Boulder Weekly 07.27.2023

Get Smart

COMMENTARY

JULY 27, 2023

Volume 30, Number 49

PUBLISHER: Fran Zankowski

EDITORIAL

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Caitlin Rockett

ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR: Jezy J. Gray

GENERAL ASSIGNMENT REPORTER: Will Matuska

FOOD EDITOR: John Lehndorff

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: Dave Anderson, Will Brendza, Rob Brezsny, Michael J. Casey, Dan Savage, Jessica Sharpe, Toni Tresca, Colin Wrenn

SALES AND MARKETING

MARKET DEVELOPMENT MANAGER: Kellie Robinson

SENIOR ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE: Matthew Fischer

ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE: Chris Allred

SPECIAL PROJECTS MANAGER: Carter Ferryman

MRS. BOULDER WEEKLY: Mari Nevar

PRODUCTION

CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Erik Wogen

SENIOR GRAPHIC DESIGNER: Mark Goodman

CIRCULATION MANAGER: Cal Winn

CIRCULATION TEAM: Sue Butcher, Ken Rott, Chris Bauer

BUSINESS OFFICE

BOOKKEEPER: Emily Weinberg

FOUNDER/CEO: Stewart Sallo

THE EDUCATION ISSUE

THE STUDENT DEBT MESS GREW OUT OF REAGAN’S WAR ON ‘INTELLECTUAL CURIOSITY’

BY DAVE ANDERSON

It was a shock when the Supreme Court blocked President Biden’s plan to cancel up to $20,000 for student loan borrowers. Biden responded with an alternate route to debt cancellation using the Higher Education Act, including a negotiated rulemaking and notice-and-comment period that will likely take many months.

Unsatisfied with this plan B, a coalition of 179 organizations led by the Student Borrower Protection Center urged Biden to instead enact a new plan “as swiftly as possible” to deliver on his $20K-relief promise.

Meanwhile, another national group is determined to defeat 13 vulnerable Republican U.S. House representatives (including Lauren Boebert) in 2024 because they opposed Biden’s plan.

To understand the level of hypocrisy built into denying student loan debt relief, travel back to 2011 when Occupy Wall Street camps blossomed everywhere during the Great Recession. We broke the American taboo on discussing class and capitalism. We chanted, “Banks got bailed out, we got sold out!” We denounced a grasping, greedy and somewhat dim

financial elite and their paid-off politicians.

America forgave the debt of major banks and financial institutions in 2008, preventing something worse. The government could have nationalized those institutions and punished the big shots for their incredible irresponsibility. That didn’t happen. But the government had to do something.

Occupy signs read, “I Am Not A Loan!” Why did so many people have enormous student loan debt? A study by the U.S. General Accounting

Anderson continued on page 6

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.

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LETTERS

RE: ‘HOW A LANDMARK GREEN NEW DEAL VICTORY WAS WON’

Thanks, Dave [Anderson]. A major victory by DSA-NY, the New York Renews Coalition, which led the successful four-year campaign to pass the 2019 New York Climate Law (CLCPA), is a more comprehensive model for a statewide Green New Deal, vital while Congress is gridlocked. NY Renews is a broad coalition of some 360 organizations, including major unions and environmental groups, but also people of color community groups, faith and social justice organizations, including several [Democratic Socialists of America] chapters.

The Build Public Renewables Act was part of a legislative package NY Renews pushed this year, with mixed results. The DSA-led Public Power NY campaign did most of the work to get BPRA through the legislative gauntlet.

NYR’s principles of Unity (nyrenews.org/partners) are implicitly socialist, [in my opinion]. For example:

“2. We recognize climate change represents a serious threat to all and especially to vulnerable people such as workers, people of color, seniors, youth, and the poor. Governments at all levels need to act now because the warming planet puts prosperity out of reach for far too many.

3. We understand that unchecked corporate power jeopardizes a sustainable future. We support democratic and public control of the energy and finance sectors so that private interests never compromise the health and wellbeing of workers and our communities.

4. We can address both the climate crisis and the inequality crisis with the same set of policies. As the impacts of climate change mount, the crises of inequality and democracy will continue to grow.”

— Mark Schaeffer / Albany, NY

‘BOUTIQUE’ STUDENT HOUSING

[The property at] 2700 Baseline is a proposed “boutique” student housing project at the corner of 27th Way and Moorhead. Just what constitutes “boutique” student housing I discovered in attending a meeting at such a facility owned by the publicly traded American Campus Solutions.

In the lobby was a bank of Apple computers, multiple TV screens, and ping pong and pool tables. A swimming pool was behind the building. The meeting was intended to sway opinion in Martin Acres that the project would be a community asset in creating a park along Moorhead from Skunk Creek through the defunct car wash and Nick’s Auto. Boulder Gas, Grease Monkey, the abandoned Wendy’s and Baseline Liquor would be replaced by a student dormitory with the amenities of a private club. Traffic flow for the businesses on 27th Way and Moorhead currently is surprisingly fluid with multiple entrances and exits, but access and parking look to be a nightmare for the new building.

Having spent my sophomore year in the Lazy J Motel on Euclid Avenue and subsequent years in a succession of rooms in private homes on the Hill, the revelation of such a cocooned campus life was startling. Student housing in Boulder is a competitive and lucrative business with “in locus parentis” carried to an extreme. The site is zoned for neighborhood friendly retail and Martin Acres is designated single family residential, but our landlord-friendly City Council and libertarian Governor Jared Polis, in promoting unbridled development and density, are poised to run roughshod over such distinctions.

Resource conservation and affordable housing are of no concern in this project. Displacing four long-standing businesses for luxury housing and a small patch of greenery does nothing positive for the neighborhood.

— Robert Porath / Boulder

RE: ‘RESTORING THE LAND CAN FEEL LIKE A LOT OF FUN’

I loved reading Dr. Rick Knight’s recent article suggesting that ecological restoration could be a new form of outdoor recreation (Writers on the Range, “Restoring the land can feel like a lot of fun,” June 29, 2023). As the executive director of Wildlands Restoration Volunteers (WRV) — a Colorado nonprofit that engages volunteers in land restoration — I am obviously biased, but I would endorse the idea that this work can be a lot of fun!

At WRV, we say we have a dual mission. It’s succinctly described by our tagline: Healing the Land, Building Community. While Dr. Knight focused on the first part of that (thanks to Dr. Knight for acknowledging our work), I’d like to emphasize the importance of the second.

As social creatures, humans need community for plenty of reasons. In fact, recent research concludes that social connections are as basic as our need for food, water and shelter. But social connections also give life meaning and make it fun. Volunteers on WRV projects build relationships with the land, with themselves and with one another. It’s this last example that makes ecological restoration fun; you don’t do it alone but with others who care about the land. If you care about the land and like to have fun outdoors, join a WRV project this summer: wlrv.org

We trust you’ll have a good time!

— Katherine Postelli, Wildlands Restoration Volunteers / Longmont

Office concluded that less than 1% of student loan recipients defrauded creditors. No, this glut of debt was the result of orchestrated predation, not individual moral turpitude.

To appreciate the long game, travel further back to 1967. The justelected governor of California, Ronald Reagan, declared the state had “no business subsidizing intellectual curiosity.” He had campaigned against “beatniks, radicals and filthy speech advocates” on college campuses as well as the professors and administrators who didn’t crack down on student dissent.

The purpose of universities started to change with Reagan’s speech, according to Dan Berrett in a 2015 piece for The Chronicle of Higher Education. The following week, editors of the Los Angeles Times warned that Reagan’s budget cuts and “tampering” with higher education threatened to create second-rate institutions.

“If a university is not a place where intellectual curiosity is to be encouraged, and subsidized,” the editorial board wrote, “then it is nothing.”

Berrett says Reagan “crystalized what has since become conventional wisdom about college. In the early 1970s, nearly three-quarters of freshmen said it was essential to them to develop a meaningful philosophy of life. About a third felt the same about being very well off financially. Now those fractions have flipped. ... A farmer reading the classics or an industrial worker quoting Shakespeare was at one time an honorable character. Today’s news stories lament bartenders with chemistry degrees.”

After World War II, higher education became a public good as many more people were able to go to college. Universities had low or no tuition. Some 30 years later in California, Reagan was determined to end tuition-free higher education with help from his education adviser Roger A. Freeman.

A week before Reagan’s reelection as governor of California in 1970, the San Francisco Chronicle quoted Freeman saying, “We are in

danger of producing an educated proletariat. … That’s dynamite! We have to be selective on who we allow [to go to college].”

Political economist Julian Jacobs, writing in Jacobin, argues that young people today face a precarious future. There’s a large gap between the earnings of a high school educated worker and a worker with a bachelor’s degree. Increasingly, a college degree is necessary.

But you have to go into debt.

“The total tuition burden is far greater than available scholarship and grant funding,” Jacobs writes. “So as a simple question of resources, it is impossible for most students to avoid taking on debt when they attend college.”

Things are going to get much worse if there isn’t drastic change. Jacobs explains:

“...[T]uition prices have increased by over 500% since the 1980s, significantly outpacing income growth. For a majority of students, this increase in tuition has also outpaced growth in their returns on college degrees. And this manifests in a rising inability to pay off loans among each successive class of students. The result is that too many students are currently paying too much for programs that offer them far too little.”

In June, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) and Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Washington) reintroduced their College for All Act, which would make community college and public vocational schools tuition-free for all students, while making any public college and university free for students from single-parent households making less than $125,000 or couples making less than $250,000.

The bill would increase federal funding to make tuition free for most students at universities that serve non-white groups, such as Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).

It would be paid for by taxing Wall Street speculators.

This is a step toward justice.

This opinion does not necessarily reflect the views of Boulder Weekly.

Anderson continued from page 4

‘OUR BEST INVESTMENT’

BY WILL MATUSKA

It’s an iconic scene: The final bell blares on the last day of class. Students send papers airbourne in jubilation. Alice Cooper’s raspy anthem fills the halls.

School’s out for summer.

Students anticipate this ceremonious end all year, but for many young families it’s the beginning of a season of uncertainty.

“Summers become more expensive” because of the cost of child care, says Jossy Martinez, the mother of 4-yearold Christian and 9-year-old Ileana. Since both she and her husband are full-time employees, it’s a necessity.

“During the school year, [Ileana] has somewhere to go every day,” Martinez says. “In the summertime, it’s hard if I don’t have anything lined up for summer camp or child care.”

Every spring, families face the question of how to best support their kids during the summer when school ends. Parents can already expect to fork out an annual average of $21,000 per child for high-quality, full-time, year-round daycare through preschool in Boulder County, according to estimates from the

Wild Plum Center. Child care rates can vary depending on age and hours they attend. Add in increased cost-of-living expenses across the board, plus the end of pandemic-era supports like maximum allotted SNAP benefits, and many families are stretched to the limit — or beyond.

Martinez says she’s lucky to find fulltime child care this summer for Christian, who just graduated from speech therapy offered through his program. After being on a waitlist for two months leading up to the summer, Martinez was only able to find a camp for Ileana two days a week for the month of June for $400.

When Ileana isn’t at camp, she joins her mom at work, or stays with friends or family. While Martinez would rather have Ileana at camp five days a week all summer, something is better than nothing.

“If I didn’t have child care, I would not be able to work,” she says. “And if I was not able to work, then there’s a lot of bills that would go unpaid — our rent, our vehicles, food — necessities that we need.”

But Martinez’s circumstance is only the cover of a deeper story. Sources say families across the county struggle to receive adequate child care in the summer, and are often left on waitlists of hard-to-find and expensive external programs, or rely on the support of friends, family and neighbors.

“Summer is such a hard time for parents in terms of not having child care, and you have to keep working,” says Julie Van Domelen, executive director of the Emergency Family Assistance Association (EFAA). “It’s just really, really hard.”

It’s especially demanding for young kids, like Christian and Ileana, who are in a crucial period of physical, mental and emotional development and already reeling from the COVID-19 pandemic’s continued impact on education.

While there’s awareness around the challenges stacking up against families in the summertime when school resources are unavailable, some worry how students and families navigate an unmonitored and expensive patchwork of child care without falling through the cracks.

“This is an issue that matters for everybody, not just young families with children,” says Matt Eldred, executive director at Longmont-based TLC Learning Center. “It’s employers, it’s our community, it’s the whole economic system.”

‘A LIFELINE FOR KIDS’

The amount of students in variable housing highlights some of the most extreme family challenges in Boulder County’s school districts.

