Boulder Weekly 05.02.2024

MAY 2, 2024

Volume 31, Number 37

PUBLISHER: Francis Zankowski

EDITORIAL

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Shay Castle

ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR: Jezy J. Gray

REPORTERS: Kaylee Harter

Will Matuska

FOOD EDITOR: John Lehndorff

INTERN: Lauren Hill

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: Rob Brezsny, Michael J. Casey, Adam Perry, Dan Savage, Lindsay Temple, Toni Tresca, Gabby Vermeire, Gregory Wakeman

SALES AND MARKETING

MARKET DEVELOPMENT MANAGER: Kellie Robinson

SENIOR ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE: Matthew Fischer

ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES: Chris Allred, Holden Hauke

SPECIAL PROJECTS MANAGER: Carter Ferryman

MRS. BOULDER WEEKLY: Mari Nevar

PRODUCTION

CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Erik Wogen

SENIOR GRAPHIC DESIGNER: Mark Goodman

CIRCULATION

CIRCULATION MANAGER: Cal Winn

CIRCULATION TEAM: Sue Butcher, Ken Rott, Chris Bauer

BUSINESS OFFICE

BOOKKEEPER/ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE: Austen Lopp

FOUNDER / CEO: Stewart Sallo

As Boulder County’s only independently owned newspaper, Boulder Weekly is dedicated to illuminating truth, advancing justice and protecting the First Amendment through ethical, no-holdsbarred journalism and thought-provoking opinion writing. Free every Thursday since 1993, the Weekly also offers the county’s most comprehensive arts and entertainment coverage. Read the print version, or visit boulderweekly.com. Boulder Weekly does not accept unsolicited editorial submissions. If you’re interested in writing for the paper, please send queries to: editorial@boulderweekly.com. Any materials sent to Boulder Weekly become the property of the newspaper. 690 South Lashley Lane, Boulder, CO 80305 Phone: 303.494.5511, FAX: 303.494.2585 editorial@boulderweekly.com www.boulderweekly.com

Boulder Weekly is published every Thursday. No portion may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher. ©2024 Boulder Weekly, Inc., all rights reserved.

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 We do not publish anonymous letters or those signed with pseudonyms.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

COMMENTARY

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

GOOD RIDDANCE, RESTAURANT WEEK

I read your article about the demise of Boulder Restaurant Week with interest (“First Bite eats it,” March 28), especially considering that I myself never felt like it was within my modest budget as a city resident, now retired after a “career” as classified staff at the university. Let the demise of this event remind entrepreneurs that not everybody living in the City of Boulder is a member of the 1% with discretionary money to burn. Look to the success of restaurants such as Southern Sun and Chez Thuy as affordable dining options for those of us who ever had to, and might still, work for a living.

— Evan Cantor, Boulder

A PEACEFUL WEEK

If you have lived in Boulder long enough, you can’t help but notice how quiet and peaceful Spring Break week was: No more rushing of insane traffic and crazy CU student drivers ahhh, so peaceful.

I just wish they’d never return, or at least the ones who drive cars.

Miriam Paisner, Boulder

GOLF CARTS ARE THE ANSWER

I am commenting on Kevin J. Krizek’s opinion piece, “Don’t Iterate: Innovate” (April 11).

Mr. Krizek suggests using “small cars” in place of the current standard size car. These small vehicles already exist and require no studies or invention: electric golf carts.

Boulder should allow us to use electric golf carts in town on our existing roads. It is a viable option for those of us who can no longer ride a bicycle or are afraid to; who run multiple errands requiring cargo and/or passenger space; who do not have reasonable access to buses that have direct routes; who are environmentally conscious yet realistic. I myself check all those boxes.

There are many communities in the U.S. successfully allowing — even requiring — electric golf carts for in-town transportation. Boulder allows electric bikes anywhere and everywhere.

Why not electric golf carts? I would definitely be on board with that. — Suzanne Real, Boulder

LETTERS

DEI SHAMING

In response to a recent opinion piece that ascribed primary challenges to incumbent female office holders of color as racially motivated (“Dems and DEI,” March 4), I can only say that Mr. Salas does a disservice to the very same politicians that he supports.

His assertion “that when someone decides to challenge a same-party incumbent, they have strong evidence that the incumbent has not done a good job or is guilty of some type of malfeasance” sets a low bar for incumbent office holders to remain in office unchallenged. I, and perhaps other liberal voters, still hold the opinion that challenges to any incumbents can serve to elevate the conversation.

As I am not a constituent of Ms. Joseph, I am unfamiliar with her or her work. However, I am concerned about having Ms. Loachamin, a realtor, representing Boulder County Commission District 2.

Housing is at the forefront of the many issues that will be facing state and local governments in the coming years. Proliferation of ADUs, shortterm rentals, investment and rental properties versus incentives for firsttime homeownership; taxation of rental properties at the same rate as owner-occupied homes; construction defect liabilities; removal of minimum parking requirements; protection of farmers and open-space land; height restrictions and setbacks, etc., will highlight the often disparate perspectives of renters and current and prospective homeowners versus those who work in the real estate industry and who own multiple properties, such as Ms. Loachamin.

As a bilingual Spanish speaker and a lifelong ESL teacher, I would like to learn more about how Loachamin’s work and proposals would help those families that she purports to represent.

My own father, who immigrated from Northern Ireland, worked picking tobacco in Canada before becoming an American citizen. He was a loyal Kennedy supporter for years. However, if he were alive today, I am confident that he would consider the issues involved before throwing his allegiance behind the scion of his compatriots.

conflicts of interest in each and every political race.

— John Loughran, Longmont

(Editor’s note: Look for Boulder Weekly’s in-depth voter guide June 6, covering all contested primary races in Boulder County.)

FOREST UNDER THREAT

I bet you didn’t know that millions of acres of Colorado’s biodiverse, carbonstoring forests are on the chopping block. That’s because much of this unprecedented logging is being rushed through behind the scenes under the guise of an “emergency.”

One of the most egregious is the Lower North-South Vegetation Management scheme, 116,600 acres of logging (including clearcuts up to 40 acres) in the Pike-San Isabel National Forest in Jefferson and Douglas Counties: 87,000 acres falling within seven protected Colorado Roadless Areas.

According to the U.S. Forest Service, intensive logging would take place in “the largest and least humanimpacted area remaining in the Rampart Range, [which] forms…a critical core area for wildlife at the edge of the rapidly growing Interstate 25 urban corridor” as well as in a “near-pristine example of a Colorado front range transition zone between montane and plains ecosystem.”

Declaring this fake emergency means bypassing parts of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and skipping analysis of impacts to resident wildlife listed under the Endangered Species Act, including the Mexican spotted owl, Pawnee montane skipper, Preble’s meadow jumping mouse and threatened Canada lynx.

Since only a handful of media outlets have chosen to cover the impending “Colorado Chainsaw Massacre,” the only way to find out what we’ve got to lose is to see for yourself.

I urge voters to become educated on the issues and any potential

Which is why on Sunday, May 26, you’re invited on a guided hike through public forests threatened by the Lower North-South Vegetation Management plan outside Sedalia. The hike will include identifying birds and rare, medicinal, and edible plants threatened by logging, along with evi-

LETTERS

dence showing how this project will harm wildlife and the climate, all while increasing the risk of wildfire spreading to local communities.

Go to eco-integrityalliance.org for info and to RSVP.

— Josh Schlossberg, Eco-Integrity Alliance

RESTORE ARTS FUNDING

Regarding Boulder Weekly’s article about City of Boulder 2023 Ballot Measure 2A (“Compromise and consequence,” April 25), I’d like to offer another perspective.

Create Boulder spearheaded the 2A campaign in the spirit of partnership with the city to ensure the stability of essential services, sustain our arts and culture scene and build a more equitable, connected and vibrant community.

With an overwhelming 75% of voter support, it’s clear 2A deeply resonated with Boulder residents. Our task now is to ensure the city maximizes rather than diminishes the potential positive impact of 2A tax revenues for arts and culture.

The issue is whether the ongoing budget for the Office of Arts & Culture ($1.4-$1.8 million annually) from the general fund — including for staff, department expenses and current community grants — should be paid for with 2A monies. Using 2A tax revenues for these purposes would HALVE the amount voters intended

Keep Going

One day at a time

Un día a la vez

May is Mental Health Awareness Month.

Mayo es el Mes de la Toma de Conciencia de la Salud Mental.

for direct support for arts and culture nonprofits, artists, arts education, venues, multi-cultural events and more. This would reduce general fund expenditures by a mere .9%, which seems a questionable tradeoff.

It’s also critical to consider the financial context. The Library District, approved by voters in 2022, removes $10-$12 million of annual library services costs from the General Fund forever, more than offsetting the approximately $3.6 million annual share of tax revenues for arts and culture when the tax begins in 2025. The city’s 2024 Budget Preview, included as a link in your article, also shows a $13 million boost in general fund revenues for 2024-2025 from property taxes.

We are grateful to have long-term dedicated funding for the arts for the first time in the City’s history. If maximized, 2A funding would be transformative and support a shift to a more creative, inclusive and thriving community. A 2023 study commissioned by the city confirms that support for the arts is a sound investment that generates $115 million of economic activity annually to Boulder.

Please let the city council know that fully allocating 2A funding per voter intent best serves the interests of our community.

— Deborah Malden, Create Boulder

These opinions do not necessarily reflect the views of Boulder Weekly.

Join Mental Health Partners and other local organizations offering free mental health trainings, events, and resources in Boulder and Broomfield counties!

Únase a Mental Health Partners y otras organizaciones locales que ofrecen capacitación, eventos y recursos gratuitos de salud mental en los condados de Boulder y Broomfield.

POWERFUL MEDICINE

Local orgs are preparing to train psilocybin facilitators, but it’s not all love and light

BY KAYLEE HARTER

From shamans to social workers, there will soon be a new generation of certified trip sitters.

That’s not the official name, of course, but draft rules under Colorado’s Natural Medicine Health Act — to be finalized no later than the end of this year but likely sooner, with a final public hearing scheduled for May 3 — lay out the path for licensure of general and clinical facilitators who will be able to work with psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms.

The new rules for facilitators represent a major shift, bringing psychedelic treatment out from the underground. Already, local organizations are prepping their coursework and launching programs.

Naropa University aims to have 60 trainees in the inaugural year for its psilocybin facilitator training program, which opened applications May 1. The Psychedelic Sitters School has already graduated 40 people from its psilocybin guide training using a personal use model and plans to roll out a licensed facilitator track soon.

“It takes the fear of prohibition and incarceration out of the picture,” says Daniel McQueen, executive director and founder of Boulder’s Psychedelic Sitters School. “I had good teachers, but it was underground or learning things on the side when I was at Naropa. There were no classes in psychedelics, but we figured out how to get our education.”

He says the new regulations bring the work “into the light of accountability.”

Still, some say the regulations are incomplete — or don’t fit the medicine at all.

“We’re trying to fit plant medicines in the colonial model. It’s such an inconsistency,” says Ana Medina, a mestiza woman from Mexico City who lives in Boulder. She’s a board member with

community organizing and educational network Mycoalition, which promotes responsible psychedelic stewardship, and works closely with the Native Coalition, a grassroots movement of native people advocating for protection of the medicine.

