attendees see them and judge for themselves.
As Warren Epstein wrote in his recent column on the FAC, “Raughton freaked out. Hearing about what he considered censorship, he derailed a theater event, got into a shouting match with the director and ended up trying to tear down the curtains. Security guards arrived.”
For the college, the images ran counter to their stated anti-racism policies. But for Raughton and others like artist Pat Musick, daughter of the early FAC artist Archie Musick, and a keeper of a great deal of the center’s history, it was too much. Both believe the liberal arts college should be willing and able to confront offensive or problematic artwork without resorting to censorship.
“I think if you have controversial art, it's an opportunity for dialogue and for discussion and debate and engagement and not sweeping stuff under the rug or putting it into the basement, pretending it wasn't ever controversial,” says Musick.
Both she and Raughton have stated that they otherwise firmly support the college’s anti-racist policies and efforts. But Raughton feels it went too far, and that the college “weaponized” their policies against the spirit of what he believed the FAC should stand for.
Again, it was a pronounced clash of cultures that drove another wedge between the two communities.
Raughton was asked to apologize. Instead, he wrote thinly veiled, self-published novel about the incident that even he freely admits is awful. The standoff might have blown over if Raughton wasn’t the former chairman of the board, and if he weren’t married to Kathy Loo, one of the wealthiest and most prominent philanthropists in Colorado Springs. The two had planned a major gift to the Fine Arts Center, but have since reconsidered.
And the mural incident only added to another perceived slight felt by the nearly
As with much of this story, it’s complicated. The docents were among the most dedicated volunteers at the museum, and many of them were also donors.
Adding to those complications, longstanding budget constraints at the museum had left the docent program largely autonomous and self-governing. Previous directors had recognized the group’s contributions, and their power, and largely left them to their own devices. But the loose organization wasn’t in line with the college’s larger institutional imperatives. When Colorado College came in, they saw liability issues where the docents’ relatively free run of the museum was concerned, and their educational methods would need to be updated.
Norm Renaud, a former elementary school teacher in District 20, said that many docents felt that their social culture, which included researching the art in the museum and sharing it with one another, wasn’t fully valued or recognized by the college.
“The culture of the docents was being driven out,” he said.
But Lynne Whaley, who was president of the docents at the time the group was formally disbanded in 2018, said that the college went to great lengths to honor them (including a large plaque near the entrance with all their names) and offer them opportunities to join a new tour program, which shut down during the COVID-19 pandemic.
For some, that wasn’t enough. But for Whaley, who had to move every few years because her husband was in the military, change is inevitable and always a little hard to swallow.
“I know change is hard, but suck it up, buttercup—we’re moving on. And that was more than a lot of docents could do,” she said.
A NEW HOPE
Despite all these difficulties, every person I spoke to for this story, including Jim Raughton, believes that the current leadership at the Fine Arts Center is headed in the right direction — toward repairing relationships that can be repaired and reorienting their focus on the community.
And it isn’t just lip service.
“We cannot be relevant without our community supporting us,” said current Fine Arts Center Executive Director Nicole Herden, who arrived in February 2023. She said she’s spent a lot of time rebuilding relationships in the community.
"I PRIORITIZE RELATIONSHIPS, AND I EXPECT THAT MY LEADERSHIP TEAM DOES THAT AS WELL. WE’VE MADE A LOT OF PROGRESS ON THAT FRONT, AND I EXPECT THAT WE PRIORITIZE THAT HERE AT THE FAC."
— current Fine Arts Center Executive Director Nicole Herden
“I prioritize relationships, and I expect that my leadership team does that as well,” she said. “We’ve made a lot of progress on that front, and I expect that we prioritize that here at the FAC.”
Herden has brought donor relations and fundraising back in house so there can be a more personal touch, and so those who give can feel assured they aren’t just giving to the college, broadly. She also hired an education manager to revamp outreach to local school districts and meet with volunteers interested in guided tour opportunities. And soon, she said, they’ll be posting a director of engagement position who will oversee the strategy and operations of the newly created engagement department.
There are still some lingering questions
100 volunteer docents who were disbanded in 2018.
Former Fine Arts Center Board Chair Jim Raughton in former Fine Arts Center artist and muralist Eric Bransby’s studio. Raughton purchased the studio and property after Bransby’s death in 2020. | Credit: Noel Black
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about the former community advisory board that was disbanded in 2022. A new “FAC Arts Council” was formed in August 2024, but no information about who’s on that council, or what their responsibilities are, was available.
But overall, things seem to be moving forward again.
The theater department seems to be humming along again under the leadership of Christopher Sheley after the departure of much-loved and financially successful tenure of Scott Levy, who left in 2021 to take the executive director position with Green Box Arts in Cascade.
Michael Christiano, the Director of Visual Arts and Museum, has been at the FAC for a little over three years now, and he hopes the community will be patient.
“It’s going to take time to understand the FAC’s position in relationship to the college and to the community,” he said.
But as a gesture of the FAC’s broader intentions, Christiano recently reached out to artist Pat Musick and invited her to create an interactive timeline of the museum that stretches back to the city’s founding in 1871, the college’s founding in 1874, the Broadmoor Academy in 1919 and the Fine Arts Center in 1936.
Pat has been inviting her friends — artists, patrons, former docents and donors — in to share their memories, which she then hand writes in calligraphy on Post-its and attaches to the timeline along with other significant dates in the center’s history.
Eve Tilley, daughter of early FAC artist Lew Tilley, shared a story about getting locked inside the museum one night after playing too long in the ladies’ powder room in the mid-1950s. Another remembers the lily pond that used to sit in the middle of the courtyard. A docent remembered skits in which they portrayed the FAC’s founders having a tea party. And another docent remembered a selection of place settings from Judy Chicago’s “The Dinner Party” on display in 2007, around the time of the expansion, and that some patrons were “shocked by the Georgia O’Keefe ‘Flower Plate.’”
Small boy trying to grab bowl of fruit in a
The Fine Arts Center’s brief history since it was gifted to Colorado College is just a couple feet or so at the end of the timeline that wraps around the gallery. And there are a few of the more difficult recent memories written on notes already up on the wall:
“2022: Ward Lockwood murals painted for original FAC Theater Lounge removed.”
“2025: FAC parking lot, free to public, members, donors, staff since 1936, converted to paid parking only.”
But that’s just a small part of the long, storied timeline of the Fine Arts Center. And it’s a little bit easier to see it that way now.
framed still life painting at the Fine Arts Center in 1960. | Credit: Myron Wood. Copyright: Pikes Peak Library District
View of the west side of John Gaw Meem’s 1936 Taos revival Fine Arts Center building as it looked mid-20th Century. | Credit: Clarence G. Coil, Stewarts Commercial Photography. Pikes Peak Library District
SITES UNSEEN
By JOHN HARNER
"There it is,” I point out to a group of UCCS students. Most are underwhelmed as they look at a grass-covered linear depression with few notable characteristics. But armed with some brief historical knowledge of our city’s water projects, and perhaps sensing my own excitement, they slowly gain appreciation for this ditch as we walk along its banks. We are exploring some of the last remnants of the El Paso Canal, which, in addition to three wells drilled for drinking water downtown, was the first public water infrastructure project for the nascent Fountain Colony, what we now know as
For 85 years, it watered the urban garden of Colorado Springs. Although most of it now lies buried beneath development, pieces of the El Paso Canal remain visible to keen observers.
Colorado Springs.
Leaders of the Colorado Springs Company recognized the need for a reliable water source to ensure the success of their new city. With only about 16 inches of rainfall each year, the mesa on which Colorado Springs was platted was a semiarid, short-grass prairie devoid of trees. The founders were in the business of selling land, and land with trees, lawns and a steady supply of water was far more valuable than the dry and bleak mesa the first visitors saw. Bringing water to land could make people rich, and the speculative aspect of water development has been a key economic driver of growth for the entire history of the city. It is fundamental to the creation of Colorado Springs as a place. Irrigation water was a necessary investment for the success of the colony. A canal to bring water would provide for washing, livestock and irrigation, which, while
"WITH ONLY ABOUT 16 INCHES OF RAINFALL EACH YEAR, THE MESA ON WHICH COLORADO SPRINGS WAS PLATTED WAS A SEMIARID, SHORT-GRASS PRAIRIE DEVOID OF TREES. THE FOUNDERS WERE IN THE BUSINESS OF SELLING LAND, AND LAND WITH TREES, LAWNS, AND A STEADY SUPPLY OF WATER WAS FAR MORE VALUABLE THAN THE DRY AND BLEAK MESA THE FIRST VISITORS SAW.
"
serving the needs of settlers, would also boost property values and hence profits of the company.
The Colorado Springs Company immediately invested in a project to bring water from Fountain Creek, diverting water near today’s 33rd Street, 2 miles above Colorado City. The El Paso Canal was contracted on Aug. 4, 1871, only four days after the founding of the town, and first delivered water to the city on Nov. 28, 1871. At first about 6 ½ miles long, the canal took water along the west-side foothills and crossed Monument Creek via a quartermile-long flume about 2 miles north of town in what is today the Roswell neighborhood. The pediment where the old aqueduct crossed Monument Creek is still visible from the Legacy Loop trail near Polk Street in Roswell. There are smaller remnant pediments where the canal crossed Shooks Run behind Taylor Elementary School.
The ditch on the left of this trail is the remnant of the El Paso Canal. | Credit: John Harner
Pediment supporting the flume, or aqueduct, over Monument Creek | Credit: John Harner
Distribution ditches were dug along margins of Cascade, Nevada and Wahsatch avenues, with cross-street laterals dug at regular intervals to provide water to the remaining streets. Pipes under sidewalks conveyed ditch water to lawns on individual lots. If you walk Wood Avenue in the Old North End, you see that, in addition to the concrete sidewalk, for much of the stretch there is a second narrow concrete path that is a cap placed over one of the early ditches serving the city. Along the distribution ditches running north-south in the city, 6,000 cottonwood trees brought from the Arkansas River were planted at 25-foot intervals to bring trees and shade to the new colony. Excess water flowed into what was Boulder Street Reservoir until 1900, today’s Boulder Park. The canal was extended in 1875 to irrigate the city’s Evergreen Cemetery, and then in 1890 a diversion was used to fill Prospect Lake in Memorial Park, which became a popular swimming, camping and tourism site. At its height, the canal was 11 miles long.
This ditch served the city well, but beyond the physical impact it had, building the ditch drew the city into the legal vortex of water as property. Development of the El Paso Canal required the purchase of privately owned agricultural water rights, a process ongoing to this day, and one that required the legal framework to establish claims to water. The organizational structure to bring water to the city was very much unclear, leading the city of Colorado Springs to play a major role in the development of state water laws influential throughout all of the Rocky Mountain West. While the El Paso Canal was not intended for drinking, even for irrigation the water carried much sediment, debris and seeds of noxious weeds — not to mention a grasshopper
plague in 1873 that clogged the ditches. Citizens began appealing for a reliable drinking source to augment well water.
The first obvious choice was to tap the streams running off of Pikes Peak that flowed into town, and the best choice was Ruxton Creek that flowed into Manitou Springs. Projects to tap into Ruxton Creek and the south slope of Pikes Peak were built by 1878, with pipelines and reservoirs delivering fresh water to the city by 1880. Further development of municipal drinking water projects made the canal obsolete. The El Paso Canal remained in use until 1956, when it was finally shut down. The grand El Paso Canal was instrumental to the success of the city. It was the source for urban landscaping that enabled the Colorado Springs
Company to sell lots and attract settlers, and it irrigated the urban garden for 85 years. Alas, most of the canal is now gone from the landscape, buried under urban development. However, you can still walk beside the relict canal on the trails just west of Sondermann Park in the near west side. The canal snakes through the open spaces to the west of the Beidelman Center on Caramillo Street. You can see its path from below traversing the hillside above the Bristol Elementary School on Walnut Street. The diversion point on Fountain Creek, behind the La Unica Mexican restaurant, still serves at a Colorado Springs Utilities dam to send water through a pipeline up to the water treatment plant on Mesa Road. For such an important feature in our
city’s history, these remnants deserve some type of permanent protection and historical signage telling this grand ditch’s story. Some preservation and recognition should be fairly simple since it runs through an already existing open space with trails along its bank! This neglected ditch is a remnant feature of our landscape that tells an epic story about the city and development in the West in general, a story we should bring to future generations. And indeed, a small group of dedicated history aficionados seeks to preserve and highlight the canal. Let’s hope their voice is heard by the city parks and recreation department and it dedicates resources to this relict landscape before more development gobbles it up.
Editor’s note: This is the first installment of an occasional column from John Harner, professor of geography at University of Colorado Colorado Springs and the author of “Profiting From the Peak: Landscape and Liberty in Colorado Springs.” In each installment, Harner will explore the hidden, “relict” history of our fair city. As William Faulkner once wrote, “The past is never dead. It's not even past.”
The El Paso Canal cartography | Credit: John Harner
by
‘THE SPIR IT OF A SHOW’
On the trail of the kindest soul in rock and roll
Thax Douglas. CJ Boyd. Tony Presley.