Last year, the Colorado Department of Education’s McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance (MKV) program recorded the highest number of unhoused students in the last decade in Boulder Valley School District (BVSD) at more than 800 students.

(By May 2023, that number dropped to 700 due to withdrawals.) That same year, St. Vrain Valley School District (SVVSD) identified 722 kids to receive assistance from MKV.

According to EFAA, more than 2,000 people in families with children experienced homelessness in Colorado in 2022.

Students who lack “a fixed, regular and adequate nighttime residence” qualify for MKV. A number of fees are immediately waived for students in the program, including meals and transportation.

Adriana Favila Humara, an MKV program specialist at BVSD, says it’s too early to tell what the program’s numbers will look like next year, but she thinks it will remain high.

Domelen says family homelessness looks different than adult homelessness.

“You may not see as many homeless families with children on bike paths and street corners,” she says, because many families will couch surf, sometimes doubling or tripling up with other families, before hitting the streets. “But the numbers are growing in our community, which has a tremendously negative impact on children.”

School is more than class, says Allison Billings, executive director of Impact on Education, a foundation that provides resources for students and their families.

“What are things going to be like if home is not a happy place, or home is not a stable place, or home is not a

“There’s not an easy answer to child care in general, let alone summer,” says Julie Van Domelen, executive director

of EFAA. Photo courtesy TLC Learning Center.

Layers of economic crises mean families struggle to find and pay for child care when school’s out

place where you’ve got access to food regularly?” Billings says. “Then school is a lot more than a place where you learn. School is a lifeline for kids.”

Summer school options are available for a limited number of students districtwide: About 100 students in the MKV program, and just under 1,500 total students (out of nearly 30,000) accessed BVSD’s Summer Summit Program or its online summer education, according to staff. Martinez says she tried to enroll Ileana in one of SVVSD’s summer programs, but it was full.

Billings says it’s hard to reach students when they aren’t required to be at school in the summer.

“I know a lot of folks in BVSD worry about the kids over the summer, especially the ones that we don’t see who don’t have stable environments at home, but I don’t know what more the schools can do.”

Impact on Education estimates 40% of students don’t meet Boulder County’s self-sufficiency standard, which is more than $100,000 for a family of four. Last year, 25% of students in BVSD were on free or reduced lunch, a 5% increase from the previous academic year. This number has steadily risen since 2019.

The Colorado Department of Education’s Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) offers free breakfast, lunch, snacks and supper to youth in Colorado all summer long, but doesn’t collect data on who attends. Anyone 18 years and younger is eligible. Last sum-

mer, more than two million meals were distributed through the program around the state.

There are 12 SFSP sites scattered around the county. Most are in Longmont. None are in Boulder.

Domelen says it’s “very different” for families having to travel to get food in the summer compared to having food where students are in the school year.

Maggie Sava, a staff member at Broomfield FISH, an organization providing family support services like food, transportation and rental assistance, says families can face higher food costs in summer months because kids aren’t in school.

While food insecurity is a year-round issue, Broomfield FISH is seeing record high visits to its marketplace as families search for food. According to Sava, the organization has seen 26% more people this summer (June 1 to July 20) compared to summer 2020, and nearly 9% more compared to summer 2022.

Domelen says low-income households with small children are hit the hardest by these changes, especially in the summer months.

“People can’t afford what they used to be able to afford, and it doesn’t take much to tip you into the negative when you’re right at the water line,” she says.

HIGH DEMAND

According to state data, there are 297 child care facilities in Boulder County, which Eldred says isn’t enough to meet demand for the estimated 13,000 kids

under 5 years old in the county. TLC Learning Center has a waitlist that is “miles long of families waiting to get in,” Eldred says.

Nationally, the median annual price of child care for one child in counties the size of Boulder County is more than $10,000 for infants, the most expensive care. For school-age children, that number is nearly $7,000. Almost every county in the nation experiences high child care prices relative to family income. Meanwhile, child care workers receive low wages at a median of $13.22 an hour.

Some families at TLC Learning Center pay $1,600 a month for child care, according to Eldred, amounting to $19,200 annually, a number that’s rising statewide.

Martinez received financial aid for each of her kids this summer, a “huge deal,” by her account. Without it, she estimates she would’ve paid upwards of $1,500 just for June. She’s noticed higher camp and child care prices this year compared to last year.

Because of limited availability and expensive child care, Eldred says families often rely on friends, family and neighbors for support in the summer.

“Now for some families that’s by choice. If you’ve got family and relatives in town, and you have grandma watching in the summertime, that’s a family choice,” he says. “For other families, it’s a necessity that potentially an older teenage sibling is watching the younger sibling during the summertime out of need, not necessarily choice.”

Relying on unstructured or unmonitored child care can put stress on families. Sava pointed toward some circumstances where single parents were forced to take off work to support their children, bringing less income to the family.

Eldred says students who are not in early childhood development programs are more likely to enter kindergarten a step behind their peers, creating an achievement gap that grows through elementary school.

The first five years of life impact long-term social, mental, emotional and physical development. Highquality early childhood education can help reduce gaps, but early life stress like physical abuse, family instability and poverty are linked to

developmental delays and poor health outcomes.

Domelen says the effects of homelessness stay with children for a long time.

“If the child has gone through homelessness, [they are] more likely to be out of grade, [have] lower achievement levels and have behavioral health issues,” Domelen says.

‘WE DON’T HAVE A LOT OF ANSWERS’

Martinez describes her kids as adventurous and outdoorsy explorers. Christian is her “wild child,” and Ileana is calm, patient and brave.

She says it’s challenging to balance providing a summer filled with friends, learning and growth for them and a steady income for her house.

“As a parent, you wouldn’t want to hold them back, especially when it comes to finances,” she says. “But I feel like that’s where we hold them back because sometimes we can’t [afford it].”

In the past, Martinez has picked up a second job to support child care.

County leadership is discussing solutions to this growing problem. In June, the Boulder County Commissioners voted against the establishment of an early childhood special district that would have secured public funding for programs and services to support young children.

Eldred says it will take a “mixeddelivery system” combining assistance programs and private and public support to address what children and families need in Boulder County.

It’s proven that investing in kids pays off. Economic studies, like those completed by the National Forum on Early Childhood Policy and Programs, show every dollar invested in early childhood programs can bring returns between $4 and $9.

When it comes down to it, Domelen says someone has to pay for child care and family support services — whether it be local governments, nonprofits or parents.

“I think we should address it as a community because really, our best investment is in the kids in our community,” she says. “They’re the ones that are gonna save the day, right? They’re gonna be our future.”

High-quality early childhood education can build a foundation for social, mental, emotional and physical development. Credit: TLC Learning Center

SUMMER SIDEWALK S A L

Alpaca Connection

Ana’s Art Gallery

Apocalypse

Art Mart Gifts

Art + Soul Gallery

Art Source International

Barbara & Company

Backcountry

Beatrice the Divine

Bliss

Billabong

Boulder Book Store

Burton

Boulder Olive Oil Company

Charlie’s T-Shirts

Colorado Glass Works

Crystal Joys Gallery

Cotopaxi

El

Participating

Flower

Haven

Helly Hansen

Hawaii

Hurdle's Jewelry

Island Farm

Jackalope

JONES

Kama Connection

Lula Faye Fiber

Old Tibet

Paper Doll

prAna

Sarina’s Gifts

Savvy on Pearl

ShoeFly

Trident Booksellers and Cafe

Two Hands Paperie

Two Sole Sisters

Volcom

Weekends

Where the Buffalo Roam

Zeal Optics and more!

‘A SERIES OF DOMINOES’

The Supreme Court effectively ended race-conscious affirmative action policies at U.S. colleges with its June 29 decision in Harvard v. Students for Fair Admissions. We dug into the nuances and impacts of the case with two experts from CU Boulder: Kevin Welner, director of the National Education Policy Center, and Jennifer Ho, director of the Center for Humanities and the Arts and a professor of ethnic studies.

These interviews were conducted separately and have been condensed and edited for length and clarity.

How did we get here?

JENNIFER HO: Let’s start with Ed Blum [the legal activist who founded Students for Fair Admissions]. He began his political career by fighting people who were trying to get gerrymandered, racially segregated neighborhoods to desegregate. He then moved on to affirmative action. This is pure conjecture on my part, but conservative Republicans have had a much broader view of how to fight politically on all fronts: restrict voting, restrict educational access. If you want to restrict public educational access, you can defund public schools. That’s happened. We’ve seen conservatives do a mounted attack on school boards and lay the groundwork for that beginning in the ’90s. The next logical step, of course, is in higher education in terms of affirmative action, which we are currently seeing the gutting of. So this particular Supreme Court decision is actually just one in a series of dominoes meant to dismantle access to higher education.

KEVIN WELNER: The Supreme Court has a set of rules it runs by. One

basic rule is the value of precedence, what’s called stare decisis, the idea that once the court decides something, it doesn’t go back and revisit precedent just because the court makeup has changed. There are clearly exceptions to that over a long run: revisiting Plessy v. Ferguson [via] Brown [v. Board of Education]. So, certainly, there are times when the court needs to [reevaluate precedent]. But the court didn’t just go back and revisit [Plessy]; it tried to implement separate but equal in many cases after that and it became increasingly clear that separate was not equal, that the way that the Plessy decision was being carried out was highly discriminatory. Now what we’re seeing with the current court is a revisiting of precedent simply because the court is now more conservative. There is no other justification. And there is a cynicism to that, and I think a destruction of the federal judiciary so that it doesn’t have that credibility as an institution of justice, but instead is just another political body.

What does this Supreme Court decision mean for prospective CU Boulder students?

WELNER: The vast majority of students who attend institutions of higher education go to colleges that are nonselective or minimally selective. Only 16% of college students attend colleges that are highly or moderately selective (such as Harvard). And by moderately selective I mean they accept less than 50% of their applicants. The majority of colleges in this country are going to be non-selective. Metro State in Denver is a non-selective institution; if you meet the basic requirements, you’re admitted. CU Boulder admits more than 75%

of applicants [and is moderately selective]. My understanding is that the university didn’t consider race in a strong way in the application process, so the impact of this decision on CU Boulder is going to be a lot less than a place like Harvard.

HO: I don’t know that it actually is going to impact [CU] too greatly. I’m heartened by — and was surprised at — the level of detail [in CU Boulder chancellor Philip DiStefano’s statement on the Harvard decision]. DiStefano said, ‘OK, this has happened. It’s disappointing. Here are the specific things we have been doing and we will continue to do.’ And for me, as a faculty member who cares about these issues, this isn’t boilerplate language. This is, ‘Let me show you the commitment we’ve made and this ruling doesn’t change anything. This means we’re going to redouble our efforts.’

How can universities still create diverse campuses under this ruling?

HO: If you’re a Black undergraduate student, you have likely, regardless of your zip code, experienced some kind of racist harm. So admitting you into CU Boulder, or any university, can help mitigate against the systemic anti-Black racism that generations of Black people in the United States face. One of the things we can do is admit more Black students into colleges and universities, even if that means weighting other aspects of their applications against lower test scores, because, of course, some of those tests are also inherently racist.

WELNER: Through recruitment efforts throughout the state, trying to make sure that the university is representative of different communities within the state, but also that it supports oncampus academic and social programs to help students be more successful and feel more welcome.

[The Harvard decision] puts a lot of pressure on legacy programs. Because the nature of a legacy is drawing on who attended the university or college in older days, going back to explicitly segregationist eras, who’s likely to have a legacy? White, wealthy families, disproportionately. So there’s a reason for colleges to go back and rethink their legacy programs. The recruitment and

scholarships policies that can have an impact on the diversity of a college or university, for the most part those can move forward. The exception would most likely be anything that is run by the university, and includes an expressly racial element.

Do universities run the risk of being sued if the percentage of students of color increases?

WELNER: There are aggressive litigators out there who have stepped forward saying, ‘We’re gonna bring lawsuits to keep pushing this.’ There’s this threat hanging over colleges that lawsuits are on their way based on this Supreme Court case.

How can universities make sure students of color can still access targeted scholarship money?

WELNER: There are two obvious ways. One, if you want it to be raceconscious, then it needs to be privately administered, not controlled or directed by the university. Then the second way would be to try to use proxies [zip code, income]. But we know there are no great racial proxies, that if you’re trying to direct money to the Native American community, you really need to take into account the fact that someone is Native American. But there are proxies that can target money toward a greater need.

There’s a third way: Maybe the state could actually invest in higher education and make it affordable for everyone.

What do you think is being left out of the public discussion?