Courtesy: Center for Medicinal Mindfulness

Medina is a natural medicine practitioner, life coach, sound healer and cofounder of the New Paradigm Mystery School, an eight-month “experiential program facilitating brave space for leaders in the psychedelic world.” She recently closed it down temporarily to attend Naropa’s Psychedelic Assisted Therapies program to ensure she has the proper credentialing. She says she’s going to the Naropa program “kicking and screaming.”

“On the one hand, I need to survive. I need to keep doing my work,” she says. “And if I need to work within the system, I’ll go get their piece of paper. But on the other hand, it feels a little bit like self betrayal.”

Department of Regulatory Agencies’ (DORA) plans for reciprocity for facilitators across state lines should make it easy to transfer licenses to Colorado — and get the program approved once the rules are finalized.

“We anticipate that, with minimal modifications, we should be able to apply and receive accreditation,” says Quinn, who serves as director of clinical education at Naropa’s Center for Psychedelic Studies.

McQueen says the bulk of his future licensed facilitator program is built and will just need to be put into the format required by the draft rules. McQueen also founded the Center for Medicinal Mindfulness, a psychedelic therapy center in South Boulder that is home to the Psychedelic Sitters School.

Check out page 39 for advice on how to choose a facilitator for your own psychedelic experience.

“I really, really think the people that need to be centered and teaching about these plant medicines are the Indigenous people.”

STEPPING INTO THE WORK

With regulations still in their draft form as programs are built, organizations are making different calculations about how they can create curriculum and get trainees certified.

Naropa’s program is already accredited under Oregon regulations, and Diana Quinn, who led the creation of the program, says that Colorado’s

The organization, which currently works with cannabis, ketamine, DMT and psilocybin, first opened its doors 12 years ago under a personal use model with cannabis.

“We’ve been doing this for a while with the intention that when mushrooms became legal, we would step into that work,” McQueen says.

Personal use under the Natural Medicine Health Act allows adults to share mushrooms for “counseling, spiritual guidance, beneficial communitybased use and healing, supported use, or related services.”

POWERFUL MEDICINE, FEEBLE RULES

As far as who can become a facilitator, “the door is very open,” in the current Oregon regulations, Quinn says. That’s the case for the draft Colorado rules, too: Anyone over 21 years old who completes the required training can become a licensed facilitator. The draft regulations name acupuncturists, massage therapists, and Indigenous and religious practitioners as potential future facilitators.

Clinical facilitators, including MDs, social workers, psychologists and addiction counselors, must already hold a behavioral, mental health or medical license and will be licensed to work with diagnoses within their scope of practice.

The openness of who can become a facilitator is both a good and a bad thing — depending on who you ask and how you think about it.

“It’s good from the perspective of the people that have already been working with a medicine and have a very deep relationship with it, that they don’t have to be therapists. That’s great because we have other training,” Medina says. “It is not good from the perspective of the 20-something year old that will just decide to go do it and not be a therapist and not have experience and not have training.”

Quinn says “it requires an extremely high level of integrity to be worthy and equipped to do this work within an ethical scope of competency.”

“This work, and psychedelics in general as they’ve been mainstreamed,

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have become very, very visible, very attractive; oftentimes promoted as a panacea of benefits without maybe a balanced view of the weight of what this work is,” Quinn says. “These medicines are very powerful.”

McQueen thinks the draft standards fall short in terms of assessing the mental health and psychological maturity of the guides, as well as the amount of training needed to become licensed.

“We’re asking our guides to be psychonauts,” McQueen adds. “Do they have the capacity to be a psychonaut? Sometimes it’s not a no, it’s just not yet.”

The draft rules require 150 hours of academic instruction, broken down into topics like trauma-informed care, integration, and Indigenous, social and cultural considerations, as well as 40 hours of practicum and 50 hours of consultation.

“150 hours is not enough,” McQueen says, pointing out that becoming a licensed hairdresser requires 1,200 hours of training. “It’s kind of demeaning to the profession. There’s a lot you can do in these spaces that the model doesn’t have even an awareness of.”

A DECOLONIZED EXPERIENCE

Another area of weakness some see in the regulations is the lack of focus on Indigenous practice and history. The draft rules currently require 10

hours of Indigenous history and cultural study, something Medina says barely scratches the surface.

“Not even a full two days on millennia of use of these medicines, millenia of connecting with these plant spirits,” she says. “To even connect with the medicines in the right way, I think people need to understand the spirit world, and that’s not something you do in a day. That’s a relationship you develop over years.”

She says Indigenous teachers and practices should be centered, and that programs owe reciprocity to Mazatec healer Maria Sabina and her Indigenous community in Mexico. Sabina is known as the first person to allow Westerners to participate in the velada, a sacred ritual with psilocybin mushrooms. The events that ensued, which include Sabina’s identity being revealed without her permission and her house being burned down, are described by one journal article as a “story of extraction, cultural appropriation, bioprospecting, and colonization.”

“We’re building a whole psychedelic movement on extractivism,” Medina says.

She also worries that the new regulations won’t take into account cultural practices, resulting in Indigenous practitioners being shut out.

“The mindset with which they are creating the regulations is not inclusive of the mindset of Indigenous people and how they connect with the

medicine, with their communities and with their people,” she says.

At the New Paradigm, Medina says she specifically told people it was not a practitioner training, but rather about connecting with the roots of their ancestry, “deepening a relationship with the Earth and with the medicines and really getting in touch with what the calling actually is.”

“A decolonized model is a model to connect with yourself, and really true yourself up in the relationship with a medicine,” she says. “That is not a career or a business. It isn’t. These are plant spirits, and when people say the psilocybin industry or the natural medicine industry, it just curls my blood from the inside.”

‘CO-OPTING SPIRITUALITY’

Quinn, who identifies as queer and mestizo Chicana, says she came to Naropa after “seeing the places in psychedelic-assisted therapy training that were lacking, particularly around an emphasis in Indigenous reciprocity and reparations around inclusivity and equity for historically excluded groups of people, like people of the global majority, people of color and LGBTQ folks.”

She notes that Proposition 122, which created the Natural Medicine Health Act, “was highly controversial, particularly among many Indigenous communities throughout Colorado.” The citizen-led initiative passed 54% to 46% in 2022.

Quinn also has worries about the accessibility of training programs.

“What I don’t want to see is this only available to people with wealth and resources,” she says. “It’s great to have decriminalization and this hybrid facilitator, state regulatory model, because ideally it would bring the work out from the underground and create more safety. But if it impedes accessibility or is only available to the elite few, then that hasn’t solved the problem.”

Still, she thinks there’s a need for oversight.

“As someone who has a heavy, heavy emphasis on liberatory harm reduction and healing justice and was comfortable operating outside of the clinical medical model, I do think there needs to be oversight and some kind of standards for ethical delivery of care,” Quinn says, “because sometimes some of the fringe approaches to psychedelic work can be not for everyone, not safe for everyone.”

Naropa’s program will teach within a decolonial framework that “problematizes even the existence of this work that we’re embarking on,” Quinn says. All of the lead educators for the Naropa program are members of BIPOC or LGBTQ communities, and the program will open with teachings from Mazatec speakers about “Mazatec roots of the unbroken lineage of 5,000 years of work with the sacred mushroom.”

Courtesy: Center for Medicinal Mindfulness

COVER

“We will be very much grounding our examination of the context to include questioning on: What even is the psychedelic renaissance within this sort of neoliberal, colonial moment?” Quinn says. “What does it mean to do this work in a good way? Is that possible? How can we approach it?”

McQueen says Psychedelic Sitters School includes conversations around cultural appropriation, how to work with different communities, the lineage of how mushrooms were introduced to American culture, and how they’ve been used across time and geography.

“There’s a lot of different religious practices represented in our community already,” McQueen says. “We teach people if you’re gonna use a practice from a different tradition, do you have any education and training and are you connected to that community?

“How do you have your own expression of your own spirituality without co-opting somebody else’s?”

Medina says her goal after completing the Naropa training is “creating a program that will hopefully be inside the regulations but also give people what’s in my heart.”

“My challenge now is how to create a curriculum that is real, that is giving people what they really need within a system that does not understand what that is. I am an educator at heart, and it just seems like this is the time to be educating people.”

‘DO IT RIGHT’

For Quinn, Medina and McQueen, being a good facilitator goes beyond what’s required in the regulations.

Quinn says that while Naropa’s current offering is an eight-month program, she hopes it will eventually expand, and the university wants to open its own healing center where students can complete practicum requirements and apprenticeships.

“This training, while it meets the recommended criteria set by state regulatory programs, is really just the beginning of what I would like to see built out as a multi-year apprenticeship and training model,” she says. “We want to try and raise the bar on what is understood as best practice

for doing this work under a state regulatory model.”

At the Psychedelic Sitters School, students are required to take the organization’s psychedelic guide training before starting the psilocybin specialty. That’s an estimated total 400500 hours, McQueen says, far beyond what the state requires. They also look out for things like psychedelic overuse, psychotic traits, emotional dysregulation and whether someone is a good steward of ethics and boundaries.

“We want to really be mindful that it’s way more complicated than just giving somebody a substance and sitting there while they trip,” he says. “There’s a lot more going on in these spaces. And sometimes people who aren’t trained don’t know that.”

Quinn, McQueen and Medina all say that those looking to pursue a facilitator certificate should be asking themselves why they want to do this work, what healing they still need to do personally and what their areas of vulnerability are.

“I feel like these are the kinds of questions that people who do this work should be asking ourselves all the time,” Quinn says.

Among the traits she would like to see in applicants to the program are maturity, trustworthiness, respect for the power of the medicine, reverence for their lineages, social justice awareness and commitment to community.

“We’re really trying to emphasize access for folks that have some kind of foundation in a community care or can demonstrate that they have a commitment to reliability, responsibility, care for their community. This is a high level of responsibility for people in really vulnerable states,” she says.

Medina adds that it’s not all “love and light.”

“It requires people doing their own work — deep, deep, deep work. It could take you to grief like you’ve never seen before. It can take you to your trauma,” she says. “Then learning culturally where these medicines come from and finding elders — it’s no joke.

“I don’t think people realize — they realize what they’re getting into from the colonized model. They don’t realize what they should be getting into if they want to do it right.”

GOV’T WATCH

What your local officials are up to this week

BY SHAY CASTLE

BOULDER CITY COUNCIL

In a May 9 study session, city council will:

• Discuss year-end 2023 financials and receive an updated forecast from CU Boulder economists in preparation for crafting the 2025 budget. Sales and use taxes, which make up 40% of the city’s revenue, came in slightly higher than projected for 2023, largely due to construction activity. Retail sales tax was lower than anticipated. City finance staff expect sales tax to increase 2% annually each of the next five years.

Boulder’s budget has grown by 51% between 2021 and 2024. In notes to council ahead of the meeting, city staff wrote, “This same growth rate in recent spending is unsustainable for the 2025 budget and beyond.”