Bob Bucko. Every real music head has a tall tale or two about them, a sighting to share with other true believers. You might glimpse one of them at a house show in Reno, Nevada, before spotting another years later at a venue in New York City. As elusive as Sasquatch, they’re everywhere and nowhere. In reality, these music scene cryptids all have their natural habitats, and one of these ubiquitous characters, known only as “Rence,” nests in Colorado Springs.
Or, at least, that’s what Jeremy Quentin told me.
Quentin toured for a full decade with his band, Small Houses, playing anywhere from 100 to 200 shows a year. He’d been running a club in Iowa until about nine months ago, when Marc Benning, owner of Lulu’s Downtown, invited him to move to Colorado Springs to take a position as talent buyer and production manager.
It wasn’t long before Quentin met Rence and bore witness to his mythic birdsong, a kind of joyful cackle that true aficionados could identify anywhere in the wilds of American music venues.
“He laughs with his entire face, as if his mouth consumes 50 percent of what’s visible of him, and his shoulders raise and his head falls down to his torso like it’s a cartoon,” Quentin described. “Nothing about him is learned. It’s just so unimpeded by what anyone would think of him. So, kind of like real happiness.”
The laugh was novel and yet somehow familiar. Quentin couldn’t quite place it at first. And then one day it locked into a place and time — Iowa City, Sept. 11, 2019. Daniel Johnston, a figurehead of the music scene in Quentin’s hometown of Austin, Texas, had died that day. Quentin and the rest of Small Houses decided to play a cover of one of Johnston’s songs in his honor.
“I start singing it, and I hear from the back of the room this laughing, and then someone goes, ‘This is a great song, right?’… I had been hanging out with Rence for, like, two months once I got to the Springs and I’d met
CANNON TAYLOR
Rence | Credit: Sean Cayton
him, and I heard him laugh, and it all clicked. I was like, ‘You were that guy in the back of the room telling me I was doing a good job in the middle of my song,’” Quentin recalled. “Rence totally remembered it. So, long before I even knew Rence, he was in the shadows of this show supporting me.”
Nationwide, most concertgoers run into Rence once or twice in a lifetime. But in Colorado Springs, we can find him front and center at almost any live show, always wearing some combination of cowboy boots, Jackie O shades and a dashing scarf.
“I have house shows at my place, and Rence, he’s never missed one. He’s got a perfect attendance record, and he’s the first one that arrives. And when bands get there, they always lean over and go, ‘Holy shit. Is that Rence?’ Every single band knows who he is,” Quentin said. “There can be so much negative energy. There can be hate and infighting between bands and musicians, but Rence is known across the country as the most optimistic, supportive and kindest person there is in live music.”
THE PATRON SAINT
It didn’t take much digging on my part to realize that Quentin wasn’t exaggerating.
“He’s an anomaly disguised as a human, we think,” mused Dakota Wilkinson of Moth Season. “He can be found regularly at shows, in a band shirt and a blazer, right up front, rocking out even harder than the band onstage. From the stage, the sight of Rence raging out to your music is the most energizing thing to see in the crowd.”
Eden Selvin, vocalist of Colorado Springs band Cabin, agreed.
“Rence has been a constant presence throughout my live performances. He’s at almost every show, living and breathing for the local music scene,” Selvin said. “I struggle with anxiety when performing, but watching Rence lose himself completely in the music helps that fade away.”
As I talked to people active in the scene, the legend of Rence began to take shape. But where did the myth end and the man begin? I had to find answers. Many who have known Rence for less than a year were more forthright about
for him than a Disney princess rushing into a marriage with someone they met last week. I suspected that the Rence they’d fallen in love with was just a persona — an idealized mask of himself that he wears when he meets new people. Surely, the hairline cracks on the mask would multiply if you got to know him better.
But musicians who have known Rence since the aughts spoke of him in the same way as the newcomers did — as if he were the patron saint of live music, a holy fool for rock and roll.
“You bump into him, and he wraps his hand around you and pulls you close and throws his fist up in the air,” described Chela Lujan of The Hardly Nevers, who has known Rence for over 15 years. “He sings with you and sways with you, and you just feel like, ‘Oh, man, this is it. This is the spirit of a show.’”
‘INDIE PIRATE SHANTY’
It turns out Rence is more than just a music fan — he’s a creative force of nature who lives for the sake of the song.
leaving a recently departed corpse. Two distinct eras of Dear Rabbit became obvious to me when I listened to their albums “They’re Not Like You” (2016) and “Shy” (2018). The accordion is traded in for an experimental indie sound with garage rock attitude at its core. The riffs and drums are loose and loud, as Rence’s baritone voice — a little David Berman, a little Alan Vega — builds to out-of-breath eagerness over the course of a song. It culminates into a kind of muscular vulnerability, Rence flexing his entire being and sonic skill set to belt out lyrics about loneliness, love and little doggies.
Dakota Wilkinson described Dear Rabbit’s music as “the soundtrack to your indie movie life that you didn’t know you needed.”
Chela Lujan took it one step further, coining a new genre on the fly: “indie pirate shanty, beautiful poetry.”
I dug into the discography of his band, Dear Rabbit, after hearing an anecdote from Cheap Perfume guitarist and covocalist Jane No about “they don’t love the songs,” a track Rence used to play on the accordion.
“He would lament how people would not be inside listening to music at the shows. They would go outside and smoke and talk instead of coming in and watching,” No said. “Rence did a lot of touring back then, playing a lot of house shows, so I can see why he wrote it.”
Sure enough, hidden away on Bandcamp is an album of tracks composed with the accordion, piano, organ, cornet and the rest of its buddies from the brass section. It’s more Neutral Milk Hotel than Weird Al Yankovic. Rence’s vocals sometimes gutturally erupt from the volcano of his chest; other times, they slither from his lips like a spirit
But the best description of all came from Mike Young of Clementine Was Right: “Most of the time it reminds me of Jonathan Richman and Guided By Voices, which is great, but some of my favorite songs remind me of Randy Newman. But, like, if Randy Newman were pleading with someone on a cellphone in line at a taco place, and you tap him on the shoulder and try to get him to move ahead in line, but he just waves you off, and there is something about his urgency that makes you no less hungry but does make him easy to forgive.”
If you scroll far enough into the “Dear Rabbit band” search results on YouTube, you’ll find a video of Rence, grainier than a photo of the Loch Ness Monster, as he rips on an accordion with the left hand and blasts into a trumpet held by the right.
The found footage of Rence performing dates back over a decade and is taken from a variety of locales: a rooftop in
Nothing about him is learned. It’s just so unimpeded by what anyone would think of him. So, kind of like real happiness.
-Jeremy Quentin
3 MARROW OF MEMORY
Through Sunday, March 2, Fine Arts Center, 30 W. Dale St. Times vary. fac.coloradocollege.edu
After over five years of workshops, readings and residencies, playwright Jessica Kahkoska’s “In Her Bones” has come to the stage. The play follows a college student, Mia, as her grandmother’s death brings up unanswered questions about her family history. The fictional conflict brings to light the history of cryptoJudaism in southern Colorado. Despite taking place in one little gas station, “In Her Bones” reaches into the past to remind us that history never dies; it lives on inside of us. Read more at csindy.com/in-her-bones.
4
ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE
ALL IN JEST
Saturday, March 1, Manitou Springs, Manitou Avenue, 1 p.m. manitousprings.org/carnivale-parade
A puppet of the late, great Manitou Springs artist Charles Rockey towered over the crowd at last year’s Carnivale parade. Made by artist Sofia Hernandez, the behemoth was 24 feet tall and depicted Rockey as he was in life, soulful blue eyes buried in layers of creasing wrinkles on his smiling face. The puppets we’ll be treated to this Carnivale remain shrouded in mystery, but we can expect a gumbo cook-off and plenty of Manitoids dressed like colorful fairies on the day of the parade. If you’re looking for something feathery to wear, we recommend checking out Julia Wright’s offerings at the Commonwheel Artists’ Co-op. Preceding the parade will be the CarniBall masquerade on Feb. 22 at the Iron Springs Chateau, featuring Cajun-inspired food, live music and the crowning of Manitou monarchs.
Through Friday, Feb. 28, Auric Gallery, 125 E. Boulder St. Times vary. auricgallery.com
Auric Gallery’s annual “Gratitude” features the works of 155 regional artists in a variety of mediums and styles. There are sculptures of tangled tendrils and scorpions, DIY-style collages, sad-eyed pet doggies and feasts of abstract shapes and colors — it’s truly a sample platter of everything Colorado artists have to offer. “The ‘Gratitude’ exhibit is our gift back to the community,” said co-owner Gundega Stevens. “It is a way of saying thank you to all the artists, collectors, visitors, friends and everyone that comes in to see artwork on our walls.”
8 OPEN THE PIT!
Saturday, Feb. 22, What’s Left Records, 2217 E. Platte Ave., 7:30 p.m. whatsleftrec.com
A few nights a month, What’s Left Records transforms from an unassuming yet incredibly rad record store into a fusion community hub/ mosh pit. The entire crowd, gathered around the moderately raised stage, has pit tickets (and always for a cheap price). The acts are typically small but mighty monuments of the Colorado Springs alternative scene. This time, SemiFiction, Florissant, Spitting Image and Blanket Slut will be taking the stage, providing between them a healthy diet of post-hardcore, emo, shoegaze and math rock.
LEARN TO FLY
Thursday, March 6, through Sunday, March 9, Millibo Art Theatre, 1626 S. Tejon St. Times vary. themat.org
5
AVANT-GARDEN
Friday, Feb. 28, Marie Walsh Sharpe Gallery, 5225 N. Nevada Ave., 6 p.m. gocadigital.org
2
SHIFTING THE LENS
Tuesday, Feb. 25, Ent Center for the Arts, 5225 N. Nevada Ave., 1:40 and 4:45 p.m. entcenterforthearts.org
I cried with the rest of the audience during my first Youth Documentary Academy premiere. Throughout the event, we elicited sympathetic gasps or unrestrained giggles following off-color jokes. After the premiere, I introduced myself to 15-year-old filmmaker Alex Welty and thanked him for putting a story like my own — a story I had held shamefully close to my chest for years — to screen. Afterward, many mingled at the booths of community groups and mental health organizations. For over a decade, YDA has produced quality documentaries by teenagers from the Pikes Peak region. The “Shifting the Lens” screening will feature two blocks of four films each, which delve into subjects like family, race, mental health and masculinity. Read more at csindy.com/yda-2024.
A wearable spider composed of cornflower blue gems. A dress of white flower petals caught in an autumn gust. Bell-bottom pants adorned with the colors of a student’s highlighters. “House of GOCA: The Psychedelic Garden” will be equal parts runway show and LSD trip. Nine Front Range designers will present looks inspired by artist Patrick Shearn’s “Psycullescence” exhibit, a series of sculptures giving us a glimpse at what nature might look like in an odder, cooler dimension than our own.
9 GEMS AND CANDY HEARTS
Through Friday, Feb. 28, Surface Gallery, 2752 W. Colorado Ave. Times vary. surfacegallerycos.com
6
MAD SCIENTIST
Through Friday, Feb. 28, Shutter & Strum, 2217 E. Platte Ave. Times vary. shutterandstrum.org
Credit:
Surface Gallery features two vivid exhibits this February: “Just an Old Fashioned Love Song” by K8e Orr and “Hidden Gem” by Jen Meyer. The vivid colors of Meyer’s work playfully create eye-catching shapes and patterns that sometimes resemble flowers or ice cream sprinkles. Coyotes, hares, swans and other animals pose unflinchingly amid the controlled chaos. Orr’s exhibit uses blood-red hearts to create striking, vintage iconography that feels romantic in some pieces, devilish in others.
Jonathan Nishimoto’s “Mono no Aware” exhibit features a body of work born from a combination of grief over his father’s death, a desire to connect with Japanese culture and a gleeful aspiration to dive headfirst into any hobby he can get his hands on. The exhibit features both “dorodango” — shiny, candy-coated perfect spheres composed of mud — and “suminagashi” — enchantingly patterned, water-marbled paper. The art takes on further meaning when you get to know the man behind it. Read more at csindy.com/jonathan-nishimoto.
The only thing about Joseph Pugliese — better known by his stage name Joe Pug — that remotely resembles an actual pug are his massive, ice-blue eyes. Unlike the dog breed, Joe Pug isn’t a cutesy goofball, at least sonically. His tough yet tender voice glides above acoustic folk instrumentation, occasionally supported by some melancholy harmonica. Pug’s Americana poetry paints a scene onstage, inspired by authors like Walt Whitman and Cormac McCarthy.
What do a cello, a blackbird and a trapeze have in common? Pretty much nothing, aside from Cellista, an artist bringing her stage poem “Élégie” to the Millibo Art Theatre. “Élégie” follows the titular character, a blackbird who shape-shifts in and out of human form, as she awakens in her magical tree to find that the entire population of a nearby, walled-off city has disappeared. The story is portrayed through a mix of trapeze, silent film and cello. Color me bewildered yet intrigued.
