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

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

Brigitte Benson: Brigitte Benson is a singer/songwriter and jazz musician in Colorado. Having performed all up and down the front range, she loves any opportunity to share her music with others. She works as a board-certified music therapist, getting to mesh her love of music with her love of people. Brigitte is working hard on getting her original music recorded and out in the world, so make sure to follow her social media platforms @BrigitteBensonMusic on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok as not to miss a thing!

Jackson Loam: Rooted in the foothills of Boulder, Colorado, Jackson Loam weaves the rhythms of farm life and travels into songs that feel both timeless and deeply personal. A multi-instrumentalist with a love for acoustic textures, he blends traditional instruments into earth-grown melodies alongside his friends to create stories shaped by open skies, rugged seasons, and the quiet resilience of the land. When not playing music you can find Jack tending to his 5-acre Boulder farm, or somewhere driving and camping his way across the West.

Sophia Eliana band: Joined by her full band, Sophia Eliana shapes an ambient indie-folk soundscape that will envelop you and warm your belly like a home-cooked meal. Her undergraduate studies began as a voice principal at Berklee College of Music in Valencia, Spain. Among sheep and root vegetables, she concluded her undergraduate studies farming at College of the Atlantic on Mount Desert Island, Maine. Sophia Eliana has embarked on multiple national and international tours, performing at venues across Spain, Canada, Iceland, and the United States. She has opened up for notable artists including The Ballroom Thieves, Emma Klein, Marielle Kraft, and Spectre Jones. Anyone attending Sophia Eliana’s shows is guaranteed to walk away with a belly full of giggles, a softened smile, and an ooey-gooey heart. Listen to her studio sophomore album, “Glitter Bug,” recorded at The Wonderhaus with Jacob Williams and Noah Dearbon, available on any streaming platform now.

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

MY OCEANS

An urgent exploration of caring & mothering on a planet in crisis

In a swell of sea-linked essays, Christina Rivera explores the kinship between marine animals, humans, and Earth’s blue womb. Rivera’s investigative questions begin with the toxic burden of her body and spiral out—to a grieving orca, a hunted manta ray, a pregnant sea turtle, a spawning salmon, an “endling” porpoise, and the “mother culture” of sperm whales —as she redefines what it means to mother and defend a collective future. Braiding memoir with embodied climate science, Rivera challenges that it’s not anthropomorphism to feel deep connection to non-human species and proposes that gathering in collective grief is essential amid the sixth mass extinction on Earth. For ecofeminists, fans of Terry Tempest Williams and Rachel Carson—and for anyone who feels themself disintegrate in the presence of the sea—My Oceans offers a timely and wondrous descent into the deep waters of interbeing in which we swim.

 "This collection is threaded with wonder, history, and heartache. In My Oceans, motherhood is not sentimentalized but shown as a transformative political power. Masterfully constructed and beautifully written, this book dwells in the depths—not only of oceans but of mourning, awe, anger, and action." —Beth Piatote, Author of The Beadworkers: Stories

Christina Rivera is a Pushcart Prize-winning essayist from Colorado whose girlhood was bordered by coastlines of Pacific Ocean. She is the debut author of MY OCEANS: Essays of Water, Whales, and Women (Northwestern University Press, March 2025) which was longlisted for the Graywolf Press Prize and a finalist for the Siskiyou Prize for New Environmental Literature. Her work has won the John Burroughs Nature Essay Award (the highest annual honor for a creative nonfiction essay on place, science, and the environment) and appeared in Orion, Longreads, The Cut, and Terrain.org, among other places. Christina is so excited to return to Trident for the author series, having filled many pages of journals at those little tables in the cafe in her 20s! You can learn more about Christina and MY OCEANS at www.christinarivera.com or subscribe to her irregular series of blue love notes, MobyBytes on Substack.

Foxes Float Trip is a jammy folk-punk trio led by Carly Fox, with Rex Weston on the cello and Steve Fox on percussion, bringing the haunted farmers market vibes through Carly’s songs about hopes, dreams, ghosts, and all the middle aged things ️

Boundless in Creation: A Climatique Music & Arts Gathering space for BIPOC, AFAB (assigned female at birth), and LGBTQIA+ artists to share, discuss, and uplift each other. We will showcase local talent, engage in a round-table discussion about our experiences with marginalization, explore strategies for change, and close with an open mic. 

