Megan Walrod, a women’s empowerment coach, seasoned speaker, and self-proclaimed lover of mermaids, recently released her debut novel It’s Always Been Me. It’s an emotional tale that follows Sabina, a woman confronting a crumbling marriage and the slow loss of her grandmother. With the guidance of mythic Selkies, a paintbrush in hand, and grief in her gut, Sabina begins to reclaim her voice—and her life.

I met Walrod on a sunny afternoon at a café tucked into the west end of Pearl Street. She smiled warmly as I joined her. In the spirit of abundance, she paid for one cacao drink but was gifted two. It felt like the universe already knew what kind of conversation we were about to have. We talked about her new book, of course, but also about the deep inner work she believes women must do to reclaim their own narratives, the mystical symbols that have guided her, and how Boulder, with all its beauty and baggage, became both a backdrop and a mirror for her healing.

Walrod’s love of storytelling began in a second-grade creative writing class in her hometown in New York. She never imagined her path would wind its way to Boulder, Colorado let alone lead her through one of the most transformative chapters of her life. After earning her Master’s Degree in Transpersonal Counseling Psychology at Naropa University, she faced what she called an implosion: the collapse of her marriage and the internal reckoning that followed.

“Boulder was this place where I have been the most devastated. Losing my sister was devastating. I was devastated, got to grieve, and got to be supported in the beginning of that journey here.

So when Walrod returned to Boulder recently for a reading at the top floor of Boulder Bookstore, several weeks ago it represented a full circle moment for her. She was stepping back into a space that had been a source of both pain and healing. If the weight of the past still burdened her, Walrod didn’t let it show. The room lit up as she arrived, hugging old friends and greeting new readers. There was something magnetic about her presence: grounded, joyful, inviting. She made a point to personally welcome everyone and fostered an atmosphere of warmth and connection. Then, as the crowd settled, she began to speak, first about the novel, and then about the truth underneath it.

“I lived this story here. This is where my husband came to me and said, ‘I want to explore something with this other woman,” She said.

In many ways, It’s Always Been Me is a retelling of Walrod’s own unraveling and rebirth. Sabina, like Walrod, must decide whether she’ll continue silencing her own needs or finally choose herself. That message about choosing oneself is the foundation of Walrod’s life’s work. For over 16 years, she’s helped women undo what she calls the “good girl programming”, the cultural script that teaches women to shrink themselves, to serve others before daring to dream for themselves. 

Walrod speaks candidly about the emotional toll society’s expectations take on women. The promise of a “happily ever after” often leaves women feeling trapped between expectation and desire and ashamed for wanting more than the role they’ve been handed. According to Walrod, that chronic self-sacrifice wears on the spirit and the body. Research shows that women make up 80% of autoimmune disease cases, and many of those conditions have been linked to suppressed emotions and unmet needs.

“When a woman is basing her choices on this usual archetype, there’s frustration, there’s guilt, there’s always the anxiety of ‘Is this all it is? I should be grateful, but I feel completely desperate, like there’s more for me.’ There’s that constant pull because so many women feel ashamed or guilty, so we don’t talk about it as much.”

Now on a cross-country tour with her book, Walrod is bringing that message to readers in Colorado, California, and New York. Her mission is simple but radical: Help women identify what they genuinely desire and give them permission to begin pursuing it before it’s too late.

“Why are we coping when we could be living?” she asked, smiling again. “That’s my whole thing—authoring your own life. Break free of the freaking narrative and what society says.”

It’s Always Been Me is available in paperback and e-book. More about Megan Walrod and her mission can be found on her website. 

The post Megan Walrod’s Novel Is a Love Letter to Women Who Are Done Shrinking appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

Four women are transforming the streets of Longmont and Boulder, Colorado, by charting their paths in a male-dominated industry: real estate development. Each one has a unique vision they want to bring to life, but what they have in common is a passion for enhancing the communities they call home. 

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, women make up only 11% of the overall construction industry, and four of Colorado’s real estate developers are part of that statistic. 

Sarah Carillo began her development career over a decade ago with The Speakeasy bar, Jennifer Peterson recently broke ground on the mixed-use Casa Lou Cardenas, Greeley Sachs pivoted into real estate development after years working in construction, and Danica Powell founded the Trestle Strategy Group consulting firm after losing her job in 2008.

Carillo, owner of The Imperial 301, opened The Speakeasy bar on her own, despite having no formal training in development. As someone who handles a lot of the work on her own, Carillo has had to stand strong to make sure her voice is heard. 

Sarah Carillo at the 301 Imperial

“I’m doing this all by myself,” Carillo said about her work on The Speakeasy.

When working with investors, Carillo noticed that a majority of them were men. This is one part of the industry where she has experienced the most challenges. 

“Ninety-nine percent of all the personal investors that I have met with, and toured and gone down the path of potentially having an investor, has been a man,” Carillo told Yellow Scene Magazine. “It always gets to the point where they want to redirect the vision.”

However, she has continued to stand firm in her vision for the project. 

Ground broke on Peterson’s Casa Lou Cardenas development in 2022. When she decided to open the mixed-use building, she wanted to honor a powerful voice in Longmont’s Latino community, Eloyda “Lou” Cardenas.

“She had been very significant to the Latino voice being heard in the community at a time when things were very segregated and, frankly, there was a lot of racism,” Peterson, who owns JSY Properties, told Yellow Scene.

Cardenas was a trailblazing community member in Longmont who died in 2017 at 99 years old. She was pivotal in establishing bus transit services in Longmont, served on Longmont’s Senior Citizens Advisory Board, and established the first small Senior Opportunity Center.

When Peterson chose to open her recent mixed-use building, she wanted to memorialize Cardenas. Naming the building after one of Longmont’s trailblazers was a way to preserve her legacy. 

For Peterson, her career is about fostering communities that appreciate their cultural differences.

She started without any prior development experience and found it rewarding to learn from those she worked alongside. 

“The relationships are the best part of it,” Peterson said. “And to see when you’re finished, something beautiful and useful.”

“I think [male contractors] respect the fact that you’re doing this work,” Sachs said. “Every guy that I’ve worked with has been incredibly kind. I have two different teams that I’ve worked with downtown, and each one has been wonderful to work with. They understand the vision I have. I think they’re proud of the buildings they’ve worked on.”

Sachs has worked in construction for years and feels it is a great space for women to find a career.

“I don’t see it as a disadvantage at all to be a woman and doing real estate development,” she said. “I think sometimes people are surprised by it.” 

Sachs and Carillo have found support through their relationships with the community, including groups such as the Longmont Downtown Development Authority. They shared that the LDDA executive director, Kimberlee McKee, has been a big help behind their projects. 

Powell is the founder and owner of Trestle Strategy Group and has spent her career crafting a diverse portfolio. She has been a consultant for schools, nonprofit organizations, government agencies, and more. In the past 15 years, Powell has grown used to working in a male-dominated industry. 

After being laid off in 2008, she began her firm as a “small but mighty team ” and worked to cultivate her voice in the field. 

“I think when people hire me, they know I have strong opinions and have good experience,” Powell told Yellow Scene. “I tend to have really great working relationships with my clients because they do listen.”

For Powell, it is important that her clients understand the challenges that come with real estate development, especially at a time when the field is just becoming more complex. 

One of her most rewarding and challenging projects was her work on the Ponderosa Mobile Home Park. Throughout the development process, she worked from a non-displacement premise to keep people living in their community. 

Despite difficulties, families were able to stay in their mobile homes. Now, Habitat For Humanity has joined as a partner to build homes in the community.

Danica Powell at the 2023 Chamber Leadership Awards

“About four or five families are already moved into new Habitat homes,” Powell said.

She shared that she notices being one of a few women in her field and encourages young women to get involved through programs and education. 

“I always encourage people to just be really scrappy,” Powell shared. “I think a lot of my success has come from having defeats.”

Despite the construction industry being male-dominated, it is clear that Longmont and Boulder have a supportive community of women working in real estate development right now. They have forged unique paths in the field, and there is plenty of room for other women to do the same.

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The post Building More Than Spaces: The Women Shaping Colorado’s Future, One Development at a Time appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

Outrage is mounting across Colorado as community organizations and elected officials demand the immediate release of Jeanette Vizguerra, a respected immigrant rights advocate who was forcibly detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Monday, March 17, 2025.

Without warning or legal justification, ICE officers took Vizguerra from her workplace and transferred her to the GEO immigration detention center in Aurora, CO. Her detention, which was confirmed by her attorney, has been widely condemned as a politically motivated attack on an outspoken leader in the fight for immigrant rights.

Jeanette Vizguerra, a mother of four and a long-standing pillar of Colorado’s immigrant community, has been fighting deportation since 2009. She has spent decades advocating for labor protections, immigrant rights, and family unity, earning national recognition for her efforts.

“Jeanette was able to briefly call her daughter on March 17 before facility officials cut off phone access for unknown reasons,” wrote Rebecca Shelley from Our Saviour Lutheran Church in a Press Release.

In 2017, she was named one of Time Magazine’s most influential people for her fearless activism against unjust immigration policies.

Despite having no valid deportation order, ICE detained her without prior notice to her legal team. Community leaders and legal experts argue that this action violates due process and serves as an intimidation tactic against those who challenge the deportation system. Vizguerra’s sudden detention also aligns with a troubling pattern of ICE targeting immigrant activists, including Mahmoud Khalil and Leqaa Kordia, who were also unlawfully detained in recent weeks.

Protestors gather outside the ICE detention facility in Aurora. Photo by Shavonne Blades.

Within hours of her detention, community members mobilized to demand Vizguerra’s release. Concerned for her safety, her family and supporters gathered outside the GEO detention center for an all-night vigil. Despite freezing temperatures, crowds spent the night engaging in chanting, drumming, and candlelighting until the morning hours of Tuesday. Activists also reached out to congressional offices, urging lawmakers to intervene.

“Jeanette belongs with her family, not in a for-profit detention center,” said one advocate at the vigil. “Her detention is a direct attack on the movement for immigrant justice.”

Supporters have launched a petition and a fundraising campaign to assist with legal expenses.

Jeanette Vizguerra’s activism extends beyond her personal case. She has co-founded several grassroots organizations, including Dreamer’s Mothers in Action-Colorado, Abolish ICE Denver, and Sanctuary4All. She has also worked with groups such as the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition, SEIU, and the National Domestic Workers Association, advocating for the dignity and rights of all immigrants.

Her detention has sparked a wave of solidarity from organizations and elected officials across Colorado, including the ACLU of Colorado, Colorado People’s Alliance, Denver Democratic Socialists of America, and numerous city council members and state legislators.

Daughter of Activist Legend Corky Gonzales speaks at Monday’s rally. Photo by Shavonne Blades.

Their collective demand is clear: ICE must immediately release Jeanette Vizguerra and halt its campaign of intimidation against immigrant activists.

As the community rallies around Vizguerra, her supporters remain steadfast in their commitment to justice. They refuse to allow ICE to silence her voice or separate her from her family and the movement she has dedicated her life to building.

The post Community Rallies for Immediate Release of Jeanette Vizguerra Following Unjust ICE Detention appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

A friend once told me, “I believe everyone on the planet should have one day a week to do whatever they want.” I think they said this because they know I work way too much. I chose journalism as a career, which means I work. A lot.

Yesterday, I decided to take their advice and go for a walk through Sandstone Ranch. It was great to get out in the sunshine, and it made me grateful for the treasures right in my backyard.

One of those treasures is Chautauqua. But Chautauqua is more than just the Dining Hall, the Auditorium, and the Flatiron’s Loop hike. (All pretty great things.)  Recently, I managed to take yet another rare day off with a weekend stay in one of the cottages — which, by the way, have no TVs. But who needs a TV when you’re staying at Chautauqua?

While I wish I could have stayed longer in that adorable cottage, it was a perfect mini-staycation. And it reminded me that I don’t always have to get on a plane to get away. I can drive just 17 miles from Erie and find a retreat that people from all over the country fly in to see.

Today, I joined a faith-based group that is organizing to protect the rights of all. As part of our gathering, we did a community exercise where we moved around the room without speaking — first quickly, then slowly — until we stopped and faced the person in front of us. While there was some awkwardness in staring into a stranger’s face, as the host narrated the purpose behind the exercise, I could see everyone not only connecting to the message but also to each other.

The United States is not in good health right now, and the future of democracy looks increasingly uncertain. But being in this room with others, many of whom have a different take on faith than I do, was deeply moving. Connecting in this way reminded me of something important:

Right now, more than ever, we need connection. Humanity is not lost among America’s citizens. It’s under siege. But as humans, we do, in fact, need each other. We are more than data points.

The Colorado Chautauqua is hosting its All-Inclusive Women’s Retreat. The first one scheduled for 2025 is April 10th-13th. If you hurry, you can get a spot reserved. They do take the time to talk with you before signing up so you can feel confident about the experience before committing.

 I have to admit, when I first heard about it, I wasn’t sure what to expect.

It’s only as I’ve gotten older that I’ve truly come to understand the power of sisterhood. As a younger woman, maybe I lacked the maturity to see it, but now, I know that my female friendships have been my anchor, carrying me through even the hardest times.

They’ve been hosting this retreat three times a year for the past four years, and it’s now selling out regularly. The groups are intentionally small, just 18 women per retreat, and guests have ranged from their early twenties to their eighties.

While it takes a bit of bravery to commit to a three-day weekend retreat, the staff at Colorado Chautauqua Association work hard to ensure everyone feels comfortable with their decision, even before purchasing a ticket.

I spoke with Liz Purvis and Rohini Grace to learn more about this experience. While I was a skeptic at first, I now hope to gift myself this special opportunity.

I could hear the passion in Rohini’s voice as we spoke over the phone. They described a place where women can reconnect with themselves — beyond the roles of mother, wife, or professional. A space where they can remember who they are outside of life’s daily demands.

But what they were most excited to share was the curriculum. They carefully design experiences that take women out of their everyday routines, offering opportunities we rarely get in our normal workspaces.

The retreat includes yoga, nature walks, forest bathing, a fully customized menu tailored to each woman’s needs (without having to do the dishes!), a concert, and an inspirational talk. All activities are curated for spiritual, emotional, and mental well-being. But everything is optional. If you’d rather curl up under a tree with a book, you can.

The goal is simple: to create a safe space where women can nurture themselves, reconnect with nature, and truly experience it, something we in Boulder County often live close to, play in, and marvel at, yet sometimes forget to pause and embrace.

I spoke with Lori Harrison, a three-time returning retreat participant. Her first time attending was a gift from a friend, and she wasn’t sure what she hoped to gain from the experience. But since that first retreat, she has returned twice more and, in the process, she has built a circle of friends she now considers her rock.

