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Best Poetic Justice

Women of the World Poetry Slam

Denver not only boasts the 2011 national champion slam-poetry team, Slam Nuba, but in March the city hosted its largest poetry event to date: the Women of the World Poetry Slam. And then a local won it: Longtime poet and 37-year-old mother of four Dominique Ashaheed, a member of the Slam Nuba team, held on to the first-place slot through all three days of competition. She finally took the title with "For Emmett Till," a piece that related her ancestral history while also telling of the 1955 lynching death of a fourteen-year-old African-American boy. Being home to two national champions as well as host of the successful Women of the World event puts Denver squarely in line to host the national slam championship in the near future. Word.

Best Premiere

The Whale

When Samuel D. Hunter's The Whale was read at the Denver Center Theatre Company's New Play Summit in 2011, we all wondered how a work that centered on a morbidly obese man slowly dying while anchored to his couch would fare in full production — and the production mounted by the DCTC this season laid all those concerns to rest. While Charlie's world is static, the action is essentially emotional and metaphoric rather than physical. He may be anchored to his couch, but he's visited by several people: a friend who's determined to try to help him, a nineteen-year-old Mormon, his ex-wife and — most important — the estranged daughter with whom he's determined to make some kind of connection. Well-cast and -directed, this premiere illuminated the profound half-submerged contours of The Whale and illuminated its large-spirited gentleness.

Best Pro Year

Fallene Wells

Fallene, Fallene, Fallene — where have you been all our lives? We like to think that Fallene Wells's big year actually got its start in 2010, when we named her to the sixth annual MasterMind class, but though the multi-talented fashion designer, hair stylist and fashion-show promoter was already a big thinker, the best was yet to come. In 2011, Wells, who'd been thwarted in her first attempt to compete on Lifetime's Project Runway, tried again and was chosen as a competitor for PR's ninth season. And if her run on that show was short, it was definitely auspicious. Cute as a button and exuding a style all her own, Wells is now in demand in everywhere — from her lower stratum as a hairdresser to her powerhouse capacity as the sole machine behind Forever Darling, a runway benefit she's planned and run since 2008. And this year's event, which happens at the end of March, is the biggest yet, produced in tandem with the Denver Art Museum's Yves Saint Laurent blockbuster and boasting a design pool of fellow Project Runway couturiers. And in the midst of planning it, Fallene not only dreamed up a new fall 2012 clothing line, to be created right here in Denver by a local clothing production team, but also launched a $20,000 Kickstarter campaign to finance it — and more than made her goal. If that all sounds like a fairy tale, the happy ending isn't over yet: For Fallene Wells, the fun could be just beginning.

Best Production of a Comedy

American Night: The Ballad of Juan Jose

American Night tells the story of immigrants in America through a crazed mix of skits, historical references, inspired parody and moments of pathos and insight. As the play opens, the protagonist is studying for his citizenship test, and as he reads, a phantasmagoric tapestry of historical events unfolds. He witnesses the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848 — under which huge swaths of Mexico's land were lost to the United States — and runs into such figures as Malcolm X and Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio. He gives Sacagawea, the Native American woman who accompanied Lewis and Clark on their voyage, a bright-green pair of Nikes and advises her to "just do it." The play explores the evils of racism with serious intelligence and irrepressible high spirits, and the Denver Center Theatre Company's joyous, driving production was first-rate, from the fluid tech to the balls-out energy of the cast.

Best Production of a Musical

Phantom

Phantom is different from that Andrew Lloyd Webber behemoth, Phantom of the Opera. It's smaller in scope, stronger on plot and character, and has a more supple score — though the surging emotions and Gothic plot points are all still there. For this production, Boulder's Dinner Theatre fielded two leads with terrific voices, as well as a stage full of impressively skilled performers in smaller roles. By now the company has its tech down pat, which meant a cunningly contrived set and elegant costumes. The direction — pacing, focus, balance — was top-notch, too. And the sound, as always, was crisp and professional: Neal Dunfee's orchestra has been an unsung (no pun intended) gift to this company for many years.

Best Public Art at DIA

"Mustang," by Luis Jimenez

The creation of "Mustang," Luis Jimenez's 32-foot-tall rearing stallion in blue painted fiberglass, has all the elements of a good movie: Mature artist gets a major commission and attempts to create his masterpiece, but can't seem to complete it. More than ten years pass, with dueling lawsuits crossing between the artist and his patron, the City and County of Denver. Then, in what would be considered the climax — if later outrageous events didn't eclipse it — the still-under-construction piece falls and kills Jimenez. The sculpture was eventually completed by his studio and erected in 2008 outside the Jeppesen Terminal at Denver International Airport — and that's when the manure really hit the fan. The piece was stung by the slings and arrows of genuine hatred, including a social-media campaign to have it removed; its nostrils, glowing eyes and scrotum were the subjects of obsessive interest. The commotion proved once again that great art can elicit strong emotions; these just weren't the right ones. The haters obviously don't understand (much less appreciate) Jimenez's sophisticated neo-pop work, a combination of the heroic Western sculpture tradition and the sensibility of Chicano low-rider culture — and a perfect symbol for Denver.

Readers' Choice: "Mustang," Luis Jimenez

Best Public Art Happening — Large-Scale

Frame of Mind and Design Pioneers: 3D Video Projection Showcase

We couldn't help feeling like we were living in a big city last spring, when Create Denver brought digital media and 3-D video projection to the heart of the Denver Theatre District, making use first of the giant Colorado Convention Center LED screen at 14th and Champa streets before turning the whole wall of the Ellie Caulkins Opera House into a many-storied projection screen for an eye-popping light show. Random dancers and BMX bikers entertained in the intersection as the sun went down on a beautiful evening, and we swear we heard a collective inhalation of expectation and joy as the first images of the digital video program, curated by Ryan Pattie and Ivar Zeile of Plus Gallery, flickered into view up above. After that ended, the Ellie began to light up with site-specific patterns and images in a spectacular narrative in the dark. It was a major art happening...and we're ready for more.

Best Public Art Happening — Small-Scale

Microclimates

Art and design intersected three ways last summer at Microclimates, the product of a successful Kickstarter campaign launched by artists Samuel Schimek and Rob Mack. The installation, a sort of soundscaped walk through three environments — the woods, a cave, and a meadow inhabited by animal graphics and iconic images — spread throughout the garage that is Super Ordinary. At the opening, many of those images repeated in the fashion designs of a third partner, Rebecca Peebles, whose styles hit a makeshift runway that led out onto a street lined with onlookers and food trucks. It helped that it was a beautiful, festive summer evening and that the subject matter was whimsical. We can only hope that next summer brings more happenings of this sort to Super Ordinary.

Best Public Art-to-Be

Over the River

Even now, on the brink of total approval, the controversy still seems to rage around international installation artist Christo's dream to drape sections of the Arkansas River in southern Colorado with translucent fabric canopies. And though the Bureau of Land Management gave its okay to the project in November, clearing a major hurdle for Christo, and it seems likely that the project, which outlived Jeanne-Claude, Christo's famous red-haired partner in crime, will proceed, there are still a few permitting roadblocks. Originally slated for 2014, the Over the River schedule has been moved back another year, to August 2015. But no matter: It will happen. And when it does, folks from around the world will journey to Colorado to see it.

Best Punk-Band Clash With a Denver Icon

Elway the Band vs. Elway the Man

While we certainly understand the desire to protect one's brand, the chances of anybody confusing Elway the band with John Elway the man are about as good as people mistaking this fishwrap for the similarly named Westwood college. Just the same, when the Broncos executive caught wind that the band formerly known as 10-4 Eleanor was now calling itself Elway, he got all John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt about it. Only instead of marveling, "Hey, that's my name, too!," he sicced his attorneys on the dudes, requesting that they kindly knock it off.

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