SOPRANO SWEETHEART
Saturday, Feb. 22, Broadmoor Community Church, 315 Lake Ave., 7 p.m. chamberorchestraofthesprings.org
In a college dorm in 1984, Lucy rides the roller coaster of youthful, hesitant love. In 1994, her life is a joyful rom-com, with her as the protagonist. We check in on Lucy again 10 years later to find that her happy ending was never guaranteed. Lucy’s tale — told in “All About Love: A Flight of Operas” — is a reminder of how much our desires, ties and turmoil can evolve over time.
March 6, through Sunday, March 9,
Courtesy: Fine Arts Center
Courtesy: Manitou Springs Chamber of Commerce
Courtesy: Lulu’s Downtown
Courtesy:
Courtesy: SemiFiction
Courtesy: Chamber Orchestra of the Springs
Credit: Ben Trollinger
MINDFUL
SUMMER CAMP GUIDE 2025
It’s late May and the panic has taken hold. School’s almost out! What are we going to do with the kids all summer? Well, you’re too late. All the camps are booked up and unfurling before you now is a bleak summer full of excessive screen time and crushing parental guilt. Now they’ll never get into a good college. Now they’ll turn to a life of addiction and crime. Where did it all go wrong? Fear not. We’re still in February and there’s plenty of time to select from an exhaustive list of enriching summertime activities for your bright-eyed youngsters. Take a breath, turn through the pages of our comprehensive Summer Camp Guide and rest easy knowing your kid is back on track to academic excellence, social acceptance, physical fitness and moral fortitude.
June 2-6: Parkour With Olof Wood
June 9-13: Pirate week
June 23-27: Ninja with Lorin Ball
June 30-July 3: military boot camp
July 7-11: stunt double training
July 28-Aug 1: superhero week
Aug
GENERAL DAY CAMPS
CHAMPIONS CHAMP CAMP
Multiple locations discoverchampions.com
Just because your child’s not at school doesn’t mean their learning has to stop (or boredom has to set in). At Champions Champ Camp, their days will be full of ways to surprise themselves with new skills, inspired teamwork, hands-on activities and sprinkles of joy. Our full-time or part-time summer camp program is perfect for ages 5-12. Our caring, reliable staff provides research-backed curriculum to keep kids plugged into their creativity and curiosity. Your kiddo will make new friends, practice independence, stretch their social skills and enjoy field trips to places like pools, the zoo and other fun destinations.
In June, July and August, Hope Montessori Academy provides full- and half-day programs two, three or five days per week for children in preschool through age 12, along with before and after care. Certified Montessori teachers and early childhood specialists lead children in arts and crafts, games, field trips, music and dramatic play, science experiments, nature exploration, water activities and swimming instruction.
YMCA SUMMER DAY CAMP
Multiple locations
719-329-7289
ppymca.org/programs
Registration is open for the Y’s Summer Day
Camp, one of the oldest and most trusted camping programs in the country. Our day camps provide fun, child-centered activities and opportunities for learning through discovery and challenge children to grow in imagination, creativity, self-directed initiative and leadership. Summer Day Camps offer enriching activities based on the weekly theme where friends are made through group games, sports and fitness, hands-on science activities, arts and crafts, and music!
EDUCATIONAL DAY CAMPS
SPACE FOUNDATION DISCOVERY CENTER
4425 Arrowswest Drive
719-576-8000
DiscoverSpace.org
Embark on a Summer Cosmic Adventure with two programs for ages 7-12! Artemis Academy (June 9-13) explores NASA’s Artemis missions, and Searching the Stars (July 7-11) dives into the wonders of the James Webb Space Telescope. Located on Arrowswest Drive, just off Garden of the Gods Road in Colorado Springs. For more information or to register, call or visit our website.
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to use your creativity and problem-solving skills as you learn from experts in science, technology, cybersecurity and math! Spend your mornings in laboratories and classrooms developing your mind, and your afternoons on and off campus with CSU Extension exploring how nature, wildlife and science interact. For incoming sixth, seventh and eighth graders.
THINKERING LAB
317 E. Kiowa St. 719-247-0203 thinkeringlab.org
Where creativity, curiosity and hands-on fun come together! Our camps for elementary-age kids blend art, science and engineering through engaging, process-based activities. From building and storytelling to toymaking and exploration, each camp sparks imagination and discovery. Join us for a summer of making, playing and thinking! Our day camps offer lots of outside play at a park, a friendly, nonstressful pace and environment, a T-shirt, ice cream on the last day, a journal/idea book to continue the creative process at home, Friday playtime at Uncle Wilber fountain, a community of creative makers and an exhibit of projects for adults during the last hour of camp.
WESTERN MUSEUM OF MINING & INDUSTRY SUMMER STEAM CAMP
225 North Gate Blvd. 719-488-0880 education@wmmi.org wmmi.org/education/steam-camps.html
Science, technology, engineering, art and math in a fabulous setting at WMMI. Amazing experiments and activities. Engaging presenters who make STEAM come to life. Fabulous takeaways and stories to share. A worthwhile camp your child will love! Designed for Grades 3-5, Session 1 is 9 a.m.-3 p.m. June 23-28, and Session 2 is 9 a.m.-3 p.m. July 15-19.
YOUNG BOT BUILDERS
Rocky Mountain Classical Academy (Homeschool Campus), 3525 Akers Drive
Bricks & Minifigs, 5730 N. Academy Blvd. Monument Academy East, 4303 Pinehurst Circle 719-271-2120
youngbotbuilders.com
Join us as we play, learn, solve problems and build friendships this summer! This is our 12th year running camps that our kids adore! We are a kids day camp for ages 6.5-13 focusing on building and programming LEGO bricks. We love teaching kids how to think outside the box. No prior LEGO building or programming experience necessary. We have camps running all summer in our three locations.
OUTDOORS
BLUE MOUNTAIN RANCH
11227 County Road 98, Florissant 719-748-3279
Blue Mountain Ranch is an ACA-accredited, third-generation-owned and -operated summer camp in Florissant. For the past 79 years, BMR has been enriching the lives of children from around the globe. BMR is a coeducational overnight camp for ages 7-15. Campers gain independence and confidence through the ability to choose their daily activities. We always have a nurse on campus and provide homestyle meals made fresh each day. We emphasize participation over competition and provide a welcoming environment for all children. BMR is a fun, safe place for kids to be kids, disconnect from technology and reconnect with childhood. We are the summer camp you’ve been looking for!
BOLD EARTH ADVENTURES
Colorado and Utah
828-425-3971
boldearth.com
Adventure. Connection. Growth. Since 1976, Bold Earth has crafted small-group adventure programs that build confidence, leadership, and lifelong friendships. Open to campers in Grades 7-11, groups are divided by age (7-9 and 9-11) to ensure experiences are appropriately challenging. Hike Rocky Mountain National Park, volunteer in a community garden and whitewater raft Browns Canyon. Climb beginner-friendly granite cliffs, raft through Westwater Canyon and explore Arches National Park in Utah. Finish with a thrilling via ferrata climb and breathtaking views. This unplugged adventure builds independence, teamwork and resilience — all while having the time of your life!
CAMP ROCKY
Near Divide
info@camprocky.org camprocky.org
Camp Rocky is an educational, weeklong residential camp for 14- to 17-year-olds who enjoy the outdoors and are interested in natural resources, agriculture, or environmental science. Camp Rocky’s professional staff helps participants learn about their environment through hands-on experiences. Students work in teams, making new friends from across Colorado. Students choose one of the following resource fields for their area of focus: Fish and Wildlife, Soil and Water, Rangeland Science and Forestry.
CATAMOUNT INSTITUTE
740 W Caramillo St.
719-471-0910
catamountinstitute.org/summer-camps
At Catamount Institute camps, children will have an outdoor adventure, learn about science and make friends. For ages 5-12, camps include Colorado-ology, Extreme Education Excursions, Front Range Playground, Rocky Mountain
Highlights and Wild Summer Life. Children will be divided by age group (5 to 8 and 9 to 12) for different activities to ensure age-appropriate lessons and experiences. The older age group will go on field trips in the Pikes Peak region.
CITYROCK
& COLORADO CLIMBING CO.
Multiple climbing areas around the region 719-209-6649 coclimbing.com/youth_programs
CityROCK pairs up with Colorado Climbing Co. for outdoor climbing camps. Offerings include Cliffhangers designed for kids 8-12 who love to climb, be social and enjoy the outdoors. The camp runs 8:45 a.m.-2:45 p.m. on June 2-6, June 30-July 4 and July 28-Aug. 1. Senders, best for ages 12 or older, is for kids who have previously attended camp and want to learn more and start climbing independently. Senders runs 8:45 a.m.-2:45 p.m. on June 16-20, July 7-11 and Aug. 4-8. The multiday, overnight Explorers Program for ages 12 and older is an intensive program geared toward kids who have a combination of significant desire and skill. For details, please visit our website or call.
Grab your boots and get on board! Join us for Colorado Farm and Horse Camps at the Colorado Kids Ranch! At Farm Camp, kids ages 6-13 will collect eggs, take hay rides, spend time with plants and animals, learn about making jelly, riding ponies, tractors, shearing sheep and more! Horse Camp is for kids ages 7-14, where they will learn horse safety, thinking, care basics, tack, lingo, different styles of horseback riding and how to ride a horse. Camps will be full of outdoor adventure, education and happy, worn-out kids!
NATURE CENTER NATURE CAMPS
Bear Creek Nature Center, 245 Bear Creek Road
719-520-6387 Fountain Creek Nature Center, 320 Peppergrass Lane, Fountain 719-520-6745 communityservices.elpasoco.com/nature-centers/nature-camps
It may look like just fun and games, but deep connections to the environment are made minute by minute at Nature Center Nature Camps. Through daily outdoor activities, songs, games, crafts, hikes and embracing children’s universal passions to build forts, sneak and play unstructured in the woods, nature campers connect to the outdoors, and science naturally comes along for the ride. Camps are designed for children entering first to fifth grades, and a special middle school camp week at Bear Creek and Fountain Creek Nature Centers is designed for students entering sixth to eighth grades.
GIRL SCOUTS OUTDOOR
EXPLORER
DAY CAMP
Fox Run Regional Park 2110 Stella Drive
877-404-5708 camp.girlscoutsofcolorado.org
Join your friends for a thrilling journey through time and space while earning badges and making memories. For Grades 1-5, the week is packed with outdoor skills, animal encounters,
hands-on STEM activities, theater, team-building games and plenty of Girl Scout bonding. Along the way you’ll earn badges like Shapes in Nature, Design with Nature and parts of Junior Horseback Riding.
GIRL SCOUTS OVERNIGHT CAMP
Sky High Ranch 30924 CO 67, Woodland Park 877-404-5708 camp.girlscoutsofcolorado.org
At Sky High Ranch, you might dip into a beautiful mountain pond one day, fly down the mountain on a zipline another day and sleep beneath a million stars at night. You’ll experience life away from it all, make new friends, learn some crazy camp songs, meet cool counselors from all over the world, and get to know some pretty cool barn animals too. Grades 2-12.
GO WEST CAMPS
Chinook Trail Middle School
Eagleview Middle School The Colorado Springs School 719-357-8872 gowestcamps.com
Our activities are designed to be progressive and to help campers explore their interest and build on their skills. At camp we focus on measurable outcomes in our campers’ development. A variety of activities allow us to use our creativity and embrace outdoor adventure in our supportive community. Activities include gardening, biking, fishing, music, team building, paddle boarding, nature exploration, rock climbing, art, archery, cooking and more. Kindergarten through ninth grade.
YMCA
CAMP SHADY BROOK
Deckers
303-647-2313 ppymca.org/camp-shady-brook
Your child will never be lost in the crowd at
Camp Shady Brook. We offer a personalized camp experience that sets us apart and brings campers back year after year to reconnect with this special place, mentors and friends. We know no camper is one size fits all, so we offer a range of different camp experiences to ensure that everyone can have a summer to remember. At Camp Shady Brook, campers make new friends, build their self-esteem, gain independence, learn responsible decision-making and have an adventure! Registration is open for our traditional overnight camp program (one or two weeks) for ages 7-17; adventure camp for ages 7-17; mini-aspen camp for ages 6 to 8; music empowerment for ages 7-17; a horsemaster program for ages 7-11; and teen leadership programs.
ARTS & CULTURE CAMPS
ACADEMY OF CHILDREN’S THEATRE (ACT)
481 Windchime Place 719-331-2434 actcolorado.net
Are you looking for a camp where your student can enjoy a fantastic theater experience they won’t forget? Students from 4 years old through high school can join us for theatre camps in Acting, Musical Theatre, Broadway Combo, Dance, Voice, Improv, Shakespeare and even Stage Combat. Weekly camps are offered throughout the summer with the first camp week starting May 26. Your student will make friends, learn new skills, enjoy fun improvisational games and perform ONSTAGE at the end of the week!
Join the Chinese Culture Summer Camp hosted by the Colorado Springs Chinese Language
Summer Camps at the FAC
School and Colorado International Language Academy. Campers ages 6-15 will enjoy a week of activities focused on Chinese culture, including traditional sports (yoyo, pingpong, jump rope), arts, language, music and dance. Camp runs 9 a.m.-3 p.m. June 23-27.