These friendships were formed at the Women’s Retreat, but what truly came out of it was the deep bonding and connection that extended far beyond the weekend itself.

“Having the freedom to let go of all of that and just remember who we are — without our job title, without our partner, without our kids. There’s a part of us that is more than those things.”

While participants have the choice to bunk solo or stay in the larger shared cabin, she highly recommended the latter, or at least staying with a buddy. Letting go in this way can bring moments of vulnerability, and having a friend nearby can offer support through those experiences.

What got Lori the most excited was talking about the Mala beads they each create. Mala Beads per The Monestary Store, are described as; From the Sanskrit “heavenly garland,” malas are used in Buddhism to count repetitions of mantras—short sacred phrases—or prostrations. Traditional malas have beads crafted from seeds, gemstones, or wood, and are often finished with an additional “guru” bead and a special knot and/or tassel. The size of our beads and the length of the string varies to accommodate different practitioners. Full malas have 108 beads; most wrist malas have 21 beads, but it can vary.” She lit up as she described crafting the Mala Beads — at first struggling to make it, but eventually laughing it off and realizing it all came together once she let go of the outcome.

Rohini summed it up perfectly: “It is so beautiful to watch strangers come together and leave as sisters.”

Fortunately, Chautauqua isn’t reserved solely for women. They offer corporate retreats, family retreats, and any gathering where people want to come together to create community. It’s a perfect destination for both locals and visitors alike.

https://www.chautauqua.com/chautauqua-womens-retreat

https://www.chautauqua.com/group-retreats

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Democracy needs journalism more than ever. We’ve been telling the truth for 24 years. Your support helps us keep telling it for at least the next four years.

Democracy needs journalism more than ever. We’ve been telling the truth for 24 years. Your support helps us keep telling it for at least the next four years.

The post Rest for Revolution; Find yourself at Chautauqua appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

East Window Gallery in Boulder, Colo., is quickly establishing its reputation amongst the NoBo Arts District as Boulder’s “Library of Alexandria,” an irreverent ode to nonconformity. A great deal of time, energy, and resources have been invested to make East Window what it is today, and the programming is curated with thoughtful diligence. East Window brings awareness to world issues through supporting artistic and cultural expression.

More than a gallery, East Window is an independent arts organization. Founded in May 2020, East Window started out as a single window on the east side of the Boulder Bicycle warehouse building on North Broadway.

According to founding director and visual artist Todd Edward Herman, the goal of East Window is to bring visibility to historically marginalized artists who exist in all communities of color, including Black, Indigenous, Asian, LGBTQ+, nonbinary, Two-Spirit, and people with disabilities and chronic illness. 

East Window’s resolve is to promote the art and culture of these underrepresented communities and provide a platform for people from all backgrounds to share their hearts and minds through exhibitions and public programming. In other words, East Window is bucking the status quo in ways that make one “question habits of understanding, looking, and storytelling.” The artists and exhibitors that show at East Window turn a mirror on the world and reflect back to it the impacts of discrimination, colonization, and the harsh realities of living in a society fueled by capitalism.

East Window is an annex to the studio of the visual artist and founder. His work has generated collaborations with artists on books, films, performances, and exhibitions around the world. Herman is a co-founder and long-time collaborator with Sins Invalid, a performance project that incubates, celebrates, and centralizes artists with disabilities, artists of color, and queer and gender-variant artists. Most recently, Herman was interviewed by Kevin Hoth for The NoBo Artist Podcast.

Since moving to its current location at 4550 Broadway, Ste C-3B2, in Boulder, the passionate team at East Window has curated more than 30 events, exhibits, installations, and workshops. Working notably with Kali Spitzer, Alex Stark, Yvens Alex Santil, and The Plentywolf Singers, East Window also offers a one-of-a-kind reading room full of a variety of titles and many local and regional authors.

Yellow Scene was able to chat with Herman about East Window’s origins and his vision for the gallery’s future. 

Let’s talk a little bit about your background. This is where you can share anything that isn’t in your bio on the EW website (I will also be pulling from there).

In my personal artistic work, I try to question habits of understanding, looking, and storytelling. I examine how images compose, enforce, or undermine—rather than simply reflect—ideas of history, dominant values, authenticity, and authorship. To a large degree, this informs much of what happens at East Window.

What motivated you to open East Window?

The studio space I was renting in Feb. 2020 had a 5ft x 8ft east-facing window. With the pandemic and subsequent shutdown in March of that same year, we all began to avoid being inside public spaces, this of course, included art galleries.

I informally began to contact friends and colleagues to see if they’d be interested in showing their artwork in my studio window for a few weeks at a time so people walking by could view it at a distance, in the open air. Everyone I approached seemed to really like the idea. I honestly didn’t have any thoughts about growing East Window into a formal exhibit space. It just felt good to make the window available to artists to show their work at a time when less opportunities were available to do so.

Awareness of this window spread quickly, and by 2021, we found ourselves partnering with other art organizations and educational institutions to expand our curatorial possibilities. In addition to showing local and regional artists, we began to show works by internationally renowned artists. We even had outdoor film screenings in the spring and summer months. 

In November 2022, we moved into our current space at 4550 Broadway in the North Boulder Arts District. We are utilizing every square foot of our 820 square feet. This includes our main indoor gallery, an outdoor patio exhibit space, a reading room, and, of course, our exhibit window—it took us a while, but we found a space with an actual east-facing window! 

What type of art/artists can guests to EW expect to encounter?

In 2023, we hosted over 30 exhibitions, installations, film screenings, readings, workshops, and artist talks, bringing together so many amazing people around relevant and often difficult collective issues as well as personal themes.

The artists showing at East Window have all, in one way or another, been marginalized within the art world as well as at large socially.

East Window is an accessible space, inside and out.

You’ve done a lot in the past two years as an arts organization. Who have you enjoyed working within the past two years in the arts community? 

Truthfully, it’s been a pleasure to work with each institution, organization, and individual whose paths have crossed with East Window from its inception. I’ve learned such a great deal from every collaboration and partnership.

How do you curate experiences at East Window? As in, what is your process?

We try to level the playing field in terms of exhibiting established artists side by side with emerging artists and even folks who don’t identify as artists.

We also periodically invite folks to enter our calls for work. These calls are open to everyone and culminate into group exhibits in our main gallery or inclusion into our newly implemented East Window Journal of Written and Visual Arts.

We also offer opportunities to our interns to curate readings, screenings or other events at the gallery.

Additionally, as people continue to learn about us, we’ve been receiving and considering curatorial proposals and exhibition requests from around the region and beyond.

Why are you passionate about East Window?

To a large extent, what happens at East Window has been motivated by my having children. I want my kids and other young people to see that we all have agency to shape the culture around us, to bring together the creative communities that we need in order to incite and sustain personal as well as social change.

The overarching response to the work that East Window is doing has been favorable; for that, I’m very grateful. But we’re constantly looking for ways to transform audience appreciation into concrete community involvement, encouraging our audience to reach a level of deep resolve and engagement with the narratives that artists presenting at the gallery are trying to advance.

What is a primary challenge that EW faces as a not-for-profit arts organization?

There are many ongoing challenges East Window faces as a non-commercial art gallery and cultural hub. One of which is to make every effort to implement a plan where every artist who exhibits, performs and curates at East Window receives some sort of honorarium for all of their hard work. I’ve made this effort a priority. This means in order for East Window to offer paid gigs to artists with any consistency, we are continuously in the process of fundraising and grant writing for the gallery.

How can the community support public programming in the arts at East Window?

An important way to support East Window is to become a member or make a tax-deductible donation. I know this can be off-putting to many folks who might not have the means to support us in that way. Nonetheless, contributions of any amount are vital to the sustainability of East Window’s efforts. 

Other great ways to engage with East Window are to show up in person for our events and opening receptions; let East Window and the artists showing there know what you’re thinking — let us know who you’d like to see exhibit or perform at the gallery; and of course, spread the word and tell your friends all about us!

The next major installation that is coming to East Window is YOUR REFUSAL TO SEE: A Native Guide Project by Anna Tsouhlarakis, an Indigenous Greek artist who works in sculpture, installation, video, and performance. Her work has been part of national and international exhibitions at venues such as the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, and the National Portrait Gallery. Inspired by Ralph Ellison’s novel “Invisible Man,” this exhibit deals with the artist’s venture of becoming a resident of Colorado. 

The opening reception for the Tsouhlarakis exhibit is Friday, November 1, 2024, from 7 to 9 p.m. at East Window, 4550 Broadway, Ste C-3B2 in Boulder. 

You can get started on the East Window website to find out how you can become a member or a sponsor and support public programming in the arts.

Like journalism like this? Consider becoming a sustaining supporter (and get our printed copy monthly at home.)

Democracy needs journalism more than ever. We’ve been telling the truth for 24 years. Your support helps us keep telling it for at least the next four years.

Democracy needs journalism more than ever. We’ve been telling the truth for 24 years. Your support helps us keep telling it for at least the next four years.

The post East Window: The Little Gallery That Could appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

If you’re involved in the Boulder endurance community, there’s a good chance you have eaten RAD food, and we are not just talking about really delicious grub. RAD, short for Real Athlete Diets, is a local small business providing nutritious athlete meals locally and across the globe.

In a recent interview with the founder and owner of RAD, Kelly Newlon, she stated “I am a chef and I feed athletes.” While that might sound overly simplistic, in a nutshell, this is her business.

Founded based on a love of the endurance community coupled with extensive expertise and credentials in the culinary world, RAD is a staple in the Boulder and greater Front Range endurance community. Whether you’re attending a group run at Runners Roost, or volunteering at a local Colorado trail race, it is not uncommon to see Kelly’s smiling face and taste her scrumptious creations.

In addition to working with pro athletes in the endurance community, RAD has worked with brands such as National Geographic, Patagonia, and Adidas, as well as the United Nations Environmental Program.

Kelly, along with her husband Morgan, founded RAD in 2014. At the time, Kelly was teaching at a culinary school in Boulder and had more free time than she’d had when she worked full-time in the restaurant industry. Friends in the community started asking her to feed them for key training cycles, races, and events in sports ranging from trail running to cycling to swimming. There came a point when she realized she could not sustainably feed these friends while also working her day job. That is when a light bulb went off: she loved feeding athletes, so why not make that into a business?

She asked her husband Morgan to be her business partner and they were off and running. Like a true endurance athlete, Morgan loves saying things are “rad” and thus the company’s name came naturally. They would call it “Real Athlete Diets” or “RAD” for short. The logo design came from a sketch Morgan drew on a napkin at the Boulder restaurant Oak at Fourteenth, a staple in fine American dining located on Boulder’s famous Pearl St. Even their logo origin story is a testament to their humble beginnings and local roots in our beloved town.

Morgan went to work on logistics and bookings while Kelly focused on what she does best; creating incredible food to fuel athletes’ lives. While the company started as a meal service for athletes in the Boulder area, it has evolved into more of a catering and events business. Now on their 10th anniversary,

Kelly just returned from a trip to Europe to support and run the length of the Seine River in Paris to help improve water quality in France. Kelly said she loves traveling with athletes, teams, and brands because it “gives the opportunity to make a difference in their nutrition because you get to work with them for so many meals.”

Besides a love for fueling athletes and the endurance community, the Newlons are dedicated to two big things when it comes to RAD—supporting local and working on environmentally focused projects.

Boulder is not only home to RAD but also their lifeblood. The community here has been and continues to be their biggest supporter, partner, and friend. Whether it be fueling a local pro athlete, providing food for a retail store event, or buying ingredients from local farmers, Boulder and RAD are deeply intertwined. “We would be nothing without Boulder, CO in the Front Range.”

Kelly holds an AOS in Culinary Arts from the Culinary Institute of America and a BA in Business from Purdue University, National Sports Medicine (Sports Nutrition Levels 1, 2, and 3).

Follow RAD on Instagram: @radboulder

For booking inquiries email: kelly@radboulder.com

The post RAD Boulder: Bringing Nutritious Food to the Athlete in All of Us appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

‘I don’t have the luxury of sitting here and hoping someone gets it right’

By Ceyna Dawson, Sentinel Story Sprint Reporter (Via AP Storyshare)

The Sentinel Story Sprint is a statewide journalism project. Story Sprint brings students from Colorado State University, Community College of Aurora and Colorado College into the Aurora newsroom to cover local stories, alongside veteran journalists. Funded by a grant from the Colorado Media Project, the Sentinel Story Sprint provides a professional newsroom with emerging journalists, and emerging journalists with a professional newsroom.

DENVER | Obeid Kaifo is loud and clear when he thinks about the challenges his longtime friend Iman Jodeh faces as the first Palestinian and Muslim state lawmaker from Colorado.

The pressure for Jodeh is palpable, Kaifo said, “I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemies.”

Iman Jodeh
Portrait by PHILIP B. POSTON/Sentinel Colorado

Jodeh, 41, has two communities she must represent: her southwest Aurora district and her own heritage.

The tension between the two is more present than ever after the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7 and the resulting war that left Jodeh’s ancestral home devastated.

Jodeh holds the fifth-highest position in the state House as the Democratic majority co-whip. In her second term, her legislative focus is those struggling with housing, health care and student debt.

At the same time, she feels the need to speak out on the Israel-Hamas war as she does not think many are speaking to the full gravity of the situation.

“I don’t have the luxury of sitting here and hoping someone gets it right,” Jodeh said.

At first she was reluctant to bring her identity to the debate that spilled into the state Capitol, but now she is a leading voice demanding a ceasefire.

She frequently writes opinion pieces — the most recent on how the attack on Rafah should be condemned similar to the Oct. 7 assault. In a recent social media post on X, Jodeh wrote, “Stop ignoring the beheaded babies & charred bodies. …Your sin of silence is making you complicit and atonement will not be an option.” She added a graphic video of events happening in Gaza.

At the same time, Jodeh was tasked with being the chief sponsor of a major bill working toward affordable housing along mass-transit corridors.

Her journey to the Capitol

Born in Aurora to Palestinian parents, Jodeh brings a new perspective and approach to leadership as a western-born and western-educated Muslim.

In high school, her father, Mohamad, helped bridge the culture gap. He took the initiative to talk with students, parents and teachers to help them better understand Islamic culture, said state Sen. Janet Buckner, D-Aurora, whose late husband was the principal at Overland High School and also a state lawmaker.

Jodeh said she gained elements of her leadership style from attending these types of events with her father, who she describes as leading with a patient style. She also learned how to guide communication about being Muslim, Arab and Palestinian to those who were unfamiliar.

“When I kind of stepped into that same role alongside him or taking over, I was able to kind of elevate that approach,” she said.

Now as a leader herself, she speaks in a calculative, stern and pensive manner, waiting for the exact moment to say the right words.

It’s Jodeh’s experiences that influence her policy decisions.