Boulder County's own boisterous folk rock band Mercy Club is back at the Trident! Anchored in family harmony, singable melodies and accessible, honest lyrics, Mercy Club is a dynamic folk ensemble with a rock n' roll heart.

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

This fall, Smithsonian Books published On a Mission: The Smithsonian History of US Women Astronauts, a can’t-miss book for space lovers that celebrates three generations of US women astronauts, including the challenges they’ve faced and the significant contributions they’ve made.

Boulder resident Valerie Neal, curator emerita from the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum and expert on human spaceflight, interviewed many of the US women astronauts to bring their experiences to life. Profiles of all NASA’s spacefaring women highlight their individual and collective achievements across almost 50 years.

Sally Ride became a household name as the first American woman in space, but scores of equally impressive women have also left their mark in space. On a Mission: The Smithsonian History of US Women Astronauts spans 45 years and 61 astronauts to share the epic journeys of women who made space for themselves in a male-dominated field.

Valerie Neal, emerita curator in the Department of Space History at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum, offers a culturally insightful history of the experiences of women astronauts, the challenges they've faced, and their distinctive stories. Collectively, they've completed more than 100 space shuttle missions and more than 30 long-duration stays on the International Space Station and Russian Space Station Mir, and they continue to prove themselves in present-day space exploration efforts.

The book includes 50 black-and-white photographs to complement the historical account. With its sweeping look from the first women astronauts to Christina Hammock Koch, assigned to the first crewed Artemis mission around the Moon, there is no comparably thorough book on America's women astronauts. On a Mission is an inspiring tribute to unsung women's history.

VALERIE NEAL is a curator emerita in the Department of Space History at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum, where she oversaw the human spaceflight collections from the space shuttle and International Space Station programs, and she initiated the collection of artifacts from women astronauts. Her previous books include Discovery: Champion of the Space Shuttle Fleet and Spaceflight in the Shuttle Era and Beyond.

Magic Mountain Talks presents:

Rachel Kushner is the author of the novels CREATION LAKE, THE MARS ROOM, THE FLAMETHROWERS, and TELEX FROM CUBA, a book of short stories, THE STRANGE CASE OF RACHEL K, and THE HARD CROWD: ESSAYS 2000-2020. She has won the Prix Médicis and been a finalist for the Booker Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Folio Prize, the James Tait Black Prize, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, and was twice a finalist for the National Book Award in Fiction. She is a Guggenheim Foundation Fellow and the recipient of the Harold D. Vursell Memorial Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Her books have been translated into twenty-seven languages. Her fiction has been published in the New Yorker and the Paris Review, and her nonfiction in Harpers and the New York Times Magazine.

Benjamin Kunkel is the bestselling author of Indecision and 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.

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

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, and throw in some tasteful covers as well. Each set is completely different so you’ll never see anything like the last. Currently making our way around local Colorado venues, Third Turn plans to expand more and more with every show so don’t miss our unique set when we’re in town!

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

For fans of Educated and The Glass Castle, a former music industry insider’s journey of healing—from childhood trauma through spiritual practices and self-discovery to a place of peace—with some incredible celebrity encounters along the way.

My Pretty Baby is a transformative memoir that chronicles Wendy Correa’s journey to heal from childhood traumas, including the death of her father when she was seven, emotionally distant older siblings, a frequently neglectful mother, and an adventurous yet violent, alcoholic stepfather. It is a story of not belonging, and the eventual healing that comes from building a chosen family.

After escaping her turbulent home life, Wendy’s path of self-discovery takes her through Buddhism, meditation, plant medicine, yoga, nature, Native American spirituality, 12-Step programs, and psychotherapy. Native American sweat lodge and vision quest ceremonies further strengthen her sobriety and mental well-being.

Along the way, extraordinary experiences unfold. She stands on the Rose Bowl stage singing “Give Peace a Chance” with rock ’n’ roll royalty, attends AA meetings with legendary musicians while working at A&M and Geffen Records, and even gets to hang out with her musical hero, Joni Mitchell. 

 

Wendy’s life takes a new turn when she moves to Aspen and becomes a radio DJ and assistant to gonzo writer Hunter S. Thompson. There, she meets her future husband and begins to build the family she’s always longed for-but despite her newfound peace, she is repeatedly drawn back into her family of origins dysfunction. It’s only after her mother’s death that Wendy uncovers a painful family secret that finally answers her lifelong question: What really happened to my family?

