Free Every Thursday For 28 Years / www.boulderweekly.com / August 25 - 31, 2022 MYSTICISM IN PENITENTE CANYON, P. 18 STEVE CONN IS BACK... AGAIN, P. 25 THE GENERIC GOURMET RETURNS, P. 32 by Will Brendza Birthbehindbars Thousands of pregnant people are admitted to U.S. jails and prisons every year—what happens when they give birth?
BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE l AUGUST 25, 2022 l 3 departments Manynews:trans students in higher ed struggle with misgendering, isolation and debt—forgiving student loans could help by Orion Rummler, e 19th 15 analysis: ousands of pregnant people are admitted to U.S. jails and prisons every year—what happens when they give birth? by Will Brendza 1812adventure: A glimpse into the history of Penitente Canyon by Matt Maenpaa 7 The Unrepentant Tenant: Resources for renters 8 Opinion: Poor police work is letting rapists go free 9 Opinion: Ditches are a vanishing paradise 26 Events: What to do when there’s nothing to do 29 Film: ‘Buck and the Preacher’ join The Criterion Collection 30 Astrology: by Rob Brezsney 31 Savage Love: Jerked around 32 Nibbles: Cooks rediscover supermarket store brands 35 Drink: Digging into a farm-to-keg brewery 37 Cuisine: Lafayette’s growing bakery neighborhood 38 Weed Between the Lines: Teaming up to register voters 21buzz: Courtney Barnett’s Here and ere tour makes its nal stop in Denver, featuring Arooj Aftab and others by Angela K. Evans overtones: A local music legend brings his tunes back to town and reunites one of Boulder’s funkiest bands by John Lehndor 25 THANK YOU BOULDER WINNER OF 6 BEST OF BOULDER AWARDS Safe, full capacity dining, and outdoor patio. Bar open. • Best Food Delivery • Best Kid Friendly Restaurant • Best Restaurant Dessert • Best Restaurant Service • Best CocktailsAPPETIZERSBEST/TAPAS2YEARSINAROW! Open Everyday 5:00 - 9:00pm Happy Hour 5 :00 - 6:30pm 3970 N. Broadway • Boulder • DAGABICUCINA.COM303.786.9004
Vote online in the annual Best of Boulder TM East County survey August 27 through September 24 800 S. Hover Rd. Suite 30, Longmont, CO 80504 • 303-827-3349 www.thelocoltheatre.com Best LiveGroupTheater and Dance Studio PLEASE VOTE FOR US!FORVOTEUS! • Microbrewery • Beer Selection • Bar • Burger • Place to OutdoorsEat • Food (BurgerTruckNomad) Please VOTE FOR US BEST PHYSICAL THERAPY FOOD NiwotNewMexicanLyonsKid-FriendlyJapaneseItalianIndian/NepaliIceGluten-FreeFoodFineDonutsChineseCateringBusinessBurgerBreakfast/BrunchBBQBakeryBagelAsianAppetizers/TapasFusionLunchRestaurantDiningRestaurantTruckMenuCream/FrozenYogurtRestaurantRestaurantRestaurantRestaurantRestaurantRestaurantRestaurantRestaurant Overall PlacePlacePizzaPancake/WaffleRestauranttoeatoutdoorstogoonafirstdateRestaurantDessertRestaurantServiceSandwichSeafoodSushiRestaurantTake-outThaiRestaurantVeggieBurgerWings DRINKS BeerBar selection CoffeeCoffeeCocktailsCideryHouseRoaster Craft TeahouseMargaritaLatte/MochaHappyDistilleryBreweryHour Wine Selection CANNABIS Bargains at a dispensary MedicalFlowerEdiblesCBDBudtenderProductsMarijuana Dispensary Recreational Marijuana Dispensary Selection at a dispensary Wax HOME & GARDEN Heating,FurnitureFloristElectricianCarpet/FlooringStoreVenting, and Air Conditioning Home Builder/Contractor Home Finishing Home PestPainterNursery/GardenMattressLandscaperKitchenHydroponicImprovementStoreSupplyStoreStoreCenterControl VOTE FOR DICKENS 300 PRIME Best Restaurant , Best Patio & Best dickens300prime.comVenue 728 Main Street • Louisville • www.SingingCookStore.com720.484.6825PLEASEVOTEFORUS AUTHENTIC JAPANESE CUISINE][ lease Vote for Bestus Sushi VOTE FOR LEFT HAND LASER 1446 Hover St, Ste. 207, Longmont, CO 303.551.4701 • lefthandlaserstudio.com 4 I AUGUST 25, 2022 I BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE
Vote now atAllEastThereboulderweekly.comisonlyoneBestofBoulder™County-OnlyinBoulderWeekly.ballotsmustbesubmittedonline. LongmontFORVOTEUS! • WestminsterBoulder Tattoos / Piercing / www.tribalrites.comJewelry ForVoteUs Best PiercingTattoo/Studio 565 E. South Boulder Rd. Louisville, CO 720-985-4259 • www.inksmithcolorado.com BEOVOTETBB RoofingPlumberContractor ENTERTAINMENT & CULTURE Art Bank/FinancialGallery Institution SportsPublicPublicPrivatePlacePlacePlaceOpenNon-ProfitMusicMuseumLiveFestival/EventJazzVenueVenueMictoDancetoPlayPooltoWi-FiSchoolSchool(K-8)School(9-12)Bar FITNESS & HEALTH Acupuncture Clinic Barber Climbing/ParkourChiropractorShop Gym Dance Studio Day DentalSpaCare Golf Gym/FitnessCourse Center Hair LasikHospitalSalonServicesMartialArtsMassageMedical Doctor NailYogaOrthodontistSalonPhysicalTherapistPilatesStudioTanningSalonUrgentCareCenterVeterinaryCareStudio RETAIL Auto Dealer - New Auto Dealer - Used Auto ClothingClothingCarBookstoreBicycleService/RepairShopWashStore-Children’sStore-Men’s Clothing Store - Used Clothing Store - Women’s Business Owned/Led by Female CEO Computer Repair Dry ToyTobacco/PipeTireTattoo/PiercingStorageStereo/ElectronicsShoppingShoeRealPetOpticalNewNaturalMusicLiquorJewelryIndependentHotelHardwareGroceryGiftFarmCleanerStoreStoreStoreBusinessStoreStoreStoreFoodsStoreBusinessStoreStoreEstateGroupStoreCenterFacilityParlorShopShopStore VOTE FOR US! 103 Main St, Longmont, CO (303) 772-9599 www.cheeseimporters.com 2770 Arapahoe Rd #112, Lafayette, CO 720-630-8053 • www.eatreelfish.com Vote us B t Seafoo d In Boulder E t County *List of categories subject to change. TRADITIONAL VIETNAMESE PHO HOUSE 2855 28th St, Boulder, CO • Boulderphoco.com 2321 Clover Basin Dr, Longmont, CO • Boulderpholongmont.com VOTE BOULDERFORPHO BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE I AUGUST 25, 2022 I 5
TheAjoyaBud TheGreenGreenFreshExtractEuforaEclipseDabCompleteDepotReleafDispensaryCannabisCompanyLabsBakedDragonDreamGreenSoluton Green MedicineMarquisLivWellKindKaringIgadiHerbalHelpingTheMedicinalsTreeHealthCenterHandHerbalsWellnessKindCastleCannabisMan Natve Zengold’sVerdeTwinpeaksTweedLeafTheTheTerrapinStarbudsSpaceOptonsRootsMedicalCenterStatonCareStatonPeacefulChoiceRepublicDispensaryNaturalLyons Vote For Native Roots Today! SHOPLOCATIONLONGMONT There is only one Best of Boulder East County™ Only in the Weekly. NEW BOULDER LOCATION 5420 Arapahoe Ave. Unit www.denrec.comD VOTE FOR US DAILY FLOWERHIGHEST$120/OZSPECIALSSPECIALAWARDEDINCOLORADO Medical and Recreational Marijuana Dispensaries All ballots must be submitted online. VOTE NOW at boulderweekly.com. Ballot closes at midnight on September 24 6 I AUGUST 25, 2022 I BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE
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Boulder city councils of the 1980s didn’t see much reason for passing better tenant laws, in spite of Colorado being near the bottom ranking of states for tenant protection. When confronted with documentation of widespread problems, they (and landlords) consistently said more laws weren’t needed, and tenants and landlords just needed to work out their own problems. Since there is a severe imbalance of power between the two parties, and most renters can’t a ord lawyers, that advice was a slap in the face and underscored how the majority of Council members are not renters (then and now).
Forty years ago, as the director of the Boulder Tenants Union (BTU), a major part of my job was coun seling hundreds of tenants (and landlords). Based on my experience—and conversations with others working with tenant issues—I found that the overwhelming majority of Boulder tenants don’t know their rights. ere’s little evidence that has changed in 2022. ose rights are found in both state statutes and city ordinances. As my previous columns have mentioned, the city of Boulder has the strongest laws in the state, thanks to past tenant activism, but that doesn’t help renters if they don’t know about those laws and resources.
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At that time, BTU proposed speci c ordinances on a variety of issues to balance that power inequity—but Council refused, and instead o ered to establish a media tion forum for tenants and landlords. e city reluctantly established the Landlord Tenant Mediation Project in the mid-1980s. Mediation is helpful but was no substitute for better tenant protection then, and still is not.
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We do not publish anonymous letters or those signed with pseudonyms. Letters become the property of Boulder Weekly and will be published on our website. Publisher, Fran Zankowski Circulation Manager, Cal Winn Editor-in-Chief,EDITORIAL Caitlin Rockett News Editor, Will Brendza Arts & Culture Editor, Will Matuska Food Editor, John Lehndorff Intern, Chad Robert Peterson Contributing Writers: Dave Anderson, Emma Athena, Rob Brezsny, Michael J. Casey, Angela K. Evans, Mark Fearer, Dave Kirby, Matt Maenpaa, Adam Perry, Dan Savage, Bart Schaneman, Alan Sculley, Tom Winter SALES AND MARKETING Market Development Manager, Kellie Robinson Account Executives, Matthew Fischer, Carter Ferryman, Chris Allred Mrs. Boulder Weekly, Mari Nevar ArtPRODUCTIONDirector,Susan France Senior Graphic Designer, Mark Goodman CIRCULATION TEAM Sue Butcher, Ken Rott, Chris Bauer BUSINESS Bookkeeper,OFFICERegina Campanella Founder/CEO, Stewart Sallo Editor-at-Large, Joel Dyer Aug. 25, 2022 Volume XXX, number 2 As Boulder County's only independently owned newspaper, Boulder Weekly is dedicated to illuminat ing truth, advancing justice and protecting the First Amendment through ethical, no-holds-barred 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 que ries to: editorial@boulderweekly.com. Any materials sent to Boulder Weekly become the property of the 690newspaper.SouthLashley Lane, Boulder, CO, 80305 p 303.494.5511 f www.boulderweekly.comeditorial@boulderweekly.com303.494.2585 Boulder Weekly is published every Thursday. No portion may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher. © 2022 Boulder Weekly, Inc., all rights reserved. BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE l AUGUST 25, 2022 l 7 see UNREPENTANT TENANT Page 8 Resources for Boulder renters by Mark Fearer
Tis the season for Boulder’s population to signi cantly increase, mostly with student renters. Given that migration, dance with me as I pivot from rent control back to general tenant issues.
your
Additionally, CU’s O -Campus Housing is another good resource for tenants attending the university. ey o er legal advice to students, along with a number of forms that might be helpful to tenants. So, given that perhaps 90% or more of renters don’t know their rights—and responsibilities— shouldn’t we be doing more to give them the resources they need? Perhaps requiring that all tenants be given a copy of the Landlord-Tenant Handbook when they sign the lease? at would be a good start that could decrease a lot of problems down the line. is opinion column does not necessarily re ect the views of Boulder Weekly.
CRMS Manager Carin Arm strong recently said they receive an average of 20 calls per week asking for help on landlord/tenant issues, which peaks between March and October. Mediation o ers a way for both parties to resolve problems and avoid going to court. Boulder is not the only city to o er mediation, but it was the rst. It is a free service o ered by Boul der and Longmont through volunteer mediators trained in con ict resolution. e main caveat is that both parties must be willing to mediate—no one can compel people to compromise. Because the city received so many landlord/tenant calls for help, CMRC also developed and pub lished a Landlord-Tenant Handbook: A Guide to Residential Landlords and Tenants’ Rights and Responsibilities It encapsulates both state and city regulations on renting. is objective 40-page booklet can be picked up at the Housing and Human Services o ces (or Boulder Main Library), or downloaded on the city’s website (bit.ly/3QEhbW1). is is especially relevant to all the new renters ood ing into Boulder right now, many of whom are coming from other states or other Colorado cities. Some renters new to Boulder (especially those from states that have rent control) have a di cult time understanding why landlords can raise rents with little or no justi cation ( e Unrepentant Tenant, “ e fantasy of in ation increasing rents” July 28, 2022). Out-of-state tenants are also astonished to see how quickly Colora do evictions can take place, since most states allow a more humane period of time to process an eviction.