• Learn about potential items on the November 2024 ballot. They include proposals to increase council pay, prohibit council members from holding other elected offices, implement ranked choice voting — the method currently used to elect Boulder’s mayor — to elect all city council members and allow council to hold executive sessions: private meetings where members of the public are not invited. Voters in 2014 authorized the use of executive sessions during negotiations with Xcel Energy but declined to continue allowing executive sessions by rejecting a 2017 ballot measure.

Council has until Aug. 15 to approve ballot content. Public hearings and votes are tentatively scheduled for July 18 and Aug. 1.

NEWS

BOULDER COUNTY COMMISSIONERS

This week, commissioners will:

• Hold a May 7 public hearing and vote (3:30 p.m.) on whether to exclude U.S. Forest Service property from a ban on firing guns in the Sugarloaf community. If approved, rules governing the “no firearm discharge area” would be amended to allow “lawful hunting.” The resolution would also combine existing Swiss Peaks and Crisman no discharge areas into Sugarloaf.

• Meet at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 8, to discuss regional homelessness with area municipalities. The meeting will be held at the Boulder County Southeast Hub, 1755 S. Public Road in Lafayette, in rooms 131 and 132 on the first floor.

• Host an in-person town hall at Boulder Recycling Center (1901 63rd St.) at 5 p.m. Thursday, May 9, to discuss the county’s composting goals and plans.

LAFAYETTE CITY COUNCIL

Last week, council:

• Received a working group recommendation to create a downtown development authority (DDA) in Old Town. The 25-year tax increment financing used by the Lafayette Urban Renewal Authority to improve the Old Town district expires this year. Creation of a DDA would have to be approved by a vote of owners, residents and tenants in the district. A draft action plan will be presented in July.

• Heard recommendations for increasing recruitment to the city’s boards and commissions. City staff suggested open houses in August and March.

All agenda items are subject to change.

BOCO, BRIEFLY

Local

news at a glance

BY WILL MATUSKA

PRO-PALESTINIAN PROTESTS AT CU BOULDER

Students at Colorado universities have joined the flurry of demonstrations sweeping the country since mid-April protesting the war in Gaza.

Organizers held a rally at CU Boulder’s Dalton Trumbo Fountain Court on Wednesday demanding the institution end investments tied to Israel. Roughly 50 people laid on their backs quietly at the edge of the courtyard and raised signs calling for action.

“This demonstration is not only to bring attention to the opinions of the student body, but also to demand divestment from the university and disclosure,” says Mari Rosenfeld, an organizer for Boulder Students for Justice for Palestine. “We want disclosure on all financial investments the university makes with their endowment. We also want divestment from both the Israeli economy and weapons manufacturers that participate in the apartheid state by sending weapons to Israel.”

Four police officers were at the event but did not engage with peaceful protestors. About 10 people stood in a group nearby with Israeli and American flags.

Similar demonstrations are occuring along the Front Range. As of May 1,

protestors continued to occupy the Auraria Campus’ Tivoli Quad — a shared space between the University of Colorado Denver, Community College of Denver and Metropolitan State University (MSU) — for the sixth day in a row.

Multiple news outlets reported the encampment has drawn more than 200 people. There were 44 arrests April 26.

Students for a Democratic Society, who organized the Denver demonstration, listed a series of demands to the University of Colorado and MSU, including taking a public stance against the war and ending financial ties to Israel. Denverite reported the University of Colorado Denver has received nearly $3 million in contracts with Israel since 2016.

A group at Colorado State University also organized a nonviolent protest April 29 with similar demands.

“Our actions will reflect our commitment to justice and the moral imperatives our faculty have instilled and the university claims to uphold,” wrote CSU’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine in a letter to the university.

Demonstrations like these, which are responding to the worsening humanitarian crisis and increasing death toll from the war in Gaza, have occurred at college campuses around the country, resulting in hundreds of arrests. According to Al Jazeera, at least 34,356 Palestinians and 1,139 Israelis have been killed since Oct. 7.

“It’s personal to me. I’m Jewish, and it really hurts to see so much pain and death and have a genocide enacted in my name,” says Rosenfeld. “It’s very

personal because I see all the time, and I’m getting told, that the state of Israel does everything it does for me as a Jew quote-unquote ‘for the safety of me,’ but all they are doing is really colonizing a land and genociding the Indigenous people.”

WOLF KILLS SPARK CALLS FOR LETHAL REMOVAL

Multiple rancher’s associations recently sent letters to Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) requesting the lethal removal of wolves associated with livestock deaths in Grand and Jackson counties.

“The continued presence of these wolves poses a severe economic hardship for Grand County ranchers,” wrote the Middle Park Stockgrowers Association. “These recent attacks not only inflict financial losses but also threaten the viability of their operations.”

CPW has confirmed eight depredations, which is when a wolf kills or injures a domestic animal, in Grand and Jackson counties since the December 2023 reintroduction, all since April 2. According to multiple news outlets, stockgrowers associations in Larimer, Gunnison and Jackson counties also sent letters to the state.

In response to Middle Park’s letter, CPW Director Jeff Davis wrote that the wolf involved in these attacks is the male of a pair the agency believes is denning and expecting pups.

Removing the male breeder would be “irresponsible management and potentially cause the den to fail, possibly resulting in the death of the presumed pups.”

The Wolf Restoration and Management Plan does not have a quantitative definition of what constitutes “chronic depredation” and rather outlines evaluations for attacks on a case-by-case basis. CPW recently launched a webpage with confirmed livestock injuries or deaths by wolves.

After one of the 10 reintroduced wolves was found dead, presumably by natural causes, April 18, the agency also confirmed at least one wolf made its way east of the Continental Divide and onto the Front Range, just north of Estes Park in Larimer County.

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Credit: Will Matuska

‘LOUD BARK, DEEP BITE’

Marisa Dabice of Mannequin Pussy has got that dog in her

BY LINDSAY TEMPLE

Marisa “Missy” Dabice recalls a Pablo Picasso drawing that distills her philosophy on the expression of desire. In it, a nude man and woman are depicted mid-coitus while a peculiar voyeur, the pope, looks on. His face shows no judgment or embarrassment, only intrigue, as if discovering an old, ornate chalice he thought had been lost to time.

The loud-barking lead vocalist of Philly-based band Mannequin Pussy, Dabice found herself captured by this work, transfixed by its questioning of the boundary between realness and rules — between our natural impulses and the societal pressure to live a life of restraint.

“Man created shame around something nature gave us,” the 36-year-old frontwoman told Boulder Weekly ahead of the band’s upcoming two-night Colorado run in Denver and Fort Collins. “I’m just really fascinated by that place we live in, where things that can be so beautiful are also relegated to a place of absolute violence.”

If their name doesn’t make it clear, Mannequin Pussy couldn’t be less concerned with the rigidities of the status quo. The only rule at their shows is to unleash the wild, reckless energy we all harbor inside — to reject anxiety and shout along to every song, waking up the next morning with a raw throat and a voice that escapes as a phantom whisper. Embarking on a nationwide, mostly sold-out tour to promote their fourth LP I Got Heaven, Dabice and the band she co-founded in 2010 are purveyors of a self-expression characterized by the refusal to hide.

TAKING UP SPACE

In the 14 years since the band’s inception, Mannequin Pussy’s success has come from their laser focus: a relentless drive toward a promised land of

sorts, an impulse akin to lust. Through label changes and bad break-ups, Mannequin Pussy has endured — and thrived — in spite of the obstacles set in their path.

With the arrival of I Got Heaven, a dexterous, critically acclaimed record produced by prolific indie-rock engineer John Congleton — who helped bring the band’s lush pop-rock moments and blistering hardcore riffs into a ferocious new register — Mannequin Pussy receives their reward after years of behind-the-scenes labor.

her ankles as she thrashes in a truck bed atop bales of hay, screaming: “And what if I was confident? / Would you just hate me more?”

“It was quiet, secretive work, and it wasn’t until about, like, the end of August [2023] that we started to reveal

all the work we’ve been doing up to the moment we’re in now, being on tour,” Dabice says. “This is kind of like the final unveiling.”

In August, the title track became the first single from I Got Heaven. The music video is set on a farm, where Dabice wears wavy extensions down to

Self-assurance finds a throughline in Mannequin Pussy’s music, encouraging listeners to take up however much space they desire. That can mean donning whatever clothing you like or finding the authority in your autonomy, in a culture that tries to flatten such expressions of self-assuredness.

ANGER IS A BLESSING

Mannequin Pussy’s popularity began to skyrocket in 2020, while the globe trudged through the coronavirus pandemic and a summer of social unrest sparked by police brutality. In times of great uncertainty where control seems miles away from one’s grasp, it might feel necessary to reach for punk music that gives permission to release anger, negativity or any other emotion there are seldom spaces for.

“I mean, we live in a culture of myths. And I think one of those myths is this idea that anger is [unacceptable]. It’s impolite, there’s no respect,” Dabice says. “But I don’t know how a sane person isn’t enraged by, like, everything. It’s like they tried to convince us that rage and anger are symptoms of insanity, but it’s actually very much a symptom of sanity, right?”

In the spirit of wellness, Dabice

wants people to come to their shows ready to indulge in an evening of purifying ecstasy. Established fans of the band are familiar with a ritual that occurs at every Mannequin Pussy show: a “primal scream” performed in unison by every person in the room. Since rage is a privilege and anger a blessing, Mannequin Pussy creates moments for the angst-ridden to be loud and messy.

Touring with fellow Philadelphians and Epitaph labelmates Soul Glo, Mannequin Pussy is experiencing a homecoming of sorts: each night recreating a space that is safe and welcoming, where fans and the band alike can exist uninhibited, free from what plagues them.

“We energetically feel that the whole goal of this tour is to make people experience a night of cathartic joy in a world that makes it increasingly difficult to experience,” Dabice says. And isn’t that what heaven is?

ON THE BILL: Mannequin Pussy with Soul Glo. 9 p.m. Saturday, May 4, Bluebird Theater, 3317 E Colfax Ave., Denver, Sold out. | 8 p.m. Sunday, May 5, Aggie Theater, 204 S. College Ave., Fort Collins. Sold out.

Critically lauded Philly punk outfit Mannequin Pussy comes to the Front Range for a two-night stint in Denver and Fort Collins, May 4-5. Credit: Millicent Hailes

I Got Heaven, the fourth LP from Mannequin Pussy, was released March 1. Courtesy: Epitaph Records

FOUND SOUNDS

BY BOULDER WEEKLY STAFF

April is the cruelest month, as “tortured poet” T.S. Eliot once wrote — and here in the People’s Republic, it belonged to Taylor Swift. It’s no surprise to see her on top of this month’s bestsellers at Paradise Found Records and Music (1646 Pearl St.), but we’re not sure what Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter is doing so low in the ranking. Boulder: That’s between you and God.

After last summer’s opening slot for Ms. Lauryn Hill at the Montreal Jazz Festival and a stamp of approval on Elton John’s podcast, Jalen Ngonda’s effortless debut LP Come Around and Love Me is at the forefront of my playlist and the contemporary soul scene. His silky, strong falsetto was built for soul, and the timeless production on tracks like “If You Don’t Want My Love” makes every day feel like a breezy Sunday morning.

