CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: Rob Brezsny, Michael J. Casey, Zoe DeVito, Nadra Nittle, Jenn Ochs, Adam Perry, Dan Savage, Ann Schimke, Toni Tresca
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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
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OUTWARD BOUND
Adaptive recreation makes it possible for people with disabilities to enjoy the great outdoors
BY JENN OCHS
I’ve always been adventurous. Growing up, I practically lived at the creek in my neighborhood. I would create little homes for myself along the bank.
When I became a wheelchair user, I thought my life was over. Try to imagine how you would feel if you suddenly couldn’t walk and overnight you became dependent on others. In talking to a good friend, we agreed that grieving the loss of your old self is vital to recovery. I think it’s the only way to
learn that you’re still you; you’re just a different version of yourself. Contrary to popular belief, there are a few benefits to being a wheelchair user. Adaptive recreation is one of them.
For more than 30 years, groups of volunteers with Expand Beyond have provided speed boats, jet skis and adaptive equipment to help those with disabilities to sit-ski and wakeboard. Just this week, I watched an older blind gentleman waterski as I waited
for my turn at the Boulder Reservoir. After donning a life jacket and wetsuit, I was wheeled out onto a dock by the group volunteers. Two strong volunteers lowered me to a seated position on the board, and a metal cage secured me there. Outriggers lay parallel on either side of the rig, taking away the need for balance and steering. A ski rope was secured at the top tip of the main board, then volunteers lowered me backward into the water from the dock.
Once in the water, the starter volunteer straightened the line and positioned me behind the boat. When I was ready, the starter yelled, “Hit it!” to the driver.
As soon as I rose up out of the water, I had a smile on my face. I didn’t have to steer, which allowed me to completely enjoy the experience; hitting choppy water made me giggle
OPINION
out loud. I love speed and the feeling of rising to the surface. I like to stretch my arms out to the side like I’m flying. I also love to look at all the beautiful scenery that surrounds me.
Four volunteers followed me on two jet skis. If I had crashed, the rescue diver would have made sure my head stayed above water. The starter was there to reposition me in case I wanted to try again.
I get to do this every Tuesday morning this summer. My goal is to remove the outriggers and to use a handle on the rope to steer over the wake.
This amazing activity is only made possible by the incredible generosity of volunteers who give not only their time and expertise but also all the equipment and gas for the speed boats and jet skis.
Another adaptive recreational opportunity is hiking provided by The Lockwood Foundation. Founder Jeffrey Lockwood researched and found the TrailRider chair before starting the Boulder-based nonprofit.
The TrailRider is similar to a wheelbarrow, with one wheel in the back and handles in the front. A group of volunteers carry the chair and adaptive rider while hiking up a mountain.
Typically, one person carries the back of the chair, another carries the
OPINION
SECURE THE FUTURE, NOW
Colorado sees growing demand for accessible transportation
BY ZOE DEVITO
The people quoted above want to ride with Via, a Boulderbased nonprofit provider of affordable, accessible transportation. Our specially trained drivers help people with limited mobility enhance their independence and self-sufficiency. We
front and two to three volunteers carry the sides. Throughout the hike, the volunteers switch out positions to conserve strength and energy.
When I’m on the TrailRider, I feel like Cleopatra reclining on a palanquin while being carried along.
Adaptive riders will first do a trial hike. This allows the adaptive rider and volunteer team to learn if the chair can
be ridden safely and comfortably. After completing a trial hike, the adaptive rider can sign up to participate in long hikes.
The Lockwood Foundation does not charge hikers for anything, an amazing fact considering that one TrailRider chair can cost up to $10,000.
On Father’s Day, The Lockwood Foundation took me on a hike to summit Mines Peak at Berthoud Pass, an
Above: Author Jenn Ochs on the summit of Mines Peak. Courtesy: Andy Schlichting. Left: Jenn Ochs prepares to waterski at Boulder Reservoir, assisted by Boulder nonprofit Expand Beyond. Courtesy: Jenn Ochs
elevation of 12,400 feet above sea level. It felt like the opportunity was created by my dad in heaven. We loved driving to the mountains to ski together.
Two other adaptive hikers joined my adventure, including a young girl with a terminal illness and a wheelchair user from New York who traveled with a team from all over the country to Colorado. Mines Peak was training for his ultimate goal to summit Mt. Kilimanjaro in Africa.
The beauty of hiking with The Lockwood Foundation is that it is beneficial for everyone involved. The incredi-
“My husband, Albert, is a retired police officer. He is 87 years old and has had multiple surgeries. Recently, his right leg was amputated above the knee. He uses a wheelchair, and I can’t bring him in my car. Getting where we need to go has been challenging, like rehab facilities. I broke my arm, and I’ve had hip surgeries. We need accessible transportation to get where we need to go.” — Marie Sandoval
“My brother, Michael, recently passed. My sister and brother usually drove him to appointments; it was challenging because they both worked. I flew in from out of state multiple times to help my siblings and ensure Michael received the care he needed. We made it work to get him where he needed to go, but getting even a few rides a month would have greatly reduced the pressure on him and our family.”
— Dawn I. (last name withheld for privacy)
provide about 12,000 accessible trips for older adults and people with disabilities every year.
Karen, Michael, Dawn and Marie all reside in our service areas. But we
ble bond created by people working together for a common goal makes lifelong memories to cherish. Three hiking teams and several dogs worked together to climb Mines Peak. Once we reached the summit, we celebrated with a group howl.
Organizations like The Lockwood Foundation and Expand Beyond only exist thanks to big-hearted volunteers. These remarkable humans donate their time and resources to help others. That is a beautiful reminder of the good in humanity.
Please visit thelockwoodfoundation. org and expandbeyondinc.com to donate your time or money to these worthy causes.
I have learned that becoming disabled didn’t end my life. Our bodies will change and possibly fail, but our mental strength determines when life is over.
Jenn Ochs lives in Boulder and enjoys listening to music, podcasts and audiobooks while painting or drawing. She is a disability rights advocate and a graduate from Baylor University in Texas, which is where she realized that Boulder is the best place to live.
This opinion does not necessarily reflect the views of Boulder Weekly.
“It would help me a lot if I could get rides to and from the doctor and grocery stores. My family can’t bring me where I need to go. Sometimes, I can’t go to the doctor when I need to. I would ride with Via [Mobility Services] multiple times a week if I could. It would make a big difference.” — Michael Gallegos
“My dad is 90 years old and lives in a retirement community. He relies on me, my husband and my sister for rides to dialysis three days a week. My dad feels guilty about taking up so much of our time. Transportation with Via would give him the independence he needs and be an amazing blessing for our family.” — Karen (last name withheld for privacy)
can’t accommodate them because we are at capacity. Marie and her husband used to ride with Via and lapsed. When they tried to register with us again, there was no room.
Despite serving thousands of Colorado residents each year, Via estimates that at least an additional 1,000 individuals need accessible transportation. That’s 1,000 older adults and
OPINION
people with disabilities missing a crucial medical appointment, not having enough groceries at home or remaining isolated instead of connecting with others.
The aging population means there are more older people than ever before needing accessible transportation. Existing funding sources are insufficient to support the increased need or Via’s desire to scale.
There are some government plans to increase funding for transportation.
Government spending will need to increase on the state and local levels as well. This worsening problem cannot be solved by nonprofits or residents.
Via’s CEO, Frank W. Bruno, played a pivotal role in ensuring that nonprofit public transit providers like Via are eligible recipients of funds from SB24-230. This recently passed bill taxes oil and gas companies to fund public transit in Colorado. But much more funding will be necessary to help organizations like Via meet the growing need for accessible transportation.
$3M NEEDED
This growth in the older population is driven mainly by the aging of the baby boomer generation, born between 1946 and 1964. By 2030, all baby boomers will be 65 or older.
In 2020, about 1 in 6 people in the United States were 65 and over; in 1920, less than 1 in 20 were. Given this rapid aging, Pew Research Center concluded that “the cost of our programs for seniors will soon exceed half of the federal budget.”
Via does not charge riders the total service cost: 82% of our funding goes to direct services for our neighbors with limited mobility rather than on administration. Some rides are free for riders, paid for by grants or contracts. Riders in some service areas are charged a fare, capped at just $12 for longer trips across municipal boundaries.
To accommodate another 1,000 riders this year would cost roughly $3 million. That’s about 12% of Via’s annual budget. And we expect both the amount of people needing accessible transportation and the cost of each trip to rise every year.
Due to surging inflation and a nationwide driver and mechanic shortage, operating costs have increased significantly since 2020. Revenues from grants and other sources have stayed the same or decreased.
Via has made progress toward financial stability by adopting new route management software and purchasing a satellite facility in Denver after leasing for over 20 years. These measures have improved operational efficiency and reduced costs.
Via also relies on grants and income-generating contracts as a
Flatiron Sunrise by Kristen Ross
OPINION
social enterprise to assist its accessible transportation program and actively pursues new contracts to bridge this gap. We partner with municipalities like the City of Boulder to operate and maintain its HOP public buses. The HOP and a dozen other transit services contribute to the costs of Via’s founding mission services.
HOW TO HELP
Support from individuals is also an important piece of the funding pie that makes Via’s accessible transportation services possible. Donations can help Via meet the growing demand and continue our commitment to mobility for all, for life. Past gifts of stocks and bequests from caring donors’ wills have made a big difference in helping meet the needs of our older and disabled neighbors.
Some other ways to help:
• Contact elected officials. Write or call your local and state representatives to express your support for increased funding for public transit and nonprofits like Via.
• Stay informed. Follow legislative developments related to public transit funding and share updates within your network.
• Participate. Attend and testify at public hearings to advocate for policies that support accessible transportation services. You can
Around 1,000 older adults and people with disabilities are in need of Via’s accessible transportation services, the Boulder nonprofit estimates.