8 l AUGUST 25, 2022 l BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE UNREPENTANT TENANT from Page 7
There is a sexual assault taking place right now. Every 68 seconds, someone in America is sexually assaulted. More than 97% of perpetrators get o scot-free.Amajor reason is mismanage ment of physical evidence. It’s time for police work to enter the modern era and employ the latest technology for collecting and processing evidence. Otherwise, rapists will continue to go free. e evidence in a sexual-assault investigation is typically the product of a six-hour physical exam conduct ed by a medical professional, who searches the victim’s body for any material—like DNA—that could help identify the perpetrator. e information and material gathered is known as a “sexual assault kit.” As a survivor of sex tra cking and current advocate for victims, I know rsthand how invasive and retraumatizing these exams can be. But we believe that the information collected will help deliver justice. at faith is often misplaced. In far too many cases, the evidence in sexual assault kits is never used. e federal government estimates a na tional backlog of more than 200,000 untestedEverykits.unprocessed kit represents a crime left unsolved—and a perpe trator likely to attack again. In Ohio, for example, 22 kits associated with a single rapist remained shelved and untested for years. When sexual assault kits are tested and used as evidence, anoth er layer of dysfunction can appear. Court cases often require proof of the “chain of custody” for a piece of evidence. Prosecutors need to be able to prove the whereabouts of a rape kit, for example, as it travels from the emergency room, to the police, to the crime lab, to the prosecutor, and then to the courts. at evidence may be on the move for years. e chain of custody is one of the rst elements a good defense attorney will scrutinize. If he or she can prove a break in the chain of custody, the evidence is not admissible at trial. And if a defendant challenges the chain of custody, even a minor mis take can lead to an acquittal. Long backlogs and mismanage ment of evidence don’t just impact convictions. ey also serve as power ful disincentives for women who wish to report sexual assault. Today, any given sexual assault has just a 31% chance of ever being re ported to the police. Why go through an invasive, demeaning, physical exam if the evidence is going to end up in a storage closet—or if mismanagement by police is going to let the rapist o on a technicality?ere’snoexcuse for losing track of evidence in 2022. We can look at our phones to determine how many houses away our Amazon packages are. Our nancial and health records are online, available on demand. But some police departments still rely on faulty software or even paper les to track evidence. And multiple states, including Massachusetts and Texas, do not require police to keep track of clothing, blood, and urine in a rape kit.
Poor police work is letting rapists go free. That has to stop. by Christine McDonald
Nonetheless, for almost 40 years, the city o ers a valuable resource that almost no other Colorado city has, and should be more widely known to anyoneisrenting.cityservice later expanded its purview, and is now called the Com munity Mediation and Resolution Center (CMRC). It deals with issues beyond mediation and landlord/ tenant issues, but more than 90% of calls are landlord/tenant related.
Email: editorial@boulderweekly.com
e Landlord-Tenant Handbook covers subjects including leases, evic tions, repairs, deposits and rights to privacy—it’s a good place to start for both tenants and landlords to see how to deal with problems. It also o ers a list of resources on renting, hous ing and related topics. Additionally, there’s a good FAQ along with helpful forms on the CMRS website, and sta can answer questions—although they can’t give legal advice. You’ll likely need to leave a message or ll out an online form rst.
Simple upgrades—from imple menting barcodes and RFID tags, combined with good software— will bring evidence-collection and management up to an appropriate technological standard nationwide. It will require signi cant investment by federal and state governments. But newer tools can maximize the impact of those public dollars. We have the technology to get more perpetrators of sexual assault o the street. We need law enforcement agencies to deploy those tools so victims aren’t telling their stories in vain. is opinion column does not necessarily re ect the views of Boulder Weekly.
Federal legislation also mandates piping many earthen ditches to cut salinity in the Colorado River water that’s sent to Mexico. e result: dry trails, disappearing wetlands and the end of a rural and urbanManyamenity.people mourn the loss.
“With less water we have to gure out how to try to retain the best of what we value the most,” says John Fleck, a water researcher at the University of New Mexico’s Utton Center. He says the Griego Lateral, in Albuquerque, that he regularly bikes along, was built in 1708, and during the COVID lockdown, the ditch bank was mobbed with bikers and walkers desperate to get outdoors. “ ere is incredible value in these ditches,” he says. But Fleck points out that we’re confronted by di cult choices: “How much water do we keep in rivers and which ditches do we save?” Any loss can be painful, and in a blog post Fleck said simply: “I love living near a ditch.”Youcould say of Cary Denison, former project coordinator for Trout Unlimited, that he was born in irri gation boots. “In western Colorado, my dad was the superintendent of the Fire Mountain Canal,” he says, “and my rst job was irrigating.”
Annette Choszczyk lives in rural western Colorado these days, but when she was a kid, the Highline Canal in Denver was her summer paradise.
Denison is an irriga tor himself and lives in the town of Ridgway. But he recalls that giant brown trout as “a day where irrigators should have taken less.” e experi ence led Denison toward his work in conservation: “We need to take only the water from rivers we absolutely need.”Fleck and other students of the Colorado River see a time coming soon when many water diversions will cease because of their lower priority dates. Some ditches are already dry, as the water gets left in the river for the Lower Basin states of Arizona, Nevada and California. ese states share the river equally with the Upper Basin states of Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Wyoming, where the river begins and gathers strength.
Dave Marston is publisher of Writ ers on the Range, writersontherange.org, an independent nonpro t dedicated to lively discussion about the West. is opinion column does not necessarily re ect the views of Boulder Weekly.
ESPRESSO EXCEPTIONALISM
“Generations of children will have poorer childhoods because they will never have a ‘wild’ place along a ditch to explore,” she says. It’s hard to love a semi-desert once you’ve come to appreciate the wonders that a ditch can bring.
DITCHES ARE ALREADY DRY, as the water gets left in the river for the Lower Basin states of Arizona, Nevada and California.
Jim Email:Cox/Boulderletters@boulderweekly.com
But increasing aridity is already changing that pattern. Earlier this summer, Choszczyk, who now lives in western Colorado, mourned the loss of some of her local ditches as they got piped, ending the riparian ribbon that enhanced her neighborhood.
ese days, though, Denison thinks rivers get pipegatedColorado.ofpropertyirrigatedmomentrecallslife.”forwatermaintain“Wesuedwaterbecauseshortchangedtoomuchgetsdivertintoditches.“enariverers,”hesays.needtoenoughintherivershandplantDenisonastartlingashefamilyoutsideHotchkiss,e12-inchwasclogged, so he and his brother began clean ing it out, expecting a mass of leaves and twigs. But the clog turned out to be the biggest brown trout—“and I shed almost daily,” he says—that he’d ever seen. at sh had come a long way. eir property was nine miles from the diversion where the river was sweeping almost entirely into theeseditch.days
Ditches are a vanishing paradise by Dave MarstonSOME
I enjoyed the article by Ari Levaux. I’m all for spread ing the word about good, coffee-flavored coffee. But he should know that if he wants to be a true coffee geek, I mean connoisseur, he needs to roast his own beans. You can get green beans from all over the world, roast them just the way you like them, make coffee that’s as fresh as you can get it, and save a lot of money compared to pre-roasted beans.Keep on brewin’.
Over centuries, says Fleck, “one of the things that we’ve done in all these Western landscapes is to narrow the river itself with levees and dams and control it in a narrow channel. And we’ve distributed water across the oodplain through ditches. It’s this huge, rich, complex social and cultural ecosystem that we’ve all lived in for hundreds of years.”
Email: editorial@boulderweekly.com
BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE l AUGUST 25, 2022 l 9
“To us, it was river and a play ground, complete with rope swings, swimming holes, crawdads and a trail alongside it that adults and kids could walk on to the foothills or far out into the prairie.” ey always called it a ditch, this 71-mile-long canal that carried water all over Denver. roughout the West, thousands of ditches that snake for miles through semi-ar id country are nothing less than beloved. ey add living green corridors to walk or bike theseriversmelteddeliverswarmingheat.fromalwaysbylandsimpromptualong,wetfrequentedbirds,andarespitesummerButnowaclimatelesssnowtothatsupplydiversionditches with water.
St. Vrain Habitat ReStore 1351 Sherman Drive, Longmont www.stvrainhabitat.org/restore303-776-3334
LEFT HAND LASER STUDIO
Armene Piper is a Boulder native who grew up on the outskirts of town; she can still remember when Arapahoe and 75th Street were dirt roads. Now she lives in Longmont with her husband, five children and four dogs. She is deeply committed to her clients and takes great pride in providing the best customer experience with unparalleled results. Armene also works closely with the transgender community to help them feel more authentic in their own body’s. Armene offers Cryoskin slimming and toning, laser hair removal, vein treatments, sun and age spot treatments, toenail fungus treatments, as well as Boleyn stretch mark and scar camouflage.
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St. vrain habitat restore it was a dream, people laughed, they said oh no that’s not enough money even to get a rough blueprint. In 2013 we proved them wrong and opened our restaurant. Since the beginning we are committed to cooking with fresh ingredients, from our house made tortillas to our slow braised pork. Making salsas, beans, rice, soups and stews is an everyday event. We are committed to using local ingredients and as sustainable as possible. Fresh lime juice Margaritas, and specialty tacos are what sets us apart. We love to support the community and the people in it. We hope to be a big part of the Longmont community as we grow and evolve.
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oZO Coffee Company is a coffee roaster & retail operator based in Boulder, Colorado with Espresso Cafe locations in Boulder and Longmont, Colorado. Founded in 2007, OZO Coffee has based its growth on core principles of service, quality, community, and sustainability. We are grateful for the opportunity to share our passion for coffee with you.
JUSTIN HARTMAN, OZO 1232-AFOUNDERS.Hover St. in Village At The www.ozocoffee.comPeaks ozo coffee c ory’s illustrious brewing career started in Boulder way back in 1992 as a homebrewing college student. As an active member of the home brew club Hop Barley and the Alers, he learned from more seasoned brewers to appreciate a wide variety of beers, but especially Helagers.spent so much time at What’s Brewin’ home brew shop they had no choice but to eventually give him a job. He then spent 2 years brewing at Tommyknocker’s in Idaho Springs, before moving to Jackson, Wyoming to brew at Snake River CoryBrewing.spent 17 years brewing and honing his craft at Snake River and it is there that he met his amazing wife and business partner Kelly. 6778 N. 79th Street, Niwot fritz family brewers
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“ e writing was on the wall . . . they were just going to over-prosecute me until I never got out,” she says. “So I left the jurisdiction and I came [to California].”Herbaby was adopted by the foster family she’d been placed with. And today, six years later, that child is still living in Boulder County. is is just one complicated case among thou sands like it that happen every year in the U.S., according to Dr. Carolyn Sufrin with Johns Hopkins University. It’s estimated that there are more than 58,000 admissions of pregnant people into U.S. jails and prisons every single year. at gure is extrapo lated from data Sufrin gathered in a rst-of-its-kind study published in the American Journal of Public Health in 2019.
For her study, “Pregnancy Outcomes in U.S. Prisons, 2016–2017,” Sufrin and several colleagues examined 12 months of data on pregnancies, births, miscarriages, abortions and other outcomes from 22 di erent prison systems and the Federal Bureau of Prisons. ey found that in one year, 1,396 pregnant women were admitted into prisons; 92% of those pregnancies ended in live births, 6% ended in mis carriages and 1% ended in abortions. at data wasn’t readily available, Sufrin says. Most prisons and jails don’t keep records on how many incarcerated women are pregnant, how many births happen in any given year or what the out comes are. ey aren’t required to. No federal law or policy requires U.S. jails or prisons to record those numbers, leaving a black hole of information sur rounding birth behind bars. “Most of the prisons and jails that participated in our study only tracked this information for the purpose of the study,” she says. “Very few actually either were already collecting this [data] or contin ued collecting it.”
12 l AUGUST 25, 2022 l BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE
he father of her unborn baby had just been shot to death in North Boulder. Madison (a pseudonym for the purpose of this article) was there when it hap pened. She was ve months pregnant. And when the police arrived, she was arrested and booked into Boulder County Jail (BCJ) and charged with accessory to murder. She’d be sentenced to two years probation and a year of work release, though the accessory charges were later dropped.
