Bruce Norris’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Clybourne Park, the tables-turned story of a neighborhood in flux, could have been written expressly for Denver&’s Curious Theatre Company. At least, that’s what Curious artistic director Chip Walton thought when the chance came to snatch it up for the 2011-2012 season premiere. “He believes this…
We love our neighborhoods and we love to eat: Those are Denver trademarks worth celebrating, and no celebration does it more succinctly than the annual Uptown Sampler, which has been serving up delicious tastes from restaurants all around the Uptown district for nearly 25 years. Along the way, it’s gotten…
Austin sociologist and author Julie Ardery thinks the timeless and symbiotic rapport between humans and flowers is something that’s worth thinking about, and, as her Human Flower Project online newsgroup proves, that deserves our ongoing attention and discussion. That’s the gist of her lecture titled “White Roses for the Bride,…
Denver’s fall theater season is already off to a hot and heavy start with offerings of every stripe, from classically funny (The Liar and Unnecessary Farce) to explosive (Justin Bieber Meets Al Qaeda) to thought-provoking (Clybourne Park) to just plain silly (Completely Hollywood (abridged)). And due to the wealth of…
We love Denver’s crafty DIY spirit and think there’s always room for more. So strong is that enthusiasm here that it’s experienced an enormous trickle-down. More and more people are thinking about ways to recycle old materials into new gifts, create new urban looks or channel timeless pastimes to fit…
There is really no way to forget 9/11 on its tenth anniversary, but there are ways to acknowledge it and maybe move on, some small act that we can do. What remains important is people — people communing with other people, shoulder-to-shoulder, possibly in some sort of creative civic project…
Quick! Name a female director in Hollywood. Yes, there are a handful of very good ones, and their ranks are finally growing, but to think that ’40s bombshell Ida Lupino took her first turn behind the cameras in 1949 is a revelation in mid-century feminism that gives new meaning to…
Five friends — Becky Hensley, Spencer Keralis, Kristin Dell’Orso, LeVar Battle and Amber Powell — put their heads together to create Craftin’ Carnival, a title with a double meaning. On the one hand, it’s an umbrella, a community of crafters and artisans, and on the other, it’s a physical craft…
The idea for Fashion’s Night Out debuted in 2009 in New York City and key fashion meccas worldwide as a way to combat weak clothing sales in an even weaker economy. Now in its third year, the glitzy retail open house will spread exponentially across the U.S. today, including in…
One fine evening, as my family drove through downtown Denver, we spotted an unusual sight: a tipsy gaggle of bicyclists coming down the street that made me smile and wave. These bikers wore no sleek paraphernalia made of super-wicking mystery fabrics, nor were they mohawked, pierced, lean and mean. They…
Fall comes on under a curtain of darkness and, conversely, a celebration of the harvest and beautiful angled sunlight; this week’s calls for entry occur somewhere around the place where it all intersects, suggesting Halloween, colorful ofrendas, wine labels and sharp visions from behind the lens…
Word’s come down that the annual Hudson Holiday lighting extravaganza, designed by Lonnie Hanzon and bankrolled by the Museum of Outdoor Arts, is no more — and I’m telling you, I am crushed. That’s because I’m not only a holiday light-show junkie, but also a lover of the arts, and…
Denver photographer Terri Bell stuck her toe in the water last spring when she initiated a juried open show of works by women in her Santa Fe Drive studio for the citywide Month of Photography festivities. Wearing the shoes of a gallerist turned out to be a rewarding if energy-draining…
When ARTCRANK, the bike-poster extravaganza dreamed up by Minnesota promoter and bicycle enthusiast Charles Youel, first rolled into Denver last year, it got a lot of help from local movers Tran and Josh Wills and the path-crossing graphic-art and biker communities running rampant in this town. “When I started ARTCRANK,…
Here’s why the Denver Modernism Show is so appealing: The mid-twentieth-century culture it so joyfully upholds was clearly the culture of the future, all shiny and new and space-age, the product of new technologies and post-war optimism. Here in the future, where things seem much bleaker, the elan of mid-century…
Joe Hill ain’t dead,” he says to me, Joe Hill ain’t never died. Where working men are out on strike Joe Hill is at their side, Joe Hill is at their side. –Joan Baez At first glance, it might seem that nearly 100 years after songwriter and Industrial Workers of…
Daniel Crosier seems like a perfectly sweet guy, yet there must be something bubbling beneath his jovial facade. Okay, he drinks a little too much coffee, too, but his work as a comic artist, filmmaker and theatrical prop maker expresses a whole other tarnished side of the coin: The man…
Food and film go together like mustard and hot dogs, and you can get plenty of both along upper East Colfax Avenue, home to the Denver FilmCenter and numerous eateries of both high and low cuisine. That’s why the DFC teamed up with the Colfax Business Improvement District to launch…
It’s hard to resist that smell of smoking capsicums that pervades certain areas of the city this time of year, and that’s only one reason why we love the Chile Harvest Arts Festival, which, after dropping anchor at various locations around town, seems to have found a good match in…
In the six years since its debut, the Denver Modernism Show has not only grown in scope, but it’s also become a favorite for mid-mod lovers across the nation. Why? Well, it’s got a good spirit and lots of vintage and contemporary modern design items to drool over. But the…
It’s sobering, in a culture where folks turn to the grill for recreational purposes, to realize that at least half the world’s population still cooks over an open fire every day because it’s all they’ve got. That’s at least three billion people still gathering sticks or breathing in coal smoke…
About one hundred years ago, Swedish-born itinerant worker and early protest songwriter Joe Hill joined the Industrial Workers of the World union, dedicating his life and music to the cause. When he was convicted of murder, some say unfairly, and executed by firing squad in 1915, Hill became the martyred…
