The Artist Resistance Coalition (ARC) is decentralized grass roots organization of Front Range artists and performers utilizing their talents to speak out against fascism while raising funds and awareness for Colorado-based organizations that support our local communities. This month, ARC is partnering with Boulder Food Rescue to raise awareness for food insecurity in our community. Join ARC April 9th at Trident Booksellers & Café for a night of poetry, music, and more, featuring: Fruta Brutal, Elle Green, Eli Whittington, Sure Thing, Tyson Bennett of Von Disco, Hayden Dansky, Anthony Beck, Stephanie Michele, Lee FG, Xarly El Colibri, and more. All proceeds go directly to Boulder Food Rescue. $15 suggested donation. Show from 6:30-11:00pm.

Trouble’s Braids is a musical group from Boulder, Colorado that creates dynamic folk rock with teeth. Their first EP, The Big Tourist, has been featured in Westword Magazine, Business Insider, and numerous radio shows, and the act has booked out all over the Front Range, including Boulder Theater, Roots Music Fest, Highlands Street Fair, Bread Bar, and many others. The band combines poignant lyricism, rich female and male harmonies, and great hooks with an unflinching curiosity about the dark and hidden corners of the human experience, all with a wink and a nod that invites the audience to come play. The act's influences are broad and deep, drawing inspiration from classic songwriters like Bob Dylan, John Prine, and Lucinda Williams, as well as more contemporary acts like Big Thief and Tom Waits.

Free! Every Monday evening, 7-9p.m. All languages welcome. Facilitated by Kelvin Tavarez.

Carolina Ebeid is a multimedia poet and author of You Ask Me to Talk about the Interior. She edits poetry at The Rumpus and Visible Binary and is the 2023–2025 Bonderman Assistant Professor of the Practice in Literary Arts at Brown University.

“Carolina Ebeid’s astonishing, meditative cinepoetics is heliotropic across the blood-brain barrier: a glitch that ‘has memorized something about radiance.’ . . . In Hide, you’re reading a film by the artist who transforms the M into meem into ?. Don’t be afraid of the paradise in her ear.”—Fady Joudah

into an index of blue
blue cellophane blue crinoline
spun sugar blue
dissolving on a tongue
Another leap and another down
to touch the bottom through
a glitch band of electric snow
Every sound underwater blooms like iron
—“Home Movie: Maria Jumps into the Pool”

Intellectual and intimate, Carolina Ebeid's Hide gathers shreds of memory, dream, and the ordinary artifacts of diaspora, as the poet casts a sounding line into her patrilineal and matrilineal histories in Palestine and Cuba. With the hum of cassettes and the glow of projectors, these poems superimpose voice upon voice, image upon image, a here upon a there, to disclose the choral noise inside postmemory.

Hide is a restless innovation of form and multimodal expression breaking open words across Arabic, English, and Spanish to release hidden meanings. Poems trace the letter M back to the Phoenician pictograph of waves, while technological “glitches” are portals that summon oracular voices across the family archive. In swirling “spell” poems, Ebeid conjures Cuban American artist Ana Mendieta, whose Siluetas write the human shape upon the earth.
 
Ebeid’s title is prismatic: Hide as in concealment, as in animal skin, as in to secret oneself away. Hide commands attention like a whispering voice, prompting readers to lean in, to listen for transmissions from ancestors and futurity both.

Rajiv Mohabir:

Poet, memoirist, and translator, Rajiv Mohabir is the author of five books of poetry, the latest is Seabeast (Four Way Books 2025). His books have been awarded gold in Forward Indies and Eric Hoffer Medal Provocateur. His other honors include being finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, the PEN/America Open Book Award, the Lambda Literary Award, the Publishing Triangle Award for Poetry and Gay Nonfiction, and both second place and finalist for the Guyana Prize for Literature. His translations have won the Harold Morton Landon Translation Award from the American Academy of Poets. Currently he teaches poetry at the University of Colorado Boulder.

Book Blurb from Publishers:

Organized as an alphabetical bestiary, Seabeast lyrically catalogues whale species by common name and behaviors, resulting in a poetic compendium that defies pathetic fallacy even as it sings the similarities between homo sapiens and the marine mammoths that have long captured our fascination. In his fifth full-length collection, Rajiv Mohabir winds together the threads of cetacean evolution, natural history, animal migration, and human culture and colonization as they concern the endurance of all species. In anthropomorphizing these complex mammals, Mohabir argues, we overwrite and erase their sublime difference and selfhood, their distinct and separate experience of embodiment; yet, in refusing to recognize the familiarities of whale behavior and social patterns, we subjugate these magnificent creatures, affirming a hierarchy that establishes anything inhuman as inherently less than human and enabling cruelty toward all manner of living things. 

Multi talented arranger and vocalist, Gracie Jay has performed and recorded with artists including Cyrille Aimee, Nicholas Payton, Camille Thurman, Jamison Ross and more. Her written works have been performed by groups including the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra, Next Generation Big Band, and the New Guard Big Band. Part of a rare, niche category of talented female vocalists, Gracie is a powerful force on stage, simultaneously writing and arranging for the same large-ensembles she masterfully sings for.

MOONS OF PANGAEA, a five-piece experimental instrumental rock ensemble. We use guitars, synths, and brass to create epic soundscapes a la Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Explosions in the Sky, Mogwai, and so on. You can listen to a concert from last summer here:

https://youtu.be/pf_8lW5wx5s?si=MGGbQ4xr7gmJqFUK

Kittens from the Planet Koion, here to play music for you Earthlings! Arriving to your world in 2015, Koion Kitten has had many amazing contributions from different Space Cats over the years, and the current formation developed in 2022. Comprised of local Denver musicians who have been playing in the scene for over a decade: Keegan McKenzie (bass, backup vox), Brett Kuyper (guitar), Eric Charney (drums), and Jamie Beekman (keys, lead vox). Koion Kitten’s music will transport you to another world with intricate melodies and harmonies, fantastical odd rhythms, outta-this-world rich textures and tones, and a touch of zany, inspired by our feline friends! Playful, silly and exciting, we play progressive, kitty-cat math rock!