More disturbingly, there isn’t just a lack of infor mation, but a complete lack of any standard of care these institutions are required to provide for preg nant women.
Thousands of pregnant people are admitted to U.S. jails and prisons every year—what happens when they give birth?
“ ere’s no mandatory system of accountability or oversight that makes sure that [prisons and jails are] providing a reasonable level of quality or quan
“It’s just very horri c,” Madison says. “It was just one of the worst moments of my life when these people came in here, telling me that they’re going to take my Post-birthchild.”bonding builds trust in newborns and sets them up to have healthy relationships through out their lives, according to UC Davis Health. But Colorado isn’t one of the 11 states that allows for nursery programs or “mother-baby units” in jails and prisons; so when Madison and her baby were deemed t for discharge, they had to go their sepa rateAndways.with Madison in jail, the father dead, and no relatives on either side capable of caring for the infant, her newborn child was placed in foster care with a Boulder County couple. at was in 2016. Madison had a handful of vis its with her baby early in the child’s life; she missed one, she says, because she lived in the mountains and got snowed in, and missed others because medica tion she’d been on had made her ill. But she says, the visits she made were very special for her. en, just a month into her work release, while still on probation, she ed the state.
BirthbyWill Brendza behind bars
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But before Madison was released back into the community to serve her time, while she was still in carcerated at BCJ, she went into labor. She was taken to Boulder Community Hospital and gave birth to a healthy baby. To this day she struggles to describe the overwhelming love she felt for that child in those precious postpartum moments. Within 48 hours, a caseworker with the Colora do Department of Human Services (CDHS) walked into Madison’s guarded hospital room to inform her that they had to take the newborn away.
“A lot of the time we nd out they may not identify [that they’re] pregnant when they come into the jail. ey might say, ‘I’m not sure,’ in which case we would do a pregnancy test.” Judson says. “I would say that we usually have at least one, maybe two inmates at a time throughout the year that are pregnant while they’re in custody.”
Once a pregnancy is identi ed, the jail pulls all of the person’s medical records; nds out if they’ve received prenatal care al ready and from whom; works with attorneys to nd out how long they’ll be in custody, what they’re in for, when their court date is, if they’ve been sentenced, and how long they’ll be at the jail or prison. If a pregnant person has been sentenced, “We can request from the courts a furlough which would get them out of custody to go back into the community to nish their sentence, either at a later time or to do it at home,” Judson says. And for pregnant peo ple who aren’t sentenced, the jail can request a medical PR bond, allowing non-violent o enders to be bonded out of custody until their court date.
“ en I work with the hospital case worker to identify: What’s going to happen at the hospital?” Judson says. “What’s going to happen with the infant? When will social services become involved? Who’s going to take the infant?” When the pregnant inmate goes into labor, she’s taken to Boulder Community Hospital and kept under guarded supervision. In 2018, the First Step Act made it illegal to use restraints on pregnant incarcerated people, and at least 29 states have likewise passed laws prohibiting the practice—however, Sufrin says there are a lot of loopholes to those laws.“If there’s a signi cant risk of escape or other exceptions that vary from state to state, then [restraints are] allowable,” she says. “Sometimes the problem is with the hospital sta , frankly, not treating pregnant and birthing people with respect and dignity and according to best clinical and ethical practices.”en,the baby is born. And, just like Mad ison, unless there is some lingering medical reason to keep the mother and baby in the hospital, their time with the infant is usually limited to 48 hours. Sometimes it’s less.
“Our goal, ideally, if they don’t have to be in jail, is that they shouldn’t be in jail,” JudsonHowever,says. sometimes there are no other options. In those cases, when a pregnant person has to remain in custody, they’re im mediately scheduled for pregnancy counsel ing, which is one of Judson’s responsibilities at BCJ.“I’ll meet with the patient and nd out, ‘What is your intention with your pregnan cy? Is this a surprise to you? Are you happy about this? Is this a good thing?’” Judson says. “I’ve had females say, ‘I don’t want to be pregnant. I was scheduled to have an abortion before I got stuck in custody, and now I’m going to be forced to have to carry this to term.’ And I’ll say, ‘Well, that doesn’t have to be your option.’”
— Carolyn Sufrin, Johns Hopkins University
When the baby is ready to be discharged from the hospital, CDHS needs to have placement lined up, explains Korey Elger, pregnancy manager at CDHS. Elger is an experienced social work specialist, who has seen countless scenarios like Madison’s play out. She says there are a lot of options for mothers before child welfare has to become involved. Ideally, the mother can contact the
“ ey get sent back to jail or prison and they have very limited, if any, in-person contact with their newborn. So it’s really traumatizing,” Sufrin says. “ ey have no control over the circumstances of their birth or their ability to bond with their babies.”
e Denver Fire Department arrived 15 minutes after she’d delivered a baby by herself and the re ghters cut the umbilical cord. e entire incident was caught on camera in Sanchez’ cell.
Prisons and jails are required by law to provide some level of healthcare to all incar cerated individuals. But there’s no standard ized bar for what that should be, resulting in huge variance in the level of care given to pregnant people between jails and prisons in di erent states, di erent counties and even within the same county.
“It’s highly variable when it comes to ac cess to pregnancy care, whether we’re talking about prenatal care, whether we’re talking about mental health care and substance use disorder treatment in pregnancy, whether we’re talking about abortion access, postpartum care or the health care aspects of their birth,” Sufrin says. “All of that varies.”For pregnant people entering the correctional system, it’s a roll of the dice. Some prisons and jails provide adequate care. Sufrin points to San Francisco’s jail health services, which operates under the umbrella of the San Francisco Department of Public Health (SFDPH).
tity of health care,” Sufrin says. “So there’s a tendency to sort of marginalize [incarcerated pregnant people’s] healthcare needs. And yet the healthcare needs of pregnant and postpartum people are tremendous.”
At Boulder County Jail (BCJ), every arestee has a medical screening within four hours of arrival, assures Melanie Judson, health services administrator at BCJ. ey’re asked about medical history, alcohol and drug use, mental health history and preg nancy status. If they believe they’re pregnant, Judson says that leads to a lot more ques tions: When was their last menstrual period? Have they had any prenatal care? What is their intention with the pregnancy?
“[Incarcerated people] are part of the same system as general health services,” she explains. Meaning they get access to the same healthcare as the general public. ere is an experienced women’s health nurse practitioner on sta to provide routine care, and an OB-GYN from University of California San Francisco and San Francisco General Hospital who visits the jails once a week—which was Sufrin’s role for over six years.She says, with jail health services under the SFDPH there is “a broader commit ment to public health and to recognizing the public health importance of providing healthcare to people in jail.”
BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE l AUGUST 25, 2022 l 13
“THEY LIMITED,HAVE if any, contact with their newborn. It’s really traumatizing. They have no control over the circumstances of their birth or their ability to bond with their babies.”
Other prisons and jails in other coun ties and states provide less-than-adequate healthcare for pregnant people—and in some cases even neglect them outright. In 2018, at Denver County Jail (DCJ), a wom an named Diana Sanchez gave birth alone in her cell, screaming for help after she’d told both deputies and nurses multiple times throughout the day that she was experienc ing contractions and going into labor.
Judson says BCJ strives to provide the same healthcare options in custody that her patients would have available to them in the community, including abortion and adoption services. Judson can connect patients who wish to carry the pregnancy to term with prenatal care, either through the patient’s own OB-GYN or with one from the Clinica Family Health People’s Clinic in Boulder.
see BIRTH Page 17
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More unique problems for trans students han dling student loans also remain. Many trans people face issues when trying to manage or repay their loans after legally changing their name—and trying to get their name updated within the servicers’ system, Watson said.
For Alix Bruce, 29, academia got progressively more isolating as they continued their education.
ey knew of only three other out trans students while they were attending the American University Washington College of Law from 2017 to 2020. Being misgendered by teachers or administra really crushing’ Many trans students in higher ed struggle with misgendering, isolation and excessive debt. Forgiving student loans could help. by Orion Rummler,
Taking on more debt through federal loans means that trans students have more to repay after college—and may be less able to pay it o over all, said Spencer Watson, executive director at the center for LGBTQ Economic Advancement & Research. is only compounds when students need additional nancial support to pursue graduate degrees.It’show
Quita Tinsley Peterson found them selves with almost $100,000 in student loan debt.
e FAFSA only asks students if they are male or female, which advocacy groups say invalidates students and can sow confusion in the application process.
On top of student debt, and the many barriers that trans people face to access higher education in the rst place, isolation can also be a de ning feature for some students.
College didn’t work out for Jude Ruelas.epressure of being trans in his program and his chosen pro fession—choir education—was daunting. So was the inherent stress of navigating their own transition. Ruelas ultimately decided they were not in the right mental space to handle it, and left their B.A. program at the University of Utah in May 2019. It was the right decision, they said. It was also a decision that left them in a worse posi tion to repay $23,000 in student loans for a degree that they didn’t nish, and still aren’t sure they can a ord to complete. e Biden administration is weighing further action on student loan debt before Aug. 31, when the current payment pause ends. Forgiving student loans could help trans borrowers like Ruelas, espe cially since so many of them take on more nancial burdens to access higher education than cisgender students. at extra nancial weight sits on top of additional mental and emotional burdens they are more likely to face, no matter the school setting, according to the Williams Institute at the Universi ty of California, Los Angeles. e study, of 1,079 adults surveyed in early 2021, found that trans students were more likely to have federal student loans than cisgender queer students. While 23% of the surveyed straight students said they had taken out federal student loans, the number was 33% for cisgender LGBTQ+ students—and 51% for trans students.
“I was not doing well. I was crying all the time and so stressed out,” they said. Now 32, Peterson works as a communications consultant for reproductive health and social justice organizations.“AsaBlack, nonbinary person, education doesn’t necessarily feel like a pathway out of poverty if we aren’t creating infrastructure to support people without taking on so much debt,” they said. Geor gia State University did not respond to a request for comment.KyleInselman, a career advisor and adjunct instructor at the University of Denver, re ected that trans and nonbinary college students—including himself, a trans person who has been a student for most of the past 15 years—face compounding is sues that do not impact cis queer students. Some trans men return to grad school to nd that they need to le additional selective service paperwork following their transition in order to access federal nancial aid, Inselman said. College counselors need to be educated on trans issues in order to help students, trans student employees should be safe from job discrimination, and career advising should help trans students prepare for obstacles they’ll face in the job market, he said.
e Education Department plans to pilot a survey this fall asking students if they are trans or nonbinary in a survey accompanying the FAFSA— which will not be used to calculate aid.
e Free Application for Federal Student Aid or FAFSA, which determines how much nancial aid students qualify for, can reject applications when legal names or gender mark ers aren’t consistent across identity documents.
e agency should also ask for students’ sexual orientation and intersex status, advocacy groups including the center for LGBTQ Economic Advancement & Research argued in an August letter—since queer students also face signi cant nancial barriers to education.
BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE l AUGUST 25, 2022 l 15 ‘It’s
The 19th see TRANS STUDENTS Page 16
Peterson, who grew up in a small Georgia town where they couldn’t be out as a queer person, took out student loans to cover living expenses at Geor gia State University. Still, they had to spend most of their time working multiple jobs in undergrad just to survive.Peterson couldn’t qualify for food stamps as a full-time student, since they didn’t have the capacity to work 20 hours a week on top of their class load. at experience meant they had less freedom to explore their identity—and build a greater commu nity—than other students. In graduate school, the nancial stress only mounted. Although Peterson’s tuition was covered, they needed to focus on school, and that meant quitting their job—and taking on more debt. Being a full-time student and full-time worker couldn’t mix, and they ultimately had to leave the program.
“It’s really crushing to deal with it when you do get through and you’ll still nd that there’s consistent blatant transphobia,” they said.
tors and having to ght for the use of they/them pronouns in the classroom both contributed to that feeling of isolation. Higher academia is already di cult for trans and gender-nonconforming people to access in the rst place, they said—making it all the more disheartening when the environment many work so had to get into cannot evolve or accept them.
OVER HALF OF TRANS students at programs from community college to graduate school surveyed by the Williams Institute said that their mental health was poor all or most of the time while at school.
