Boulder Weekly 04.04.2024

Stacking up Stacking up

AS AFFORDABLE HOUSING EXPANDS, HOW HAPPY

AS AFFORDABLE HOUSING EXPANDS, HOW HAPPY

ARE THE RESIDENTS? P. 8

ARE THE RESIDENTS? P. 8

PLUS:

CHAPPELL ROAN AND HER DRAG

QUEENS P. 18

THE BABADOOK AT CWA P. 25

Courtesy: Dr. Zackarina Jenny-Hoe

COMMENTARY

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Boulder’s Blue Sky Bridge talks misinformation, myths for Child Abuse Prevention Month

BY SHAY CASTLE

Afew weeks ago, a man came into Boulder Weekly’s offices carrying a copy of our Feb. 29 edition. The cover story was about a photography exhibit featuring trans youth.

The man was upset about this article. He called us groomers and pedophiles before being asked to leave.

These are common anti-trans talking points. We understand they are made

in bad faith, intended not to protect children from abuse but to restrict the rights of transgender people and further marginalize them.

I believe our role as journalists is to engage with even bad-faith arguments — not for the politicians and talking heads that propagate them, but because of ordinary folks who may believe these harmful mistruths.

Childhood sexual abuse (CSA) is a pervasive and serious issue. Untreated, it results in lifelong impacts to mental and physical health: Survivors have higher rates of cancer, drug use, eating disorders, homelessness, etc.

April is Child Abuse Prevention Month. To honor that and address the recent incident, we sat down with leaders from local nonprofit Blue Sky Bridge to talk facts and fiction when it comes to CSA.

Blue Sky Bridge is Boulder County’s child advocacy center. Their mission is to address and eradicate child abuse of all kinds through education and treatment. Children can give testimony, be assessed by a nurse practitioner and receive therapy at Blue Sky’s

This trauma, experienced by millions, should not be used as a political tool of oppression. We at Boulder Weekly stand with survivors of childhood sexual abuse, and we stand with trans people of all ages. We will not be intimidated out of doing our job: to inform readers with factual information.

EDITOR’S NOTE

Boulder offices, avoiding traditional criminal justice facilities entirely.

Blue Sky also meets kids where they are: in schools. They teach Boulder Valley and St. Vrain Valley students age-appropriate lessons about body safety, boundaries and consent.

Gretchen Fair, Blue Sky’s prevention director, answered Boulder Weekly’s questions.

BW: How prevalent is childhood sexual abuse?

Fair: There are a lot of different numbers. The Centers for Disease Control says 1 in 20 boys and 1 in 4 girls will be sexually abused; the National Center for Victims of Crime says 1 in 5 girls. We say 1 in 10 children will be sexually abused before the age of 18, and those numbers are higher or lower for different demographics.

The risk of CSA is particularly high for LGBTQ kids or kids with different gender identities, and for kids with intellectual or physical disabilities — because offenders look for people with vulnerabilities, and those are different vulnerabilities.

Blue Sky Bridge handles about 300 cases each year. We deal with physical abuse, domestic violence witness, neglect and other things, but most of our cases (65-70%) involve sexual abuse.

2022 2023

that it’s only men who are perpetrators. Often, female perpetrators are overlooked because they couch the abuse in terms of caregiving. When it’s a male victim and a female offender, the victim may be less likely to report. Focusing on adult men can cause people to miss that it could be a woman or a peer.

We know it could be anyone. It could be a coach, your child’s best friend, a babysitter. A lot of our messaging is helping people understand where kids are actually vulnerable, and it’s not actually being kidnapped in the park. It’s with your soccer team or at a sleepover.

We can’t prevent sexual abuse if we’re looking at the wrong thing. With these persistent myths and misinformation, people are worried about the wrong danger.

What is grooming?

What does it look like?

Grooming is gaining trust with the purpose of sexual exploitation. It’s gaining trust of adults and children, because offenders groom families, caregivers or parents as much or more as they groom children.

Sometimes it can be gifts; a lot of times, it’s special attention. If you’ve got a family who is vulnerable because childcare is an issue or it’s a singleparent, they’re so grateful to have this neighbor who is going to watch the kids. Or it’s ‘Look how nice this coach is, he’s giving my son 10 extra minutes of soccer practice.’ Sometimes those things are innocuous. But those are tools offenders use.

Who are the offenders?

The No. 1 myth I would get rid of is stranger danger. I would love for no one to believe that ever again: 90% of offenders know their victim; more than half happens within the family; 40% is kid on kid.

2022 2023

Percentage of CSA cases that were interfamilial 57.5%

54.3%

The vast majority of offenders are men, but I would get rid of the myth

With kids, the goal is to slowly desensitize the child to increasing boundary violations. One really common way that happens now is exposure to porn. Older kids, same age peers or adults will show explicit content to children as a way of seeing how they react. That happens a lot with online gaming: links, chats, dirty jokes — offenders will test that boundary to see if kids will keep a secret.

We teach kids to get rid of the word secret. If someone asks you to keep a secret, that is a huge red flag. That’s a huge part of grooming. Sometimes the person will get the kid to do something “wrong” and keep the secret and then use that as leverage. ‘Your mom

SCAN THE QR CODE FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT UPCOMING TRAININGS FROM BLUE SKY BRIDGE.

Pinwheels have been symbols of child abuse prevention since 2008. Several local organizations, including Blue Sky Bridge, participate in Project Pinwheel to prevent and reduce childhood sexual abuse in Boulder County.

doesn’t let you eat sweets, I’m going to take you for ice cream.’

Kids are terrified of getting in trouble. Now the offender has that over the kid: ‘If you tell what happened, you’re going to get in trouble.’ That secret is a down payment on that child’s silence.

What is an underrated threat to children that perhaps doesn’t get enough attention?

I would love for all caregivers to be talking to their kids about online imagery. The average age of exposure to porn is 9 for boys and 11 for girls. Mainstream porn is hardcore — we’re not talking about Hustler magazine.

I remember looking up sex in the Encyclopedia Britannica. Nothing bad happened, because it was Encyclopedia Britannica, but you can imagine what happens if an 8 year-old Googles ‘What is sex?’ It’s really easy to get into a pretty deep rabbit hole pretty quickly.

We don’t want them learning about sex on the internet. That is the absolutely worst place to learn about sex, bodies, relationships.

How can the community support survivors and protect kids?

Number one: Come to a training. We have a training called Stewards of Children, which focuses on evidencebased prevention. We have trainings specifically for parents about online content and ones that educate about grooming.

We are always looking for dedicated volunteers for our Education Committee, focusing on the prevention and early detection of child

abuse. Our volunteers work with school staff, parents and the kindergarten and third-grade students in the Boulder and St. Vrain Valley School Districts.

Number two: Become more comfortable talking about this. Normalize this conversation. We as adults need to get more comfortable, because what I find working with thousands of kids over the years, they’re pretty OK with it. We teach it in a very neutral way, just like you teach kids about washing their hands or brushing their teeth, or you put on a helmet before riding your bike.

We don’t want kids to feel ashamed of their private parts, because that shame gets wrapped into that abuse. ‘My mom doesn’t like this word’ — it sends the message unintentionally that if something happens, maybe they shouldn’t talk about it.

Silence protects offenders. It’s not helping kids, it’s not helping victims.

We talk to kids about trusted adults. Trusted adults don’t break your touching rules, they listen to you and believe you, and you feel safe with them. We ask kids to pick five trusted adults and, if something happens, to keep telling. If you tell the first person and they don’t believe you or do anything, keep telling. Don’t stop.

We know the number one reason people don’t come forward is because they fear they won’t be believed. Something we can all do is believe people. Believe kids.

For parents and caregivers, if this feels too scary to talk about, we’re here. We have resources. Let us help you.

BOULDER

On the Downtown Mall at 1425 Pearl St. 303-449-5260 & in The Village next to McGuckin 303-449-7440

DENVER Next to REI at 15th & Platte at 2368 15th St. 720-532-1084

COVER THREADING THE NEEDLE

Boulder Housing Partners and other local housing authorities manage growth amid drug use, behavioral issues and community concern

STORY AND PHOTOS BY WILL MATUSKA

Joel Sprenger lives in Boulder for one thing.

Last year, he scrambled to 184 Flatiron summits between the First and the Fifth. He can bag all five of them in one three-hour push, he says proudly.

When he’s not scaling rock, Sprenger might be zooming DoorDash orders around town on his electric bike. But he’s “basically here” because of the Flatirons, he says. “I don’t think I’m going to find anything better than what I’ve got going on here.”

If the great outdoors are the why, Boulder Housing Partners (BHP) is the how. Sprenger just signed on for another year renting from the city’s public housing authority (PHA). He’s lived in the same apartment for six years and says he probably couldn’t live in town if it wasn’t for BHP or another source of affordable housing.

“The thing I like the most,” he says, “they just leave me alone.”

Not everyone has such a positive experience living in BHP’s housing.

Rhonda McManus-Tatum lived in one of their apartments for a few years with her husband, who is a veteran with PTSD. They moved out last year because of maintenance issues and feeling “unimportant” or “ignored” by their property manager.

“I’m literally borrowing money to live elsewhere,” she says. “I can’t afford where I’m living, but it’s worth not having to deal with that.”

McManus-Tatum is not alone.

Complaints about BHP have flowed steadily through various channels, making their way to elected officials. Within the past year, there was enough noise from residents and the community about drug use, behavioral issues and

criminal activity at BHP properties that the organization decided to adjust how it screens for residents.

“Whether it’s a maintenance issue, whether it’s a lack of transparency, whatever the issue is, there’s a subset of people who don’t seem to feel like anybody is personally invested in them and their wellbeing at BHP,” says Boulder City Councilmember Nicole Speer.

BHP feels confident that its residents are mostly happy. Multiple sources interviewed for this story, who declined to be quoted, say the same people complain about BHP, and there aren’t many of them.

But it’s difficult to know exactly how happy or unhappy residents really are. While the housing authority collects feedback in a few ways, there isn’t a standardized metric to capture tenant satisfaction or compare it over time — at BHP or any other public housing authorities in the county.

Three area PHAs are collectively adding thousands of homes as they try to address Boulder County’s severe housing crisis. Yet officials say their resident services programs are underfunded, understaffed and still recovering after the end of COVID-era funding and a rise in mental health needs.

“At least for BHP, I really do believe that their heart is in the right place, and they are really trying to serve the community,” Speer says. “They’re also a landlord. They are trying to build more housing, they have been building a lot of housing relatively quickly. They’ve been growing a lot.

“Anytime you’re growing quickly, you’re gonna have some growing pains.”

‘YOUR METRIC IS PERFECTION’

Public housing authorities are quasigovernmental entities that build, own and manage affordable homes using a mixture of public and private dollars. There are more than 50 of them in Colorado, including the three in Boulder County: BHP, Longmont Housing Authority (LHA) and Boulder County Housing Authority (BCHA).

Public housing authorities are important players in the affordable housing industry across the country: One quarter of federally assisted housing stock are owned or managed by them.

They fill an essential need locally, too. Boulder’s rental gap — which compares the supply of rental housing to demand — is estimated at a deficit of nearly 4,000 units affordable to house-

holds with annual incomes at or below $35,000. Forty-five percent of renters in the city fall in that category, according to the 2020-2024 Consolidated Plan created by the cities of Boulder, Broomfield and Longmont, and Boulder and Broomfield Counties.

Longmont is 2,526 units behind. The county-wide gap is estimated at 11,500.

BHP is the largest developer of affordable housing in Boulder for people like Sprenger and McManus-Tatum. It manages more than half of the city’s affordable units — nearly 1,600 — and it’s growing: 41% (655) of those units have been added since 2016, and 700 more are in the pipeline.

Most of those homes house people who earn 30% of the area median income (AMI) or less: $27,900 per year for a single person. As of last year, the average income of all BHP households was $17,000 per year.

Other public housing authorities in the county are keeping pace with BHP’s rapid development of affordable units. BCHA has added 96% more units since 2012 and now manages over 900, with hundreds more on the way. The smaller LHA, which manages 462 units, will have added 30% more units (139) since 2018 by the end of this year.

BHP is consistently recognized for its programs and developments, winning state and national awards. Kurt Firnhaber, Boulder’s housing and human services director, also says the organization has “probably one of the best batting records” in getting competitive state tax credits essential for affordable housing developments.

“They’re better than everybody else,” says Boulder City Councilmember Mark Wallach, who also sits on the BHP Board of Commissioners. “And objectively speaking, they’re extremely good.

“Unless your metric is perfection, they’re not going to fall short.”

‘WE NEED A WAY FOR EVERYBODY TO BE HOUSED’

Sprenger says the only problems he’s had in his apartment haven’t been with BHP, but rather other residents. He recalls the early stages of the pandemic after a person he believed to be using drugs and previously homeless moved into his building, and

“the front turned into a homeless camp.” Sprenger thought BHP was trying to evict them, but felt nothing was ultimately done even after contacting the police.

Housing authorities like BHP increasingly provide affordable options for people exiting homelessness, some of whom may be struggling with substance abuse or mental health. Keeping them housed presents a challenge to both the organization and other residents.

Complaints from residents about people perceived to be previously homeless have reached local elected officials. Boulder City Councilmember

their homes. Sometimes they still have substance abuse issues, and meth contamination occurs.”

BHP Executive Director Jeremy Durham says issues around substance abuse are “constantly threatening to become a big issue for our organization.”

“The costs for remediation are extraordinarily high, and then the cost to the community is extraordinarily high,” Durham says. “Because it’s scary when you come home and then it’s like, do not cross yellow tape or the hallway is Saran-wrapped up, or suddenly somebody’s coming in to test your unit and see if there’s cross contamination.”

After two units were contaminated with meth in 2023, and residents voiced concern to staff about related behavioral issues and criminal activity, BHP made changes to how they screen potential residents with more emphasis on criminal backgrounds and references. So far, Durham says the new process has been successful.

Drug use is an issue elsewhere, too. Seven units are down at LHA because of meth as of March 21, according to Molly O’Donnell, the division director. Full remediation costs typically vary between $120,000 and $150,000 for a one-bedroom unit, but some have gotten close to $200,000, LHA staff said during a Feb. 20 advisory board meeting.

Tara

sued policy

in affordable housing on behalf of residents upset about drugs, crime and untreated mental illness in their buildings.

Two years ago, she says, “there were not the supportive services that there needed to be” to keep those people housed because of limited resources.

“The population with co-occurring disorders obviously has more problems living with others,” says Winer. “They’re not used to being away from their community. If they were just recently unhoused, sometimes they bring those people in to hang out at

“The harsh reality is there aren’t good solutions for known methamphetamine users to be housed,” says Durham. “And when we think about the overall system and just commitment to human dignity, we need a way for everybody to be housed. Right now, that doesn’t exist.”

BHP houses more than 200 individuals who were formerly homeless — about four times more than BCHA, which has half the units. Durham says the number of previously unhoused people in BHP apartments has increased over the last four to five years due to more voucher resources going to that demographic and difficulties people face to use vouchers with other landlords in the community.

Durham says it can be difficult to balance dual goals of keeping people housed and maintaining quality communities.

Winer told Boulder Beat she pur-

changes

Joel Sprenger, pictured near Boulder Creek, has lived in a Boulder Housing Partners apartment for six years.

Jeremy Durham, BHP’s executive director, at Glen Willow, a BHP community on West Pearl.

COVER

“Customer service is one of several competing priorities in some instances,” Durham wrote in an email response to followup questions. “Otherwise, then the thing to do would be to have people lose their housing with a pretty tight trigger finger when a lease violation may have occurred, and it’s part of our mission to not only get people housed but to keep people housed.”

Winer, who was involved in BHP’s process to enhance how it screens residents, calls it a tradeoff.

“The problem is, if they get evicted, then it’s really hard for them to find housing again,” she says. “They have it on their record. … People care and they don’t want to evict them, but sometimes they have challenged behavior. So what do we do? How do we keep the quality of life good for the families, for instance, the kids that are running around playing at the affordable housing, and also help these people? It’s really not an easy problem to solve.”

NOWHERE ELSE TO GO

McManus-Tatum’s husband was homeless when he first came to town around 2013.

“He came through, and people bought his art and offered him to stay in their houses, and it kind of really reminded him that humanity existed,” McManus-Tatum says. “So he decided to come back to society.”

In 2019, after he met McManusTatum out of state, they packed up a car and moved to Boulder together with the hope of making the town a permanent home through its supportive services. They stayed with some friends for a while and eventually got into a BHP apartment after having a baby.

“[BHP is] the only way I could afford to live here when we moved here and decided to have our son,” she says. While affordable housing allowed her to live in Boulder, she felt trapped with limited to no alternatives. When she started experiencing conflict with management, she didn’t speak out as a resident until she had other housing secured.

“I could not say anything until I moved, because I didn’t know where else I was gonna go,” she says. “I had nowhere else to go.”

Speer says it can be hard for people to

build trust over inherent power differentials in the landlord-tenant relationship, “especially when you are working with groups of people who have no reason to trust systems of power.

“You can be as kind and as wonderful and as welcoming and as open as you can be,” she says. “But when you control someone’s housing, and you make a decision about whether they stay or not, you’re gonna think twice about whether you can really be honest, and how honest can you be.”

RELYING ON GOOGLE REVIEWS

Collecting resident satisfaction is a tricky endeavor, especially from tenants about their landlord — a relationship that can be influenced by anything from annoying neighbors and housing quality to maintenance turnaround times. Those factors can sometimes be out of management’s control.

McManus-Tatum left a one-star review on a BHP Google Reviews page that is overwhelmingly positive. With an average of 4.6 stars from 248 reviews

in the last seven years — a fairly small sample for an organization serving more than 4,000 residents — Durham says the page is an accurate representation of overall resident satisfaction.

Nearly half of those reviews have been posted since February 2023 and about 14% in the last three months.

Durham says the increase is because BHP has gotten more intentional about directing people to the review page, through measures like posting QR codes on staff desks.

But when a lower rating does come up, common themes surround communication or maintenance issues.

“When you are serving 4,400 people, and when you’re an organization of 100, there’s going to be complaints — I think that’s an inevitability,” Durham says, adding that it’s “relatively common” that complaints on Google are from people in violation of their lease or someone who doesn’t actually live in a BHP apartment.

For example, one disgruntled resident reached out to Boulder Weekly with a complaint about the timing of BHP replacing the boiler in their mother’s building in November 2023. But the apartment was in a Boulder County complex called Lydia Morgan.

While this resident didn’t write a review, it shows the kind of confusion in the community and the potential for an inaccurate or false online reviews.

While BHP uses Google Reviews for broader quantitative data, an ex-property manager who left the organization in 2023 feels like the system was biased.

“When I used to work there, they did Google Reviews,” says Christina, who requested to be referenced using a pseudonym. “But to be honest, we contacted the good residents — the ones we know were happy.”

Durham says Google Reviews is “one of the ways we get feedback, but there is a whole host of other more important ways,” and that reviews are “not the part where we’re trying to really emphasize negative feedback.”

Survey data has been collected by

Local housing authorities are building thousands of homes to address Boulder County’s housing crisis, including BHP’s 30PRL (above), built in 2021, and Hilltop Senior Living (inset).

BHP, but they are not the same standardized questions from year to year. The most recent customer service survey, distributed in 2022 to all BHP residents, recorded 347 responses; 68% of residents said they were “Very Satisfied” or “Satisfied.” Just over 14% were “Dissatisfied” or “Very Dissatisfied.”

Another survey, given to all residents in 2019, reported similar, mostly positive feedback and showed low satisfaction from only a few residents in certain apartment buildings.

Durham says BHP collects survey data about every other year, but declined to share specifics when asked for more information on the exact number of surveys distributed over the last decade, or their results. According to Durham, the organization is more focused on community meetings, which he says provide the most direct and honest feedback.

He is “eager to roll something out that captures that in a scientific way so that we can tie it over time,” like a more standardized poll, Durham says. BHP is also about to launch a point-of-service survey that will follow things like maintenance requests, according to Durham.

Public housing authorities are “encouraged” but not required to gather feedback from residents by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), which oversees them.

Boulder County and Longmont don’t conduct resident satisfaction surveys and, like BHP, prefer community meetings. Boulder County Housing and Human Services (HHS), which manages resident services for BCHA properties, is working to better understand resident needs postCOVID through a satisfaction survey or needs assessment.

“We’re not offering as many points as we could to let residents who don’t want to provide feedback in an in-person setting,” says Gwen Mossman, a county supportive housing unit manager.

Mossman says they can use indicators like turnover rate that might show tenant satisfaction, but that doesn’t necessarily translate to happiness.

“Especially with this needs assessment,” she says. “I think that’s definitely the next step, to [figure out] are people actually really happy here.”

A HUD spokesperson wrote in an email that it doesn’t administer a resident satisfaction survey because “even poor performing PHAs may receive high resident satisfaction survey results, leading to doubts about its effectiveness in assessing areas of concern.”

Alexandra Nassau-Brownstone, vice president at Stewards of Affordable Housing for the Future, a collaborative of some of the largest nonprofit affordable housing developers around the country, says it’s

important to offer multiple avenues for residents to engage.

“When you have a community meeting, that’s a great opportunity for open engagement. But not everyone can make it at that time,” she says. “They have children they have to cook dinner for, or they don’t feel safe coming out at night or whatever the conflict or scheduling might be.

Increasingly, we are seeing organizations start to embrace technology and provide surveys and outreach in multiple formats, and we think that’s important.”

TIED UP

because one sheet of paper is not there?”

HHS’ feedback processes for BCHA tenants have been hindered by limited resources and staff.

Mossman’s team consists of five people covering 1,800 vouchers and units. In an ideal scenario, she says her staff would be twice that size.

Because of that, she says, “We’re not as deeply involved at each property as we probably would like to be if we could just be fully staffed throughout our portfolio.”

State Representative for House District 10

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Right now, Mossman says there aren’t additional staff joining her team to pair with the development of 400 units at Willoughby Corner in Lafayette, which BCHA will have to manage.

FEW ‘MAKE NOISE’

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Ex-property manager Christina was the point-person for residents at nine of the BHP properties she managed with a team of two others. On average, she says each team member was responsible for roughly 100 units.

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*HB24-1077, Lodged Wills * HB24-1031, Accessibility for Children in Child Welfare * HB24-1009, Bilingual Child Care Licensing Resources * HB24-1115 Prescription Drug Acecibility * HB24-1118, Authority of the Attorney General to Operate a District Attorney’s Office * SB24-078

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Email: junie.joseph.house@coleg.gov

Most of her time was spent on research, administration and following regulations, compared to time focused on residents. She says that balance was easy for her because she was organized, but knew of other teams that fell behind.

“You’re not only doing your administrator job, it’s more like psychology,” she says. “And not everybody knows how to do that.”

Durham says BHP is working to free up staff from the “tremendous bureaucracy of affordable housing” so they can be more available for resident needs.

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“We spend an extraordinary amount of the organization’s limited resources verifying people’s income — almost all of whose income has already been verified by another government agency,” he says. “And that strikes me as a tremendous waste of time and resources. It also strikes me as extremely inequitable, from the perspective of our residents.”

Those processes also impact prospective residents. Christina shared a scenario where a single mom applied for housing but couldn’t prove her expartner’s address because he didn’t have a permanent home. Without it, she couldn’t get in.

“You’re cutting an opportunity for somebody who’s trying really hard to work hard for her family, and just

Pam Griffin, who was president of BHP’s resident representative council (RRC), now called the resident advisory council, says she enjoys the quality of life at her senior BHP property.

“People don’t have to feel embarrassed about where they live,” she says. “They can say, ‘Look where I live,’ and they are proud of it. That’s pretty special.”

Her role on the RRC was to hold open meetings for residents once a month and represent tenants on the board of commissioners. Meeting attendance usually varied between 10 and 20 people, which dropped during COVID but rebounded after. She says neighbor and maintenance issues were frequently brought up.

Griffin thinks there are a few people who “make noise” about living in BHP housing — most everyone she knows is happy to be there. Other people interviewed for this article agreed.

Speer says residents who write to council with complaints are often the same people, which makes it “easy to dismiss when it’s just a couple people telling you the same thing over and over.”

Complaining can also be a matter of availability and privilege.

“The people who are most vocal are often the people who have the most time and energy to be vocal,”

BHP

• Total units: 1,597

• Occupancy rate: 97%

• Google Review: 4.6 stars, 248 reviews

• Average workorder turnaround time: 4.48 days

LHA

• Total units: 462

• Occupancy rate: 92%

• Google Review*: 4.0 stars, 16 reviews

• Average workorder turnaround time: Doesn’t measure an actual average, but it’s estimated at 1-3 days, depending on the property

BCHA

• Total units: 908

• Occupancy rate: 92.6%

• Google Review*: 2.4 stars, 9 reviews

• Average workorder turnaround time: Not tracked; staff say work orders vary in time and response

* LHA and BCHA don’t use data from Google Reviews.

just providing equality, but it is trying to account for past injustices and past harms, and trying to make things better.”

MOVING FORWARD

It’s a lot of weight on the shoulders of affordable housing providers to prioritize equity while keeping some of the most vulnerable community members happy and housed, especially as they add more units.