COLORADO SPRINGS CONSERVATORY SUMMER DAY CAMPS
415 S. Sahwatch St. 719-577-4556
coloradospringsconservatory.org/2025summer-camps
Explore the Colorado Springs Conservatory’s 2025 Summer Camps for ages 1-18. CSC is the premiere multidisciplinary arts education space in the Pikes Peak region, proudly serving youth in the area for over 30 years! This summer we are excited to offer 30 fun, engaging and educational camps, like Rock Band Camp, Songwriter, Music Production, Acting/Theater Camps of “Beetlejuice” and “Frozen,” Piano and Guitar Camps, Private Lessons, “A Positive Note” for students with special needs, a Musical Theater Intensive for high school students, and many more! Days Camp sessions run June 2-Aug. 3.
Each of our five-day camps for artsy kids ages 6 and older is full of creative projects based on a theme for the week. In 2025 we will have five weeks of camps in June and July. Every camp is different, but all camps begin with a clay project and include pottery painting and other crafts. Kids will bring all of their projects home on Friday. Camps are small, with only 10 spots per session! We will provide snacks each day. Camps run 9 a.m.-noon Monday-Friday.
FINE ARTS CENTER SUMMER CAMPS
Fine Arts Center/Bemis School of Art, 30 W. Dale St. La Foret Conference and Retreat Center, 6145 Shoup Road
719-634-5583
fac.coloradocollege.edu/camps
Help your child make unforgettable memories and unleash their artistic potential this summer! Join our exciting theatre and visual art camps
perfect for ages 5 to 13! Kids can dive into musical theatre, acting, dancing, drawing, painting, mixed-media and more in our vibrant theatre and art camps. Our professional instructors, hands-on projects and supportive environment ensure your child will develop new skills, make lasting friendships and create memories for a lifetime.
MILLIBO ART THEATRE CAMP
1626 S. Tejon St.
719-465-6321
themat.org/summer-camp-policies
Camp 2025 details will be released on the MAT website March 1. The MAT believes that theatre training promotes self-esteem, builds confidence, stimulates creativity, sharpens communication skills, fosters an appreciation of teamwork, raises cultural awareness, celebrates diversity, encourages respect for self and others, and lays the foundation for a lifelong love of the
arts. The study of theater not only trains students to be better actors, it inspires them to be better people. Our staff is dedicated to the safety and well-being of all campers, and we work together to ensure our programs are engaging, creative and fun. Learning and creativity take place in a safe and supportive environment.
PIKES PEAK ARTIST COLLECTIVE
2708 W. Colorado Ave., Suite C 719-301-7718
pikespeakartist.com/summer-camps
Pikes Peak Artist Collective (PPAC) is thrilled to offer exciting, hands-on summer art camps for young artists ages 6-13! Running from late May through mid-July, these full-day camps offer the option to attend either half-day or full-day for the week. Campers will enjoy an immersive experience in ceramics, drawing, painting, and exploring art from different cultures and masters. They’ll also visit exclusive art galleries in Old Colorado City. Registration and camp dates will be available in March. Let your child’s creativity soar at PPAC this summer!
Rock out this summer at School of Rock Colorado Springs! Our summer music camps for ages 7-18 are the perfect way for young musicians to build skills, make friends and take the stage! With options for beginners to advanced players, we’ve got something for everyone. This year’s lineup includes Rock 101 Summer Camp, Best of the ‘90s Camp and Pop Punk Camp! Plus, each camp ends with an epic in-house live performance! Spots fill up fast — visit our website and sign up today!
SPORTS CAMPS
AFA SPORTS CAMPS
2169 Field House Drive, USAFA 719-333-2116
goairforcefalcons.com/camps
This summer will be packed with great opportunities for athletes ages 8-18 to hone their skills. We offer camps in the following sports: baseball, basketball, cheerleading, diving, fencing, golf, gymnastics, hockey, lacrosse, soccer, swimming, tennis, track/cross country, volleyball and wrestling. We also offer elite camps in certain sports. Led by our Air Force head coaches, our camps will be broken into three sessions: June 9-13, June 16-20 and June 23-24. Not all sports take place all three sessions. We will offer boarder and commuter options. The boarder option allows campers to stay in the same dorms as the cadets do.
ALTITUDE SUMMER CAMP
750 Garden of the Gods Road, Suite 125 719-964-1798
altitudemovement.com/calendar
Summer will be here before you know it, and you need a plan NOW! What can you do with active kids who have incredible imaginations and love to jump, climb, swing, and flip? Send them to Altitude Summer Camp! Each week of camp has a different theme to guide our students through incredible lessons woven into F-U-N! Think Mr. Miyagi meets Capt. Jack (but with less rum). Check out our schedule online to decide which weeks best fit your kiddo.
CHALLENGER SPORTS CAMPS
Multiple fields in Colorado Springs, Widefield and Monument
844-674-8404
tinyurl.com/4aut5k37
For nearly 40 years, Challenger Sports — North America’s Most Trusted Soccer Camp Provider has served over 1 million campers! Campers focus on developing technical skills in a fun, safe environment while learning core values like responsibility, integrity, respect, sportsmanship and leadership. Register today to save up to $70 on select sessions and enjoy merchandise discounts. Early bird pricing ends 30 days before camp begins! Camps are held through Widefield Parks and Recreation June 2-6 and July 21-25; Colorado Springs Parks and Recreation June 9-13 and July 21-25; Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC June 23-27 (all campers are invited to the June 25 Switchbacks game); Pikes Peak Downtown YMCA June 23-27; Briargate YMCA Aug. 4-8; and Tri-Lakes YMCA Aug. 4-8.
D-BAT BASEBALL AND SOFTBALL
8265 Jamboree Circle
719-627-3228
dbatcos.com/index.php/camps-clinics
D-BAT Colorado Springs summer camps provide a great opportunity for players to improve while having fun at the same time! Our summer camps, which run through July, are very popular with parents who are looking for something constructive to keep their ballplayers busy when school is out. Our specialty clinics — typically focused on one aspect of the game — give athletes a chance to fine-tune established skills or work on problem areas.
KIDS ON BIKES
Trails around Colorado Springs & Monument 719-641-5373
kidsonbikes.net
Kids on Bikes Summer Bike Camps offer a variety of camps for all ages and levels of riding. Camp offerings range from Learning to Ride a bike all the way to Level 5, where the campers ride over 20 miles per day! Half-day and full-day options are available. During the camps, kids will learn new skills in bike handling, braking, trail etiquette and leave-no-trace principles. Camps are a social enterprise of Kids on Bikes and help support our programming to get more kids on bikes in our community. May 26-Aug. 8.
FIRST TEE
Multiple golf courses in the region 719-597-1932 firstteesoco.org
First Tee is a youth development organization that enables kids to build the strength of character that empowers them through a lifetime of new challenges. By seamlessly integrating the game of golf with a life skills curriculum, we create active learning experiences that build inner strength, self-confidence and resilience that kids can carry to everything they do. First Tee runs camps in El Paso, Pueblo, Teller and Fremont counties for ages 3-18. We offer half-day and multiweek camps starting May 27 and running through Aug. 1. Camps are located at Valley Hi Golf Course, Elmwood Golf Course, Shining Mountain Golf Course and Four Mile Golf Club.
FOUNTAIN VALLEY SUMMER (FVS) CAMPS
6155 Fountain Valley School Road
719-391-5356
fvs.edu/summer
Fountain Valley, a premier boarding and day high school in Colorado Springs, provides the ideal summertime environment for teenage campers to learn, grow, and adventure! Nestled on a 1,100-acre Prairie at the base of the Rockies, Fountain Valley Summer Camps feature an indoor swimming pool, the tallest high school climbing wall in the nation, and over 15 miles of hiking, horseback riding and mountain biking trails. For more information, including pricing and registration details, please visit our website.
IT’S FUNDAMENTAL
Portal Park, 3535 N. Hancock Ave. Grace Center, 1655 Pirate Heights 719-387-5899
itsfundamental.com
It’s FUNdamental summer sports camps are multisport camps for kids ages 3-11. Each week of camp is a different combination of five sports — basketball, baseball, football, tennis, lacrosse, ultimate Frisbee, soccer and golf. We also offer one week of track and field. Our camps are located at Portal Park, and the track and field camp is at the Grace Center. All camps run 9-11:30 a.m. Monday through Thursday. We also offer a LITTLES multisport camp for kids 3-5 — same sports, same park, just a shorter time — 9-10:30 a.m. Cost is $110 for the first child/25% discount for siblings/$70 for our LITTLES camp. Each registration includes a T-shirt and water bottle.
PIKES PEAK ATHLETICS CAMPS
Pikes Peak Athletics Training Center, 602 Elkton Drive
Country Club of Colorado, 125 Clubhouse Drive
The Club at Flying Horse, 1880 Weiskopf Point 719-400-7450
pikespeakathletics.com/swim-camps
Pikes Peak Athletics Little Pikes Swim Camps are the perfect way to boost swim skills through stroke development, water safety competencies and a wide range of swimming activities and games. Every day, campers engage in two, 30-minute swim lessons, a 20-minute water safety lesson, and both in- and out-of-water activities and games. Geared toward ages 4-12, campers are grouped by skill level and age. Whether you’re looking for your child to be water safe or sharpen their stroke technique, this is the camp for you! Camp runs 8:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. and 12:30-4:30 p.m. March 24-28; weekly June 2-Aug. 1. Enroll online.
PRO FOOTBALL CAMP®
John Venezia Community Park, 3555 Briargate Parkway 719-266-9308 profootballcamp.com
Current and former NFL athletes from teams across the league — including Colorado Springs native JoJo Domann and Matt Henningsen of the Denver Broncos — volunteer their time and talents to coach the 20th Annual Pro Football Camp®, 8-11:30 a.m. June 23-25. For the past 19 years, Pro Football Camp has created an instructional, fun and unforgettable experience for boys and girls ages 7-14 in the greater Colorado Springs area. The pro athletes teach not only proper football skills, but also character to help them be successful both on and off the field. The NFL athletes share their stories of perseverance, hard work and overcoming adversity in their lives.
YMCA SUMMER DAY CAMP
Join us for one week or all summer long! Camp starts on May 27, 2025. We will have weekly sessions running through August 8, 2025.
LOCATIONS
• Briargate YMCA
• Downtown YMCA
• Oak Creek Elementary
• Fountain Valley YMCA
• Peak City Church
• Southeast YMCA
• Tri-Lakes YMCA
• Westside Community Center TIME 6:30 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.
AGES 5 - 12 Years Old Learn more at
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SKYHAWKS SPORTS
Multiple parks around Colorado Springs 800-804-3509
Skyhawks Sports offers weeklong camps designed to introduce participants to a variety of sports and develop fundamental skills through active gameplay and skill-based drills. Our programs for ages 4 to 14 are a safe, noncompetitive, positive introduction to sports. Life skills like respect and teamwork are discussed daily. We offer 10-plus sports in Colorado Springs! Skyhawks has also partnered with STEM Sports® to offer STEM and Play weeklong camps combining STEM-based learning activities with sports instruction. Athletes can learn the SCIENCE behind their favorite sport. Check out SuperTots Sports programs for ages 2-5, a great opportunity for toddlers to get out and play in a fun, preschool-based sports environment.
SOCCER BUDDIES
SHIFTING THE LENS Tuesday, Feb. 25, Ent Center for the Arts, 5225 N. Nevada Ave., 1:40 and 4:45 p.m. entcenterforthearts.org I cried with the rest of the audience during my first Youth Documentary Academy premiere. Throughout the event, we elicited sympathetic gasps or unrestrained giggles following off-color jokes. After the premiere, I introduced myself to 15-year-old filmmaker Alex Welty and thanked him for putting a story like my own — a story I had held shamefully close to my chest for years — to screen. Afterward, many mingled at the booths of community groups and mental health organizations. For over a decade, YDA has produced quality documentaries by teenagers from the Pikes Peak region. The “Shifting the Lens” screening will feature two blocks of four films each, which delve into subjects like family, race, mental health and masculinity. Read more at csindy.com/yda-2024.
Multiple parks around Colorado Springs 719-330-9642
www.coloradosoccerbuddies.com
UCCS RecKids Camp program has three offerings for kids entering first through eighth grade. Small and large group activities allow children to learn the importance of diversity, being a team player and leading by example. At Mountain Lion Summer Camp, kids will enjoy activities such as swimming, basketball, soccer, volleyball, rock climbin, flag football and science experiments. At Outdoor Adventure Camp, kids will venture off campus most days for activities including rock climbing, paddle boarding, hiking, fishing and swimming. At Splish N’ Splash Camp, kids begin each day with a swim lesson, followed by safety drills, free swim time, arts and crafts, gym and field games, climbing and other activities.