When asked about the most notable moments at the Capitol, Jodeh says there are countless examples. Pausing again, she takes her hair out of the claw clip and sweeps it right back up.

She slowly begins to speak, describing how she has epilepsy. She has sponsored two bills on seizure training and action plans in K-12 classrooms as well as epilepsy awareness license plates.

In the most recent legislative session that ended in May, she was a primary sponsor on bills making prescription drugs more affordable and increasing housing along transit lines.

These issues, while not linked to her Muslim identity, reflect her own experiences growing up in the Aurora metroplex, and they resonate with the struggles many constituents face, she said.

Yet at the Capitol there are parts of her identity she will never be able to escape from, and she does not want to, notably the Israel-Hamas war.

Speaker of the House Julie McCluskie acknowledges the war has made debates on the floor tense and emotional at times. Other lawmakers this session pushed legislation to distance Colorado from Israel and condemn the war.

“The war is painful for many people, but those who are from either the Jewish community or Palestinian community, you know, their experiences are that much more real,” McCluskie said.

In a specific instance, Iman was extremely upset with how another lawmaker was speaking about the impacts of the war.

Despite how distressed Jodeh was, McCluskie recalls how Jodeh will stop and take the time necessary to collect her thoughts. Jodeh will then either speak after thinking through the issue to the fullest extent, or she will schedule a different time.

“I think she has shown a level of maturity, wisdom and just not being caught up in the moment,” McCluskie said.

However, Jodeh recognizes there is only so much she can do to enlighten others.

??“There has been a sense of duplicity when it comes to advocating for one person, but not the other,” said Jodeh. “You know, if we are going to defend Ukraine; (and) if we are going to defend Black Lives Matter, we should defend Palestine.”

Her voice begins to rise, she completely stops moving, and suddenly words begin to pour.

“It gets to a point when you can call it a genocide and very reputable organizations, sources from around the world are saying the same thing,” she said.

Asked how she feels about colleagues who do not support her views on the Gaza war, she replies almost in a whisper: “abandoned” and “lonely.”

The barriers to leading with identity

Kaifo, her friend of 15 years and a son of Syrian immigrants, understands the pressure of having to represent an entire group.

Muslim identity in America shifted on 9/11, Kaifo said. Suddenly, being a Muslim held higher significance to the world. He, too, grew up in Aurora, graduated from Overland High School and now owns and manages the Capitol Hill Shish Kabob Grill with his father.

And in Jodeh, he sees a lot just by her presence. She represents the growing Muslim community, Muslims are not monolithic, but her perspective gives a light and nuance toward policies being passed in the house, he said.

In thinking about his identity, he recalls how people often accuse Muslims and Palestininans of being solely emotional — almost as though it is not possible for a person to hold their identities and simultaneously create strategically informed policy decisions on these issues.

“And that’s my concern always, is that we divert from the actual policy and it turns into, well, because she’s Palestinian, because she’s Muslim or because she’s a woman. No, nothing like that,” Kaifo continues. “It’s who she is as a person.”

Ceyna Dawson is a junior at Colorado College majoring in Political Science and minoring in Journalism. She has worked at her campus newspaper The Catalyst as both a writer and section editor for the past two years. Dawson is now the President of Cutler Publications which manages six on-campus papers and promotes independent student journalism.

The post CAPITOL GAINS: Jodeh links push for Gaza peace to press for statewide advances appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

Jacquelynn Perkins’ solo show, Self-Portraits of My Sisters & Andrea Dratch’s accompanying film & performance piece, Shame on Me premiered at downtown Loveland’s artworks on April 12, 2024.

“We had these girls in the mirror and we would sit and talk to them. They looked just like us and they were sisters.” Artists and sisters Jacquelynn Perkins (43) and Andrea Dratch (41), who were born in Denver and Longmont, sit in Perkins’ Loveland studio in overstuffed, red chairs discussing their art opening on April 12th. And more specifically, the journey that landed them here.

Perkins’ studio is almost unrecognizable to those who have followed along on social media as she’s painted her way to physical healing. In the shared photos, brightly colored, large-scale paintings cover every surface of the space. But on this day, when Yellow Scene Magazine had the privilege to sit down with Jacquelynn and Andrea, the paintings were all on exhibit at artworks in downtown Loveland. Jacquelynn’s solo show consisted of a body of work completed primarily within the last four years – when she was home-bound and bed-bound with fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome. This solo show, her first, is a declaration of survival.

At the gallery downtown, the flow of the installation was experienced as a rebirth. Jacquelynn and Andrea did this unintentionally, only seeing the poetry in it after everything was installed. It would not be inaccurate to identify the last handful of years as a rebirth for Jacquelynn and Andrea, individually and together, both struggling with autoimmune diseases and coming to terms with life in their female bodies, viewed and critiqued as if they themselves were living exhibits.

Andrea, an actor and performance artist professionally trained at The American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City, debuted her film and live performance piece, “Shame on Me.” As viewers, we entered the show through the side door of the gallery, where we were confronted immediately with the film playing on a loop. In the piece — running just under 7 minutes — Andrea’s character Estelle, peers at herself in the mirror. The audience can hear her inner-critical thoughts playing like a soundtrack. Estelle never speaks.

“Decompose” painting by Jacquelynn Perkins. Photo by Brooke Austin.

“Your boobs are so big. Your teeth are so big. Who’s watching your children? You think you’re so important.” The dialogue continues with actual commentary Andrea has received throughout her life. We watch as Estelle, garbed in a vintage bra and girdle, smears makeup over her face, sits down to a meal of lettuce leaves, and cries, overwhelmed by negative thoughts — until she breaks, replacing the lettuce with a pair of turkey legs, feasting upon them as juice squirts from the drumsticks and ligaments dangle from her greasy cheeks. And then SCREAMS into the camera, a blatant rejection of the feminine cultural narrative.

After taking in Andrea’s untamed vulnerability, the space pushed the viewer through a hallway flanked with stills from the film accompanied by language describing the effects of the inner voices we carry through our lives. One of the stills was a close up on Andrea’s C-section scar, another on her lifeless expression as she tuned into the unsolicited criticisms.

Emerging from the hallway, we came to a 48 x 48” painting of Jacquelynn’s, “Who Still Licks Envelopes,” in which Andrea — who modeled for many of the works — stood nude on a playground carousel, C-section exposed, wearing the same hollow expression from the still in the hallway. Turning the corner, we were confronted by the real-life Andrea in costume as Estelle, standing behind a frame hanging from the gallery ceiling. Viewers were invited to release the damaging judgments they’ve received throughout their lives onto Andrea. While YS was at the opening, there wasn’t a moment when someone wasn’t standing in front of Andrea vocalizing their critical inner voices onto Estelle. Many were in tears, seeking the comfort of loved ones after unburdening themselves.

Then it all opened up as we moved into the light-filled space holding Jacquelynn’s paintings — assertions of beauty, liberation from the predefinition of the female body, and freedom. Jacquelynn’s paintings are large, colorful, and feminine in a sense of the word that is rare because it’s true, saturating the viewer with love and self-acceptance. We had been disarmed by the vulnerability of another, presented with the opportunity to unburden ourselves, and invited to dance in the halls of radical self-love.

“Soap Dish Envy” painting by Jacquelynn Perkins. Photo by Brooke Austin.

One theme across Perkins’ paintings is that of animals, primarily native to Colorado, often in settings where they are breaking free or behaving in ways outside the scope of human expectation. We asked her to elaborate on the meaning of animals in her paintings. “I was thinking about expressing feminine energy and power, and then thinking about different energies and spirits that have been oppressed on this earth. How it was striking me in my work was comparing animals being domesticated to women being domesticated. And putting them in these domestic interior settings that they’re breaking out of… I think the animals also represent this wildness in women that we’ve been told to tame down.”

The collaboration between the two sisters has been life-long, and also a choice. As a deliberate statement against the powers-that-be who preach that women are at odds with each other, they choose to celebrate the unique value in each other’s work. “If there’s this group of people that you want to oppress, tell them that they can’t work together. Then they can’t gain power as they join,” Jacquelynn told YS at her studio.

Andrea’s house is less than a block away; her dog sometimes escapes to play with Jacquelynn’s dogs. “And I’ve noticed recently, more and more women over these last couple years smiling at each other, being kinder to each other out in public. And truly feel it is women starting to think about this for [themselves]. Plus there’s this intuitive communication that women have that is so strong, so I think for Andrea and I, we’ve always had that. This almost telepathic way of communicating.”

The two women spoke of a time when they were at odds, unsure what to do with these new versions of each other, both experiencing personal expansion and self-discovery. During this period, Jacquelynn was working on “Soap Dish Envy” (60 x 48”), which portrays both Andrea and Jacquelynn standing in a bathroom, at unease, listening in on the criticisms that have been spoken in this private space. Initially, only Andrea was in the painting, but Jacquelynn felt a pull — candidly a jealousy — to put herself in the painting as well. As Andrea expressed the healing she experienced through being painted by her sister, and seeing her body in a new light, Jacquelynn began to reach for this level of self-acceptance for herself.

It had been many years since Jacquelynn had painted a self-portrait. In the depths of depression and anxiety brought on by postpartum and then chronic illness and pain, Jacquelynn’s connection to her art and herself had worn thin. But while painting Andrea into “Soap Dish Envy,” she began to feel a pull to paint herself into the piece, which led her to remember that she had created her own likeness countless times as a young artist at The Rhode Island School of Design. Realizing that she desired to see herself in her work again, she boldly painted herself into the piece. In the painting, the sisters look fraught but are joined, bodies overlapping in the space. In that moment of uncertainty, they still reached for each other for support.

“Who Still Licks Envelopes” painting by Jacquelynn Perkins. Photo by Brooke Austin.

In the most recent painting in the show, “Decompose” (48 x 48”), the sisters sit side by side, peering confidently out at the viewer. Their bodies are positioned as mirror images, yet there is space between them, each having stepped into their own individual power. Still a constant support and unending psychic connection, they no longer lean on each other as they have.

YS asked Andrea what it was like to receive the weight of the public’s inner negative thoughts. Her initial goal for the performance piece had been to stand behind the frame for two hours, but she ultimately held the position for three. “It was crazy. People were in front of me the whole time… And I didn’t want to take that away from anyone.” In tears, Andrea explained the other-worldly feeling of taking on the pain of others – over one hundred people who spoke to her within a few hours.

“We’re just all really hard on ourselves. And a lot of the things said, I’ve said to myself. I knew I got myself into a place in my life [where] I could do this. And it just felt so amazing and so draining at the same time. I can’t really…I guess I just cried to show you how it felt.

“It was amazing to allow my body to actually have that many negative things thrown at it – it just is so empowering, too, to come out on the other side. I didn’t slip into a depression,” Andrea said.

Jacquelynn described the unique energy of the space the night of the opening: “It was a surprise to me, and we feel like a big part of that was the film — it’s right when you walk in and it is in your face… And then coming down that hall and seeing my paintings – people were already in this more vulnerable [state]. I felt a real openness, a real curiosity, and a real respect.

“I feel a respect for men. I see how this patriarchy is hurting men. [And] I really felt like their eyes were open, I mean their body language was open. I had no one give me a look like ughh, or an eye roll.

“I have a vulnerable piece of me sitting naked (“Evaporated Milk I,” 60 x 40”) That piece is really about birth and also about being a human sitting on this earth. And I feel like the men, after looking at it, were…getting a deeper kind of understanding. Because I did not want this feeling of ‘this is all about women and screw you all.’ Once they [were] standing in front of you with this level of vulnerability…it was to me one of the most beautiful things.”

The creative lives and successes of Jacquelynn Perkins and Andrea Dratch carry a feeling of purpose. Looking out past the horizon, they envision a more authentic way of life. What did the sisters see in the girls in the mirror, nearly forty years ago? A bond and a purpose that would live and grow within them for the rest of their lives. And a reality in which they could break free, together.

The post The Girls in the Mirror appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

Art brings attention to the epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous people across North America

If you’re in old-town Lafayette this month, allow the hand-lettered fabric swaying in The Collective’s tall front windows to catch your eye, and let its poetry and statistics sink in. It’s a work of art by Tanaya Winder, one of more than a dozen Indigenous artists exhibiting in “Red Shadows: The Crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives” until May 19. Walk inside and immerse yourself in the array of media—from sound art to paintings, photography to digital prints, and more. The beauty and power of Native American contemporary art may transform your awareness of Colorado’s past and present. The exhibit’s careful balance of sorrow and celebration may inspire you to take action.

Curated by noted Denver-based artist Danielle SeeWalker, (a Húnkpapha Lakhóta — Lakota woman) of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in North Dakota, “Red Shadows” raises awareness and catalyzes community through the heart and all of the senses as well.

The opening reception on March 22 was catered with Native American cuisine from Denver’s Tocabe American Indian Eatery.

On April 4, The Collective hosted a screening of “Who She Is,” an award-winning documentary by Jordan Dresser and Sophie Barksdale about missing and murdered Indigenous women in the United States.

The screening was followed by a panel with Colorado-based Indigenous activist Raven Payment. In response to questions from non-Indigenous attendees, the candid discussion included strategies for non-Indigenous people to avoid cultural appropriation in favor of respectful appreciation.

“Viewing Sing Our Rivers Red, by Danielle SeeWalker, at the opening of Red Shadows, The Collective, Lafayette, CO.” Photo by Danielle SeeWalker.

On Saturday, May 11, from 1–3 pm, “Red Shadows” will feature an evening of music and discussion with internationally known classical musicians Josh Halpern and Yannick Rafalimanana of Cultural Caravan. The topics of conversation will include resisting cultural erasure, specifically in music.

SeeWalker is one of several Native women leading the nonprofit Missing & Murdered Indigenous Relatives Task Force of Colorado, also found here, which shapes policy and organizes searches and aid. The acronym MMIR — rather than MMIW — reflects how this widespread violence affects Native Americans of all genders, not only women.

SeeWalker said, “We spend hours upon hours volunteering our time on the ground searching for missing people, putting our money together to help buy bus tickets to get families here to help search for their loved ones that are missing, help put together food packets.” The Task Force has also set up a missing Indigenous person alert. You can sign up here: cdps_cbi_missing@state.co.us.

The MMIR crisis exists throughout North America and, as SeeWalker explained, these issues aren’t confined to “the reservation or remote areas. In fact, over 70 percent of Native American people live in urban areas, including Denver. Denver has a huge population of Native people. Within the Native community, we call Denver the Crossroads of Indian Country. We’re in the middle of a lot of tribes and reservations, so Denver is that center crossroads point.”