16 l AUGUST 25, 2022 l BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE TRANS STUDENTS from Page 15
In a statement, American University said it aims “for transgender students to thrive at AU,” and that students can use a chosen name and pronouns within university systems. Students being misgendered can le a complaint to the school’s Title IX o ce, spokesperson Hakan Öz sancak said, pointing to the school’s policies and where students can report discrim ination.Over
half of trans students at programs from community college to graduate school surveyed by the Williams Institute said that their mental health was poor all or most of the time while at Whenschool.Ruelas, now 24 and working as an event manager at the University of Utah, re ects back on their time in college, they think about the student loan debt that they took on for a degree they didn’t nish, in part so they could transition in a more private way. He had already dreamed of being a choir teacher, and he wanted to support young students also exploring their gender identities, and utilize his experience of singing through two di erent puberties while transi tioning.His advisor, who had taught in the Midwest as a closeted gay man, warned Ruelas about the emotional cost of teaching as a nonbinary trans man in a relatively conservative state like Utah.
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“Basically he was like, ‘You’re going to have to choose to be out and deal with those consequences or stay closeted and deal with that set of stressors,’ and neither option felt doable,” Ruelas said. Being out could bring pushback from parents, or may not be safe, and being closeted would bring on its own anxiety.Itwas a lot to think about while Ruelas was at his own crossroads. e University of Utah shared its non-discrimination policy and resources for trans students, in response to a request for comment.
Transgender college students have a deeper sense of feeling like they don’t fully belong at school due to their identity than their cisgender peers, the Wil liams Institute found. More trans college students also say they face harassment at school and barriers to academic success caused by their identity than cisgen der LGBTQ+ students. is has mental health implications, especially when coupled with higher rates of bullying and harassment, said Kerith Conron, research director and Blachford-Cooper distinguished scholar at the Williams Institute.
“We have work to do that goes beyond just establishing basic safety as a goal,” she said. “If you don’t feel like you can be out and you don’t feel like you belong, then how can you fully realize your potential in those environments?”
is story was originally published by e 19th.
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father and arrange for him to come and pick his baby up. Or, they can arrange for a family member to come and pick the child up. ere’s also options for private adoption through a certi ed agency, in which case child welfare doesn’t ever have to be con tacted. Certain states even allow jails and prisons to have nursery programs or mother-baby units that allow for mothers to bring their newborn back to jail or prison with them for a period of time. If none of those options are viable, Elger or a caseworker will talk to the mother about alternatives. “If we are not able to nd any relatives, then we could pursue foster care placement for that child,” Elger says. Adding, “anytime a child is placed in foster care, we’re required to make all reasonable e orts to try and get that child back to their parents, even when they’re incarcerated.” at means visitation days are federally and statutorily required and scheduled by the state. e Depart ment of Corrections (DOC) and CDHS work together to organize those between the mother and foster family, Elger says. Some jails and prisons have special visitation areas for parents, providing privacy and opportunities for more authentic interactions.Evenincases where the mother is handed a prison sentence at an institu tion a long way from the foster family, DOC and CDHS set up video calls when an in-person visit isn’t an option. “Our statutes say we have to do whatever we can to rehabilitate this parent for them to be able to parent,” Elger says. But, “there are time frames.”Colorado’s “permanency statute” allows CDHS to allocate parental responsibility, giving some guardian ship rights to the foster parents, if an incarcerated parent doesn’t complete their treatment plan in a reasonable time or has an exceptionally long sentence. Or, in more extreme cases, they can terminate the parental rights of the mother, making it possible for the foster parents or another family to adopt the child. “ at’s not the outcome we want,” Elger says. “We really want families to be reunited when they have their children taken. But unfortunately, there are times where that just can’t happen due to other circumstances.”
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Like if a psychologist deems a mother psychologically un t to care for her child. Or if a mother ees the state while on work release and probation.Madison says she’s struggled to maintain a steady job in California because of her criminal history. She has a college degree, she says, but she doesn’t believe she’s ever going to be able to get a job where she can use it. She’s found some minimum wage work, but the risk of being let go is omnipresent should her employer dis cover her background. And returning to Colorado, where she’s still wanted for failure to comply with the terms and conditions of her work release sentence, is out of the question. Nevertheless, Madison says she’s determined to get her child—now six years old—back. Even though that child has lived her entire life with her foster parents. Even though Madison freely admits she’s struggling to hold down work. It’s an all-consuming drive—an obsession—that speaks to the level of trauma she experi enced giving birth in the correctional system.Sufrin doesn’t know of any silver bullet to prevent the trauma associat ed with cases like Madison’s. But, she says there are several approaches to preventing it from happening in the rst“Weplace.need to have standardiza tion of health care, especially when it comes to reproductive health care, including pregnancy care,” she says. “ ere needs to be mandatory standards, and mandatory systems of oversight.”Taking it a step further, Sufrin asks why we’re incarcerating pregnant people at all. Many women (35% or more, according to the ACLU) are incarcerated for non-violent crimes. Non-violent o enders who are also pregnant present a minimal threat to their communities, she argues; these women could easily serve time out side of the jail or prison at least until they give birth.
“Is prison or jail really the appro priate place for them?” she asks. “We should be investing in alternatives to incarceration and the upstream causes of why [these individuals] are enmeshed in the criminal legal system in the rst place—things like struc tural racism, housing instability, food insecurity, adequate healthcare and substance use treatment. Especially for females.”
Initially drawn in by the thought of isolated and lab yrinthine canyons, it was the opportunity to explore a hidden piece of Colorado that lured me further. Piecing together the history of the canyon was as much an adventure as nding where the trail turned past the con dence markers. BLM and tourism websites have small snippets, but it took visits to museums in Alamosa, Del Norte and Saguache to nd some local testimony and books written on theearea.name is drawn from a sect of Spanish Catholics called Los Hermanos Penitentes that established a presence in the San Luis Valley in the 1800s, as the presence of Spanish missions in the Southwest diminished. e sect garnered a reputation for unsanctioned rituals including cruci xion and self- agellation, seeking the privacy o ered by the canyons to build their places of worship.ePenitentes still have a presence in the American Sandy trails and sacred mysteries
A glimpse into the history of Penitente Canyon story and photos by Matt Maenpaa
Standing on top of a rocky outcrop in the early morning sun, realizing I might be lost, I scanned the ground for hints of a trail that I’d missed. ere were remnants of wagon tracks from the old Spanish Trail nearby, along with ancient rock art, but I wouldn’t nd them if I couldn’t nd the trail. Spotting the trail marker, with eyes peeled for rattlesnakes, I made my way deeper into Penitente Canyon. e wagon tracks are faint, barely discernible from more recent human trails on the sandy soil, even with a sign guiding the way. Chokecherry bushes and deadfall cover everything else, making for paths that are hard to read even for an experienced hiker, particularly at the canyon rim.Afour-hour drive south from Boulder County, Penitente Canyon is nestled on the western edge of the San Luis Valley, near Del Norte. e land is near the Rio Grande National Forest, but maintained by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM).
18 l AUGUST 25, 2022 l BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE
CANYON LANDS: La Garita Arch (below) is a destination for hikers exploring Penitente Canyon, located at the western edge of the San Luis Valley.
BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE l AUGUST 25, 2022 l 19
“It’s been gra tied since, but I think now that we realize the historical signi cance, that we’re doing a little more to protect it,” says Lyndsie Ferrell, historian and director of the Rio Grande County Museum. Deeper into the maze-like canyons, evidence of hunting from indigenous tribes predating Spanish settlement can be found in the form of rock art and arrowheads. e paintings depict hunters driving game into canyons, which Ferrell says were sacred lands. Near the canyon, La Ventana arch is still sacred to the Jicarilla Apache and Ute tribes. Ferrell attributes some of that to unusual geomagnetic occurrences around the canyons and arch. “ e Arch is a fault area. Some people get disoriented or feel weird because of the geological phenomenon, which is one of the reasons we think the tribes felt drawn to it,” Ferrelletheorizes.boulderous slabs of Penitente, as well as La Ventana Arch, are remnants of the San Juan volcanic eld. Aside from creating breathtaking natural won ders, the volcanic activity also led to an abundance of minerals that drew European settlers to the area to begin with, leading to the eventual settling of places like Creede and Summitville.
Once in the canyon, the brush is thick. Trees tumble across paths to wedge against rock walls a hundred feet high, all lending to a sense of mystery in the canyon, along with a sense of triumph after some precarious scrambling. Eventually I found the Virgin, weathered and faded on the rust-tinted rock.I never found the hunting art deeper in the canyon, but that just serves as motivation for another trip. Already back home, pouring through history books and geological essays, the tangled corridors call me back.
Ruben E. Archuleta details some of the traditions, histories and social impact of the sect in his book Land of the Penitentes, Land of Tradition e text gives credence to some of the more extreme prac tices, emphasizing that they were only practiced by a small number. Much, Archuleta explains, became sensationalized in the late 1920s and ’30s, with lms like 1936’s Lash of the Penitentes depicting only the harshest aspects of worship.
LOS PENITENTES: The San Juan Cath olic Spiritual Center, with graves dating back to the early 1900s.
Southwest, particularly New Mexico and Southern Colorado.
“After viewing the pic tures and the 1936 movie, it was the author’s opinion that the scenes were staged and the purported Penitentes were actors,” Archuleta writes. “In fact, it seemed as if an extra e ort was made to have the most unat tractive, shady characters portray the Penitentes.” e canyons still saw some use from the devout, however, before being popularized by local sport climbers. Sometime in the early ’80s, a painting of the Virgin of Guadalupe appeared high up on a canyon wall. e painting is still there, faded by time and damaged by vandals, easy to miss when the sun doesn’t hit right.
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Urdu “is a really romantic minimalist language that has really nice vowels and consonants,” she says. “And the poet ry has a lot of potential for expressing complex, layered, multifacet Courtney Barnett’s Here and There tour makes its final stop in Denver, featuring Arooj Aftab and others by Angela K. Evans
eople often describe Arooj Aftab’s music as mystical or meditative, both terms the singer, composer and producer resists. She fnds it all a bit reductive to describe the entire sonic world she’s created. Sung mostly in Urdu— the language of her native Pakistan—Aftab’s third release, 2021’s Vulture Prince, is a feat of musical prowess, an amalgamation of styles she picked up from the Hindustani arts culture, studying at Berklee College of Music and through the diverse music scene of her adopted home of Brooklyn.
Scratching the surface
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“You hear classical nylon guitar playing in there and you hear kind of like pop energy in there, but then it’s also all rooted around root jazz theory. And then there’s kind of like an American folk situation happening, but then it’s also got like some shadowy version of where I’m from and it all comes together really sweetly,” she says. “It’s like there’s a dance going on between all the instruments.”Although one track is based on the poetry of Suf mystic Rumi, the rest express the joy-flled sadness of nostalgic, intoxicating love, aspects of life that bind us together, regardless of culture or origin. It is “a real sharing of spaces and heritage,” she says, a soundscape that oozes with meaning, even if the majority of her audience doesn’t under stand what is being sung.
see HERE AND THERE Page 22
BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE l AUGUST 25, 2022 l 21
Aftab comes to Denver Labor Day weekend as part of Courtney Barnett’s Here and There Festival, a 15-stop tour featuring a unique lineup in each city.
ed stories and emotions with fewer words, with analogy … it’s got a lot of depth without having to be super direct and on the nose, which is something that I really love.”
More of her work may be in English in the future, but for now Aftab works to com pose each song independent of understanding the lyrics.
The festival is a product of revisiting a list of pipe dreams with her manager in 2020, as Barnett sat through several iterations of strict quarantine by herself in Melbourne. Eventually, she put out an open invitation to a long list of artists Barnett loves, and then it all came down to logistics, who was free when, where and for how many shows, depending on everyone’s touring schedules.
“On the frst day it felt like I was throwing a birthday party and I traditionally never have birthday parties because they’re stressful,” she says. “You’re always wondering if people are gonna come and if they’re gonna have fun and being the host is not my natural position. But it’s where I found myself for these festivals.”
The festival, in many ways, is a culmination of the last 10 years of Barnett’s career, part of her evolution as an artist. Through her quintessential indie-rock sound, each album in Barnett’s repertoire experiments with differing ways to express ideas, giving listeners a point-in-time look at life, rather than an overall life philosophy.
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“With each year that passes and each year of life experience and music consump tion and everything that goes on, it all adds to the music that gets made because it’s a document of all that stuff,” she says.