WELNER: Affirmative action in admissions is only part of affirmative actions. The general term I would use in academic circles is racialized poverty. Many students are never in a position when they’re 17, 18 years old, to successfully apply and attend college. If we’re not addressing issues about housing security, food security, health care, safety, issues of transportation, employment, transiency — all the issues that impact students’ abilities to succeed academically and in life — and if we also aren’t addressing the lack of resources in schools, then affirmative action [college admission] policies at the tail end of all that aren’t going to make that much difference.

CU professors discuss what the SCOTUS decision on affirmative action means for Buffs and higher education at large

BY CAITLIN ROCKETT

MAKING THE GRADE

BY YESENIA ROBLES, CHALKBEAT COLORADO

As educators look for ways to help students as they recover academically from pandemic interruptions, tutoring can play a key role.

But across the country, many leaders are seeing that some of the students who need the help the most aren’t taking advantage.

So, as parents, what questions should you be asking about tutoring and whether your student can benefit? Here are answers to some common questions.

When should I consider tutoring for my child?

Rhonda Haniford, associate commissioner of the school quality and support division at the Colorado Department of Education, said the first thing to keep in mind is that different tutoring programs are designed to achieve different goals.

While parents might think tutoring is only to help students who are struggling academically, sometimes programs are designed instead to keep students engaged, accelerate their learning, or hone in on specific skills or needs.

If a parent believes their child is struggling academically, Haniford said they should look at what their school offers.

“First, I would say meet with the school and talk about what they’re seeing,” Haniford said. “Talk about what’s working, what are the child’s strengths as well as where are their needs. And can tutoring help? It depends on what the tutoring program is designed to accomplish.”

Parent Keri Rodrigues said her five sons’ report cards showed good grades and that her boys were doing well. But when she asked them to read to her at home, she noticed two were struggling.

“These were things I could see,” Rodrigues said.

Rodrigues is co-founder of the advocacy group National Parents Union. She advises parents to trust their instincts and ask questions when they believe their children might be struggling. That means starting with more conversations with teachers.

When talking with teachers, Rodrigues said, one of the most important questions to ask is whether your child is reading at grade level, and if not, what is being done to get them there.

“Report cards often are not telling us this information,” she said.

Ashara Baker, a mother to a rising second grader and also a leader with

National Parents Union, advises parents that if their child attends a school that has low state test scores, they should consider tutoring even if it seems like their child is doing well.

What questions should I ask to know if this might be a good tutoring program?

Haniford said the first step is to make sure that the goals of the tutoring program match your child’s needs.

After that, she said, parents should ask if their school has a diagnostic assessment of their child. Most schools do, she said. That information can guide tutors to a student’s needs and to build on their strengths.

Rodrigues likes to remind parents that they don’t need to be wellversed in education curriculum to start asking questions. She suggests asking if a program is using evidence-based practices, which are strategies that are based on research and have been proven to work, and if their reading programs are based on the science of reading, the research about how children’s brains learn to read.

“If you hear things like balanced literacy, that might be a problem,” she said. Balanced literacy is an approach to teaching reading based on a debunked philosophy that reading is natural and requires encouragement. “Even if you just remember they should say ‘science of reading,’ you shouldn’t be intimidated.”

Some research shows that

Wondering if your child would benefit from tutoring? Here are answers to common questions.

MUSIC

“high-dosage” tutoring programs may be most effective for students who need academic help. Usually that involves in-person instruction a few times a week.

Baker is leading an effort to get New York schools to make high-dosage tutoring available in public schools.

She said good communication is important. Her local district advertised a summer enrichment program, and her daughter attended. Baker knew her daughter was taken to get a library card and to the farmers market, and she heard about how much fun the kids had with water balloons. But Baker said she didn’t know the program was meant to be a form of tutoring.

“It can be fun, but you have to be checking in: How are we doing? Are we making progress?” Baker said.

She also suggests asking if tutors are trained and certified and finding out how many students are working with each tutor. Small groups are best, she said.

Haniford agrees about small groups. She said the most successful programs have no more than six students per tutor.

“They have a clear purpose and vision for what they want to accomplish, and it’s not a catch-all with too many students, because then students are not getting individualized attention,” Haniford said.

How do I know if my child is getting the most from their tutoring?

Baker suggests that parents make sure the tutoring program their school uses, or that they select from outside groups, does some testing that will measure improvement or where more help is needed.

The tutoring program she pays to help her daughter outside of school now gives parents regular reports about how things are progressing and how parents can help maintain the progress at home.

Jennifer Castillo, new principal of Boston P-8 in Aurora, said that the school has tutoring run by an outside group, but uses the school’s own teachers that are already familiar with their students.

“Having those relationships is very important,” Castillo said. “They know where those student’s gaps are, they know the reasons students are there. I think it’s important for the tutors and the student to be able to go to their parents and show that progress. After a month, I’m seeing an increase in scores or ability or confidence, whatever the issue. As a parent, hopefully you don’t have to ask in a strong partnership.”

Castillo said that if the program you’re considering has tutors who aren’t teachers in the school, parents might ask if there’s a way for the tutors and teachers to communicate with each other so that the tutoring help is aligned with what is happening in the classroom.

Should I wait to get my child into a tutoring program?

“There’s always that tug of should I wait a little longer? Maybe it was a rough year. Maybe it was a rough teacher,” Rodrigues said. “Things don’t get easier the more you wait. They get harder.”

This is especially true for younger children who need extra help to learn to read. Being able to read will help students learn more complex subjects later.

Haniford and Castillo believe parents should clarify why their child needs a break — is there a social or emotional issue, for example — and to look at various options to address the issue.

“Kids don’t need a break from learning,” Castillo said. Learning can happen all day, she added. “But we need to ensure they’re engaged and it’s not just sitting and listening. Taking the tutoring outside, making it more hands-on, or making it more applicable might help.”

Castillo also recommends that students understand the importance of tutoring and the benefits they should see themselves.

“The students have to want to be involved,” Castillo said. “Letting them have some ownership will help as well.” This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Sign up for their newsletters at ckbe.at/newsletters

IN SESSION

Nonprofit outreach program helps Front Range music teachers fill the gap

BY JEZY J. GRAY

Travis LaBerge’s family didn’t have a lot growing up, but there was always music in the house. Despite living between paychecks, his parents socked away enough to provide him with a piano instructor who charged on a sliding scale. Now the executive director of the Boulder-based Parlando School of Musical Arts, LaBerge is paying that gift forward to students here on the Front Range.

“I didn’t tell this story growing up because I was so embarrassed about it. But I’m happy to tell it now, because I feel like it shows the importance of supporting kids who have passions,” he says. “As I became an adult and was thinking about what to do with my life, I knew I wanted to be part of a larger movement that allowed kids to have the same opportunity I had.”

Parlando is an Italian word meaning to speak, and central to the mission of the nonprofit founded by LaBerge and his wife Christine in 2003 is a drive to help young people find their voice through music. Billing itself as Colorado’s largest stand-alone arts outreach and education provider, the 501(c)(3) headquartered at the Dairy Arts Center in Boulder offers private lessons, group classes and workshops “for all instruments, ages and abilities.”

In addition to raising up to $75,000 annually for tuition assistance, Parlando also implements an outreach initiative to help local public schools supplement existing music education programs that are often the first on the chopping block during budget downturns. The idea behind the outreach effort dubbed MORE for Colorado, designed to focus on Title 1 and lowincome schools, is to dispatch Parlando music instructors during regular hours to keep young musicians engaged in their existing programs while easing the burden on teachers who say they don’t have enough time or resources for their students.

“It’s been a really critical way to reach kids who might have slipped through the cracks if they hadn’t gotten that one-on-one and small-group support,” says Casey Middle School music teacher Kati Sainz, who once worked as a Parlando instructor while earning a graduate degree at CU Boulder in the early 2000s.

Now Sainz and her students at Casey, distinguished as a Colorado School of Excellence in Arts Education, are on the receiving end of a program that has supported 3,000 classes in 29 schools across the region’s four major districts this past academic year alone. The longtime educator says it all comes back to the fundamental value of music instruction for young people.

“I have seen kids who might have been really school avoidant come around and find their place in a music program, which they might not have found otherwise,” she says. “They find their crew, which is so important for middleschool kids: a group they feel comfortable with, having fun going on field trips and making music together as a regular part of their school day. It’s really critical that we include it as part of the curriculum, and give kids from all socioeconomic backgrounds and abilities the opportunity to thrive.”

‘NO ONE WANTS TO PLAY A BROKEN INSTRUMENT’

But however effective a supplemental in-school program might be at reaching students and alleviating the pressure on overworked educators, it doesn’t amount to much if

the instruments aren’t in good shape. That’s the message a Parlando instructor brought back to LaBerge in February of this year.

“He said, ‘Travis, what we’re doing at this school is great, but my students’ instruments don’t work right. I’m spending more time in my sectionals trying to do basic repairs — some of which I can do, some of which I can’t,’” the executive director recalls.

So LaBerge contacted local partner schools to determine the severity of the problem. After learning how widespread the issue was, Parlando partnered with Flesher Hinton Music in Wheat Ridge to collect and repair 83 different instruments from nearly half a dozen local schools over spring break. That included Casey, where Sainz says many students participating in the free-and-reduced lunch program can’t afford to pay the yearly rental fees typically charged by schools to help with upkeep.

“We tend to have a ton of instruments and it’s very difficult to keep them in good repair — and no one wants to play a broken instrument,” Sainz says. “So when Parlando stepped up to help out with some of those repairs, the kids had instruments

that were working correctly and more fun to play. Which was so helpful, because it’s very difficult to encourage kids to practice if their instruments aren’t working.”

LaBerge says the point of initiatives like this year’s instrument repair project — and the Parlando vision writ large — isn’t to train the next generation of concert violinists and pianists, necessarily. He says it’s about facilitating a deep and abiding sense of joy while fostering the life skills that come with learning to play, whether music is one of a student’s laundry list of weekly activities or the golden ring that will steer the course of the rest of their lives.

“Most of the students we work with fit in between those two extremes. We’re simply interested in them learning how to play their instrument: enjoying that process, finding joy in it, and hopefully music will be a lifelong skill they take with them,” LaBerge says. “If we invest in these kids now, [think about] what they will be able to achieve, and what they will be able to give back in the future. It obviously becomes something much bigger than any one person, or any one teacher, or any one organization. It’s how we make the world a better place.”

Parlando instructor Joey Howe teaches a cello sectional at Columbine Elementary School through the MORE for Colorado school outreach program. Photo courtesy Parlando School of Musical Arts.

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CULTURE

TRY AGAIN

How Ira Glass learned to tell a really good story

BY JEZY J. GRAY

When it comes to audio storytelling in the 21st century, few figures loom as large as Ira Glass. Since 1995, his hour-long public radio show This American Life has captivated millions of listeners each week with riveting tales of regular people — packaging themed works of memoir, reportage, interviews and essays with cozy production and a thumping heart beneath it all. From a month at a Long Island car dealership to insight on the thorniest political issues of the moment, the timetested program has built a sterling reputation by elevating the everyday with style and substance.

Nearly three decades after hitting the airwaves, this distinctly human-sized scale of narrative broadcast journalism has earned a constellation of awards

and distinctions for Glass and his production team at their home station of WBEZ in Chicago. In 2021, This American Life became the first podcast preserved by the National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress for its episode unpacking the 2008 global financial crisis, roughly one year after becoming the first radio show to win a Pulitzer Prize for a story on asylum seekers caught in the gears of the draconian U.S. immigration system.

But Glass hasn’t always been the storytelling powerhouse listeners know today. The path to becoming the most recognizable voice in public radio was rife with its fair share of false starts and failures. Since he tells it better, Boulder Weekly called up the broadcasting icon ahead of his upcom-

ing stop at Chautauqua Auditorium on July 29 — for a freewheeling multimedia presentation entitled Seven Things I’ve Learned, which he calls “mostly just really fun stories to tell in front of a crowd” — to talk about the people and ideas who helped carve his path to car stereos and earbuds around the world.

This interview will appear in our education issue, which feels appropriate given the subject of your talk [Seven Things I’ve Learned]. When it comes to the work you do today, and the things you’ve learned along the way, what would you say has been your most meaningful education? The most significant thing I learned in my work life was just figuring out how to do a good job making radio stories, which I know sounds ridiculous. But really, I spent my entire 20s not very good at making stories, and I really had to think through how to do them and what makes a good story. For a long time, it was really unclear how it would come out.