"With humble roots in an unheated backyard shed, Boulder-based Jehovah's Fitness Club brings an eclectic mix of jazz, funk, blues and Latin sounds to the local scene. With eight enthused musicians at its core, JFC has a budding track record of putting on a lighthearted and energetic show, drawing crowds in venues like Larimer Lounge and Trident Booksellers and Cafe. Known for their seamless improvisation, tight musical synergy, and a touch of mirth, they blend spontaneity and groove creating a unique live experience every time they take the stage. JFC's recent EP "Household Name" was released in Spring 2025. Come witness the fitness!"

Dez Amis is an acoustic duo or trio featuring Robin Lopate on guitar and Cat Precourt on mandolin, sometimes joined by guest musicians. Rooted in Americana, folk, classic rock, and singer-songwriter traditions, their music draws heavily from the baby-boomer era.

In addition to familiar favorites, Dez Amis incorporates classic 1960s protest songs, connecting the spirit of that era to the social and political conversations of today. With a sound that can be scaled to the room, their performances are well suited to intimate spaces that value listening, storytelling, and connection.

Lively conversation for language learners, native speakers, and everyone in between. We regularly have 10+ languages spoken and always have spirited discussions! 

Offers letters of the Sanskrit alphabet as key to understanding Yoga and the Divine

These original meditations on the Sanskrit letters range from personal narratives to metaphysical and theological speculations, linguistic play, and inter-spiritual allusions to other works and traditions, all relevant to living a contemplative life in the contemporary world.

Sowder’s book is anchored in the devotional Tantrik, Śaiva-Śakta tradition, focused on the Divine Feminine, but allusions to western mystics (Christian, Jewish, Muslim) also appear frequently. No other book like this exists.

Review

“In the opening pages of Michael Sowder’s Sacred Letters, we learn the astonishing fact that the name of the Sanskrit script, devanāgarī, means ‘city of God.’ An alphabet understood as both divine and human, a sociality of fire. Drawing from his years as a student of yoga and Indian spirituality, Sowder meditates on the revelatory proximity of language, holiness, and embodiment in this elegant volume. He reflects on our most humane impulses as connected beads along a chain and as beauties worthy of contemplation for their own sake, his developing narrative fusing the personal to the mythic, to the transformation of both. ‘The teacher comes singing,’ Sowder writes; we his readers are fortunate to listen.” —Kimberly Johnson, PhD (Berkeley), poet; National Endowment for the Arts scholar; professor of classics, Brigham Young University

“Sacred Letters is a tantric text, woven of two gorgeous books. First, in clear bell-like tones, Michael Sowder provides instruction to the Sanskrit language, its sounds and syllabic letters. The second book, vivid as last night’s dream, is a pensées. It strings memories, visions, and reflections on a thread of sound. Follow the thread: a host of teachers—from gnarled old-apple Thoreau to radiant Mā Indirā Devī—lead you by torchlight up the mountain of yoga.” —Andrew Schelling, author of Love and the Turning Seasons: India’s Poetry of Erotic and Spiritual Longing

“Rather than confining words to their original origins or etymology, this book invites them into a broader, personal context, blending them into a cultural and philosophical framework. It is a rich intersection where philosophy meets life.” —Semeen Ali, poetry editor, Muse India

“Sacred Letters evokes and embodies the living breath of meditation and heart-centered contemplation in this inspired journey through the Sanskrit ‘alphabet’ and its many archetypal permutations. These masterful meditations uplift readers with him into the realm of the ecstatic yet remain solidly anchored in the felt material world, where the personal, historical, mythic and spiritual all meet.” —Alan Botsford, author of Walt Whitman of Cosmic Folklore

“Sowder presents fifty Sanskrit letters as doorways into profound insights about yoga philosophy, mystic revelations, natural beauty, holy pilgrimages, and a spiritual memoir of awakenings. Each letter reveals a brilliant aspect of divine love, like the many facets of a diamond.” —Robert Sternau, poetry editor, Sufi Journal

“Sowder charts his spiritual awakening, powerfully captured in life’s moments when the divine and the everyday intersect. With a poet’s eye and a scholar’s mind, he rescues these epiphanies from forgetfulness and illuminates them for fellow seekers.” —Sue William Silverman, author, How to Survive Death and Other Inconveniences

“Michael David Sowder has written a poetic introduction to the letters of the Sanskrit alphabet, revealing how the meanings of each letter relate to teachings and practices of Yoga, devotional Tantra, and the Divine Feminine. This is an exciting project because very few people know, use, or understand Sanskrit today.” —SpiritualityandPractice.com

About the Author

Longtime yoga and meditation teacher Michael David Sowder is an author, poet, and professor of poetry, religious studies, and yoga studies at Utah State University. With a PhD from the University of Michigan, Sowder is the author of two collections of spiritual poetry, The Empty Boat and House Under the Moon, and two chapbooks of poetry. Feminist poet Diane Wakoski chose The Empty Boat to win the 2004 T.S. Eliot Award. His chapbook, A Calendar of Crows, won the inaugural New Michigan Press Poetry award.

Sowder’s writing explores themes of yoga, Buddhism, mystical experience and contemplative practice, wilderness, and fatherhood. He has appeared in MuseIndia, The Bombay Review, Shambhala Sun (now Lion’s Roar), American Life in Poetry, Five Points, Green Mountains Review, Sufi Journal, New Poets of the American West, and The New York Times Online. He frequently travels to India, where in 2014, he was a Fulbright Scholar. Trained in a Tantric yoga tradition, he has been practicing and teaching yoga and meditation for almost fifty years. The founder of the non-profit, Amrita Yoga Institute of Logan, Utah—which teaches yoga, meditation, contemplative practice and philosophy—he founded the first prison meditation program in the Alabama prison system in 1978, as well as prison writing and meditation programs at the Pocatello Women’s Correctional Facility and at the Cache County Jail in Logan, Utah.