One piece in “Red Shadows” may already be familiar to Boulder County’s arts and social justice communities. In 2021, SeeWalker’s piece “Sing Our Rivers Red” was featured at the Dairy Arts Center. It included a collection of thousands of single earrings and accompanying notes donated by the loved ones of a missing or murdered Indigenous woman, girl, Two Spirit person, or man.

The collection has continued to grow. Many of the earrings exemplify ancient handcraft traditions, especially beading using natural materials. Each uniquely exquisite handmade earring is an irreplaceable reminder of someone who is missed. Madelaine Vargas, program manager of Arts & Cultural Resources for the City of Lafayette, pointed out: “These are maybe a fifth of what the Task Force brought in. That’s all that they could fit on there. I don’t know that anyone yet has gone through all of these letters or these messages without having a breakdown or needing a tissue or just not being able to finish the messages.”

Like much of SeeWalker’s artwork, “Red Shadows” foregrounds many different media of the past and present, a statement on the ongoing existence of Indigenous people. SeeWalker calls her curatorial approach “artivism: art and activism.” Raising awareness, she said, can be more efficient through art: “I can go to the state capitol and talk to legislators all day long and yell at them about what needs to be changed. I can go out on the frontline and stand up for what’s right, with signs and protesting. But art has some sort of different appeal, and it reaches a much broader audience.”

Art as activism, art as healing

“Artivism” animates the entire exhibit. Artist Lynette GreyBull (Húnkphapha Lakhóta, Northern Arapaho) of Wind River, Wyoming, is the founder and executive director of Not Our Native Daughters, an organization fighting the violence and exploitation of Indigenous people, particularly women and girls. “Dancing Thunder,” an example of her multimedia digital artwork on display in “Red Shadows,” collages conventional Native geometric patterns with photography evoking multiple eras and techniques.

Boulder County–based artist Jaylyn Gough (Diné/Navajo) is the founder of Native Women’s Wilderness, an organization committed to supporting Indigenous women’s access to and enjoyment of the outdoors. Her photo prints on metal in “Red Shadows” feature girls wearing beadwork, ribbon skirts, and other Native handcrafts, a merging of materials that carries tradition into the ever-changing present.

Jaylyn Gough, Danielle SeeWalker, and Lynette GreyBull with painting by SeeWalker at the opening of Red Shadows, The Collective, Lafayette, CO. Photographer unknown.

Artist Mercedes Archuleta (@show_mercyy), whose Native name is Punachine, which means Little Bird, will soon graduate from CU Boulder. She is from the Anishinaabe of Turtle Mountain in North Dakota. Archuleta described how her work blends tradition with the present and the future by incorporating techniques like beading and natural materials, “pieces of art from our Mother Earth.” “Her”, a sold piece in “Red Shadows”, incorporates dried blue Hopi corn, sinew, a hawk feather, ledger pages Archuleta found in an antique store, and acrylic paint.

For Archuleta, “it’s a very heart-touching piece, something that I used to express emotion and feelings that I didn’t even realize were there. A lot of our people use art for healing, and I had done this piece in honor of my mother. My mom was actually an active missing person in the state of California, in Los Angeles, and I had to go out and find her and do an active person search, work with LAPD. I barely, barely found her—by the skin of my teeth, on the full moon — homeless, no clothes, shaved head.” The dark blue corn of the woman figure’s long hair in “Her” is a testament to Archuleta’s mother, representing “that strength that my mom always had. Now, my mom is healthy and alive, and she lives with me.”

Vargas points out that MMIR is “a difficult topic. It brings up difficult conversations about our genealogy and our paths. With this exhibit, we’ve had to provide people with background information.” Visitors have mentioned feeling shocked that, despite faithfully following the news, they were uninformed about MMIR. That’s why, Vargas said, “we think it’s important to have this exhibit. It’s highlighting something affecting a very specific community, our neighbors. It’s a crisis. It’s a topic that’s not getting a lot of mainstream acknowledgment in comparison to how alarming the statistics are.”

Visitors to “Red Shadows” often ask what they can do to help. SeeWalker said: “Write your senators. We’re constantly having to go back to the drawing board and revise some of these bills. And we need support. We need allyship as Native people. We’re under 2 percent of the entire population of the US. Even if all of us shout at the top of our lungs together, we’re still not loud enough. Also, locally, you can support the Missing & Murdered Indigenous Relatives Task Force. We’re all women who volunteer time because we’re passionate about this, and most of us have been personally affected by this crisis. We could definitely use support.”

Native Americans should not have to face this crisis of violence alone, and hopefully, thanks to artists and activists like those in “Red Shadows,” they will not have to any longer. Non-Indigenous people are learning more, not only about celebrating Native people and their culture but also about how to help.

The post Red Shadows Brings MMIR “Artivism” to Lafayette appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

Navigating the Rocky Road to Abortion Access One Ballot Measure at a Time

On the 51st anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court ruling Roe v Wade, backers of a ballot initiative to codify Coloradan’s right to an abortion took to the Capitol over the weekend and on Monday. The ballot measure seeks to overturn a voter decision from 1984. 

Colorado ballot proposal #89 looks at amending a portion of the state’s constitution that limits healthcare coverage for abortions for state and local public employees or individuals who are on Medicaid, even in cases of rape or incest. 

The reproductive rights organization, Cobalt, is spearheading the campaign to amend the state’s constitution. 

The objective, according to President and CEO Karen Middleton, is to provide more enduring protection to reproductive healthcare, ensuring it cannot be overturned by a subsequent legislature. Middleton said that the ban prohibits employees at public institutions, such as universities and hospitals, from utilizing their health insurance to cover the costs of an abortion.

“There’s a real libertarian streak, I would say, in Colorado that says, ‘we don’t want government interfering in these decisions,’ and having a barrier to what your own health insurance pays for is a government barrier.”

The marches held over the weekend were in coordination with nationwide demonstrations in support of reproductive rights. Since the Dobbs decision which overturned Roe v Wade, public opinion on the issue has shifted in favor of reproductive rights. According to a Gallup poll from last year, over 50% of Americans identify as “pro-choice”. In Colorado, voters have blocked attempts to limit access to reproductive healthcare numerous times over the last decade.

The proposal also asks voters to eliminate the state’s prohibition on taxpayer funding for abortions and would seek to allow the state to fund grants for organizations that provide reproductive healthcare. 

Mobilizing the vote

Nicole Hensel, the executive director of New Era Colorado, a nonprofit aiming to mobilize the youth vote, emphasized, “This is going to be the top-of-ticket race in Colorado, and we really see this as a turnout driver, particularly for young voters who make up one-third of the electorate here in Colorado.”

Hensel suggested that this initiative could potentially bring people to the polls, given that many younger voters are less likely to align with any political party.

“If you have a young person in your life you know that autonomy is really important to them — being able to make their own decisions, being able to have control over their futures,” she stated.

The matter of reproductive rights is widely acknowledged for its role in boosting Democratic voter turnout nationwide during the 2022 midterms. In Michigan, an abortion referendum is attributed to assisting Democrats in retaining control of the governor’s office. However, whether the issue will wield a similar influence in a state as politically aligned with the Democratic party as Colorado remains uncertain.

In 2022 the state saw a record number of abortions, the most performed in the state since 1985. The cause of this was the restrictive laws, and all-out bans on abortions passed in surrounding states. About two in seven Colorado abortions in 2022 were performed on out-of-state residents, according to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment data

Last year, Governor Polis signed into law a package of healthcare bills protecting Coloradan’s access to abortions. The main goal of the legislation was to ensure people living in the surrounding states whose access to care had been severely restricted since the overturning of Roe v Wade, could safely travel to Colorado to receive reproductive healthcare. The law also made Colorado a safe haven for those seeking gender-affirming care. 

Restrictions on abortion access disproportionately affect marginalized communities, exacerbating existing disparities in healthcare. Marginalized individuals, particularly those facing economic challenges, often bear the brunt of restrictive abortion policies.

Marginalized communities, including people of color and those with limited access to comprehensive sex education, may encounter barriers in navigating complex healthcare systems and understanding their reproductive rights. Research from the Guttmacher Institute underscores that the intersectionality of race, socio-economic status, and geographical location contributes to disparities in abortion access, with marginalized groups facing increased hurdles.

Amidst the ongoing national shift in favor of reproductive rights, the proposal in Colorado signifies a pivotal moment in the fight for autonomy over one’s healthcare decisions, particularly impacting marginalized communities facing disproportionate barriers to abortion access.

As the state grapples with less restrictive laws, the initiative not only represents a crucial step in safeguarding reproductive rights but also emerges as a focal point in the political landscape, potentially influencing the engagement of young voters and shaping the trajectory of reproductive healthcare policies in Colorado.

The post Colorado’s Reproductive Rights Revolution appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

Q&A With Author Lisa Fierer about finding healing through yoga and writing

In “Thirst,” author Lisa Fierer writes about living in an abusive household, and piecing herself back together after her father murdered her mother. We sat down with Fierer to talk about her healing process, future ideas, and if forgiveness is attainable in a situation like hers.

Yellow Scene: Does it get easier to talk about your past? 

Lisa Fierer: I work full time as a yoga teacher, and I only bring that up because with a book out in the world it invites people to bring up traumatic topics at unexpected times. So, I’d say yes and no. 

YS: At one point you wrote that you wanted to lock your past away. Why tell your story now?

LF: The truth is that it wouldn’t let me go. And honestly the seed was planted when I was a little kid. I always had my nose in a book. I don’t think I was conscious of it. But I was always looking to relate and to read about a character that had a life like mine.

YS: Do you have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder? 

LF: Yeah. I know that I do. I’ve never technically been diagnosed with it. When my mom was murdered, we just weren’t sent to therapy. It’s the early 80s. And [therapy] was so taboo… So, yeah, I know that I live with it. I know that I navigate it. I know that’s a lot of what my addiction was trying to medicate. 

LS: How long have you been sober?

LF: Twenty-eight years.

YS: How do your siblings feel about you telling your story?

LF: I was really open from the get go. Every relationship is different, especially between siblings…One of the greatest pieces of advice I got in my writing community is to write first and edit later. And that has applied in everything but especially about family.

YS: What drew you to your first Sun Dance? 

LF: I would say the same thing drew me to that as to writing this book – this deep sense of knowing that is beyond debate. In yoga that might be called dharma or life purpose.

YS: What does forgiveness mean to you?

LF: It means a space beyond the hurt that doesn’t dismiss the hurt and the harm that occurred. That’s why I think it’s such a fascinating topic. I don’t think there’s one prescription that fits every situation. Every situation is so unique that it’s changed for me throughout my own relationship with my dad, for example. I never wanted to forgive him ever because it was the only power I had in an otherwise completely powerless situation. It wasn’t until I realized I was imprisoning myself with my own rage and resentment that I began to open up to something different. 

YS: Have you forgiven your dad?

LF: Yeah, definitely. But it’s not a one and done thing. I mean it is. I know that I’ve forgiven him because even though he’s gone, when I think of him now, it’s in a completely neutral and often positive way, which was never the case. 

I think what’s important about my story is the fact that I write about being such an asshole. And often, I look back and that gets lost. Seeing my father in me helped me be willing to excavate some of that and to empower myself. 

YS: At one point you mention that a book was itching to come out of you. Do you think that itch correlated with some of the healing you were doing through yoga?

LF: Definitely. I had tried to dampen down and forget about that experience with alcohol and addiction. And this is what was beneath all of that. 

YS: Is your reckoning with the past over?

LF: Is it ever? I don’t know. I think there are kind of layers. I don’t think the piece that I feel about it will just dissolve. But I’ve never been married. I certainly wrote about a pretty intimate relationship. When I encounter those and perhaps a partner’s relationship with their dad that there may be new or other layers. I don’t feel afraid of it though. I think that’s the difference.

YS: Do you think you have other books in your future?

LF: I hope so. I hope they’re really light. There’s maybe a children’s book or a prescriptive nonfiction [in my future]. Maybe I’ll write about what happened behind the scenes of thirst. But honestly, I’m so over that story.

The post Decades after her mother was murdered by her father, author Lisa Fierer shares her story appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

Press releases are provided to Yellow Scene Magazine. In an effort to keep our community informed, we publish some press releases in whole.

The League of Women Voters of Boulder County is sponsoring an Art Design
Challenge and we invite all Boulder County high school students to
participate. The challenge is open now through January 15, 2024.

We challenge you to design stickers, posters, or bumper stickers with
variations on the general theme of “GET OUT THE VOTE” which will
encourage people to participate in our democracy, both local and national,
during the 2024 election season.

The artwork will be exhibited at various locations throughout the county.
Finalists and semi-finalists will be featured in local media and will receive
prizes. The stickers, posters, and bumper stickers will be shared with voters.

For more information, please visit the League of Women Voters Boulder
County website at lwvbc.org where you can find more information including
rules and design requirements for the art challenge.

The post League of Women Voters Boulder County Media Advisory appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

Parents, athletes, and coaches allege abusive behavior, missing money, and a disregard for safety, stretching back to Roth’s time at Wheat Ridge high school

After reporting in July 2023 on the accusations against Erie high school cheer coach Nora Roth, Yellow Scene Magazine (YS) was contacted by additional sources who also alleged inappropriate behavior. YS interviews revealed allegations of missing money, verbal abuse, and a disregard for athletes’ safety that stretch back ten years to Roth’s time at Wheat Ridge high school in 2013.

YS spoke with more than a dozen additional people since first reporting on the incident, bringing the total we have contacted to over 20 individuals. They claim they have been victims of Roth’s behavior over the past decade. The list includes former Erie cheerleaders and parents, former Wheat Ridge cheerleaders and parents, and local coaches.

What emerged was a reported pattern of belittling language, body shaming, and injuries, both physical and mental. Due to the personal nature of the details shared and events occurring when many sources were minors, most names have been changed to help protect the identities of those involved. Many former athletes and coaches expressed fear of retaliation for speaking out. 

The Dacono Police Department confirmed that they responded to a call placed by Roth against Jennifer — name changed — a parent who submitted statements about Roth’s behavior to St. Vrain Valley School District. YS spoke to the responding officer who confirmed that his interaction with Jennifer was positive.

SVVSD — which Erie high school is a member of —  responded to YS request for comment or any additional information by stating that “the district cannot comment on confidential personnel matters.” SVVSD continued: “If additional witnesses have come forward with evidence of abuse or criminal conduct, please direct them to law enforcement and the district, and we will continue to investigate everything thoroughly, as we have with each complaint.”

Trigger warning: Suicide, eating disorders, and mental health issues are all mentioned below.

Mental health effects

“I developed so much anxiety from getting bullied by these girls. I would have breakdowns, and I had to go to therapy. Actually, my senior year of high school, after I quit cheerleading, I ended up having a suicide attempt.” Gigi Bergh, a former Erie cheerleader, opened up to YS about the harassment, abuse, and lack of leadership she experienced under Roth.