— Lauren Hill, intern

For the complete list of top new local vinyl releases, visit bit.ly/FoundSoundsApril24

HOUSING CRUNCH

Local Theater Company’s latest world premiere delves into 400 years of homeownership

BY TONI TRESCA

Aseemingly innocuous game of Monopoly between father and son unfolds into an exploration of the murky waters of American capitalism in 237 Virginia Avenue

This darkly comedic play — written by David Myers and produced by Boulder’s Local Theater Company at The Savoy Denver under the direction of Nick Chase and Pesha Rudnick — employs the board game as a metaphor to unravel 400 years of contentious property disputes.

“The ideas expressed through this father-son relationship resemble the cultural divide we see about housing, where older generations could afford property on a single salary and younger generations can’t,” Chase says. “At Local, we always ask, ‘Why this play now?’ We are at this fascinating point in America where we have a group of people who had it easier and a group who are having difficulty acquiring property.”

The story revolves around Eric (Jacob Dresch), a highly educated but underemployed professor who returns to his childhood home to care for his ailing father, Rex (Lawrence Hecht). As they play Monopoly, the two actors break up the action by performing scenes from different eras spanning 400 years, depicting how different generations fought over the same piece of land.

“Monopoly is something everybody is deeply familiar with; it is a version of capitalism we all understand,” Myers explains. “There was also something profound about viewing money as a game with winners and losers. I didn’t intend to write a historical play, but I wanted to include all these details about mortgages and home ownership in each era.”

LAYING THE FOUNDATION

Myers was inspired to write the play after purchasing a home with his father in 2017.

“I have children, so the concept of generations and how the country had changed from when my father was 10 to when I was 10 to when my son was 10 was very present,” he says. “Almost everything in my life changed when I bought a home. I was surprised by how significant it was, but I realized it was because a house is a piece of capital, and I became more connected to the capitalist system than I had ever been.”

Previous workshops helped usher the play into its final form, including a Local Lab Pop-Up in Los Angeles in March 2022 starring John Lithgow and Nate Corddry and at the Durango PlayFest in 2023 with Glenn Morshower and Jack Mikesell. These readings, both directed by Rudnick, helped refine the script’s themes.

“The benefit of workshops is that you get to spend time with the playwright at the table, very close to the page, figuring out the tone,” Rudnick

says. “David’s play is a deep dive into what it means to own a home and how your relationship with society changes — that was the first thing that drew me to the script, and it has only gotten stronger.”

BUILDING THE PLAY

Co-directors Chase and Rudnick describe the script as a “great challenge” for the creative team because it constantly jumps between centuries and requires the actors to each play

I am staring down the barrel of an economic system where homeownership seems like a hard needle to thread.”

JACOB DRESCH

—

237 VIRGINIA AVENUE

five different characters. Fortunately, Rudnick notes that Dresch and Hecht are classically trained and “equally compelling comedic and dramatic performers.”

Hecht, known for his years of theater education at the DCPA’s National Theatre Conservatory and acclaimed

performances across the country, has since relocated from Colorado to California and sees this opportunity to work on a new play as a homecoming. As for Dresch, he’s a Henry Awardwinning actor who serves as an adjunct theater professor at CU Boulder and Metropolitan State University of Denver.

“This is one of the first times in my acting career that I’ve felt so similar to the character,” Dresch says. “Eric is 34; I’m 35. I am staring down the barrel of an economic system where homeownership seems like a hard needle to thread. Despite following my dreams and excelling academically, career stability is tricky. Also, having a father who has struggled with health issues, particularly since the pandemic, I understand what it is like to be in that generation fighting against those systems.”

Rehearsals for 237 Virginia Avenue have been an intensive collaborative effort, with the playwright himself in an active role. The team says Myers’ hands-on approach helped the actors and directors dive deeply into the characters’ psyches and the complex interplay between historical and contemporary scenes.

The design team, led by Markas Henry, faces the challenge of depicting 400 years of American history on a single set. With sound by CeCe Smith and lighting by Sean Mallary, the atmosphere shifts seamlessly between eras. This approach supports the narrative’s transitions through time and underscores the connections between past and present struggles over property.

“No matter your age, this play will resonate with you as an American,” Dresch says. “People of a certain age will identify with Rex; people of my generation will identify with Eric; and for people younger than me, it’s a wake-up call to what they’ll face when they try to buy a home.”

ON STAGE: 237 Virginia Avenue. May 2-19, The Savoy, 2700 Arapahoe St., Denver. $10-$45

Lawrence Hecht (left) and Jacob Dresch in 237 Virginia Avenue, running at The Savoy through May 19. Credit: Graeme Schulz

WHEEL LOVE

Author and athlete Kerry Hellmuth on making women’s cycling history

BY ADAM PERRY

For some American cyclists, moving to Boulder is synonymous with giving it a go as a professional rider. The city has long been a major draw thanks to its challenging, beautiful climbs and the chance to train at elevation.

Kerry Hellmuth is one of those cyclists. Discussing her new book Willkie Sprint: A Story of Friendship, Love, and Winning the First Women’s Little 500 Race, the author and athlete reflects fondly on her time in the People’s Republic.

“I talk about the magic of this race in my book, and for me, Boulder has its own magic,” Hellmuth told Boulder Weekly during a recent Zoom interview from her home in Trento, Italy. “I moved to Boulder under the idea that it was going to be a great place for training, but it was a great place for everything.”

In Willkie Sprint, Hellmuth’s inspiring account of her first year at Indiana University (IU) Bloomington, she details

her young team’s journey to victory in the inaugural women’s edition of the legendary Little 500 bike race in 1987. Immortalized in the heartfelt ’80s comedy Breaking Away, the track cycling competition modeled after the Indianapolis 500 — billed as “the world’s greatest college weekend” — has been an annual tradition at the idyllic midwestern campus since 1951.

She also tells the story of falling in love with a fellow student named Rob, eventually known as “Rob Bob.” The couple ended up moving to Boulder together after college. They eventually broke up, and Hellmuth moved to Italy with a guy named Fabio, the father of her two teenage boys. She’s still in touch with Rob Bob and remembers their Boulder adventure fondly.

“I was up on Peak to Peak Highway

on my bike all the time — but the sheen that Boulder has, I feel like it was really magic in that period of the late ’90s, early 2000s,” she says. “Boulder is always a magic place, but I think there was just some gold dust sprinkled in the air at that time, and probably it was just the stuff you create with your friends. I still dream about Boulder.”

‘A FOOT OUT THE DOOR’

Growing up in Wisconsin and attending college in the Hoosier State, Hellmuth says she’s never felt comfortable sitting in one place. Her auspicious introduction to bike racing as an IU freshman was an accidental gateway to a globetrotting destiny she’d been waiting for.

“I’ve always had a foot out the door,” says Hellmuth, who also lived for a time in New Guinea and New Zealand. “I mean, I’m from Madison and there’s an amazing university right there. It’s a destination for a lot of people, and one of my very first decisions was, ‘I gotta go away for college. I’m out of here.’”

in little more than meetings and daydreams. Hellmuth decided last year that instead of waiting on a women-centered version of Breaking Away to be made, she would put her own story out there for the world.

“People love this story, and I said to my teammates, ‘Maybe I’ll just write it myself,’” Hellmuth explains. “Rob Bob had actually written a [different] screenplay when we were together, and he sold it to Hollywood. So I witnessed that process with him, with writing and selling and then optioning. So I sat down and after two days I was, like, ‘Well, I’m not really writing a screenplay.’”

Hellmuth, it turns out, was writing the book that would become Willkie Sprint — and it didn’t take long for things to start snapping together.

Credit: Gino Zampol

In addition to her esteemed career as a pro cyclist in Europe and the United States, she also went to law school at the University of Wisconsin and earned a Ph.D. at the University of Trento after heading to Italy.

She now works as a teacher and helps guide Italian bike tours led by longtime friend Andy Hampsten, a parttime Boulder resident who is the only American cyclist to ever win the fabled Giro d’Italia.

‘I WAS THERE’

The rights to a feature film about Hellmuth and her teammates’ victory at the inaugural Women’s Little 500 had been passed around for years, resulting

“Within three weeks I had the first chapter of the book. I sent it off to IU Press, and I felt like the book was flowing,” she says. “So, I abandoned the screenplay idea and within three months, I had the whole thing done.”

Published earlier this month, Hellmuth’s book has finally arrived in the world, and her team’s story is still in the embryonic stages of becoming a movie.

“I think for me it really wasn’t about pre-empting anyone,” Hellmuth says. “It was a little bit of frustration. People obviously think the story is interesting because we have had three different production companies contact us. But I was tired of waiting for the story to be told relying on others. I know the story better than anyone. I was there.”

ON THE PAGE: Willkie Sprint: A Story of Friendship, Love and Winning the First Women’s Little 500 Race is out now in hardcover via Indiana University Press.

Immortalized in the film Breaking Away, the Little 500 track cycling competition has been a staple at Indiana University’s flagship campus in Bloomington since 1951. Courtesy: Indiana University Archives

Willkie Sprint: A Story of Friendship, Love and Winning the First Women’s Little 500 Race is out now in hardback. Courtesy: Indiana University Press

After making history with the first women’s team to win the Little 500 bike race, Kerry Hellmuth made the cyclist’s pilgrimage to Boulder.

Bala Thiagarajan

Contemplative Circles

May 3 - June 2

Opening Reception, First Friday May 3 6-9 pm

30+ FREE CONCERTS BEER FEST CREEKSIDE FOR KIDS STREET WISE ART BATTLE BASH AT THE BANKS SKATE JAM FOOD TRUCKS & DRINKS

DEAR WHOLE FOODS DADDY

BY GABBY VERMEIRE

WYour burning Boulder questions, asked and answered

e all have questions and need advice, but sometimes the pseudo therapy in the Instagram stories of astrology girlies 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).

WAS BOULDER EVER ACTUALLY COOL?

Wait, are you saying that being unable to go into Wonder without seeing the filming of a cringe Instagram Reel by someone wearing “spiritual gangster” on their boobs isn’t cool??

Coolness is all relative, especially when it comes to time. That bra-less, free-spirited Boulder momma who painted goddesses and banged groovy, beardy dudes while stoned out of her gourd on homegrown in the ’70’s? She’s basically a slumlord, and she just raised your rent with barely legal notice. But hey, sometimes she’ll share a toke with ya after an unannounced property inspection, and that’s pretty cool, right?

What about that guy who, back in the Good Old Days™, would go trad climbing in Boulder Canyon followed by pushing aside the aisles of Alfalfa’s with some hippies to throw the most righteous dance party in history?

Actually, he’s a ranger working for the county who gave me a ride back to campus from Cherryvale and Baseline years ago (true story!) and told me about said righteous dance party, and how he and his wife are now hardcore birders. As long as he persists, so does Boulder’s cool.

WHEN DO THE DEER TURN INTO ELK?

Oh yes, the sweet Rocky Mountain mule deer. Timid and mild mannered, slender of leg and feeding as they wish on veggies. Sometimes, because nature is cruel, an aimless deer will stumble across a Joe Rogan interview, which leads to a Paul Saladino podcast episode, which leads to performatively masculine displays of antler jousting and obnoxious bugling at families enjoying their Sunday in Estes Park: They have become deer’s toxic cervid cousin, the Bro Elk. If you listen

closely, you can hear they’re actually screaming about the evils of processed food.