In this speech I’ll be giving in Boulder, I’ll play a story — not from the first year, second year or the third year, but from year eight of my time in radio — and it’s awful. One of our producers, Alix Spiegel, in the early days [of This American Life] pitched a story for a show about chickens we were doing. And I was like, “Oh my god, I did a version of that story in my 20s! Why don’t I dig up the tape and see if there’s anything in there we could salvage?” And she listened to it and said, “Wow. There’s no sign that you have any talent for radio. There’s nothing in here that indicates you will ever be any good. Every part of this is horrible: the blending, the structure, the interviews, the concept. It’s terrible.”

It was a huge drama in my life, figuring out how to actually make something that was good. And it was a lot of trial and error.

What kind of mistakes were you making in your 20s?

I mean, even to say the word “mistakes” dignifies it with greater skill than

Since launching his paradigmshifting public radio show This American Life in 1995, host and producer Ira Glass has become one of the most recognizable voices on the airwaves. Photo by Sandy Honig.

This American Life is the first radio show to win a Pulitzer Prize for audio reporting, and the first podcast preserved by the National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress.

I was achieving. Every part of it was wrong. I really just didn’t know how to think about stories in the proper way: to be able to move semi-efficiently from, “I think I want to do a story on that,” to making something decent. I would interview somebody for an hour, and I would just get completely flummoxed about which quotes I should choose, and in what order: Should I put the quote in script, or should I do it in tape? I would go back and forth on that endlessly. If you listen to the stories, they’re written in a very tedious sort of way, and then performed horribly. I sound like somebody badly imitating someone on All Things Considered So every part of it is bad. It lacks the power of a person’s original observation. It lacks insight; it lacks humor and feeling — basically everything you would want in a story.

When did you realize you were getting good at it?

I was 29. I finally had done enough good stories that I felt like, “OK, I’m getting the swing of this. I actually know what I’m doing.” It was a combination of taking things I learned in college about narrative theory and trying to apply it in interviews, and doing interviews in a way where people are laying out stories with a plot. And somehow in doing it that way I was able to make something that was good, and made sense, and was appealing to an audience.

That was the science experiment of my 20s. I was interested in doing stories about everyday people, but it wasn’t clear how to do that in a way that was compelling. You know, if you think about old-school audio documentary, it’s people like Studs Terkel, who I love. He wrote the books Working and Division Street and The Good War. Basically he was trying to document all of America by doing these in-depth interviews with everyday people where they would talk about their lives. And the problem with that as radio is that if you get lucky and the person is an amazing talker, then obviously that’s fun to listen to. But it could also be kind of tedious if you’re just working through the details of a person’s life.

And then I realized, “Oh, to make

something compelling, what you want to do is — if they get into something whether there’s a plot and things are unfolding — you just want to find out what happens in the story.

Understanding that and experimenting and implementing it actually turned out to have the power I wanted something to have. So I started to do the things that are now kind of the style of our show. You know: adding music and giving it a sense of pace and style, and letting in the funny and emotional parts of the interview, trying to hit all those kinds of notes.

So you learned by doing, but it sounds like your formal education was important too. Can you talk more about how your training in semiotics informed what you do now?

Semiotics is this very pretentious body of literary theory that had a kind of heyday in the ’80s when I was in college. It’s interesting because a lot of the theory I read was a critique of narrative. It was saying, “Here’s how oppressive and terrible narrative is.” And frankly, I don’t see it that way. I don’t think the fact that stories have plots is keeping us all down — we’ve got many other problems besides that. But what I got from this theory was a toolbox to analyze how a story works.

Was there a single text or theory that was especially instructive for you?

There’s this one book that changed everything for me, and it was by a French writer named Roland Barthes. It’s called S/Z, but pretentious semiotic students would call it Ess Zed What Barthes does in this book is he takes apart a short story by Balzac, this classic French writer — a beautiful, perfect story — phrase by phrase and paragraph by paragraph. And what he’s interested in is not the stuff you remember from high school literature class, like the author’s intention or the themes of the work. He’s interested in something much more primal and interesting: How does the story give pleasure? Which is really an interesting question. How does it pull us in? Why do we keep reading?

You know that satisfying feeling at

Angie Payne Photography

the end of a great episode of TV or movie or book? He says that’s produced by machinery. What is the machinery that produces that? And when it fails to happen, what has failed to happen? Honestly, I still think about it all the time when I’m making and structuring stories. Today I’m going to start writing the opening of this show, and it’s 100 percent going to be along the lines of things I’ve learned from Roland Barthes.

Was there a teacher who was particularly formative at any point in your education, and what did you learn from them?

I mean, I had so many teachers like that. There was a teacher named David Spinney when I was in sixth grade — it wasn’t a particular thing he taught, but it was his attitude about learning that was powerful. I had other good teachers in elementary school before that, but there was just something special, enthusiastic and inspiring about him. And this is a digression, but his dad [Caroll Spinney] was the original actor who played Big Bird.

I also had an English teacher in high school, Allan Lipsitz. He was the yearbook advisor, and I learned a lot about writing from him. I had another writing teacher in eighth grade, Mr. Walt Hudson, who was also a local magician at a time when I was performing magic tricks at kids’ parties around Baltimore. It’s from Walt Hudson that I learned how to write a paragraph properly. He was the person who explained topic sentences. He was a really wonderful man to talk to, and a really good magician.

If you could time travel back to 1995 at the start of This American Life and give yourself one note of guidance based on what you’ve learned since, what would it be?

I have an emotional and non-practical answer, and it would be to hand off more of the show to others — to do less of it myself. But honestly, in 1995, that wouldn’t have been possible. I was still training everybody to make the show.

It’s funny, because I’m not sure

there’s any advice that would have come through, just in terms of making programming and also in terms of the business of the show. I feel like we did about as well as you could do, given how few of us there were, and how little money we had. It was very rocky for the first five years, at least. Now we have a staff of like 30 and it’s a big operation with people who are so incredibly skilled. I work with people who are just as experienced as me at this point. So that’s an incredible thing.

You say that people who do creative work start out with only their good taste, and the task is to try and make something as good as the stuff you like — but most people give up somewhere in the middle. Can you talk about what happens in the gap between those two points?

For me, that describes a decade of my life. I know that gap very, very well. And it’s confusing, you know? It’s hard to be running at a goal and know that you’re not any good — to be in a race where you’re like the fifteen hundredth person and not the first five. That’s just a very hard thing to go through. My parents were definitely saying to me for that entire period, “There’s still time to go to med school.”

All you can do in that situation is fight your way through it. At that point, your task is to just force yourself to make a lot of work. And even that’s hard, because if you’re not doing it well, everything’s taking longer than it should and you feel unmotivated because the stuff isn’t that good. So you have this extra burden on top of the normal burden of making anything. You just have to make work after work after work, and show it to people and get notes and try to figure out what works and what doesn’t. You just have to be a soldier. It’s the only way out.

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THE SOUNDS OF SCIENCE

Jeff and Paige make learning fun in Boulder Valley

BY JESSICA SHARPE

On a golden summer evening, the harmonized voices of children fill the Chautauqua meadows with a song about a flesheating bacterium: “Oh Giardia, I don’t want ya’ to give me the runs.”

A woman on stage, draped in a fullbody bat costume, sways back and forth beside her partner, who dons a purple cowboy hat and rainbow-striped socks. The crowd, most of them no taller than three feet, cheer on the performers with enthusiastic applause.

Jeff and Paige have become icons in the Boulder County educational scene. They’ve captivated families for nearly two decades with catchy tunes centered on science and conservation. Their performances eschew the conventional, featuring a plethora of costume changes as they transform from bats to ungulates to butterflies and beyond.

Jeff Kagan and Paige Doughty met while pursuing master’s degrees in environmental education. With a shared passion for music, education and conservation, they also found common ground in their desire to transform science education into an engaging, immersive experience. Kagan says teaching in his 20s inspired him to reevaluate his own education and adopt an “edu-tainment” approach.

Kagan, who was on staff with Boulder’s Open Space and Mountain Parks Department (OSMP) at the time, penned the duo’s first jingle, “Scoop a Doop Poop,” while sitting next to a dog waste trash can one hot summer day.

“That’s what started it all,” he says with a laugh. Soon after, the pair collaborated with OSMP to launch Meadow Music at Chautauqua. The series, which has now run across a decade of summers, offers a family-friendly hike

soundtracked by Kagan and Doughty’s songs about tectonics and trees.

Their relationship with OSMP has become an essential element of the organization’s mission to provide environmental education to Boulder Valley youth.

“Jeff and Paige are incredible naturalists, educators and performers,” says Curry Rosato, OSMP’s education manager. “It takes a village to do nature-connection work and inspire stewardship, and we are grateful for our partnership.”

SLOW IT DOWN

Doughty and Kagan’s warmth and creativity is evident in their Boulder home, appropriately nestled against the open space they so often sing about, its garage doors decorated with chalkdrawn rainbows.

“[Our work] is fueled by awe for other species, how we feel when we are in nature, to feel in concert with the planet, and the opportunity to create community and to live in this town,” Kagan says. Doughty nods in agreement.

“It’s a dedication to the slowness of the change,” she says. “Us doing a show isn’t going to have an impact in this huge way, but doing thousands of shows over and over for thousands of kids, and inviting them over and over again to connect to presence, to nature, to themselves, to connect to the world around them, that’s what keeps me going.”

The duo’s slow-and-steady approach has also made them a fix-

ture of Boulder Valley School District’s (BVSD) science curriculum; they perform at more than 25 schools annually and participate in an average of 40 school assemblies. Through their partnership with OSMP, most of these shows are offered free of charge. The duo has also showcased their musical brand of education at a handful of Operation Water Festivals, a joint effort between the City of Boulder and BVSD to educate students on conservation, protection and science.

“Their creativity to incorporate the world around kids is something I’ve never really seen in other performers,” says Laurel Olsen, community engagement manager for the City of Boulder.

FOLLOW THE JOY

The tuneful twosome’s local popularity speaks to their ability to unveil the magic of science, with a typical concert involving three to four costume changes. Their infectious jingles teach children about local flora and fauna, as well as complex concepts such as density. Their brand is built on transcending classroom walls and encouraging won-

der and curiosity, which they have found to be the most effective teaching method, even for difficult topics like climate change.

“We’ve figured out how to perform and present these concepts without offending or polarizing people,” Doughty says.

After 19 years performing across Boulder Valley, Kagan and Doughty’s work has inspired countless children and families to pursue the sciences and take an active role in preserving the natural world.

“We have all these high school- and college-age kids coming back to tell us what an impact we had on their lives,” Doughty says. “It’s just so beautiful and feels so meaningful. I don’t think I could have decided to do that, it just came from following the joy.”

There’s evidence of the couple’s influence at every Jeff and Paige show. As the sun sets on that golden summer evening in the Chautauqua meadows, Kagan and Doughty meet eager fans after the concert. Nearby, a child sporting rainbow socks sings out: “Planting the seeds in rows... 21st-century heroes!”

Photos courtesy Jeff and Paige

June 14 The Long Run

Colorado’s Tribute to the Eagles

June 21 The Goonies

June 28 Hazel Miller and The Collective

July 5 Chimbangle

July 12 Chain Station

July 19 Sweet Lillies

July 26 JJ Brown’s Raw Soul Band

August 2 Mighty Mystic

PRESENTED BY:

SPONSORED BY:

BLUEGRASS WITHOUT BORDERS

BY JOHN LEHNDORFF

Bluegrass lovers revere the genre’s legendary pickers and singers. And every July at RockyGrass — the high holiday for Front Range fanatics taking place each summer at Planet Bluegrass in Lyons — fans are treated to a veritable who’swho of musical icons like Del McCoury, David Grisman, Alison Krauss, Ronda Vincent and others who need no introduction.

But this year’s 51st iteration of the annual music blowout features plenty of fresh faces for the bluegrass-obsessed. While a few old-timers like Sam Bush, Béla Fleck and Peter Rowan will be on hand, the 2023 dance card is jammed with new voices, emerging acts and familiar names reinventing their sound.

Some headliners this year — think

Molly Tuttle and Sierra Hull — were once the new whiz-kid players of RockyGrass. The rest of the 2023 lineup is a study in contrasts. You’ll hear neo-traditionalists like the Po’ Ramblin’ Boys, all-instrumental progressives like the band Hawktail, and the sophisticated chamber-grass of renowned bassist and composer Edgar Meyer. Compare that to Jeremy Garrett of the Infamous Stringdusters, who will stretch Bill Monroe’s definition of the genre with his fiddle-driven, looped folk-electronica solo project.