But Durham believes BHP’s growth doesn’t negatively impact residents already in their units. Rather, he says, it gives the public housing authority more resources to address issues.

“I think it unquestionably allows us to improve quality of service, because we get better economies of scale,” he says, adding they’ve put more emphasis on customer service in the last year through developing systems like followup maintenance requests with automated emails asking for feedback, adopting electronic payments for rent and hiring a deputy director to lead the effort.

says McManus-Tatum. “That’s how I felt when I lived there. Like, I didn’t have the energy or time or mindspace. We were in COVID. We had a young child. I didn’t have the energy to chase after my maintenance people and make sure it got done.”

Inequities like these are why there’s extra responsibility that comes with taking care of people in affordable housing, Speer says.

“Often the people who are in affordable housing are disproportionately coming from historically and currently marginalized groups,” she says. “Particularly in a city that has a racial equity plan that is focused on creating more equity, I do think we have a different responsibility to the people who are living in affordable housing, an extra responsibility. That’s what equity is, right? It’s not

According to its annual reports, BHP’s staff has grown by 17% since 2016. As of last year, 28 staff were dedicated to maintenance, 12 in resident services and 25 in property management. BHP’s housing and resources are intimately tied to other citywide organizations like Boulder Shelter for the Homeless, Mental Health Partners and Boulder Food Rescue that serve overlapping demographics. Because of that, Firnhaber at the City of Boulder says the satisfaction of BHP residents goes beyond one singular organization: It is the responsibility of the entire city.

“We all have to sort of work together on that,” he says. “They are a housing organization. They’re not a human service organization. They’re not a health organization.”

Editor’s note: Reporter Will Matuska has lived in a BHP apartment for nearly two years.

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Local news at a glance

BY SHAY CASTLE

LONGMONT STARBUCKS UNIONIZES

The workers of a Longmont Starbucks (2318 17th Ave.) voted last week to unionize, according to Starbucks Workers United.

More than 400 stores and 10,000 workers have formed unions in the past three years, union representatives said in a news release. A Starbucks near CU Boulder formed a union early last year. Boulder-based Brewing Market and Spruce Confections have also unionized in recent years.

The number of workers represented by unions increased nationally from 2022 to 2023, according to the National Economic Policy Institute, but the share as a percentage of total workforce actually declined as the U.S. has added jobs. Last year, 6.9% of private-sector and 36% of public workers were in a union.

BOULDER RELEASES DRAFT WILDFIRE PROTECTION PLAN

The City of Boulder has released a draft Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP) covering city limits and surrounding areas, including parts of Nederland, Superior and Louisville.

Specific recommended mitigation actions include making sure buildings are spaced at least 50 feet apart, increasing tree canopy spacing, requiring non-combustible construction materials and managing vegetation close to homes.

A map shows the area covered by Boulder’s updated Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP). Courtesy: City of Boulder

The public comment period closes April 8. Read the full plan (bit.ly/ CWPP-draft) and submit feedback (bit. ly/43L17Jl).

OTHER INPUT OPPORTUNITIES…

• Boulder, Longmont, Lafayette, Louisville and Erie are collectively exploring a higher minimum wage in 2025. A series of in-person information sessions are being held through April 13, and an online questionnaire is open through April 15.

Learn more (bit.ly/4cG5xFC) and take the survey (bit.ly/4cBCbbp).

• Lafayette is developing its first Climate Action Plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and prepare the community for the effects of climate change. Residents are invited to read the plan and provide feedback on its seven key focus areas: lafayettelistens.com/cap.

A CAP community workshop will be held in person Monday, April 15, from 6-7 p.m. at the Lafayette Public Library (775 Public Road).

BOULDER CITY COUNCIL

At the Thursday, April 11 virtual meeting, council will:

• Hold a public hearing and vote on whether to adopt the Civic Area Historic District, which would include Central Park and five surrounding city-owned landmarks, including BoulderDushanbe Teahouse and the Glen Huntington Bandshell. The historic landmark designation would add a level of design

review for exterior changes and new buildings through the City’s department of historic preservation. In January, the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board unanimously opposed the district, citing the red tape it would create. In February, the Landmarks Board recommended the approval of the district in a 4-1 vote. This portion of the meeting will be more than two hours long.

• Discuss the Vision Zero Action Plan, which aims to eliminate all crashes that result in serious injuries or fatalities by 2030. The city adopted Vision Zero in 2014.

BOULDER COUNTY COMMISSIONERS

On Tuesday, April 9, commissioners will:

• Hold a public hearing and make

a decision on whether to disallow temporary fireworks stands in unincorporated Boulder County. The land use changes would impact two stands in Boulder County that are currently allowed to sell fireworks for no more than 42 days in the year. Written comments can be emailed to planner @bouldercounty.gov. Attend virtually at boco.org/BOCC-Apr9PM or register for in-person comment at boco.org/InPerson-Apr9PM.

On Thursday, April 11, commissioners will:

• Hold an in-person town hall at 5:30 p.m. (1130 Kestrel Lane, 1st Floor, Louisville) on electrification focusing on resources and rebates for homes, businesses and vehicles as well as the county’s own goals for buildings and transportation.

MUSIC

FINAL BOW

Pro Musica Colorado ends its 17-year run with last concert from departing conductor Cynthia Katsarelis

BY KELLY DEAN HANSEN

Cynthia Katsarelis, music director and founder of Boulderbased Pro Musica Colorado Chamber Orchestra, says the organization of top-tier professional players always strove for two major objectives.

“We wanted to be a chamber orchestra that plays like a string quartet on steroids, with intense visceral expression,” the conductor reflects ahead of the orchestra’s final concert at Mountain View United Methodist Church in Boulder on April 6.

The other goal was to present new and diverse music alongside the traditional. “I’ve been doing works by women and African-American composers of the past and present for a while,” she says.

According to Katsarelis, the performance of new works can open a window and allow fresh air to revive the classics we love so well.

“Those classics existed in their time and place, but something universal lifted them beyond that space,” she says. “Doing music of our time and place can reset our imagination and our ears when we hear established masterworks, and I think the new makes the old more relevant.”

To balance this, she says it’s helpful to give the audience something they know.

“When you ask people to go on an exploratory journey with you, you should also give them favorite pieces and soloists along the way.”

After 17 seasons, the journey will come to an end with the orchestra’s upcoming farewell concert. Katsarelis — who recently completed her

Doctorate of Musical Arts at CU Boulder — accepted a position at the University of Notre Dame as a professor of conducting in the Sacred Music Program in March of last year. After losing its executive director and taking a staffing hit during the pandemic, the board decided the already-planned 2023-24 season would be its last.

“I was the glue that held us together and allowed us to keep

going,” Katsarelis says. “We all thought it would be wise to end on our own terms, to celebrate the time we have left and all that we have accomplished.”

ENDING STRONG

Katsarelis says Pro Musica Colorado’s last concert will provide a strong ending in terms of the orchestra’s mission. Two works — one new and one old — by female composers will frame a more familiar composition featuring beloved local soloist Nicolò Spera.

“The new frontier for diverse and underrepresented music is to do a major multi-movement work,” Katsarelis says.

“The tendency when programming new or diverse music has been to do a short concert opener or perhaps a concerto with a well-known soloist to champion it. Something like a symphony has got to be the next level.”

To that end, she is closing the program with the Third Symphony (1847) by early romantic French composer Louise Farrenc. “She was a contemporary of Mendelssohn and Schumann, and a virtuoso pianist who was also a musicologist, resurrecting a lot of early keyboard music,” Katsarelis says.

Farrenc, a professor at the Paris Conservatoire, went in a more abstract direction compared to the program music championed by her French contemporary Hector Berlioz. “There is an aspect of her rich counterpoint and harmonies that is like J.S. Bach meeting Beethoven,” Katsarelis says. “It is deeply engaging music that deserves to be heard.”

The concert opens with Starburst (2012), a short piece by contemporary American composer and 2024 Grammy winner Jessie Montgomery. Spera plays Fantasía para un gentilhombre (1954) by Spanish composer Joaquín Rodrigo, one of the most famous concerto-type works for classical guitar.

“We like to work with local soloists from local faculties, and Nicolò is one of our favorites. He was on sabbatical last year, and we were looking for an opportunity to work with him once more,” Katsarelis says. “As we have always done on our programs, we are going out with an evening of great music with wonderful discoveries that you won’t hear anywhere else … [to] warm the heart with both the comfort of the familiar and the refreshing delight of the new.”

ON

THE BILL:

Pro Musica Colorado Chamber Orchestra with guitar soloist Nicolò Spera. 7:30 p.m.

Saturday, April 6, Mountain View United Methodist Church, 355 Ponca Place. $25

After founding the Pro Musica Colorado Chamber Orchestra in 2007, music director Cynthia Katsarelis conducts the organization’s final concert April 6. Credit: Glenn Ross

Local soloist Nicolò Spera performs Fantasía para un gentilhombre (1954) by Spanish composer Joaquín Rodrigo as part of the upcoming Pro Musica Colorado farewell performance. Courtesy: Pro Musica Colorado

What’s in Boulder’s headphones?

BY BOULDER WEEKLY STAFF

In like a lion, out like a lamb — March music releases brought a range of big feelings to our quiet foothills hamlet. From the countryfried tenderness of Waxahatchee to the latest lachrymose masterpiece from Adrianne Lenker, here’s what last month sounded like in the People’s Republic. (And before the BeyHive comes for us: This vinyl sales data from Paradise Found Records and Music does not include Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter, which hits retail stores April 12 and will likely dominate the next ranking.)

1.

Tigers Blood 2.

Channeling the fuzz-rock stylings of power-pop pioneers like Thin Lizzy and Cheap Trick, Playing Favorites by Philly DIY heroes Sheer Mag is a masterclass in melody and mayhem. The band’s Third Man Records debut finds the four-piece at the height of their powers, amplifying a tradition of big guitars and bigger hooks that won’t leave your head for weeks. Don’t miss a Boulder Weekly interview with vocalist Tina Halladay ahead of their upcoming show at Hi-Dive on April 21.

— Jezy J. Gray, arts and culture editor

For the complete list of top new local vinyl releases, visit bit.ly/FoundSoundsMarch24.

CAMP ROYALTY

Queer pop superstar Chappell Roan chronicles

‘The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess’

BY LAUREN HILL

It’s Chappell Roan’s sparkly, glitzed-out world, and we’re just living in it — that is, if you were lucky enough to score tickets to her headline tour. The rising pop star’s Boulder Theater date, along with many other stops on the 32-city run, sold out almost as quickly as you can say the

title of her debut LP, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess.

And since the release of her record last September, this Midwest Princess has come a long way from home. The 26-year-old artist has already checked off a few dates in the opening slot of pop megastar Olivia Rodrigo’s GUTS

Tour. She also recently donned a big, red wig and pink party dress for an NPR Tiny Desk Concert, and she was added to this summer’s Lollapalooza lineup.

“It feels not real,” Roan says. “I have yet to play a major festival. … I’m so excited — I have no idea what that feels like. I’ve never even been.”

The artist’s larger-than-life, draginspired stage presence makes this kind of success look effortless. However, her breakthrough album was four long years in the making.

Roan inked a deal with Atlantic Records after being discovered on YouTube at age 17, but was dropped in 2020 after what would become Midwest Princess’ anthemic first single, “Pink Pony Club,” underperformed in their eyes. She moved back to her small, Ozark-adjacent hometown of Willard, Missouri, before saving up enough money to get back to L.A.

The leap worked out in her favor. Roan eventually found a home for Midwest Princess at an Island Records imprint run by musician and producer Dan Nigro, known for his work with pop heavyweights like Rodrigo, Caroline Polachek and Kylie Minogue. Today, Roan’s hard-fought debut has been streamed tens of millions of times.

“It’s a massive feat of years and years. It’s such a big relief to know that I could get something like this across the finish line with an entire team of people — like, we all did it,” Roan says. “It’s just kind of living and breathing now. That’s the crazy part.”

‘THE FREEST VERSION OF MYSELF’

Chappell Roan is a stage moniker — her legal name is Kayleigh Rose Amstutz. But part of what makes Midwest Princess such a feat is its capacity to represent the totality of the artist’s over-the-top stage persona: bold, brash, sexy, queer, earnest and theater-kid dramatic, all at once.

“Chappell Roan is a campy drag queen from the Midwest who wound up in Hollywood and is trying to find her place in that community while simultaneously finding her identity in the Midwest, where she came from,” Roan says. “It’s the freest version of myself — the most accepting version of myself.”

This freedom and acceptance is an electric current coursing throughout Midwest Princess, which never loses its sense of fun. Roan channels HannahMontana-meets-80s-Madonna on the synthed-out track “HOT TO GO!,” throwing out cheeky lyrics like “Baby, don’t you like this beat? / I made it so you’d sleep with me.”