Courtesy: Via
attend the Boulder County Board of County Commissioners’ regular public hearings, where residents can provide input on various issues, including transportation. Upcoming meetings can be found on their public meetings page. Meetings are generally held weekly.
• Become an advocate. Join a local or national advocacy group focused on public transit and nonprofit funding, such as Boulder County Mobility for All.
• Spread the word. Use social media to raise awareness about funding accessible transportation services. Start with sharing this piece to your networks. Your support is crucial. For more information or to donate, please visit viacolorado.org/give or contact 720.507.8606.
Zoe DeVito is director of development and communications for Via Mobility Services. Founded in 1979, Via helps thousands of riders in multiple counties in Colorado live more self-sufficient lives by providing caring, accessible, door-through-door transportation. Via also operates several public transit bus services under contract, such as the City of Boulder’s HOP and Littleton Omnibus.
This opinion does not necessarily reflect the views of Boulder Weekly.
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BOCO, BRIEFLY
Local news at a glance
BY SHAY CASTLE
BOULDER MAKES BID FOR SUNDANCE
Boulder is bidding to become the new home of the iconic Sundance Film Festival. A formal proposal was submitted by the Boulder Convention and Visitors Bureau (Visit Boulder), the City of Boulder, the Boulder Chamber, the University of Colorado and the Stanley Film Center in Estes Park.
Sundance Institute, the organization behind the nation’s largest independent film festival, in April announced its intentions to explore new locations after the current contract ends in 2026. The event has been held in Park City and Provo, Utah, since 1981.
Festival officials have not explicitly stated why they are considering a move, but many believe Utah’s antiLGBTQ+ laws were a factor. Sundance
published an explainer on HB257, which restricts changing room and restroom access for gender nonconforming individuals, and a news release announcing the bidding process stated, “The Institute is making sure that inclusivity and sustainability are always at the forefront of the festival experience.”
Multiple outlets reported 15 cities being in the running to host the festival, including Santa Fe (NM), San Francisco (CA) and Savannah (GA). Utah also submitted a bid to keep the festival in-state.
An affiliated Directors Lab already relocated to the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park. Amy Redford, daughter of festival founder Robert Redford, sits on the committee. Robert Redford attended CU Boulder and worked at The Sink in Boulder.
The Colorado Economic Development Commission pledged $1.5 million if the festival relocates to Boulder.
GRAY WOLF PUP BORN IN COLORADO
At least one pup has been born to gray wolves released in Colorado last year, wildlife officials confirmed last week. “It is possible that other pups may be present, as wolf litters commonly consist of four to six pups,” Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) said in a news release.
Using data from the wolves’ tracking collars, CPW in April suspected a female wolf had moved into a den to give birth. During “routine wolf monitoring efforts” on June 18, CPW biologists
ELECTION RESULTS
Junie Joseph and Judy Amabile are set to win their primary battles for Colorado House District 10 and Senate District 18, respectively. In the closely watched race for District 2 seat on the state board of education, Kathy Gebhardt led over the Gov. Jared Polis-endorsed Marisol Rodriguez despite the $1 million-plus in special interest money spent in support of Rodriguez.
Preliminary results from the Secretary of State’s Office, as of Wednesday afternoon are listed on the right (in order of appearance on the ballot).
In the Republican primary, Kathy Reeves won the HD11 seat over opponent Terri Goon, and Mark Milliam advanced to the general election for HD12 by besting Robert Mahler.
Voter turnout was 25% as of 1 p.m. Wednesday, according to state election data. That number may change as more ballots are counted. Polls closed Tuesday, June 25 at 7 p.m. Find unofficial results at bit.ly/3Vya6Kk.
confirmed the presence of one pup, though the agency did not say how. “There are no photos or videos at this time,” the release stated.
The successful breeding officially makes the group of wolves a pack, which CPW has named the Copper Creek Pack.
IN OTHER NEWS…
• The Nederland Fire Protection District (NFPD) is evaluating cisterns on private property to ensure a proper water supply for firefighting efforts. Residents with cisterns, a type of underground water storage, are asked to fill out a form and schedule an inspection. Visit nfpd.org/cisterns.
STATE BOARD OF EDUCATIONDISTRICT 2
Kathy Gebhardt: 56%
Marisol Rodriguez: 44%
CU REGENT - AT LARGE
Elliot Hood: 52%
Charles “CJ” Johnson: 48%
SENATE DISTRICT 18
Judy Amabile: 77%
Jovita Schiffer: 23%
HOUSE DISTRICT 10
Junie Joseph: 59%
Tina Mueh: 41%
HOUSE DISTRICT 49
Lesley Smith: 72%
Max Woodfin: 28%
• Boulder Creek reopened to inflatable tubes and rafts July 21. The Boulder County Sheriff’s Office closed the creek from Boulder Falls to 55th Street amid high water volume and after three deaths on the waterway so far this year.
‘THERE IS MAGIC AT ALAYA’
Parents, teachers scramble as Naropa plans to sell historic preschool property
BY ADAM PERRY
On a mild May day, a dozenplus four- and five-year-olds traipsed across a small bridge that served as a stage of sorts, grasping diplomas in their tiny hands.
Parents wept as teachers read a personal poem for each student. It was the annual celebration for graduating “garudas,” the name Alaya Preschool gives its oldest students.
The small, Buddhist-inspired organization was founded alongside Naropa University in 1976 to serve Boulder’s budding intentional community. Today, Naropa owns both the school itself and the property on which it is located. Like its higher education twin, Alaya’s curriculum is grounded in contemplative education. The grounds, tucked away from view on 19th Street in North Boulder, are rich with trees and gardens, a bicycle obstacle course and play structures built by devoted teachers, parents and community members over the past 45 years.
“There is something unique and special about the land that Alaya
Preschool sits on,” says Kaitlyn Sullivan, the school’s assistant director. “The impact from the families and children that have been there in the past is held on that land.”
The future of the property, however, is less secure. Finding itself with too much space and too little money post-COVID, Naropa is trying to sell the school and the land it sits on. Parents, teachers and other supporters have organized themselves into a group called Friends of Alaya and are attempting to raise the millions of dollars needed to buy the school and its property.
Passion is high, but so is the price tag. The group is still at least $1.5 million short, and the clock is ticking. But the community isn’t losing faith.
“I think that one thing
Alaya has instilled in all of us is ‘What is the information that we have at the present moment?’” says Rachel Euser, parent of an Alaya grad who now lives in California. “I’m sure that this plan will sort of forge as we move forward with the intention in mind that we are going to keep the school afloat, knowing that children are being fostered in this way to go out into the world. I just think this community will band together.”
Euser says her family loves Alaya so much that their houseplants are named after Alaya teachers. They visit Boulder in the summers so their kids
Charles “Chuck” Lief. “We are always tight financially.”
But the COVID-19 pandemic added stress to an already precarious economic environment.
“Unlike many, many schools, we didn’t lay off a single person during the entire pandemic,” Lief explains. “That cost us a lot of money, because we lost students for natural reasons. We made the decision that we were not going to furlough our staff because they had families in need. But that no question cost us money, and we’re still catching up.”
can go to Alaya camps.
“There is magic at Alaya,” Euser says, “and I do know that magic tends to deliver itself. This is a tall order, and I believe with my full heart that we can do it.”
‘ALWAYS TIGHT’
Institutions of higher learning across the nation have tightened their belts as college enrollment has faced more than a decade of overall decline. For Naropa, a private university with less than 1,200 students, that’s nothing new.
“Naropa is a small liberalarts college,” says President
Other effects of COVID also factored into the decision to sell Alaya, like the switch to remote learning.
“We are now at a place where 50% of our student body is online,” Lief says. “That was from virtually zero pre-COVID. We have more real estate than we are going to have any near- or longterm need for. We still have a lot of inperson students, but we have way more space than we need.”
The property was recently appraised for $3 million, according to Alaya’s director, Rachel Steele. (Naropa officials declined to confirm the appraisal price.)
Naropa agreed that, however much the land was worth, that’s what Friends of Alaya would pay for the land and business combined.
Naropa president Charles “Chuck” Lief speaks at a recent Alaya graduation. Credit: Will Matuska
Alaya Preschool was founded alongside Naropa University, which owns the school and the land it sits on. Naropa hopes to sell the property by the end of the year. Credit: Will Matuska
Boulder Weekly Market
NEWS
“If I were to sell it to Bright Horizons or one of the bigger early childhood chains, that’s a different story,” Lief says. “Then I would want to value the business as well, because it makes decent revenue. But for this group, that number is zero.”
So far, the group has raised $400,000 in actual and pledged donations. They have until December to get the rest, which is when Naropa wants to have the sale completed.
Steele praised Lief as a “champion” of Alaya. He and his wife, Judy, were founding Alaya parents. One of his children went on to teach there. Lief himself was Alaya’s lawyer in the 1980s.
“The reason Alaya stayed connected to Naropa so long was because of Chuck and his dedication to the school,” Euser adds.
Though there was confusion and fear over the sale in the beginning, Lief says Naropa and Friends of Alaya are now “on the same page.”
“I don’t have to take a backseat to anybody in terms of my commitment to the place, for sure,” he says. “It’s just a question of whether or not Naropa is the right home for a preschool when we don’t have a preschool education program. I think the answer is no.”
‘WE’RE GOING TO GET THAT MONEY’
For parents, keeping Alaya alive is about more than preserving the school’s unique education offerings and history. They also worry about where they and other parents might go.
“If Alaya closes,” says assistant director Sullivan, “43 [preschool] spots in Boulder would be lost.”
Boulder County is “facing somewhat of a crisis” when it comes to availability and affordability of childcare for kids ages zero to five, says Kaycee Headrick, CEO of the Early Childhood Council of Boulder County.