Alyssa Battistoni on capitalism and the politics of nature, in conversation with Benjamin Kunkel

Alyssa Battistoni is a professor of political science at Barnard College. She is the author of Free Gifts: Capitalism and the Politics of Nature (Princeton UP 2025) and co-author of A Planet to Win: Why We Need a Green New Deal (Verso 2019). She works and teaches on climate and environmental politics, capitalism, Marxism, feminism, and other topics in modern social and political theory. 

Benjamin Kunkel is the bestselling author of Indecisionand Utopia or Bust, and a co-founder of n+1. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, the New Yorker, the New York Review of Books and the London Review of Books.

Bailey Pope (She/Her/Etc) is a New York based Comedian, writer, and pigeon-holed actor, providing the overly-tattooed, failed rock star transgender woman comedy that everyone has been searching centuries for. Bailey has shared stages with Roy Wood Jr, Sam Jay, Mark Normand and Ashley Gavin. As an actor, she often appears as “Angry bartender” or “Aloof tattoo artist” in shows such as AppleTV+ “City On Fire”. Her writing has been published by Hard Times and Refinery29.

Noah C. Lekas

Noah C. Lekas is a worker-writer and folksinger based in Colorado’s Front Range. Carrying on the labor poet tradition, his first book, Saturday Night Sage was published by Blind Owl in 2019. His debut EP, Sounds From the Shadow Factory followed in 2021. With a new record, The Flowers of Perennial Dissent slated for a 2026 Lekas, as Third Coast Review put it, continues to "Tell of the struggles of working-class laborers through poems equally acerbic and transcendental.“

 Hi. We're a multi-instrumental, multi-genre band started by husband and wife team Niki and Luke Tredinnick that blends elements of rock with indie-folk, using jazz-influenced vocals and unconventional instruments such as accordion, clarinet, and trombone. We want to get you singing and dancing and feeling stuff, so come on down to a show sometime. Xo

Where did that band name come from?"The Dollhouse Thieves" band name comes from Luke's mom's nickname for her cousins who reclaimed the family heirloom dollhouse (her toy as a child). This kind of family story speaks to us, because we are about community and family; striving to bring people together and spark curiosity and imagination through music and storytelling.

Lively conversation for language learners, native speakers, and everyone in between. We regularly have 10+ languages spoken and always have spirited discussions! 

Poetry of Place and Ecology

Join us for an evening celebrating Earth Month with three poets whose work explores our complex relationship to nature and place. Anne Haven McDonnell, Erin Robertson, and Radha Marcum will read from their collections that engage with wilderness, changing landscapes, and the wonder and fragility of our ecosystems.

Anne Haven McDonnell

Singing Under Snow (Wheelbarrow Books, February 2026)

These are poems of queer ecology. In reckoning with a mother's aging, a breakup, or grief and disorientation in the face of the climate crisis, these poems seek a spiritual meaning in ecological belonging.

Anne Haven McDonnell grew up in Boulder, Colorado, and currently lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she teaches as a full professor at the Institute of American Indian Arts. Her most recent collection Singing Under Snow won the Wheelbarrow Prize with MSU Press (Feb. 2026). Her other books include Breath on a Coal, winner of the Halcyon Poetry Prize, and the chapbook Living with Wolves from Split Rock Press. She is co-creator of the forthcoming Rocky Mountains Literary Field Guide: Art, Ecology, and Poetry (Mountaineers Books, spring 2027). Her honors include fellowships from the National Endowment of the Arts, a MacDowell fellowship, and poetry prizes from Narrative Magazine, The Gingo Prize for Ecopoetry, and a Terrain.org poetry prize. Her poems appear in journals such as Orion Magazine, The Georgia Review, Ecotone, and elsewhere.

Erin Robertson

What the River May Bring (Raw Earth Ink, January 2026)

A poetic journey of healing through Alaska's interior wilderness, these poems trace rivers, dunes, burn scars, and birch forests, honoring a unique ecosystem and inviting us to pay attention to the awe rising within ourselves.

Erin Robertson teaches outdoor nature writing classes in Boulder County and serves as Writer in Residence for Friends of Coal Creek. Her poetry has been published in the North American Review, Cold Mountain Review, Poet Lore, Deep Wild, and elsewhere. Past honors include being a Voices of the Wilderness Artist in Residence at Koyukuk National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, Boulder County Artist in Residence at Caribou Ranch, and awards in the Michael Adams Poetry Prize and Columbine Poets Members' Contest.

Radha Marcum

Pine Soot Tendon Bone (The Word Works, June 2024)

An elegy for our times, Pine Soot Tendon Bone is awake to unfolding crises—from wildfires to gun violence—while locating hope in the simple but precise act of observing nature.

Recipient of the Washington Prize for Pine Soot Tendon Bone (The Word Works, 2024), Radha Marcum is the author of Bloodline (3: A Taos Press, 2017), which delves into her grandfather's involvement in building the first atomic bombs in New Mexico during World War II, winner of the New Mexico-Arizona Book Award for Poetry in 2018. Also an award-winning prose writer with a focus on health and environment, Marcum has written for American Rivers, Colorado Water Trust, Outside, and The Wilderness Society.Her poetry has been commissioned by the Clyfford Still museum and appears in journals such as Conjunctions, Quarterly West, The Kenyon Review, Poetry Northwest,The Colorado Review, and elsewhere. A Boulder resident for 25 years, she teaches at the Lighthouse Writers Workshop and privately.

Matt Harbor is a Minneapolis-raised singer-songwriter and guitarist now based in Boulder, whose music sits somewhere between indie pop, folk, and rock. Drawing on influences like Noah Kahan and Matt Maeson, Harbor writes with an introspective honesty that defies easy resolution. His recent debut EP, Second Person, traces the disorientation and quiet revelations of early adulthood - the stretch of life between leaving home and figuring out what comes next. He'll be joined by John Klingner on drums, Elli Karges on keys, and Hope Colacino on vocals.