Acknowledging the complexity of this all, Bergh expanded on the reasons behind her shifting mental health. “There was a lot of other stuff going on too, but I do feel like had she [Coach Roth] done something [to stop the bullying], it wouldn’t have affected me as much. I’m not blaming just her.” Bergh clarified that Roth did not cause her suicide attempt but the culture of the team contributed to unhealthy mental behaviors.

The culture of the team was said to be unhealthy. “It was always a screaming match between her or someone else,” McKenna Harr, former Wheat Ridge cheerleader, said. “I was so confused as to why it happened, I didn’t have a way to understand it. I kept being bullied by her during practices that I developed depression.” When Harr recalled her experience with Coach Roth at Wheat Ridge, nearly a decade prior, she believed that Roth was young but nonetheless “was honing her abuse.”

Former Erie cheerleader Courtney Giordano, a source for our previous reporting, told YS that Roth would, “talk about (her) boyfriends in an inappropriate manner, which is not appropriate for any adult dealing with a child.”

“I was told that I couldn’t eat a granola bar during a football game because people might see me, and that’s not the ‘cheerleading image’ she’s going for. There was a lot of body talk. And I eventually developed an eating disorder,” said Emma Barrow, a former Erie cheerleader.

Santina — name changed for anonymity —  whose child cheered at Wheat Ridge under Coach Roth, told YS that the accusations in Erie sounded familiar: “Practically verbatim, you know, that’s happened in Wheat Ridge.” The negative experiences with Coach Roth forever changed her daughter’s life. She stated Roth killed any joy her daughter once had for the sport.

After reading the YS report, Carol — name changed — who’s child cheered at Wheat Ridge under Roth, stated: “I was immediately just sad because it’s like, she [Roth] didn’t change, and the school didn’t recognize it. You could switch out Wheat Ridge high school with Erie and it would be the same experience.”

Carol recalled that not every Wheat Ridge parent was in favor of removing Roth. “It was really interesting because the parents were divided, it was right in the middle. So half of us are like what is going on? This needs to change.”

Culture of toxicity

Many of Roth’s former athletes provided allegations that, beginning in Wheat Ridge high school and continuing at Erie high school, Roth frequently commented on the size, appearance, and weight of the girls she was coaching. These comments apparently extended well beyond the typical conditioning and athletic talk that coaches and athletes may have from time to time.

“We had a team dinner one time, and Nora commented on the food I was eating.” Laura, a former Erie cheerleader whose name has been changed, shared. “I began to develop disordered eating. I would engage in restriction, binging, and purging of my food, I would take laxatives and chew an excess amount of gum in hopes to satiate my hunger. I obsessively tracked my calories on MyFitnessPal. It was not just me who would engage in these behaviors as well. Many of my friends on the team would talk about doing similar things. We would discuss methods of restriction and share diets and workouts, thinking that we were helping each other.” Laura elaborated in a written statement.

“Certain girls she went after. The fat shaming thing happened to a couple of girls that made them leave the team,” Santina said.

“She was picking on her a lot about her body weight,“ said Josephina — name changed for anonymity “… It got to a point where my daughter… I started to take her to therapy because she was stressed out and having a lot of anxiety, and she started having eating issues,”

The comments did not end with the girls’ physical appearance. Many of the people YS spoke to alleged that Roth’s actions were abusive.

“She would constantly belittle these girls, [saying things] like you are fat. You’re not going to make my team next year because you look ugly. Your hair color is wrong, just really inappropriate things,” recalled Juniper —name changed for anonymity — a parent of a former Wheat Ridge cheerleader.

Barrow shared that Roth crossed other lines as well. Roth got “like a little bit too close to them [the cheerleaders] like, talking about sex lives.”

One coach, Vanessa — name changed for anonymity —  who previously worked alongside Roth, shared a statement with YS that reads in part: “I believe that Nora Roth can have significant and harmful effects on a young woman’s personal and athletic development.” She expanded that Roth, “is obscenely rude, [and] verbally abusive in her written and spoken words regarding athletes, administration, parents and other coaches.”

“She is an anti-coach”

“We were really excited to have a coach that was, you know, promised to get us to a higher level,” Harr recalled. Roth did find competitive success with each team she coached, both at Wheat Ridge and Erie. “We were actually getting results, like, we went from the bottom end of the state, to qualifying first for our final competitions,” Harr recalled.

However, Kinsley, a former Wheat Ridge cheerleader — name changed for anonymity —  said, “I would not recommend her. The reason why they’re winning nationals is because of the girls, because they’re competent cheerleaders. It’s nothing to do with her [Coach Roth].”

Some said they began to feel Roth was operating with a “win at all costs” mentality. 

One of the more troubling examples alleged about Roth’s behavior occurred at a Nationals competition in Florida while the team was on their way to a scheduled cheer activity.

“My friend ended up unexpectedly getting her period. She asked me to go back to the hotel to, you know, grab what she needed, like a pair of shorts. [Roth] straight up told her no, we’re gonna be late. You can’t go back.” Harr recalled. Juniper as well as another Wheat Ridge source confirmed this recollection of the incident.

Teammates provided the girl with clean shorts, but the incident stunned parents and athletes alike.

This was the tipping point for Juniper, who approached the school administration alongside several other Wheat Ridge cheer families. They scheduled meetings with the administration and brought accusations of abusive language, lack of supervision, and the Nationals incident as some of the specific reasons to remove Roth.

“Finally, five different families went in and talked to the principal, and then she was fired the next day,” Juniper said. Carol also recalled this incident to YS.

Safety practices

Results came at a price, Harr explained: “We were pushed to our limits. Pushing past the point of exhaustion and from what I remember, I look back at that time as being super draining … there were so many injuries that it was really an issue.”

Multiple former Erie and Wheat Ridge athletes told YS that injuries could be prevented and were not taken seriously under Roth.

One specific incident stuck out in the minds of the former Wheat Ridge cheerleaders on a Nationals trip out of state. “They were doing a warm-up, and she [a cheerleader] did a tumble pass and fell to the ground and blacked out. The paramedics came to her, and she was [temporarily] paralyzed,” a Wheat Ridge parent stated to YS. Kinsley also recalled this event.

Accidents, even as scary as this one, happen in sports as dangerous as cheerleading. However, the incident revealed another issue. “She [the injured cheerleader] was supposed to be on strict bed rest the rest of the trip. Well, she [Roth] didn’t have enough chaperones to keep her in the room.”

Juniper said that instead of following doctor’s orders for bed rest, Roth forced the injured girl to join the team activities. “The girls had to find her a wheelchair. She was in so much pain,” Juniper remembered.

It was not just at Nationals that injuries, and a reportedly inadequate response from Roth, occurred. 

“I don’t know if she just didn’t know how to properly spot, but she didn’t train us properly to spot, because [NAME REDACTED], oh my gosh, I feel worried about her. I don’t know how many times she fell. And at one point, she hurt her back, it was so bad. And instead of taking responsibility, she [Roth] sat us down and yelled at us while [NAME REDACTED] was laying there in pain,” Harr said.

Bergh recalled numerous incidents that led to injuries. “Nora would also want us to perform tumbling and other skills that many of us were afraid of attempting. When we would express our fear or hesitation, she would become angry or belittle us. She pushed us to attempt it. Sometimes it worked, but other times it would leave us with injuries.”

“I got a hip injury,” said Octavia, a former Erie cheerleader  — name changed. “… I wasn’t supposed to be running or anything on it. But she [Roth] told me that if I wanted to be a part of the team then I had to act like it. So even though I was not supposed to be doing anything on my hip, she would still have me do all of the conditioning and whatnot with the team.” 

Missing money

Almost every Wheat Ridge and Erie cheer parent YS spoke with alleged financial irregularities. Accusations range from poor accounting practices to outright theft.

“She tried a couple of times to get us to pay twice,” Juniper said. There were constant fundraisers, but no new uniforms materialized, and costs of the cheer program were not lowered through these fundraisers, according to Ophelia, a former Erie cheer parent whose name has been changed. 

There were numerous fundraisers held with the promise to reduce the cost of participating in the cheer program. “I never saw a cent of fundraising money,” said Josephina. When asked by YS if they had an idea of where the funds were going, Josephina replied: “No. I mean, as far as I can tell, no. Everybody was paying full.”

SVVSD did not provide an answer to questions about the Athletic Department’s finances. Dozens of concerned parents and coaches submitted statements to SVVSD, some asking for an audit in order to learn where the money raised went, but have not received clarifying information.

YS was sent a copy of a statement sent to SVVSD that, as of publishing, had not received clarification from the school district. You can view some redacted statements here which read in part: “I have witnessed her behavior first hand. I personally felt her cruelty and watched it directed toward children, parents, and other coaches. She has defrauded and stolen money from me directly.”  It goes on: “As such, I no longer believe she is capable of being entrusted with either the safeguarding of minors, or the finances of the cheer program.”

The police get involved

On Wednesday June 5th, 2023, the Erie Police Department responded to a report of theft regarding missing finances Roth allegedly took. YS obtained the incident report via a public records request. 

School Resource Officer Thoen responded to the call and wrote that “After speaking to Chad [Erie high school Athletic Director] and reviewing the information I had at the time, I didn’t have any probable cause of criminal activity and there would be an ongoing investigation handled by the school.”

The report goes on to state that “[SVVSD human resources] gave us a summary of their investigation thus far and advised they have no concerns about any of the financial claims.” Additionally, the report noted, “Chad continued to tell me there has been no other financial complaints reported against Nora from anyone, ever.”

After speaking with the school administrators, Officer Thoen contacted Roth.

“I did not question Nora about any of the financial claims reported since I had previously discussed these issues with school officials and they had no concerns about Nora and financials,” Officer Thoen wrote.

Thoen’s report concludes: “On 07/05/2023 I received an email from Erie High School Principal Josh Griffin stating after their interview with Nora there was no new information and no new financial concerns.”

Child pornography report

The Erie Police Department was involved again on June 26th, 2023, when a message sent to Safe2Tell claimed that Roth possessed child pornography in the form of a video of a high school cheerleader in a shower.

Officer Figueroa continued “According to the report, these pictures/videos are used to manipulate the minor in question” Erie police department contacted the family of the minor and spoke with them regarding the Safe2Tell message.

Officer Figueroa was told by the family that “[NAME REDACTED] was at cheer camp with a few girls who she grew up with. While at camp, [NAME REDACTED] was taking a shower when the girls decided to play a prank on her. They did so by removing [NAME REDACTED] large towels and clothing, only leaving her with hand towels and a wash cloth. When [NAME REDACTED] got out of the shower, she used the hand towels and wash cloth to cover her chest and lower privates.”

On a later date, Officer Figueroa wrote: “It was at this time [NAME REDACTED] told me about the prank, where a student was getting out of the shower and the seniors, at the direction of the coach, had taken her clothes and towel. [NAME REDACTED] said Nora asked to have the picture or video to be sent to her. [NAME REDACTED] said her daughter thought it was funny and wasn’t aware of Nora utilizing the photo in an inappropriate manner.

Officer Figueroa then asked the family about issues that had been raised to the school district. “I asked [NAME REDACTED] to describe Nora as a coach and she told me Nora can be hard on them but felt there was a lot of pressure on the athletes and Nora, since they’ve won State five times in a row. [NAME REDACTED] said Nora pushes them hard, but nothing she felt like was out of the ordinary. [NAME REDACTED] said there isn’t anything about Nora which raises a “red flag” in any way.”

Regarding missing money, the report stated that “I asked [NAME REDACTED] and [NAME REDACTED] if they ever paid Nora for something and never received their items. They expressed they had not. To their knowledge, all the funds have gone where they needed to go.”

Roth was contacted at her home by Officers Thoen and Figueroa. Roth voluntarily gave her phone to the police and officers found no compromising photos of minors.

When asked if Roth was a tough coach, the report states that Roth told the Officers: “Hard to say as a coach, because in realty [sic] am I tough [sic] coach? Yeah, my team is very talented. Are there times I have to crack down on them yes, they’re teenage girls, their main goal in life is to manipulate you. If I’m being honest with you. But if you were to talk to any other kid on my team, they would tell you I have nothing but love for them.”

Figueroa concluded the report: “I advised Nora at this point of the investigation I did not have enough to proceed with any charges and that the case pertaining to the photo accusation, would be closed out. I further explained that the school would continue to conduct their own internal investigation, which I had no involvement with.

Both claims of theft and child porn were reported to be unfounded by the Erie Police Department.

Role of the School District

Despite promises of a thorough internal investigation, parents say they have been left feeling unsatisfied with SVVSD’s replies. Several parents said that they do not feel comfortable with their children around Roth until they know why she was cleared of wrongdoing by the district.

“I’m concerned with any underage kid being around her. She is a horrible influence. She’s not a good person at all, and it’s scary to have her around children,” Juniper expressed.

Vanessa shared her experiences coaching with Roth at Erie high school. “The work environment at Erie HS was one of toxicity, negative behavior, lies upon lies to parents and athletes [that] were beyond acceptable.”

Kaia — a former Wheat Ridge cheerleader whose name has been changed — recalled the nature of Coach Roth’s relationship with her athletes: “Looking back, with the perspective I have … that’s not how I would interact with high school children of any age. Not in the sense of anything illegal, but socially it was a very inappropriate relationship.”

Roth provided a response to the allegations via her attorney. The statements reads: “In the face of continued baseless, vague, and largely anonymous allegations, Ms. Roth reiterates her prior position – she is proud of her continued work to support and grow student-athletes. Many of the allegations repeated now were previously addressed in a full and fair investigation both by the Saint Vrain Valley School District and the Erie Police Department and determined to be unfounded.”

Roth’s attorney also wrote that seven people were willing to attest to the quality of Roth’s character, but as of publishing YS has not been contacted by anyone.

If you would like to share any additional information about these allegations please email editorial@yellowscene.com

If you or anyone you know is experiencing a mental health crisis, please talk to someone and reach out to the following organizations:

National suicide prevention hotline – 1-800-273-8255

Mental Health Partners Crisis Service – Dial 988

CU Boulder Center for Disordered Eating

NAMI Boulder County resources for eating disordersa

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The post Additional witnesses come forward with allegations about current Erie High School cheer coach appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

by Jesse Paul, The Colorado Sun (AP Storyshare)

An anti-abortion activist is challenging Colorado’s 30-year-old prohibition on approaching people within 100 feet of the entrance of a health care facility to pass them a leaflet, display a sign or engage in “oral protest, education or counseling.”

The 1993 ban, sometimes called the “bubble law,” was enacted by the legislature as a way to shield women getting an abortion from harassment, though it doesn’t apply just to abortion clinics.

The law has faced legal challenges before, including one that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court in 2000 and was rejected by a 6-3 vote.