Since July 2023, 11 licensed child care programs have closed in Boulder County, removing capacity for approximately 450 children. The most common reasons for closures are workforce shortages, financial hardships and regulations require-
ments, according to Headrick.
“While during this same time new programs have opened, these new programs are skewed heavily towards toddler/preschool slots, leaving pervasive gaps in care for children ages 0-3,” Headrick wrote in response to emailed followup questions. “We estimate in Boulder County that for every five infant/toddlers who need care, only one can access it.
“Our council has really deep relationships with providers across the county,” Headrick says. “We don’t want any providers closed, and we know that Alaya in particular serves as such a legacy entity. Generations of families have gone there. We’re working with Rachel and her team to support them in any way they might need.”
Another location is “not off the table as a last resort” if Friends of Alaya can’t come up with $3 million by December, Steele says. But, in her mind, “there is no other comparable location.”
For now, everyone involved is focused on their financial goal. Lief says that if Alaya ends up on the open market, Naropa would not be including the business in the sale.
“With all eyes on this right now, we’re going to get that money,” says Paige Doughty, an Alaya parent who is chairing the fundraising efforts. “This has been in our awareness for at least a year.
“I talk to the teachers, and they’re, like, ‘We’re going to do our job and we know it’s going to work out because we’re so held by this community.’”
Louise Brooke, who has taught at Alaya for 15 years, says at the beginning of the process, “there was definitely a bit of stress, but even then, there was optimism.”
“Basically what I felt is just a little bit of sadness or disappointment or stress at the very beginning, hearing about it all,” she says. Since then, “I’ve just heard a determination, a kind of a fierce determination mixed with optimism. We can do this together.”
Editor’s note: Adam Perry helped organize an upcoming benefit concert for Alaya.
GOV’T WATCH
BY WILL MATUSKA
BOULDER CITY COUNCIL
Council summer recess is scheduled from June 29 through July 21. The next meeting will be July 25.
BOULDER COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
During the week of July 1, commissioners will:
• Hold a public hearing and make a decision July 2 at 1 p.m. on a special use review submitted by the City of Boulder for subsurface coal fire mitigation at the Marshall Number 3 coal mine and for redevelopment of the Marshall Mesa trailhead (1842 S. Foothills Highway). According to the state, five acres will be excavated in the area, down 30 feet to the coal seam, as crews remove smoldering coal and blend it with soil. State mitigation work is expected to take four months to complete, starting this fall. The trailhead will be closed for a year due to mitigation work and trailhead renovations, according to the city. The last state assessment in 2018 found 38 coal mine fires in Colorado, including “low activity” at the Marshall coal mine. Boulder County offices will be closed July 4 and 5.
LAFAYETTE CITY COUNCIL
On June 24, council:
• Received an update on Phase II of exploring a Downtown Development Authority (DDA) to oversee the development of Lafayette as the town’s Urban Renewal Authority expires. This phase includes finalizing the boundaries and financial projections for the sales and property tax that will fund the DDA.
Staff will recommend whether or not to move forward with the initiative at a July 22 city council workshop. Council will take a preliminary vote Aug. 6 on whether to put the measure on the November ballot.
• Learned about the city’s financial performance for 2023. Overall, staff reported slower growth in sales and use tax compared to the previous year. Sales tax, which makes up 55% of the city’s budget, grew less than half a percent, down from a 9.1% growth in 2022. Use tax decreased by 17%, to $4.3 million, mostly due to taxes from construction activity continuing a multi-year decline.
The city’s total expenditures in 2023 were $61.4 million. Revenue is projected to stay flat into 2024 and 2025 amid high interest rates and inflation.
All agendas are subject to change. Karen Norback contributed to this reporting.
ON THE UPSWING
Fewer Colorado youth feel sad, suicidal, health survey finds
BY ANN SCHIMKE CHALKBEAT COLORADO
Fewer Colorado youth felt consistently sad or hopeless and fewer considered suicide last year compared with 2021, a large statewide health survey found.
The results from the Healthy Kids Colorado survey represent a bright spot after unprecedented levels of teen anxiety and depression surfaced during the pandemic. The situation was dire enough that state lawmakers took swift action, creating a program in 2021 to provide free counseling sessions to children and youth. Many school districts also launched free counseling programs and hired additional social workers, counselors and psychologists.
Leaders at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, which publishes the survey results, were pleased with the survey findings released last week.
“There have been dramatic changes in the right direction around indicators of mental health, suicide risk, and substance use,” said Jill Hunsaker Ryan, the department’s executive director, in a press release. “We’re hopeful this is an indication of state and community investments in prevention programming and protective factors paying off.”
LGBTQ+ DISPARITIES
hopelessness or sadness in the 2023 survey, down from 40% in 2021 and 35% in 2019. In addition, 11% of high schoolers seriously considered suicide, down from 17% in 2021. Middle schoolers also saw drops in both categories.
Among both middle and high school students, 58% reported their stress level was manageable most days — an improvement for high
students generally. Gay and lesbian students also reported higher rates of sadness and hopelessness, and that they’d seriously considered suicide. More efforts to improve youth mental health are on the way in Colorado.
JUUL SUIT PAYS OFF
In May, the state announced a program that will train young adults ages 18 to 24 to connect youth with mental health support. This month, Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser announced a new youth mental health grant program funded with millions from a lawsuit settlement with e-cigarette manufacturer Juul Labs Inc.
Colorado will spend $20 million of its $31.7 million lawsuit settlement with the company on a program to prioritize collaborations between
$11.4 million grant program for school districts to address the youth vaping crisis will also be paid for from the settlement.
Thirty percent of Colorado high school students reported having vaped at least once, according to the most recent data from the Healthy Kids Colorado Survey, which is administered every other year.
Sixteen percent of students said they’d vaped in the last 30 days.
LARGEST RESPONSE
The Healthy Kids survey has been given under various names since 1991. It has occasionally sparked backlash over concerns about data privacy or because some critics say the questions are too explicit.
Public health officials emphasize the survey is voluntary for students and provides key information about how pre-teens and teens are faring when it comes to physical, sexual and mental health.
The 2023 Healthy Kids findings on youth mental health are among the most notable of the survey results. In some cases they improved to well beyond pre-pandemic levels.
For example, 26% of high-schoolers reported persistent feelings of
school students compared with 2021, but the same for middle schoolers. While bullying overall didn’t increase in 2023 compared with 2021, LGBTQ+ students reported significantly higher rates of bullying than other students. For example, 29% of gay and lesbian high school students reported being bullied during the previous year, compared with 12% of
school districts and community organizations. School districts will be invited to apply for grants later this year. Colorado sued Juul in 2020, alleging that it targeted youth with deceptive marketing and played down the health risks of vaping. The state was one of several that settled with the company. Juul did not admit to any wrongdoing in the settlement. An
More than 120,000 students completed the survey in 2023 — the most ever.
State officials added several new questions to the 2023 survey, including about feeling safe at school, nightly sleep hours, use of psychedelic drugs, body image and eating disorders.
One of the new questions revealed that nearly a quarter of high-schoolers and middle schoolers reported trying to lose weight or maintain their weight in unhealthy ways during the previous month — for example, by using diet pills, skipping meals or vomiting.
Another new question revealed that large proportions of students worry about their physical appearance all or most of the time — 39% for high schoolers and 32% for middle schoolers.
Melanie Asmar contributed reporting. Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news organization committed to covering education and related issues.
MUSIC
BUMMER IN THE SUMMER
Southwest Emo Fest brings big feels to the Front Range
BY JEZY J. GRAY
In the 1964 Supreme Court case Jacobellis v. Ohio, a First Amendment tangle over the line between art and obscenity, Justice Potter Stewart offered a famously subjective metric for identifying pornography that has echoed through the ages: “I know it when I see it.”
The same could be said of the subgenre known (sometimes pejoratively) as emo. Originally shorthand for “emotional hardcore” in the frenetic D.C. punk scene of the 1980s, the term has since come to describe a broad swath of sincere sounds with seemingly little in common — from the arena-ready catharsis of millenni-
al mall-rockers Paramore to the bummer beats of late Long Island mumble rapper Lil Peep.
“I rarely actually use the word when I’m talking to folks who aren’t immersed in the scene, or aren’t hyper-online or punk or whatever,” says singer-songwriter Ben Sooy of Denver band A Place for Owls, whose gentle-rocking take on the style is marked by shimmering guitars and reflective lyrics on love, loss and belonging. “But we do claim emo as a badge of honor. It essentially means elevated emotions. You’re going to feel big feelings when you listen to our band.”
Big feelings will abound when Southwest Emo Fest makes its Front Range debut at Larimer Lounge on June 29. The all-day showcase got its start last year in New Mexico when two emo-adjacent tours collided in Albuquerque, featuring a handful of bands who will return for this year’s Colorado iteration: Troubled Minds, Savings and Right on Kid. They’ll be joined on the upcoming Denver bill by local headliners A Place for Owls and fellow homegrown acts Oh Drifter, Summer Stars, The Losers Club and more.
“There aren’t a whole lot of fests dedicated to this kind of sound in our part of the country,” says Matt Aldawood of Phoenix pop-punk emo outfit Troubled Minds, who helped orchestrate the inaugural festival. “I felt like we should be doing something to bring people together. This is us, as bands, seeing a need and taking initiative to try and make our scene better.”
That scene has faced its share of slings and arrows over the years. After decades at sea in the choppy waters of critical consensus — online tastemaker Pitchfork famously gave Jimmy Eat World’s 1999 masterpiece Clarity a score of 3.5 before revising it more than 20 years later to 8.6 — the organizers behind Southwest Emo Fest hope the tide has turned for good.
“When the genre kind of died down, people moved on to different things,” says this year’s co-organizer Matthew Hanson, frontman of the Denver-based band Oh Drifter. “They had these pictures from high school with goofy haircuts, but then people got older and it became a meme: Felt emo, might delete later. The nostalgia came back, and people realized they liked that stuff in high school — and they still like it.”