Freyja Wild is a singer, composer, and dynamic performer whose music conjures a landscape of mystic enchantment and world-inspired rhythm. Classically trained but unbound by genre, Freyja blends rock, jazz, Celtic folk, medieval and avant-garde influences into a sound that is uniquely her own — lush, vibrant, and deeply evocative.  Both intimate and rhythm driven, Freyja’s songs are rich with haunting melodies, lush vocal harmonies, and acoustic guitar and bass woven with sounds from Nature’s wild. Her music lifts the spirit, nourishes the soul, and gently reminds us that the world is beautiful. Audiences are also treated to unique interpretations of feel-good favorites by artists such as Steve Winwood, Annie Lennox, Rush, and Joni Mitchell.

Accompanied by Phil Van Scotter on guitar and Pete Jacobs on bass, Freyja Wild offers a moving and transformative musical experience that leaves listeners inspired and renewed.

Freyja Wild – vocals and percussion
Phil Van Scotter – guitar
Pete Jacobs – bass

Lively conversation for language learners, native speakers, and everyone in between. We regularly have 10+ languages spoken and always have spirited discussions! 

The Jamaica Kollection of the Shante Dream Arkive

New Directions

(April 2025)

The Jamaica Kollection of the Shante Dream Arkive continues Marcia Douglas’s "speculative ancestral project" (The Whiting Foundation) begun with The Marvellous Equations of the Dread. Dreamlike and fiercely paced, this poetic and eco-spiritual work zooms into tight focus on present-day life while dashing deep into the past.

Douglas weaves a rich mosaic of characters and timelines: a mother searches across centuries for her missing child; a young girl flees from New Jersey to the Grand Canyon to escape U.S. immigration officers; an undocumented migrant struggles with loss in America; an Ashante woman endures the hull of a Middle Passage ship; a wailing youth leaps through dream-gates seeking liberation and the lost parts of himself. One key to the whole is Zora Neale Hurston’s left-behind camera, recalling her time with the maroons in the village of Accompong.

Each chapter/poem opens like an aperture onto another facet of the dream story, the whole juxtaposed against botanical, animal, and planetary migrations and the riddims and chants of the cosmos. Through immersive storytelling richly layered with drawings, footnotes, and natural phenomena, Douglas carries forward the cultural preservation so central to her vision. The Shante Dream Arkive reimagines the “movement of Jah people” and the cultural memory of the African diaspora, while exploring themes of loss, survival, deliverance—and the buried herstories of the Caribbean and the Americas.

About Marcia: Born in the U.K. and raised in Kingston, Jamaica, Douglas's writing navigates the complexities of everyday Jamaican life while also inventing and reinventing form in signature ways. Engaging with history and Jamaican reggae/dub traditions, her multi-genre work "creates a speculative ancestral project that samples and remixes the living and dead into a startling sonic fabric" (Whiting Foundation). A Creative Capital, Whiting Foundation and National Endowment for the Arts fellow, she is the author of the novels, The Jamaica Kollection of the Shante Dream Arkive: being dreamity, algoriddims, chants & riffs, The Marvellous Equations of the Dread: a novel in bass riddim (long-listed for the 2016 Republic of Consciousness Prize), Notes from a Writer’s Book of Cures and Spells, Madam Fate and the poetry collection, Electricity Comes to Cocoa Bottom (a UK Poetry Book Society Recommendation). In addition to writing, Douglas has performed a one-woman show, “Natural Herstory,” adapted from her fiction and exploring the lives of seven Jamaican women. Her most recent work, The Jamaica Kollection of the Shante Dream Arkive, continues the innovative examination of Jamaica’s colonial past and speculative futures which has come to characterize her storytelling. Marcia Douglas is a College Professor of Distinction at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

"I wish to write without borders."
— Marcia Douglas

Jeffrey Pethbridge:

Jeffrey Pethybridge is a poet, editor, and curator; he is the author of Striven, The Bright Treatise (Noemi Press 2013), which was selected as one of ten best debuts of 2013 by Poets & Writers. His second collection Force Drift, an essay in the epic has just been published by Tupelo Press in 2025. His writing and visual poetry appear internationally in journals such as diSonare (MX); White Wall Review (CA); Writing Utopia (UK); the Academy of American Poets Poem-a-Day; Chicago Review, Volt, Best American Experimental Writing, Manifold Criticism; The Iowa Review, New American Writing and others. He teaches in the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa University where he is Co-Artistic Director of the Summer Writing Program. In 2026 he’ll serve as the curator of Enclave, a transdisciplinary poetry festival held in Mexico City each year. 

A letter, an essay, an archive, a blueprint, an unredacted CIA file: Force Drift exposes what we already know—the “hell-yellow glare” of American empire escapeless from the glass eye in the sky. Searing in his critique, Pethybridge’s anti-epic painstakingly documents & unredacts the machinations of “endless war,” disaster capitalism, & the continuous reduction of people into isolated, severed parts forever lost to CIA black sites. The accumulation of Force Drift architects the violent patterns of empire—the city, the event, the torture, the missing, the blur between surveillance and black sites. Force Drift is an insistent call “to be new abolitionists.” 

––Andrea Abi-Karam

Somewhere in the middle of this powerful book, there is an inked hand across the page of a section called passages followed by the line: “the body tracks in history—”. A powerful summary of the brutally bare remnants Pethybridge is calling up and staying with. Here the alphabet starts with Aleph for Abu Ghraib. Force Drift has been some 15 years in the making and it responds forcefully and explosively to the accelerated symbolic and verbal incoherence of our times. Official redaction is here countered as a form of dissident poetics and Pethybridge uses it maximally in his angry, raw and demanding work, which blends landscapes of erasures, dense visual shapes, with exploded, endlessly cyclical, unfinished stories and intercepted thought-processes. A savage, somatised work. 