The new lawsuit was filed June 1 in federal court by Wendy Faustin, who “believes that abortion is a horrific moral wrong” and “wishes to personally and compassionately talk to women seeking abortions and give them further information related to the procedure and other available options.”

The defendants include Gov. Jared Polis, Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, Denver District Attorney Beth McCann and Denver police Chief Ron Thomas. The attorney general’s office doesn’t comment on active litigation.

Faustin is also challenging a similar, municipal-level bubble law enacted by Denver’s City Council. She argues the laws violate her First Amendment free speech rights, as well as her 14th Amendment rights to equal protection under the nation’s laws.

Faustin appears to be hoping to overturn the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2000 ruling on Colorado’s bubble law now that there’s a conservative majority on the court.

Last year, the court overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 precedent guaranteeing a minimum level of abortion access across the country. That decision called the court’s 2000 ruling on Colorado’s bubble law a distortion of First Amendment doctrines.

“Plaintiff acknowledges that the result she seeks is contrary to currently governing precedent as set forth by the majority opinion in Hill,” the lawsuit says. “But for the reasons explained by the dissents in that case and in later Supreme Court precedent, that case was wrongly decided, is irreconcilable.”

Faustin is represented by lawyers for the First Liberty Institute, a Christian nonprofit based in Texas.

More broadly, Colorado is becoming a legal battleground when it comes to abortion. There’s already a pending federal lawsuit challenging the state’s new, first-in-the-nation ban on the so-called abortion pill reversal treatment. A failed effort to block an abortion clinic from opening up in Pueblo was set to test Colorado’s 2022 law enshrining abortion access in statute.

Colorado’s bubble law specifically creates an 8-foot buffer zone for people within 100 feet of a health care facility’s entrance. The state law carries a penalty of jail time and/or a fine for violators.

Other states and cities have bubble laws, too. The outcome of the case in Colorado could affect policies in those places.

“Colorado’s ‘bubble law’ has survived not one but two Supreme Court challenges,” Dani Newsum, director of strategic partnerships at Cobalt, a Colorado abortion rights nonprofit, said in a written statement. “Patients should have a right to access health care, including abortion care, without being harassed. At a time when violence, threats and harassment against abortion clinics, patients and providers is escalating, patients should be left alone to get the health care they need and deserve in peace.”

The case is in its early stages in U.S. District Court. There’s no timeline for when it will be resolved.

The post Colorado is becoming a legal battleground over abortion access with new challenge to 30-year-old “bubble” law appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

Power of the spoken word

Angie Paccione has done it all. From professional basketball player, member of the Colorado Legislature, and as of 2019, the Director of the Colorado Department of Education, she is full of passion, inspiration, and devotion to releasing the untapped potential in this world. She dove into detail about how human potential is just like the potential of stored energy and is determined to spread the message of positivity and purpose.

As for what really makes Paccione who she is today, it’s not the titular accomplishments or sports accolades. “I’ve gone to the Wiki page for me, there’s so much out there, but the things that are not out there are the things that really makes me who I am.” It all comes back to the foundation of family. “ A lot of it has to do with how I was raised. My mom was an unwed Black teen girl in the South Bronx and was really determined that her kids would have an opportunity to do better.” Naturally every good parent wants what is best for their children and encourages them to become whatever they can imagine, “but in this case, it was fundamentally different because neither of them, at the time, could do what they wanted to do, being Black women in the 50s.”

Sometimes we can forget just how recently things like legalized racial discrimination and illegal interracial marriages truly are. Many of us were recently reminded just how precarious rights like access to abortion are. Paccione recalls “I was born in 1960, before the Civil Rights movement. That was before the Women’s Rights movement. That was before it was legal for my mom and my birth father to be married in like 26 states.”

Having a supportive family prepared her for obstacles. “There weren’t college scholarships for women basketball players. There wasn’t a women’s professional basketball league. But I believed in myself…, such that when those things became a reality, I was able to take advantage.” Paccione was the first Black woman to earn a full ride scholarship to Stanford and then went on to play professionally. 

Her passion and energy was infectious as we spoke. “It’s really through what I call the power of the spoken word. It’s like a superpower,” Paccione shared. We spoke about how words matter, how they can influence thought and belief — and in turn outcome — and how important it is now more than ever to spread the truth and shed a light on injustice. Spoken words matter. She once gave an inspirational talk to prisoners, and one particular encounter reminded her of the impact what we say has on how we develop. “That prison inmate came up to us and said, you know, my dad always said I’d end up in prison. And you think about the power of the spoken word,” Paccione recalled.

I asked her to share how the power of words can actually change lives for the better. She laid out a compelling science influenced argument. “The definition of potential is stored energy. In order to release stored energy, something has to act on it. When we talk about human potential, it’s really the potential for greatness. Then just like scientific potential, something has an act on it,” she emphatically stated. “I use ‘activate your potential,’ waiting to be acted on just like scientific potential. And so the power of the spoken word is an activator.”

However it is not just words. Legislation and progress matter deeply as well. Paccione gives credit. “Without Title IX, I would have never gone to Stanford University,” she shared. Combining the progress of inclusivity and the power of activating human potential can help set someone up to take advantage of opportunities when they present themselves.

Caring for our kids

Paccione’s message is noble in the face of the modern world’s increasingly bleak news. Things such as mass shootings, school lockdowns, and regressive policies dominate headlines and define realities for millions. She echoed the difficulty in reaching a younger generation that may be feeling lost or hopeless. “How do you create the belief in young people that the world is good for all of them? When you are 16 years old and you just knock on a door and you get shot? How do you then convince young people that the world is safe or that the world is fair or honest or just when all the messaging is the opposite.” 

For Paccione, it all comes back to activating potential and surrounding yourself with the people who will support you. She shared her secret to reaching your full self. “Surround yourself with the people who are for you, [those] you can count on them to have your back, [who] are rooting for you… and hopefully those are the people who will tell you the truth as well. Those are the people who will help activate your potential,” she shared.

Our conversation naturally veered towards school shootings, as do many topics in education these days. Paccione opened up, “In the same way that Emmett Till’s mom had an open casket, I almost think we need a virtual or real visual of what happens to those kids.” She suggested that we as a visual society may need to see the impacts of these mass shootings to change the course of debate.

It is not all doom and gloom. There are positive movements in the Colorado school system that may ultimately help things like mental health and performance gaps. Recently, the state made all school lunches free. Paccione touched on how that will help younger students. “Going all the way back to Maslow’s hierarchy, If you don’t have food, you can’t learn. A hungry child really cannot learn.” The impacts of the free lunch are yet to be seen but the positive impacts will likely resonate from early education on up.

For higher education, Paccione is most excited for upcoming job programs. “I’m really thrilled with the governor’s initiatives around the zero cost credential. Programs that will provide education and training in the areas where the state has the greatest workforce shortage areas,” she shared. These would be programs similar to the CARE Forward Colorado program that provide entry level jobs into in-demand fields for no cost to students.

Legacy of a billionaire 

Paccione has inspired countless through her example as well as her speeches and talks. Just one conversation can leave you feeling like you’re ready to take on a new project, volunteer for an organization, and hug your mom all at once. 

We turned towards talking about the impact and influence a lifetime of work like hers can leave. “I’m 63 years old. I’m not dying tomorrow, but I’m on the other half of my life,” she said. As for her lasting legacy, Paccione said “It’s not all the jobs that I’ve had that makes you who you are, it’s all the people I’ve helped.” Her goal is to ignite passion, activate potential, and inspire others. “I used to say I want to be a billionaire, it’s not about the money, I want to inspire a billion people.”

The post When Potential Meets Opportunity: Angie Paccione appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

Special Thanks to KUNC | By Leigh Paterson (AP Storyshare)

Nearly one year after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the number of people traveling to states where abortion is still legal has surged. In Colorado, the volume of out-of-state patients more than doubled between 2021 and 2022.

Because of the increase in need for services, everyone is having to wait longer for in-person care—including Colorado residents.

Mar Galvez, a non-binary 23-year-old who works for the Colorado Organization for Latina Opportunity and Reproductive Rights (COLOR), could relate.

“I actually found out I was pregnant on the day that Dobbs was announced and Roe was overturned,” said Galvez, then a student living in Boulder. “I realized I was eight weeks pregnant at the time. It felt surreal…It didn’t feel like it was something that I was holding evidence of in my hands.”

When Galvez found out they were pregnant, they knew they wanted an abortion—and they knew who to call.

But they were unable to get an appointment within a few weeks at any of the nearby clinics. Instead, they found an online organization that connected them with a provider over telehealth who could prescribe them mail-order abortion pills.

“It is painful and it is scary, but it doesn’t mean that it wasn’t precisely the decision that I wanted for myself,” Galvez said of their abortion. “The only thing I felt afterwards and during it was a relief that I had access to that care.”

Clinics across the state are experiencing increased demand. Following the Dobbs decision last June, Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains’ 14 Colorado clinics had wait times of up to 28 days for abortion appointments. More recently, patients can expect to wait around 10 days, still a significantly longer wait than in years past.

“Ten days matters,” Adrienne Mansanares, the president of Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains (PPRM) said of the risk in increased wait times.

Abortions pills, the most common abortion option today, are approved only through 10 weeks of pregnancy.

“We’ll have patients who make an appointment for a medication abortion…We get them all ready to go and when they come in, they’re too far along for a medication abortion,” Mansanares said.

Statewide, the majority of out-of-state patients are coming from Texas after an abortion ban took effect there in 2021. In the past, around 10% of PPRM’s patients in Colorado have come from out-of-state. So far this year, that number has hovered around 40%.

“These numbers are just remarkable,” Mansanares said. “We’ve never seen anything like that before.”

Resources in the state are being stretched thin as providers adjust to the increase in need.

Abortion funds like Cobalt Abortion Fund are being inundated by patients who need help paying for out-of-state travel. So far this year, the Colorado non-profit has spent over $126,000 on financial assistance for individuals seeking abortion care, more than twice what the organization had spent at this time last year.

Clinics are bringing on more staff. Wait times for routine reproductive care like pap smears have increased, too, in some locations.

“We are doing a lot more clinical time,” Dr. Rebecca Cohen, the chief medical officer of Comprehensive Women’s Health Center in Denver, said. “Our nurses, our staff are, you know, are staying late, doing all the things because people need us.”

Cohen said generally, demand is still high, although she is seeing fewer patients seeking abortions early in pregnancy. She thinks many of them are accessing medication abortion care online.

Plus, for those with health insurance, more options have come available in recent months. This past fall the Colorado health care giant Kaiser Permanente announced it was expanding abortion services in response to long wait times at other clinics.

In her clinic, Cohen is now seeing higher volumes of women further along in their pregnancies, with more complications.

“To hear that someone is coming to see us after it’s taken them three months to get money together—we are where we are,” Cohen said with a sigh. “Those are the things that break my heart, is just knowing that if they had felt safe enough to reach out earlier we could have helped more.”

Meanwhile, Colorado lawmakers are working to further secure access to abortion services. Gov. Polis recently signed three reproductive health bills into law, including one that shields out-of-state patients and providers from criminal prosecution should they seek or practice abortion services in Colorado.

The post As demand for abortions in Colorado goes up, so do wait times for in-person care appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

March 22, 2023

By Jennifer Kocher
Special to the Wyoming Truth (AP Storyshare)

This is the first of three stories. Given the graphic subject matter, which involves violence and references sex acts, reader discretion is advised.

The first time Breahannah Leary met Penny (Gallegos) King in her Denver office in May 2015, she asked her father to wait in the car with the engine running. Leary didn’t foresee the conversation going well, if at all, and wanted a quick getaway. At the time, Leary was out on bond for solicitation charges and failing to appear for a traffic violation. She had zero faith that law enforcement was on her side.

King, a Colorado State Highway Trooper and member of the FBI’s Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force, was persistent. She’d reached out to Leary’s father, Darrell Hodges, and asked him to convince his daughter to meet her. Hodges had a long rap sheet himself. But he knew Leary was in trouble and put his own distrust of law enforcement aside to try to get her help.

Much to Leary’s surprise, the meeting went well.

“[King] immediately told me she didn’t care about any of the charges,” Leary told the Wyoming Truth in an exclusive interview. “I wasn’t expecting her kindness. She was just this strong, powerful woman who cared about her job.”

King’s job was to rescue sex trafficking victims, both children and adults. She’d monitored Leary’s trafficker for months and had already built up a strong case. Now, King needed victims to help put him behind bars.

What followed was the beginning of an unlikely alliance and friendship that also would result in the take-down of one of the most prolific sex trafficking rings in Colorado history. In 2017, Brock Franklin, 31, received a 472-year sentence for 30 counts related to the prostitution of three girls and five women, including Leary.

At the sentencing, the judge asked Leary how much money she thought Franklin had made from her exploitation. She responded that it was probably enough to buy everyone in court a new house.

It’s the longest sentence to date for a human trafficker in the United States, according to a statement from the Arapahoe County District Court in Centennial, Colo. Franklin and his five associates – Michelle Payne, Brandon Garrison, Isis Debreaux, David Fullenwiley Jones and Johnson Doyne – also were indicted on charges related to human trafficking, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, the distribution of a controlled substance, sex assault and kidnapping, among other charges.

Misdiagnosed problem

Sex trafficking is a growing and largely underreported problem in Wyoming and beyond—and  Franklin’s case sets a high bar for arrests. It’s hard to get convictions because victims fear testifying against their traffickers; they are often misidentified as willful participants and arrested for prostitution.

Only one human trafficking case was prosecuted federally in 2021 in Wyoming, compared to zero in 2020, according to a 2021 Federal Human Trafficking Report by the Human Trafficking Institute.

King said the key to putting more traffickers behind bars is training law enforcement and the legal community to recognize the difference between sex trafficking and sex between two consenting adults.

During her career, King led several trainings for law enforcement agencies across Wyoming. She said there’s a growing awareness of how to identify and help victims access resources to escape and testify against their traffickers in court.

Leary credits King’s support in helping her stand up to Franklin, who had threatened her life if she testified against him.

“It was terrifying for her,” King said of Leary. “These traffickers break their victims down, emotionally and physically.”

Eight years later, Leary is finally ready to share her story to shed light on the nefarious nature of trafficking and inspire other survivors to come forward. The following account comes from interviews with Leary and King, as well as court documents.

Trafficked

Leary grew up in the Denver suburbs and moved around a lot as a child. Her family was poor, but she doesn’t consider her life to have been harder than anyone else’s. After graduating from high school, Leary became a certified nursing assistant and worked in an assisted care facility.