ON THE BILL: Southwest Emo Fest feat. A Place for Owls, Oh Drifter, Troubled Minds and more. Noon7:30 p.m. Saturday, June 29, Larimer Lounge, 2721 Larimer St., Denver. $18
‘WHAT WAVE OF EMO ARE YOU?’
Understanding
the many lives of an elusive word
FIRST WAVE (1984–1991)
Essential bands: Rites of Spring, Embrace, Moss Icon. Sounds like: hemorrhaging apologetically in the pit
Fed up with the chest-thumping machismo of hardcore spaces in the early 1980s, a subset of artists began to turn the scene on its head. One of those musicians was Guy Picciotto, a creatively restless 19-year-old from the DIY hotbed of Washington, D.C. whose band Rites of Spring would set a template for a new style of extreme punk that emphasized vulnerability over violence. Picciotto would again redraw the map with his more politically charged outfit Fugazi, spearheading a principled new era of independent rock that wore its anti-sellout ethics on its sleeve. Despite only being active from 1983 to 1986, Rites of Spring left an equally influential blueprint for a tumultuous style of guitar music that carved much-needed space for feelings amid the clamor and clangor of the mosh pit.
As the punk-rock iconoclast told a local zine at the time: “To hurt yourself playing guitar while falling around on stage is more noble than sitting weeping to yourself somewhere.”
SECOND WAVE (1992–2000)
Essential bands: Sunny Day Real Estate, Braid, American Football. Sounds like: the unnameable sadness of summer’s end
As the grime of grunge lost its flannel-clad luster in the mid-90s, a new sound began to color the edges of DIY music scenes at house shows and punk clubs across the country. Growing out of the tradition sparked by Picciotto and co. in the previous decade, emo’s second wave was beginning to crest. Trading walls of distortion for twinkling guitars, wistful lyrics and off-kilter time signatures, this new mutation largely eschewed its hardcore roots in favor of something more polished and polite. Often dubbed “midwest emo” due to the heartland origins of bands like American Football, Braid and The Get
Denver band A Place for Owls headlines Southwest Emo Fest at Larimer Lounge on June 29. Credit: Eric Wencel
Up Kids, the second-wave era is arguably the slippery subgenre’s most defining.
In his seminal 2003 book Nothing Feels Good: Punk Rock, Teenagers and Emo, music journalist Andy Greenwald sums it up like so: “This was the period when emo earned many, if not all, of the stereotypes that have lasted to this day: boy-driven, glasses-wearing, overly sensitive, overly brainy, chiming-guitar college music.”
THIRD WAVE (2001-2009)
Essential bands: My Chemical Romance, Paramore, Jimmy Eat World. Sounds like: being too nervous to talk to the Hot Topic cashier with a septum piercing
While the Arizona-based quartet Jimmy Eat World got off the ground during emo’s fabled second wave, the band’s 2001 mega-hit “The Middle” would mark the subgenre’s unlikely divebomb into the mainstream. With its bouncy palm-muted guitars, crashing cymbals and life-affirming chorus, the track sailed to No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
Jimmy Eat World’s gate-crashing rise during the death rattle of the MTV era opened the door for a sonically diverse constellation of artists with disparate sounds and arena-sized ambitions. Bands like My Chemical Romance, Taking Back Sunday and Paramore would soon follow suit, launching an ill-defined genre from the obscurity of sweaty midwestern basement shows to the profit ledgers of major labels and stadium marquees around the world.
Its stylistic boundaries more fluid than ever, the commercial success of thirdwave emo came with a head-splitting cultural hangover. Associated with the angular haircuts and “rawr xD” aesthetics of the early social media platform MySpace, the term fell more out of fashion than ever amid the rapid
MUSIC
WANNA HURT YOUR OWN FEELINGS? Follow the QR code for an emo mixtape curated by Ben Sooy of A Place for Owls, featuring modern classics and choice cuts from Southwest Emo Fest 2024.
rise of indie-sleaze hipsterism.
The genre’s tanking reputation had gone deeper than losing a few cool points, blossoming into a full-blown moral panic. In response to an imagined plague of suicidal teens in eyeliner typing tearful odes to self-harm on the internet, a 2008 article in the Daily Mail ran with the headline: “Why no child is safe from the sinister cult of emo.”
From this low point grew a new crop of artists who skipped the baggage of the previous decade by harkening back to the genre’s more innocent second wave. From the sensitive pop-punk stylings of Joyce Manor and Modern Baseball to the melancholic yearning of Foxing and The Hotelier, this new movement — dubbed the “emo revival” by culture writers — would mark a critical turning point for the scene that continues today.
FIFTH WAVE (2018–PRESENT)
Essential bands: Pool Kids, Sweet Pill, Home Is Where. Sounds like: secondwave emo with fewer dudes
For a bridge between emo’s past and future, look to the festival circuit. The anticipated Best Friends Forever Fest happening this October in Las Vegas brings the old guard together with the new, featuring giants like Sunny Day Real Estate and American Football alongside an emerging slate of younger and more diverse acts like Sweet Pill, Mannequin Pussy and Pool Kids.
“I definitely grew up listening to the more commercial side, like Taking Back Sunday, Armor for Sleep and Paramore,” 29-year-old Sweet Pill frontwoman Zayna Youssef said in an interview last year. “I feel like that’d be a fun Buzzfeed quiz: ‘What Wave of Emo Are You?’”
SPARKING CHANGE
Local venue wants to help fill Boulder’s need for accessible performing arts space
BY TONI TRESCA
Boulder prides itself on its arts scene, but the city has long suffered from a lack of low-cost performance space. Enter The Spark, a performing arts venue founded by locals Dillon Kenyon and Marla Schulz in 2019 to offer an outlet for creatives.
“We wanted to provide an affordable space for artists,” Kenyon explained during a recent facilities tour with Boulder Weekly. “I met so many artists working side jobs or teaching [who] could not afford to make their own art because Boulder is so expensive. This was before COVID, and the Dairy Center was always full, so we decided to take matters into our own hands.”
They eventually settled on a building just off Foothills Parkway on east Pearl Street to house rentable art space. The location eliminated the need for travelers to drive through downtown Boulder, which was important for Kenyon and Schulz since they hoped to attract clients from all over Boulder County and Denver.
“When we took over, it was a huge warehouse with no walls or bathrooms — it was just one big room,” Kenyon recalls. “Our goal was to make the space as neutral as possible … we host everything from youth theater to burlesque. We are willing to do whatever you want as long as you are respectful, help us clean and pay the rent.”
WAREHOUSE TO WONDERLAND
transformed the warehouse into a functional arts venue, complete with two dance studios and a flexible 100-seat theater space.
“All of the rentable spaces have sprung floors designed so dancers can practice and perform without injury,” Kenyon says. “We have noticed that houses in Boulder are rarely full for shows, so The Spark is an ideal size because it is not too big, making selling
affordability of our space. Summers had been relatively slow, but we now have a large number of people using our space, which is fantastic, so we reduced our programming to make more room for other organizations.”
In addition to renting space, The Spark stages its own theater productions, where students perform alongside experienced professionals who serve as mentors. This mentorship model allows students of all ages — from middle schoolers to adults — to learn directly from active theater artists, bridging the gap between educational and professional theater.
The organization recently announced its 2024-2025 season, which includes Carrie: The Musical, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Eurydice, Cinderella and The Prom. All of these
‘IT COSTS A LOT TO BE HERE’
Despite successful shows, The Spark faces steep operational challenges. The organization pays $12,000 per month in rent ($144,000 per year), accounting for roughly half of its $300,000 annual operating budget.
The building owner suspended rent payments during the peak of the pandemic and forgave half of the accumulated rent, which they are still working to repay.
“We move a lot of money, and as a nonprofit, we have to be open about it, but it costs a lot to be here,” Kenyon says. “That’s the reality, and our taxes went up 62% last year, so that’s an extra $1,000 a month. We’re making it work because that’s the cost of doing business in Boulder.”
out a realistic possibility.”
Their first major project was obtaining a $20,000 grant from the City of Boulder to install gender-neutral restrooms, which Fenyon says wasn’t enough to cover the entire construction cost, but was “a nice start.” From there, they
The Spark has become a hub for a variety of arts organizations, including Boulder Performing Arts Co., The Dance Front and Synthesis Theatre Company. Additionally, independent artists and smaller organizations use the space for rehearsals and performances.
“We typically work with 20 to 50 organizations at a time,” Kenyon says. “It varies, but we have a lot of repeat renters who love the flexibility and
shows will feature both children and adult mentors working side by side. Mentors are paid or volunteer, and students pay flexible tuition based on their financial situation.
“The Spark is not for everybody; not every adult wants to help coach teenagers, but the people who do love it,” Kenyon says. “We stop to break things down, and the adults talk about their process, which bumps up the quality of the productions, so they don’t feel like youth theater.”
In addition to these financial hurdles, The Spark also faces a major obstacle when it comes to marketing.
“Our biggest challenge has been getting people to believe that we’re a legit place,” Kenyon says. “When a new business starts, there is always the question of whether it will survive, so the most difficult part has been getting the word out so people know who we are.”
Looking ahead, The Spark hopes to secure additional grants — including critical dollars from the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District, a taxpayer-supported funding mechanism serving seven Front Range counties, for which they are now eligible. Current needs include upgrades to equipment and infrastructure like outdoor signage and website improvements.
“My number one goal is to become financially stable, so we can pay everyone what they are worth and allow anyone to participate without worrying about money,” Kenyon says. “We aren’t there yet, but that’s the dream — the team is working hard to make it a reality.”
For more on The Spark’s upcoming productions, classes and camps, visit thesparkcreates.org.