The album also features its fair share of vulnerable moments, like on the aforementioned “Pink Pony Club,” which chronicles Roan’s feelings after a night at an L.A. gay bar, knowing she’ll never be the daughter her mother envisioned: “Won’t make my mama proud / it’s gonna cause a scene / she sees her baby girl / I know she’s gonna scream, ‘God, what have you done?’”

‘THEY DON’T KNOW WHAT CAMP MEANS’

The result is a whirlwind of emotional, queer joy — one that doesn’t necessarily cater to the musically “tasteful” among us. Upon its release, Midwest Princess was praised by publications like Pitchfork for its boldness and tight songcraft, but was backhandedly slighted for what the reviewer called a “steely indifference to good taste.”

“I don’t know what the fuck that means,” Roan says. “When people say I don’t have taste, they just don’t know what the word ‘camp’ means.”

This exaggerated sense of play is exactly what sets Chappell Roan apart, in production and live performance alike. Her dedication to all things overthe-top is a love letter — to Los Angeles, to drag and to the queer community that gave her a sense of belonging in the first place. To that end, her shows feel more like a party where all are welcome to be who they are.

“You do not have to worry about judgment for the next two hours of my show,” Roan says. “People are gonna accept you. You can dance and sing however you want to, dress however you want to, bring whoever you want to. No one’s gonna bat an eyelash.”

ON THE BILL: Chappell Roan. 8 p.m. Tuesday, April 9, Boulder Theater, 2032 14th St. Sold out. Resale: $400+

Chappell Roan comes to Boulder Theater on April 9, following last year’s full-length The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess and the release of her new single, “Good Luck, Babe!” Credit: Ryan Clemens

FRONT RANGE FIERCE

Meet the queens opening for Chappell Roan at Boulder Theater

BY LAUREN HILL

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY JEZY J. GRAY

As part of Roan’s mission to spread queer joy, she invites local drag artists from each city to open her shows. It’s part of her intention to give back to the most vocal and vulnerable slice of her rapidly growing fanbase.

“Local queer communities need the spotlight on them,” Roan says. “I think that’s important for everyone to see.”

In that spirit, Boulder Weekly spoke with the three Denver queens opening up for Roan’s Boulder show about their art, identities and love for the LGBTQ community.

GUCCI BLAZE: ‘DENVER’S DISNEY PRINCESS’

In a way, Gucci Blaze’s journey to drag performance mirrors Roan’s — a yearning for a queer community and a life-altering move to find it.

“I was originally from Colorado Springs, which is not necessarily the

most queer-friendly space,” Blaze says.

When she started wanting to take drag seriously, she began commuting to Denver, where she met her mentor and drag mother, Brittany BlazeShearz. Brittany took Blaze under her wing and introduced her to the robust drag community in the Queen City of the West.

“Having that chosen family and seeing it play out in that way was very influential to me,” Blaze says.

A top 5 finisher in last year’s Tracks Denver Drag-O-Lympics, Blaze refers to herself as “Denver’s Disney Princess.”

“I always try to really embody confidence, femininity and elegance, but in a sexy way,” Blaze says. “There’s a lot of pussy in there, a lot of cunt, cunt, cunt.”

Blaze loves drag for its inclusivity. She says there’s opportunity for everyone to get involved, celebrate and come together for a common goal.

“I love how it utilizes so many different talents. People with design backgrounds have their place in drag; people with hair backgrounds have their place in drag; people with dance backgrounds have their place in drag,” Blaze says. “At the end of the day, we all understand that it is a community, and we all fight the battles that need to be fought together.”

DR. ZACKARINA JENNYHOE: ‘BRING STUPID DRAG BACK’

Some may not see the utility in using drag as an avenue for social change, but Dr. Zackarina Jenny-Hoe recognizes the power of performance. She uses her platform to advocate for public health education, because “everyone is gonna listen to the seven-foot person in a wig,” she says.

“For me, drag is a really effective way to get that message across, because you incentivize learning and advocacy in these campaigns for activism in this really glamorous, fun way,” Jenny-Hoe says.

In her day-to-day life, Jenny-Hoe works in harm reduction, so drag

operates as a way for her to do everything she loves — authentically advocate for safer drug use and safer sex while expressing herself to the fullest, most extravagant extent.

“Paired together, you get a really great vehicle for change that mobilizes the queer community through queer culture, rather than it being some external organization or politician or whoever coming into the periphery,” Jenny-Hoe says. “That feels a lot more real and genuine, right?”

Though her mission is sincere, Jenny-Hoe’s style is comedic throughand-through, engaging her audience with glamorous looks and a thorough knowledge of meme culture.

“I think drag is supposed to be fun,” Jenny-Hoe says. “It’s supposed to be lively, and I just want to bring stupid drag back into the world.”

Altogether, Jenny-Hoe’s performance is a testament to the power and possibility of drag.

“There’s so much strength when the queer community comes together,” Jenny-Hoe says. “Drag is really an exemplification of that pride and unity within the queer community.”

JUICCY MISDEMEANOR: ‘OH, THIS IS REAL LIFE’

When Colorado queen JUICCY Misdemeanor got a message on social media about opening for Chappell Roan, the longtime professional dancer from St. Louis wasn’t

sure what to think.

“I didn’t know if it was a scam or something — it’s Instagram, so you never know,” the local stage performer recalls. “But then I got an email right away, and I was like, ‘Oh, this is real life.’”

Misdemeanor has been owning Front Range spotlights for nearly a decade, with a drive for drag that began after being called onstage during a fateful Lip Sync Thursday at X Bar Denver on East Colfax. A local queen invited the newcomer to perform at an upcoming show, and the rest is history.

“It was very cathartic for me,” Misdemeanor says. “After that moment, it was like, ‘OK, maybe I want to be a drag queen.’”

The years since have found the self-described “dancing diva” — known for sparkle-studded renditions of hits by Diana Ross, Donna Summer and Beyoncé — carving her own path through the local circuit. Soon that path will come to the Boulder Theater, where the artist is grateful for the chance to shine in a world that can often feel dim.

“Drag is being targeted from all different angles right now. So to have a space and platform where drag artists like myself can come be brave and be in our power is beautiful,” Misdemeanor says. “And as for my sisters, Dr. Zackarina Jenny-Hoe and Gucci Blaze, I am so excited to tear the stage up with them.”

Courtesy: Gucci Blaze

Courtesy: Dr. Zackarina Jenny-Hoe

Courtesy: JUICCY Misdemeanor

April 9–12, 2024

Big ideas. Endless discoveries.

4 days • 80+ speakers • 70+ panels

Tuesday, April 9

The Funny Story Behind the Funny Stories, 5–6 p.m.

Ebert Uninterruptus, 5–6:30 p.m.

Wednesday, April 10

Apocalypse Now: The Real Big Threats to Humanity, 9–10:10 a.m.

How Will Emerging Technologies Change What It Means to Be Human? 9–10:10 a.m.

Making Cities and Towns Better for People, 9–10:10 a.m.

Let’s Talk About It: Building Empathy and Relationships for a Better World, 9–10:10 a.m.

Pride for All or Pride for None: LGBTQIA+ Rights in 2124, 10:30–11:40 a.m.

What’s Next for College Athletics? Discussion on Name, Image, Likeness, 10:30–11:40 a.m.

Fox vs. CNN vs. the People, 10:30–11:40 a.m.

The Power of a Story, 10:30–11:40 a.m.

Housing (Not) For All, 10:30–11:40 a.m.

Racial Literacies: How to Talk, Teach, and Learn about Race, Racism and Anti-Racism, Noon–1:10 p.m.

From Red, White and Blue to Red vs. Blue: A Satirical Look at How Polarized We Are, Noon–1:10 p.m.

Want to Thrive? First, Learn to Fail, Noon–1:10 p.m.

ChatGPT, a Science Fiction Writer and a Venture Capitalist, Noon–1:10 p.m.

Psychedelics: Science, Therapy and Policy, Noon–1:10 p.m.

Gaming in Immersive Spaces, 1:30–2:40 p.m.

AI and Robotics: Displacing or Enhancing Our Quality of Life, 1:30–2:40 p.m.

Freedom of Expression: Don’t Tell Me What to Say, Read or Think, 1:30–2:40 p.m.

A Dying Art: Are Books, Theater, Radio, Movies, Museums and TV Now Dinosaurs? 1:30–2:40 p.m.

Leadership in Business: What Separates Great Leaders From the Rest? 1:30–2:40 p.m.

Leadership for a Sustainable Future, 3–4:10 p.m.

Cybersecurity, Threat Intelligence and Espionage: What’s Happening in the World? 3–4:10 p.m.

Taking Up the Torch: How the Growing Power of Women Is Remaking Global Politics, 3–4:10 p.m.

Following Fashion Week Follow-up: Its Function, the Trends and Working It, 3–4:10 p.m.

How I Built This: Immersive Experiences, Street Art, Drones and Stages, 3–4:10 p.m.

Mobilizing Youth: Encouraging Democracy and Election Turnout, 4:30–5:40 p.m.

Ebert Interruptus, 4:30–6:00 p.m.

Fashion Show with ROAM Boulder, 4:30–5:40 p.m.

Thursday, April 11

Between Us Lawyers: Civil Law for Advancing Equity and Human Rights, 9–10:10 a.m.

Nationalism Is Growing, Politicians are Stymied: Global Migration IS Fueling Political Divide, 9–10:10 a.m.

Entrepreneurship and Social Good, 9–10:10 a.m.

Building Your Brand in Creative Professions, 9–10:10 a.m.

Banning Diversity: The War on DEI, 9–10:10 a.m.

AI: Friend or Foe? 10:15–11:20 a.m.

Getting Out of the Way: Empowering Youth to Take On Global Change, 10:30–11:40 a.m.

Colorado—the Quantum State, 10:30–11:40 a.m.

All sessions are Mountain Daylight Time. Join us in person or via livestream. Free and open to the public.

For locations, event details, speaker biographies and to watch online, visit colorado.edu/cwa.

How Do Other Countries View U.S. Foreign Policy Considering Our Upcoming Presidential Election? 10:30–11:40 a.m.

Art-Making: The Best Antidepressant Ever, 10:30–11:40 a.m.

Democratic Backsliding: The Rise of Authoritarianism and Autocracy, 10:30–11:40 a.m.

AI, Quantum and Technology Innovation: Will the Rich Get Richer? Noon–1:10 p.m.

Personal Finance: Planning for Success, Noon–1:10 p.m.

Access to Reproductive Health Care in Post-Roe America, Noon–1:10 p.m.

What’s So Funny? Noon–1:10 p.m.

Why Are Grandma and Grandpa Running the Country? Noon–1:10 p.m.

Global Conflict 101: The Cycle Continues, 12:30–1:35 p.m.

Our Supreme Court: On the Docket or in Someone’s Pocket? 1:45–2:55 p.m.

Old News/New News: The Changing Landscape of How We Consume News, 1:45–2:55 p.m.

Business Breakthroughs: New Science and Technology Changing the Economy, 1:45–2:55 p.m.

In the Hot Seat: How Climate Change Affects Planetary Security, 1:45–2:55 p.m.

DEI and the Bottom Line: What It Means for Businesses, 1:45–2:55 p.m.

Ensuring a Livable Planet: Journalists’ Perspectives From Global Reporting, 3:15–4:25 p.m.

The Importance of Truth, Honesty and Integrity in U.S. Politics, 3:15–4:25 p.m.

Storyboarding in Collaboration With AI, 3:15–4:25 p.m.

Global Hegemony: Who Gets a Seat at the Table? 3:15–4:25 p.m.

Counting Votes and Making Your Vote Count, 3:15–4:25 p.m.

Disengaged Democracy: You May Not Be Into Politics But Politics Is Into You, 4:45–5:55 p.m.

Ebert Interruptus, 4:45–6:15 p.m.

CWA Book Club Discussion: Apeirogon by Colum McCann, 4:45–5:55 p.m.

Friday, April 12

Immigration on the Southern Border: Broken Borders, Shattered Hearts, 9–10:10 a.m.

Working, Learning and Thriving in a New Country, 9–10:10 a.m.

Exit Through the Gift Shop: Where Does Funding Come From? 9–10:10 a.m.

All’s Whale that Ends Whale: Conserving Our Wildlife Heritage, 10:30–11:40 a.m.

Does Capitalism Pay? 10:30–11:40 a.m.

Technology, Ethics and Privacy, 10:30–11:40 a.m.

Violence Is Never the Answer: Addressing the Rise of Physical and Virtual Violence, 10:30–11:40 a.m.

Should TikTok Be on the Chopping Block? Noon–1:10 p.m.

Human Rights Across the Globe: Progressing or Regressing? Noon–1:10 p.m.

Fashion-Forward: The Global Fashion Industry’s Future, Noon–1:10 p.m.

Performance: Rhythm and Words: A Smile Can Change Everything, Noon–1:10 p.m.

Leadership On and Off the Field: A Conversation with Coach Prime, 2–3 p.m.

Across the Globe: What’s in the News? 3:30–4:40 p.m.

Horror Genre in Art, Theater and Film, 3:30–4:40 p.m.

Art or Artist as Provocateur or Propaganda, 3:30–4:40 p.m.

The Future of Music, 3:30–4:40 p.m.

Bridging Divides While Challenging Narratives With the Hosts of Politically Correcting and The Free Mind Podcasts, 5–6:10 p.m.

Ebert Interruptus, 5–6:30 p.m.

Thank you to our partners:

DEAR WHOLE FOODS DADDY

Your burning Boulder questions, asked and answered

BY GABBY VERMEIRE

We all have questions and need advice, but sometimes the pseudo therapy in the Instagram stories of astrology girls doesn’t cut it. Or maybe the gate-keeping culture of adventure bros has you fearing the judgment that comes with revealing yourself as a newbie at anything. This advice column exists to hold space for you and your Boulder queries (especially the uncool ones).

How can I stop myself from being a cliche Boulder Boi?

I’m going to pretend you’re asking this rhetorically, as in: “How can I stop myself from staring at everyone’s junk during yoga when it’s a hip-opening class?”

The answer to both these questions is the same: Do not resist what is natural and inescapable — gaze helplessly at all the crotches, and feel yourself succumb to the joy of being a privileged, predictable dude in Boulder. Or, if you’re actually asking: Sit on your ass in a polo shirt, I guess?

back” would go against everything I believe in, right up there with “how to tastefully style dreadlocks as a soulful white guy.”

But wait, he lives in his car you say? Well then, full speed ahead to Simp City, we’re gonna Get Him Back! Time to hit him with a triple offensive: Start by hanging out with a divorced dad who owns a $50,000 sprinter van. Then, post a coy but still kinda nakey picture of yourself in your bathtub — make sure that toilet, sink and all comforts exclusive to house-living are clearly visible. Finally, seal the deal by finding a clearly abandoned piece of his tupperware at your place and texting him at 11:57 p.m., “heyy do you want this??”

According to my youthful sources, the boys in suits are freshmen undergoing a frat haze, and they can’t take off those suits for a week, even to sleep.

How many portals exist in the Flatirons?

Glad you asked! As of April 2024, three such portals exist, but check the City of Boulder OSMP website regularly for updates.

WHERE IS THERE TO DANCE IN BOULDER ANYMORE?? Ecstatic dance is not a valid option. My child, you are lost because you look for dancing among the hot, young bodies who would rather languish away on the rooftop of Avanti than shake their asses. You should instead look to the hot, older bodies who’ve been getting down all over Boulder and each other for 40 years. Ditch your stationary friends with their overpriced cocktails and dance with a dad at a Long Run concert or with a spun ’n’ groovy mom at a Grateful Dead tribute show. Or take a contra dancing class at the Avalon to learn a form of line-based folk dancing, but know that everyone there will have 50 years on you and be so much better.

RIP Tahona and Supermoon: I hope God does not judge us for what we did on those dance floors.

How do I get my van life man to take me back?

Normally, giving someone advice on how to get a man to “take them

Why are there so many boys wearing suits on the Hill?

“Must be a Turning Point USA meetup or a douchebro pride parade, lol!”

Dumb jokes aside, some serious research brought me to a serious answer to this question, and it’s far more absurd than any joke I could make.

Portal 1: You teleport to the altar of a brokenhearted lil’ momma who’s out here casting amateur spells to get her van life man back.

Portal 2:

Inexplicably, you’re transported to waking up on a semi-stranger’s couch, and you’re once again an aimless recent CU post-grad in 2018. You tiptoe over sleeping bodies and slip out into Sunday morning, pondering the legendary night you barely remember, and walk to Lolita’s for coffee and a breakfast sammy for the hangover. Life is a hot mess, but an old man who walks by lets you pet his dog and you both share a smile.

Portal 3: Entering this portal simply takes you two miles farther up the trail, but that section is a real quadburner so it helps a lot.

Got a burning Boulder question or conundrum? DM @wholefoods_ daddy on Instagram, or email letters@boulderweekly.com with the subject line “Dear Whole Foods Daddy.”

BUILDING SOMETHING GOOD

Helios Public Art House breathes new life into downtown Longmont

BY ADAM PERRY

Jamée Lucas Loeffler might not look like your typical artist, sculptor or gallery owner, but he’s actually all three. The burly and bearded 51-year-old definitely looks the part of his other life, though.

“I build,” says the New Jersey native who has lived in Colorado most of his life. “If you want me to come out and dig a foundation and build you a house, I could do it from the ground up. Whatever you want. I’m a builder, but I was a mason first.”

Co-founder of the new Helios Public Art House on Main Street in downtown Longmont, Loeffler has lived in the Centennial State off and on since the age of four, and has been sculpting since he was five. He tried medical school and “didn’t like the bureaucratic aspect of it — or the fluorescent lights,” but it sparked an interest in anatomy, which turned a love of sculpting that began with a 16-inch clay King Kong into a lifetime of intricate sculptures, mostly bronze.

Some of Loeffler’s works are currently displayed at Helios along with the work of about 20 other artists, including fellow coowner Ivan Kende. Born in communist Hungary, Kende and his family escaped to New York City in 1956, when he was 10, settling in the Astoria neighborhood of Queens. A multimedia artist who tends toward abstract drawings, Kende traces his love of art to a pencil and notebook he was given on that initial plane ride from Budapest to New York.

‘AN EVOLVING THING’

Kende went to the High School of Music and Art in New York City but, like Loeffler, is almost completely selftaught. He moved to Colorado to be with his son, a drummer who lives in Denver, after the death of his wife.

Loeffler and Kende met, first just by phone, because they were both showing their art at the Walnut Gallery, which eventually became Helios in their hands.

Helios, filling the 2,800-square-foot space with their own creations along with the diverse work of over a dozen other local artists.

“The guy was looking to close the shop, and he was looking for the two most foolish people he could think of,” Loeffler jokes.

Both have run galleries before, but collaborating is a beast of its own.

“He tried it his way and I’ve tried it my way,” Loeffler says. “That’s an evolving thing, and a gallery is an evolving thing.”

‘LONGMONT’S FOR EVERYBODY’

In addition to visual art, Helios is designed to be a welcoming space for the growing Longmont community to appreciate local music. The gallery has already hosted a few weekend

and more. They plan to host a wide array of events in their newly transformed space.

“But not just music — we’re open to a lot of different things,” he says.

“Some people want to use the space for birthday parties, stuff like that, and we were just talking to someone about doing a burlesque show. And we’ll do an open mic so anyone can play here.”

Loeffler’s vision for a multi-purpose art space in Longmont comes as the city’s population is set to surpass its county-seat cousin to the southwest. The duo understands their community is on the rise as more and more people are priced out of Boulder.

“It’s up-and-coming because Boulder is so expensive,” Loeffler says. “I think in a lot of ways, Longmont has got Boulder beat. The downtown is just way more approachable. Everything in Boulder is bougie and boutiquey and cliquey. It’s just not for everybody. Longmont’s for everybody.”

“Geoff [Whitmore], who had the gallery here, basically just said, ‘I’m done; I’m burnt out,’” according to Loeffler.

Kende says he tried this and that to support his family over the years, living everywhere from Ohio and Mexico to a famous hippie commune in Northern California called Wheeler’s Ranch, remaining a visual-art lifer through it all.

“I haven’t stopped yet,” he says.

“He said, ‘I’m going to close the gallery, unless you want it.’ He’d also talked to Ivan and had a very similar conversation, almost verbatim. Then somehow we connected.”

Whitmore acted as matchmaker, and in February of this year the unlikely duo of Kende and Loeffler opened

concerts featuring jazz and singersongwriter performances on the stage Loeffler built. Helios even purchased a P.A. system and a drum kit to attract local musicians — like Boulder-based jazz artist Jeremy Mohney, who will play the space April 6, May 4 and June 1.

In addition to the new stage, Loeffler and Kende have added custom-built pedestals, sinks, shelves, counters

Loeffler and Kende believe their goals would be far different if they put all their efforts into raising enough money to run a gallery in Boulder.

“You’d end up selling greeting cards, because you’d be trying to sell as much as possible, and take consignment, charging artists and sellers to be there because you can’t afford the space on your own,” Loeffler says. “That’s a hard spot to be in.”

Both artists plan to use Helios partly as their studios, a place to create underneath the gallery’s skylight. The rest of the goal is just to survive by showcasing, supporting and selling the work of local artists, as well as their own.

But ultimately, Loeffler’s hope is that artists of all kinds will walk into Helios and feel like they’ve “stepped into home.”

ON VIEW: Helios Public Art House. 10:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m., Wednesday through Saturday, 364 Main St., Longmont. Free

The newly opened Helios Public Art House hopes to become a hub for visual art, live music and more at 364 Main St. in Longmont. Courtesy: Jamée Lucas Loeffler

SHOULD’VE BEEN A COWBOY

Boulder-born actor John Carroll Lynch steps into the Wild West in ‘Outlaw Posse’

BY GREGORY WAKEMAN

As soon as John Carroll Lynch started acting as a teenager, it’s been serious business. Looking back on his performances at the Regis Jesuit High School in Denver, the Boulder-born artist can now admit that maybe he was a little too intense.

“I would get really mad at people who weren’t as serious as I was about it,” he says. “Which is not a great way to collaborate.”

That passion has since taken Lynch a long way from his Front Range beginnings. One of the most recognizable character actors of the last three decades, the 60-year-old has appeared in major blockbuster films like Fargo, Zodiac, Shutter Island and The Trial of the Chicago 7, to name a few, under the direction of greats such as the Coen Brothers, David Fincher and Martin Scorsese.

Lynch’s most recent performance comes in the revisionist western Outlaw Posse, written, directed by and starring Mario Van Peebles. The Colorado-raised actor plays an outlaw named Carson who, in 1908, returns after years of hiding in Mexico to claim stolen gold hidden in the hills of Montana.

Carson is a man who “likes to blow shit up,” according to Lynch. “He’s a sweet guy, but a ferocious warrior.” Lynch’s innate ability to play either warm and cuddly or eerie and menacing, sometimes even within the same film, is exactly what has made him appealing to so many filmmaking giants.

But there’s more to Outlaw Posse than the hyper-masculine trappings of a historically whitewashed film genre. With the director’s chair occupied by Van Peebles — who in 1993 directed and starred in the majority-Black ensemble Western Posse starring Big Daddy Kane, Richard Gant, Tone Lōc and more — Lynch says the new film

carries on the tradition of widening the lens on a misunderstood chapter of American history.

“Mario wants to remind people there were plenty of African Americans in the West,” Lynch says. “Old Westerns don’t show that one of every three cowboys was Black. It’s great to be a part of something that brings that into a Western in a big and fun fashion.”

‘A WONDERFUL JOY’

Performing is in Lynch’s blood. The actor says he was drawn to the craft through his siblings.

“My sister is a professional comedian. My brother, when he was a senior at Regis, did a production of Camelot Afterwards he told me that he got to be somebody else for two hours, and that sounded like a terrific relief to me,” he

and Marx Brothers, as well as every single Monty Python episode.

“I was really drawn to comedies,” he says. “Theater was much more accessible for me in Colorado, and it actually took a while to occur to me that people could work in movies.”

That didn’t stop Lynch from making his own short films with friends. On the street he grew up on in the Denver neighborhood of Park Hill, he met a fellow film buff who liked to make movies with his Super Eight camera. Alongside the fellow kids in the neighborhood, Lynch would shoot movies and screen them at block parties.

“He would edit it together in his basement manually,” Lynch says of his childhood collaborator. “They were amazing.”

In 2017, Lynch decided to have a whirl behind the camera himself, directing the drama Lucky starring Harry Dean Stanton in one of his final roles. Watching how Van Peebles worked as a director was one of the reasons Lynch wanted to get involved with Outlaw Posse

Lynch learned plenty working on the film, too, calling Van Peebles the “most opportunistic director” he’s ever worked with. “He’d squeeze more shots into a day than I’ve ever seen. But when he really wanted something special, he knew exactly how to set it up. He just had so much tenacity and exuberance and passion. It was impressive to watch.”

Also starring Whoopi Goldberg, Cedric The Entertainer, Edward James Olmos, Neal McDonough and the late M. Emmet Walsh, Outlaw Posse features an all-star roster that Lynch is honored to have been a part of. But while he hopes the star-studded film will help audiences adjust their misconceptions of the West, he mostly just wants them to have a good time.

says. “That’s really what attracted me to acting. I just really loved it. It was and always has been a wonderful joy.”