I was asked this as a teen in Estes working at Outdoor World. I did indeed fuck with the tourists who posed this question, telling them that they usually turned right after Labor Day, when said tourists would be back in TX, AR, MO or NE.

IF BOULDER IS SO LIBERAL, WHY IS NO ONE PROTESTING ANYTHING?

Um, we do not tolerate QAnon lady erasure here! But okay, if we accept the very shaky premise that Boulder is sooo liberal, I guess it’s just tooo perfect here to protest anything :) Those odd folks who’ve been out with the cardboard anti-war signs every Saturday at Broadway and Canyon for years surely can’t count. I mean, “Don’t Bomb Iran”? What is this, the ’80’s? Absolutely nothing happening in the world right now would lend that message any urgency, right??

WHY DO PEOPLE IN R/BOULDER HAVE SUCH STRONG OPINIONS ON THE FOOD HERE?

Just take out “on the food here” and you’ve got yourself the real question. The r/Boulder

subreddit is a dark place where you should only venture if you absolutely need to know what all those cop cars are doing around the Hill. (It’s probably what you thought.) If you combined the unfounded self-confidence of a mediocre white man to whom God gave too much tall with the miserable energy of a woman whose too-tight Lululemon leggings are riding up, like, ALL the way in there, you’d have the average commenter on the r/Boulder subreddit.

You know who does have the time to form nuanced opinions on the ranking of white-people tacos in Boulder (bartaco, obviously)? People who don’t get laid. Think about it.

IS IT TOO SOON TO PLANT MY SEED STARTS?

Buddy, it was too late to plant those seed starts a week ago. Picture this: You and your partner are at your bimonthly couple-dinner with your Boulder yuppie couple friends. You slyly announce that your (hand-built) raised bed has just been weeded and fertilized and is ready for planting. Across the table, Robert softly laughs and sips his JuneShine hard kombucha. “We planted our second beet succession two weeks ago.” You fucking hate Robert. Get those seeds in the ground ASAP.

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.”

OPEN AND SHUTTER

CU Boulder grad turns the camera on iconic photographer Corky Lee

BY GREGORY WAKEMAN

Jennifer Takaki’s path to directing Photographic Justice: The Corky Lee Story began with a chance meeting in New York City back in 2003.

“It was a very random moment,” the Colorado-born director told Boulder Weekly over Zoom. “It was after an event. I was looking where the bathroom was, and Corky Lee was just the closest person to me, so I asked him.”

Born and raised in Queens, Lee was a quintessential New Yorker who spent 50 years documenting the celebrations, struggles and daily lives of Asian Americans through his work as a photographer. Over the course of his career, Lee created an archive of nearly one million images.

Within moments of asking Lee for directions, Takaki found herself pulled into the orbit of his deep knowledge and charm. “He started to give me the history of the building,” she recalls. “He said the bathroom could be on a different floor because it was an all boys school, then he told me about how it got started.”

At that point in her career, Takaki was focused on making short five-minute videos where she followed unique people around and had organic conversations with them about their lives. “I wanted to do vignettes that I would post on the internet. I wanted to give people a peek at the New York people that were interesting,” Takaki says. “Corky was so interesting to talk to that I knew I wanted to start documenting him. He just fit into what I wanted to do so much.”

‘IT WAS NEVER BORING’

Born and raised in Pueblo, Takaki is a fourth-generation Japanese American who went to journalism school at CU Boulder in 1993. She then began her career at Denver television station KCNC.

“I never actually planned to become a filmmaker,” she says. “I was just interested in people.”

Takaki was then recruited to live and work in Hong Kong for a global packaging company called Encore International. After a few years and a brief stay in New Mexico to help her parents, she set out for New York, where she interviewed Lee for the first time.

Little did Takaki know that this would mark the beginning of a nearly 20-year journey in which her five-minute long vignette would become a full-length documentary. Lee died at the age of 73 in 2021, three years before the film was released.

“He’s so dearly missed,” she says. “Even now, I still feel like his work and impact runs under the radar. We want to continue his legacy and really show who he is to the people who care about the topics he cared about.”

It wasn’t until 2013, a decade after she had begun work on the documentary, that Takaki decided to turn all of her footage into a feature film. “He was just so engaging,” she says. “You could see someone random and they’d tell you about something he was doing. He’d always be at an exhibit or a protest. It was never boring.”

‘HOW CAN IT GO WRONG?’

Not only did Lee’s gregarious personality make him a treat to chat with, it also made him the perfect character for a firsttime filmmaker who was still learning the ropes.

Ultimately, with Photographic Justice: The Corky Lee Story, Takaki is just happy to be a part of Lee’s legacy.

“We’re not the be all and end all. There are so many other things about him, like blogs, interviews and his own pictures. These are just my moments with him,” she says. “He was so multifaceted. This doesn’t cover everything. I just hope this sparks people’s curiosity in Corky and they will want to continue their education on him.”

Takaki has already moved onto her next project, one that’s much closer to home. She began work on a documentary about Pueblo in 2009, which will focus on her family’s history in Colorado.

Takaki originally spent two years on her five-minute piece about Lee. Although it was complete, she didn’t think the piece was strong enough. “I felt like there was something missing.”

Rather than giving up, she decided to connect with Lee again. “I just kept filming him. I didn’t know what I was going to do with it,” she says. “I just enjoyed following him, talking to him and seeing what he was going to do.”

“It was like lightning in a bottle,” she says. “He was so polite, too. He never asked me when the film was going to be finished or released. He would just show up and talk to me.”

That’s not to say Takaki didn’t feel the weight of expectation in telling Lee’s story, though. “He’s such a beloved figure. He’s so well known. There’s a lot of pressure that comes with that,” she says. “But he was always so interesting and ready and the perfect subject matter, so it made me think, ‘How can it go wrong?’”

“It’s a very personal journey,” she says. “Pueblo is such a unique city, and my dad worked on the council. It’s such a weird place. There are so many facets to it.”

For the time being, though, there is one aspect of finishing Photographic Justice: The Corky Lee Story that does bring Takaki particular joy.

“I’m just so satisfied that the film is finished after so long,” she says. “It’s such a relief and so great that more people are now learning about Corky.”

ON SCREEN: Photographic Justice: The Corky Lee Story premieres at 8 p.m. Monday, May 13 on PBS.

Filmmaker Jennifer Takaki graduated from CU Boulder with a journalism degree in 1993. Courtesy: All Is Well Pictures

Above: Corky Lee captures a harrowing scene during a 1975 police brutality protest in New York City. Credit: Corky Lee. Right: Born in 1947 New York to Chinese immigrant parents, photographer Corky Lee documented Asian American life for more than five decades. Credit: Jennifer Takaki

Aletter has arrived at the Swan residence, a despicable letter riddled with obscenities and sexual vulgarity. It’s the 19th of its kind, and each one has scandalized dear old Victoria Swan (Gemma Jones), her stiff-upper-lip of a husband, Edward (Timothy Spall), and their adult daughter Edith (Olivia Colman). The police are called in but offer little help and no promise of an arrest. Edward is flabbergasted that such lewd behavior is allowed to carry on in his England. Surely someone of low class and lower morals is to blame.

Naturally. Which is why the Swans, the police and pretty much everyone else living in the seaside village of Littlehampton suspects single mother Rose Gooding (Jessie Buckley). Why? Because Rose is a modern woman who drinks at the pub in the middle of the day and can swear a

DIRTY TALK

English comedy ‘Wicked Little Letters’ is a scandalous good time

BY MICHAEL J. CASEY

scarlet streak at the drop of a hat. That, and she’s Irish. The year is 1920, and England is still in the grips of a class system so stifling even those playing by the rules yearn to break free. Especially the women of Littlehampton: They were given new duties and roles in the community while the men went off to fight in the trenches of the Great War. Now the men have returned, and they want everything to go back to the way things were before. Some, particularly Edward, want a return to conservatism so extreme it’s almost as if he’s punishing every last woman for being a woman in the first place.

Written by Jonny Sweet and directed by Thea Sharrock, Wicked Little Letters is based on a real-life scandal — recently unknown until now, according to a couple of title cards at the narra-

tive’s conclusion — but retains the fun of an English period drama. Save for a few scenes, most of the events unfold in and around the homes of Rose and Edith, which give Sweet’s script the feeling of a stage play. That might sound like a knock, but it isn’t. With Colman, Buckley, Spall and Jones on screen, as well as Anjana Vasan as a police officer trying to solve the case with help from neighbor Ann (Joanna Scanlan), the best thing a writer and director can do is provide the material and let the actors run with it. Sharrock aids a cinematic flair here and there but makes sure the performers do what they came here to do.

And they do. Wicked Little Letters is verbose and vulgar in all the right ways. It’s also a fairly clever way to depict the consequences of repression and sup-

pression on anyone — regardless of their class, gender or race. “Once I started, I just couldn’t stop,” the author of the obscene letters admits.

The author of the letters isn’t much of a mystery. Sweet and Sharrock reveal that piece of information about halfway through the story. Why they wrote what they did is the real question. As is the question of whether they will be caught before someone else, someone from a lower class, takes the fall. It’s a sophisticated little comedy when all is said and done — with about as many F-bombs as a crime drama to boot.

ON SCREEN: Wicked Little Letters, May 8-12, Dairy Arts Center, 2590 Walnut St., Boulder

Olivia Colman (left) and Jessie Buckley in Wicked Little Letters Courtesy: Sony Pictures Classics

ON STAGE

ON THE PAGE ON VIEW

A question from nine-yearold Bee Quijada cuts through a classroom history lesson on Rosa Parks: “Where did Latinos sit on the bus?” This gives way to a “theatrical mixtape” of Bee’s life, fusing Latin rhythms, hip-hop and spoken word poetry into the one-person show, Where Did We Sit on the Bus?

The immersive production starring Satya Chávez runs through June 2 at the DCPA Singleton Theatre See listing for details

Saudi new media artist Nouf

Aljowaysir reconstructs and reinterprets her self-identity in SALAF (Ancestor), on view at East Window Gallery in Boulder through July 27. The artist will be in-person for a talk on May 10 to discuss the ongoing portrait series exploring migration, memory and the limitations of artificial intelligence. See listing for details

BVSD HIGH SCHOOL AND FACULTY EXHIBITION

Through May 4, Dairy Arts Center, 2590 Walnut St., Boulder. Free

Join author Gina DeMillo Wagner for a Boulder Book Store discussion about her new work, Forces of Nature: A Memoir of Family, Loss and Finding Home. Exploring the intersections of grief, disability, nature and family, DeMillo Wagner’s latest is an intimate account of her childhood as a caregiver to a brother with a genetic disorder and the winding path of healing after his death. See listing for details

NOISES OFF. Through May 5, Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities, 6901 Wadsworth Blvd., Arvada. $56-$83

THE MISANTHROPE Through May 5, Theater Company of Lafayette, 300 E. Simpson. $25

WHERE DID WE SIT ON THE BUS? Through June 2, Denver Center for the Performing ArtsSingleton Theatre, 1400 Curtis St. $35-$52 BW PICK OF THE WEEK

WE CU: A VISUAL CELEBRATION OF BLACK WOMANHOOD, PRESENCE AND CONNECTEDNESS.