VILLA SPORT ATHLETIC CLUB
5904 Prairie Schooner Drive
719-522-1221 villasport.com
Through Friday, Feb. 28, Shutter & Strum, 2217 E. Platte Ave. Times vary. shutterandstrum.org
Jonathan Nishimoto’s “Mono no Aware” exhibit features a body of work born from a combination of grief over his father’s death,
ALL IN JEST
Kick off your summer with Soccer Buddies day camps! We run day camps at local parks around the city for children ages 4 to 12 from 9 a.m. to noon. Drop your kids off for a day of fun, exercise and team-building. Our high-energy coaches will develop their soccer skills and their love for physical fitness. We know parenting can be a juggle, so we’re all about making it easy. Pick the days that suit you with pay-by-the-day options. Drop and go, knowing your kids will have a blast in safe and experienced hands.
SOCCERHAUS SPORTS & EVENTS CENTER
4845 List Drive
JUNE 30–JULY 4
CHARIS BIBLE COLLEGE
Saturday, March 1, Manitou Springs, Manitou Avenue, 1 p.m. manitousprings.org/carnivale-parade
A puppet of the late, great Manitou Springs artist Charles Rockey towered over the crowd at last year’s Carnivale parade. Made by artist Sofia Hernandez, the behemoth was 24 feet tall and depicted Rockey as he was in life, soulful blue eyes buried in layers of creasing wrinkles on his smiling face. The puppets we’ll be treated to this Carnivale remain shrouded in mystery, but we can expect a gumbo cook-off and plenty of Manitoids dressed like colorful fairies on the day of the parade. If you’re looking for something feathery to wear, we recommend checking out Julia Wright’s offerings at the Commonwheel Artists’ Co-op. Preceding the parade will be the CarniBall masquerade on Feb. 22 at the Iron Springs Chateau, featuring Cajun-inspired food, live music and the crowning of Manitou monarchs.
Looking for a safe haven for your family this summer? Come experience God’s love in a way that eliminates worldly fears and empowers you to embrace a faith-filled, victorious lifestyle! At the Summer Family Bible Conference, there’s something fun and inspiring for every age group. This is an event you won’t want to miss! Plus, for your kids, it’s a chance to take Vacation Bible School to the next level with this year’s dynamic programming for children and youth.
Visit SummerFamily.org/independent to register for free.
SoccerHaus offers Summer Multi-Sport Camps for ages 5-13 from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Monday-Friday. For $15 per day, we have early drop-off at 7:30 a.m. or late pickup from 3:15-5 p.m. Kids will play multiple sports every day and do indoor and outdoor activities. Each day has a different theme for the activities and sports, as well as some hands-on science projects, arts and crafts and occasional guest speakers. We offer a full summer, monthly and weekly discounts. We also have a daily drop-in rate. Visit the website to learn more and get your kiddo registered!
Villa Sport Athletic Club is bringing summer-long excitement to the area with its Adventure Island camp for kids ages 5 to 12. Registration is open, and weekly camps begin May 27. Kids can look forward to 11 weeks of adventure and fun, including swimming, crafts, showcasing their skills and playing games. Villa Sport camps are popular and have sold out in past years. Parents can save 15% by purchasing an Adventure Island Package Season Pass, which can be used for any or all Adventure Island camps. For kids looking to hone a special skill or hobby this summer, Villa Sport also offers a preschool camp, along with various sports and aquatics camps for various age groups.
WOODWARD COPPER SUMMER CAMP
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AVANT-GARDEN Friday, Feb. 28, Marie Walsh Sharpe Gallery, 5225 N. Nevada Ave., 6 p.m. gocadigital.org
509 Copper Road, Copper Mountain 970-968-3402
A wearable spider composed of cornflower blue gems. A dress of white flower petals caught in an autumn gust. Bell-bottom pants adorned with the colors of a student’s highlighters. “House of GOCA: The Psychedelic Garden” will be equal parts runway show and LSD trip. Nine Front Range designers will
Woodward Copper Summer Camp is an action sports and youth (ages 7-17) paradise at Copper Mountain Resort. Weeklong, overnight camp sessions in June, July and August offer summer skiing and snowboarding on real snow, plus a 19,400-square-foot, indoor training facility with skateparks, Olympic-grade trampolines, foam pit jumps, indoor ski and snowboard training and more. Our state-of-the-art training tools and professional staff will help your camper identify and achieve their goals, and our world-class facilities and parks will leave them in awe and get them stoked for their next season!
4 ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE Through Friday, Feb. 28, Auric Gallery, 125 E. Boulder St. Times vary. auricgallery.com Auric Gallery’s annual “Gratitude” features the works of 155 regional artists in a variety of mediums and styles. There are sculptures of tangled tendrils and scorpions, DIY-style collages, sad-eyed pet doggies and feasts of abstract shapes and colors — it’s truly a
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MARROW OF MEMORY Through Sunday, March 2, Fine Arts Center, 30 W. Dale St. Times vary. fac.coloradocollege.edu After over five years of workshops, reading s
Credit: Douglas Mielniki, courtesy Auric Gallery
Courtesy: Manitou Springs Chamber of Commerce
Credit: Douglas Mielniki, courtesy Auric Gallery
Credit: Aaron Graves, courtesy Galleries of Contemporary Art
Courtesy: Youth Documentary Academy
THURSDAY, FEB. 20
Ricky Sweum | Jazz saxophonist performing at the Mining Exchange Hotel. 8 S. Nevada Ave. 5 p.m.
Michael Reese | Solo guitarist performing at Rico’s Cafe & Wine Bar. 322 ½ N. Tejon St. 5 p.m.
Acoustic Set in the Lodge | Acoustic musicians performing at Buffalo Lodge Bicycle Resort. 2 El Paso Blvd. 6 p.m.
Frog & Fiddle | Folk band performing at Tokki. 182 E. Cheyenne Mountain Blvd. 6:30 p.m.
E J R M | Ambient multi-instrumentalist performing at Ohana Kava Bar. 115 E. Boulder St. 7 p.m.
Matt Robidoux, Andrew Weathers, David Castillo, Seance | Ambient musicians performing at What’s Left Records. 2217 E. Platte Ave. 7:30 p.m.
Evanoff, Chalk Dinosaur | Electronic bands performing at Lulu’s Downtown. 32 S. Tejon St. 8 p.m.
The Heavy Devils | Jam band performing at Armadillo Ranch. 962 Manitou Ave. 8 p.m.
FRIDAY, FEB. 21
Front Range Highway | Americana band performing at Buffalo Lodge Bicycle Resort. 2 El Paso Blvd. 6 p.m.
Kevin Mastin | Americana duo performing at Jives Coffee Lounge. 16 Colbrunn Court. 6:30 p.m.
Collective Groove | Funk band performing at Stargazers Theatre. 10 S. Parkside Drive. 7 p.m.
EPIC: Romantic Beethoven | Beethoven concert at Ent Center for the Arts. 5225 N. Nevada Ave. 7 p.m.
Jacob Larson Band | Funk band performing at Tokki. 182 E. Cheyenne Mountain Blvd. 7 p.m.
The Two Tracks, Patchwork Jack | Country bands performing at Oskar Blues Grill & Brew. 118 N. Tejon St. 7 p.m.
Yachty Got Back | Yacht rock band performing at Phil Long Music Hall. 13071 Bass Pro Drive. 7 p.m.
Semi Fiction, Florissant, Spitting Image, Blanket Slut | Pop punk bands performing at What’s Left Records. 2217 E. Platte Ave. 7:30 p.m.
Big Sky | Jam band performing at Armadillo Ranch. 962 Manitou Ave. 8 p.m.
DENM, Tunnel Vision, Chad Tepper | Alternative bands performing at the Black Sheep. 2106 E. Platte Ave. 8 p.m.
Jack Tracy | R&B musician performing at Ohana Kava Bar. 115 E. Boulder St. 8 p.m. Manwolves, [SALT], Worm | Rock bands performing at Lulu’s Downtown. 32 S. Tejon St. 8 p.m.
Undercover | Rock band performing at Buzzed Crow Bistro. 5853 Palmer Park Blvd. 8 p.m.
SATURDAY, FEB. 22
Black Rose Band | Country band performing at Whiskey Baron Dance Hall & Saloon. 5781 N. Academy Blvd. 6 p.m.
A Carpenter’s Daughter | Folk rock band performing at Buffalo Lodge Bicycle Resort. 2 El Paso Blvd. 6 p.m.
Willow Tree | Acoustic trio performing at Rico’s Cafe & Wine Bar. 322 ½ N. Tejon St. 6 p.m.
Susan Rissman | Jazz vocalist performing at Summa. 817 W. Colorado Ave. 6:30 p.m.
Battle for Bratfest | Battle of the bands at Sunshine Studios Live. 3970 Clear View Frontage Road. 7 p.m.
The Burroughs | Soul band performing at Phil Long Music Hall. 13071 Bass Pro Drive. 7 p.m.
Escape the Fate, Convictions, Renesans, Lungburn, Under Auburn Skies | Metalcore bands performing at the Black Sheep. 2106 E. Platte Ave. 7 p.m.
The Long Run | The Eagles tribute band performing at Stargazers Theatre. 10 S. Parkside Drive. 7 p.m.
Mystic 7 | Cover band performing at Buzzed Crow Bistro. 5853 Palmer Park Blvd. 7 p.m.
The Takes, Shop Dog | Folk bands performing at Oskar Blues Grill & Brew. 118 N. Tejon St. 7 p.m.
On Prem | Electronic musician performing at Ohana Kava Bar. 115 E. Boulder St. 8 p.m.
Joe Pug, Small Houses, Wheelright | Folk musicians performing at Lulu’s Downtown. 32 S. Tejon St. 8 p.m.
SUNDAY, FEB. 23
Kip & Friends | Jazz band performing at Armadillo Ranch. 962 Manitou Ave. 2:30 p.m.
Colorado Springs Pickers Bluegrass Jam | Bluegrass musicians performing at Buffalo Lodge Bicycle Resort. 2 El Paso Blvd. 3 p.m.
Dizgo, Cycles | Rock bands performing at Lulu’s Downtown. 32 S. Tejon St. 8 p.m.
MONDAY, FEB. 24
Colin McAlister and Wayne Wilkinson | Guitar duo performing at Armadillo Ranch. 962 Manitou Ave. 6 p.m.
TUESDAY, FEB. 25
Stony Jam | Reggae band performing at Armadillo Ranch. 962 Manitou Ave. 8 p.m.
WEDNESDAY, FEB. 26
Clifton & Langemo Duo | Guitar duo performing at Tokki. 182 E. Cheyenne Mountain Blvd. 6:30 p.m.
Josey Scott, Flaw, Adema, So Help You God | Metal bands performing at Sunshine Studios Live. 3970 Clear View Frontage Road. 6:30 p.m.
Brigitte Benson | Jazz vocalist performing at Bar Thirty Three. 18 S. Nevada Ave. 7 p.m.
Larry & Joe, Gio Chamba | Folk musicians performing at Lulu’s Downtown. 32 S. Tejon St. 8 p.m.
THURSDAY, FEB. 27
Colin McAlister | Jazz guitarist performing at the Mining Exchange Hotel. 8 S. Nevada Ave. 5 p.m.
Levi Maez | Variety musician performing at Rico’s Cafe & Wine Bar. 322 ½ N. Tejon St. 5 p.m.
Acoustic Set in the Lodge | Acoustic musicians performing at Buffalo Lodge Bicycle Resort. 2 El Paso Blvd. 6 p.m.
Susan Rissman | Jazz vocalist performing at Tokki. 182 E. Cheyenne Mountain Blvd. 6:30 p.m.
Blue River Grass | Blugrass band performing at Armadillo Ranch. 962 Manitou Ave. 7 p.m.
Pokey LaFarge, Cicada Rhythm | Country musicians performing at Lulu’s Downtown. 32 S. Tejon St. 8 p.m.
FRIDAY, FEB. 28
Country on the Rise |
Country showcase at Phil Long Music Hall. 13071 Bass Pro Drive. 6 p.m.
Craig Walter | Folk musician performing at Rico’s Cafe & Wine Bar. 322 ½ N. Tejon St. 6 p.m.
Bus Band Trio | Classic rock trio performing at Stargazers Theatre. 10 S. Parkside Drive.
7 p.m.
Dalonious Funk | Funk band performing at Tokki. 182 E. Cheyenne Mountain Blvd. 7 p.m.
Poole & the Gang | Jazz band performing at Summa. 817 W. Colorado Ave. 7 p.m.
SteelHenge | Cover band performing at Buzzed Crow Bistro. 5853 Palmer Park Blvd. 7 p.m.
MJ Lenderman plays the Black Sheep on March 1. | Courtesy: The Black Sheep
8th Street Alley | Variety band performing at Armadillo Ranch. 962 Manitou Ave. 8 p.m.
Joy Oladokun | Folk singer-songwriter performing at the Black Sheep. 2106 E. Platte Ave. 8 p.m.
Lake Drive, Creek, Series Break | Rock bands performing at Vultures. 2100 E. Platte Ave. 8 p.m.
Lindsey Meyers | Folk acoustic musician performing at Ohana Kava Bar. 115 E. Boulder St. 8 p.m.
SATURDAY, MARCH 1
Rence Fest | Festival of local bands in celebration of a hometown hero at Lulu’s Downtown. 32 S. Tejon St. 5 p.m.