Lynch’s early on-screen inspirations were mostly comedians. He inhaled films by Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton

“I knew his work — and the work of his father [Melvin Van Peebles], too. They’re both master artists. When I read the script, it was so ambitious in so many ways. Particularly because he just had around 25 days to shoot it. As a newly minted filmmaker I was so intrigued as to how he was going to try and fit everything in.”

“It’s a really fun movie full of twists and turns and surprises. It culminates in a spectacular action set piece,” he says. “I just hope audiences have fun. Because if they don’t find it entertaining, then none of the important messages in the film about changing the representation of Hollywood Westerns will actually end up reaching them.”

ON SCREEN: Outlaw

Colorado-raised character actor John Carroll Lynch on the set of Outlaw Posse Courtesy: John Carroll Lynch

Left to right: Mandela Van Peebles, Whoopi Goldberg and Mario Van Peebles in Outlaw Posse Courtesy: Highland Film Group

WATCHING OUT LOUD

Ebert Interruptus returns to CWA with Josh Larsen and ‘The Babadook’

BY MICHAEL J. CASEY

It happens every year: “We find something absolutely amazing, totally amazing, in the films. It’s not there, but we find it.”

So said the late film critic Roger Ebert of Cinema Interruptus, the weeklong panel dissecting a movie one shot at a time during the annual Conference on World Affairs at CU Boulder.

“With any solidly made film, the more attention you give it, the more it rewards,” critic and author Josh Larsen says. “Every movie deserves at least a second look before you can really get your arms around it, and what Interruptus allows us to do is not only give it that second look but to do it under great scrutiny.”

It’s a rewarding way to watch a movie, which is why CWA’s cornerstone panel continues even though Ebert died in 2013. Not long after, the name was changed to Ebert Interruptus, and since 2017, Larsen has been the host. Among the movies of his Interruptus tenure are the comedy Rushmore, the actionadventure Mad Max: Fury Road, the animated sci-fi Wall-E — each of them a selection that had Interruptus attendees full-fledged fans by the end of the conference, which is likely to be the case again this year.

“We’re going to do The Babadook, Jennifer Kent’s 2014 Australian horror film about a single mother raising a young boy in the wake of a tragedy,” Larsen says. “It’s a work of psychological horror. ... It’s very frightening, but it’s not extremely gory or explicit. I hope it will be something that folks new to horror can give it a try.”

But, as Larsen points out: “Horror fans love this movie. It has attained a huge reputation as one of the best horror films of the last 10 years.”

A movie’s cultural cache is certainly a component of the Interruptus selection process. Larsen says the idea is to present films “that can hold up to scruti-

ny,” beginning with a screening of the film in its entirety followed by three days of “going through it scene by scene, frame by frame.”

As Larsen explains, a movie’s cultural cache is certainly a component of the Interruptus selection process, as is “something that can hold up to scrutiny,” considering The Babadook will screen in its entirety for the first session and then be rewatched, “scene by scene, frame by frame,” over the following three sessions.

Audience participation makes Interruptus flourish. Larsen has many thoughts on The Babadook, but this event allows audiences the opportunity to play critic by yelling, “Stop!” at any time to pause the movie and point out something in the frame, express an opinion on the performances, identify how a theme develops visually, ask a question — whatever comes to mind. (I, as in years past, will be manning the Blu-ray player.) It’s like a book group for a movie, “democracy in the dark,” as CWA founder Howard Higman called it.

‘FEAR NOT’

Larsen knows his horror. Last year, he published his second book, Fear Not: A Christian Appreciation of Horror Movies, where he discusses, dissects and wrestles with 60-plus titles through a theological lens.

“The horror genre itself is gigantic,” says Larsen, who also co-hosts the long-running Filmspotting podcast. “There are so many sub-genres. There are mainstream horror movies coming out. There are lowbudget horror movies. There are DIY horror movies — it is a thriving genre, perhaps now more than ever.”

Critic and author Josh Larsen returns to CU Boulder next week as the host of Ebert Interruptus, a three-day panel analyzing a single film “scene by scene, frame by frame.” Courtesy: Josh Larsen

“That’s where we’re really going to dig into these creative choices that Jennifer Kent, the writer-director, made,” Larsen says. “Explore how those choices illuminate the various themes in this movie, that, to my mind, make it one of the richest not only psychological horror films, but in the subgenre of mother horror.”

But, as Larsen admits, it’s also a genre that gets “completely dismissed and written off as exploitative or grisly or not worthy of a person of faith’s time.”

Hence, Larsen’s impetus for the book: Is horror a justifiable genre to engage with, and how?

“It’s anxiety producing to watch a horror movie. I know this even as a fan of it,” he says. “A lot of people will ask: ‘Why would you subject yourself to that? If you have a choice, why would you do this for entertainment?’

“But of course, there are other reasons beyond just those scares that [make] people feel attracted to horror

Scan the QR code for the full schedule of the upcoming Conference of World Affairs — including a horror panel with Josh Larsen moderated by Boulder Weekly arts and culture editor Jezy J. Gray, and a conversation about A.I. with editor-in-chief Shay Castle.

movies,” he continues. “It’s actually cathartic for some folks. It’s therapeutic for others. To me, it’s also one of the places you can best examine movie craft, because the tools of cinema — whether it’s sound or the camerawork to create the suspense — are so integral to the horror genre.”

Those creative decisions drew Larsen to horror films in the first place.

“Take something like the horror great The Blair Witch Project, which was made for nothing, went to Sundance and became this huge hit,” he says. “If you look at it, it’s extremely low budget, yet, at the same time, full of crucial creative choices worthy of exploring and considering.”

Those choices are bound to spark some exciting discussions during this year’s Ebert Interruptus, whether it’s the exploration of grief at the heart of the story, the horror of raising a child, The Babadook as a feminist expression — even the Babadook as an LGBTQ icon.

“I know we’re going to get some horror fanatics, if not some Babadook fanatics. They bring their own passions and their own interpretations to the experience, and you come out with a richer understanding of the movie,” Larsen says. “I’m telling you, it happens every year: I feel like I’ve seen the film entirely anew because of the conversations we have.”

ON SCREEN:

The Babadook plays Ebert Interruptus at the Conference on World Affairs, April 9-12, CU Boulder - University Memorial Center, 1669 Euclid Ave. Free

Jennifer Kent’s 2014 Australian horror classic The Babadook plays Ebert Interruptus at the Conference on World Affairs at CU Boulder from April 9-12. Courtesy: Umbrella Entertainment

Scorched

Wild Heart Dance. Photo by Heather Gray Photography. Itchy-O performs at Smash the Patriarchy at the Junkyard Social Club. Photo by Justine Johnson.

The Butterfly Affect by Beth Osnes and Sarah Fahmy. In Open Space Mountain Parks during an Art Hike in summer of 2023. Photo by Lianna Nixon.

EVENTS

4

PEACE THROUGH MUSIC 2024

7-10 p.m. Thursday, April 4, Unity of Boulder, 2855 Folsom St. $20

Longmont singer-songwriter Antonio Lopez performs with Janis Kelly, Lisa Bell, Pedro S. Silva II and more during this benefit concert in honor of the 2024 Season for Nonviolence. Proceeds support Boulder MUSE and Streetscape.

5

UPCYCLED NIGHT MARKET

5-11 p.m. Friday, April 5, Junkyard Social Club, 2525 Frontier Ave., Unit A, Boulder. Free

Boulder Arts Week kicks off with a celebration of local artisans who turn the old into the new. “From stunning sculptures to one-of-a-kind fashion pieces, every creation tells a story of innovation and environmental stewardship.”

5

ARTIST TALK: USAMA ALSHAIBI

7-9 p.m. Friday, April 5, East Window Gallery, 4550 Broadway, Boulder. Free

Join Baghdad-born artist and filmmaker Usama Alshaibi for a screening and discussion featuring several short films and the world premiere of his new work, Testimony, exploring artificial intelligence as “an uneasy collaboration between an imagined presence that does not resemble us, and a presence in crisis.”

5 OPEN WALL 2024

Various times. Friday, April 5 through Sunday, April 7, Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, 1750 13th St. “Pay from your heart”

If you can hang it, you can sell it at Open Wall. This yearly tradition welcomes artists of all mediums and experience levels to install their work in BMoCA’s first-come, first-served community exhibition space. Register at bit.ly/OpenWallBW.

5

BLUE DIME

CABARET: 2BLUE4U!

7:30 p.m. Friday, April 5, DV8 Distillery, 2480 9th St., Unit E, Boulder. $20

Boulder Arts Week gets even more fabulous on Friday night when DV8 presents Blue Dime Cabaret, “a popup cabaret troupe producing a lowbrow, avant-garde variety sideshow intended to cause laughter with ludicrous acts and bawdy characters.”

5

ART IN THE PARK

All day. Friday, April 5, Colorado Chautauqua, 900 Baseline Road, Boulder. Free

Chautauqua’s annual Art in the Park event returns with 15 local artists selected from a pool of 100 applicants who will turn a series of fiberglass bear statues into a beautiful outdoor installation.

6

4-8 p.m. Saturday, April 6, Museum of Boulder, 2205 Broadway. $10

Welcome the coming season during Museum of Boulder’s annual Persian Cultural Day. The post-Nowruz (Persian New Year) celebration features Iranian circle dances, a springthemed photo booth and more.

6

VDTV: A SKETCH COMEDY SHOW

Various times. Saturday, April 6 and Sunday, April 7, Louisville Underground, 640 Main St. $20

Check out “some of the most unique items QVC turned down” during this sketch-comedy send-up of public access TV hosted by Darlene Pugh (Lauren Barash) and featuring performers from Superior Improv Co.

Want more Boulder County events? Check out the complete listings online by scanning this QR code.

7

STREET WISE ARTS

MURAL BIKE TOUR

10 a.m.-3 p.m. Sunday, April 7, Sanitas Brewing, 3550 Frontier Ave., Boulder. $10

7 SPRING FEST

Art is better on two wheels, so come explore the street art of central Boulder by bike during this 27-mural tour. The fun wraps up with discounted beers at Sanitas Brewing until 3 p.m.

6 –

7

ROCKY MOUNTAIN RECORD SHOW

10 a.m.-noon (earlybird), noon-5 p.m. (general). Sat.-Sun. April 6-7, 1000 Broadway. $28 (earlybird), $10 (general)

The Rocky Mountain Record show returns for its sixth LP mega-sale. Vinyl Me Please presents this two-day festival featuring more than 150,000 records from 70 dealers from around the country. Plus live DJs, a full bar, food trucks and more. Entry is free on Sunday.

11 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday, April 7, The New Local, 741 Pearl St., Boulder. Free

Eighty artists lead a series of micro workshops during this free, all-ages event at Boulder’s women-run arts nonprofit. Workshops include botanical dying, watercolors, sun prints, mini sculptures and more.

8

SOLAR ECLIPSE VIEWING

10:30 a.m.-2 p.m. Monday, April 8, NCAR Mesa Lab, 1850 Table Mesa Drive, Boulder. Free

Looking for the best place to catch the upcoming solar eclipse? Head to the NCAR Mesa Lab for a scienceforward viewing party featuring activities for the whole family. Glasses will be provided. This partial eclipse begins at 11:28 a.m. and will reach a maximum of approximately 70% sun coverage at 12:40 p.m.

LIVE MUSIC

THURSDAY, APRIL 4

JAY STOTT TRIO 6 p.m. BOCO Cider, 1501 Lee Hill Drive, Unit 14, Boulder. Free

JOCELYN MEDINA 6:30 p.m. Boulder Wine Bar, 2035 Broadway, Boulder. Free

REKHA OHAL QUARTET. 7 p.m. Muse Performance Space, 200 E. South Boulder Road, Lafayette. $20

PEACE THROUGH MUSIC 2024 7 p.m. Unity of Boulder, 2855 Folsom St. $30

SLIM CESSNA’S AUTO CLUB. 7 p.m. Stewart Auditorium, 400 Quail Road, Longmont. $18 BW PICK OF THE WEEK

DAVID WILCOX 7 p.m. eTown Hall, 1535 Spruce St., Boulder. $38

MARIELLE KRAFT WITH ANNA CUTLER. 8 p.m. Chautauqua Community House, 301 Morning Glory Drive, Boulder. $18

BILL MCKAY 8 p.m. Velvet Elk Lounge, 2037 13th St., Boulder. Free

MARCELO FALCÃO 8 p.m. Fox Theatre, 1135 13th St., Boulder. $40

CHRIS DANIELS & THE KINGS WITH FREDDI GOWDY 8 p.m. Boulder Theater, 2032 14th St., Boulder. $25

HOSSBACK 9 p.m. Southern Sun Pub and Brewery, 627 S. Broadway, Boulder. Free

SHADY OAKS WITH BURY MIA, DAYSHAPER AND MR. KNOBS 8 p.m. Hi-Dive, 7 S. Broadway, Denver. $15

DOUBLECAMP WITH ALT BLOOM AND SUNSTONEY. 8 p.m. Globe Hall, 4483 Logan St., Denver. $17

FRIDAY, APRIL 5

ZENARI. 6 p.m. BOCO Cider, 1501 Lee Hill Drive, Unit 14, Boulder. Free

BIG SEASONS WITH WESLEY SCOTT 6 p.m. Trident Booksellers & Cafe, 940 Pearl St., Boulder. Free

KIRTAN AND MEDICINE MUSIC WITH BETSATORI. 6:30 p.m. The Vali Soul Sanctuary, 6717 Valmont Road, Boulder. $20

CODY QUALLS 7 p.m. Muse Performance Space, 200 E. South Boulder Road, Lafayette. $30

ART LANDE DREAMBAND. 7 p.m. Broomfield Library and Auditorium, 3 Community Park Road, Broomfield. Free

ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL. 7:30 p.m. Macky Auditorium, 1595 Pleasant St., Boulder. $147

TENTH MOUNTAIN DIVISION. 8 p.m. Velvet Elk Lounge, 2037 13th St., Boulder. $22

KYLE WATSON 8 p.m. Fox Theatre, 1135 13th St., Boulder. $20

DUNCAN COKER WITH KATIE MINTLE 8 p.m. Roots Music Project, 4747 Pearl St., Suite V3A, Boulder. Free

GLUE MAN WITH TOTAL CULT, TUFF BLUFF AND DJ MAR DAL 9 p.m. Hi-Dive, 7 S. Broadway, Denver. $15

SWERVE WITH MIDLAND BAND AND TOMATO SOUP 8 p.m. Globe Hall, 4483 Logan St., Denver. $17

DIRTY LOOPS WITH KAITLYN WILLIAMS 8 p.m. Gothic Theatre, 3263 S. Broadway, Denver. $35

SATURDAY, APRIL 6

SAM WEBER 6:30 p.m. Stone Cottage Studios, 3091 7th St., Boulder. $30

JOEL HARRISON QUARTET WITH STEVE KOVALCHECK, JIM WHITE AND GONZALO TEPPA 7 p.m. Muse Performance Space, 200 E. South Boulder Road, Lafayette. $20

GOOD MUSIC MEDICINE 7 p.m. Rayback Collective, 2775 Valmont Road, Boulder. Free

NICOLÒ SPERA 7:30 p.m. Mountain View United Methodist Church, 355 Ponca Place, Boulder. $25

TWRP WITH TRY MAGNIFIQUE AND NELWARD 8 p.m. Fox Theatre, 1135 13th St., Boulder. $25

DIAMOND EDWARDS DUO. 9 p.m. Longs Peak Pub, 600 Longs Peak Ave., Longmont. Free

BARN GHOST. 6 p.m. BOCO Cider, 1501 Lee Hill Drive, Unit 14, Boulder. Free

LIVE MUSIC

ON THE BILL

Colorado gothabilly cow-punk pioneers Slim Cessna’s Auto Club make their way to the Longmont Museum’s Stewart Auditorium on April 4. The show is presented in conjunction with the ongoing exhibition, Picturing the West: Masterworks of American Landscape Photography. Hit the QR code for a feature on the band before you go. See listing for details

RICKSHAW BILLIE’S BURGER PATROL WITH NIGHT FISHING AND CRYPTIC WITCH. 9 p.m. Hi-Dive, 7 S. Broadway, Denver. $18

MOON WALKER WITH COMPASS & CAVERN AND SEXY COYOTE

8 p.m. Globe Hall, 4483 Logan St., Denver. $22

SUNDAY, APRIL 7

THE LOWDERMILK QUARTET.

4 p.m. BOCO Cider, 1501 Lee Hill Drive, Unit 14, Boulder. Free

KAYLA SMITH. 8 p.m. Velvet Elk Lounge, 2037 13th St., Boulder. Free

MORTUOUS WITH CEMETERY FILTH AND OF FEATHER AND BONE. 8 p.m. Hi-Dive, 7 S. Broadway, Denver. $20

EDITH WITH CAPTURE THIS, DANCING WITH DANTE AND FROG TEAM. 5 p.m. Globe Hall, 4483 Logan St., Denver. $14

PETER FRAMPTON

7:30 p.m.

Mission Ballroom, 4242 Wynkoop St., Denver. $65

MONDAY, APRIL 8

MARTY O’REILLY WITH BRIDGET LAW AND DANGO ROSE (OF ELEPHANT REVIVAL) 7 p.m. Dairy Arts Center, 2590 Walnut St., Boulder. $25

TUESDAY, APRIL 9

CHAPPELL ROAN

8 p.m.

Boulder Theater, 2032 14th St. Sold out. Resale: $320+ STORY ON PAGE 18

HUNTER LEGGITT WITH THE RELATIVE ZERO AND MARKUS BRAUN 8 p.m. Fox Theatre, 1135 13th St., Boulder. $10

SITTING ON STACY WITH THE ALIVE! AND OVERTIME WINNER

8 p.m. Globe Hall, 4483 Logan St., Denver. $18

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 10

JOHNNY OHNMACHT

8 p.m.

Velvet Elk Lounge, 2037 13th St., Boulder. Free

COYOTE ROSE WITH FLAT CREEK AND HORSHAM ROAD

8 p.m.

Fox Theatre, 1135 13th St., Boulder. $15

METH WITH DREAMWELL AND MERRY. 8 p.m. Hi-Dive, 7 S. Broadway, Denver. $15

HANS WILLIAMS WITH NICK FOLWARCZNY

8 p.m. Globe Hall, 4483 Logan St., Denver. $27

NOAHFINNCE WITH CHASE PETRA, TX2 AND TEENAGE JOANS

7 p.m. Bluebird Theater, 3317 E. Colfax Ave., Denver. $23

Aries author Eric G. Wilson claims, “Darker emotional states — doubt, confusion, alienation, despair — inspire a deeper and more durable experience of the sacred than contentment does.” I disagree. I know for a fact that an exquisite embrace of life’s holiness is equally possible through luminous joy and boisterous triumph and exultant breakthroughs. Propagandists of the supposed potency of misery are stuck in a habit of mind that’s endemic to the part of civilization that’s rotting and dying. In any case, Aries, I’m pleased to tell you that in the coming weeks, you will have abundant opportunities to glide into sacred awareness on the strength of your lust for life and joie de

Will humans succeed in halting the decimation of the environment? Will we neutralize the power of fundamentalism as it fights to quash our imaginations and limit our freedoms? Will we outflank and outlast the authoritarians that threaten democracy? Sorry I’m asking you to think about sad realities. But now is an excellent time for you to ponder the world we are creating for our descendants and resolve to do something in loving service to the future. Meditate on the riddle from Lewis Carroll’s book Through the Looking Glass: “It’s a poor sort of memory that only works backwards.”

bold, consider these two additional assignments: 1. Upgrade your skills at helping yourself access your own resources and activate your own potential. 2. Be forthright and straightforward in asking the people you help to help you.

LIBRA (SEPT. 23-OCT. 22): I don’t regard a solar eclipse as a bad omen. On the contrary, I believe it may purge and cleanse stale old karma. On some occasions, I have seen it flush away emotional debts and debris that have been accumulating for years. So how shall we interpret the total solar eclipse that will electrify your astrological house of intimate togetherness in the coming days? I think it’s a favorable time to be brave and daring as you upgrade your best relationships. What habits and patterns are you ready to reinvent and reconfigure? What new approaches are you willing to experiment with?

SCORPIO (OCT. 23-NOV. 21): At your best, you Scorpios are not invasive manipulators. Rather, you are catalysts. You are instigators of transformation, resurrectors of dead energy, awakeners of numb minds. The people you influence may not be aware that they long to draw on your influence. They may think you are somehow imposing it on them, when, in fact, you are simply being your genuine, intense self, and they are reaching out to absorb your unruly healing. In the coming weeks, please keep in mind what I’ve said here.

GEMINI (MAY 21-JUNE 20): The genius polymath Galileo Galilei (1564–1642) contributed much treasure to science and engineering. One encyclopedia sums up his legacy: “He was the father of observational astronomy, modern-era classical physics, the scientific method and modern science.” Unfortunately, many of Galileo’s ideas conflicted with the teachings of Catholicism. The church fathers hounded him for years, even arresting him and putting him on trial. The Vatican eventually apologized, though not until 350 years after Galileo died. I expect that you, too, will generate many new approaches and possibilities in the coming months, Gemini — not Galileo level, of course, but still: sufficiently unprecedented to rouse the resistance of conventional wisdom. I suspect you won’t have to wait long to be vindicated, however.

CANCER (JUNE 21-JULY 22): Now would be a perfect time to prove your love. How? You might begin by being extra considerate, sensitive, sweet and tender. I hope you will add sublime, scintillating touches, too. Maybe you will tell your beloved allies beautiful truths about themselves — revelations that make them feel deeply understood and appreciated. Maybe you will give them gifts or blessings they have wanted for a long time but never managed to get for themselves. It’s possible you will serenade them with their favorite songs, or write a poem or story about them, or buy them a symbol that inspires their spiritual quest. To climax all your kindness, perhaps you will describe the ways they have changed your life for the better.

LEO (JULY 23-AUG. 22): Leo naturalist and ornithologist William Henry Hudson (1841–1922) said, “I am not a lover of lawns. Rather would I see daisies in their thousands, ground ivy, hawkweed and dandelions with splendid flowers and fairy down, than the too-well-tended lawn.” I encourage you to adopt his attitude toward everything in your life for the next few weeks. Always opt for unruly beauty over tidy regimentation. Choose lush vitality over pruned efficiency. Blend your fate with influences that exult in creative expressiveness, genial fertility and deep feelings. (PS: Cultural critic Michael Pollan says, “A lawn is nature under totalitarian rule.”)

VIRGO (AUG. 23-SEPT. 22): I praise and celebrate you for your skills at helping other people access their resources and activate their potential. I hope you are rewarded well for your gorgeous service. If you are not, please figure out how to correct the problem in the coming months. If you are feeling extra

SAGITTARIUS (NOV. 22-DEC. 21): In my astrological opinion, it’s prime time for you to shower big, wild favors on your beautiful self. Get the fun underway with a period of rigorous self-care: a physical check-up, perhaps, and visits with the dentist, therapist, hairstylist and acupuncturist. Try new healing agents and seek precise magic that enhances and uplifts your energy. I trust you will also call on luxurious indulgences like a massage, a psychic reading, gourmet meals, an emotionally potent movie, exciting new music and long, slow love-making. Anything else, Sagittarius? Make a list and carry out these tasks with the same verve and determination you would give to any important task.

CAPRICORN (DEC. 22-JAN. 19): The coming days will be a favorable time for you to wrestle with an angel or play chess with a devil. You will have extraordinary power in any showdown or collaboration with spiritual forces. Your practical intelligence will serve you well in encounters with irrational enigmas and supernatural riddles. Here’s a hot tip: Never assume that any being — human or divine — is holier or wiser than you. You will have a special knack for finding compassionate solutions to address even the knottiest dilemmas.

AQUARIUS (JAN. 20-FEB. 18): Your featured organ of the month is your nose. This may sound beyond the scope of predictable possibilities, but I’m serious: You will make robust decisions and discriminating choices if you get your sniffer fully involved. So I advise you to favor and explore whatever smells good. Cultivate a nuanced appreciation for what aromas can reveal. If there’s a hint of a stink or an odd tang, go elsewhere. The saying “follow your nose” is especially applicable. PS: I recommend you take steps to expose yourself to a wide array of scents that energize you and boost your mood.

PISCES (FEB. 19-MARCH 20): When is the best time to ask for a raise or an increase in benefits? Can astrology reveal favorable periods for being aggressive about getting more of what you want? In the system I use, the time that’s 30 to 60 days after your birthday is most likely to generate good results. Another phase is 210 to 240 days after your birthday. Keep in mind that these estimates may be partly fanciful and playful and mythical. But then in my philosophy, fanciful and playful and mythical actions have an honored place. Self-fulfilling prophecies are more likely to be fulfilled if you regard them as fun experiments rather than serious, literal rules.

SAVAGE LOVE

BY DAN SAVAGE

Q: I’m a single cis gay man, and I’ve been going back and forth between wanting an open relationship or a throuple/quad when I start dating again. Do you have any advice or recommendations for finding out more about gay throuple/ quad relationship structures? I’ve talked about open relationships and relationship anarchy with my peers and therapist, but no one seems to know a lot about throuples/quads.