Other performers this year include everyone from The Lil Smokies and Stillhouse Junkies to Fireside Collective and local heroes Pick & Howl. And with the recent passing of Bobby Osborne and Jesse McReynolds — two living

links to the dawn of bluegrass music — traditionalist Danny Paisley will remind the assembled pickers where that high, lonesome twang came from in the first place.

For a taste of a few of the next-gen voices blazing new trails during RockyGrass 2023, here’s a look at three acts you definitely won’t want to miss.

MIGHTY POPLAR: RECOVERING ROOTS

Mighty Poplar might technically be a new kid on the block, but this all-star band of friends is associated with some of the biggest acts in the scene: Andrew Marlin (Watchhouse), Chris Eldridge and Noam Pikelny (Punch Brothers) Greg Garrison (Leftover Salmon) and Alex Hargreaves (Billy Strings Band). Their self-titled debut album was released in 2023.

“Mighty Poplar started with our desire to play some real bluegrass — music that is so near and dear to our hearts. We got together for four days, and worked up these songs and recorded them really quickly. Playing together has been an utterly joyful experience. Hopefully, we’ll record and tour periodically.” — Chris

Eldridge

LARRY AND JOE: ‘VENEZUALACHIA’ MUSIC

Larry and Joe is a dynamic duo featuring standout players Larry Bellorín and Joe Troop. Bellorín grew up in Monagas, Venezuela, and is a master of Llanera music who can play at least 16 instruments including harp, banjo, cuatro, fiddle and guitar. North Carolina-born Troop is a Grammynominated bluegrass and old-time

music player who led the transnational band Che Apalache.

“In 2021, I heard about this migrant musician working construction in Raleigh. When I saw some videos of him playing, I said, ‘Holy smokes, this guy’s the real deal!’ We started playing together soon after that. All of our musical components organically came together. Our message is that music has no borders.” — Joe Troop

“Bluegrass music wasn’t heard in Venezuela. We associated that with cowboys and the Wild West in movies. It was a great surprise for me when I heard bluegrass and old time music in North Carolina. It was like I had always been very familiar with it.”

— Larry Bellorín

AJ LEE AND BLUE SUMMIT: AMERICANA ACCENT

The California-based band led by singer, songwriter and mandolinist AJ Lee has released two albums: Like I Used To (2019) and I’ll Come Back (2021). Propelled by two guitars, mandolin, fiddle and bass, the sound straddles the line between Americana and bluegrass. Lee counts this year’s headliners Molly Tuttle and Sierra Hull among her early influences.

“I think that young people discovering bluegrass is what’s making it grow along with all the sub-genres like jamgrass. Having that outsider’s perspective helps keep the tradition alive and the music changing into something better. As long as no one says: ‘Bluegrass has to be this way … ’” — AJ Lee

ON THE BILL: RockyGrass 2023. July 28-30, Planet Bluegrass Ranch, 500 W.Main St., Lyons. $100-$235

RockyGrass 2023 returns to Planet Bluegrass in Lyons, July 28-30. Photo by Tobin Voggesser.

Left: Mighty Poplar. Credit: Brian Carroll; Center: Larry and Joe. Credit: Billie Wheeler; Right: AJ Lee and Blue Summit. Credit: Snap Jackson

‘THIS GREAT STAGE’

Broadway icon Ellen McLaughlin delivers a staggering performance in ‘King Lear’ at the Colorado Shakespeare Festival

BY TONI TRESCA

With this summer’s premiere of King Lear, the 66th season of the Colorado Shakespeare Festival (CSF) has reached a new high. That’s thanks in no small part to its lead, Ellen McLaughlin, whose previous credits include Angel in Tony Kushner’s original production of Angels in America. Here the Broadway icon gives a stunning performance as the play’s namesake king, who transforms from a powerful ruler to a helpless old man.

Shakespeare’s seminal tragedy, playing at the Mary Rippon Outdoor Theatre through Aug. 12, features family drama, shady political dealings and turbulent fortunes. It is arguably one of the finest plays ever penned by the Bard, and CSF’s current staging is a truly electrifying production.

The plot of King Lear revolves around an aging British monarch (Ellen McLaughlin) who divides his kingdom among his three daughters: Goneril (Jessica Robblee), Regan (Anastasia Davidson) and Cordelia (Shunté Lofton). Lear requests declarations of love from each of his kids. He then distributes his possessions to his two eldest daughters, who lavishly praise him. Cordelia is exiled by the king, despite the fact that she is his favorite, because she shows her love in a more subdued manner than her sisters.

This choice turns out to be Lear’s fatal flaw, as it forces him to depend on Goneril and Regan in his old age.

When his two eldest daughters expel him from their homes, Lear loses his mind and starts wandering through a storm. Although Cordelia eventually returns to assist her father with an army, they lose the battle, and the entire Lear family is killed.

In the midst of the conflicts within the royal family, Edmund (K.P. Powell), the bastard son of the Earl of Gloucester (Brik Berkes), devises a scheme to cre

ate the impression that his brother, Edgar (Sean Scrutchins), is trying to murder his father. The interpretation of this subplot is one of the production’s few misfires. Powell portrays his villainous character as a wise-cracking improviser who frequently undermines the stakes of a given scene. The script has its share of humorous moments, but Powell’s forced levity clashes with Berkes’ and Scrutchins’ nuanced performances and Carolyn Howarth’s grounded direction.

Apart from Kevin Nelson’s ominous scenic design — surrounding the Rippon with two commanding white set pieces that flash to help create the stormy moments, along with a rock formation the actors can scale — the stage is kept empty. Howarth’s minimalist staging of King Lear is successful because it keeps the focus on the standout performances, underscoring the concept of “nothing” explored in the play. Ironically, Lear’s Fool serves as one of the play’s primary catalysts. Sam Sandoe’s enthralling, sincere portrayal of The Fool contrasts beautifully with McLaughlin’s towering performance. The two share a natural chemistry, which makes their quick back-andforth exchanges captivating to watch. Additionally, Scrutchins and Mare Trevathan, who plays the Earl of Kent, make strong impressions in their supporting roles.

With a rich, tragic performance by McLaughlin at its core, CSF’s production of King Lear is reflective, timely and urgent viewing. If tragedies aren’t your thing, consider skipping this play in favor of some of the festival’s other offerings, like the romantic comedy Much Ado About Nothing (through Aug. 13), the melodramatic tragicomedy The Winter’s Tale (through Aug. 12) or Richard Bean’s outrageous farce set in England during the 1960s, One Man, Two Guvnors (through Aug. 13).

ON STAGE: King Lear by William Shakespeare. Various times through Aug. 12, Mary Rippon Outdoor Theatre, 277 University Ave., Boulder.

$27-$85

Ellen McLaughlin (‘Angels in America’) gives a blistering performance in the title role of ‘King Lear,’ presented as part of the ongoing 66th season of the Colorado Shakespeare Festival. Photo by Jennifer Koskinen.

Left to right: Shunté Lofton as Cordelia, Ellen McLaughlin as King Lear and Ryan Omar Stack as Oswald in ‘King Lear,’ running through Aug. 12 at the Mary Rippon Outdoor Theatre. Photo by Jennifer Koskinen.

28

GRATITUDE MADE SIMPLE

8-9 a.m. Friday, July 28, Bricks Backyard, 512 4th Ave., Unit 103, Longmont. $25

Managing day-to-day stress is tough. But the Gratitude Made Simple workshop is here to target that weight on your shoulders, providing valuable tools during an hour-long session at Bricks Backyard that can help you lead a less overwhelming life.

28 – 29

RACHEL BLOOM: DEATH, LET ME DO MY SPECIAL

8 p.m. Fri.-Sat., July 28-29, Boulder Theater, 2032 14th Street. $45

Join actor, comedian and singer-songwriter Rachel Bloom (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend) during her two-night stint in Boulder. The Golden Globe-winning performer brings her Death, Let Me Do My Special tour to the Front Range for back-to-back evenings of musical comedy you won’t want to miss.

28

COMEDY UNDERGROUND

8-11 p.m. Friday, July 28, The Louisville Underground, 640 Main St., Louisville. $15

The Louisville Underground is always up to something funny. Head to the city’s one-stop comedy shop on July 28 for hilarious performances by standup comedians including Luke Gaston, Divesh Patel and headliner Ed Bell.

28

LOUISVILLE STREET FAIRE

5:30-9:30 p.m. Friday, July 28, Steinbaugh Pavilion, 824 Front St., Louisville. Free

Head to downtown Louisville for the city’s annual summer series with celebrated blues, soul and Americana singer Shemekia Copeland. Come for the community and stay for an unforgettable set by the Grammynominated musician and winner of the 2021 Blues Music Award for B.B. King Entertainer of the Year.

28 – 30

ROCKYGRASS

Noon. Fri.-Sun., July 28-30, Planet Bluegrass, 500 W. Main St., Lyons. $100-$235

Lyons premier bluegrass event is back again, bringing July to a close with roots-inspired tunes, vendors and a healthy dose of community at Planet Bluegrass. Catch the Lil Smokies, Molly Tuttle and Golden Highway, Big Richard and a whole lot more during this marquee summer festival in Boulder County. Story on p. 29

28 – 30

SUMMER SIDEWALK SALE

All day. Fri.-Sun., July 28-30, Downtown Boulder. Free

In the market for killer deals and hidden gems? You’ll find both during the annual Summer Sidewalk Sale in downtown Boulder. Stroll on and off the bricks all weekend long for an outdoor shopping experience featuring some of your favorite local vendors.

29

KA HULA ANA

9 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday, July 29 and 9 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Sunday, July 30, The Avalon Ballroom, 6185 Arapahoe Road, Boulder. $70

Celebrate Hawaiian culture with two days of exciting activities at Boulder’s Avalon Ballroom. Hula teacher Meleana Manuel leads a weekend of traditional dancing, music, lectures and more. Rounding out the schedule is Christy Lassiter, a Grammynominated singer and musician from Hawaii’s Big Island.

29

OPERA IN THE PARK

7-9 p.m. Saturday, July 29, Boulder Bandshell, 1212 Canyon Blvd., Boulder. $10

Boulder Opera comes to the city’s community outdoor venue for a performance of scenes and arias from Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen Enjoy an unforgettable night of music under the stars with family and friends at the Boulder Bandshell during this evening of high-culture in the open air.

31

FREQUENT FLYERS’ AERIAL

DANCE FESTIVAL 2023: INTIMATE ENCOUNTERS

8-9:30 p.m. Monday, July 31, Frequent Flyers

Aerial Dance, 3022 E. Sterling Circle, Suite 150, Boulder. $12

29

AVERY BREWING COMPANY’S 30TH ANNIVERSARY

1-5 p.m. Saturday, July 29, Avery Brewing Company, 4910 Nautilus Court N., Boulder. $93

Over the last three decades, Avery Brewing Company has established itself, locally and nationwide, as one of Boulder’s most acclaimed beer companies. Celebrate the milestone on July 29 at their vast indoor-outdoor taproom for a festival featuring barrelaged releases, live music and over 100 specialty beers from around the U.S. Story on p. 45

30

NEPALI JATRA

1-4 p.m. Sunday, July 30, Longmont Museum, 400 Quail Road, Longmont. Free

Nepali culture takes center stage during this annual event at Longmont Museum featuring traditional music, art and crafts exhibitions and more. The event is also an opportunity to learn about Tihar, or the Festival of Lights, alongside traditional cuisine and kids’ activities.

If you haven’t seen Frequent Flyers in action, you’re missing out on a one-of-a-kind local experience. The group’s annual Aerial Dance Festival features two weeks of classes, panels, performances and more. This year’s Intimate Encounters marks the 25th anniversary of this high-flying extravaganza. 1

SUMMER SUNFLOWERS HIKE

5:30-7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 1, Chautauqua Park, 900 Baseline Road, Boulder. $27

It’s no secret that Boulder’s wildflower game is on point. And the upcoming Summer Sunflowers Hike is a great chance to tag along with a guide and explore the many colors of our open space — most notably bright-yellow sunflowers, which are currently in mid-season.

THU.