––Caroline Bergvall

A tour-de-force epic of unleashed lyricism, Force Drift exposes—in blackout, in its layers of silence, in its winding lines, and echoing syllables—the disappeared scream at the heart of America. Jeffrey Pethybridge is one of the most imaginative, sensitive, and brilliant curators of art working today, and Force Drift is energized and alive with his dedication as a poet and researcher. Against both the brutality of 21st century U.S. imperial desire, and the feckless aesthetics of so many uncommitted poetries, Pethybridge weaves the spatial dimensions of language into cyclones; once caught in those storms hear the “ardor / disaster requires,” and, there experience “spiraling down these vowels” under a “sun shattered over sea-waves.” Finally within the hold of this astonishing book you will have to answer the Sphinx, that first monstrous interrogator.  And, if you are released, Force Drift will leave you forever changed.

––J. Michael Martinez

Standing on the charnel ground, the catastrophe and human wreckage of US torture policy, Force Drift is at once lamentation, broken anatomy, archive of shadow and screams, and documentary investigation that could only be realized through poetry. Extending an internationalist  lineage of poets of history from Etel Adnan to Raul Zurita, Pethybridge shows again how poetry confronts atrocity––you have to look at it––and even as the evidence gets under your “time-sensitive skin,” burns your eyes, and threatens to overload your psyche, the lyric determination that suffuses Force Drift carries you through the labyrinth of disaster.  Pethybridge’s visceral “essay in the epic” is an essential document for how to be truly contemporary, and “hold the gaze in the darkness to see the light of the century” (Agamben). I so admire this vow, this voice to keep lifting the carceral curtain to see through “emergent night.” Whistleblowers unite!

–––Anne Waldman

Dillon Hoock is a songwriter from Colorado Springs who writes the kind of songs that stay with you. Rooted in Americana and Folk, his voice and guitar carry a quiet emotion that feels honest and lived-in. His music wrestles with purpose, mental health, and what it means to find peace in a noisy world—an ongoing attempt to make sense of life and leave something real behind.

Bring an acoustic instrument and sit in with Boulder Old-Time Jam! Every first Thursday on the Trident Patio, starting at 6 p.m.

In recent years, VYLLA has played several shows and festivals across Germany and the UK. Some highlights definitely include the double bill with Puma Blue (UK), Fusion Festival Lärz, and Jazz Open Stuttgart in Germany.

In August 2024, they released their debut EP called KIDS IN PARLIAMENTS along with several live sessions in various formats. In 2025, VYLLA is dedicated to crafting their highly anticipated debut album. Over the past month, the band has been on an intense creative journey, exploring and experimenting with new sonic landscapes to find the perfect sound that powerfully conveys their politically charged lyrics and musical vision. By staying true to their identity and roots, they discover a voice that deeply connects with their audience.

Nu Bass Theory seamlessly blends electronic beats, soulful synth melodies, intricate samples, and mesmerizing vocal harmonies. This Boulder-based outfit crafts a rare slice of electronica that maintains the groove, extending an irresistible invitation to an alternate lounge world dance party.

Nu Bass Theory's music celebrates diversity and innovation, transcending traditional genre labels to create a sonic journey where the boundaries between electro, pop, and jazz effortlessly dissolve. Enter their realm, where each performance fuses electronic prowess and live instrumentation, promising an unforgettable experience that defies expectations. Whether captivated by the infectious energy of their produced beats, pocket, or mantra-based vocal style, Nu Bass Theory invites you to join them on a sonic adventure. In Boulder and beyond, they are the architects of a new era in electro-pop-jazz. The rare slice of electronica that maintains the groove, Nu Bass Theory sets the stage for a musical movement, inviting all to dance, listen, vibe, and create friendships.

Lively conversation for language learners, native speakers, and everyone in between. We regularly have 10+ languages spoken and always have spirited discussions! 

Singer-songwriter Paula Gayatri delivers poetic, intimate performances dripping with soul. Early influences like Joni Mitchell, Indigo Girls, and Bach have woven with her years of chanting and meditation at a yoga ashram. Check out her album, Between Music & Love, and explore her offerings at www.gayatri.devillier.com

Mira Devi's music is a soul-stirring blend of East and West, weaving folk melodies with poetic storytelling. Drawing inspiration from artists like Shawn Colvin, The Band, and Gregory Alan Isakov, her thoughtful musicianship and evocative lyrics explore love, loss, motherhood, and the search for connection in a beautifully imperfect world.  www.miradevi.com

Three lefts makes it right, right? We’re Third Turn, a three-piece jam group from Fort Collins, Colorado. We fuse rock, jazz, reggae, funk, disco, and more with our singer/songwriter style tunes, with a pinch of tasteful covers. Each set rearranges and morphs into a new experience so you’ll never see anything like the last. Currently making our way around local Colorado venues, we plan to expand with every show so don’t miss our unique set when we’re in town!

The Dylan Kishner Band has been gigging regularly in Colorado since 2017 and has shared the stage with many local and national touring acts.  The group’s influences include Tyler Childers, John Prine, Grateful Dead, Queens of the Stone Age, Toad the Wet Sprocket, and Old 97’s (among countless others).  The DKB has two studio releases, a live album, and two studio singles under its belt and continues to produce music regularly.  "

"With humble roots in an unheated backyard shed, Boulder-based Jehovah's Fitness Club brings an eclectic mix of jazz, funk, blues and Latin sounds to the local scene. With eight enthused musicians at its core, JFC has a budding track record of putting on a lighthearted and energetic show, drawing crowds in venues like Larimer Lounge and Trident Booksellers and Cafe. Known for their seamless improvisation, tight musical synergy, and a touch of mirth, they blend spontaneity and groove creating a unique live experience every time they take the stage. JFC's recent EP "Household Name" was released in Spring 2025. Come witness the fitness!"

Lively conversation for language learners, native speakers, and everyone in between. We regularly have 10+ languages spoken and always have spirited discussions! 