A: I don’t think there’s a lot of research into gay throuples and quads. (Hell, there isn’t that much research into gay couples.) But most successful gay throuples and quads started out as couples. So instead of seeking a throuple or a quad, your best bet may be fucking with single men who are open to relationships and fucking with couples — as a single person or once you’re coupled who are open to regular thirds and/or fourths.

probably means I’d just see him for a moment, say hi, and have to leave. How important is it for us to have in-person time? If we haven’t seen each other in months, shouldn’t I make the effort, even if it’s just for a moment together?

A: Being in the same room with your lover and having to play it cool and not being able to touch them sounds like torture. It also sounds incredibly hot. So, if you’re sure your lover wants to see you under those circumstances and isn’t just telling you what you wanna hear, make the effort.

Q: Do I play with cut [eggplant emoji] and uncut [eggplant emoji] the same way or do I treat them differently?

Q: Why is it hard to get a relationship partner to confirm you’re in a relationship or define the relationship?

A: Most likely because your partner benefits somehow from the relationship remaining undefined — they feel freed from certain obligations — and they sense you aren’t willing to call their bluff. Meaning, they sense you won’t break up with them if they refuse to define the relationship. You can’t call the question if you aren’t willing to call it off unless you get an answer.

Q: My lover is in town for business, but he has an impossible work schedule. The only way I can probably see him is if I crash one of his work events. I’m tempted, but it

An uncut [eggplant emoji] essentially comes with its own built-in masturbation sleeve — you can roll the foreskin up and down the shaft and over the head. You can’t do that with most cut [eggplant emoji], as there’s not a lot of loose skin to work with/manipulate/roll up and over on most circumcised men. So, uncut [eggplant emoji] typically doesn’t need lube while cut [eggplant emoji] typically do need some sort of lube. But cut or uncut [eggplant emoji], don’t make assumptions. Ask for direction.

Q: I met a gay couple in my building. One half of the couple — the not-that-hot half — told me they “only play together” while the other half of the couple — the hotter-thanfuck half — told me hooking up oneon-one was possible so long as his husband never found out. What should I do?

A: You should move.

TASTES LIKE HOME

Aurora’s Mango House dishes compassion and true tastes of Burma, Nepal and Syria

STORY AND PHOTOS BY JOHN LEHNDORFF

Food halls have proliferated across Colorado, many featuring the same cuisines. Mango House is something completely different.

Entering through a colorful alley entrance, you find yourself in a bubbling nexus of cultures, languages, dress, tastes, sounds and aromas. Immersive doesn’t quite describe it.

Mango House is a remarkable shared community center for resettled Denverarea refugees set in a former J.C. Penney in the heart of Aurora. Front and center are food stalls and international shops around a welcoming, colorful, flag-festooned atrium dining area.

On a recent Friday afternoon, sideby-side food stalls were dishing competing plates of lamb shank with rice prepared as it would be in Damascus, Johannesburg and Kathmandu.

We started with tibs and fresh spongy injera bread from Langano Ethiopian and piri piri chicken wings from Swahili BBQ Grill. For the main course, we settled on dishes from the Urban Burma counter because, honestly, how often do you encounter Burmese food?

Urban Burma’s sii cheh kao sweh is a total flavor party — salty, umami, slightly sweet and herbaceous. Flat

noodles are tossed with fried garlic, sesame oil, green onions and crispy pork or chicken. Nan gyi dok is spicy Burmese spaghetti served with crunchy puffed rice and chicken broth to sip. Worth a drive all by itself is the fermented tea leaf slaw, a bomb of crunch and umami.

“It’s our most popular dish,” says Siri Tan. He and his brother opened Urban Burma as Colorado’s first Burmese restaurant five years ago. “We import the tea leaves from Burma.”

Mango House is really a refugee business incubator for markets, like the Rohingya Asian Grocery, and for six restaurants.

“The landlord had this great idea to only rent spaces in the food court to refugees from around the world,” he says. “Rent is very reasonable, and they provided the kitchen equipment to get them started.”

Founded by Denver physician P.J. Parmar, the facility has focused on providing affordable walk-in medical services for Denver’s refugee population along with a dental clinic, a pharmacy, meeting spaces and even a Boy Scout troop.

The refugees who eat here come to connect with their food from home. “It’s

the Americans who are more willing to try new things,” says Tan, a native of Burma (also called Myanmar).

Mango House is a perfect place to wander from your dining comfort zone. And you can bring the kids: A big open play area is often filled on weekends with children from around the world.

Tan’s food court favorites include the lamb shank from Jasmine Syrian and goat curry from Nepali Spice. You can finish the feast with thick Syrian coffee and pistachio baklava or a cup from Natoli Cafe, the food hall’s early-opening Ethiopian breakfast joint.

Coming to eat at a place like Mango House “might be intimidating for some people to try,” Tan says, “but it’s authentic. Everybody you see working came from where we came from.”

As we ate, a nearby table in the food hall was being decorated with balloons. A large, multi-generational family arrived to celebrate their matriarch’s 93rd birthday complete with cake and fare from Golden Sky Asian Food.

At the appropriate moment, the folks who owned the nearby Ethiopian, Syrian and Nepali food stands and shops all gathered around the table. They loudly sang “Happy Birthday” together and we all joined in.

254,640 CANS ON THE ROCKS

Red Rocks sells more White Claw hard seltzer than any other single venue in the U.S., according to the beverage company. The 9,545-person capacity amphitheater sold 254,640 cans of White Claw during the 2023 season: 25% of the total number of malt beverages sold there, according to Denver Arts & Venues, which manages the venue. Something was needed to wash down the 31,700 tacos and 25,000 cheese cups.

Unfortunately, no breakdown of White Claw purchases by musical genre was provided. One suspects consumption varies significantly between genres.

SIGN UP FOR A CSA

As the Boulder Farmers Market and the Longmont Farmers Market open April 6, the season is concluding if you want to sign up for a farm CSA share before they are fully subscribed. Among the Boulder County farms that still have shares available are Cure Organic Farm and Masa Farm in Boulder and Sunflower Farm in Longmont.

From left: The food court at Mango House in Aurora; fare from Urban Burma; a lunch plate from Langano Ethiopian; lamb shank and rice from Jasmine Syrian.

Produce from Cure Organic Farm’s CSA. Credit: John Lehndorff

NIBBLES

OPENINGS, OFFERINGS AND CLOSINGS

King Dumpling is open and dishing potstickers, wontons and buns at 316 S. McCaslin Blvd. in Louisville. Longmont’s Dry Land Distillers has launched a Sunday-only menu of small plates featuring locally sourced ingredients to pair with classic cocktails mixed with spirits made with Colorado-grown grain.

CYCLHOPS Bike CANtina has closed after 10 years at 600 S. Airport Road in Longmont. Also shuttered: Cantina Lunada, 1225 Ken Pratt Blvd., Longmont. After 40 years as an Estes Park landmark for locals and visitors, The Dunraven restaurant has closed.

COMING ATTRACTIONS

High Country, 1117 Pearl St., Boulder; Pedro’s Tacos and Tequila Bar, 1125 Pearl St., Boulder, the former site of West Flanders Brewing Co.; Red Cedar Bistro, 516 Main St., Longmont.

FETING FEMALE FOOD STARS

The Big Stir, April 27 on the Auraria Campus in downtown Denver, will honor 10 local female leaders in the food, beverage, agriculture and hospitality industries. Among them: Kena Guttridge (Longmont’s Ollin Farms), Talia Haykin (Haykin Family Cidery), chef Caroline Glover (Annette) and Beth Conrey (Bee Squared Apiaries, Berthoud). Sponsored by Les Dames d’Escoffier Colorado, The Big Stir also features wine and spirit seminars, a zeroproof lounge and bites from local restaurants. lesdamescolorado.org

FREE GUIDE TO BOULDER’S TOP EATS

Dig into Boulder’s burgeoning food, dining and beverage scene in Feast, Boulder Weekly’s freshly published culinary magazine. We researched everything tasty from mountain biking cafes and bread bakeries to real meal deals and spots Guy Fieri loves to eat. Find copies of Feast in news boxes and online at issuu.com/boulderweekly/ docs/feast2024-dvcom.

(P.S.: Barchetta is the latest Boulder eatery to receive a visit from Guy Fieri’s Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.)

WORDS TO CHEW ON: SKIP THE RECIPES

“Are we going to measure or are we going to cook?” — Mimi Sheraton, the first woman to review restaurants for The New York Times.

Boulder Weekly Food Editor John Lehndorff hosts Radio Nibbles and Kitchen Table Talk on KGNU. Podcasts: kgnu.org/category/ radio-nibbles. Comments: nibbles@boulderweekly.com

Chef Caroline Glover. Courtesy: Annette restaurant

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It ain’t never gonna end Without love in the dream We will survive We are on our own

Life Lessons on Two Wheels to the TUNES of the Grateful Dead

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The Deadhead Cyclist may be the most unique book ever written about the Grateful Dead. It focuses on the deeper meaning behind the magical lyrics that have stood the test of time for more than 50 years, inspiring multiple generations, and adding wind to the sails of a timeless movement that has brought a hopeful, lifeaffirming message to troubled times.

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ON DRUGS

WHY DOES FENTANYL EXIST?

The history of the drug devastating America

BY DOM DIFURIO OPHELIA

Fentanyl was the most promising medical advancement of its time. It’s now one of the leading causes of death in the United States.

The highly addictive synthetic opioid has infiltrated illicit drug supplies and left holes in families across the nation. According to a New York Times analysis of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data, fentanyl and drugs like it caused nearly 74,000 overdose deaths in 2022, surpassing other public health crises like car crash deaths and gun deaths.

It’s spurred public policy initiatives in an attempt to stem the flow of fentanyl from China and Mexico. It’s led to more regulation of prescription opioids and increased efforts to make opioid abuse treatments more widely available. It’s also reigniting debates about how to prosecute drug crimes and how to compassionately treat those who have already become victims of its addictive grip.

Fentanyl is so frequently associated today with pain and suffering that it begs the question: Why was something so dangerous created in the first place?

A DOCTOR’S SON

Paul Janssen was a revolutionary figure in Western medicine during the 20th century, developing dozens of medications and patenting more than 100 medical advances over his lifetime. The son of a doctor, Janssen lost his sister when she was only 4 years old after she contracted tuberculous meningitis.

During World War II, Janssen studied physics, biology and chemistry in Belgium. His familial background and education in chemistry, in particular, inspired him to think about the potential for chemical sciences to be applied to advancements in medicine.

The time in which a young Janssen found inspiration was when war was driving innovation in health care at a rapid clip, and many procedures and medicines we take for granted today were just entering the fray. Surgeons were developing techniques to safely remove flesh so that fewer soldiers had to undergo amputation. Penicillin was seeing broader use for treating bacterial infec-

tions, having been discovered over a decade prior.

The first open-heart surgery was performed in 1952, kicking off a period of surgical ambition that would inspire Janssen to formulate the chemical compound known today as fentanyl. Janssen set out to create the “most potent” narcotic pain reliever ever made, synthesizing fentanyl for the first time in 1960. The drug was shown to have 100-300 times the potency of morphine, the primary drug used in surgical procedures at the time. Fentanyl also had fewer side effects for patients.

A COMPLICATED LEGACY

Fentanyl’s potency worried some physicians, and that concern led to problems getting approval for its broader use. The Janssen Pharmaceuticals, acquired by Johnson & Johnson in 1961, struggled to get the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to approve

the drug. It was resolved when Janssen suggested a 50:1 combination of droperidol and fentanyl be used in procedures, thereby diluting the chance for it to be misused because droperidol was known to induce a high that was not enjoyable.

The FDA ultimately approved the cocktail for use in the U.S. in 1968; four years later, fentanyl became available for use on its own in small quantities.

Since Janssen first conceived it in his lab, fentanyl has become the most widely used intravenous anesthetic for surgical procedures. At the same time, its excessive use began just years after the FDA first approved it in the 1970s. In the 1990s, overprescription of other opioid painkillers like OxyContin seeded the ground for the epidemic of opioid use disorder plaguing the U.S. today.

From the late 1990s through the 2000s, opioid-related overdose deaths skyrocketed, and regulators began cracking down on overprescribing physicians. Those efforts gave way to a rise in heroin overdose deaths in the early 2010s. And though fentanyl’s potential for misuse concerned the FDA in the 1960s, it was perhaps impossible for regulators and the medical community to foresee the bevy of market forces that would lead to the modern-day opioid crisis and fentanyl’s role in it.

This story originally appeared on Ophelia, a telemedicine company, and was produced through a partnership with Stacker Studio, a newsroom and content syndication platform.