Best Music Education Podcast 2020 | My Youth on Record | Best of Denver® | Best Restaurants, Bars, Clubs, Music and Stores in Denver | Westword
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Best Music Education Podcast

My Youth on Record

Brandon Marshall

The music-education nonprofit Youth on Record has served two major functions in the Denver area: hiring artists to teach, and using contemporary music education to keep youth in school. With all of its in-person programming currently shut down, the organization still plans on paying its artists and continuing with some of its virtual programming. That includes My Youth on Record, the podcast where artists share music they created when they were teens. Hosted by Shawn King from DeVotchKa, the program has included interviews with Sunny Jain of Red Baraat, underground rapper Sage Francis, Zac Barnett of American Authors, and Denver rapper Kalyn Heffernan of Wheelchair Sports Camp.

youthonrecord.org

Best History Podcast

Lost Highways

How often do you think about Colorado and what makes it unique? Why not take advantage of this period of isolation to learn more about the great state we live in through stories documenting Colorado history, places and people? The podcast Lost Highways, sponsored by History Colorado and compiled by folksy Colorado Springs polymath Noel Black and producer Tyler Hill, who traveled around the state gathering information about Japanese internment camps, the African-American settlement of Dearfield and other Colorado-centric sagas, will get you hooked in a minute. You can just feel the hours indoors melting away.

historycolorado.org/lost-highways

Best Crime Podcast

The Order of Death

Josh Mattison has made himself a staple in the Denver podcasting scene with his audio magazine Low Orbit (formerly called Denver Orbit). In the fall, he and Shannon Geis dropped a podcast documentary series called The Order of Death, which investigates the murder of talk-radio host Alan Berg, who was gunned down in his driveway in 1984 by members of a white-supremacist group called the Order. The podcast explores the group's ideology, Berg's role in the talk-radio revolution of the early '80s, and how his killers' hateful ideas continue to influence today's white-supremacist movements.

theorderofdeathpodcast.com

Best Podcast About Addiction

Back From Broken

Addiction is a beast. Lives are destroyed. People are forever changed. And sometimes...every now and then...recovery occurs. Colorado Public Radio journalist Vic Vela, an addict himself who spent years smoking crack and doing coke while serving in the press corps at the Statehouse, decided to chronicle people's stories of recovery on a serial podcast he's making with Colorado Public Radio called Back From Broken. The stories he tells, of musicians like songwriter and musician Anders Osborne and baseball player David Mellor, are often depressing — but ultimately hopeful. And whether you're dealing with an alcohol, drug or gambling addiction, PTSD or other mental health issues, these stories offer a rare sense that things can get better.

cpr.org/podcast/back-from-broken

Best Temporary Online Gig for Out-of-Work Actors

Pandemic Collective, Project Outbreak 2020

One of the biggest pandemic-driven stories coming out of the creative community is the plight of performing artists of every ilk who are out of work overnight after entire seasons came to a standstill in the name of social distancing. The Pandemic Collective, a nonprofit company that normally stages horror-inspired theater, has devised a stopgap to keep unemployed theater people busy, with modest remuneration for their trouble. Project Outbreak is seeking submissions of short audio and radio plays responding to themes of uncertainty; the project is recruiting actors and production crews interested in being part of the project as well. If you're none of the above, consider donating to Project Outbreak's GoFundMe page.

pandemiccollective.org/project-outbreak-2020.html

Best Way to Brush Up on Your Writing Skills

Lighthouse Writers Workshop

Brush up on your writing skills while you're sequestered: The social-distancing-correct Lighthouse Writers Workshop will move its spring events online in real time via the Zoom remote platform for at least a few weeks. Yes, you'll be at home in an easy chair and pajamas while experiencing a live lesson and discussion. Keep up with Lighthouse on social media and/or its website as the organization devises new ways to provide literary experiences online. Write on!

lighthousewriters.org

Best Poet Bringing Poetry to the People

Suzi Q. Smith

With a constant flow of stressful news coming from all sides, Denver poet Suzi Q. Smith has been there for us, providing art that comforts. From a Twitter feed that offers laughter and truth to an organized online poetry broadcast, Smith uses her platforms to be there for us virtually. The standout is "Poems for the End of the World," a poem-a-day service on her website. Make reading Smith's stark and searing writing a part of your daily routine, and break up the noise of news with some humanity.

suziqsmith.wordpress.com

Best New Colorado Novel

Burn Fortune
Brandi Homan

Brandi Homan's novel in fragments, Burn Fortune, is proof that small presses are still putting out some of the best literature available in today's market. The piecemeal format isn't the only inventive move that Homan makes in this story of a sixteen-year-old girl trying to survive in the 1990s Midwest with a dysfunctional family, an abusive boyfriend and the cornfield world spinning around them all. The poetic voice, the first-person narrator, the vibrant world built in minimalist but thorough style — it all culminates in a focused and sharp-edged narrative that leaves readers breathless.

Best New Arts Publication

DARIA

Like most cities, Denver has suffered from cutbacks in arts and culture writing. But a new generation of art critics is emerging and taking on the daunting task of launching publications and bringing a critical eye to the city's arts scene. Run by Genevieve Waller, DARIA, which stands for Denver Art Review Inquiry and Analysis, has recruited a diverse cast of emerging culture writers to pen smart criticism about Denver's gallery scene. Along with stalwarts like Mary Chandler, a longtime arts writer for the now-defunct Rocky Mountain News, this emerging pool of critics is filling a gap in the city's cultural coverage, regularly online and quarterly in print.

dariamag.com

Best New Short-Story Collection

This. This. This. Is. Love. Love. Love.
Jennifer Wortman

Jennifer Wortman's collection is a jubilant celebration of both language and love in all their forms. The thirteen stories that make up This. This. This. Is. Love. Love. Love. are bites of nourishing literary foodstuff that both impress and satisfy; the prose is at once smooth and strong, luxurious and striking. The characters will draw you in, make you laugh, make you cringe and make you think. And you'll thank them for the journey they take you on as a reader — every surefooted or stumbling step.

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