When Leary met Franklin, she was 27 and a single mom of three children, who lived with their biological father and his family. She had made some bad choices that put Franklin in her orbit, Leary admitted. One of them was supplementing her income by placing ads for “dates” on Backpage, a classified advertising website founded in 2004 as an alternative to Craigslist; it was shut down by the FBI and other federal agencies in 2018.

At the time, Leary lived in Thornton, Colo., with her then-boyfriend, but struggled to make ends meet. A friend told her about Backpage, and she’d only been on a few “dates”—the term used online to advertise sex services—when she met Franklin at a local hotel. Immediately, he asked Leary to come work for him and promised to help take care of her children. She declined the offer, and Franklin left. (When pressed for details about some aspects of her experience, Leary declined comment due the trauma she endured.)

Leary worked just a few weekends as an escort, earning about $3,000 to $4,000 from white professional men—mostly lonely guys seeking companionship.

“I always tell people it’s the ones you wouldn’t expect,” she said about men who buy sex. “They’re the guys you see at your child’s soccer game.”

Franklin was Leary’s last client before she quit. She found sex work degrading and decided it was not worth the extra money she’d earned. Not long after, Leary fought with her boyfriend and moved out. (He had no idea she’d moonlighted as a sex worker.) Leary had all of her belongings stuffed in the back of her car when she stopped at Walmart on an errand. But her car wouldn’t start. Leary called everyone in her contact list, and when nobody answered, out of desperation she dialed Franklin’s number. He immediately came to her rescue, giving her car a jump so it would start.

“He noticed I was in a vulnerable position, and he took full advantage of that,” Leary said by phone from her home in Colorado.

When Franklin saw her packed car and heard she’d left her boyfriend, he invited Leary to come to his house for a good night’s sleep. She could chill out, he told her, and then look for a place in the morning.

“And, of course, I took the offer,” she said.

Beating herself up for her rash decision would have to wait. At that point, it was sheer survival. Franklin’s house was located in downtown Denver near the zoo, sandwiched between two churches on either corner. He opened the door and then quickly locked it behind her. Leary counted eight locks.

She looked around the dimly lit room and saw people curled up on the carpet and sleeping on couches with empty beer bottles, marijuana and other drugs strewn across the coffee table. Later, Leary learned it was one of several rentals Franklin used to house his victims.

Franklin turned to Leary and ordered her to strip down: she belonged to him now. He confiscated her driver’s license, Social Security card and birth certificate from her car and placed them in a plastic lanyard around his neck. There were at least five other women in the house—none of whom was excited to see a new female enter the mix.

Leary assessed the situation as she slipped into survival mode. There was no fighting her way out of it: At 5-foot-2, Leary was no match for this 6-foot-6 man.

She did as she was told.

On Saturday, March 25, Leary will speak about her experience at an event for Hope Cos , a Colorado Springs-based volunteer nonprofit focused on street outreach and addiction recovery. The event will take place from noon to 3 p.m.

Check back tomorrow for part two.

The post Survivor Helps Put Sex Trafficker Behind Bars in One of the Region’s Biggest Trafficking Busts (Part 1) appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

Editor’s Note: Press Releases are provided to Yellow Scene. In an effort to keep our community informed, we publish some press releases in whole.

U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i), chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, and U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), vice chairman of the Committee, released the following statements on introduction of their bipartisan Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2022 (VAWA) in the Senate.

“Nearly a decade ago, the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013 restored Tribal jurisdiction over domestic violence crimes, recognizing Tribes’ right to exercise their authority and giving them resources to go after criminals,” said Chairman Schatz. “Today’s introduction makes clear the Senate is serious about strengthening this important law, protecting Native women, children, and families, and restoring justice for Native communities. I am proud of the contributions Committee members made to strengthening the Tribal title and grateful for my bipartisan partnership with Vice Chairman Murkowski. I look forward to seeing this legislation passed into law.”

The Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2022 reflects years of input on public safety from stakeholders in all Tribal, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian communities and will increase access to federal resources and data for Native communities. The bipartisan bill contains a Tribal title based on a Committee discussion draft Schatz and Murkowski released in December, which —

• Maintains US tribal jurisdiction over crimes of dating violence, domestic violence, and violations of tribal civil protection orders first put in place by the 2013 VAWA reauthorization;
• Restores US tribal jurisdiction over crimes of child violence, sexual violence, sex trafficking, stalking, obstruction of justice, and assault of Tribal justice personnel committed by non-Indians offenders
• Ensures all recognized tribes in the US, including Alaska and Maine, can exercise these same important jurisdictional tools to keep their communities safe; and
• Provides US tribes with improved access to critical VAWA implementation resources by: increasing authorization level of the VAWA Special Tribal Criminal Jurisdiction (STCJ) implementation grant program, expanding the VAWA STCJ implementation grant program to cover Tribes’  reimbursements costs, reestablishing the Bureau of Prisons Tribal Prisoner Program, and codifying the US Department of Justice’s Tribal Access Program to provide all US tribes with access to national criminal information databases.

The post Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2022 (VAWA) Introduced appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

Editor’s Note: Press Releases are provided to Yellow Scene. In an effort to keep our community informed, we publish some press releases in whole.

On February 2, 2022  from 3:30-4:30pm via ZOOM Prof. Phaedra C. Pezzullo will interview known advocate Mia Ives-Rublee about her expertise in disability justice with environmental organizations, institutions, and broader coalitions – including outdoor recreation access, being a competitive athlete, and on plastic ban advocacy, as well as the value of public protest and voting.

Mia Ives-Rublee is the director for the Disability Justice Initiative at American Progress. Ives-Rublee holds a bachelor’s degree in sociology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a master’s degree in social work from UNC Chapel Hill. She is a leader in disability justice and inclusion, working with nonprofit organizations and businesses, such as: Women’s March, Families Belong Together, DC Action Lab, Adoptees for Justice, Fair Fight, People’s Collective for Justice and Liberation, Lonely Whale, and more. Best known for founding the Women’s March Disability Caucus, Ives-Rublee helped organize the original Women’s March on Washington in 2017, pushing for better access to disability accommodations at progressive events and more policy platforms inclusive of the disability community.

Ives-Rublee was named by Glamour magazine as one of 2017’s Women of the Year Award. She was also recognized by She the People as one of 20 Women of Color in Politics to Watch in 2020. As a North Carolina community regional organizing director for the Elizabeth Warren Campaign for President, she communicated policies and organized events around specific issues affecting the disability and Asian American communities. Ives-Rublee worked as the field director for Down Home NC to encourage rural residents to vote. She also worked with the Asian American Advocacy Fund and the Georgia Disability Vote Partnership to help elect Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) and the Rev. Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) during the 2021 election.

To attend via ZOOM – Register Here 

Hosted by: the Department of Environmental Studies. Co-Sponsored by: the College of Media, Communication & Information, the Environmental Center, Ethnic Studies, & Disability Services.

On Access: The University of Colorado Boulder strives to host inclusive, accessible events that enable all individuals, including individuals with disabilities, to engage fully. To request an accommodation or for questions about accessibility, please contact Prof. Phaedra C. Pezzullo (phaedra.pezzullo@colorado.edu) at least seven days prior to the event start date. 

The post Disability Justice, Coalition Work, & Environmental Futures: Featuring Mia Ives-Rublee appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

Editor’s Note: Press Releases are provided to Yellow Scene. In an effort to keep our community informed, we publish some press releases in whole. 

Newly Opened Ramble Marketplace celebrates Boulder-born Gifts from Local Artisans, All with a Special Purpose

November 4, 2021 | Boulder, Colorado

The Ramble Collective has announced the opening of its second retail store, Ramble Marketplace, a “Boulder-Born” gift shop located in the heart of the East Pearl Residential and business District. Ramble Marketplace joins Ramble on Pearl, Ramble’s flagship store, as a host for a unique job training apprentice program that assists individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) to secure competitive, integrated employment. In addition to operating using a social enterprise business model that supports an unmet need in the community, this local business is a promising solution for the countless holiday shoppers
searching for the perfect gift with a special Boulder connection.

It’s no secret that the countless problems in the global supply chain are making shopping this holiday season more difficult than ever before. According to Adobe Analytics, consumers will have fewer product options to choose from and are twice as likely to come across an out-of-stock item online. A solution everyone can turn to is to support local businesses, with Ramble Marketplace being a prime example. 

Ramble Marketplace is a brand new gift shop that features products and hand-crafted works of art from passionate local artisans and suppliers based in Colorado. The store carries a wide range of thoughtful products born right here in Boulder, including books, prints, paintings, jewelry, hats, toys, and linen products, to name a few. In addition to supporting small local businesses, every purchase at Ramble Marketplace contributes to a great cause by supporting adults with IDD in their quest for purpose and community. 

“We’ve opened Ramble Marketplace at just the right time this holiday season,” adds Co-Founder of The Ramble Collective, Andy Minden. “Not only does every purchase support local businesses and artisans, but by shopping with Ramble, you “Shop with Purpose” and therefore do so much more!”

Ramble Marketplace is located at 3075 Pearl Parkway in Boulder, Colorado. The store is open 10:00 am – 6:00 pm Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays and from 11:00 am -5:00 pm on Sundays. 

To learn more about Ramble Marketplace visit https://bouldertreasures.org/ramblemarketplace. 

About The Ramble Collective 

The Ramble Collective (formerly Boulder Treasures) is a Boulder-based nonprofit organization that turns disabilities into possibilities. Our innovative, community-based programs create pathways to purpose and community for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). We provide valuable on-the-job training programs and job placement assistance at Ramble On Pearl (shop.rambleonpearl.com) and Ramble Marketplace. We also support projects that make affordable housing accessible to adults with IDD and offer programs that help them thrive in independent community-based housing. To learn more about The Ramble Collective visit theramblecollective.org.

Media contact: Sarah Nelson | sarah@theramblecollective.org 

The post Newly Opened Ramble Marketplace celebrates Boulder-born Gifts from Local Artisans, All with a Special Purpose | Press Release appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

PRESS RELEASE: Press Releases are provided to Yellow Scene. In an effort to keep our community informed, we are now publishing some press releases in whole.

Image courtesy of Beti Bike Bash

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

EVERGREEN, COLO, March 30, 2021 — The Beti Bike Bash p/b by Yeti Cycles will return to Lakewood, CO for the 11th time on October 3rd. Registration is now open. The nation’s largest women’s-only mountain bike race, produced by Team Evergreen, prides itself on bringing together the cycling community in a unique and supporting environment. This is exemplified by categories such as ‘7 and Under’, ‘New Moms’, ‘Never-Evers’, all the way to seasoned professionals, and the optional additional support of the VIDA MTB Series and Little Bellas program on October 2nd.

This year, the Beti Bike Bash will benefit both Little Bellas and Go4Graham. The Little Bellas, a mountain bike organization geared to help young women reach their fullest potential, has a well-established and known presence at the Beti Bike Bash. Catering to the younger crowd, they will be onsite both days, to offer a one- or two-day bike camp designed to get young ladies hooked on the sport.

Image courtesy of Beti Bike Bash

Go4Graham is a community-based movement to shred the stigma surrounding mental health and promote mental wellness through physical activity and connection. Go4Graham utilizes mountain biking and the outdoor community as one of its biggest tools to decrease stigma, raise awareness, and reduce suffering related to depression, anxiety, and other mental health issues. An optional fundraising-focused registration tier has been added for 2021 for those who wish to give more back to Little Bellas and Go4Graham.

In addition to the race, first-time and beginner riders can develop their skills at the VIDA MTB Series race-specific clinic on Saturday, October 3rd. Attendees will learn proper body positioning, race etiquette, and technique in an ever-encouraging atmosphere, leaving them with increased rider confidence.

Image courtesy of Beti Bike Bash

“After a challenging 2020, we are looking forward to gathering this year to celebrate the Beti Bike Bash. This race is a cornerstone in the women’s mountain biking community and we are thrilled to participate in October! Running our clinic Saturday to help women get race ready and spending Sunday cheering everyone on makes for a celebratory and fun weekend,” says Rachel Gottfried, Dir. of Operations at VIDA MTB Series.

One of the original Yeti Betis, Natalie Raborn, will be stepping into the Race Director role for 2021. Natalie brings a wealth of production experience having worked at the University of Denver running events for 15 years taking primarily at the Newman Center and Magness Arena. In 2016 Raborn left DU to follow her passion and founded High Road Coaching currently coaching athletes from all over the US. Not too shabby on the bike herself, she’s currently defending the title of Masters Marathon Mountain Bike National Champion.

Image courtesy of Beti Bike Bash

The post Bike Bash p/b Yeti Cycles Returns this Fall to Colorado | Press Release appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

PRESS RELEASE: Press Releases are provided to Yellow Scene. In an effort to keep our community informed, we are now publishing some press releases in whole.

Thursday April 29, 2021, 6:30 – 7:30pm.
BPW Annual Celebration of Women

 

Each year, Business and Professional Women (BPW) of Boulder acknowledge women, men, and organizations that serve our community to create equity, economic self-sufficiency, political representation, as well as personal and professional development at our annual Celebration of Women event.  This year we have partnered with our sister organization, Colorado Women’s Education Foundation (CWEF), to increase our impact and extend our reach.

 

CWEF invests in women every year by awarding scholarships to women of non-traditional age to return to school transforming their lives through education to become economically self-sufficient. We’re very excited about partnering with CWEF and this year’s theme of “The Power of Education for Women.”  We’re pleased to be providing Educational Impact Awards in the following categories:

 

Leadership in Education (Christine DeLeon)
Transformation Through Education (Kathleen J. Gebhardt)
Advancement of STEM Education (Gianna Sullivan)
Advancement of Environmental Education (Colorado Alliance for Environmental Education)

 

You can be an important part of recognizing these amazing people and organizations and raising funds for scholarships by registering with your donation for this year’s inspiring Celebration of Women virtual event on Thursday April 29, 2021, 6:30 – 7:30pm.

 

To register and learn more please visit:
https://cwef.org/news-events/2021-celebration-of-women/

The post Business and Professional Women of Boulder Annual Celebration of Women | Press Release appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

Editor’s Note: This article was written by an intern, with support and additional writing by our editor, De La Vaca, based on a recorded interview. 

Jessie Mathew, left, and Jenny Wright. All images by Kenneth Wajda for Yellow Scene Magazine

COVID may have hit everyone hard, but check out how these two Boulder born women flipped this tragic pandemic to a safe space for people to express themselves in their community. Two (kinda) former hairdressers, Jenny Wright and Jessie Matthews are co-founders and co-owners – as well as partners – of the hottest new art and production studio in the North Boulder Arts District, New Magik. 

New Magik was created after Matthews and Wright’s jobs were impacted by COVID. They were brainstorming about what some of their passions were and what they could do to put these passions out and create a community. They wanted to create a space for people to come together to work on what they love and make new connections, to be a bridge and a conduit for creativity in their community. They wanted to provide something that is COVID safe and reliable to lean on while the world is forced to be online and distanced. 