Ashlee & The Longshot Revival | Country band performing at Whiskey Baron Dance Hall & Saloon. 5781 N. Academy Blvd. 6 p.m.
Rafiel & the Roomshakers | Soul band performing at Rico’s Cafe & Wine Bar. 322 ½ N. Tejon St. 6 p.m.
Chronic Funk Band | Funk band performing at Summa. 817 W. Colorado Ave. 6:30 p.m.
Evil Woman: The American ELO | ELO tribute band performing at Phil Long Music Hall. 13071 Bass Pro Drive. 7 p.m.
Moldy Figs | Jazz band performing at Tokki.
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Santa Rios | Santana tribute band performing at Stargazers Theatre. 10 S. Parkside Drive. 7 p.m.
MJ Lenderman & The Wind | Indie rock band performing at the Black Sheep. 2106 E. Platte Ave. 8 p.m.
Time Warp | Cover band performing at Buzzed Crow Bistro. 5853 Palmer Park Blvd. 8 p.m.
SUNDAY, MARCH 2
Mike Ippolito | Folk musician performing at
Armadillo Ranch. 962 Manitou Ave. 1 p.m.
Colorado Springs Pickers Bluegrass Jam | Bluegrass musicians performing at Buffalo Lodge Bicycle Resort. 2 El Paso Blvd. 3 p.m.
Rebirth Brass Band | Jazz band performing at Lulu’s Downtown. 32 S. Tejon St. 7 p.m.
Týr, Aether Realm, Oak, Ash & Thorn, Ob Nixilis | Metal bands performing at the Black Sheep. 2106 E. Platte Ave. 7:30 p.m.
OJoy to Behold
n June 11, 1988, a baby-faced Tracy Chapman, guitar in hand, stepped to the mic at the 70th birthday concert held in celebration of the then-imprisoned anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela. Gently picking the strings, Chapman began tenderly singing “Fast Car.” Chapman, who had already performed earlier in the concert, was a last-minute stand-in for Stevie Wonder, who was experiencing technical difficulties. Between those crowded into Wembley Stadium and those watching the broadcast at home, Chapman performed to an audience of 600 million people.
Among those hundreds of millions, no one loves that performance more than singersongwriter Joy Oladokun, whose pronouns are she/they. Oladokun consistently cites watching that video at 10 years old as the reason she picked up a guitar.
“I think I have to be strong because the idea is that I represent a brave new world. But what if the world isn’t that brave or that new? Where is the safe place for someone like me?” Oladokun asks in interlude “OBSERVATION #1.”
The question comes shortly after the rephrasing of a James Baldwin quote: “I was born here almost 60 years ago. I’m not going to live another 60 years. You always told me it takes time. It has taken my father’s time, my mother’s time, my uncle’s time, my brothers’ and my sisters’ time, my nieces’ and my nephews’ time. How much time do you want for your ‘progress’?”
Some of Oladokun’s songs hearken to the civil rights struggles of 60 years ago and seem to interrogate how much — or little — American society has progressed since then. The opening track, “LETTER FROM A BLACKBIRD,” is a response to The Beatles’ song “Blackbird,” which was written in celebration of civil rights victories in the United States.
“All your life, you were only waiting for this moment to be free,” Paul McCartney warbled to the titular blackbird in 1968.
Oladokun sings a different tune: “Blackbird, what did you think you’d run into out here in the wild? You sing a sad song, but no one feels for you. They think you do it for the smiles. They’ll send you flowers when you die.”
Oladokun doesn’t provide answers to the many questions she raises on her fifth album. She does, however, make peace with her calling.
“It has not been easy for me to be so vulnerable for so long on such a stage,” begins Oladokun on “OBSERVATION #3.” “But … when I’m looking back on my life, I feel like I’ll be able to confidently say that so much of it was motivated by love and actual care for the world around me, and hope that I could make it a different, kinder place for people who don’t always feel welcome in it. And I sort of saw the world change, you know? I found people who, for some reason, listened to my songs and heard my heart. And maybe that can be enough. I can lay it down and walk away, knowing that my dreams came true.”
by CANNON TAYLOR • cannon.taylor@ppmc.live
On their latest album, “OBSERVATIONS FROM A CROWDED ROOM,” Oladokun grapples with some of the emotions Chapman must have felt following her catapult into stardom. The genre jumps from vibrant gospel (“DRUGS”) to elastic rap (“HOLLYWOOD”) to slick synth-rock (“DUST/DIVINITY”), all while using folk-pop as a base. Oladokun writes about hometowns, grief and faith but primarily about fame and progress — particularly Oladokun's role as a representative for the Black and LGBTQ+ communities on the world stage.
IF YOU GO
Joy Oladokun: The Blackbird Tour (with Luke Tyler Shelton) WHEN: Friday, Feb. 28, 8 p.m.
WHERE: The Black Sheep, 2106 E. Platte Ave.
ADMISSION: $33.67
WEBSITE: blacksheeprocks.com
Joy Oladokun | Credit: Brian Higbee, courtesy Sacks & Co.
Read the room
Play mines the depths of cult deprogramming and family dynamics
Sheridan Singer, Sarah Embree and Sean Verdu in “On Clover Road” | Courtesy: Springs Ensemble Theatre
by CANNON TAYLOR • cannon.taylor@ppmc.live
"The room where they invented misery” is what the script calls for, and Springs Ensemble Theatre certainly succeeded in creating it. The sole window, hastily boarded up, lets in a baking desert breeze. Multicolored graffiti with the sloppy handwriting and crude humor of a child adorns the walls. A wine stain — or is that blood? — seeps into the hardened sponge of a floor.
This disused motel room is the setting for the grimy action of Denver-born playwright Steven Dietz’s “On Clover Road.”
The play picks up as Stine, a cult deprogrammer, prepares Kate to reunite with her missing daughter after four years. He starts by removing the sheets from the bed and light bulbs from the lamp. He’s seen kids try to cut themselves with small glass shards and smother their parents to death with pillows.
Kate must be tougher than the cult, Stine explains. So, he toughens her up. He makes lewd comments about his
secretary. He calls Kate a drunk. He blames her for her daughter’s decision to run away. Stine is crueler than the room itself.
His malice reaches its climax with a crisp slap. Blankfaced, Stine tells Kate she’s ready.
“[Kate] is a mom who is desperate to get her child out of this cult and will do anything and everything to make that happen,” explained director Stephen Alan Carver. “My question as the director was, ‘Well, OK, where’s the line for that? What does anything really mean? What does everything really mean? And, are there lines?’”
The play is more of a drop tower than an emotional roller coaster; there’s no anticipating the plummet until your gut’s doing somersaults. Characters are recontextualized repeatedly as alliances are formed and broken and blood oozes once again into the motel floor.
“[Dietz] started writing this play from the end and worked backwards, and that’s kind of how I directed it,” Carver described. “I wanted the actors to know where they need to get to.”
IF YOU GO
“On Clover Road”
Written by Steven Dietz
Directed by Stephen Alan Carver
Starring Sarah Embree (Kate Hunter), Steve Emily (Stine), Sheridan Singer and McLain Murphy (A Girl) and Sean Verdu (Harris)
WHEN: Through Sunday, March 22
WHERE: The Fifty Niner, 2409 W. Colorado Ave.
WEBSITE: springsensembletheatre.org
Between the intimacy and fight choreography, the biting dialogue and pitch-black subject matter, Carver’s challenge was in making sure the cast didn’t take that gloom home with them.
“I think we’ve succeeded because the actors still like each other,” Carver laughed. “We all have fun every night when we get together, playing these really horrible people.”
The characters are meaty, but the true appeal of the play, in this reviewer’s opinion, is Dietz’s dialogue, which drives a stake through the brittle heart of parenting in pessimistic yet poetic prose.
“Being the mother of a teenage girl … it’s like going through the longest breakup of your life,” laments Kate.
But the most memorable dialogue comes from Stine: “People think children are made of rubber. That they bounce back from anything. But children are made of glass. Children shatter.”
“That’s a very important line because there are so many kids in this world who don’t make it, or who live in unhappy households and need to escape,” Carver said. “Whether you’re a parent or not … you have to be conscious about kids and get the sense of, ‘Is this kid going through something that they’re not telling us, that we don’t know about?’ And, if so, do what you can to help because children are innocent. They learn all the good stuff from us, and they learn all the bad stuff from us as well.”
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ARTS&CULTURE .
STEP INTO THE PARLOR
W.I.P.
IT
By LAUREN CIBOROWSKI
"Are you looking for the wine thing?” asked a helpful man on the stoop of a house on West Colorado the other evening. I was indeed looking for a wine thing, more specifically, a Curious Palate tasting class being offered in certified sommelier Michaela Hightower’s new location, a quaint 1900-era house she has dubbed The Nest.
About a dozen of the eventual 21 guests were already there, milling around and admiring the cozy environs and wine-related memorabilia and photos on the walls. A room to the left held some squishy couches and a variety of decor that can be rented for events, like soft blankets for outdoor parties and a wooden, accordion room partition covered in fascinating wine and spirits facts. The main room featured three tables, all set and ready with four 3-ounce pours of wine for each place setting, and a slate plate of small bites in between. Meanwhile, business partner Casey Helm, a Cicerone-certified server, among other qualifications, was busy in the kitchen near the back of the house, finishing up the Margherita pizza and teensy individual French onion soups that were to pair with the last two pours. Hightower’s business is called The Pouring Parlor, and in addition to offering monthly tastings, she also has bartending services for private parties — one of very few such services in town, I might add. Originally, she held tastings at her event venue, Soiree, which opened in 2012 and sadly closed in 2016. Since then, she’s shared her vast knowledge of wine in private homes, art galleries, restaurants and the FAC, to name a few, until recently purchasing the space on West Colorado Avenue. In a smart move that was distinct from the classes that Hightower used to offer in other spaces, she led the newbies back to the dining room to give them what she calls the four S’s of wine tasting. (In the past, this talk would
lead to the repeat visitors talking amongst themselves, so it was great to let them socialize while the novices listened attentively in another room.) The four S’s — sight, sniff, swirl and sip — are key to uncovering the secrets of any glass of wine. With the proficiency born of her Level 3 Wine and Spirit Education Trust training, but always with a splash of levity, Hightower led the smaller group through all the steps, even demonstrating the powerful role our sense of smell plays for our palate with a clever jelly bean trick.
Then it was on to a bit of speechifying before the tasting itself. Hightower let us know some of the history I mentioned above and also a new component of her business and the little house: a project she’s calling the Lily Pad, which offers housing and part-time employment to a veteran who is in between jobs and homes. “Not in crisis, just in transition,” as she put it, to the admiring applause of the room. This night’s tasting focused loosely on a theme of 1900-1910, in honor of when The Nest was built. Subsequent months’ tastings will progress through the decades, come to find out. We each had an informational sheet styled as a newsletter with facts from that era (Taft’s drink of choice? A scant single glass of champagne.) However, that’s not to say that we were drinking wine from that time period — just things that were inspired by that era. An era when, say, the average person was not able to import fine wine and was drinking more widely available home blends or field wines. In that spirit (pun intended!), our entry sips were from a bottle of Field White from a vineyard in the Finger Lakes, an area that no one at the event had really tried much wine from. This was followed by a cabernet-merlot blend, a syrah and finally a 100% Concord, which was also new to most, myself included. All the wines were under $20 and purchased from local, small wine shops. In the stern words of Hightower, “Never buy toilet paper and wine in the same place!” and I heartily agree. Moreover, The Parlor itself doesn’t of fer the wines for sale, a feature of the tastings that I’ve always thought to be astute. In this way, beholden to no one, they can offer a wide variety of experiences to their tasters, and you’re just paying for the learning experience. Cheers to The Parlor’s newest iteration — may it be a real corker!
You need art. Art needs you.
Lauren Ciborowski writes about the arts and music in every issue. W.I.P. stands for Works in Progress.
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New York, a venue in Canada, a recording studio in Iowa. Often, you’ll find him in someone’s basement, playing to a beer-can-holding crowd swaying in a weak imitation of dance. The most arcane videos are dimly lit and recorded in abandoned warehouses and other liminal spaces.
Sometimes, Rence plants himself in one place, closing his eyes prayerfully and communing with the melody, but usually, he struts around the stage and high kicks as if he’s fending off a flurry of flaming soccer balls. Often, the audience and his bandmates seem like third wheels to something intimate between Rence and the performance — a kind of rapturous romance with music itself.
ROCK AND ROLL DISCIPLES
Dear Rabbit’s drummer, Reggie Thompson, compared the hypnotic, extended rocking of “Nice Doggy, I’ll Listen to You” to the spiritually ecstatic quality of the Baptist gospel music he was raised on.
“You kind of give yourself up to what’s happening,” Thompson said. “It goes on for an unexpected amount of time. It’s almost like a meditation on this idea.”
Thompson, who joined Dear Rabbit last July, is the latest in a long line of “hired guns” helping Rence bring his music to life. Thompson said Rence thanks his band members every practice for helping
him realize his rock star dreams.