Wendy B. Correa is a writer, yogi, hiker, as well as a licensed massage therapist. She has worked in the film, television, multimedia, and music industries in Los Angeles and later as a radio DJ in Aspen, Colorado. She holds bachelor’s degrees in psychology and theater arts and has contributed articles to Mothering magazine.

A wife and mother, she resides in Denver, Colorado, and loves traveling to magical destinations with her family. My Pretty Baby is her debut book. For more information, visit www.wendybcorrea.com.

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

Author of the popular New York Times articles "Is It a Crush or Have You Fallen Into Limerence?" and "Does My Virginity Have a Shelf Life?" Amanda McCracken shares her honest, funny, and at times heartbreaking story of learning how to seek true love and intimacy.

Journalist and late-in-life virgin Amanda McCracken dated over 100 men by the time she was in her late thirties. She was so certain she was doing everything she could to find the loving, lasting relationship she wanted. So why wasn’t it working? After another breakdown in her therapist’s office, she came to a startling realization: she was addicted to longing.

This realization was part of a 10-year journey to understand the cultural, neurological, and psychological factors that shaped her beliefs about love, sex, and commitment. She began to understand that longing for someone feels good. It can even feel better than being in a secure relationship. Longing can provide a sense of control when life is uncertain and offers a safe place to hide from emotional vulnerability, especially in today’s online dating and hookup world. But longing can trigger an addictive neurochemical boost that can derail us from forming healthy, intimate relationships.

In this searingly honest book, Amanda shares the crushes, relationships, situationships, travel, friendships, hookups, bad dates, wins, losses, and brushes with fate that came with her journey.  Starting with her early childhood hero fantasies and how they evolved in her tween and teen years into a commitment to the purity movement espoused at her church, she chronicles her profound longing for love that led her to her lowest point. She provides a deep, exploratory look into the state of mind known as limerence: an obsessive rumination on an idealized version of someone. Amanda weaves together her personal journey with research, storytelling, soul-searching questions, and quotes from experts and nonexperts alike to reveal the addictive nature of longing while providing hope through her journey of breaking her patterns and ultimately choosing the path towards healthy, authentic intimacy.

Amanda McCracken is a journalist passionate about experiences that highlight the intersection of wellness, travel, and relationships. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Washington Post, Guardian, Vogue, National Geographic, Elle, NPR, Outside, ESPN, SELF, Runner’s World, and many others. She published her first article about longing in 2013, which led to additional articles featuring personal anecdotes and deep research and interviews with the BBC and Katie Couric. She is now considered a “limerence expert” and intimacy advocate. Her 2023 TED Talk, “How Longing Keeps Us From Healthy Relationships,” and her podcast, The Longing Lab, highlight how longing can become self sabotaging and shares how to change our patterns of longing. McCracken is also a part-time university instructor, massage therapist, triathlon coach, and competitive athlete. Raised in Cincinnati, Ohio, McCracken put down roots with her husband and daughter in Boulder, Colorado, after a trip around the world aboard the Peace Boat. 

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

​​Hilary Giovale is a mother, writer, community organizer, and facilitator who lives on Hopi, Diné, Apache, and Havasupai land in Flagstaff, Arizona.  A ninth-generation American settler, she is descended from Celtic, Germanic, Nordic, and Indigenous peoples of Ancient Europe.  Hilary seeks to follow Indigenous and Black leadership in support of human rights, environmental justice, and equitable futures.  As an active reparationist, her work is guided by intuition, love, and relationships.  She divests from whiteness and bridges divides with truth, healing, apology, and forgiveness.  She is the author of the award-winning book Becoming a Good Relative: Calling White Settlers toward Truth, Healing, and Repair.  Learn more about her work at goodrelative.com.

“Hilary Giovale initiates white, European-descended people into the work of stepping into their collective power to dream and to build a different way of living. She provides knowledge and actions white settlers can use to reclaim their full humanity.” - Dr. Anita Sanchez, Nahua (Aztec and Toltec), Award-Winning Author of The Four Sacred Gifts: Indigenous Wisdom for Modern Times

“In a world built on and still profiting from slavery, genocide, as well as other forms of incomprehensible settler violence, Hilary offers the most sane advice - to lean into that which gives life: community, our planet, and the ways of being interconnected.” - Dr. David Ragland, Co-Founder and Co-ED, The Truth Telling Project; Director, Grassroots Reparations Campaign; Lecturer on Reparations as Spiritual Practice, Harvard Divinity School

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

 mud & marrow is an eco-feminist world-folk band from Denver, Colorado who intertwine West African percussion, thick vocal harmonies, and political consciousness, with a vibe similar to Rising Appalachia. Their songwriting is all original and with revolutionary intent; their music is invigorating for body, mind, and spirit.  Audiences are moved by their powerful poetry, energy, unique instrumentation, and the refreshing inclusion of many kinds of musicians.  mud & marrow has recently played the Denver Botanic Gardens al fresco series, Georgetown Mountain Jams, Manos Sagrados, The Roxy on Broadway, and many more.  Come dance and connect in community!

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

Iago Haussman is THE SPIKES. A singer, songwriter, poet from Rome Italy, who is currently living and recording in the United States. THE SPIKES debut, a self-titled EP, featured the much talked about single, GUNS FOR THE CHILDREN. His latest LP, the critically acclaimed FIRST LIGHT, has been praised by music publications worldwide. THE SPIKES music video for GARDEN SONG continues to rise beyond 120k viewers on YouTube. Iago Haussman is also a painter and sculptor, whose work has shown in galleries. He co-founded the punk band Delicate Prey at age 16. THE SPIKES music is available on Apple music and Spotify. The Spikes’ First Light is a rare gem: unsettling yet tender, cinematic yet intimate. It doesn’t just mark a new chapter for the band—it feels like the start of something luminous rising from the dark. -Music Crowns

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

A book of criticism, Radical ​Poetics: Essays on Literature & Culture, was published by the Poets on Poetry Series at University of Michigan Press in January 2025. With K. Ibura, she co-edited Infinite Constellations (FC2 2023), an anthology of speculative writing by authors from the global majority. Her most recent poetry book is Anodyne (Tin House 2020), a ​finalist for the Colorado Book Award and winner of the William Carlos ​Williams Award from the Poetry Society of America. Her fifth book, I'm ​So Fine: A List of Famous Men & What I Had On (YesYes Books 2017), ​was praised in O Magazine, The New Yorker, Rain Taxi, and elsewhere ​as “quietly devastating” and “a portrait of defiance that turns the male ​gaze inside out.”

Her verse play Non-Sequitur (Litmus Press 2015) won ​the Leslie Scalapino Award for Innovative Women's Performance ​Writing, which included a full production at Theaterlab in New ​York City, directed by Fiona Templeton and performed by The ​Relationship theater company. A zuihitsu about the pandemic, ​“False Dawn,” appeared in Harper’s Magazine, was named a Notable ​Essay of 2020 and ​was reprinted in the anthology Bigger Than Bravery (2023), edited by Valerie Boyd. Individual ​poems, interviews, and essays appear in Ploughshares, American ​Poetry Review, The Georgia Review, The Believer, Orion, Fence, Poetry,​ Yale Review, The Offing, The Poetry Review (UK), and widely ​elsewhere. In 2022, she was awarded a Disability Futures fellowship from United States Artists. A Cave Canem alum and Civitella Ranieri Fellow, she holds a PhD in ​English and Literary Arts from University of Denver. As a creative writing professor, she has taught American literature, poetics, and all genres of ​creative writing at University of Colorado at Boulder, Regis University, and Virginia Tech. In 2025, she received the Cy Twombly Award for Poetry from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts. She is currently writing a new book of poetry and a collection of travel essays.

Praise for BETWEEN THE DEVIL & THE DEEP BLUE SEA

“Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea is a large-hearted, compulsively readable memoir shot through with courage and razor-sharp intelligence. Queen’s magnificent personal reckoning helps me to ponder what new forms of relation might be possible between ourselves, our nation, and the many institutions charged with stewarding the common good.”―TRACY K. SMITH, Pulitzer Prize winning poet, author of Life on Mars and Wade in the Water

Filmmaker Support Group

Sponsored by the Boulder County Film Commission, these free events are designed to provide creative support for Boulder-area filmmakers! Maybe you'd like some feedback on a project you're working on, or perhaps you're stuck and need an idea for how to transition from this to that, or - well, you get the idea. We're here for you; let's be there for each other! Bring a script, a rough cut, an idea, or any creative problem.

Who Should Attend these Support Groups?

These events are great if you're a filmmaker and working on a project and would like some feedback, are stuck on a project and need some inspiration, want to connect with other filmmakers, or simply want to see and hear what other Boulder filmmakers are working on.

What To Bring?

You should come with a great attitude, no ego, and the excitement of wanting to talk with others about their, and your own, projects. We will be using the Trident's built-in AV system, which consists of a projector, screen, microphone, and their PA system.

Want to show a clip?

PLEASE upload the file in advance of the meeting so we can have it all set up and ready to go if selected.

Location

This event is being generously hosted by the Trident Cafe and Booksellers, located on the west end of Pearl Street. They will have a cash bar, with beer and wine for sale, along with other non-alcoholic drinks, including coffee! PLEASE NOTE: these events are held outside on the back patio of the Trident, so please bring a jacket if you think you might get cold, especially as it gets later in the evening.

Facilitator

Rob Shearer is an award-winning filmmaker based in Denver, Colorado. His work ranges from narrative and documentary projects to corporate videos and commercials. With a passion for creating original and compelling content, he is constantly finding ways to translate a client’s product or brand into an engaging story.

Rob has produced videos for clients like Weber Grills, Gogo Business Aviation, Einstein Bros Bagels, and Rocky Mountain PBS, to name a few. His work has been screened at the Denver Film Festival, the Big Bear Lake Film Festival, and the American Pavilion at the Festival de Cannes, and his documentary series “Denizen” is shown regularly on Colorado PBS.

Having served as President of the Colorado Film And Video Association from 2020 to 2022, Rob has a dedicated interest in growing the local film scene.

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:

Tony Tulathimutte is the author of Private Citizens and Rejection, which was longlisted for the National Book Award. He’s received a Whiting Award and an O. Henry Award, and has written for The Paris Review, N+1, The New York Times, The Nation, and others. He also runs CRIT, a writing class in Brooklyn.

Hermione Hoby is the author of the novels Neon in Daylight, which was twice listed as a New York Times Editors’ Choice, and Virtue, which was shortlisted for the Mark Twain American Voice in Literature award. She is a 2024 Macdowell Fellow in Literature and her writing has appeared in The New Yorker, Harper’s, The Guardian, The New York Times, Bookforum, and elsewhere. Raised in London, she lives in Boulder, Colorado.

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

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

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

David Mason was born in Bellingham, Washington, and has lived in many parts of the world. He served four years as poet laureate of Colorado before moving to Tasmania in 2018. His many books include The Country I Remember (winner of the Alice Fay Di Castagnola Award), Ludlow: A Verse Novel (winner of the Colorado Book Award), The Sound: New and Selected Poems and Pacific Light. Mason has also written four books of essays and co-edited several textbooks and anthologies. His work can be found in The New Yorker, The Weekend Australian, The Australian Book Review, Poetry, The Wall Street Journal, The Times Literary Supplement, The Hudson Review, The Nation, and many other periodicals. His libretti for operas by composers Lori Laitman and Tom Cipullo are all available on CD from Naxos. Mason’s website can be found at https://davidmasonpoet.com

Mark Irwin is the author of thirteen collections of poetry, including Once When Green (2025), Joyful Orphan (2023), Shimmer (2020), American Urn: Selected Poems (1987-2014), Tall If (2008), and Bright Hunger (2004). Recognition for his work includes The Nation/Discovery Award, two Colorado Book Awards, four Pushcart Prizes, the James Wright Poetry Award, the Philip Levine Prize for Poetry, The Juniper Prize for Poetry, and fellowships from the Fulbright, Lilly, and NEA. He has also translated three volumes of poetry and lives in Colorado and Los Angeles, where he teaches at the University of Southern California. His poetry has been translated into several languages.

Mark Irwin’s new poems that ask “how long, how bright?” are radiant with a sheen of longing and urgency.

—Arthur Sze, National Book Award

“So often we consider how to tell the story of our beginnings, but what is it to persist, through language, in a suspended state of endings? To “witness a world that is perishing” even as one is “lonely for the present”? Once When Green is a primer in listening to that which we are unaccustomed to conceiving of as having sound, relayed in a rush of lyric language after the lilting of waves and movement of stars.                                                                                

—Abigail Chabitnoy

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.

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

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

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.

Free! Every Monday evening, 7-9p.m. All languages welcome. Facilitated by Kelvin TaLively conversation for language learners, native speakers, and everyone in between. We regularly have 10+ languages spoken and always have spirited discussions! 

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

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

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).

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

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.”

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