New Magik is a space that is working to bring the local BOCO art community together to share skill sets and create new connections amongst hopeful collaborators in a very special – and intentional – way. This business has as inspiration and motivation the incorporation of social justice, activism, and empowerment for women, people of color, aspiring artists, and entrepreneurs. By using these inspirations they are creating a space to not only bring people together but to have people learn new things from each other. 

This is a place where you can go to either connect and do collaborations with other people in the community or have the opportunity and space to do your own thing. “The space itself isn’t bound by limitation,” they tell Yellow Scene in an interview, masks on, beers available, in their beautifully decorated space. It was a cool interview because the community was evident, as neighboring artists specializing in pottery stopped in to say hi and celebrate their opening and family popped in for the same reason. 

The idea to create this space with a foundation of social justice, activism, and empowerment for women was something that was brought to them from their origins. Growing up in Colorado, for example, means there isn’t a large number of black people or people of color in general. Looking at Boulder county specifically, non-white people only account for 12.81 percent of the population. Of a population that continues to grow and is currently at nearly 108,000, it’s important to realize there aren’t many POC here to identify and build with; many that are in BOCO live in East County, as well, where properties are affordable and more rental units exist.

Matthews has used this space and this year to connect with her black roots and “the rising power of women,” telling us that, “We are surrounded by badass women who have their own sense of magik”. These are the type of people that she wants to work with and empower. She grew up in a divorced household with a black father and white mother. Her entire life, she points out candidly, she was surrounded by mostly white people, in a very white community, which led to identity issues. She found herself not wanting to identify as white or black and wasn’t feeling accepted by either community, a common experience of mixed race people. The rapper Logic, a black and white mixed rapper, said on the song Everybody:

But he was born with the white privilege!

Man, what the fu*k is that?

White people told me as a child, as a little boy, playin’ with his toys

I should be ashamed to be black

And some black people look ashamed when I rap

Like my great granddaddy didn’t take a whip to the back

Not accepted by the black or the white

I don’t give a fu*k, praise God, I could see the light

Everybody talkin’ ’bout race this, race that

I wish I could erase that, face facts

I’m reminded of the song as she talks, telling me how she used this year to connect with her roots and start truly claiming herself as a Black woman, and now a Black business owner, and all the #BlackGirlMagik that goes with it. Her overall hope is to discover what “Black joy” is for herself and to embrace it. 

As for Wright, she grew up in a white household wanting to be an alley in any way that she could, since she was born white; she wanted to use her privilege as a tool. Wright is clear that she “grew up with privilege” in the middle class, which used to be Boulder’s “norm”. This has changed over the years as Boulder becomes a much wealthier, exclusive, and higher class area. The only renters Boulder wants are students at CU on the Hill. 

Zillow points out that in 2020 “the typical home value of homes in Boulder [was] $781,082.” Neighborhoodscout put the median home value in Boulder at $846,748. Currently, median home prices in Boulder approached their 2020 high in August at $1,124,253. Times, they are a changin’.

During her 20’s, Wright went through a bout with addiction and experienced discrimination based on that – ableism – with attendant  judgment and criticism. This was a transition period having to go from being a privileged person to being seen negatively by society. She learned to work through her own issues in a safe space, and wanted to create this same safe feeling for other people. 

Overall the both of them come from humble roots. Even though they grew up with a comfortable lifestyle they both still had to work very hard to get where they are, no matter what the privilege was that they grew up with. “Using our privilege for the better” is how it was put to us.

They see themselves, rightly, as the “daughters of the old hippies” and they want to bring the soul back to people in the Boulder community… so they are bringing us New Magik. 

So… what exactly is New Magik?

New Magik is a space that offers several tools, designed in a way so that they are easy to move around the space to be used in the way you want or need. Everything that is inside the New Magik studio is designed to be mobile so that many different platforms can be used for whatever people need to use them for. There is a greenscreen, a darkroom in the bathroom, and other amenities. This space is meant to be used and rearranged, and the unfinished floor leaves areas that can get messy; “all you have to do is roll back the rugs that cover the ground”.

The space is both comfy and industrial, pulling both of their styles together and referencing their hairdressing aesthetic. They have shelves built by local friends, chic adornments, and a banging sound system with a record player. 

On top of the creative space, they also have acupuncture, meditation, reiki, massage, divination/tarot readings, counseling/therapy sessions, sound healings, yoga, and many more options. The opportunities at New Magik are endless and open to whatever your mind can think of. Mediums go from drawing and painting to photography and videography. The New Magik space is an intersection and fusion of all things that they both love. They are looking to explore both old and new mediums and everything in between. 

Another option that New Magik offers is for the space to be rented out, either for your solo purposes or to be safe and COVID friendly, with a limit of two socially-distanced people who are wearing masks, with another person to share studio time with. 

Mathews and Wright like to call the New Magik space a ‘creative incubator’ for people to become inspired and explore opportunities, and they are currently accepting new members who want to join in this special little creative endeavor. They are also accepting donations from anyone interested in being a part of building up New Magik and helping financially with expansions. 

Due to the way COVID is hitting everyone and changing the way people interact with each other, the main goal of New Magik is to have an online creativity-sharing platform. They want to give people the opportunity and safe feeling of having this platform available virtually on an ongoing basis. Through this online platform, you will be able to take classes that will be offered, or participate in the limited in person capacity. 

New Magik wants to bring back and indulge in the old Boulder, a scarce recalled world of hippie magic and solidarity, creativity, and community. They say that it’s hard to exist in the Boulder of today if you’re not wealthy, which is something that has developed over the years as developers and politicians have worked to insulate Boulder from expansion, driving up housing prices even as Colorado has seen a surge of in-migration. At New Magik, they worked very hard to build everything themselves without any help, a reflection of their roots, the values they were raised with, and the goal to honor the past while creating today.

We expect that New Magik will be something that no one forgets. These two women bring their personalities, passions, and profundities right into the business. Stop in, where you will be greeted by the good vibes emanating from this new space, a space that could be your workspace, and be greeted by women that fill this area with love and hope. Come see what you can get involved in and meet the people of this new community. This could be just the place for you. This could be just what you need to get rid of those pandemic scary’s, the doldrums, and bring the new you out for the world to see. 

The post NOBO has New Magik: A Safe Art Space for Everyone appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

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I was in my office the other day, typing away as I’m wont to do, when my friend Britta sent me an Instagram link. It was to a picture of Senator Cory Gardner, currently in the death throes of a flailing campaign as former Colorado governor and current Senate candidate John Hickenlooper smashes Colorado’s historic fundraising records, with an absolutely hilarious caption across his face. I clicked through to @YeetCoryGardner and I found a treasure trove of amusement predicated on a very simple idea of how Colorado sees itself, how Coloradans see themselves, and I was hooked. I reached out for an interview and Yeet responde, saying, “you can email me at… So I’m not just like, aggressively working out my thumbs”. 

Yeah, Yeet, we can do that. And we did. A few quick notes before we get to the convo: She – yes, Yeet is a woman – is going by Yeet to avoid doxxing and remain safe and secure in her anonymity. To Yeet, according to the Urban Dictionary, means “to discard an item at a high velocity”. That is, Yeet wants to use the platform she built (over 15K followers in two weeks) to discard, throw away, and otherwise get rid of Cory Gardner. What could he have done to deserve this? Well…according to Yeet, he’s just not very Colorado.

For a self description, Yeet’s IG page says she’s, “Poorly serving the great state of Colorado in the United States Senate. (All posts intended as satire/Not affiliated with any political organization.)”.

Below is an edited version of our conversation. All images courtesy of @YeetCoryGardner

https://www.instagram.com/p/CFbIskdBWfy/

De La Vaca: Yeet! Thank you for talking to me. I’m sure you’ve had other people reach out to you as well. Such a weird account you have going on.

Yeet: It is bizarre.

De La Vaca: It’s bizarre. It’s a little juggernaut you have going on. You’re having fun. This is high level, social media, millennial, civic engagement, social activism. So let’s start at the beginning. Who are you and why are you?

Yeet: Why am I… At the end of the day, I’m just a girl who thinks she’s funny and I’ve always been on the periphery involved in politics in some capacity. When I was 15, I was really sad I couldn’t vote for Obama and so I went out and volunteered with his campaign and just convinced other people to vote for me. So I’ve always been interested and then I started working in marketing after college. I’ve kind of honed my craft that way. But at the end of the day, this is very deeply rooted in the fact that I’ve hated Cory Gardner. I was like, ‘he’s bad for Colorado. It’s very clear that he’s not a great fit’. 

I didn’t love him and so then I was watching Monday night football, two weeks ago now, my fantasy team was losing, everything was a bummer. I was texting one of my friends about how horrible Cory Gardner is and I was like, ‘I bet he goes to Casa Bonita for the food’ or something. And she was like, ‘you should put that on a shirt’. And I was like, ‘I should put that on the internet’. 

And I made the first few memes and I thought it would just be an account where I was sharing my jokes about Cory Gardner with 17 of my friends. And then it kind of snowballed into this thing that is not at all what I expected it to become, but it’s kind of hilarious and wonderful to have a surprise platform of people who are interested and do care and want better representation for their state.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CF93i8wldkW/

De La Vaca: So when you say that he’s not a good fit for the state, are you talking about the state today? The future state you want? Or the past state? Because this is a state that is known for being purple and voted for Bush twice.

Yeet: Correct. I think Cory Gardner branded himself as a different kind of Republican. And that’s what the basis of his appeal was when he was running the first time. We’ve seen from the way he boasts, it’s 90% of the time with Trump, if not higher, that he’s not in fact a different kind of Republican, that he’s lining his pockets with money from the NRA, kind of selling out. I mean, his public lands thing is good, but it’s also kind of a last ditch effort after giving up on so much. It’s very clear that he prioritizes his party over his constituents, otherwise he would have made a statement about white supremacy and he probably wouldn’t be voting to confirm Amy Coney Barrett.

De La Vaca: Definitely. Talk to me about your sense of humor, because you started off by saying that you think that you are a girl that finds herself funny. And you’re also making jokes on the internet and, arguably, a lot of the things you’re saying about Cory Gardner aren’t implicitly political but just more ironic, or just calling into question his naturalness and fit as a Coloradan today. So, what’s the point of your jokes and how are you having a political impact making these up?

Yeet: Well, first of all, it is satire 100%. It is not intended as defamation or slander in any kind. I do want that to be on the record. So when I get my inevitable cease and desist… 

So, all of the jokes are very Colorado-focused and designed to appeal to the Colorado pride that so many people in the state have, while pointing out that maybe Senator Gardner isn’t exactly right for the state and using, not his political stances to point that out, but rather to just be like, this is a funny thing, but as a Coloradan you do or don’t identify with, and maybe he offers his own little D.C. land, kinda doing whatever. And I think the reality is probably he doesn’t go to Casa Bonita for the food or whatever. But when you can rally people around something positive and lighthearted in an election cycle that feels a little bit like a nightmare and can keep it important and good.

A lot of people have messaged me and said this is the first thing that has made them laugh in days or weeks. That means a lot. I think everybody’s kind of seeing what they want to see, but in the scariest manifestation of itself. And so to bring some lightheartedness to a political climate that feels anything but, that’s kind of the intention.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CFgRAy5hk9N/

De La Vaca: It is definitely lighthearted. There’s an understanding that Colorado has of itself and Coloradans have of themselves. And you’re painting a picture of him outside of that box without saying, well, ‘his policies are destructive for our communities’ or, ‘he’s clearly a white supremacis’t and whatever, right. Like you’re not saying that explicitly, but you’re saying he’s not Colorado the way we’re Colorado. And we have to think about that.

Yeet: Correct. And I think people already know kind of where he lies policy wise and stuff, but just to appeal to something besides people’s fear or concern… I think it’s definitely an approach that feels very absent with election cycles.

De La Vaca: Is your project more anti-Cory Gardener or more pro-Hickenlooper? How do you feel about Hickenlooper?

Yeet: I like Hickenlooper and I think he’ll do a good job representing the state. I think it’s going to be really important for him if he is elected to not only focus on the metro areas. One thing Cory Gardner has going for him is that he is Yuma and he is the small town Colorado nice boy. And Hickenlooper is like… He was a businessman, he’s from Denver, he’s got the city thing down.

But the goal of the account was mostly just to not support Cory Gardner, but the flip side of that coin is that the true way to not support him is to vote for John Hickenlooper. And that’s the only way he’s going to end up out of office. You can’t not support Cory Gardner and not show up because you don’t want to vote. You have to take action.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CFiXby7hQam/

De La Vaca: Sure. It feels like Colorado’s currently a very safe blue state. So then I think it’s fun to not necessarily point at Hickenlooper as some kind of savior or antithesis to Cory Gardner, which I don’t personally think he is, but instead to have a little fun at Cory Gardner’s expense. So…What happens after November 3rd?

Yeet: I’m still deciding. It has been… Because of the scale of it, and the responsibility that I kind of feel like I acquired now, it’s been a lot more work than I had anticipated to speak candidly. And part of me just kind of wants to walk away from it after November 3rd, like give the people what they want and then hopefully the people will vote for what they want and get what they want and my work will be done. If that doesn’t happen, I guess I’m doing it for six more years.

De La Vaca: That’s fair. The work you’re doing is squarely in line with the political comedians that started since Jon Stewart, for real. I mean, you’re doing a different thing, but it’s in the same vein and it might even-

Yeet: That might be the nicest thing anyone’s ever said to me

De La Vaca: Yeah? It’s the iteration, right? Like Trevor Noah does it, Lee Camp does it. There’s a lot more, right? And it’s important. Like you’re meeting people where they’re at, right? Young people are not necessarily politically engaged. Definitely not following a lot of the mainstream shows. I’m not a millennial but I don’t even have cable. I don’t watch that.

Yeet: Yeah, I don’t either.

De La Vaca: I catch a clip once in a while if somebody shares it. But they say all the young folks left Facebook and now they’re on Instagram and Tik Tok and whatnot.

Yeet: Yeah. The Tik Tok-

De La Vaca: So going to where they’re at, I think that’s that’s savvy and I think it’s crucial for the young vote. And so I applaud what you’re doing.

Yeet: Thank you.

De La Vaca: And I was going to ask…Do people automatically assume that a man that runs the account?

Yeet: Yeah. Everybody so far has thought that I’m a guy. Which, honestly, I’m not mad about it because I think just because of the world and whatever people are predisposed to think like men are funnier and now you’re like, ‘okay, well that sucks, but it’s true’. You can refer to me as Mr. Yeet if you want to. I think that’s great.

De La Vaca: I’ll be like, ‘Her name is Mr. