This is a great time to be gay in America — and if you’re not, it’s an even greater time to sit back and learn about your queer friends and neighbors. Film is the great equalizer, and tomorrow through Sunday, the Denver Film Society’s annual Cinema Q Film Festival at…
The Dragon Boat Festival returned to Sloan’s Lake this past weekend, celebrating Asian culture with art and food vendors, martial arts and other performances — and boat races, of course. Photographer Danielle Lirette was there to capture all the action: See the complete Dragon Boat slideshow here…
Nativ Hotel has had to repack its business plan a few times since opening its doors at 1612 Wazee Street on May 28. After its landlord expressed concerns, the owners clarified their policy regarding the consumption of cannabis: Officially, it’s prohibited at Nativ, and guests must now sign a waiver…
Edith Weiss is giggling. She’s talking about the July 23 opening of The Odd Couple (Female Version) that she’s directing at the historic Barth Hotel downtown, and the cast’s enthusiasm for slapstick acrobatics. “Leslie O’Carroll is doing things I would have never asked her to do,” says Weiss. “She is fearless. She…
We run down the ten best movies of 2015 (so far) on this week’s episode of the Voice Film Club. Alan Scherstuhl and Stephanie Zacharek of the Village Voice, joined by Amy Nicholson at LA Weekly, each share a few of their favorites on this mid-year (well for Hollywood, anyway)…
The pizza joint Shakey’s in Hollywood is packed when transgender actresses Mya Taylor and Kiki Rodriguez slide into a booth with their director Sean Baker, whose shot-on-location-and-on-iPhone comedy Tangerine was the most talked-about surprise of this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Taylor, the quieter and more glamorously aloof of the pair…
The main Biennial of the Americas event is at MCA Denver, but there’s another official show, Vis-à-Vis, at the McNichols Building. It includes installations by four selected “ambassadors” – two from Denver, two from Mexico City. The Denver artists, Melissa Furness and Matt Scobey, did a residency in Mexico City, while…
Being a feminist in public often feels like shouting my cause into the void — whether I’m having a conversation with real humans or leading a discussion on social media about the concept of basic human rights for female-identified people, a very small percentage of folks I know actually want…
In high school, I was voted most likely to become a bag lady. I’m sure that given my thrift-store punk-rock ways, this was more a statement on my fashion sense than my future earning potential, but in my mind it also speaks to my lack of interest in earning money.…I am…
Long before Brecht, long before postmodernism, Shakespeare understood the usefulness of self-referential moments in theater — those moments when the audience is reminded that what they’re seeing is a fiction, a construct. At the very beginning of Henry V, the Chorus cautions us that we’re in a theater and apologizes…
A pastor performing a baptism drops the mic in the baptismal pool, electrocuting himself and the baptismal candidate, and things pretty much go downhill from there. That’s the basic set-up of Denver author Tiffany Quay Tyson’s Three Rivers, which follows the parallel narratives of three characters as a flood wrecks their…
Once again, the Colorado Theatre Guild has announced the winners of the Henrys — Colorado’s equivalent of the Tony Awards — and once again the results announced last night are difficult to figure out. As before, there are a lot of wins for the Denver Center Theatre Company and not…
There’s probably only one humanist film that opens with the words “Merry Christmas Eve, bitch!” accompanied by the proffering of a single, sprinkle-dusted doughnut. In Sean Baker’s Tangerine, best friends, transgender women and prostitutes Sin-Dee and Alexandra (Kitana Kiki Rodriguez and Mya Taylor, respectively) catch up at a doughnut joint…
The opening of Antoine Fuqua’s Southpaw, shot in gritty, grayed-out tones, is a grim harbinger: A fighter getting ready for the ring holds up his meaty paws for the ritualistic wrapping of gauze and tape. His gloves are slipped over the wrappings, and then they’re taped on, too — but…
The third Biennial of the Americas featured an event last weekend at Civic Center Park that included food trucks, family-friendly fun and performances by Bomba Estéreo, Companhia Urbana de Dança, Black Violin, Ian Cooke and the CSO, Wonderbound and Jeremy Bailey. Beginning on July 14 with opening week events, and…
As the title implies, Nancy Stohlman’s The Vixen Scream and Other Bible Stories is a weird-ass book. Aside from including copious fun facts about foxes and the story of a man whose wife is turning into a piano, it’s also presented in a format that, while still unusual, is gaining literary…
Silents never actually were. According to composer Rodney Sauer, musical accompanists always played for silent film screenings, a feat that will be replicated by his Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra this week when it underscores the innovative 1930 German film People on Sunday as part of Boulder’s Chautauqua Silent Film…
You can find art all over town — not just on gallery walls. In this series, we’ll be looking at some of the local artists who serve up their work in coffeehouses and other non-gallery businesses around town. “Growing up, I was always the kind of kid who would commandeer…
Light up the group text, because there are plenty of fun free events you and your friends will want to hit up this week. Rep your neighborhood, hear lots of fiction fast and get on board with all kinds of games. For more events, check the online Westword calendar, and let…
One night just before college graduation, Amy Butcher’s close friend Kevin met her for a drink and walked her home. It was just a one-block walk on a warm night in sleepy Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, but he insisted, and she let him see her to her door. Then he went home…
This week in Denver galleries and performance spaces, you can experience the sophisticated work of an American original, take a walk with some figurative dogs or wander through the technology-scape with a Colorado performance collective. What are you waiting for? Here are the details: John Buck Robischon Gallery Through August…
Following her recent pilgrimage to the Philippines, designer and Fashion Denver owner Brandi Shigley decided to move her company headquarters from 1070 Bannock Street into the Green Spaces, 1368 26th Street, a warehouse in the heart of RiNo. “The reason for our move is to simplify,” she explains. “We had a lot of…