Through July 13, CU Art Museum, 1085 18th St., Boulder. Free

ARE YOU OK?: A TRANS SURVIVAL PROJECT

Through June 22, East Window Gallery, 4550 Broadway, Suite C-3B2, Boulder. Free | Through May 31, Dairy Arts Center –Northeast Mural Wall, 2590 Walnut St., Boulder. Free

MY FAIR LADY. Through June 9, Jesters Dinner Theatre, 224 Main St., Longmont. $30-$50

237 VIRGINIA AVENUE. May 2–19, The Savoy, 2700 Arapahoe St., Denver. $40 STORY ON P. 20

THE SECRET GARDEN

Through June 16, Candlelight Dinner Playhouse, 4747 Marketplace Drive, Johnstown. $45-$83

THE SKELETAL WORLD OF JOSÉ GUADALUPE POSADA. Through May 19, Denver Art Museum, 100 W 14th Ave. $18

NOUF ALJOWAYSIR: SALAF (ANCESTOR)

Through July 27, East Window Gallery, 4550 Broadway, Suite C-3B2, Boulder. Free BW PICK OF THE WEEK

BRIAN COMBER: REVERIE Through Aug. 18, BMoCA @ Frasier, 350 Ponca Place, Boulder. $2

THE RIGHT THING TO DO BY TOM SHANAHAN 6:30 p.m.

Tuesday, May 7, Boulder Book Store, 1107 Pearl St. $5

THE COLORADO TRAIL IN CRISIS BY KARL FORD. 5:30

p.m. Friday, May 3, Tattered CoverAspen Grove, 7301 S. Santa Fe Drive, Littleton. Free

BRIEF FLASHINGS IN THE PHENOMENAL WORLD BY KATIE ARNOLD. 6 p.m.

Wednesday, May 8, Tattered Cover, 2526 E. Colfax Ave., Denver. Free

WE LOVED IT ALL BY LYDIA MILLET 5:30 p.m. Thursday, May 9, Tattered Cover - Aspen Grove, 7301 S. Santa Fe Drive, Littleton. Free

FORCES OF NATURE BY GINA DEMILLO WAGNER. 6:30 p.m.

Tuesday, May 14, Boulder Book Store, 1107 Pearl St. $5 BW PICK OF THE WEEK

SPEAKERSHIP IS LEADERSHIP BY MARGARET WATTS ROMNEY. 6:30 p.m.

Wednesday, May 15, Boulder Book Store, 1107 Pearl St. $5

2

BOULDER BALLET

SPRING GALA

5:30 p.m. Thursday, May 2, Dairy Arts Center,

Don your finest evening wear and join the Dairy Arts Center and Boulder Ballet for a night of arts celebration and fundraising. Wine, cocktails and hors d’oeuvres will be served alongside a silent auction and dance performance.

2 – 5

DOME FEST WEST IMMERSIVE FILM FESTIVAL

Various times. Thursday, May 2 through Sunday, May 5, Fiske Planetarium, 2414 Regent Drive, Boulder. $20+

Take advantage of your proximity to the largest planetarium between Chicago and Los Angeles in a whole new way at this immersive film festival. You can hit the full weekend of all 50 festival screenings and other events, or single-screening passes are available through the Fiske website.

3

FRIDAY NIGHT WEIRD: IMMACULATE

8:30 p.m. Friday, May 3, Dairy Arts CenterBoedecker Theater, 2590 Walnut St., Boulder. $12

It’s sure to be a bloody good time at the Dairy when its weekly cult-film screening series returns with Immaculate, the new religious horror film starring Sydney Sweeney as an American nun who encounters a sinister secret in the Italian countryside.

2 – 5

SPRING POTTERY SHOW AND SALE

10 a.m. Thursday, May 2 through Sunday, May 5, Boulder County Fairgrounds, 9595 Nelson Road, Longmont. Free

Nearly 50 local potters will showcase and sell their work at the Boulder Potters Guild spring show and sale. The show runs all weekend long so you can get your next envy-inducing gift or spring decor centerpiece straight from the source.

3

WANDER AND WAX EXHIBITION OPENING

6 p.m. Friday, May 3, NoBo Art Center, 4929 Broadway Unit E, Boulder. Free

Colorado artist Sam Hauser will open her first solo exhibition exploring myth and meaning in relation to the moon and land through oil paint and silk. Light refreshments will be served at the opening reception.

3 – 5

A LO CUBANO

Various times. Friday, May 3 through Saturday, May 4, Avalon Ballroom, 6185 Arapahoe Road, Boulder. $20+

This year’s festival celebrating all things Cuban culture include dance workshops, Cuban and Puerto Rican food for sale, DJ sets and live music from across the country. Weekend passes are available for $85, or you can catch the Saturday night dance class and concert for just $20.

4

MAY THE 4TH BE WITH YOU

1 p.m. Saturday, May 4, Left Hand Brewing, 1265 Boston Ave., Longmont. Free

These are not the beers you’re looking for. Sport your best Star Wars fit and enjoy $1 off drafts at one of the most awarded breweries on the Front Range during this sci-fi extravaganza featuring live music by Groove Holiday.

4

COMMUNITY MUSIC SWAP

1 p.m. Saturday, May 4, Broomfield Library, 3 Community Park Road. Free

Update and declutter your CD, cassette and vinyl collections while connecting with fellow music enthusiasts at this free community music swap at Broomfield Library. Bring your gently used physical media to trade.

4

LONGMONT CINCO DE MAYO

11 a.m. Saturday, May 4, Roosevelt Park, 700 Longs Peak Ave., Longmont. Free

Head to Roosevelt Park in Longmont for the city’s 21st annual Cinco de Mayo blowout. This anticipated community bash features food trucks and a car show, plus a break dance competition and lots of free family activities.

5

LEATHER BOOKMAKING

Noon. Sunday, May 5, pARTiculars Gallery and Teaching Studio, 401 S. Public Road., Lafayette. $60

Join instructor Jeff Becker and make your own 10” x 6 1/2” leather-bound travel journal with 192 pages of 100% cotton paper. You’ll learn all about paper grain, materials, tools and everything else you’ll need to craft your next one-of-a-kind book.

5 NICOLÒ!

4 p.m. Sunday, May 5, Mountain View United Methodist Church, 355 Ponca Place, Boulder

After 17 seasons, the Boulder-based Pro Musica Colorado Chamber Orchestra takes a final bow during this rescheduled farewell concert featuring a performance of Joaquín Rodrigo’s Fantasía para un Gentilhombre by local soloist Nicolò Spera.

9

SOUTH BOULDER CRAFTING MEETUP

5-6:30 p.m. Thursday, May 9, Brewing Market Coffee, 2610 Baseline Road, Boulder. Free

Ready to get crafty? Bring your inprogress work to Brewing Market Coffee for a meetup welcome to all crafts, crafters and crafting abilities. Whatever your materials and style, you won’t want to miss this opportunity to connect and create.

LIVE MUSIC

THURSDAY, MAY 2

LAMBERT & MCKIM 6 p.m. BOCO Cider, 1501 Lee Hill Drive, Unit 14, Boulder. Free

BLANKSLATE WITH IPECAC AND CO-STANZA 8 p.m. Velvet Elk Lounge, 2037 13th St., Boulder. $19

DENNY DRISCOLL 6 p.m. Bootstrap Brewing Company, 142 Pratt St., Longmont. Free

BOULDER OLD-TIME JAM 6 p.m. Trident Cafe, 940 Pearl St., Boulder. Free

OSSUARY WITH CRONOS COMPULSION AND DEATH POSSESSION. 8 p.m. Hi-Dive, 7 S. Broadway, Denver. $18

JAMIE MILLER WITH MICHAEL GEROW. 8 p.m. Globe Hall, 4483 Logan St., Denver. $25

SANGUISUGABOGG WITH JESUS PIECE. 7 p.m. Gothic Theatre, 3263 S. Broadway, Englewood. $25

FRIDAY, MAY 3

A LO CUBANO. 4 p.m. Avalon Ballroom, 6185 Arapahoe Road, Boulder.

SUGAR BRITCHES. 5 p.m. Left Hand Brewing, 1265 Boston Ave., Longmont. Free

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

DOMINICK ANTONELLI 6 p.m. Trident Cafe, 940 Pearl St., Boulder. Free

DIVINO BETSATORI 6:30 p.m. The Vali Soul Sanctuary, 6717 Valmont Road, Boulder. $20

BETH GADBAW WITH STEVE MULLINS AND SANDRA WONG

7 p.m. Willow Farm Contemplative Center, 11898 N. 75th St., Longmont.

EUGENIE JONES 7 p.m. Muse Performance Space, 200 E. South Boulder Road, Lafayette. $20

DJ DRAKE WITH MR. GETTDOWNE

8 p.m. DV8 Distillery, 2490 49th St., Suite E, Boulder. $10

EASTLIN WITH RENNY, YUNG JOHNATHAN, DJ $ANJUAN AND MORE. 8 p.m. Roots Music Project, 4747 Pearl St., Suite V3A, Boulder. Free

COPPER CHILDREN WITH FREE CREATURES 8 p.m. Velvet Elk Lounge, 2037 13th St., Boulder. $19

KNOWER 8 p.m. Fox Theatre, 1135 13th St., Boulder. $30

SAM BUSH WITH FOGGY MOUNTAIN SPACESHIP 8 p.m. Boulder Theater, 2032 14th St. $35

CHERUBS WITH MOON PUSSY, QUITS AND CHERRY SPIT. 8 p.m. Hi-Dive, 7 S. Broadway, Denver. $18

CITY MORGUE WITH FOURFIVE 7 p.m. Mission Ballroom, 4242 Wynkoop St., Denver. $40

JASON ISBELL AND THE 400 UNIT WITH AMANDA SHIRES 7 p.m. Red Rocks Park and Amphitheatre, 18300 W. Alameda Parkway, Morrison. $65

SATURDAY, MAY 4

CONCRETE FEEDBACK 6 p.m.