The festival comes on the heels of the North American release of an intimate doc umentary following Barnett on tour after the release of her second LP, 2018’s Tell Me How You Really Feel. The flm, Anonymous Club, has been described as “a refection on the intersection between celebrity and creativity,” as Barnett narrates the flm shot on 16mm, giving the viewer the sense they are watching Barnett’s home movies and visual diary. “It was defnitely a confronting experience,” Barnett says of not only making the flm, but sharing it with audiences. “It’s like having that mirror up at yourself and an opportunity to really deeply self-refect, to see the parts of myself that are embarrassing
22 l AUGUST 25, 2022 l BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE HERE AND THERE from Page 21 303.440.0432 • www.IndianPeaksSpringWater.com LOOK FOR OUR SOLAR WATER CART AT BOULDER EVENTS FROM THE DIVIDE TO YOUR DOOR! Offering Glass Bottle Options INTRODUCTORY OFFER: Free Two 5-Gallon Bottles of Water & One Months Rental on the Dispenser of Your Choice
“There’s a nice community feeling backstage, seeing some old friends and meeting new people, meeting new artists,” Barnett says. “It opens up a whole new world of possibilities. And I think that that’s encouraging as a musician because a lot of the time—I can’t speak for everyone, but myself—I feel like I don’t ft in or I don’t belong or I’m comparing myself to others or whatever, and it’s nice when you meet your people and you realize that you are all doing the same thing.”
“It was an exciting concept to be able to pick a bunch of cool artists that I admired and put together a lineup that was exciting and interesting and full of a semi-like-mind ed world, audience and artists,” Barnett, the indie rock maven from Australia, says.
By the time we talk, the festival has already had six shows or so, and Barnett is beginning to settle into her role as curator. The jitters and emotions of the frst few shows are behind her, comforted by the community she sees both in the audience and backstage.
“I REALLY ENJOY IT WHEN LANGUAGE ISN’T DISTRACTING or it is seamlessly flowing with the music soundscape,” she says. “I really like to build a world with the music.”
“I really enjoy it when language isn’t distracting or it is seamlessly fowing with the music soundscape,” she says. “I really like to build a world with the music.”
or annoying or dramatic or ridiculous or whatever it is that makes me cringe, and the parts of yourself that you don’t want people to see. And some of them are just there—it’s a forced, intense refection.”
Email: editorial@boulderweekly.com
“We all need a bit of hope, and community is really important,” Barnett says. “I think connecting people in those moments—even just people going to tables where the local organizations can set up and talk to people, and even if people just go up and meet someone new or volunteer— that stuff has changed my life. Just meeting new people and opening my mind and my circle to other people and feeling like part of a bigger community, I think that that’s really rewarding.”
For the Denver festival stop, Barnett and Aftab are joined by singer-songwriter Bed ouine, and Japanese Breakfast, the experimental pop outft led by Korean-American musician, director and author Michelle Zauner. Bedouine’s tranquil folk music captures the nomadic wanderlust of the Syrian-born, L.A.-based artist, and is reminiscent of folk legends Joni Mitchell and Nick Drake. Pitchfork says Zauner “has mastered the craft of veiling melancholy in full, celebratory shimmer” with her latest release Jubilee. Japanese Breakfast’s third album landed two Grammy nominations this year, compet ing against Aftab in the best new artist category (both lost to pop sensation and former Disney Channel star Olivia Rodrigo). Aftab did, however, win Best Global Performance categories for the track “Mohabbat” off of Vulture Prince There’s so much happening in each song that it took Aftab years to put the record out. During that time, she allowed herself space to workshop songs live, to experience the magic of everything falling into place during a performance. And sometimes she hadn’t yet met the collaborator who would eventually pull a song together, even though she’s known others for years. It all culminates in the creation of a sound she’d been searching for, one that existed in her head but that she had never heard expressed. “I think I’ve just begun to scratch the surface of what this genre can actually even really sound like,” Aftab says, acknowledging that she won’t be afforded the same luxury of time to produce her next album. “But the time was well spent to actually build this thing. And now I have that blueprint for myself, it’s not completely unknown. I know what I have to do and how I need to elevate it.”
BOULDER THE Here and There: a touring festival curated by Courtney Barnett, with Jap anese Breakfast, Arooj Aftab, and Bedouine. 5 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 3, Mission Ballroom, 4242 Wynkoop St., Denver. Tickets are $55-$124.95.
If that wasn’t enough, Barnett’s music label, Milk! Records, also just released a limited edition charity com pilation, Here and There: B-Sides, Live Tracks + Demos, on Aug. 19. With tracks from Sleater-Kinney, Julia Jacklin, Faye Webster, The Beths, Caroline Rose, Bedouine and Hana Vu, along with Barnett, all profts beneft the National Network of Abortion Funds and Advocates For Youth. This support is in addition to partnering with The Ally Coalition (TAC) to bring site-specifc programs and support organiza tions serving LGBTQ Youth at each Here and There show.
COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE l AUGUST 25, 2022 l 23 ON
live entertainment, special events, great foo d and drinks UPCOMING CONCERTS and EVENTS at Nissi’s Entertainment Venue & Event Center LOCATIONNEW 1455 Coal Creek Drive Unit T • Lafayette Get your tickets @ www.nissis.com TUE AUG FACE30 “ALLROCK”VOCAL SUN AUG 28 RECORDINGNATIONALARTISTS YARN WED AUG 31 WINE & JAZZ NIGHT RANGELLNELSON THUR SEPT 1 &GLOTZERSTEVEFRIENDS “VARIETY ROCK” FREE ADMISSION FRI SEPT MILLERHAZEL2ANDTHECOLLECTIVE SAT SEPT HARVESTROLLING3 A SUPERGROUP TRIBUTE TO NEIL YOUNG AND BOB DYLAN LIVE MUSIC FRIDAYS! Show starts at 7pm NO HappyCOVERHour 3-7pm M-F and All Day Sat and Sun Trivia Night WinWednesdayEveryat7pma$50bartab 2355 30th Street • Boulder, CO tuneupboulder.com
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“We hit it off immediately and put a band together called Juke. We played bars in Colorado for six months. It was one of the best things that ever happened to me,” Conn says. Landreth has remained one of Conn’s best friends and favorite collaborators.
Conn applies his deft keyboard work and softly ac cented Southern voice to story ballads, Americana blue rockers and commentary songs that are country at heart but with a percussive Bourbon Street backbeat. For his upcoming show, Conn will be joined by Chris Engleman, Steve Ivey and Bob Rebholz for a set of his songs, adding Bones Jones and Fly McClard for a night-ending Gris Gris dance party.
“I’m not a very nostalgic person but it was an amazing time in my life. I’d play at the Mezz for three hours, fve days a week,” he says. Conn’s knowledge of popular standards was nurtured by his dad, a swing era bandleader. Boulder was jammed with live music venues in the early 1980s. “We would go from Jose Muldoon’s to JJ McCabe’s to the Blue Note and Mollie’s Back Room and even Peggy’s HiLo to hear all these different kinds of bands,” Conn says.
Fifty years after he frst visited and played in Colora do, Steve Conn will perform Saturday, Aug. 27 at Nissi’s in Lafayette one more time. Following a set of his original songs, Conn will lead a reunion of Gris Gris, the great Boulder-meets-New Orleans funk band. Community elders are eager to hear the Louisiana-born artist again. Everyone else is asking: “Steve who?” Meet the most diversely talented musician Boulder has ever helped to launch that almost nobody knows today.Amajor player in local bands in the 1980s, Steve Conn was the founding musical director when Boulder’s eTown debuted in the 1990s. He has hit the road backing everyone from Albert King and Kris Kristofferson to Sheena Easton and Bonnie Raitt. You can hear his keyboards, accordion and vocals on 10 Grammy-nominated albums and on recent recordings by Shemekia Copeland, Jake Shimabukuro and Vince Herman (of Leftover Salmon).Fordecades, as Conn notes, a Louisiana-Colorado music connection has thrived, with musicians ranging from late pianist Henry Butler to Cajun fddle star Doug Kershaw calling the state home. Conn frst visited Colorado in 1972 anotherbacking
legendary fddler, Michael Doucet (of the band BeauSoleil), who owned a house in Allenspark.Connwas smitten with the state imme diately. “I wanted to come back to Colorado as soon as I could. I returned in 1975 determined to stay this time,” he says. Lack of work pushed Conn to leave. Just as he was saying goodbye again, he met Louisi ana-born slide guitar star Sonny Landreth at an Estes Park health food store.
Gris Gris was a funkifed mind-blower to folks dwell ing in the then-mellow land of “Rocky Mountain High” playing rollicking tunes by Dr. John and The Meters and classics like “Iko Iko” and “Big Chief.” After Gris Gris ran out of steam, Conn worked in New York and Los Angeles, before moving back to Colorado in 1991 when Nick Forster asked him to be eTown’s frst music director and band leader.
John Lehndorff has written about music in Boulder since the late 1970s.
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“I recruited the guys right away—(the late) Brad Elliott, Fly McClard, Chris Engleman, Bob Rebholz and Bones Jones. That’s the original Gris Gris. The band caught on immediately and was so much fun,” Conn says.
‘Love always wins’ A desire to focus on writing songs and avoid being pigeon-holed as a “Professor Longhair wannabe” even tually drove Conn to fnally move to Tennessee where he still resides.“Iwritesongs every day. I’m religious about it. I write things that have a strong personal meaning, not [for] other singers. I guess that’s why I haven’t made it as a songwriter in Nashville,” he says. Steve Conn crafts artful but intense portraits of lost souls and lovers on fve solo albums that are reminiscent of the best by Darrel Scott, Marc Cohn and John Hiatt. He’s unafraid to climb inside hard emotions of mortality, depression and hope and emerge with four-minute clas sics such as “I’ve Got Your Dog,” “One and Only Truth” and “Love Always Wins.”
Conn hasn’t performed locally since 2016. Because of the pandemic and his introverted tendencies, he doesn’t know when he’ll be back again. He also accepts his career arc with a soupçon of sarcasm. One of Conn’s catchiest sing-along anthems is aptly titled “I’ll Be Famous When I’m Dead.”
SteveDETAILS:Conn. Saturday, Aug. 27, Nissi’s, 1455 Coal Creek Drive, Unit T, Lafayette, nissis.com
Mardi Gras party, it only took a few days.
A local music legend brings his tunes back to town and reunites one of Boulder’s funkiest bands by John Lehndorff
Fast forward to 1980, and Steve Conn was in Boulder again. “I was only back a week when I stopped by the Mezzanine in the Hotel Boulderado during happy hour. There was a guy playing the piano, but I thought I could do better. After I auditioned for the manager the next day, I was hired on the spot,” he says. Conn replaced Peter Kater, the double Grammy winning local pianist who’s successful career also started here.
The Birth of Gris Gris One kind of music seldom heard in Boulder back then was New Orleans’-born rhythm, blues and jazz. When the HotelmanagerBoulderadoaskedConnifhecouldputtogetherabandforits
teve Conn is one of those serial Boulderites. The legendary musician has moved to town, left Boul der, regretted it and then returned … repeatedly “I love Boulder … at least the Boulder I remem ber,” Steve Conn says. He calls on Zoom from his home outside Nashville and punctuates his recollections with riffs on his ever-present piano.
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Steve Conn reconnects
n Calarat Challenge Trail Running Festival
n Louisville Trail Half Marathon 10K and 5K 7 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 27, 955 Bella Vista Drive, Louisville Runners are lacing up their sneakers for the ninth annual Louisville Trail Half Marathon, 10K and 5K on Aug. 27. The race will take runners on a tour of the trails in the area that overlook the Rockies and Flatirons. Not running? Friends and family are welcome to enjoy the post-race festivities.
26 l AUGUST 25, 2022 l BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE
EVENTSEVENTSIfyour organization is planning an event, please email the arts & culture editor at wmatuska@ boulderweekly.com
The Calarat Challenge Trail Running Festival will host multiple long-distance races on the private properties of Cal-Wood and Balarat Outdoor Educa tion Center. Join Cal-Wood the night before the race for dinner and the chance to hear motivational guest speakers. After the race, celebrate your accomplish ment with beer, food and live music.
For more event listings, go online at boulderweekly.com/events
8 a.m. Sunday, Aug. 28, Cal-Wood Education Center, 2282 County Road 87, Jamestown
n Clay Bonnyman Evans—’Adrift on the Pacific Crest Trail’ 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 30, Boulder Bookstore, 1107 Pearl St., Boulder. Tickets: $5, boulderbookstore.net Local author Clay Bonnyman Evans will speak about and sign his book Adrift on the Pacifc Crest Trail: A Through Hiking Story, about Evans’ experiences and his emotional journey hiking the Pacifc Crest Trail fve years after completing the Appalachian Trail.
BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE l AUGUST 25,
For more event listings, go online at boulderweekly.com/events
n
see EVENTS Page 28
n LivingPlanet-BasedFestival
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Japanese Cultural Day Noon—5 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 28, Museum of Boulder, 2205 Broadway, Boulder. Tickets: $10. Join members of the community when the Museum of Boulder hosts Japanese Cultural Day. Performances include Denver Buddhist Temple Minho Kai and the all-female Japanese Taiko drum ensemble Mirai Daiko. Learn more about Japanese culture by speaking with members of Chibi no Gakko, a K-12 educational Japanese program. EVENTSIfyour organization is planning an event, please email the arts & culture editor at wmatuska@ boulderweekly.com
11 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 28, Cen tral Park Bandshell, 1212 Canyon Blvd. Boulder The Planet-Based Living Festival high lights and celebrates every day choices that are kinder to the planet. Enjoy a late summer day in the park while supporting local vendors and learning various ways to reduce waste, use fewer resources and have a generally positive impact on the environment.
EVENTS
The 2022 Great Boulder Duck Race 3 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 28, Scott Carpenter Pool, 1505 30th St., Boulder Adopt a duck and get ready for some quacktastic duck races and lots of family-friendly activi ties. Founded in 1988, The Great Boulder Duck Race raises funds to support the creation of equitable access to recreation for low-income families and people with disabilities in the Boulder community. 2022 l 27
28 l AUGUST 25, 2022 l BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE For more event listings, go online at boulderweekly.com/events EVENTS from Page 27 EVENTSEVENTSIfyour organization is planning an event, please email the arts & culture editor at wmatuska@ boulderweekly.com JUST ANNOUNCED SEP 23 ADIDAS PRESENTS: THE MIRAGE THU. AUG 25 BLUE SKY: A TRIBUTE TO THE ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND MR. MOTA, GRANT LIVINGSTON & FRIENDS SAT. AUG 26 TERRAPIN CARE STATION TAYLORJAMESTOWNROOSTERPOLICULTUREPRESENTSSTYLIE,MASSIFTHU.SEP1&TERRAPINCARESTATIONPRESENTVISTAKICKSFRI.SEP2105.5THECOLORADOSOUNDPRESENTSREVIVALROBERTELLISSAT.SEP322&GOOD4USWIFTVS.OLIVIARODRIGONIGHTSUN.SEP4COLESCHEIFELESOUNDOFHONEY,DIREVILLE JUST ANNOUNCED SEP 20 DEAN’S LIST SKI MOVIE 1135WWW.FOXTHEATRE.COM13THSTREETBOULDER720.645.2467 WWW.BOULDERTHEATER.COM203214THSTREETBOULDER303.786.7030 SAT. AUG 27 SLACKER UNIVERSITY PRESENTS: THE CAMPUS COLORS TOUR BOULDER TAKEOVER W/ PICKUPLINES (BRADEAZY & SAM HUTCH) WED. AUG 31 88.5 KGNU, WESTWORD & PARADISE FOUND PRESENT HIATUS KAIYOTE THU. SEP 1 PARTY GURU PRODUCTIONS PRESENTS DISCO LINES SAT. SEP 17 ROOSTER & PARTY GURU PRODUCTIONS PRESENT WAXCLERKSTUE.BRKLYNMOTIFSEP20III THE CONVENIENCE TOUR WED. SEP 21 AEG PRESENTS: GWINGLE GWONGLE TOUR REMI ROOSTERSAT.JELANIWOLFARYEHSEP24PRESENTS:FALLTOUR2022TWOFEETBROTHEL Specializing in emotional & mental Wellbeing 2749 Iris Ave. Boulder • moonlightgardenacupuncture.com720-829-3632 Modalities of Oriental Medicine including Traditional Chinese Medicine Traditional Japanese Medicine Migun Therapy Table Electrical stimulation, cupping therapy, gua sha, moxa and Chinese herbs I follow a functional medicine approach but most important is to hear what level of health you would like to achieve in order to live your best quality of life. - Rachael Elrod
Percussionists of the Boulder Phil are presenting traditional drumming arrangements from around the globe in addition to modern pieces. Food, beer and wine will be available on site.
n Arts in the Park presents Boulder Philharmonic 6-8:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 26 and Saturday, Aug. 27, Glen Huntington Bandshell, 1212 Canyon Blvd., Boulder. Tickets: $5-$10, boulderartsinthepark.com
Grace Fisher was diagnosed with Acute Flaccid Myelitis (AFM), a rare neurological condition that causes muscle weakness and paralysis, when she was 17 years old. With no cure in sight, Amazing Grace is a story about Fisher’s life journey from “quadriplegic foating head” to becoming a renowned composer.
n ReelAbilities Film Festival: ‘Amazing Grace’ 4-5 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 28, Boulder Jewish Community Center, 6007 Oreg Ave., Boulder. Tickets: $12, boulderjcc.org
ON THE BILL: Buck and the Preacher is available on Blu-ray from The Collection.Criterion
www.thelocoltheatre.com
A Theatre company focused on local talent. An educational theatre to train and encourage kids in the gifts of acting and dance. A place for families to enjoy the family friendly productions.
Scan Here to View Our Video Walk Through of the Theatre!
Rediscovered country ‘Buck and the Preacher’ join The Criterion Collection by Michael J. Casey
Top Ten Novel of 2021 by The Bookbag United Kingdom Reviewer Jill Murphy: “Oh, I loved, loved, reading this novel. It’s wild and anarchic. Not a book for the fainthearted, Crosshairs of the Devil is violent, grisly and gruesome but also wonderfully charismatic and utterly compelling.” at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, & Boulder Book Store S. Hover Rd. Suite 30, Longmont, CO 80504 303-827-3349
It opens like any other western: Sepia soaked still photographs of settlers in wagons traversing a wild frontier while title cards credit the actors, the flmmakers and the dedication. Then the pictures begin to move. In the background, a lone rider on a horse. There’s al ways a lone rider on a horse, usually a heroic silent type. But as those dusty sepia images turn to color, the camera moves in closer, a Jew’s harp twanging and a harmonica wailing on the soundtrack. The lone rider is Sidney Poitier, looking about as regal as one can in plaid pants and a pink western shirt. Westerns are as American as jazz music, and from the inception of motion pictures in the 1890s, they proved to be Hollywood’s most popular genre. There were the popcorn serials popular with all ages, the singing cowboys, the adult westerns of John Ford and the noir-stained post-war west erns. Then, in the 1960s, a spate of revisionist westerns rewrote the old myths that perpetuated and popularized the manifest destiny of America’s westward expansion. Released in 1972, Buck and the Preacher fts beautifully into the revisionist subgenre. Ernest Kinoy’s script—from a story by Drake Walker—is a perfect buddy comedy anchored by an acute understanding of how white supremacy drummed out of the plantation took root on the plains. Poitier was one of the biggest stars in Hollywood, and Harry Belafonte, who plays Preacher, was one of the most recognizable artists/ activists of the 1960s. The movie should’ve been a hit, but Columbia Pictures failed to give Poitier’s directorial debut a substantial release, and Buck and the Preacher never found its audience. That should change thanks to Criterion’s 4K digital restoration, available now on Blu-ray. Poitier plays Buck: a former buffalo soldier turned wagon master helping eman cipated slaves navigate Native American territory while staying one step ahead of Deshay’s posse of white bounty hunters tasked with coercing Black settlers back to Louisiana. And if they won’t go by suggestion or force, Deshay (Cameron Mitchell) will just as soon shoot them where they stand. Not that life beyond the posse is all the better. The elements are harsh, food is scarce and the local tribe remembers what side Buck fought on in the Indian Wars. “Our enemy is a common enemy,” Buck tells the chief (Enrique Lucero) as he pleads for forgiveness and safe passage from Deshay’s gang. That line should’ve meant a lot, but it fell on deaf ears. Ditto for Ruby Dee’s monologue about raising her babies in a land free from the poison of slavery. Dee plays Ruth, Buck’s love interest if he’d ever settle down, and cohort in the movie’s central heist. Dee’s great, and so is Poitier and Belafonte. But the pair were too mainstream by ‘72—particularly Poitier after flms like Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner—to attract the same audience focking to the newly minted cycle of blaxploitation ficks, and Buck and the Preacher faded into the background. Talk about a loss. Buck and the Preacher restores Black stories to the western genre—stories previously whitewashed or outright ignored despite the estimation that one in four cowboys of the real west was Black. They could have made a whole fran chise out of Buck and the Preacher For more, tune into After Image Fridays at 3 p.m., on KGNU: 88.5 FM and online at kgnu.org. Email questions or comments to editorial@boulderweekly.com..
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MAYGEMINI21-JUNE 20: “The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time,” said philosopher Bertrand Russell. I will add that the time you enjoy wasting is often essential to your well-being. For the sake of your sanity and health, you periodically need to temporarily shed your ambitions and avoid as many of your responsibilities as you safely can. During these interludes of refreshing emptiness, you recharge your precious life energy. You become like a fallow field allowing fertile nutrients to regenerate. In my astrological opinion, now is one of these revitalizing phases for you.
AUG.VIRGO23-SEPT.
NOV.SAGITTARIUS22-DEC.21:Author Zadie Smith praised Sagittarian writer Joan Didion. She says, “I remain grateful for the day I picked up Joan Didion’s Slouching Towards Bethlehem and realized that a woman could speak without hedging her bets, without hemming and hawing, without making nice, without sounding pleasant or sweet, without deference, and even without doubt.” I encourage Sagittarians of every gender to be inspired by Didion in the coming weeks. It’s a favorable time to claim more of the authority you have earned. Speak your kaleidoscopic wisdom without apology or dilution. More fiercely than ever before, embody your high ideals and show how well they work in the rhythms of daily life.
22: Blogger Scott Williams writes, “There are two kinds of magic. One comes from the heroic leap, the upward surge of energy, the explosive arc that burns bright across the sky. The other kind is the slow accretion of effort: the water-on-stone method, the soft root of the plant that splits the sidewalk, the constant wind that scours the mountain clean.”
FEB.PISCES19-MARCH
Can you guess which type of magic will be your specialty in the coming weeks, Leo? It will be the laborious, slow accretion of effort. And that is precisely what will work best for the tasks that are most important for you to accomplish.
SEPT.LIBRA23-OCT.
Virgo-born Mary Oliver asks that question to start one of her poems. She spends the rest of the poem speculating on possible answers. At the end, she concludes she mostly longs to be an “empty, waiting, pure, speechless receptacle.” Such a state of being might work well for a poet with lots of time on her hands, but I don’t recommend it for you in the coming weeks. Instead, I hope you’ll be profuse, active, busy, experimental, and expres sive. That’s the best way to celebrate the fact that you are now freer to be yourself than you have been in a while.
APRILTAURUS20-MAY 20: In his poem “Auguries of Innocence,” William Blake (1757–1827) championed the ability “to see a World in a Grain of Sand. And a Heaven in a Wild Flower. Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand.” According to my reading of the astrological omens, Taurus, you are primed to do just that in the coming days. You have the power to discern the sacred in the midst of mundane events. The magic and mystery of life will shine from every little thing you encounter. So I will love it if you deliver the following message to a person you care for: “Now I see that the beauty I had not been able to find in the world is in you.”
30 l AUGUST 25, 2022 l BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE
DEC.CAPRICORN22-JAN.19: Capricorn novelist Marcia Douglas writes books about the history of her people in Jamaica. In one passage, she writes, “My grandmother used to tell stories about women that change into birds and lizards. One day, a church-going man dared to laugh at her; he said it was too much for him to swallow. My grandmother looked at him and said, ‘I bet you believe Jesus turned water into wine.’” My purpose in telling you this, Capricorn, is to encourage you to nurture and celebrate your own fantastic tales. Life isn’t all about reasonableness and pragmatism. You need myth and magic to thrive. You require the gifts of imagination and art and lyrical flights of fancy. This is especially true now. To paraphrase David Byrne, now is a perfect time to refrain from making too much sense.
20: A blogger who calls herself HellFresh writes, “Open and raw communication with your partners and allies may be uncomfortable and feel awkward and vulnerable, but it solves so many problems that can’t be solved any other way.” Having spent years studying the demanding arts of intimate relationship, I agree with her. She adds, “The idea that was sold to us is ‘love is effortless and you should communicate telepathically with your partner.’ That’s false.” I propose, Pisces, that you fortify yourself with these truths as you enter the Reinvent Your Relationships Phase of your astrological cycle.
22: In her book Tales From Earthsea , Libra-born Ursula K. Le Guin wrote, “What goes too long unchanged destroys itself. The forest is forever because it dies and dies and so lives.” I trust you’re embodying those truths right now. You’re in a phase of your cycle when you can’t afford to remain unchanged. You need to enthusiastically and purpose fully engage in dissolutions that will prepare the way for your rebirth in the weeks after your birthday. The process might sometimes feel strenuous, but it should ultimately be great fun.