PRE-PARTY

SAT. 7/29 - 7:00PM

ROOTS MUSIC PROJECT BOULDER, CO

EVERY WEDNSDAY BOULDER BLUEGRASS JAM

SAT. 8/5 - 8:30PM

JEFF CROSBY

FRI. 8/11 - 8:00PM

PETER KARP BAND

SAT. 8/12 - 7:00PM

PINE TOP PERKINS BENEFIT WITH BOB MARGOLIN

TUE. 8/15 - 8:00PM

WILL EVANS (OF BAREFOOT TRUTH)

SAT. 8/19 - 9:00PM

SQUEAKY FEET

THU. 8/24 - 7:00PM

CLAY ROSE SINGER SONGWRITER

FRI. 8/25 - 8:00PM

TERESA STORCH BAND WITH MACKENZIE RAE

THU. 9/14 - 8:00PM

ANTONIO LOPEZ BAND & LAURIE DAMERON

SAT. 9/16 - 6:00PM

K9’S, COWBOYS & COCKTAILS FUNDRAISER

TUE. 9/19 - 6:30PM

MOJOMAMMA LIVE BROADCAST ON 88.5 KGNU

THURSDAY, JULY 27

SIERRA HULL. 7 p.m. eTown Hall, 1535 Spruce St., Boulder. $34

CANE MILL ROAD WITH SHOVELIN STONE 9 p.m. Velvet Elk Lounge, 2037 13th St., Boulder. $14

BIG WILD. 7 p.m. Red Rocks Park and Amphitheater, 18300 W. Alameda Parkway, Morrison. $100

BRAHMS 2 + SHOSTAKOVICH

7:30 p.m. Chautauqua Auditorium, 900 Baseline Road, Boulder. $18

ONE LESS GUEST 5 p.m. BOCO Cider, 1501 Lee Hill Drive, Unit 14, Boulder. Free

LOWFIVE. 7 p.m. Jamestown Mercantile, 108 Main St., Jamestown. Free

DAVE CORBUS. 7 p.m. R Gallery + Wine Bar, 2027 Broadway, Boulder. Free

PAT REEDY AND THE LONGTIME GONERS 9 p.m. 7 S. Broadway, Denver. $15

DAUGHTER WITH LIQUID CHICKEN, SPLIFF TANK, FATHER HELP ME AND LUCKY BY CHOICE 8 p.m. Globe Hall, 4483 Logan St., Denver. $15

GG MAGREE WITH MAC FLASCH AND SLWMO. 9 p.m. Larimer Lounge, 2721 Larimer St., Denver. $20

FRIDAY,

JULY 28

TEDESCHI TRUCKS BAND.

7 p.m. Red Rocks Park and Amphitheater, 18300 W. Alameda Parkway, Morrison. $90

BRAHMS 2 + SHOSTAKOVICH

6:30 p.m. Chautauqua Auditorium, 900 Baseline Road, Boulder. $18

SHEMEKIA COPELAND

5:30 p.m. Steinbaugh Pavilion, 824 Front St., Louisville. Free

JOHN SHEPHERD. 6 p.m. BOCO

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

ON THE BILL

DJ KRAKYN 8 p.m. Bounce Empire, 1380 S. Public Road, Lafayette. $24

GENERATION NOMAD WITH THE KEEPS, MIKE RING AND NO TICKET OUT. 8 p.m. Globe Hall, 4483 Logan St., Denver. $15

BIG WILD WITH RUBBLEBUCKET. 8 p.m. Mission Ballroom, 4242 Wynkoop St., Denver. Sold out.

SATURDAY, JULY 29

YOUTH LAGOON WITH NINA KEITH 9 p.m. Fox Theatre, 1135 13th St., Boulder. $25

LINK&CHAIN WITH HARRY MO AND RAS MOSES. 9 p.m. Velvet Elk Lounge, 2037 13th St., Boulder. $16

TEDESCHI TRUCKS BAND

7 p.m. Red Rocks Park and Amphitheater, 18300 W. Alameda Parkway, Morrison. $90

ANNIE AND THE BIG BANG

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

AIN’T FROM HERE 8 p.m. Oskar Blues Grill & Brew, 303 Main St., Lyons. Free

THE DESK JOCKEYS WITH ORCA THE BAND AND DREW DVORCHAK 8 p.m. Globe Hall, 4483 Logan St., Denver. $15

CHROMONICCI WITH GUDBOY AND KDJABOVE 6 p.m. Larimer Lounge, 2721 Larimer St., Denver. $15

SUNDAY, JULY 30

HANNU LINTU WITH TONY SIQI YUN 6:30 p.m. Chautauqua Auditorium, 900 Baseline Road, Boulder. $18

DONNY AMBORY TRIO.

4 p.m. Oskar Blues Grill & Brew, 303 Main St., Lyons. Free

DAVID BOOKER AND FRIENDS.

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

LITTLE US WITH GET THE AXE, KREW AND CLEMENTINE 4 p.m. Globe Hall, 4483 Logan St., Denver. $12

DISPATCH WITH THE COLORADO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA 7 p.m. Red Rocks Park and Amphitheater, 18300 W. Alameda Parkway, Morrison. $80

MONDAY, JULY 31

BIG THIEF WITH LUCINDA WILLIAMS 7:30 p.m. Red Rocks Park and Amphitheater, 18300 W. Alameda Parkway, Morrison. $65. BW Pick of the Week

MAT KEARNEY WITH MARC SCIBILIA 6:30 p.m. Chautauqua Auditorium, 900 Baseline Road, Boulder. $37

PETER ROWN WITH AJ LEE & BLUE SUMMIT 7 p.m. eTown Hall, 1535 Spruce St., Boulder. $38

DAVE MASON 8 p.m. Boulder Theater, 2032 14th St. $45

SAY SHE SHE WITH JULIAN FULCO PERRON. 8 p.m. Globe Hall, 4483 Logan St., Denver. $19

TUESDAY, AUG. 1

A VERY JERRY BAND (JERRY GARCIA’S 80TH BIRTHDAY SHOW). 8 p.m. Fox Theatre, 1135 13th St., Boulder. $15

THE WLDLFE WITH YUKEU AND JOHN TYLER 8 p.m. Globe Hall, 4483 Logan St., Denver. $17

WEDNESDAY, AUG. 2

LUKAS NELSON AND POTR WITH GREGORY ALAN ISAKOV AND JAIME WYATT 8:30 p.m. Fox Theatre, 1135 13th St., Boulder. Sold out.

BANDS ON THE BRICKS 5:30 p.m. 1300 Block of the Pearl Street Mall, Boulder. Free

VIC DILLAHAY WITH DOUG CARMICHAEL 7 p.m. Dry Land Distillers, 519 Main St., Longmont. Free

ELLIOT GREER. 8 p.m. Globe Hall, 4483 Logan St., Denver. $15

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

Indie heavyweights Big Thief bring their freewheeling brand of introspective folk-rock to the Front Range for a hugely anticipated Red Rocks performance on July 31, alongside the one and only Lucinda Williams. The show comes on the heels of the band’s epic double LP Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You, released last year via 4AD Records See listing for details.

ON STAGE

Head to The Arts HUB in Lafayette for a time-traveling excursion to 1987: a year marked by big sound, big dreams and big hair. Rock of Ages follows two employees at one of the Sunset Strip’s last great rock venues, set to music from Styx, Journey, Bon Jovi, Whitesnake and more. See listing for details.

ON VIEW

What do art and agriculture have in common? More than you might think. That’s the premise behind agriCULTURE: Art Inspired by the Land, a oneof-a-kind show presented by Longmont Museum and BMoCA pairing 18 local and national artists with Boulder County farmers at Ollin Farms, Milk & Honey Farm and Agricultural Heritage Center See listing for details

ON THE PAGE

Join Rep. Joe Neguse — currently serving Boulder as Colorado’s first Black representative in the U.S. House, and the country’s first Eritrean American to hold the office — for a discussion of his new book, Courage in The People’s House: Nine Trailblazing Representatives Who Shaped America, at First United Methodist Church in Boulder. See listing for more details

COAL WARS Junkyard

Social Club, 2525 Frontier Ave., Suite A, Boulder. 7:30-9:30 p.m. July 28-29. $15

ROCK OF AGES. The Arts

HUB, 420 Courtney Way, Lafayette. Through July 30. $28 BW Pick of the Week

WILLY WONKA Jester’s Dinner Theatre, 224 Main St., Longmont. Through Aug. 6. $30

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING & KING LEAR PRESENTED BY COLORADO SHAKESPEARE

FESTIVAL Mary Rippon Outdoor Theatre, Broadway Street & College Ave., Boulder. Through Aug. 13. $25

THE SOUND OF MUSIC. BDT Stage, 5501 Arapahoe Ave., Boulder. Through Aug. 19. $75.

MISS RHYTHM: THE LEGEND OF RUTH BROWN Denver Center for the Performing Arts (Garner Galleria Theatre), 1101 13th St. Through Oct. 15. $46.

TOMBOY AND OLD SALTY: NEW WORK FROM THE STUDIO OF ALLYSON MCDUFFIE Bus Stop Gallery, 4895 Broadway, Boulder. 6-9 p.m. Through July 30. Free

DARCIE SHIVELY: REPLY HAZY, TRY AGAIN The New Local Annex, 713 Pearl St., Boulder. 10 a.m.-noon Tuesdays and Thursdays through Aug. 27.

R GALLERY ART EXHIBIT: ABSTRACT COLORS + FORM. R Gallery + Wine Bar, 2027 Broadway, Boulder. Through September 10. Free

A WARNING ABOUT SWANS BY R.M. ROMERO. 5 p.m. Thursday, July 27, The Wandering Jellyfish Bookshop, 198 2nd Ave., Suite 1A, Niwot. Free

WHAT ONCE WAS AN INSIDE OUT RAINBOW BY AMELIE HONEYSUCKLE

6:30-7:30 p.m. Thursday, July 27, Boulder Book Store, 1107 Pearl St., Boulder. $5

STAY SWEET: TALES OF QUIRKY SOUTHERN LOVE BY CHRIS CHANDLER 7-8 p.m. Saturday, July 29, Inkberry Books, Cottonwood Shopping Center 7960, Niwot Road. Free

agriCULTURE: ART INSPIRED BY THE LAND BMoCA, 1750 13th St., Boulder; and The Longmont Museum, 400 Quail Road. Through Oct. 1 (BMoCA) and Jan. 7 (Longmont Museum). $2 / $8 BW Pick of the Week

NO BOUNDARIES: WOMEN TRANSFORMING THE WORLD Jerry Crail Earth Science & Map Library, 2200 Colorado Ave., Boulder. Through May 2024. Free

THE WORLD SPINS BY: A GIFT OF TIME, LOVE, AND THE LONG BIKE RIDE BACK TO MYSELF BY JERRY KOPACK. 6:30-7:30 p.m. Tuesday, August 1, Boulder Book Store, 1107 Pearl St. $5

COURAGE IN THE PEOPLE’S HOUSE: NINE TRAILBLAZING REPRESENTATIVES WHO SHAPED AMERICA BY JOE NEGUSE.

6:30-7:30 p.m. Wednesday, August 2, First United Methodist Church, 1421 Spruce St., Boulder. $10 BW Pick of the Week

LIFE IN PLASTIC

Is ‘Barbie’ consumer subversion or subversively consumerist?

BY MICHAEL J. CASEY

Storytelling is creativity within limitations. And when your story takes place in a fantasy world — be it with dragons, lightsabers or toys — there are really only two options in front of you: Remain in the fantasy and make the fantastical realistic, or bridge the gap between the fantasy and our world (and hope audiences won’t ask too many questions).

Barbie, the latest from writer-director Greta Gerwig, goes for the latter. And not without successful predecessors. The Lego Movie, probably the most successful spin on the metatextual fantasy-reality hybrid in recent years, blazes a pretty solid trail. Show the perfection of the manufactured make-believe world, reveal the existential dread creeping in, blatantly incorporate product placement into the narrative, and cast Will Ferrell.

Historically, this kind of story — sans Ferrell — dates back to the Arthurian myths where a knight rides up a fairy hill, drops a glove, reaches down to retrieve it and is transported into a fan-

tasy realm where he lives for years until another magical force arrives and tells him it’s time to go home. And he does, because as happy as he is here, there’s no place like home. Now that I think of it, that’s also the basis of The Odyssey Nothing new under the sun, I guess.

But let’s keep our references to the 21st century. That means we’ll look past Barbie’s 2001: A Space Odyssey opening, which had the viewer to my left cackling as if he had seen the funniest thing in his entire life. I guess he got the reference. But I don’t remember him laughing his head off when Barbie (Margot Robbie) and Ken (Ryan Gosling) leave Barbieland for the real world via a series of cartoonish settings à la Elf’s voyage from the North Pole to New York City. I guess that one went over his head.