The Spark co-founder Dillon Kenyon says the impetus for launching the venue on east Pearl Street was “to provide an affordable space for artists.” Courtesy: The Spark
Kinds of Kindness is a return to form for the Greek filmmaker behind last year’s Oscar-winning Poor Things
Courtesy: Searchlight Pictures
RETURN TO WEIRD
Yorgos Lanthimos embraces his roots with the inscrutable ‘Kinds of Kindness’ BY MICHAEL J. CASEY
What do you even say about a movie like Kinds of Kindness? Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, the film is composed of three stories, each involving a handful of characters, each played by the same handful of actors. The stories don’t really connect, except for the character of R.M.F. (Yorgos Stefanakos), a middle-aged man who never speaks. In the first story, R.M.F. must be killed. In the third story, R.M.F. must be resurrected. What happens in between is your best guess. Born in Athens in 1973, Lanthimos came to prominence at the turn of the century with a handful of fellow filmmakers in a movement known as the “Greek Weird Wave.” Much like other contained movements in postmodern cinema — say Dogme 95 — the Greek Weird Wave was a jolt of energy into world cinema for its unusual stories, eccentric characters, quizzical structures and stilted pacing. If you haven’t seen Lanthimos’ Alps, you really should. It’s
about rhythmic gymnastics and professional impersonators. It’s wild. Naturally, when they label a movement and make you the poster boy, Hollywood comes calling. And after 2011’s Alps, Lanthimos left Greece to make The Lobster and hasn’t looked back. The Lobster and its follow-up, The Killing of a Sacred Deer, are weird, but not nearly as weird as his Greek films. Then, in 2018, Lanthimos made The Favourite with Emma Stone, and a match made in weird heaven was born. Stone is back for Kindness, first as Rita, a woman under the thumb of the domineering Raymond (Willem Dafoe). Then as Liz, a shipwrecked marine biologist who returns home to find her husband, Daniel (Jesse Plemons), a cold and domineering man. And finally as Emily, a cult follower searching for a woman of a certain age, height and weight, a particular distance from nipple to navel, with an identical twin — preferably deceased — that can raise the dead.
Talk about a mouthful. Kinds of Kindness is like that. Screenwriters Lanthimos and Efthimis Filippou, who co-wrote two of Lathimos’ Greek movies, Dogtooth and Alps, construct every section and scene with suffocating specificity. Only the players, Stone, Dafoe and Plemmons, alongside Joe Alwyn, Mamoudou Athie, Hong Chau and Margaret Qualley, breathe humanity into it. Everyone is good in Kindness; everyone is game — 100% necessary in a Lanthimos film. There’s also a lot of sex and nudity, which you might expect from the maker of Poor Things
But Lanthimos might be the least erotic filmmaker of all time. Sex, nakedness or near nakedness seems to be a hallmark he enjoys returning to, though it is not an enjoyment he is interested in sharing with the audience. Instead, he offers the mechanical act of intercourse sans sensuality and the absence of modesty sans desire. Yet, it never feels exploitative or titillating the way many Hollywood movies are. Oh, speaking of
sex, in the third story, Emily (Stone) is drugged and raped by her ex-husband (Alwyn). Just thought I should warn you because it’s not brief.
Maybe that’s what a review of Kinds of Kindness is: not an analysis (good luck), a recounting (godspeed) or a recommendation (ha!) but a warning. You may not find narrative coherence here. You may not find a single solitary character to like. You may not understand those characters’ motivations. You may not understand who put certain structures in place and why others follow them blindly. And you may not find any kinds of kindness. You will see a weird dance by Emma Stone — it’s almost a requirement for a Lanthimos movie at this point. Some things you can count on.
ON SCREEN: Kinds of Kindness opens in theaters June 28.
BOOM GOES BOCO
Your guide to upcoming holiday fireworks displays
Looking for some good old-fashioned family fun this Fourth of July? To help you celebrate, Boulder Weekly put together this handy roundup of firework displays and light shows on the Front Range and beyond.
ARVADA
7-10 p.m. Thursday, July 4
Stenger Soccer Complex 11200 W. 58th Ave.
AURORA
6-10 p.m. Thursday, July 4
Aurora Municipal Center 15151 E. Alameda Parkway
BERTHOUD
5-9:30 p.m. Wednesday, July 3
Waggener Farm Park 1000 N. Berthoud Parkway
BRIGHTON
All day. Thursday, July 4
Carmichael Park 650 Southern St.
BROOMFIELD
5-10 p.m. Thursday, July 4
Broomfield County Commons Park 13200 Sheridan Blvd.
CASTLE ROCK
9:30 p.m. Thursday, July 4
Acme Brick 401 Prairie Hawk Drive
COMMERCE CITY
5:30 p.m. Thursday, July 4
Dick’s Sporting Goods Park 6000 Victory Way
DENVER
5 p.m. Wednesday, July 3
Denver Civic Center 101 14th Ave. LIGHT SHOW
Post-game. Thurs.-Fri., July 4-5
Coors Field 2001 Blake St.
9 p.m. Friday, July 5
Elitch Gardens 2000 Elitch Circle
ENGLEWOOD
5-10 p.m. Thursday, July 4
Belleview Park 5001 S. Inca Drive
ERIE
6-10 p.m. Wednesday, July 3
Erie Community Park 450 Powers St.
FORT COLLINS
All day. Thursday, July 4
Sheldon Lake at City Park 1500 W. Mulberry St.
GRAND LAKE
10 p.m. Thursday, July 4 536 Cairns Ave.
HIGHLANDS RANCH
9:30 p.m. Thursday, July 4
Highland Heritage Regional Park 9651 S. Quebec St.
IDAHO SPRINGS
10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Thursday, July 4
Charlie Tayler Waterwheel, I-70
LAFAYETTE
4-10 p.m. Saturday, June 29
Waneka Lake Park - Boat House 1600 Caria Drive
ESTES PARK
6 p.m. Thursday, July 4 Lake Estes 1770 Big Thompson Ave.
FIRESTONE
10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Thursday, July 4 Miners Park 170 Grant Ave.
LAKEWOOD
5-10 p.m. Wednesday, July 3
Belmar Plaza 7180 W. Alaska Drive DRONE SHOW
LITTLETON
5-10 p.m. Thursday, July 4
Cornerstone Park 5150 S. Windermere St.
LONE TREE
All day. Thursday, July 4
Prairie Sky Park 9381 Crossington Way
LONGMONT
9:15 p.m. Thursday, July 4
Dicken’s Farm Nature Center Boston Ave. DRONE SHOW
9:30 p.m. Thursday, July 4
Longmont Fire Training Center 111 1st Ave.
LOUISVILLE
6-10:30 p.m. Thursday, July 4
Coal Creek Golf Course 585 W. Dillon Road
LOVELAND
4-10 p.m. Thursday, July 4
North Lake Park 2750 N. Taft Ave.
NORTHGLENN
Noon to 9:30 p.m. Thursday, July 4
E.B. Rains Jr. Memorial Park
11800 Community Center Drive
PARKER
9:30 p.m. Thursday, July 4
Salisbury Park 11920 N. Motsenbocker Road
THORNTON
Noon to 9:30 p.m. Thursday, July 4
Carpenter Park Fields 11000 Colorado Blvd.
WESTMINSTER
9:15-10 p.m. Thursday, July 4
Westminster City Park 10455 Sheridan Blvd.
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STORY ON THE ROCKS
6-7:30 p.m, Thursday, June 27, Ron Stewart Parks and Open Space Building, 5201 St. Vrain Road, Longmont. Free
Explore nearly two billion years of geologic history in your own backyard. Volunteer naturalists will teach you all about the local landscape, revealing “a record of the Earth’s history that can be read like the pages in a book.” Registration required: bit.ly/ RocksBW
28
COMEDY UNDERGROUND
8-11 p.m. Friday, June 28, The Louisville Underground, 640 Main St. Free
Celebrated local comic David Testroet headlines this month’s Comedy Underground showcase in Louisville. With more than a decade of stand-up touring experience — “from Walla Walla to Tokyo” — this fast and funny comedy show is sure to have you and your crew in stitches.
28 – 29
BOTANICAL BANDANA DYE CLASS
11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Fri.-Sat., June 28-29, 713 Pearl St., Boulder. $76
Learn about the science of natural plant dyes during this 18+ workshop led by artist Leah Rich. After learning the basics of fibers and plant pigments, you’ll steam and infuse botanicals into your complementary hand-sewn cotton bandana using the bundle-dye method.
29
HYGIENE ARTS AND MUSIC FESTIVAL
10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday, June 29, 7510 Hygiene Road, Hygiene. Free
Head north for a day of live entertainment and family fun during the Hygiene Music and Art Festival. Complete with a pancake breakfast, two stages of music, artist booths, food trucks and more. All proceeds benefit the Hygiene Volunteer Fire Department.
29
CENTRAL PARK LECTURE SERIES
11:00 a.m. to 2 p.m. June 29, Central Park Bandshell, 1212 Canyon Blvd., Boulder. Free
Celebrate 100 years of Boulder’s iconic Central Park during this free community event happening in conjunction with the Boulder Farmers Market. Festivities will include live music by the School of Rock Boulder House Band, followed by a slate of presentations on the park’s storied history.
29
QUEER CIRCUS
7-10:30 p.m. Saturday, June 29, Junkyard Social Club, 2525 Frontier Ave., Boulder. $20
Head to Junkyard Social Club for an 18+ cabaret-style show featuring local LGBTQ+ comedians, dancers, poets, musicians and other performing artists. Drinks will be available to purchase for attendees over 21.
29
BOULDER GARDEN TOUR
9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, June 29, Mapleton Early Childhood Center, 840 Mapleton Ave., Boulder. $22-$37
Take in the sights, sounds and aromas of the lush gardens of historic Mapleton Hill during the 20th annual Boulder Garden Tour. This guided experience takes guests through 10 private gardens and homesteads complete with stunning flowers, fruit trees, water features and more.