Bryan Sespico, the band’s guitarist between 2019 and 2024, told the same story.
“I can’t even say I knew him well,” he said, “but if you’re involved with his music, he has such a reverence for you for helping him make music. … That was a very real warmth that I saw from Rence. He was always so thankful and grateful.”
From the stage, the sight of Rence raging out to your music is the most energizing thing to see in the crowd.
- Dakota Wilkinson
I raised an eyebrow at Sespico’s comment, wondering how he could play music with Rence for five years and still consider his inner workings to be a mystery.
“Rence is such an interesting character because it’s unclear sometimes how much of it is a conscious choice and how much of it is just his nature, to go into every situation naively and with an open mind. I really can’t tell,” Sespico pondered. “I think it’s probably both, but it’s hard to tell what the split is.”
Intrigued, I brought up the mystique of Rence in my next interview with Dear Rabbit bassist Mercedes Perez Whitman, whose pronouns are she/they. I asked her if she had any burning questions about Rence, and, bursting into laughter, she answered, “His age.”
“I’ve never really tried to ask him more personal questions, I guess in part because I know that he’s kind of private. At the same time, I don’t feel like he’s closed off,” they explained. “The music really brings something out in Rence that is apparent in the energy of the performance and the lyricism. I think he conveys more through that medium than if you were just to have a conversation with him.”
Rence seemed so devoted to music in his public life that I was burning to know what emerged in private.
‘LET’S START THE SHOW’
I found some answers with KJ Harden, who first met Rence in 1997.
Harden was 15 at the time, performing in his punk band at a Christian club called Club Alpha in Orlando, Florida. At the show, Rence, who was attending Rollins College in Winter Park, mentioned that he had never been to the beach and was looking for a guide. Harden answered the call, and they became fast friends.
At the end of the summer, Harden visited Rence’s apartment. Rence played “Light My Fire” by The Doors on piano. They connected over Jim Morrison and joked that they should start a band. A fire was indeed lit.
In a lot of ways, Rence is like the older brother that my parents didn’t give me but the universe did.
- KJ Harden
What ensued was Pistis, a band that played Guavaween and House of Blues before Rence moved to Colorado Springs in 2001.
Like a part-time disciple, Harden followed a few years later. They started a second band, Punk Rock Gods, changing their name repeatedly until Harden had to move back to Florida to care for his mother.
Although I only heard Harden’s voice, I just knew his eyes were sparkling as we spoke. He chuckled as he recalled his memories with Rence: “exploring” in a humble Geo Metro before accidentally landing in a ditch and requiring assistance from a farmer in his tractor; eating sandwiches of honey, wheat bread and Kix cereal during late nights on tour; playing a game called Freeze Out to see who could outlast the other in frigid temperatures.
“In a lot of ways, Rence is like the older brother that my parents didn’t give me but the universe did,” Harden said.
Before his mother’s death, Harden made a promise to take care of his dad, separating him from his cosmic blood brother in Colorado Springs.
“[My dad was] always like, ‘Don’t you want to go to Colorado with Rence and finish what you guys started?’” Harden remembered.
Since returning to the Springs, Harden’s been spending plenty of time with Rence, playing music together and hanging out like they used to.
“When I go out with him, we stop at least 30 times. He’s like, ‘Oh, let me say hi to them,’” Harden said. “When they see Rence, their face lights up, and his face lights up. He’s just got this magnetic personality. Things are more fun, it’s a night out, when Rence shows up. It’s like, OK, now let’s party. Let’s start the show.”
MUSIC ACCORDING TO RENCE
Rence doesn’t tend to celebrate his birthday, but for someone more enthusiastic in his concert attendance than most parents are at their kids’ piano recitals, surely, he deserves some kind of celebration.
Surprisingly, Bryan Sespico and KJ Harden aren’t entirely sure where the idea for Rence Fest began.
Sespico claims that it’s inspired by Heedfest, a fan festival for Rence’s favorite band, Guided By Voices. But Harden thinks that the idea came from discussions between Dear Rabbit members about Treefort, an indie rock music festival in Idaho.
“I think maybe it was a joke,” was Harden’s recollection. “Like, ‘Well, if we don’t get accepted to Treefort, we’ll just have to go ahead and start up Rence Fest.”
Either way, Rence Fest became a reality in 2024. It was an hours-long celebration at Vultures featuring seven local bands playing covers of Dear Rabbit songs and a sampling of their own original music.
In the early days of organizing the concert, Rence Fest’s existence was meant to be hidden from the public. But when Rence kept accidentally revealing
Rence | Credit: Sean Cayton
the secret in casual conversation, rumors of Rence Fest spread, and band after band begged Sespico to be included on the bill.
“It just speaks to how beloved Rence is in the music community,” Sespico said.
Still, Sespico was happy to pass overwhelming responsibility of organizing Rence Fest to Harden.
“That was at the point where I was like, ‘All right, I’m getting ready to leave the state, and I don’t have the mental capacity to deal with this anymore,” Sespico laughed.
The second Rence Fest will be at Lulu’s Downtown on March 1, featuring Cheap Perfume, Broth, Clementine Was Right, The Hardly Nevers, Moth Season, Bryse Taylor, Cabin, Super Sonic Sludge Scorpions, Spirit Baby and even Dear Rabbit. With such a long lineup, it’s going to be a extensive, joyful jubilee.
“It’s more than Rence Fest,” Harden said. “It’s kind of like a family reunion.”
It all makes sense. A hometown hero gets his laurels after decades of constant support for live music — that’s the story, wrapped in a bow. But I had to know more. I had to meet the man, the myth, himself.
‘SAD BOY FOREVER’
I was sure I would spot Rence by his iconic sunglasses and cowboy boots in the coffee shop, but my eyes scanned right over him. Obscured in his scarf and coat as he greeted some friends at the bar, I didn’t realize who he was until he stood and tucked a dog-eared copy of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s “The Idiot” under his arm.
Rence | Credit: Sean Cayton
I struggle with anxiety when performing, but watching Rence lose himself completely in the music helps that fade away.
-
Eden Selvin
As we adjourned to the patio, I asked Rence how many shows he was going to that week. He said he had no idea without looking at his calendar.
Believe it or not, Rence claims he has hobbies outside of music. He used to climb fourteeners. He goes bowling every now and then. He’s has been watching a lot of David Lynch’s work recently. One of his favorite movies, of course, has a canine reference in the title: Jim Jarmusch’s “Ghost Dog.”
Though he only had one beer over the course of our conversation, I wasn’t sure whether Rence was tipsy or just plastered on life itself. Either way, his laughter was irrepressible and seemed to come out differently each time. At one point, I could’ve sworn I heard him breathe out a hissing chortle like Ernie from “Sesame Street.”
For an urban legend, Rence was surprisingly candid about personal details. He was born Laurence William Seyb in Johnson City, Kansas, a hometown he has mixed feelings about.
“I was, like, the most city kid in that town,” Rence said. “Everybody else knew how to drive a stick shift
when they were, like, 3 years old.”
His mother played some piano, and his father participated in the church choir — something Rence writes about in “And to Her I Will Sing My Songs at Home.”
“I do remember a guitar there, but [my dad] got rid of it because he didn’t know how to play it,” Rence said. Then, he squeezed his eyes shut and opened his mouth wide, producing the piercing, shortwinded giggle of a ticklish fox.
Rence’s first instrument was the piano, but the endemic machismo in his hometown made him feel self-conscious, and so he gave it up. If he could do things over, he would’ve stuck with piano lessons and taken art classes in junior high instead of metal and wood shop.
“It’s a different scene, in the music scene, art scene, than it is in a hometown where everybody is trying to prove how big of a stud they are,” Rence said.
As the title of Dear Rabbit’s 2018 album “Shy” suggests, Rence wasn’t a very outgoing youth.
The second track, “Took Some Time,” details Rence getting over feelings of introversion and inferiority he had as a child. “When I was a young kid, I heard a friend tell another, ‘Even Rence is cooler than you,’” he sings.
In November, Rence released “Saturday Coffee” the first single from Dear Rabbit’s next album: “Sad Boy Forever.”
“There’s a shy element, for sure,” Rence confessed.
“That’s why I’m afraid I’m going to be a sad boy forever. So, it’s the perfect follow-up album.”
As Rence confessed his long-lasting introversion, he subtly rocked back and forth in his seat. I twisted a pen in my fingers, then fought to contain my amusement when Rence produced his own pen from his coat pocket and unconsciously matched my fidgeting.
That was the most puzzling quality of Rence: how a shy, sad boy could have a planner full of concerts, tour the country multiple times and show up for an interview all smiles. But in the moment, his laughter drowned out any curiosity I might have had about his social anxiety. He just seemed fully himself.
The conclusion of the “Shy” album seems to suggest that making music was Rence’s salvation.
“If you’re shy, just write a song and one day, she will come along,” Rence sings. “I always doubted what I could be. It wasn’t always easy for me, but once I dug in, I was free.”
As Rence started making music with KJ Harden, he dove headfirst back into piano, adding guitar, bass guitar, accordion, melodica, trumpet, cornet, French Horn, trombone and tuba to his repertoire.
Rence credits Paleo, also known as David Strackany, for helping him book his first tour. Strackany is bestknown for writing a song every day during a year of touring between 2006 and 2007. The feat received mass media attention and even was recognized by Vice President Dick Cheney, of all people.
Rence first met Strackany on MySpace, and Strackany gave Rence some knowledge on how to do what he was doing: playing hundreds of shows a year across the United States, all while living out of his car.
“One of the times he came through town over those
two years, I was like, ‘I want to do that.’ And he’s like, ‘Nobody’s stopping you.’ And then I just finally went for it,” Rence recalled.
Now, Rence has played in 48 states and six Canadian provinces. Touring was his sole occupation for a time. Then, he tried resume writing — which “sucked” — food delivery and working at a call center. (He also owned a laundromat before he toured. His LLC was called Wash n’ Rence.) These days, he works as a computer programmer, the latest in a long line of flexible, low-pressure occupations, allowing him to pursue his true vocation.
I’d learned Rence’s origin story, but he still baffled me. Had I seen a glimmer of Laurence Seyb, or was it all Rence?
My final question was if Rence would be comfortable sharing his age. He gave a grave-faced “no” before bursting into laughter.
That’s fine, Rence, I thought. Keep your secrets.
As we said goodbye, Rence went in for a hug before course-correcting to a handshake. I noticed, asked him about it, and he said he didn’t want to be unprofessional. I reassured him it was a business hug as I wrapped my arms around him. Then, he let out a reverberating hoot as he doubled over, hands on his knees.
Walking to my car, I noticed my cheeks hurt, as if I’d been storing a gumball in each one. My smiles and laughter had started as weak attempts to match Rence’s energy, but over the course of our conversation, they had become genuine.
The glowing signs of stores and restaurants across the dark parking lot seemed more vivid and colorful. It was as if Rence had unlocked the secret to loving life and shared it, for a brief moment, with me.
I felt a brief flurry of happiness, and even as I experienced it, I knew it would be beaten down by the waves of the world. I wouldn’t laugh in public again until I heard a good joke. The next time I said, “You, too,” to a restaurant employee who told me to enjoy my meal, it would haunt me for weeks. And whenever I went to a live show, I would rigidly stand while the other kids danced. I could never be a Rence.
I almost wanted to turn around and run
February 20 - March 5 | 37
COVER STORY.
Rence is such an interesting character because it’s unclear how much of it is a conscious choice and how much of it is just his nature, to go into every situation naively and with an open mind.
back into the
- Bryan Sespico
coffee shop like a rom-com protagonist. I wanted to give up my life of sin and become Rence’s disciple, touring the country and performing music miracles together.
Instead, I went home.
Later, I would read up on Dostoevsky’s “The Idiot.” It’s a tale of a prince whose guilelessness and youthful purity lead others to believe he is a fool. In reality, he’s often the wisest person in the room.
I haven’t had a Rence sighting since our interview, but I’ve thought of him often. I’m sure I’ll meet him again, at a music hall in California or a house party in Tennessee. I’ll hear a cackle and turn to see Rence in the pit, wriggling to the rhythm with no regard for the judgmental jackals surrounding him. Maybe then, I’ll find the courage to finally lose myself in the music.
IF YOU GO
RENCE FEST
Dear Rabbit, Cheap Perfume, Broth, Clementine Was Right, The Hardly Nevers, Moth Season, Bryse Taylor, Cabin, Super Sonic Sludge Scorpions, Spirit Baby
WHEN: Saturday, March 1, 5 p.m.
WHERE: Lulu’s Downtown, 32 S. Tejon St.
ADMISSION: $15
WEBSITE: lulusmusic.co
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326 N Tejon St. 719-228-6566
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OVERLOOKED FREMONT COUNTY OFFERS A TROVE OF TRAILS
By BOB “HIKING BOB” FALCONE
Fremont County is a treasure trove of hiking and cycling trails.
From Oil Well Flats to the north to the San Isabel National Forest to the south, there is no shortage of experiences to explore. There are far too many opportunities for me to list them all here; however, I do have my favorites.
