#16: Toluwanimi Obiwole In Denver, we raise poets. Toluwanimi Obiwole is one of them: As a member of Minor Disturbance youth slam poetry team, she took the Denver city slam and became a Brave New Voices international slam champion; now a student in architectural engineering at the University of Colorado,…
The heat of August is upon us, but the fashion world is looking toward fall. If you are searching for a fresh new look or simply getting ready to head back to school, events this month should have you looking good. From fashion shows and sales to charity events and…
Geek culture is big, but even in the vast, loosely defined ocean of “geek” there are a few universal touchstones. That’s not to say that everyone agrees on them — hell, if you can get five geeks together in a room who agree on more than two separate geek-related things,…
In perhaps the greatest combination since chocolate met peanut butter, some great Denver drag performers are about to take on your favorite fairy tales. When the dust settles, who will be left — and what will be left of them? Daniella DeCoteau, one of our celebrated Diva Dozen, will be…
I only braved two of the four days of UMS this year, which is still a lot considering I was able to catch dozens of sets by some incredible musicians. Now in its fifteenth year, the Underground Music Showcase works to bring hundreds of acts to the multi-venue stage that…
Mairead Nye, who wrote and published Where’s My Football? when she was twelve, returns to her hometown for a special reading at BookBar from 4 to 6 p.m. on Thursday, July 30. But she’s still too young to enjoy one of the spot’s best amenities: Happier Hour. On Thursdays, adults get…
The renovated Union Station opened last July, and for the past year it’s been the hottest spot in town. When we dropped by last week, we spotted local stylist and Pac Sun visual merchandiser Violet Kayaga with a hot look that suited her surroundings. “I’m from the UK originally but…
I’ve interviewed hundreds of people over the course of my career as a reporter. One of those people is Keith Garcia, a person who went from source and media contact to good friend over years of our not-so-secret recorded phone conversations. Now my friend — who in the last year…
Plenty has been said about the mainstreaming of geek culture — I reference it all the time, myself — and it’s easy to see why. Superhero movies everywhere. Grown men and women in business-casual reading Harry Potter on the bus. Ads for video games during everything from football games to…
Being a feminist in public often feels like shouting my cause into the void — whether I’m having a conversation with real humans or leading a discussion on social media about the concept of basic human rights for female-identified people, a very small percentage of folks I know actually want…
Following her recent pilgrimage to the Philippines, designer and Fashion Denver owner Brandi Shigley decided to move her company headquarters from 1070 Bannock Street into the Green Spaces, 1368 26th Street, a warehouse in the heart of RiNo. “The reason for our move is to simplify,” she explains. “We had a lot of…
If having the pants scared off you seems like a sexy proposition, get ready for your nightmarish dreams to come true. On Saturday Burlesque Nouveau will present The Dark Side of Burlesque, a terrifying tease show in which a bevy of talented performers pay tribute to the macabre with nods to…
Harry Potter has been gone long enough for a bit of reflection. The final book hit shelves eight years ago, almost to the day. The final film, four years ago. Since then, the world has been largely free of new Harry Potter material, apart from the reams of fan fiction…
#17: Jacquelyn Connolly Curators facilitate innovation in art, and as such, Jacquelyn Connolly has been a trendsetter in the field locally. Now the director and curator at Emmanuel Gallery on the Auraria campus, Connolly’s left a trail of past good calls at Denver International Airport, where she previously sculpted the…
Colorado is an easy target. We’re America’s new hip spot to stake your claim and the things and experiences that supposedly identify us as “uniquely Colorado” are being exploited and worse, falsely portrayed as representative of who we are. Take the influx of Colorado-themed merchandise lately. We’ve always been CO…
For seven seasons and over 248 episodes, In Focus — Eden Lane’s weekly show on Colorado Public Television — has been covering this state’s flourishing arts community with in-depth interviews and spotlights of new exhibits and events. But now the show is looking for a little financial help to keep in…
Some of the best names in burlesque paraded past in panties and pasties during the four-day Colorado Burlesque Festival, a gathering of burlesque stars from near and far, in Denver this weekend. Brandon Marshall brought back these images from the Friday-night showcase at Lannie’s Clocktower Cabaret. Now see the full Colorado…
#18: Tran Wills When Tran Wills won a Westword MasterMind award back in 2007, she was running the Fabric Lab, a boutique focused on local designers. That shop is long gone, but in the years since Wills moved on from East Colfax Avenue, she’s gone on to bigger and better…
Cathy Morrison heralds from small-town Texas, where she spent summers on a family farm surrounded by big flowers and indigenous plants. So moving from Denver to Livermore – “Northwest of Fort Collins, sort of in the middle of nowhere, with a lot of environmentalists around us,” Morrison says – wasn’t…
Hot fashion can strike at any moment, and stylish people can look great even while doing mundane things. We spotted this nautical look on Christine Dan, who works at the Hyatt Regency Denver, while she was waiting for the bus on 15th and Glenarm streets. We stopped to chat with…
For more than eighty years, Collins’ Bicycles was a staple on East Colfax Avenue — but in recent years, its fate started to look uncertain. Owner Tito Collins — the third generation of the Collins family to run the shop since its 1934 start — had fallen ill. Neighbors and…
#19: Justin Beard Justin Beard is a forager — of food, materials, experiences and ideas. As an artist, he won’t be pinned down to one practice, and he works wherever his conceptual foraging takes him, from building sculpture created from things he’s found to performance art, a movement he’s working…