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

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

KUTANDARA. 7 p.m. Roots Music Project, 4747 Pearl St., Suite V3A, Boulder. $15

KEVIN SUPINA BAND 7 p.m. Rayback Collective, 2775 Valmont Road, Boulder. Free

SEAN HAYES WITH ESME PATTERSON. 7 p.m. eTown Hall, 1535 Spruce St., Boulder. $30

ARI MELINGER-COHEN WITH JACKSON STOKES BAND 8 p.m. Velvet Elk Lounge, 2037 13th St., Boulder. $21

START MAKING SENSE (A TALKING HEADS TRIBUTE) 9 p.m. Fox Theatre, 1135 13th St., Boulder. $20

ULTHAR WITH BELLTOWER AND VILE AESTHETIC 9 p.m. Hi-Dive, 7 S. Broadway, Denver. $15

JADE BIRD WITH EMELISE AND KAYLA KATZ 8 p.m. Globe Hall, 4483 Logan St., Denver. $22

LIVE MUSIC

ON THE BILL

Following his 2022 smash Boat Songs and last year’s debut live album, MJ Lenderman and The Wind bring the rising star’s country-fried guitar rock to the Front Range from Asheville, North Carolina, for a Red Rocks Amphitheatre performance with headliner Hippo Campus. Scan the QR code for a preview of the upcoming May 28 show with Lenderman’s other critically lauded project, Wednesday, before you go. See listing for details (Image

MANNEQUIN PUSSY WITH SOUL GLO 9 p.m. Bluebird Theater, 3317 E. Colfax Ave., Denver. Sold out / resale only STORY ON P. 17

SUNDAY, MAY 5

STORCH AND LACIS 1 p.m. Bricks on Main, 471 Main St., Longmont. Free

THREE TENORS BAND 7 p.m. Muse Performance Space, 200 E. South Boulder Road, Lafayette. $20

BOMBAY BICYCLE CLUB. 8 p.m. Boulder Theater, 2032 14th St. $35

SARAH & THE SAFE WORD WITH CHEAP PERFUME AND HOITYTOITY 8 p.m. Hi-Dive, 7 S. Broadway, Denver. $18

SLIDEWOK WITH POLYSANTO, COAST TO COAST AND FRANKLY. 4 p.m. Globe Hall, 4483 Logan St., Denver. $15

MONDAY, MAY 6

TAKACS QUARTET. 7:30 p.m. Grusin Music Hall, 1020 18th St., Boulder. $20

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

HIPPO CAMPUS WITH MJ LENDERMAN AND THE WIND AND HANNAH JADAGU

8 p.m. Red Rocks Park and Amphitheatre, 18300 W. Alameda Parkway, Morrison. $50 BW PICK OF THE WEEK

TUESDAY, MAY 7

ANGEL CORSI WITH PAMELA MACHALA, DAVE TAMKIN AND ANNIE MCGREGOR 7 p.m. Roots Music Project, 4747 Pearl St., Suite V3A, Boulder. Free

SAM EVIAN WITH HANNAH COHEN. 8 p.m. Globe Hall, 4483 Logan St., Denver. $20

WEDNESDAY, MAY 8

SONGWRITER WORKSHOP

SHOWCASE 6 p.m. Roots Music Project, 4747 Pearl St., Suite V3A, Boulder. Free

CHASE MARLER 6 p.m. Rosalee’s Pizzeria, 461 Main St., Longmont. Free

HAMI WITH ESO, PHIL, RYLAN, SOLEM AND BEN ROSIE 8 p.m. Fox Theatre, 1135 13th St., Boulder. $20

PHOTON 9 p.m. Southern Sun Pub, 627 S. Broadway, Boulder. Free

SADIE JEAN WITH HOLDEN MCRAE 8 p.m. Globe Hall, 4483 Logan St., Denver. $22

Help wanted

workday, Inc. is accepting resumes for the following positions at various levels in Boulder, CO: Cloud Engineer (20637.2689): designing and building the infrastructure, tools, and services delivering workday adaptive planning next generation cloud platform. Salary: $131,997- $177,600 per year, 40 hours per week.

Sr Site Reliability Engineer (20637.2621): Support workday planning Cloud infrastructure, working with technologies like docker, Kubernetes, awS, azure, Chef and terraform. Salary: $142,400$213,600, 40 hours per week workday pay ranges vary based on work location and recruiters can share more during the hiring process. as a part of the total compensation package, this role may be eligible for the workday Bonus plan or a role-specific commission/bonus, as well as annual refresh stock grants. each candidate’s compensation offer will be based on multiple factors including, but not limited to, geography, experience, skills, future potential and internal pay parity. For more information regarding workday’s comprehensive benefits, please go to workday.com/en-us/ company/careers/life-at-workday. html

Interested applicants submit resumes by mail to: J. thurston at workday, Inc., 6110 Stoneridge Mall Road, pleasanton, Ca 94588. Must reference job title and job code.

credit: Yailene Leyva)

ASTROLOGY

BY ROB BREZSNY

ARIES (MARCH 21-APRIL 19): The world record for jumping rope in six inches of mud is held by an Aries. Are you surprised? I’m not. So is the world record for consecutive wallops administered to a plastic inflatable punching doll. Other top accomplishments performed by Aries people: longest distance walking on one’s hands, number of curse words uttered in two minutes and most push-ups with three bulldogs sitting on one’s back. As impressive as these feats are, I hope you will channel your drive for excellence in more constructive directions during the coming weeks. Astrologically speaking, you are primed to be a star wherever you focus your ambition on highminded goals. Be as intense as you want to be while having maximum fun giving your best gifts.

TAURUS (APRIL 20-MAY 20): I don’t casually invoke the terms “marvels,” “splendors” and “miracles.” Though I am a mystic, I also place a high value on rational thinking and skeptical proof. If someone tells me a marvel, splendor or miracle has occurred, I will thoroughly analyze the evidence. Having said that, though, I want you to know that during the coming weeks, marvels, splendors and miracles are far more likely than usual to occur in your vicinity — even more so if you have faith that they will. I will make a similar prediction about magnificence, sublimity and resplendence. They are headed your way. Are you ready for blessed excess? For best results, welcome them all generously and share them lavishly.

each other. There would be an extensive trade of clues and tricks about the art of achieving ecstatic union with the Great Mystery. I bring this up, Virgo, because the coming weeks will be an ideal time for you to craft your own personalized and idiosyncratic religious path.

LIBRA (SEPT. 23-OCT. 22): Hidden agendas and simmering secrets will soon leak into view. Intimate mysteries will become even more intimate and more mysterious. Questions that have been half-suppressed will become pressing and productive. Can you handle this much intrigue, Libra? Are you willing to wander through the amazing maze of emotional teases to gather clues about the provocative riddles? I think you will have the poise and grace to do these things. If I’m right, you can expect deep revelations to appear and long-lost connections to re-emerge. Intriguing new connections are also possible. Be on high alert for subtle revelations and nuanced intuitions.

GEMINI (MAY 21-JUNE 20): In accordance with astrological omens, I recommend you enjoy a celebratory purge sometime soon. You could call it a Cleansing Jubilee or a Gleeful Festival of Purification or a Jamboree of Cathartic Healing. This would be a fun holiday that lasted for at least a day and maybe as long as two weeks. During this liberating revel, you would discard anything associated with histories you want to stop repeating. You’d get rid of garbage and excess. You may even thrive by jettisoning perfectly good stuff that you no longer have any use for.

CANCER (JUNE 21-JULY 22): Graduation day will soon arrive. Congrats, Cancerian! You have mostly excelled in navigating through a labyrinthine system that once upon a time discombobulated you. With panache and skill, you have wrangled chaos into submission and gathered a useful set of resources. So are you ready to welcome your big rewards? Prepared to collect your graduation presents? I hope so. Don’t allow lingering fears of success to cheat you out of your welldeserved harvest. Don’t let shyness prevent you from beaming like a champion in the winner’s circle. P.S. I encourage you to meditate on the likelihood that your new bounty will transform your life almost as much as did your struggle to earn it.

LEO (JULY 23-AUG. 22): Ritualist and author Sobonfu Somé was born in Burkina Faso but spent many years teaching around the world. According to her philosophy, we should periodically ask ourselves two questions: 1. “What masks have been imposed on us by our culture and loved ones?” 2. “What masks have we chosen for ourselves to wear?” According to my astrological projections, the coming months will be an excellent time for you to ruminate on these inquiries and take action in response. Are you willing to remove your disguises to reveal the hidden or unappreciated beauty that lies beneath? Can you visualize how your life may change if you will intensify your devotion to expressing your deepest, most authentic self?

VIRGO (AUG. 23-SEPT. 22): If human culture were organized according to my principles, there would be over eight billion religions — one for every person alive. Eight billion altars. Eight billion saviors. If anyone wanted to enlist priestesses, gurus and other spiritual intermediaries to help them out in their worship, they would be encouraged. And we would all borrow beliefs and rituals from

SCORPIO (OCT. 23-NOV. 21): It’s fun and easy to love people for their magnificent qualities and the pleasure you feel when they’re nice to you. What’s more challenging is to love the way they disappoint you. Now pause a moment and make sure you register what I just said. I didn’t assert that you should love them even if they disappoint you. Rather, I invited you to love them BECAUSE they disappoint you. Use your disappointment to expand your understanding of who they really are, and thereby develop a more inclusive and realistic love for them. Regard your disappointment as an opportunity to deepen your compassion — and as a motivation to become wiser and more patient. P.S. In general, now is a time when so-called “negative” feelings can lead to creative breakthroughs and a deepening of love.

SAGITTARIUS (NOV. 22-DEC. 21): I assure you that you don’t need “allies” who encourage you to indulge in delusions or excesses. Nor do I recommend that you seek counsel from people who think you’re perfect. But you could benefit from colleagues who offer you judicious feedback. Do you know any respectful and perceptive observers who can provide advice about possible course corrections you could make? If not, I will fill the role as best as I can. Here’s one suggestion: Consider phasing out a mild pleasure and a small goal so you can better pursue an extra fine pleasure and a major goal.

CAPRICORN (DEC. 22-JAN. 19): I invite you to take an inventory of what gives you pleasure, bliss and rapture. It’s an excellent time to identify the thrills that you love most. When you have made a master list of the fun and games that enhance your intelligence and drive you half-wild with joy, devise a master plan to ensure you will experience them as much as you need to — not just in the coming weeks, but forever. As you do, experiment with this theory: By stimulating delight and glee, you boost your physical, emotional and spiritual health.

AQUARIUS (JAN. 20-FEB. 18): Aquarian author Lewis Carroll said, “You know what the issue is with this world? Everyone wants some magical solution to their problem, and everyone refuses to believe in magic.” In my astrological opinion, this won’t be an operative theme for you in the coming weeks, Aquarius. I suspect you will be inclined to believe fervently in magic, which will ensure that you attract and create a magical solution to at least one of your problems — and probably more.

PISCES (FEB. 19-MARCH 20): Which would you prefer in the coming weeks: lots of itches, prickles, twitches and stings? Or lots of tingles, quivers, shimmers and soothings? To ensure the latter types of experiences predominate, all you need to do is cultivate moods of surrender, relaxation, welcome and forgiveness. You will be plagued with the aggravating sensations only if you resist, hinder, impede and engage in combat. Your assignment is to explore new frontiers of elegant and graceful receptivity.

SAVAGE LOVE

BY DAN SAVAGE

Q: I’m 53-year-old straight woman

I’ve been talking with a guy online for three years — text, voice, video. I am in love with him. He is my daily companion and says he loves me. He lives 269 miles away. He doesn’t want to meet me, although he isn’t married and lives alone. I’ve tried going out with other people, but I am stuck on him. I definitely want more. Do I leave him or keep trying?

A: Can you leave someone you’ve never met? I’m not sure — but you can do the next best thing(s): You can block his number, you can block him on your socials, you can block his email address.

Q: I have a disgusting and embarrassing problem. I have chronic IBS, and every time my husband and I want to have sex doggy-style, my butt smells and he loses his erection. I have tried a number of things: changes to my diet; a treatment for SIBO; a colonoscopy/endoscopy; even using a bidet. Nothing has helped. The gastroenterologist proposed not having doggy-style sex, but that’s my favorite position! Please help.