29
ART AND MEDITATION
10-11:30 a.m. Saturday, June 29, 291 2nd Ave., Niwot. $30
Paintings from the 2024 Boulder County Plein Air Festival will be a catalyst for contemplation and reflection during this guided meditation session with instructor Michael Franklin of Naropa University, exploring the intersection between art and mindfulness.
30
BOULDER PRIDE FESTIVAL
11:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Sunday, June 30, Pearl Street Mall, Boulder. Free
Pride Month goes out with a bang during this fabulous flagship festival in the heart of the People’s Republic. Reps from local nonprofits, businesses and food trucks will be on hand alongside a full slate of performances at the Boulder Bandshell for a day of free, family-friendly fun.
30
COLORADO PRIDE KIKI BALL
5-10 p.m. Sunday, June 30, Glenn Miller Ballroom, University Memorial Center Level 2, Boulder. $20+
Get ready to serve during the Colorado Pride KiKi Ball. Compete for trophies and cash prizes up to $1,600 in the categories of realness, runway, sex appeal and more while enjoying a supportive night out with the community.
30
RED, WHITE & BREWS 5K @ WILD PROVISIONS
10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday, June 30, Wild Provisions by 4 Noses Brewing Company, 2209 Central Ave., Boulder. $35
“Walk, jog, run or crawl…” your way to victory during this low-stakes race in beautiful Boulder. At the end, you’ll receive a token for a free beer and a collectible pint glass courtesy of Wild Provisions. Registration required: bit.ly/wildprovisions_5k
3
NEW MOON YOGA + SOUND HEALING
7:15-8:30 p.m. Wednesday, July 3, Yoga Pearl, 900 Pearl St., Unit 4, Boulder. $27
Looking to start your month in the right mindset? Join instructor Valerie at Yoga Pearl to ring in the new moon with a restorative yoga session and sound bath featuring gongs, singing bowls and sacred instruments.
LIVE MUSIC
THURSDAY, JUNE 27
MAGIC BUS. 6 p.m. BOCO Cider, 1501 Lee Hill Drive, Unit 14, Boulder. Free
LAURIE DAMERON. 6 p.m. Bricks on Main, 471 Main St., Longmont. Free
DAMIAN “JR. GONG” MARLEY WITH STEPHEN MARLEY, THE COLORADO SYMPHONY AND BURNING SPEAR. 7 p.m. Red Rocks Park Amphitheatre, 18300 W. Alameda Parkway, Morrison.
AMARYLLIS WITH RIVER MANN. 8 p.m. Velvet Elk Lounge, 2037 13th St., Boulder. $17
BOB BARRICK 8 p.m. The Laughing Goat, 1709 Pearl St., Boulder. Free
YUGS WITH KEDDJRA, TONGUEBYTE AND SUNSTONEY 8 p.m. Hi-Dive, 7 S. Broadway, Denver. $15
BILL MCKAY TRIO. 9 p.m. Mountain Sun Pub, 1535 Pearl St., Boulder. Free
FACE VOCAL BAND 5:30 p.m. Left Hand Brewing, 1265 Boston Ave., Longmont. $20
JAY STOTT TRIO. 6 p.m. BOCO Cider, 1501 Lee Hill Drive, Unit 14, Boulder. Free
PHOEBE NIX WITH YUGS AND HAPLESS SUNDAY. 6 p.m. Trident Booksellers & Cafe, 940 Pearl St., Boulder. Free
THE JACK HADLEY BAND. 6 p.m. Bricks on Main, 471 Main St., Longmont. Free
JOE C. WAILS GANG 6 p.m. Bootstrap Brewing, 142 Pratt St., Longmont. Free
RECKLESS AND BLUE 7 p.m. Muse Performance Space, 200 E. South Boulder Road, Lafayette. $20
ERIC STONE DUO. 7 p.m. Longs Peak Pub, 600 Longs Peak Ave., Longmont. Free
LIONEL YOUNG DUO 8 p.m. Velvet Elk Lounge, 2037 13th St., Boulder. Free
SOUTHWEST EMO FEST FEAT. A PLACE FOR OWLS, OH DRIFTER, TROUBLED MINDS AND MORE Noon-7:30 p.m. Saturday, June 29, Larimer Lounge, 2721 Larimer St., Denver. $18 STORY ON P. 22
PEAK 2 PEAK. 8 p.m. Roots Music Project, 4747 Pearl St., Suite V3A, Boulder. $15
OMNI WITH FAKE FRUIT AND TENDER OBJECT. 9 p.m. Hi-Dive, 7 S. Broadway, Denver. $17
SPIRIT MOTEL (ODESZA AFTER PARTY) 11 p.m. Fox Theatre, 1135 13th St., Boulder. $20
LIVE MUSIC
ON THE BILL
Oklahoma emo-pop party rockers CLIFFDIVER bring their fun-forward sound from the Southern Plains to the Front Range for a July 2 show at the Marquis Theatre
Following their latest LP Exercise Your Demons, the Tulsa-based band performs in support of early-00s standard bearers The Early November. Flip to p. 22 for a primer on all things emo before you go. See listing for details
SUNDAY, JUNE 30
PETER GARLAND 1 p.m. Bricks on Main, 471 Main St., Longmont. Free
LOCO UKELELE JAM 2 p.m. Bootstrap Brewing, 142 Pratt St., Longmont. Free
BACKSTREET JAZZ. 4 p.m. BOCO Cider, 1501 Lee Hill Drive, Unit 14, Boulder. Free
SCOTT VON 4 p.m. Left Hand Brewing, 1265 Boston Ave., Longmont. Free
GABE RUPE 7 p.m. Muse Performance Space, 200 E. South Boulder Road, Lafayette. $20
DANIEL RODRIGUEZ. 7 p.m. Gold Hill Inn, 401 Main St., Boulder. $20
NAS WITH TOBE NWIGWE AND THE COLORADO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA 7 p.m. Red Rocks Park Amphitheatre, 18300 W. Alameda Parkway, Morrison. $60
MAGNOLIA BOULEVARD WITH TIFFANY CHRISTOPHER 8 p.m. Velvet Elk Lounge, 2037 13th St., Boulder. $19
MONDAY, JULY 1
MEADOW MUSIC 5:30 p.m. Chautauqua Park, 900 Baseline Road, Boulder. Free
DIRTY HEADS WITH ALLEN STONE AND TUNNEL VISION 7 p.m. Red Rocks Park Amphitheatre, 18300 W. Alameda Parkway, Morrison. $132
Want more Boulder County events? Check out the complete listings online by scanning this QR code.
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ASTROLOGY
BY ROB BREZSNY
ARIES (MARCH 21-APRIL 19): This may sound weird, but I think now is a perfect time to acquire a fresh problem. Not just any old boring problem, of course. Rather, I’m hoping you will carefully ponder what kind of dilemma would be most educational for you — which riddle might challenge you to grow in ways you need to. Here’s another reason you should be proactive about hunting down a juicy challenge: Doing so will ensure that you won’t attract mediocre, meaningless problems.
TAURUS (APRIL 20-MAY 20): Now is an excellent time to start learning a new language or to increase your proficiency in your native tongue. Or both. It’s also a favorable phase to enrich your communication skills and acquire resources that will help you do that. Would you like to enhance your ability to cultivate friendships and influence people? Are you interested in becoming more persuasive, articulate and expressive? If so, Taurus, attend to these self-improvement tasks with graceful intensity. Life will conspire benevolently on your behalf if you do. (PS: I’m not implying you’re weak in any of these departments, just that now is a favorable time to boost your capacities.)
GEMINI (MAY 21-JUNE 20): Barbara Sher and Barbara Smith wrote the book I Could Do Anything If I Only Knew What It Was: How to Discover What You Really Want and How to Get It. I invite you to think and feel deeply about this theme during the coming months. In my experience with Geminis, you are often so versatile and multi-faceted that it can be challenging to focus on just one or two of your various callings. And that may confuse your ability to know what you want more than anything else. But here’s the good news. You may soon enjoy a grace period when you feel really good about devoting yourself to one goal more than any other.
CANCER (JUNE 21-JULY 22): You are entering a phase when you will be wise to question fixed patterns and shed ageold habits. The more excited you get about reevaluating everything you know and believe, the more likely it is that exciting new possibilities will open up for you. If you are staunchly committed to resolving longstanding confusions and instigating fresh approaches, you will launch an epic chapter of your life story. Wow! That sounds dramatic. But it’s quite factual. Here’s the kicker: You’re now in prime position to get vivid glimpses of specific successes you can accomplish between now and your birthday in 2025.
LEO (JULY 23-AUG. 22): How many different ways can you think of to ripen your spiritual wisdom? I suggest you choose two and pursue them with gleeful vigor in the coming weeks. You are primed to come into contact with streams of divine revelations that can change your life for the better. All the conditions are favorable for you to encounter teachings that will ennoble your soul and hone your highest ideals. Don’t underestimate your power to get the precise enlightenment you need.
VIRGO (AUG. 23-SEPT. 22): Border collies are dogs with a herding instinct. Their urges to usher, steer and manage are strong. They will not only round up sheep and cattle, but also pigs, chickens and ostriches — and even try to herd cats. In my estimation, Virgo, border collies are your spirit creatures these days. You have a special inclination and talent to be a good shepherd. So use your aptitude with flair. Provide extra navigational help for people and animals who would benefit from your nurturing guidance. And remember to do the same for your own wayward impulses.
LIBRA (SEPT. 23-OCT. 22): We have arrived at the midpoint of 2024. It’s check-in time. Do you recall the promises you made to yourself last January? Are you about halfway into the frontier you vowed to explore? What inspirational measures could you instigate to renew your energy and motivation
for the two most important goals in your life? What would you identify as the main obstacle to your blissful success and how could you diminish it? If you’d like to refresh your memory of the long-term predictions I made for your destiny in 2024, go here: tinyurl.com/Libra2024. For 2023’s big-picture prophecies, go here: tinyurl. com/2023Libra.