Magic Mountain Talks presents:

Paul Reitter is Professor in German Languages and Literatures at The Ohio State University. He is the author of Bambi’s Jewish Roots and Other Essays on German-Jewish Culture (Bloomsbury, 2015), On the Origins of Jewish Self-Hatred (Princeton, 2012), and The Anti-Journalist: Karl Kraus and Jewish Self-Fashioning in Fin-de-Siecle Europe (Chicago, 2008). He collaborated with Jonathan Franzen and Daniel Kehlmann on The Kraus Project: Essays by Karl Kraus (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013), named an Editors’ Choice by the New York Times Book Review and finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in Criticism. For his translation of the first volume of Karl Marx’s Capital: Critique of Political Economy (Princeton University Press, 2021) he won the 2025 Helen & Kurt Wolff Translator’s Price from the Goethe Institute.

Arne Höcker is Associate Professor of German Studies at CU Boulder. His publications include The Case of Literature: Forensic Narratives from Goethe to Kafka (Cornell UP 2020), and Paranoia and the Totalitarian Drift of Modernity (forthcoming 2026).

Synths: A vinyl DJ night showcasing a melange of synthetic sounds, including the sounds of synth-pop, minimal synth, and kraut, among other sounds! Come dance or, otherwise, sit very still!

Jake hails from the hills and valleys of Central Pennsylvania where he grew up listening to everything from country and folk to heavy metal. Later, while in college at Penn State, he helped form a band called, The Roof, as their lead guitarist. 

Now he blends his classic rock, folk, country, blues, and americana influences into an eclectic repertoire that now is beginning to include original material, as he transitions into the role of songwriter.

Kat Lane is an indie/folk singer and songwriter from Boulder, Colorado. She grew up playing classical violin and taught herself guitar and piano at an early age. Kat spent most of her 20s guiding outdoor education programs for 18 year olds all over the world--living in Peru, Ecuador, Indonesia, Fiji, Costa Rica, Hawaii, and all over the Rockies.

Kat feels deeply at home in the Colorado folk music scene in the musical community that permeates the Rocky Mountains. She is a firm believer that writing comes from experience, and the more life you live, the more music you make. Her songs are nostalgic, sprawling stories that let you into her world through her echoing voice and melodies.

Jeff Clendening’s songwriting blends americana and indie pop with a midwestern childhood at its heart. He finds inspiration in deep emotion and strives to meaningfully connect with the listener through clever lyricism and infectious melodies.

Brody Schenk is a rising Nashville singer-songwriter whose music blends heartfelt storytelling with a variety of musical influences. Brody's songs are deeply rooted in humanity, nature, the universe and the beauty found in honest moments.

Fans of artists such as The Meters, Bob Dylan, The Grateful Dead, Ravi Shankar, Jack Johnson, Fela Kuti, Bob Marley, and Keller Williams will all find pleasure in Brody's performances which create a unique blend of singer-songwriter lyricism, infectious rhythm, and undeniable musicianship through the use of effects and live looping techniques.

Lively conversation for language learners, native speakers, and everyone in between. We regularly have 10+ languages spoken and always have spirited discussions! 

Bitterroot began as a Boulder-based trio comprised of songwriter/vocalist/guitarist Caroline Quine, bassist/vocalist Matt Cantor, and guitarist/vocalist Kevin Johnson. The project has welcomed additional local and national artists as they add studio recordings to their songcraft, including producer/guitarist Julian Peterson.

Texas-based rock singer-songwriter Mark Winters is many things; a witty poet, passionate musician, entrepreneur, optimist, family man, and a bonafide rocket scientist. He first picked up a guitar to play a song for his wife on their anniversary. That’s when he discovered the joy of connecting with people through music. Mark combines music, poetry, a science background, and love for his community to form his signature sound, “rock with a positive vibe.” His musical roots are in rock, blues rock, and pop, and John Mayer, Tom Petty, and Jason Mraz are significant influences. “My music starts from a place of poetry and creative inspiration, and I use my ‘rocket-scientist brain’ to find structures that help me explore that initial burst of inspiration and feeling – like writing haikus, my favorite! My grandmother taught me to express myself through poetry and I'm thankful to her for setting me on this creative and expressive path.”

Katie Yeager (she/he/they) is a lot of things. Queer, genderfluid, a fan, a traveler, a coffee-and-dog-lover, a friend. These identities all come to a head in their identity as a Denver-born singer/songwriter. Part journal entries/part fan fiction, Katie's songs embody lived heartbreak and imagined joy. Her pop/folk style is influenced by the soundtrack of her life: his parents’ 60s/70s-era Greatest Hits CDs and their enduring love of modern pop artists like Harry Styles.

Lively conversation for language learners, native speakers, and everyone in between. We regularly have 10+ languages spoken and always have spirited discussions! 

BIO: Simone Nicole creates intimate, emotionally rich performances that feel like stepping into a candlelit room — warm, brooding, and quietly powerful. Loosely rooted in folk but unbound by genre, her music blends poetic storytelling, expressive vocals, and subtle shifts in rhythm and mood. A Fort Worth–based artist with a globe-spanning upbringing, Simone’s songs explore love, longing, and the human experience with honesty and depth. She has been recognized as Fort Worth’s Best Musician and Best Female Vocalist, and her latest work continues to draw listeners into a space that’s meant to be felt as much as heard. (www.simonenicole.com)

BIO: Lauren Frihauf is a rising neo-folk artist whose sound blends indie singer-songwriter intimacy with folk and neo-soul influences. Featured in NPR Music’s 2022 Tiny Desk Top Shelf and a standout on Season 19 of The Voice (Teams Gwen and Legend), Lauren is known for her expressive vocals and emotionally resonant songwriting. Drawing inspiration from artists like Nai Palm and Joni Mitchell, her open-tuned guitar work and fluid melodies create performances that feel both grounded and exploratory. Raised on a rural farm yet carrying a distinctly urban sensibility, Lauren’s music invites listeners into a reflective, soulful space. (www.laurenfrihaufmusic.com)

Bring an acoustic instrument and sit in with Boulder Old-Time Jam! Every first Thursday on the Trident Patio, starting at 6 p.m.