References — cinematic, social, political, commercial — Barbie is loaded with ’em. It’s no surprise to say the movie is a glorified ad for Mattel, but let’s not forget Warner Bros. while we’re at it. (Elf was made for New Line

Cinema in 2003, but Warner Bros. acquired them in 2008.) Kubrick’s 2001 is also a WB title, as is The Matrix, which gets a callout from one of the film’s better characters (Kate McKinnon). There’s more, but I won’t bore you with a list. Though one movie that did come to my mind while watching Barbie was 1989’s Troop Beverly Hills, a Columbia release now owned by Sony.

If you haven’t seen Barbie, you might think I’m focusing on ownership and corporations too much. “What’s the story?” you might be asking. “What are the filmmakers trying to tell us?” Well, that’s where things go from promising to perfunctory. Barbie is a message movie where the message is delivered so loud and clear you almost wonder if it’s a ruse to cover the shameless consumerism on display. Or is the shameless consumerism on display covering up for the softball screed at the heart of Barbie? Is Gerwig using Mattel and Warner Bros.’ millions to stand atop a very big soapbox? Or are they using Gerwig’s indie street cred to boost Barbie sales and box office? Who’s subverting whom here?

As for the story, it’s fine. Barbie and Ken travel to the real world, Los Angeles — which is as real as it gets in

some parts of the city, none of which are depicted here — in hopes of curing Barbie’s existential dread and collapsed arches. Ken tags along because, without Barbie, he is nothing. Back in Barbieland, Barbies run everything, and the Kens exist as accessories. But in LA, Ken discovers a role reversal, complete with horses and the patriarchy, which he embraces and takes back to Barbieland, throwing the fantasy world into chaos. The Barbies are brainwashed and become beer wenches, and the Kens ride around on imaginary horses like King Arthur in Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

Barbie is a very hip movie with something to say, but the narrative leaves so little room for nuance and interpretation that you walk out with more questions than curiosities. Then there’s the irony, which is so thick that whatever sincerity Barbie is going for is immediately choked out via dance numbers or throwaway dialogue. It’s a weird time at the movies and certainly fun in places, but it all feels so soullessly manufactured.

ON SCREEN: Barbie is out now in wide release.

Ryan Gosling (left) and Margot Robbie in Barbie Photo courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures.

ASTROLOGY

BY ROB BREZSNY

ARIES (MARCH 21-APRIL 19): You are about to read a thunderbolt of sublime prophecies. It’s guaranteed to nurture the genius in your soul’s underground cave. Are you ready? 1. Your higher self will prod you to compose a bold prayer in which you ask for stuff you thought you weren’t supposed to ask for. 2. Your higher self will know what to do to enhance your love life by at least 20 percent, possibly more. 3. Your higher self will give you extra access to creativity and imaginative powers, enabling you to make two practical improvements in your life.

TAURUS (APRIL 20-MAY 20): In 1991, John Kilcullen began publishing books with “for Dummies” in the title: for example, Sex for Dummies, Time Management for Dummies, Personal Finance for Dummies, and my favorite, Stress Management for Dummies. There are now over 300 books in this series. They aren’t truly for stupid people, of course. They’re designed to be robust introductions to interesting and useful subjects. I invite you to emulate Kilcullen’s mindset, Taurus. Be innocent, curious, and eager to learn. Adopt a beginner’s mind that’s receptive to being educated and influenced. (If you want to know more: tinyurl.com/TruthForDummies)

GEMINI (MAY 21-JUNE 20): “I could be converted to a religion of grass,” says Indigenous author Louise Erdrich in her book Heart of the Land. “Sink deep roots. Conserve water. Respect and nourish your neighbors. Such are the tenets. As for practice — grow lush in order to be devoured or caressed, stiffen in sweet elegance, invent startling seeds. Connect underground. Provide. Provide. Be lovely and do no harm.” I advocate a similar approach to life for you Geminis in the coming weeks. Be earthy, sensual, and lush. (PS: Erdrich is a Gemini.)

CANCER (JUNE 21-JULY 22): I hereby appoint myself as your temporary social director. My first action is to let you know that from an astrological perspective, the next nine months will be an excellent time to expand and deepen your network of connections and your web of allies. I invite you to cultivate a vigorous grapevine that keeps you up-to-date about the latest trends affecting your work and play. Refine your gossip skills. Be friendlier than you’ve ever been. Are you the best ally and collaborator you could possibly be? If not, make that one of your assignments.

LEO (JULY 23-AUG. 22): There are two kinds of holidays: those created by humans and those arising from the relationship between the sun and earth. In the former category are various independence days: July 4 in the US, July 1 in Canada, July 14 in France, and June 2 in Italy. Japan observes Foundation Day on February 11. Among the second kind of holiday is Lammas on Aug. 1, a pagan festival that in the Northern Hemisphere marks the halfway point between the summer solstice and autumn equinox. In pre-industrial cultures, Lammas celebrated the grain harvest and featured outpourings of gratitude for the crops that provide essential food. Modern revelers give thanks for not only the grain, but all the nourishing bounties provided by the sun’s and earth’s collaborations. I believe you Leos are smart to make Lammas one of your main holidays. What’s ready to be harvested in your world. What are your prime sources of gratitude?

VIRGO (AUG. 23-SEPT. 22): For many of us, a disposal company regularly comes to our homes to haul away the garbage we have generated. Wouldn’t it be great if there was also a reliable service that purged our minds and hearts of the psychic gunk that naturally accumulates? Psychotherapists provide this blessing for some of us, and I know people who derive similar benefits from spiritual rituals. Getting drunk or intoxicated may work, too, although those states often generate their own dreck. With these thoughts in mind, Virgo, meditate on how you might cleanse your soul with a steady, ennobling practice. Now is an excellent time to establish or deepen this tradition.

LIBRA (SEPT. 23-OCT. 22): I’m wondering if there is a beloved person to whom you could say these words by Rumi:

“You are the sky my spirit circles in, the love inside love, the resurrection-place.” If you have no such an ally, Libra, the coming months will be a favorable time to attract them into your life. If there is such a companion, I hope you will share Rumi’s lyrics with them, then go further. Say the words Leonard Cohen spoke: “When I’m with you, I want to be the kind of hero I wanted to be when I was seven years old.”

SCORPIO (OCT. 23-NOV. 21): Your theme for the coming weeks is “pleasurable gooseflesh.” I expect and hope you’ll experience it in abundance. You need it and deserve it! Editor Corrie Evanoff describes “pleasurable gooseflesh” as “the primal response we experience when something suddenly violates our expectations in a good way.” It can also be called “frisson” — a French word meaning “a sudden feeling or sensation of excitement, emotion, or thrill.” One way this joy may occur is when we listen to a playlist of songs sequenced in unpredictable ways — say Mozart followed by Johnny Cash, then Edith Piaf, Led Zeppelin, Blondie, Queen, Luciano Pavarotti and Yellow Magic Orchestra. Here’s your homework: Imagine three ways you can stimulate pleasurable gooseflesh and frisson, then go out and make them happen.

SAGITTARIUS (NOV. 22-DEC. 21): “Fire rests by changing,” wrote ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus. In accordance with astrological omens, I ask you to meditate on that riddle. Here are some preliminary thoughts: The flames rising from a burning substance are always moving, always active, never the same shape. Yet they comprise the same fire. As long as they keep shifting and dancing, they are alive and vital. If they stop changing, they die out and disappear. The fire needs to keep changing to thrive! Dear Sagittarius, here’s your assignment: Be like the fire; rest by changing.

CAPRICORN (DEC. 22-JAN. 19):

There’s ample scientific evidence that smelling cucumbers can diminish feelings of claustrophobia. For example, some people become anxious when they are crammed inside a narrow metal tube to get an MRI. But numerous imaging facilities have reduced that discomfort with the help of cucumber oil applied to cotton pads and brought into proximity to patients’ noses. I would love it if there were also natural ways to help you break free of any and all claustrophobic situations, Capricorn. The coming weeks will be a favorable time to hone and practice the arts of liberation.

AQUARIUS (JAN. 20-FEB. 18): “Silent gratitude isn’t very much use to anyone,” said Aquarian author Gertrude B. Stein. She was often quirky and even downright weird, but as you can see, she also had a heartful attitude about her alliances. Stein delivered another pithy quote that revealed her tender approach to relationships. She said that love requires a skillful audacity about sharing one’s inner world. I hope you will put these two gems of advice at the center of your attention, Aquarius. You are ready for a strong, sustained dose of deeply expressive interpersonal action.

PISCES (FEB. 19-MARCH 20):

According to the International Center for Academic Integrity, 95% of high school students acknowledge they have participated in academic cheating. We can conclude that just one of 20 students have never cheated — a percentage that probably matches how many non-cheaters there are in every area of life. I mention this because I believe it’s a favorable time to atone for any deceptions you have engaged in, whether in school or elsewhere. I’m not necessarily urging you to confess, but I encourage you to make amends and corrections to the extent you can. Also: Have a long talk with yourself about what you can learn from your past cons and swindles.

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SAVAGE LOVE

BY DAN SAVAGE

DEAR DAN: I’m active-duty military, as is my wife. I made a huge mistake. I was scrolling on Reddit and came across an intriguing subreddit. All I wanted was to get a release through photos. The stranger on the other end asked for my WhatsApp information so they could send me photos. I ended up sending an inappropriate picture back to get a “rating,” and wound up in a blackmail situation after the recipient threatened to send it to my wife. I didn’t want that to happen, so I sent money, but this person still sent a screenshot to my wife. I told my wife I messed up. I feel so angry and resentful toward myself and am in therapy now working through my issues. I have an unhealthy relationship with porn. My wife knew I watched porn, and she was OK with that, but she isn’t OK with this. I love my wife and I don’t want it to end over a single penis picture sent to a random person. I didn’t seek a conversation or anything else from this stranger. What can I do to earn my wife’s trust back? Was it cheating? Why did I do this?

— Picture Include Consequences

DEAR PIC: You sent the picture because you wanted to feel wanted. Sometimes a married person in a monogamous relationship needs to have their desirability affirmed by someone who isn’t their spouse; someone whose job isn’t to tell us we’re hot. People used to get that need met by strangers in hotel bars or people they briefly interacted with at work — people used to get that need met in ways that didn’t create a digital trail — but nowadays we get that need met online. So, instead of flirting with someone you were never going to be in the same room with again, PIC, you connected online with someone you were never going to be in the same room with ever.

I wouldn’t consider it cheating, PIC, but I’m not your wife.

As a general rule, I think monogamous couples should define cheating as narrowly as possible. Touching someone else with your dick? Obviously that counts. Flirting with a stranger you’re never going to meet in person? I don’t think that counts. If we want monogamous marriages to survive routine temptations, online and off, I think we need to round things like this down to stupid-but-forgivable rather than rounding them up to cheating-and-unforgiveable.

Once your wife gets past her initial shock and anger, I hope she can see you were the victim here — of your own poor judgment, but also the victim of an online sociopath and a victim of revenge pornography. You shouldn’t do that thing where you’re so theatrically angry with yourself that your wife feels manipulated into comforting you. You need to let her be angry, you need to apologize to her, and then, when things calm down a little, you can talk about what you actually did. You flirted with a stranger, which is something your wife has probably done herself, and that stranger turned out to have an ulterior motive and a vindictive streak.

If your wife can forgive you for flirting with a stranger like this, this marriage can be saved. If she can’t, then this marriage — and any future marriage your wife might enter into — is probably doomed.

SALAD GETS SCHOOLED

BY JOHN LEHNDORFF, WITH

BY CAITLIN ROCKETT

Schools are focused on growth, whether nurturing students’ intellectual progress, spurring physical maturation or teaching social strength in the community. The hope is to produce a bumper crop of kids wellprepared for a challenging future.

Meanwhile, many school districts struggle to feed their students nutritious meals because of funding challenges, supply chain woes (especially for vegetables and fruits) and finding enough workers to make and serve the food.

Wisconsin-based Fork Farms has come up with a solution adopted by more than 800 schools across the U.S., including some here on the Front Range: Have students grow fresh produce in the classroom.

“Our mission at Fork Farms is empowering people to grow their own food,” says Lalu Beré, brand vice president. “Not only does it provide education, but our ‘farms’ produce enough food to affordably feed a community.”

Fork Farms produces the Flex Farm, a hydroponics unit that grows plants in two half-moon vertical chambers, with water and nutrients circulating through the system.

“What makes Flex Farm unique and so efficient is a large LED light tower in

the middle,” Beré says. “Light is recaptured within that cylinder creating an optimal, controlled growing environment for the plants.”