LION CANYON TRAIL, FOREST SERVICE TRAIL NO. 1329:
Located about 1.25 miles from the East Bear Trailhead, you can do this one after hiking to Curley Peak if you plan ahead and get started early. The trail starts at what was once the Oak Creek Campground and goes through the narrow Lion Canyon, climbing just under 1,500 feet over a little more than 2.5 miles, where it ends at a county road. When I did this hike on a mid-June day, the wildflowers were plentiful, making it a colorful trek. The Lion Canyon Trailhead is at the end of Forest Service Road 303, which turns off of County Road 143, about 0.75 mile south of the East Bear Trailhead. This trail is open to nonmotorized and motorcycle uses.
is a
NEWLIN CREEK, FOREST SERVICE TRAIL NO. 1335:
Located south of Florence, this trail climbs steadily through a dense forest alongside Newlin Creek. A pleasant and easy hike, the payoff is the remnants of the old Herrick Sawmill, about 2.5 miles up from the trailhead. The trailhead is located at the end of County Road 15, a bit more than 6 miles off Highway 67. Look for County Road 15 a little over 4 miles down Highway 67 from its intersection with Highway 115 in Florence. The trail is open to foot and equestrian traffic only.
TANNER PEAK TRAIL FROM THE EAST BEAR TRAILHEAD TO CURLEY PEAK, FOREST SERVICE TRAIL NO. 1334:
This part of the much bigger Tanner Peak Trail climbs for about 3.5 miles, with more than 2,300 feet of ascent, through East Bear Gulch to Curley Peak and the intersection with the Stultz Trail, No. 1333. If you want to push on, Tanner Peak is another 3.5 miles up on the Tanner Peak Trail. The Stultz Trail goes for about 6.5 miles to the Stultz Trailhead, which is about 3 miles from the East Bear Trailhead, so you may want to do that as part of a two-car shuttle. I did the hike to Curley Peak and back on a pleasant mid-October day when the fall colors were on full display, so keep this one in mind for later in the year, even if you do it during the summer. The East Bear Trailhead is on County Road 143, about 11.5 miles south of the intersection of Highway 115 and Willow Street in the Brookside neighborhood of Cañon City. The trail is across the road from the large parking lot and might be hard to spot. This trail is open to motorized and nonmotorized uses.
Bob “Hiking Bob” Falcone
retired career firefighter, USAF veteran, an accomplished photographer and 30-year resident of Colorado Springs. He has served on boards and committees for city, county and state parks in the Pikes Peak region, and spends much of this time hiking 800 or more miles each year, looking for new places and trails to visit, often with his canine sidekick Coal.
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Aries author Anne Lamott articulated a thought that’s perfect for you to hear: “Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you.” I might amend her wisdom a bit to say “for a few hours” or “a couple of days.” Your imminent future is a rare time when a purposeful disconnection can lead you to deeper synchronization. A project or relationship will improve after a gentle reset. Your power mantra: “Renew yourself with quiet inaction.”
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Beavers are the natural world’s engineers. The dams they fabricate not only create shelters for them, but also benefit their entire ecosystem. The ponds and marshes they help shape provide rich habitats for many other species. Boosting biodiversity is their specialty. Their constructions also serve as natural filters, enhancing water quality downstream. Let’s make beavers your inspirational symbol, Taurus. In their spirit, build what’s good for you with the intention of making it good for everyone whose lives you touch. Ensure that your efforts will generate ripples that nourish your tribe and community.
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GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Ancient Roman celebrities were as egotistical as any modern luminary. But they sometimes had to deal with constraints on their self-importance that aren’t typical of our era. For example, Roman generals coming home from triumphant battles were honored with great festivities. But at the peak of the acclaim, a servant would come up behind them and whisper, “Memento mori,” translated as “Remember that you will die.” As you stand in the victory circle or mark your big success in the coming weeks, Gemini, I won’t enact that humbling ritual. In accordance with my spirituality, I will instead tell you, “Remember that this wonder you have spawned will live for a very long time.”
CANCER (June 21-July 22): When you see the stars in the night sky, you’re looking at the ancient past. Light from those heavenly bodies may take as long as 4,000 years to reach us. So we are beholding them as they used to be, not as they are now. With that as your inspiration, I invite you to spend quality time gazing into your own personal past. Meditate on how your history is alive in you today, making its imprint on all you do and say. Say prayers or improvise poems expressing your awe and appreciation for the epic myth that is your destiny.
one side and one edge. It’s a fun curiosity, but it also has practical applications. Machinists make mechanical belts that are Möbius strips because they wear out less quickly. There are at least eight other concrete functions, as well. Let’s extrapolate from this to suggest that a similar theme might be arising in your life. What may seem like an interesting but impractical element could reveal its real world value. You may find unexpected uses for playful features. One of your capacities has dimensions you have not yet explored but are ready to.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Sandra Cisneros is a visionary writer with Sun and Mercury in Sagittarius. She is always in quest of the next big lesson and the next exciting adventure. But she also has the Moon, Venus and Saturn in Scorpio. Her sensitive attunement to the hidden and secret aspects of reality is substantial. She thrives on cultivating a profound understanding of her inner world. It took her years to master the art of fully expressing both of these sides of her character. I bring this to your attention, Scorpio, because you’re primed to go in quest for experiences that will pry your heart wide open to wonders and marvels — even as you connect with previously unknown aspects of your deep self that resonate with those experiences.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): The Moeraki Boulders are spread along a beach in New Zealand. Many of the 50 big rocks are nearly perfect spheres and up to 6 feet in diameter, so they provide a stunning visual feast. Scientists know that they have steadily grown for the last 4 million years, accumulating ever-new layers of minerals. I propose we make them your symbols of power until July 1. In my astrological estimation, you are in a phase of laying long-term groundwork. What may seem to be a tedious accumulation of small, gradual victories is part of a grander undertaking. Like the Moeraki Boulders, your efforts will crystallize into an enduring foundation.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): A Japanese proverb says, “The bamboo that bends with the wind is stronger and more resilient than the oak tree that resists.” That’s true. When storms bluster, oak branches get broken and blown away. Bamboo may look delicate but is actually strong and capable of withstanding high winds. It flourishes by being flexible instead of rigid. That’s the approach I recommend for you, Capricorn. Challenges may emerge that inspire you to stay grounded by adapting. Your plans will become better once you adjust them. By trusting your natural resilience, you could find unexpected chances for growth. Your potency will lie in your ability to bend without breaking.
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LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): I mourn the growing climate calamity that is warming our beloved planet. Among many other distortions, it has triggered yellow forsythias and blue gentians to blossom during winters in the Austrian Alps — an unprecedented event. At the same time, I am also able to marvel at the strange, sad beauty of gorgeous flowers growing on the winter hills of ski resorts. So my feelings are mixed — paradoxical and confusing — and that’s fine with me. I regard it as a sign of soulfulness. May you be so blessed, Leo: full of equanimity for your capacity to hold conflicting ideas, perspectives and feelings.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): The quietest place on Earth is a room at Microsoft’s headquarters in Washington state. It’s made of six layers of steel and concrete, and its foundation includes vibrationdampening springs. Within it, you can hear your heartbeat, the swishing of your clothes and the hum of air molecules colliding. The silence is so profound that many people become flummoxed. Here’s the moral of the story: While you Virgos are naturally inclined to favor order and precision, a modicum of noise and commotion in your life is often beneficial. Like background sounds that keep you oriented, minor imperfections and small challenges help maintain your drive and equanimity. This will be especially true for you in the coming weeks.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): To make a Möbius strip, you give a half twist to a strip of paper and attach the ends. You have then created a surface with just
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Seattle’s Space Needle serves as an observation tower. It’s 605 feet high. For years, there was a restaurant with a rotating floor at the top. In its early years, the movement was so brisk that some visitors got dizzy and nauseous. Engineers had to recalibrate the equipment so it was sufficiently leisurely to keep everyone comfortable. Your current situation resembles this story. The right elements are in place, but you need to adjust the timing and rhythm. If there are frustrating glitches, they are clues to the fine-tuning that needs to be done.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Octopuses have three hearts, each with a different function. Every one of their eight limbs contains a mini-brain, giving them nine in total. Is there any doubt, then, that they are the patron creature for you Pisceans? No other zodiac sign is more multifaceted than you. No other can operate with grace on so many different levels. I celebrate your complexity, dear Pisces, which enables you to draw such rich experiences into your life and manage such diverse challenges. These qualities will be working at a peak in the coming weeks. For inspiration, consider putting an image of an octopus in your environment.
PUZZLES!
IT'S GOOD TO HAVE A HOBBY
In 2023, friends Boone Hogg and Logan Jugler found a nice stick on the side of a trail in Utah — it had “some excellent grain on it” and a “nice grip,” they said. They liked it so much, they shared a review of it with their friends, National Public Radio reported on Jan. 23. Two years later, Stick Nation has about 3 million Instagram followers from all over the world who post pictures and reviews of their favorite sticks. Some are “modded,” or altered by humans; others are “natty,” left in their natural state. One poster from Antarctica wondered: “There are no sticks here. ... I found an ice stick. Does this count?” Stick Nation allowed the submission. “This is an Antarctica stick,” Jugler decreed.
NOPE
In November, high above Riedering, Germany, Friedi Kuhne and Lukas Irmler walked across a slackline strung between two hot air balloons flying at more than 8,000 feet, United Press International reported. The two were awarded the Guinness World Record for highest slackline walk on Jan. 27. Irmler went first, calling the successful walk “a glorious moment.” Kuhne admitted, “Watching Lukas struggle on the slackline was also very intimidating for me,” noting that the balloons went up and down while they were midwalk. “At one point we were walking kind of downhill — the next minute uphill. The tension of the line was going up and down.” He celebrated by parachuting off the line.
IT'S A MYSTERY
The Los Angeles Times reported on Jan. 27 that police were called to a property along the Los Angeles River, where Google Earth images had captured multiple “HELP” signs scratched into the dirt. The land is owned by the Union Pacific Railroad, and it turns out the satellite images were captured in 2023. But a KTLA-TV news helicopter flew over the property on Jan. 27 and saw that the words were still there. Jill Micek, a spokesperson for Union Pacific, said the railroad is aware of a man who has trespassed on the company’s property repeatedly and who is responsible for the alarming messages. While she stressed that no one is in danger, the conspiracy theory community lit up with tales of underground tunnels: “The truth is in the tunnels,” one wrote on X. But LAPD is also familiar with the individual who frequents the area, and they said he “has refused housing or a mental health evaluation. He has been at the location for a few years.”
WEIRD IN THE WILD
In rural Willows, Australia, a man in his 50s suffered serious injuries on Jan. 29 when a “massive” kangaroo attacked him as he walked from his house to his car, The Guardian reported. Fortunately, a neighbor
witnessed the attack and was able to call for help. Rick Underhill of the Willows Rural Fire Brigade said the man encountered two kangaroos, one male and one female, and the female ran off before the “other bastard turned around and attacked him.” He said the male roo was about 6 1/2 feet tall and probably weighed 220 pounds. Underhill warned community members to stay at home. “A lot of elderly people live in this little community, and they like to go and walk their dogs in the morning,” he said. “And that’s just asking for trouble.”
THE TECH REVOLUTION
Twelve thousand humans, alongside dozens of humanoid robots, are scheduled to compete in a half-marathon in Beijing in April, Oddity Central reported on Jan. 29. Bipedal robots from Tesla, Boston Dynamics and 1X will have to have a human-inspired appearance and be able to move on two legs. Experts say experienced human runners have the edge over robots, partially because of battery life, but battery changes midrace will be allowed.
THE PASSING PARADE
In the name of gender equality, Chinese influencer Zhu Miaolin is calling on her male counterparts to start wearing Adam’s apple covers, analogous to women wearing bras. The South China Morning Post reported on Jan. 23 that Zhu noted the Adam’s apple is a delicate, sensitive area that should be protected. The covers are made from wool, leather or lace and cost between 70 cents and $3. A 2020 census in China revealed that there are about 35 million more men than women, a result of the longstanding (but now defunct) one-child policy in the country.
FAMILY VALUES
Two mourning sisters from Clearwater, Florida, didn’t even make it out of the church before getting into a scrape following their 95-year-old dad’s funeral on Jan. 22, The Smoking Gun reported. As Kathleen Deegan, 66, delivered the eulogy for Dr. Arthur Deegan, she neglected to mention her niece, which upset Maureen Deegan, 60. After the service, Maureen allegedly chest-bumped her older sister; Kathleen then grabbed Maureen’s hair and pulled her back. Maureen threw “strikes at (Kathleen's) face.” Kathleen was arrested for misdemeanor battery; Maureen was charged with felony battery because her victim was over 65 years old.
NEWS THAT SOUNDS LIKE A JOKE
Fighting a cold? If you're lucky, you can find some Progresso Soup Drops — cough lozenges that taste like chicken noodle soup. Metro News reported that General Mills announced the limited-time product on Jan. 16: “What's a soup drop? Well, it’s soup you can suck on, of course!” A can of 24 lozenges costs $2.49, but they sold out almost immediately, before a second batch was released on Jan. 23.