Synths: A vinyl DJ night showcasing a melange of synthetic sounds, including the sounds of synth-pop, minimal synth, and kraut, among other sounds! Come dance or, otherwise, sit very still!

Eastwood & Holly is a three piece indie folk band from Fort Collins, Colorado. The band is fronted by singer-songwriter, Chelsea Beth along with multi-instrumentalist Russick Smith on the guitar, bass and banjo and Brett Throgmorton on drums. Their original music balances atmospheric guitar textures, driving rhythms, and emotionally charged lyrics. Many of their songs are inspired by their shared love of nature as well as autobiographical experiences of travel and adventure.  

The Unwieldies are Dani Bell (vocals/guitar), Robert Bell (upright bass/vocals), and Tim Mallot (dobro/mandolin). They deliver rich, dynamic vocals and harmonies that resonate deeply in their original songs about love, loss, and longing. Along with their signature cover arrangements, their style blends indie-folk flair with Americana torch and alt-country storytelling.

Boulder, Colorado based Sherefe (pronounced “SheriffA”) takes its name from a Turkish drinking toast that translates as “to your honor.” This passionate group of American musicians plays mostly Turkish, Greek and Arabic music but also Bulgarian and Persian. They are a decidedly Humanist band, who believe music connects us better than governments and militaries. Their repertoire is diverse, and their renditions are authentic but not academic, with lots of room for individual expression to shine through. All singing is done in its original language, intonation, and style, and is surrounded by Bouzouki, Gadulka, Oud, Cello, Bass, saz, clarinet, accordion, Zurna, Santoor, and various percussion.

Sherefe has 30 years of experience playing festivals, weddings, concert halls, private parties, clubs, coffee houses, religious events and academic conferences in Colorado, New Mexico, Wyoming, and California. It’s members have traveled and studied extensively, and are often hired to play whole evenings of specifically Greek or Turkish music, but they also love to perform multiple countries’ songs in one show for dancing and listening audiences. Moods and sub-genres range from reflective to rowdy, depending on who’s dancing and listening.

Sherefe at its smallest is a trio, and at its largest is made up of James Hoskins, Jesse Manno, Julie Lancaster, Dexter Payne, David Hinojosa or Jonathan Kipp on percussion, Beth Quist and Paul Brown. The band has three albums: Sherefe (1998), Opium (2001) and Sala Sala (2010).

www.sherefe.org

Jeff Sharlet is the New York Times bestselling author or editor of eight books. His latest is The Undertow: Scenes from a Slow Civil War (2023), a National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist for Nonfiction, one of The New York Times 100 Books of the Year, and a New Republic book of the year. In 2020, he published This Brilliant Darkness: A Book of Strangers.  “Gorgeous,” says The New York Times, “[t]he book ingeniously reminds us that all of our lives — our struggles, desires, grief — happen concurrently with everyone else’s, and this awareness helps dissolve the boundaries between us.” Sharlet’s other books include Sweet Heaven When I Die, C Street, The Family — the basis for a 2019 Netflix documentary series, The Family, of which he is narrator and executive producer — and, with Peter Manseau, Killing the Buddha;and two edited volumes, Radiant Truths, and (with Manseau) Believer, Beware. His writing on Russia’s anti-LGBTQ crusade earned the National Magazine Award for Reporting, and his writing on anti-LGBT campaigns in Uganda earned the Molly Ivins Prize and the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission’s Outspoken Award, among others. He has also been the recipient of numerous fellowships from MacDowell. Sharlet is an editor-at-large for VQR, and is or has been a contributing editor for Vanity Fair, Harper’s and Rolling Stone, and a contributor to publications including The New York Times Magazine, GQ, Esquire, Mother Jones, Bookforum, and others. At Dartmouth College, he is the publisher of 40 Towns and is the Frederick Sessions Beebe ’35 Professor in the Art of Writing.

Nathan Schneider is an associate professor of media studies at the University of Colorado Boulder, where he leads the Media Economies Design Lab. His most recent book is Governable Spaces: Democratic Design for Online Life.

Have you ever had an experience before? Together, this eclectic band of misfits creates a sound that is equal parts tactile, emotionally moving, and mentally insane. They explore uncharted territory with improvisation, stream-of-consciousness songwriting, and creative use of unconventional instruments. Don't trip out, man! Come see Lounge Drugs and let their music guide you through the ocean that is your mind.

Lounge Drugs is the brainchild of Jay LeCavalier (of The Crooked Rugs, Los Toms, and Funscreen). After emerging as a solo project, Lounge Drugs quickly evolved into a live band by popular demand. Since its debut in 2022, the project has evolved into a completely different animal on the stage. Live shows are notoriously unpredictable and filled with humor, inspiration, and psychoactive energy.

Light Technics is the solo project of Ted Stevens. Drawing inspiration from the deep cuts of instrumental psychedellia that emerged in Germany, France, Africa, Japan, and dusty corners of the US during the late 60s and 70s.

JOE GORKA: With his keenly observant lyrics and blend of dynamic guitar and piano work, Chicago-based singer-songwriter Joe Gorka has made a name for himself in the Midwest music scene. He has played such well-loved Chicago rooms such as Schubas Tavern, City Winery, and Uncommon Ground, along with venues and festivals across the region. 2025 saw the release of his debut solo acoustic EP "Evergreen", as well as increasing national attention with his selection to the 2025 "Emerging Artist" showcase at Connecticut's Falcon Ridge Folk Festival. In 2026 he will be playing shows across the country while completing production of his debut full-length album, due out in the fall. 

Lucy Isabel is a folk/Americana singer-songwriter who divides her time and affection between Nashville, TN and coastal New Jersey. She has spent years touring the United States and is known nationwide for her soaring melodies, compelling lyrics, and enveloping stage presence. She released her debut LP, Rambling Stranger, in 2019 and her highly anticipated sophomore album, All The Light, in October 2024, both to critical acclaim.