SCORPIO (OCT. 23-NOV. 21): Scorpio-born Gary Hug was educated as a machinist and food scientist, but for many years he has worked primarily as an amateur astronomer. Using a seven-foot telescope he built in the backyard of his home, he has discovered a comet and 300 asteroids, including two that may come hazardously close to Earth. Extolling the joys of being an amateur, he says he enjoys “a sense of freedom that you don’t have when you’re a professional.” In the coming weeks, Scorpio, I encourage you to explore and experiment with the joys of tasks done out of joy rather than duty. Identify the work and play that feel liberating and indulge in them lavishly.
SAGITTARIUS (NOV. 22-DEC. 21): Your power spots will be places that no one has visited or looked into for a while. Sexy secrets and missing information will be revealed to you as you nose around in situations where you supposedly should not investigate. The light at the end of the tunnel is likely to appear well before you imagined it would. Your lucky number is 8, your lucky color is black and your lucky emotion is the surprise of discovery. My advice: Call on your memory to serve you in amazing ways; use it as a superpower.
CAPRICORN (DEC. 22-JAN. 19): Happy Unbirthday, Capricorn! It’s time to celebrate the season halfway between your last birthday and your next. I hope you will give yourself a fun gift every day for at least the next seven days. Fourteen days would be even better. See if you can coax friends and allies to also shower you with amusing blessings. Tell them your astrologer said that would be a very good idea. Now here’s an unbirthday favor from me: I promise that between now and January 2025, you will create healing changes in your relationship with your job and with work in general.
AQUARIUS (JAN. 20-FEB. 18): While sleeping, my Aquarian friend Janelle dreamed that she and her family lived in a cabin in the woods. When dusk was falling, a strange animal put its face against the main window. Was it a bear? A mountain lion? Her family freaked out and hid in a back bedroom. But Janelle stayed to investigate. Looking closely, she saw the creature was a deer. She opened up the window and spoke to it, saying, “What can I do for you?” The deer, who was a talking deer, said, “I want to give you and your family a gift. See this necklace I’m wearing? It has a magic ruby that will heal a health problem for everyone who touches it.” Janelle managed to remove the necklace, whereupon the deer wandered away and she woke up from the dream. During subsequent weeks, welcome changes occurred in her waking life. She and three of her family members lost physical ailments that had been bothering them. I think this dream is a true fairy tale for you in the coming weeks, Aquarius.
PISCES (FEB. 19-MARCH 20): A psychologist friend tells me that if we have an intense craving for sugar, it may be a sign that deeper emotional needs are going unmet. I see merit in her theory. But here’s a caveat. What if we are currently not in position to get our deeper emotional needs met? What if there is at least temporarily some barrier to achieving that lovely goal? Would it be wrong to seek a partial quenching of our soul cravings by communing with fudge brownies, peach pie and crème brûlée? I don’t think it would be wrong. On the contrary. It might be an effective way to tide ourselves over until more profound gratification is available. But now here’s the good news, Pisces: I suspect more profound gratification will be available sooner than you imagine.
SAVAGE LOVE
BY DAN SAVAGE
I had a sexual experience that’s left me feeling shitty. Met another gay man on an apps, got wasted together at a leather bar, fucked at his place on a number of substances. He stopped when I was too out of it to proceed. He played some music and let me crash with him until I’d sobered up enough to get a Lyft. When we fucked, I’d asked him to degrade me. I asked him to do and say things an abusive ex had often done to me without consent. Why, when wasted and fucking, did I try and recreate sexual assaults I had experienced? In the moment: hot. In the aftermath, I feel as horrible as I did when those events first happened to me.
— Super Upset Boy
I asked therapist Leigh Wakeford to weigh in on your question.
“Recreating a traumatic sexual experience is not uncommon among survivors of abuse,” says Wakeford, “So most importantly, SUB needs to hear that he is not alone. And he also needs to know that one of the beautiful offerings of BDSM play is the potential for revisiting and re-narrating traumatic encounters in a safe, consensual and empowering way, which can help us reclaim things that were taken from us without our permission.” What your abusive ex took from you is a kind of consensual D/s sex play — involving humiliation, degradation, verbal abuse, etc. — that you
may not have been consciously aware you were into before his abuse started. Right now, these things may be tainted by their association with your ex, SUB, but that doesn’t make them bad things. Just as sex in the missionary position in the absence of consent will be experienced as assault by someone who might otherwise enjoy sex in the missionary position, kinky like humiliation and degradation in the absence of consent will be experienced as abuse by someone who might otherwise enjoy them.
“SUB had some shitty and bad things happen to him,” adds Wakeford, “but he is not a bad or shitty person for wanting to experience pleasure in ways that are uniquely exciting to him.”
Which may be exactly what you did that night, SUB: In an effort to create new and positive associations with your kinks, you went out and found someone you intuitively felt you could trust — and your intuition proved to be correct, as evidenced by the way he took care of you when you had to tap out.
“But in my experience, the most effective and safest way to create a new narrative around a past traumatic encounter is also the most sober possible way,” says Wakeford.
Follow Leigh Wakeford is on Instagram and Threads @LeighWakefordTherapy. His website is LeighWakefordTherapy.com
Email your question for the column to mailbox@savage.love or record your question for the Savage Lovecast at savage.love/askdan! Podcasts, columns and more at Savage.Love
HOW TO GRILL AN ICEBERG
Fire, smoke and fresh summer veggies are all you need for a backyard BBQ
BY JOHN LEHNDORFF
With summer’s heat comes the great unsheathing. For people, it’s shedding the layers of cold-weather clothing to take in the sun’s rays and feel the air on their skin. For backyard grills, it’s the tarps or tapered covers that have (hopefully) kept them protected from the Colorado winter.
Grilling is a signature of the season, beloved because it’s fast, doesn’t heat up the kitchen and makes food taste great. Burgers and brats and all manner of meats are the most obvious meals to reach for. But smoke and fire can transform the bountiful summer produce from something you consume for nutritional value into a food you eat for pure joy.
“I love grilling,” says Aaron Lande, the executive sous chef at Academy Boulder, a senior living campus. “Grilling brings out the greatest expression of a vegetable — the sweetness, the aroma, the complexity.”
While grill lines look good and impart a certain flavor, you can’t just throw a rutabaga on the gas or charcoal heat and assume it will taste dreamy. Here are Lande’s hacks for elevated summer produce, honed during thousands of hours of grilling at Boulder-area restaurants such as Eridu, Lucky Pie, Blackbelly and Laudisio.
Choose your grill: “I love charcoal, just because of the flavor you can’t get otherwise. The critical thing is to let the charcoal burn down until it’s glowing red,” Lande says. For practical reasons, most backyard cooks will opt for gas grills.
High heat always: Whether charcoal or gas, the single absolute rule is that the grill must be “screaming hot,” according to Lande. “You can hear a real sizzle as soon as you put anything
on there. If you grill over low or medium heat, you won’t get that flavor and char. That’s the whole point, right?”
Skip the smoker: They’re great for proteins, but not for most vegetables except for brief exposure. “It has to be really quick, or they absorb too much smoke.”
“Whatever you do,” Lande advises, “avoid Liquid Smoke,” a bottled flavor substitute often used on meats. An easy way to add a hint of smokiness is using a high-quality smoked salt.
Salt, pepper and oil: That simple trio is all you need to quickly grill favorites like asparagus, baby artichokes, scallions, pre-cooked Yukon gold potatoes (for potato salad), yellow onion slices, broccolini and baby bok choy.
Oil is essential when grilling. “You want the same amount of cooking everywhere on the vegetable, and oil facilitates it,” he says. Sunflower oil is Lande’s favorite because it doesn’t burn, unlike olive oil. Save the good olive oil to dress and finish veggies post-grilling.
A common error is under-seasoning. Be sure to apply salt and pepper before and after grilling, he adds. Rubs and marinades: Seasoned spice rubs can be used lightly before grilling, and marinades like a basic vinaigrette dressing are an easy way to add additional flavor. Tweaking those spices determines where in the world you are grilling. Lande notes the central role vegetable grilling plays is so many cuisines — Italian, Spanish, Greek, Indian, Mexican and Thai. Summer squash: Zucchini and other summer squash varieties are perfect for grilling and are sponges for flavor. Lande recommends grilling quarter-inch lengthwise squash slices to expose more surface to the heat. Squash has to be grilled over high heat and quickly removed.
Eggplant: There are two eggplant options: Long, thin whole or halved Asian eggplant grill quickly and don’t need to be peeled. The insides are soft and savory.
Classic Italian eggplant must be peeled. Lande recommends salting half- to three-quarter-inch eggplant slices before draining for an hour in a colander. “Give them a squeeze and then add oil, salt and pepper before grilling,” he says. Try eggplant slices in eggplant Parmesan with fresh mozzarella, grated Parmesan and basil leaves.
Iceberg and romaine lettuce: Much-maligned iceberg lettuce is wonderful on the grill. Oil and season a half
head and sizzle for a few minutes before you compose that wedge salad with grilled croutons.
To grill romaine for caesar salads, wash, dry and trim off the stem bottom. “Cut the head in half, season, and place on a hot grill until you get those nice grill marks but retain the crunch,” Lande says.
Sweet corn: One word — “Olathe” — signals summer to Coloradans. There are two ways to grill whole cobs. For simple corn on the cob, peel back the husk, strip off the silk, rub the cob with butter and seasonings and then grill for about five minutes.
For corn salads, charred corn salsa or Mexican street corn (elote), remove the husk, oil and season it and cook until grill marks appear.