A: Maybe it’s time to think outside the healthcare/health interventions box. Get your husband a rubber hood and gasmask with a long breathing tube, and your husband can fling his breathing tube over his shoulder or get a longer one that runs down to the floor. You won’t be able to have doggy-style sex spontaneously if you need to get dress in full rubber before you get started — but it’s your favorite position, so why not make it an occasion?

Q: I’m in love with my sex worker Can it ever be more than it is?

A: It could — if the feelings are mutual and you’re not one of those guys who wants “his” sex worker to stop seeing other clients. You’re dating her, not taking possession of her.

Q: How to survive going long-distance — suddenly and temporarily — at the beginning of a relationship?

A: Lean into the big dirties: dirty texts, dirty pics, dirty video chats.

Q: Recommendations for other sex advice columnists with a female perspective? I’ve been reading your stuff for years, lots of value, but I need a fresh perspective. Anyone you’d care to pawn me and my problems off on?

A: My recommendations: Lori Gottlieb, Carolyn Hax, Damona Hoffman, E. Jean Carroll, Xaviera Hollander, and — still, always, forever Judith “Miss Manners” Martin.

Q: Just opening up our relationship! Any advice?

A: Take copious notes for your inevitable memoir.

Q: Why doesn’t my boyfriend want me to see his butthole? We’ve been in a relationship for almost ten years.

A: He’s not ready to introduce you to his parasitic twin.

Q: Your best idea for non-sexual intimacy?

A: Find those small, doable things that don’t allow for conversation but don’t require it and do it every day. For instance, I get up first and have breakfast. When Terry comes down, he makes coffee and as soon as he sits down, I get up and make him eggs. Sometimes we sit in silence; sometimes we sit and talk. Find something small you can do for your partner on a daily basis, and do it every damn day.

Q: Cunnilingus tips?

A: Twenty percent for good service, twenty-five percent for excellent service.

Send your burning questions to mailbox@savage.love Podcasts, columns and more at Savage.Love

TASTES OF FREEDOM

‘Cocina Libre’ shares the journeys and home recipes of Colorado’s newest immigrants

BY JOHN LEHNDORFF

Patacón is a simple plantain sandwich with savory fillings favored by Venezuelan families. For Julia Roncoroni, a psychologist and associate professor at the University of Denver, dishes like patacón can help humanize the immigrants and refugees who came to Colorado from across the planet.

Her new cookbook, Cocina Libre: Immigrant Resistance Recipes, puts faces and names to Front Range immigrants, including people who were held at the immigrant detention center in Aurora.

The potato vareniki recipe is from Tatiana Stratilat, a native of Kiev, Ukraine. Afsanah Noori of Farak, Afghanistan, shares her kotlet kachaloo. Other cooks from Denver to Fort Collins contributed recipes representing Mexico, Ethiopia, El Salvador and Colombia, intertwined with personal narratives.

The patacón recipe was contributed by Yraima Ylarraza, a native of San Felipe, Venezuela. In the book, she explains her journey to the U.S. through one of the world’s most dangerous migration routes.

my daughters.’ It wasn’t easy, but we made it.”

Creating the cookbook, which is published in both Spanish and English, turned out to be a supersized labor of love for Roncoroni and her co-author and partner, Delio Figueroa. Despite the couple’s home cooking experience — as well as brewing beer and making their own yogurt, bread and cheese — the cookbook expanded their culinary worldview. The couple went to Lakewood Public Library and brought home a “mountain” of cookbooks to study.

our community cooks from the heart, not from the book.”

The stories behind each recipe emerged during meals between the professor and the cooks at various homes. Roncoroni says that is also the best way to appreciate the recipes: by gathering around the table and talking.

“We have an eight-year-old and a three-year-old,” she says. “They came with us to our dinners with the cooks. It’s been such a good experience because they sat at the table and heard people share their stories.

“These immigrants were saying, ‘I don’t think people understand me here.’ We think that food is one way they can have this conversation.”

TASTE OF THE WEEK: PERUVIAN IN LONGMONT

Americans have an awful tendency to lump foods served anywhere south of Texas into a general “Latino” bucket defined by tortillas and burritos.

Rosario’s Peruvian Restaurant shifts that tired narrative with a menu celebrating the native and immigrant cuisine of the Pacific coast of southern South America.

On a recent visit to the Longmont eatery, we started with shrimp ceviche marinated in lime juice with red onions and Peruvian hot sauce. The papa rellena is an easy-to-crave fried potato stuffed with ground beef and served with salsa criolla.

I loved the pasta a la huancaina: pasta tossed with cheese sauce made with queso fresco and ají amarillo chilies, and the lomo saltado: stir-fried beef and vegetables.

“We came through the ‘green paths,’ as they are called, through the Darién (Gap). At one point, my knee swelled up and I cried because I thought, ‘I’m not going to make it out of here with

“My thinking was: ‘I don’t really know how to cook or take photos of food or anything about cookbooks,’” Roncoroni says. “But you roll up your sleeves and learn. We did about half the recipes in 2019 but had to stop because of COVID,” Roncoroni says. “We couldn’t sit down and eat with people. A lot of

Proceeds from the book benefit the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition. English and Spanish versions of Cocina Libre: Immigrant Resistance Recipes can be ordered at juliarpsychology. com/cocina-libre

Yraima Ylarraza. Credit: Julia Roncoroni

Above: Passion fruit cream with meringue at Rosario’s Peruvian Restaurant in Longmont. Below: Pasta a la huancaina with lomo saltado at Rosario’s Peruvian Restaurant. Image credits: John Lehndorff

LOCAL FOOD NEWS: MATEO IS SHUTTERED

One of Boulder’s longest operating eateries, Mateo Restaurant Provencal, has closed at 1837 Pearl St. Mateo was opened by Matthew Jensen in 2001.

Sauerkraut and mushroom pierogies are spotlighted at Westminster’s Cracovia Polish-American Restaurant & Bar, the latest local spot to be featured on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives.

Boulder County breweries beat international competition at the recent 2024 World Beer Cup. 12Degree Brewing in Louisville picked up a gold medal for its Treachery ale. Other Boulder County winners are The Post, Westbound & Down and Cellar West Brewery

CULINARY CALENDAR: GET A CLUE ON JEWISH BBQ

McGuckin Hardware hosts a smoked meat class May 9 with Adam McKenzie, known as This Jew Can Que. mcguckin.com/grill-class

Taste over 200 wines rated 90 points or higher at the Wine Spectator tasting May 11 at the Sheraton Denver Downtown Hotel. Tickets: winespectator.com

Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts in Boulder presents a vital class combining a visit to the Boulder Farmers Market and lessons in cooking fresh vegetables. escoffier.edu/about/campuses/ boulder

Send upcoming local restaurant and food event information to nibbles@boulderweekly.com

WORDS TO CHEW ON: ONION IS THE GOAT

“I am thinking of the onion again. Not self-righteous like the proletarian potato, nor a siren like the apple. But a modest, self-effacing vegetable, questioning, introspective, peeling itself away, or merely radiating halos like ripples.” — Erica Jong

John Lehndorff is the grandson of immigrant Sicilians and an Austrianborn father. He hosts Kitchen Table Talk with Montreal-born chef Dan Asher on KGNU

GREEN FLAGS

What to look for in a psilocybin facilitator

BY KAYLEE HARTER

As the state works on finalizing its rules for psilocybin facilitator training, three educators weigh in on questions to ask and red flags to look out for in a potential trip sitter.

ARE THEY QUALIFIED?

Diana Quinn, director of clinical education at Naropa University’s Psychedelic Studies Center: Some questions I would recommend asking are: How many years of practice do they have? What’s their lineage? What are the facilitator’s attitudes and approaches toward their own self care, doing their own work? I would want to know that in the first conversation with that person, that they’re very comfortable talking about privilege and the power differential between client and facilitator, and about consent.

training, education and experiences verifiable? Do they do any sort of screening or do they work with anybody? If [clients are] on SSRIs or if somebody has significant clinical concerns, like PTSD or even suicidality, does the guide actually have the training to work with that? Because there’s different types. There’s spiritual guides that are more ceremonialists and group journeys [with] no preparation, integration and support. And there’s more clinical guides, and then there’s guides like us that kind of hold both. What kind of model do you want to work under? Where is the session going to be held, and do you feel safe there?

What is their relationship to dosing practices? Do they give everybody mega doses, or is there some nuance there? We have it dialed down to the milligram of psilocybin and get our medicine tested for potency and cleanliness. But that’s not the requirement. There are Indigenous practitioners who have relationships with their medicine, good ways that are just different than how we work.

Ana Medina, cofounder of the New Paradigm Mystery School and board member at

If you’re going to find a western practitioner, do they have a deep relationship with the medicine and are they trauma informed? I would love to encourage people, if they don’t have a relationship with the Mazatec [an Indigenous people of Mexico who have a long history of working with psilocybin], to find out about where this medicine comes from and think about giving back.

DO THEY HAVE SUPPORT?

Quinn: Where did the person do their training? Who was their mentor or mentors? Are there testimonials or other feedback from clients that they’ve worked with? What kinds of peer support are they continually receiving?

One of the red flags about facilitators doing this work is practicing in isolation, where there is really not any feedback. That’s a point of vulnerability for both the client and facilitator.

Medina: If people don’t have elders that are guiding them, that’s a red flag.

perceiving some grandiosity in their role that is actually not there. The healing work is done with and by the client, aided by the medicine and held in a safe container by the facilitator. Narcissism and grandiosity and ego inflation is actually quite common in the psychedelic space.

Medina: If you see that there’s a lot of ego involved, that’s a big red flag. If people have decided they can start holding space because they’ve gone on a lot of journeys themselves.

STAY SAFE

Medina: A lot of people are going to their friend who has been journeying with mushrooms for a couple of years and saying, ‘Hey, hold space for me.’ That can go fine, and that can go horribly bad.

If you’re going to connect with the medicine on your own, do it with prayer. Whether you do it with your friends or you do it out in nature, always with prayer.

Daniel McQueen, executive director and founder of Center for Medicinal Mindfulness and Psychedelic Sitters School: Are their

Mycoalition: The most important thing is that the medicine really be honored with the root of where it came from.The most recommended option is that you find someone who holds an altar with the lineage and who will help you with connecting with your own lineage and is not working with extractive medicine.

McQueen: Do they come wellrecommended? Do they have any sort of accountability and oversight? Even underground practitioners and ethical and private practitioners have some sort of peer group they’re a part of. Do they have an assistant or somebody else in the home or area for additional support?

BEWARE THE GURUS

Quinn: Any facilitator who presents themselves as being a healer or a guru, or someone who’s going to provide something to or for a client, that kind of attitude generally indicates that they’re

McQueen: Everybody has the right to stay safe. If you’re not 100% sure you’re safe, don’t do it. That’s what we specialize in — helping people feel really safe in the most important experience they might have in their lives besides, like, babies and marriage and death.

Read more about Colorado’s forthcoming psilocybin facilitator regulations and how local programs are preparing on page 9.