Penelope Jane is a mandolin player, singer, and songwriter from Boulder, CO, currently attending Berklee College of Music. Shaped by growing up in the Colorado music scene playing with her family band, her music is a blend of modern and traditional bluegrass, folk, and Americana inspired by artists like Sierra Hull, Bella White, and Sarah Jarosz. With the release of her new album 'Evergreen,' she brings her original songs to life with the help of her family band and others who have influenced her musical journey. To listen to hear album or learn more check out her website: https://penelopejanemusic.com/

"With humble roots in an unheated backyard shed, Boulder-based Jehovah's Fitness Club brings an eclectic mix of jazz, funk, blues and Latin sounds to the local scene. With eight enthused musicians at its core, JFC has a budding track record of putting on a lighthearted and energetic show, drawing crowds in venues like Larimer Lounge and Trident Booksellers and Cafe. Known for their seamless improvisation, tight musical synergy, and a touch of mirth, they blend spontaneity and groove creating a unique live experience every time they take the stage. JFC's recent EP "Household Name" was released in Spring 2025. Come witness the fitness!"

Bring an acoustic instrument and sit in with Boulder Old-Time Jam! Every first Thursday on the Trident Patio, starting at 6 p.m.

Synths: A vinyl DJ night showcasing a melange of synthetic sounds, including the sounds of synth-pop, minimal synth, and kraut, among other sounds! Come dance or, otherwise, sit very still!

Topaz Hooper is an author, entrepreneur, and poet from Denver, Colorado. She combines her many artistic talents to create intersectional and unique works. As demonstrated in this book, she enjoys using the aesthetics of art, photography, and the beauty of poetry to make works that incite emotional and sensory reactions in her readers. In her free time, she enjoys travelling to new places, learning languages, cooking plant-based meals, and sitting in coffee shops overlooking a busy city street. 

A Life Worth Living is her second book. Be sure to read her first book, My Mind's Eye Poetry and Visual Art on Social Justice, Philosophy, and Identity. More poetic, visual, and creative works to come.

Book Summary:

A Life Worth Living: Poetry & Photography on Love, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness is an interdisciplinary multilingual poetry book filled with seven years of original photographs and poems. The book explores topics like global inequality and peace, natural distasters and how love can transform (and destroy) our happiness. A Life Worth Living will stoke your imagination and deepen your understanding on how to love more freely, find liberty within, and pursue happiness in a messy, unequal world.

Tom Pakele and Stevie Guitar Glotzer are known for their soulful harmonica and guitar renditions of classic blues hits from legendary artists like Howling Wolf, Junior Wells, and Sonny Boy Williamson, as well as their own original music which is a must-experience for any blues enthusiast. With Tom's captivating vocals and Stevie's masterful guitar work, they bring the timeless sounds of the blues to life in a way that's both authentic and fresh.

Lucky Me consists of Three-time Grammy winning producer/composer/musician Tom Wasinger and legendary Boulder singer/songwriter Craig Skinner.

Tom Wasinger: a composer, arranger, producer, teacher, and multi-instrumentalist based in Boulder, Colorado. Tom has received three GRAMMY AWARDS as producer of the “Best Native American Music Album” in 2003, 2007, and 2009. Tom has also produced three other GRAMMY nominated records in 2001, 20 05, and 2008. Tom’s first commercial success as a producer came in 1994when his collection of international lullabies “The World Sings Goodnight” reached #3 on the Billboard World Music chart. This collection has since been licensed by National Geographic for the release “Lullabies, Dream Songs From around the World”.

Synths: A vinyl DJ night showcasing a melange of synthetic sounds, including the sounds of synth-pop, minimal synth, and kraut, among other sounds! Come dance or, otherwise, sit very still!

Bring an acoustic instrument and sit in with Boulder Old-Time Jam! Every first Thursday on the Trident Patio, starting at 6 p.m.

Bring an acoustic instrument and sit in with Boulder Old-Time Jam! Every first Thursday on the Trident Patio, starting at 6 p.m.

What would a postcarbon future look like? How would a more just, decarbonized world require us to change the way we live? What would it take to build this world? These questions lie at the heart of Building Postcarbon Futures: Land, Justice, and the Energy Transition.

This book offers a comprehensive account of the myriad ways in which people are transforming their social, ecological, and economic systems to create more just, beautiful places in response to the climate crisis.  With contributions from more than a dozen leading scholars of climate justice, Building Postcarbon Futures takes readers through 30 exemplary works of climate justice spanning 43 nations and 6 continents. Together, these illustrated case studies foreground the often-overlooked tactics, strategies, and modes of practice being employed, often by marginalized peoples, to build a more just, decarbonized world—from Cuba to Kiribati.

Building Postcarbon Futures is both a celebration of action underway and a challenge to those tasked with bringing new works of climate justice into the built and natural environments—the planners, designers, policymakers, and activists pushing this planet toward a future of collective flourishing.

About the Author

Billy Fleming is a leading voice on the role that the design of our cities, communities, and landscapes plays in responding to the climate crisis. He is founding co-director of the Climate and Community Institute, a progressive think tank focused on climate and political economy, and assistant professor of landscape architecture at Temple University’s Tyler School of Art and Architecture. Fleming is coeditor of Design with Nature Now (Lincoln Institute 2019) and A Blueprint for Coastal Adaptation: Uniting Design, Economics, and Policy (Island Press 2021). Formerly, he cofounded and served as the inaugural Wilks Family Director of the Ian L. McHarg Center at the University of Pennsylvania and worked on urban policy development in the White House Domestic Policy Council during the Obama Administration.

Contributors:

Catherine de Almeida, Gianpaolo Baiocchi, Eliza Breder, Holly Jean Buck, Daniel Aldana Cohen, Keller Easterling, Kian Goh, Rob Holmes, Leah Kahler, Reinhold Martin, Danielle Rivera, Douglas Robb, Akira Drake Rodriguez, Matthew Seibert, Aaryaman “Sunny” Singhal, Abby Spinak, Charles Waldheim.

Bring an acoustic instrument and sit in with Boulder Old-Time Jam! Every first Thursday on the Trident Patio, starting at 6 p.m.