Tomatoes: Extremely firm larger tomatoes, red or green, can be grilled in thick slices for burgers. Lande suggests grilling sweet little local cherry tomatoes whole on the grill before adding them to salads.
Chiles: Small sweet peppers can be de-seeded and grilled whole. Bell peppers grill best in quarters or on kebobs. Grilling hot chiles (from Anaheims to habaneros) make it easier to remove tough skins before using in various dishes.
Peaches and cantaloupe: Sweet, juicy Palisade peaches and Rocky Ford melons can also be grilled. Lande loves to serve grilled peaches with burrata cheese and aged balsamic vinegar. Grilled fruits can also be used in fruit salsas.
ON DRUGS
LEAVING THE HATERS BEHIND
Sha’Carri Richardson qualifies for 2024 Olympics after cannabis-related disqualification four years ago
BY NADRA NITTLE THE 19TH
American runner Sha’Carri Richardson was disqualified from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics after testing positive for cannabis. On June 23, Richardson was the winner of the 100-meter race at the U.S. Track and Field Championships, qualifying for the Paris Olympics that begin July 26. This article was originally published by The 19th in September 2023.
During her last race of the 2023 track and field season, sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson finished in fourth place, but that outcome didn’t demoralize her.
Instead, the 23-year-old beamed after the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon — telling reporters that there’s no limit to what she can achieve in her career.
“I feel like for a while I saw this sport more as a job than the love I knew I had for it,” she said, noting that she has been working toward joy and inner peace. “I’m just whole all over again.”
With her hair in a wavy two-toned Afro instead of the brightly colored wigs and braids she tends to wear while competing, Richardson looked whole, too. Her hairstyle made headlines, as Richardson has since she gained global recognition as an Olympic trials contender in 2021.
self-confidence or rule breaking in ways that other athletes have not, experts told The 19th
“It almost seems like we have to be superheroes,” Richardson told Teen Vogue in 2022. “It’s just irritating because you take away the abilities, you take away the speed, you take away the talent … and we’re still human.”
With a bold personality and sense of style, Richardson lives at the intersection of multiple marginalized identities. In addition to being a Black woman, Richardson has said that she is bisexu-
subjected to the respectability politics that have long targeted Black women athletes, a pattern scholars say needs to change.
“It’s all kind of a discourse of respectability politics,” says Sabrina Razack, an assistant professor in the University of Toronto’s Kinesiology and Physical Education department and the Canada project lead for the Centre for Sport and Human Rights. “What’s respectable for women to do? What’s respectable for how she behaves, how she talks, how she presents herself, how she treats her body? If you’re aligning with what is a respectable woman, it’s one who is obedient, one who behaves, one who answers questions when asked, one who doesn’t show anger. But this is also a classic case of misogynoir that is specific toward Black women in the media.”
Whether on or off the field, Razack said, the bar for how women conduct themselves is much higher than it is for men. When race and class are also involved, the expectations become more rigid.
Richardson is just one of many Black women athletes, including Serena and Venus Williams, Coco Gauff, Angel Reese, Brittney Griner and the late Florence “Flo-Jo” Griffith Joyner, who have attracted intense scrutiny around — and been attacked for — their behavior during competition, interactions with reporters, flair for fashion,
al and a survivor of initmate partner violence, a suicide attempt and parental abandonment, having grown up in largely impoverished South Dallas with her grandmother and aunt as caregivers.
Despite the trauma she’s endured, it took her becoming the fastest woman in the world after winning the women’s 100 meter at the track and field world championships in Budapest in August 2023 to renew a skeptical public’s faith in her. And, after that feat, there’s no guarantee that she won’t continue to be
just don’t have for public figures, and that goes for all public figures, especially athletes, but especially for Black athletes, and most especially for Black women.”
After Richardson first garnered widespread public attention two years ago, her colorful hair and long, ornate nails elicited favorable comparisons to Flo-Jo. But then she tested positive for cannabis following her biological mother’s death. Her marijuana use led the U.S. AntiDoping Agency (USADA) to suspend her for a month, keeping her from the Tokyo Olympics — and public sentiment toward her soured.
“Some people are just fairweather fans; they’ll switch with the tides,” says Christina Greer, an associate professor of political science at Fordham University who has written about sports and respectability politics. “She struggled after her mother died. We’re expecting someone to go do their job at the highest levels after their mother died. Grief doesn’t doesn’t go away in 24 hours, and there was some trauma in the family. … I think there’s a level of grace and understanding that people
Richardson’s supporters have argued that both the public and the USADA were too hard on the young runner, given that athletes such as Michael Phelps have used marijuana and many others have been ensnared in doping scandals, which Richardson herself pointed out after she was sanctioned. Specifically, Richardson questioned why the Olympics allowed then-15year-old figure skater Kamila Valieva to compete last year after the Russian youth tested positive for a banned heart medication. While the USADA suspended Richardson, a different organization, the Court of Arbitration for Sport, allowed Valieva to compete, noting that she was just a minor and therefore a “protected person” in the context of the World Anti-Doping Code. Phelps, on the other hand, was suspended for three months in 2009 after a photograph of him smoking cannabis surfaced. The suspension did not prevent him from competing because he consumed marijuana after the Olympics, not before it.
The differences in these cases have done little to change the perception that the USADA treated Richardson unfairly.
“She was definitely treated more harshly because marijuana is not a performance-enhancing drug,” says Mia Moody-Ramirez, chair and professor of journalism, public relations and new media at Baylor University’s College of Arts & Sciences and whose research includes image repair theory. “Many people would say, if anything, it would hamper her performance. And there are other athletes who have actually used performance-enhancing drugs, but they were still allowed to compete.”
A 2018 article in the Clinical Journal of Sports Medicine found that “there is no direct evidence of performanceenhancing effects in athletes” who use cannabis. But the USADA prohibits cannabis consumption because athletes could presumably hurt themselves or others due to the sluggishness induced by the drug. While legal in many states, marijuana is still an illicit substance nationally, casting doubt on
Sha’Carri Richardson at the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest.
Credit: Erik van Leeuwen
whether athletes who use it can serve as role models, according to the agency. Also of concern is that many countries that compete in the Olympics ban the drug, and that it could enhance performance by curbing anxiety, a plus for nervous athletes. Since Richardson did not use cannabis before a competition, however, none of these concerns apply to her consumption of the substance.
After her suspension, advocates for marijuana legalization, medical professionals and politicians were among the individuals questioning the USADA rules. But the anger directed at Richardson didn’t dissipate, with some of her detractors taking aim at her appearance, particularly her artificial eyelashes, colorful wigs, numerous tattoos and piercings, about which they made classist comments.
“In response to her behavior, I heard every word in the lexicon — from ‘hood-rat,’ ‘ghetto,’ ‘low-life,’ etc.,” Ciera Graham, a higher education professional and writer, noted in a Medium post shortly after Richardson’s positive drug test in 2021. “Of course, society has never granted Black women the grace of separating or distinguishing their behavior from their character — weed is bad and thus all Black people who use it must be bad too.”
Brittney Griner, the WNBA star convicted of drug smuggling in Russia after cannabis oil was found in her luggage, was regarded similarly. Although President Joe Biden secured her release from the country in December, some Americans wanted her to remain in a Russian prison because they
believed her “crime” warranted it, experts told Business Insider last year. But Griner had a doctor’s prescription to use the cannabis oil and said she didn’t know it had been packed in her luggage. Scholars also told the publication that the fact that Griner is Black, queer and gender-nonconforming reduced public sympathy for her, an argument that could also be applied to Richardson minus the gender-nonconforming component.
“She is a unique person, and she takes pride in her style, in the way she dresses, in her nails, and she’s just going to keep doing what she does,” MoodyRamirez says. “But I think she probably will continue to be criticized because people expect women to behave a certain way, and because she doesn’t fit that mold, she’s going to be criticized.”
on to win the U.S. Open this month, sparked debate after she complained about an opponent’s regulation violations. She earned both praise and pushback, often divided along race and gender lines, for approaching the chair umpire with her concerns.
woman that the mainstream does not view as representative of the United States, “whether it’s the hair, the makeup, the nails, or where she’s from, and her background or her story,” Greer says. “To her credit, she didn’t just go away. She trained, she got better and she came back to become the fastest woman in the world.”
That Richardson made a comeback after a notorious comeuppance gives Razack hope that the public won’t continue to harshly judge Black women athletes, but she does not expect misogynoir in sports to disappear.
How Black women behave as competitors has also been heavily scrutinized. Richardson and Venus Williams have both been questioned for daring to exude confidence. Richardson and tennis star Naomi Osaka have also been called out for snubbing the news media. Osaka was actually fined for doing so. And acting in a way that’s even perceived to be aggressive has led to criticism of Black women athletes. In August, Coco Gauff, who went
Razack said that Black women exhibiting the same bravado as other athletes sparks backlash because they are perpetually expected to be “humble” or simply “grateful to be there” to remain in society’s good graces. For having swagger and the guts to say “I’m that girl,” Richardson has been called “arrogant,” widely believed to be a modern-day way to call Black people “uppity.”
More than anything, Greer believes Richardson has been denigrated and maligned because she is a Black
“Each time a moment like this happens, we do move the needle a little bit,” Razack says of Richardson’s recent success. “What we’ve seen after George Floyd is this racial reckoning. The rock has been pushed up the hill, but now we see the rock coming back down a little bit, and we still have to continue pushing it up the hill. I think that we’ll continue to have these instances happen. Yes, there will always be the haters, so we must continue to protect, support and rally around Sha’Carri. I am happy that I see her smiling.”
The 19th is an independent, nonprofit newsroom reporting on gender, politics and policy.
Swimmer Michael Phelps was suspended for three months in 2009 after a photo was released showing him smoking weed. He was still allowed to compete since the suspension took place in the off season. Credit: Fernando Frazão, Agência Brasil
