Nobody knows how deep the talent goes in our local youth slam-poetry community better than Denver poet and youth mentor Ken Arkind. He’s been on the side of young poets — and at their side as they represent Denver at the national Brave New Voices youth slam competition on the…
#86: Laura Ann Samuelson Laura Ann Samuelson is much more than a dancer and choreographer: She’s an interdisciplinary collaborator in performance who also directs her own company, Hoarded Stuff, when she isn’t working with others. On her horizon? As she discusses below as part of her 100CC questionnaire, Samuelson will…
London-based artist Teresa Albor is not-so-subtly interested in turning over the stuffy model of art as a commodity, and her work shows it in projects like “Rufus Stone,” which hands over art-making materials and, in turn, the cachet of art-making to non-artists. Then there’s “100 Paintings in 24 Hours,” which…
#87: Lisa Ramfjord Elstun Denver designer Lisa Ramfjord Elstun has it all going for her: A master seamstress with an eye for personalized, classic tailored designs, she also rocks an entrepreneurial business acumen that’s the epitome of professionalism. A 2014 Westword MasterMind in the fashion category, Elstun’s at work this…
In show-music phenom Ryan Scott Oliver’s 35MM: A Musical Exhibition, photographs — specifically, photographs taken by Oliver’s real-life squeeze, photographer Matthew Murphy — set the stage for the show’s denouement. A series of musical vignettes plotted around individual shots, 35MM completes the imagery with vocal star power in big, all-original…
Gustav Holst’s seven-movement The Planets has long been one of the most accessible — and fiddled-with — classical-music works, partly because of the bold pictures painted by its themes, each part describing a different planet in the solar system through imaginative orchestration. And though it appeals to the space-engaged child…
Teresa Albor has a way of turning all expectations of the art world upside down by asking bold questions about what art is — and, in turn, what an artist is — and who it really serves. That’s part of the motive behind her 100 Paintings in 24 Hours performance,…
In recent years, Denver artist Lauri Lynnxe Murphy has often turned to the natural world for inspiration, collaborating with bees on honeycomb sculptures and, last summer, attempting to make music by capturing frequencies emitted by fireflies. Some of these collaborations have yielded breathtaking results, others have crashed and burned, but…
The decision to take over the Big Read national literary project — after the City of Denver chose to drop it — has worked out well for Lighthouse Writers Workshop and especially for its constituents, who’ve been offered compelling reasons to pick up a book (in this case, Marilynne Robinson’s…
If you loved Monkey Town 4 the first time, you’re sure to have an equally exemplary time eating artisan dishes inside a video cube during a return visit on Wednesdays or Sundays in May, the last month of the event’s Denver run. While the original program plays on during the…
#88: Tara Rynders Dancer Tara Rynders is on a global mission to bring her moves right out into the streets, and she’s been doing it, country by country, since 2011, when she launched You & Me, an ongoing series of site-specific interactive performances that’s been on the road ever since…
Regardless of where you stand on the high-stakes art-auction issue, the opportunity to see what kind of work exacts big bucks on the auction block is still an interesting prospect. And here’s your chance: The one-and-only Christie’s international auction house brings a three-day, pre-sale mini-museum of Impressionist and Modernist works,…
Though pot’s what’s on the whole city’s mind this marijuan-derful 4/20 weekend, the local art scene will not go up in smoke. Here are three reminders that Denver galleries serve up good vibes and even better shows every weekend of the year. See also: Teased, Torn, Coddled & Pampered at…
#89: Jean Smith Clay artist Jean Smith Is a familiar face in the co-op community, where she’s been building and exhibiting works both joyful and challenging for many years. Her creations range from colorful wall pieces and fanciful shrines to major ceramic installations, often referencing plant forms, flowers and sea…
Seasoned Denver actress, playwright and comedian Edith Weiss has been on many stages in her lifetime, but none of them have been quite like those overseen by local director Adam Stone, a bright enigma whose experimental work is unlike anything anyone’s ever seen before. Weiss returns tonight in ’til Death,…
The Downtown Denver Partnership launched its CityBuild program last year with the intent of helping to pave the way for future urban movers and shakers in the new millennium. CityBuild’s CityMixer series is designed to aid that directive by providing a meeting ground where young and old can network and…
Now in its 25th year, the Colorado Poetry Rodeo — aka the “Podeo” — has deep roots that hark back to the Beat poets, as well as magnificent branches that stretch all the way into the big sky of modern slam poetry. Its legacy of diversity and community is what…
#90: Rebecca Peebles Rebecca Peebles is a creative Jill of all trades: Multimedia artist, designer, barista, quilter, curator, Westword MasterMind and artist cheerleader are just a few of the hats she wears. And along with GroundSwell Gallery partner Danette Montoya, Another Colorado Creative #91, she’s now preparing to move on…
Every Friday is First Friday in this town, and this weekend, it’s Second Saturday, too. Here are three openings you’ll be glad you hit. See also: Video: Meet Westword MasterMind Eric Dallimore…
Danette Montoya, assemblage clock.#91: Danette Montoya Danette Montoya creates jewelry and found-object treasures for her business Tinkerbirds, making a living by way of her own imagination. That keeps her busy enough, but somewhere along the way she and fellow starving artist Rebecca Peebles decided to open a gallery. GroundSwell was…
The Denver Center Theatre Company kicks off its spring slate tonight with a thoughtful love story that makes up for a lack in fancy stage pyrotechnics or musical numbers by asking big questions. Shadowlands, William Nicholson’s biographical drama, is based on the relationship between writer C.S. Lewis and his wife,…
Michael Emmitt and Sean Paul Mahoney envisioned their Horse & Cart company as a kind of traveling road show rather than a stationary theatrical entity, and that’s pretty much how it’s shaped up, with programming that’s been part improv, part game show, part tradi-tional theater, part burst of genius —…