JAN.AQUARIUS20-FEB.18: To be the best Aquarius you can be in the coming weeks, I suggest the following: 1. Zig when others zag. Zag when others zig. 2. Play with the fantasy that you’re an extraterrestrial who’s engaged in an experiment on planet Earth. 3. Be a hopeful cynic and a cheerful skeptic. 4. Do things that inspire people to tell you, “Just when I thought I had you figured out, you do something unexpected to confound me.” 5. Just for fun, walk backward every now and then. 6. Fall in love with everything and everyone: a D-List celebrity, an oak tree, a neon sign, a feral cat.
JUNECANCER21-JULY
Over the years, though, O’Hara underwent a marvelous transformation. This is how his poem ends: “And here I am, the center of all beauty! Writing these poems! Imagine!” In the coming months, Aries, I suspect that you, too, will have the potency to outgrow and transcend a sadness or awkwardness from your own past. The shadow of an old source of suffering may not disappear completely, but I bet it will lose much of its power to diminish you.
22: “Now that I’m free to be myself, who am I?”
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JULYLEO23-AUG.
22: “My own curiosity and interest are insatiable,” wrote Cancerian author Emma Lazarus (1849–1887). Inspired by the wealth of influences she absorbed, she created an array of poetry, plays, novels, essays and translations—including the famous poem that graces the pedestal of America’s Statue of Liberty. I recommend her as a role model for you in the coming weeks, Cancerian. I think you’re ripe for an expansion and deepening of your curiosity. You will benefit from cultivating an enthusiastic quest for new information and fresh influences. Here’s a mantra for you: “I am wildly innocent as I vivify my soul’s education.”
by Rob Brezsny MARCHARIES21-APRIL
OCT.SCORPIO23-NOV. 21: As a Scorpio, novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky was rarely guilty of oversimplification. Like any intelligent person, he could hold contradictory ideas in his mind without feeling compelled to seek more superficial truths. He wrote, “The causes of human actions are usually immea surably more complex and varied than our subsequent explanations of them.” I hope you will draw inspiration from his example in the coming weeks, dear Scorpio. I trust you will resist the temptation to reduce colorful mysteries to straightforward explanations. There will always be at least three sides to every story. I invite you to relish glorious paradoxes and fertile enigmas.
19: In his poem “Autobiographia Literaria,” Aries-born Frank O’Hara wrote, “When I was a child, I played in a corner of the schoolyard all alone. If anyone was looking for me, I hid behind a tree and cried out, ‘I am an orphan.’”
—Worried About This Constant Harassment Eroding Relationship Dear WATCHER: Giving up porn is a price of admission some are willing to pay. A person with an otherwise healthy relationship to porn—someone who, like most people, can enjoy porn in mod eration—sometimes falls in love with a person who, for whatever reason, can’t stand the idea of their partner watching porn. Some people have sensitivities, others have insecurities; some on the Left have political objections, some on the Right have religious objections. Giving up porn is not something I would ever agree to, but a reasonable person might agree to stop watching porn (or pretend they’ve stopped watching porn) for someone they love. But if the person who insisted their partner stop watching porn later defnes absolutely everything as porn—porn itself, non-pornographic photos, good-looking people walking down the street, memes shared by friends—then it was never about the porn. It wasn’t about their insecurities or their political objections or their precious religious beliefs. It was about control. And the worst thing about controlling people is that they’re never satisfed. A controlling person’s demands escalate slowly at the start of a new relationship, WATCHER, when it’s still relatively easy for someone to end things. But once the relationship is harder to exit—once leases have been signed, marriag es have been performed, children have been born— the controlling person’s demands not only escalate rapidly, they also tend to be become more arbitrary and irrational. (No memes? Really?) Your wife’s bullshit is intolerable, WATCHER, and you shouldn’t put up with it. Everyone is entitled to privacy, even married people. Likewise, everyone enjoys a zone of erotic autonomy, even married people. Experiences you fanta size about, when and how you mastur bate, things you can safely do without violating your monogamous commitment and\or putting your partner at risk… not only shouldn’t someone try to take those things from you, it’s not in anyone’s power to take those things from you. We can’t police our partner’s fantasies. Ideally, our partners feel safe sharing their fantasies with us and involving us to the extent we can or wish to be involved. But we can’t prevent our partners from looking at what ever they want to look at, provided they’re considerate about when and where, and we certainly can’t stop our partners from thinking about whatever they want to think about, dick in hand or no dick in hand. Get a divorce. Or get better at telling your wife what she insists on hearing, doing whatever you want when you’re safely in the zone (of erotic autonomy), and covering your tracks. Go to Savage.Love to fnd more col umns, podcasts, books, merch and more!
BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE l AUGUST 25, 2022 l 31 ROMAN ROBINSON BY DAN SAVAGE dogtopia.com/lafayette Meet our Dog of the Week! VADA Call today to sign up for a Wellness Plan!720-263-4583 300 W South Boulder Rd. Lafayette, CO 80026 September 9 - 11, 2022 MORE FUN TRAILS • Volunteer to build/maintain trail • Meet up for a Group Ride • Come out for a Skills Clinic Connect with the Boulder mountain bike community Join (BMA membership) to support our programs Join BMA today and access social events and group rides-bouldermountainbike.orgbouldermountainbike.org
Dear Dan: I’ve been with my wife for 10 years. We are both 36 years old. We moved in fast and didn’t take time to learn certain things about one another. For example, I watch porn, which she only found out about after we moved in. She had a visceral reaction. She told me it was a dealbreaker for her, no negotiation. I agreed to stop but didn’t. Fast forward 10 years and now I’m medicaWe have come close to divorce over this issue, as well as over how toxic I was before getting treatment for my ADHD. I’ve contributed my share of negativity to the marriage. Now, as it stands, the agreement we have is that I will not watch porn of any kind. This is where we really start to differ. To her, porn is masturbating to ANYTHING. Looking at porn? Not allowed. Looking at women in bikinis? Not allowed. Coming across something that sexually charges me and masturbating to it? I have betrayed her trust. So, I don’t watch “porn” any more but I feel extremely resentful about how I am controlled. The latest example of this was when she was helping our kid play a game on a device that had to be connected to Facebook. Mine was connected, and a message came up with a recent conversation. In it I thanked a friend for being there for me, checking in on me, sending jokes, etc. This friend likes to send funny memes, some of which are risqué. I mentioned that I appreciated his jokes, even the ones that would have “upset my wife.” She is now accusing me of using friends (and memes) as loopholes to get around my promise NOT to look at porn. I’m so tired. I have so much shame around masturbation now and I feel like I have no privacy. We are about to see another couples’ counselor. Any suggestions for me?
It was during yet another depressing recession. I was a broke fry cook and writer when I pitched an odd food-focused radio variety show to KGNU-FM. Born in the summer of ’82, The Generic Gourmet Show featured music, humor, news and affordable cooking ideas combining low-cost ingredients and scratch cooking. The show name echoed the short-lived, early-’80s “generic food” phenomenon. Cans of peas, cartons of milk, boxes of crackers and even beer were offered in minimalist white packaging with black letter ing, and only the barest amount of information and zero graphics. Supermarkets devoted whole aisles to generic goods. I liked the generic idea because it was Warhol-esque and also spotlighted the fact that we only bought Birds Eye and Green Giant because we were blanketed daily in advertising.
Soaring food prices help cooks rediscover the money-saving goodness of supermarket store brands
The Generic Gourmet Show attracted the attention of a prominent Boulder literary agent. We shopped The Generic Gourmet Cookbook to major book publishers, but the economy was improving and generic goods weren’t always that tasty.Forty years later in the summer of 2022, rising supermar ket and restaurant prices, infation and supply chain worries have us taking a fresh look at generic’s grandson: store brands. Private or store brands have come a long way since the black-and-white days. No longer segregated in its own lonely aisle, store brands sit next to the famous name foods. That makes sense because they are virtually identical in quality and taste. Ironically, the big-name food manufacturers quietly produce the store brands that compete with themselves. The store brands you’ll fnd in the Boulder area include Kroger (King Soopers, City Market), Great Value (Wal-Mart), Signature (Safeway), 365 (Whole Foods Market), Kirkland (Costco), Market Pantry (Target) and items at Sprouts, Natural Grocers and Trader Joe’s.
The generic gourmet returns by John Lehndorff
In the past few months, I’ve visited local grocery stores and the price difference between the same name and store brand foods on the same shelf was truly stunning. Comparing some organic and natural food store brands, the savings was sometimes dollars. Store brands have expanded from cans to frozen appetizers and shrimp, spices, cheeses, plant-based and baked goods. And the taste? To my buds, there is little or no difference. Obviously there are artisan brands that are better and more expensive. If you are shaking your head side to side, do a side-by-side taste comparison tonight. Buy a name brand food and its store brand equivalent and serve them (minus any packaging). See if you can taste a difference and, if you can, is it worth the extra bucks?
32 l AUGUST 25, 2022 l BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE
Rescue Fruit and Bears Boulder-area apple, plum and other trees are full of fruit that often goes unharvest ed. This leaves edible food to rot and endangers bears attracted to the feast, usually close to homes. Community Fruit Rescue is a non-proft that uses volunteers to harvest the trees. The fruit is divided between the pickers, food banks and the tree owners. Any excess goes to feed rescued wildlife. To volunteer your tree or your time, contact fruitrescue.org.
The Nibbles Index: TV Diners 48: The percentage of Americans who watched TV during their last meal at home.
Comments:
—Bee Wilson John Lehndorff hosts Radio Nibbles Thursdays on KGNU (88.5 FM, streaming at KGNU.org).
BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE l AUGUST 25, 2022 l 33
Small changes make a big difference when you are trying to feed a family. Math is not my strong suit but I fgure that simply switching out name brand for house brand on items you already buy you can save at least 15% on your weekly grocery bill.
Words to Chew On “When you really pay attention to what all fve senses are telling you about food, you might automatically start to eat in a different and more pleasurable way. You might eat less, but appreciate what you are eating more. You reconnect with your own body and its relationship with food.”
Nibbles@BoulderWeekly.com. VIETNAMESETRADITIONALPHO HOUSE BEST PHO 2855 28th Street, Boulder, CO 80301 • 303-449-0350 • Boulderphoco.com 2321 Clover Basin Dr, Longmont, CO • 303-834-9765 • Boulderpholongmont.com DINE IN - TAKE OUT AuthenticAfghanFood! Open Tuesday-Saturday 10am-10pm • Sunday 10am-8:30pm • Closed Mondays 2607 Pearl Street, Boulder, CO 80302 303-443-1210 • silkroadgrillandmarket.com JOHN LEHNDORFF
Source: Datassential’s Local Food News: Even more Half Fast Boulder’s Le French Cafe is once again open for bistro dinner on Thursday and Fri day evenings. … Opened in Boulder in 1996, the carefully pronounced Half Fast Subs sandwich eatery has opened a second shop near Colorado State University in Fort Collins. My Half Fast fave is The Gobbler, a festive hot sub layered with roast turkey, bread stuffng, gravy and cranberry sauce. … BOCO Cider has Bougie d’Pomme on tap—it’s the fortifed cider equivalent of sherry. Boulder County apple juice pressed in ’21 was aged in barrels before being distilled into apple brandy and then blended with more apple and barrel-aged cider. … Longmont’s Left Hand Brewing is canning fall Pumpkin Spice Latte Nitro ale made with Boulder’s OZO Coffee.
34 l AUGUST 25, 2022 l BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE 303.604.6351 | 1377 FOREST PARK CIRCLE, LAFAYETTE New Hours: Open 7 days a week: 7:30am - 3:00pm daily Voted County’sEastBESTGlutenFreeMenu Order Online at morningglorylafayette.com Summer is here and our three patios are the perfect place to immerse yourself in everything Pearl Street has to o er. Prefer the great indoors? Take a seat at one of our lively bars, feast alongside the jellyfish or sink into a comfy lounge. If a sushi picnic more your style, all of your favorites are available for curbside pickup too. No matter how you choose to dine don’t miss our ever-evolving specials, delicious seasonal cocktails, and latest rare whiskey! A taste of modern Japan in the heart of Boulder Sun-Thur 11am to 10pm | Fri-Sat 11am to 11pm BoulderJapango.com | 303.938.0330 | 1136 Pearl JapangoRestaurant JapangoBoulder
Heersink currently grows most of his barley for Proximity Malt, which has a malthouse in nearby Mon te Vista. He mostly grows Genie and Odyssey barley varietals, because that’s what his market needs, but Heersink is also working with newer genetic strains of barley that are more drought tolerant in both yield and water usage.