The Flex Farm is not just another educational tool. The mobile hydroponic system can grow a significant amount of food, averaging 25 pounds of lettuce every 28 days, year-round. “For a school, it can offset the cost of sourcing greens from a food service distributor because it can grow popular salad bar items for less than $1 a pound,” Beré says. This is especially important in the winter when school districts can face a 20% to 50% price premium to buy leafy greens.

Flex Farms are not inexpensive, clocking in at just under $5,000. But there are ways to offset the investment, according to Beré.

“Many of our partners — especially teachers — look for grants outside of their school or organization to fund the purchase. School nutrition programs are funded out of the school meals budget, so it’s a little easier. They’re seeing a return on that investment within two years, because the farm is so efficient,” she says.

Here on the Front Range, administrators at Jefferson County Public Schools are running a pilot program with a Flex Farms unit. According to Beth Wallace, Jeffco’s executive director of food and nutrition services, the 150-school region is exploring how the hydroponic system “may be used in a large school district.” The first harvest from Jeffco’s Flex Farm was sent to a “handful of sites” operating a Summer Food Service Program, which provides free breakfast, lunch, snacks and dinner to youth in Colorado all summer long.

“Lettuces were used in our salad recipes and students also tested a caprese-type appetizer with the basil that was grown,” Wallace says.

While Jeffco students aren’t currently getting hands-on learning with the Flex Farm, Wallace says part of the project’s focus is to understand “any learning experiences that might be coordinated with the pilot.”

“For the coming year,” Wallace says, “we plan to continue this as a pilot for investigating possible processes for growing the greens and how to distribute them safely to sites.”

Although hydroponic systems look high tech, there is a misconception that the process is complicated and time consuming. “It’s actually simple and pretty straightforward,” Beré says. “Typically, someone needs to spend about 20 minutes a week checking water pH and nutrients, maybe a total of two to three hours a month.” Every Flex Farm comes with enough seeds for about three months of planting plus

the nutrients needed to make that farm run. The company offers a wide range of greens and vegetable seeds, according to Beré.

Fork Farms maintains a digital portal providing resources, tools and an online community that helps customers learn how to use its Flex Farm system and deal with problems like insects. There are also K-12 teaching materials for classroom programming connected to agriculture, history, climate change, STEM-focused technology, health and economics.

Indoor hydroponic farms also answer a seasonal problem with outdoor gardens. “What we find with soil gardens is a timing challenge,” Beré says. “With the calendar alignment of the school year, kids miss the peak time when they get to harvest and enjoy the bounty from their work.”

Flex Farms were initially adopted mainly by elementary and middle schools, but there is now a lot of interest from high schools and colleges that have a new focus on technical education and preparation for industries of the future. Supermarkets and corporate offices across the country are installing on-premise hydropic vertical farms to produce greens.

“We also do work with a number of hunger relief nonprofits, homeless shelters and food banks to create a consistent source of greens, which is sometimes a big hurdle,” Beré says.

Very few Flex Farms have gone into private homes, but Beré is testing one out at her house.

“You absolutely can install a Flex Farm in your home, but you have to remember that it does grow upwards of 25 to 30 pounds of food per month. That’s a lot of lettuce,” she says.

Because the greens are organic and picked as needed, they tend to stay fresher longer. “When you buy kale at the supermarket it may have been picked a week earlier and shipped by truck from California,” Beré says. “The greens I grow at my house stay fresh. Even weeks later, the romaine has that crunch we love.”

Fork Farms yields fresh greens and agricultural education all year long

ADDITIONAL REPORTING

Credit: Fork Farms

Credits: Fork Farms

LOCAL FOOD NEWS: NO MORE UHL’S

● MeCo Coffee Collective — the cool ultra-local coffee shop and community bakery — is open at 1280 Centaur Village Drive in Lafayette.

● Colorado’s first location of the Hummus Republic chain has opened at 321 McCaslin Blvd., Louisville.

● Founded in 2020 by Aaron Uhl, Boulder’s Uhl’s Brewing Company (5460 Conestoga Court) will close on Aug. 6.

● Avery Brewing Co. in Gunbarrel is celebrating its 30th anniversary. (Story on pg. 45.)

● Coming soon: Maine Shack, 2010 16th St., Boulder, serving lobster rolls, fried clams and blueberry pie; Bitty & Beau’s Coffee, a national chain employing people with disabilities, at 1468 Pearl St., Boulder.

● Dine Out for Ukraine, taking place July 27 at 50 local restaurants, raises funds to support the Eastern European country as it continues to fight Russian invasion. Participating eateries include Blackbelly Market, The Post, Chautauqua Dining Hall, River and Woods, Mateo, Pica’s Taqueria and Ghost Box Pizza. Complete list: sunflowerseedsukraine.org

● Ash’kara, chef Dan Asher’s wonderful Mediterranean eatery featuring freshly baked pita loaves, has closed at 1043 Pearl St., Boulder.

NIBBLES INDEX: MEATLESS MONDAYS?

According to a recent Technomic survey, 41% of Americans say they eat a plant-based meal at least once a week. What the respondents meant precisely by “plant-based” was not part of the survey.

WORDS TO CHEW ON: MELON HEART

“I know the cracking sound it makes when a knife enters the end (of a watermelon). I can see the halves fall apart and display the rich red meat and the black seeds, and the heart standing up, a luxury fit for the elect.” — Mark Twain

John Lehndorff hosts Radio Nibbles on KGNU. Comments: Nibbles@ BoulderWeekly.com

A HOBBY RUN AMOK

Avery Brewing celebrates its 30 year anniversary with rare beer invitational

BY COLIN WRENN

Adam Avery was at a boss’s Super Bowl Party in 1991 when he had his “a-ha” moment. He had just been accepted to law school at the University of Denver and was considering his next steps. His climbing buddies, many of whom were already lawyers, told him there was no way he was going to enjoy the next couple of years if he proceeded down this masochistic path.

Avery’s boss was passing around a small batch of homebrewed brown ale. “After that, I started brewing and it took over my life,” Avery says. “I got bit by the bug really, really hard.”

Avery grew up in Decatur, Illinois, and moved to Colorado to attend Regis University. He says beer has always been a part of his life, despite his somewhat roundabout arrival at being a quintessential figure in Colorado beer. “I grew up in farmland, so beer was the liquor of choice.”

About “a gazillion beers ago,” he launched Avery Brewery sometime in September 1993 at its original location in a warehouse on east Arapahoe. Avery’s parents had recently moved to Boulder. His father, a distance runner who is still traversing thousands of miles per year at the age of 82, arrived in

town with plans of opening a running store. He instead chose to invest in getting Avery Brewing off the ground.

“It was the school of hard knocks there for a while,” says Avery. Things didn’t really start to turn around for the small brewery until 1998. “It was a hobby run amok.”

Then came Hog Heaven.

After five years of crafting beer, Avery and his cohort decided to try something a little different. “Rather than making these ubiquitous, sessionable beers, let’s move into something that’s going to differentiate ourselves,” Avery says. With the introduction of Hog Heaven, an Imperial Red Ale with an ABV that sits at nearly 10%, Avery Brewing embarked on a path that continues to define its ethos and situate it among the top ten largest craft breweries in the country.

Avery Brewing still makes plenty of beers fit for easy drinking, with expressions like White Rascal, Avery Lager and Avery IPA acting as the company’s bread and butter. But it’s the BarrelAged Series, an ongoing succession of one-and-done experimental creations, many of which have an ABV between 15% and 20%, that are the heart and soul of a brewery that never has had any shortage of character.

On Saturday, July 29, Avery Brewing will host its 30th Anniversary Invitational, an all-day event featuring over 100 specialty beers, rare barrel-aged releases and live music from an all-star lineup of

local talent. “The first time we celebrated was in 1998. It was about 12 people and I was on a grill flipping cheeseburgers,” says Avery. This year’s roster includes 65 breweries from across 14 different states and five countries.

The lineup on tap includes Golden’s Cannonball Creek, Longmont’s Bootstrap Brewing, Belgium’s Lambiek Fabriek, and Miami’s Tripping Animals. Music will be provided by Drunken Hearts, The Desert Furs and a supergroup featuring David Johnston on banjo, Dango Rose on upright bass, Silas Herman on mandolin and Taylor Sims on guitar.

While the sheer volume of the event will inspire both beer geeks and average drinkers alike, one of the biggest draws of the event will be the debut of the 30th Anniversary Ale. Using a smorgasbord of ingredients, the monster American strong ale will feature Chinook, Columbus, Centennial, Simcoe and Strata hops, aged in fresh Stranahan’s Whiskey barrels. “If you want a chance to drink the liquid history of Avery Brewing Company, come to the party,” Avery says. “I’ll be the drunk dude there for sure.”

ON TAP: Avery Brewing 30th Anniversary Invitational. 1-5 p.m. Saturday, July 29, Avery Brewing, 4910 Nautilus Court, Boulder. $93

THE MYTH OF THE PSYCHEDELIC CANNABINOID

BY WILL BRENDZA

One of the latest THC-derived molecules to make recent headlines is THC-O acetate (THC-O).

It’s a complicated chemical process to make the compound, but the end result is a potent psychedelic. THC-O was one of the drugs used by the U.S. military during its infamous Edgewater Arsenal human experiments, alongside LSD and PCP. Over the years, many have touted THC-O as the one true psychedelic cannabinoid.

But new research from the University of Buffalo (UB) discounts those claims. The study, published in Journal for Psychoactive Drugs, indicates that the psychedelic properties of THC-O might be more folklore than fact.

The study’s lead author, Daniel J. Kruger, an associate professor and research scientist in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at UB, wrote in a press release that his team set out to find evidence that THC-O has a psychedelic effect.

“And the answer is not so much,” Kruger wrote.

THC-O is similar to Delta-8 THC in that the 2018 Farm Bill technically legalized it (Weed Between the Lines, “Protecting cannabis farmers,” July 22, 2021). That iteration of the bill legalized growing industrial hemp — the nonpsychoactive cousin of marijuana and all hemp products. It also permitted all hemp derivatives, extracts, cannabinoids, isomers, acids, salts and salts of isomers under .3% THC (Weed Between the Lines, “The Delta-8 gray area,” July 8, 2021).

THC-O can be derived from Delta-8 THC similarly to how the acetate compound is derived from cannabis extracts (such as hash or wax), so THC-O can be produced under that .3% THC limit, which has created some legal ambiguity around this molecule. Because like Delta-8 THC, THC-O still gets you high.

In fact, the very first chemical synthesis instructions for this molecule come from D. Gold’s 1974 book Cannabis Alchemy: Art of Modern Hashmaking: “The effect of the acetate is more spiritual and psychedelic than that of the

ordinary product. The most unique property of this material is that there is a delay of about 30 minutes before its effects are felt.”

But research from UB disputes Gold’s nearly 50-year-old description. The study indicates that, despite THCO’s delayed onset time, it doesn’t produce the same kinds of “mystical” experiences that classical psychedelics like mushrooms and LSD can produce.

Researchers at UB polled more than 300 participants about their experiences with THC-O. The questionnaire asked respondents to rate the extent to

the 1960s, MEQs have become a classic instrument for assessing psychedelic experiences and their impacts on people, measuring subjective feelings of unity or interconnectedness, transcendence of time, inner subjectivity, objectivity, sacredness, paradoxicality and so on.

Subjects in the UB study scored very low on their MEQs. When asked directly about their encounter with the compound, “79% responded that using THC-Oac is ‘not at all’ or ‘a little’ of a psychedelic experience.”

Instead, the most common side effects reported were moderate relaxation, euphoria and pain relief — which sounds more like a standard cannabis high than a psychedelic trip.

“People have to be careful,” Kruger says. “It’s possible that some of these extreme effects are the result of some sort of contamination, and that’s one of the real dangers of these products if you don’t really know what’s in them.”

The DEA still lists THC-O as a Schedule I substance. It’s also been made illegal on the state level in Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, Idaho, Iowa, Mississippi, Montana, New York, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont, and right here in Colorado.

which they experienced an altered sense of time, anxiety, difficulty concentrating, euphoria, hallucinations, pain relief, paranoia and relaxation.

Participants also completed a Mystical Experience Questionnaire (MEQ). Developed by Walter Pahnke in

“There’s tons of interest in Delta-8 and THC-O-acetate, and lots of claims being made about them with virtually no research,” Kruger says. “They’re really new to the consumer market and cannabis still has this weird mix of policies where it’s illegal at the federal level, so we don’t have national regulations.”

THC-O acetate has long been revered for its hallucinogenic properties — new research challenges those claims