“Some of the innovation we use on the farm, we’re trying to get by with using less equipment. More effi cient tractors, less tillage,” Heersink explains.
Square Peg only uses about 50,000 pounds worth of the barley they grow, so the rest goes to Proximity and lands in breweries and distilleries around the country. Heersink’s innovation-focused regenerative farming has also landed him in conversations with oth er breweries looking to spearhead more sustainable brewingBeingpractices.abletogo out on the tractors and ride the combine with Heersink has also helped Martinez connect better with the beer.
The business came from an overabundance of not just beer, but the barley itself. Heersink was growing barley for Coors and had some serious overage, he ex plains. Coors didn’t pay very well for anything over their pre-ordered allotment, so Heersink suggested they fnd a malster and brew with it themselves.
Email: mattmaenpaa@gmail.com
“So buy all the Square Peg merch we have left,” Heersink says, “it’ll be a collector’s item.”
t’s pretty common these days for Colorado brewer ies to tout Colorado grains and malts in their offerings. Even Coors built its back on Colorado-grown grains and Rocky Mountain spring water, Colorado’s beer before the craft beer explosion we have today.But how many breweries can point to a feld and say, “Come by the taproom and drink that barley we grew”?
“There are a few other breweries like us, but I think it defnitely sets us apart,” Martinez says. “As a brewer, I have a little deeper appreciation now. Homebrewing, you just order it online or go to a supply store, but with this I’m out with the harvest, planting in the spring. This is cool.”Cans of beer haven’t made it up to the Denver metro area yet, but Martinez says the plan is to cover the whole state, once they navigate some of the growing pains. The biggest one is the name itself, Square Peg. When they originally started the business, it wasn’t an issue, but with expansion on the horizon they went to trademark the name and found it was already taken.
“We started out homebrewing in Mark’s backyard every other weekend,” Heersink explains. For Martinez, it started with beer tastings in col lege—regular beer drinking evolved into sampling any craft brews they could get their hands on. From there, it turned into brewing, which produced more beer than they could get rid of throwing parties for their friends.
Beyond navigating the hazards inherent in any brewing business, the brewery also has to contend with crop yields, soil quality and water rights. Heer sink has about 200 acres of barley growing any given year, moving more toward no-till farming and efficient irrigation methods to contend with increasing diesel and water costs.
“We pivoted our business model away from a small-scale tap room into canning and exploring the dis tribution side,” Martinez says. “That was a COVID necessity to keep our doors open, but thankfully it’s been a successful change for us.”
“We made some pretty damn good beer, but it still took a couple years of twisting Mark’s arm to convince him to quit teaching and just dive in, but we got it going,” Heersink says with a laugh.
Square Peg Brewerks, based out of Alamosa, brings Colorado barley to its brewery straight from owner Derek Heersink’s farm. The farm provides the grain, which is brewed by co-owner Mark Martinez, and served up in taprooms in Alamosa and Creede. Neither Heersink or Martinez has a background in fermentation science. Martinez studied geography and taught social studies, while Heersink earned his degrees in crop science and agricultural business.
Five years later, surviving not only a pandemic but the life of farming in a region that gets less and less water every year, Square Peg Brewerks is on an upward trajectory. Production and equipment have scaled up by necessity to meet an increasing demand from surrounding areas.
“We’re always trying to be innovative and find the next best genetics,” he adds. “Technology is good and science is here to help us. We’re getting less and less water here every year and paying more for what we do get. It’s out of necessity that we have to find a new way of doing things.”
So, relaunching in October, the brewery will be known as Spare Keg Brewerks, to avoid any legal entan glements with a vineyard in California.
BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE l AUGUST 25, 2022 l 35 BESTVOTEDBBQ 701 B Main St., Louisville, CO • 720-583-1789 www.lulus-bbq.com Best Margarita Best Place to Eat Outdoors Best Restaurant Service Best Take-Out Best Wings
I
A Square Peg for a Spare Keg Digging into a farm-to-keg brewery on a growth track by Matt Maenpaa
DETAILS: Square Peg (Spare Keg) Brewerks, 625 Main St., erks.comsquarepegbrewAlamosa,
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In a quiet way, the area where South Boulder Road meets South Public Road has slowly become Boulder County’s oasis of baked goods. The newest ad dition to Lafayette’s impressive bak ery roster is Sweet Bites Panaderia at 100 E. South Boulder Road. The tiny family-run establishment is turning out traditional doughnuts and classic Mexican baked goods including sweet breads, conchas, pineapple and pumpkin empana das, cream-flled faky pastries, cakes, and pig-shaped puerquitos cookies. Don’t miss the jalapeno and cream cheese turnovers.
Lafayette’s growing bakery neighborhood, a John’s sh recipe and a plant-based Boulder festival
John’s Swordfish F or many years chef John Bizzarro dished artistic Italian and French favorites in the small house on east Pearl Street (now the site of River & Woods). The following recipe was published in a spi ral-bound community cookbook, 1979’s The Best of Boulder II, compiled by the Boulder Community Hospital Auxiliary.
JOHN’S RESTAURANT SWORDFISH WITH CAPER BUTTER Press damp swordfsh steaks into bread crumbs that have been seasoned with fnely minced fresh thyme, salt and black pepper. Pan-fry sword fsh in a small amount of oil until the crust is light brown. Drain off excess oil. In a bowl mix 1/4 pound soft butter, 1/4 cup drained mashed capers and three large cloves of mashed or fnely minced fresh garlic. Add mixture to pan and heat over low fame for about one minute. Serve with lime wedges.
North on South Public Road you’ll fnd Deli-Cious Z. Besides dishing out classic breakfast and lunch favorites, the take-out spot produces homestyle desserts including donuts, cinnamon rolls, cookies, brownies and muffns. Nearby is Eats & Sweets, a favorite local scoop, soup and sandwich shop that stocks freshly baked pastries. Don’t miss the chocolate peanut butter bar, cheesecake and banana bread ice cream sand wiches.Upthe street is the Tip Top Savory Pies shack, famous for hand-held, New Zealand-style pies ranging from chicken, mushroom and ale to caulifower tikka masala wrapped in tender buttery crust. Sweet pie favors include peach, cherry and apple brown butter.
Need more baked goods? Down the road a couple of miles in Louisville are Moxie Bread Company, The Huckleberry and Bittersweet Café, which bakes its own chocolate raspberry scones, biscotti, chocolate coconut macaroon, lemon crumb bars, vegan magic bars and peanut butter puddle cookies. John Lehndorff
Culinary Calendar: Plant-based Tastes The debut Planet-Based Living Festival, Aug. 28 at the Boulder Bandshell, features local vendors serving plant-based ice cream, tacos, gluten-free pastries, wings, smothered tots, tapas, frozen ice drinks, smoothies, momos, baklava, kombucha and agua fresca. … Tickets to the 2022 World Slopper Eat ing Championship, Aug. 27 at the Colorado State Fair, are sold out. A Slopper is an open-faced cheeseburger smothered in pork green chile. … Coming attractions: Taste of The Middle East Festival, Sept. 17, Aurora, tasteofthemiddleeast.com; Colorado Mountain Wine Festival, Sept. 17, Palisade coloradowinefest.com; Pueblo Chile & Frijoles Festival, Sept. 23-26, pueb lochilefestival.com. Send information about local food events, classes, tastings, pairings, farm stands and eatery openings to: Nibbles@BoulderWeekly.com
Lafayette’s other buttery attraction is the fairly new and wonderful Jean not’s Patisserie & Bistro. The French-born owner/pastry chef crafts traditional croissants, pain au chocolat, fnanciers, tarts, éclairs and cakes.
Boulder Recipe Flashback:
Anchoring Lafayette’s good ie-making community just a block from Sweet Bites is the full-service Button Rock Bakery. The glass cases are stocked with cake pops, lemon bars, eclairs, pies, scones, cookie sandwiches, chocolate chip cookies, macaroons and macaron, almond croissants, specialty cakes and gluten-free treats. The space has expanded to include a sushi counter and deli sandwich counter. Next door, the recently opened Nok’s Donuts has raised the bar for yeasted fried dough in Boulder County. The family-owned shop is one of the few that doesn’t use pre-made mixes and glazes. Everything is made from scratch with natural ingredients with an emphasis on sustainability. Glaze favors range from intense dark chocolate and real maple to fresh lemon, matcha tea with fresh coconut and artisan espresso.
BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE l AUGUST 25, 2022 l 37 by
“I think it’s just great that Wana Brands [Foundation] is sponsoring Vote411. It’s really a useful website,” says Anne Duncan, one of LWV’s voter service co-chairs. “It’s not slanted in any direction. It’s neutral, it’s easy to use. And we’d like people to take advantage of it.”
And Rodriguez agrees: It’s a perfect synergy.“We’re the most trusted edible company, and I see [LWV] as the most trusted voter education resource that we have out here,” Rodriguez says. “We both have the same goals. We all are just fghting for our civic rights and an equitable world, and we should partner together on that.”
And, she adds, there’s something to be said for destigmatizing the cannabis industry by working with such a reputable and time-honored non-proft as LWV.
It’s a question that the League of Wom en’s Voters (LWV) has teamed up with edible company Wana Brands and the Wana Brands Foundation to ask cannabis users. If they ar en’t registered in Colorado, LWV can help. And even if they already are, LWV has resources they (you, me, and we) could all use. This year was a politically tumultuous one (particularly for women). And Wana Brands wanted to fnd a way to support informed voting and promote voting rights. So the edible company and its foundation teamed up with LWV to do exactly that.
Not only has Wana donated to LWV’s Vote411 platform, but the business and the nonproft are partner ing up to drive voter registration at dispensaries across Colorado. There are over four million eligible voters in the state of Colorado, and together Wana and LWV aim to register as many of them as they can. To accomplish that, they’re posting up at select dispensaries and using Vote411 to make sure voters’ addresses and registra tions are up to “Historically,date.only 40% of people vote in midterm elec tions, whereas we had around 66% for the 2020 elections,” Rodriguez says. “We need to bridge that gap . . . our hope is to reach as many people as possible and to show them that it’s not an intimidating process [to register].”
Fall is fast approaching. The days are getting shorter, the nights are getting cooler, gardens are being harvested, and in no time at all the colors of Colorado’s leaves will start to change. Which means one thing: election season is almost upon us. Midterm elections, to be precise. Raising the annual question: Are you registered to vote?
“It just seems like a natural partnership because of the way . . . marijuana was legal ized in the frst place,” Duncan says. “Think about Colorado, marijuana became legal because of citizens voting.”
Online and mail-in voter registration deadline is eight days prior to the Nov. 8 election. If you need to register or change your address, and don’t run into an LWV/Wana Brands pop-up at your local dispensary between now and then, Vote411.org is a resource that makes it easy. And it accomplishes everything LWV intended to from its inception over a century ago.
“So often we can feel really disenchanted or pow erless to have a voice,” says Karla Rodriguez, senior director of corporate social responsibility and human resources at Wana Brands. “And the reality is, we all do have a voice. We all have power through our vote.” But only if you’re registered. And even then, only if you know what you’re voting for. That was why the Wana Brands Foundation recently donated $25,000 to LWV’s Vote411.org platform. Vote411 makes voter registration extremely easy. It allows voters to check their registration status, change their address, fnd polling locations, and discover upcoming debates on local issues. It also compiles nonpartisan election information on ballot initiatives and candidates all in one place, making it a powerful tool for voters in every state, for every election. And best of all, it’s totally free.
“If we can reach one or two new people through this partnership, then it’s a success at the end of the day,” Rodriguez says.
LWV erupted out of the women’s suffrage movement 102 years ago. It’s one of the oldest voter rights organizations in the country. Anne Duncan’s grandmother was one of the frst members of the LWV, and like her grandmother, Duncan is still working hard to be a force for change through LWV. Only now, LWV is teaming up with a cannabis company for the frst time in history to accomplish the same goals they’ve been striving toward for over a century. Something Duncan says she couldn’t have imagined even 10 years ago. But the times, they are a’changing.
“Ultimately, our hope is that by being one of those companies that can go out on a limb and start doing partnerships [like this], that it creates a domino effect and that we start to see other companies and organizations opening up to these ideas,” she says.
Email: wbrendza@boulderweekly.com
Growing the voter base Wana Brands and the League of Women Voters have teamed up to register voters by Will Brendza 38 l AUGUST 25, 2022 l BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE
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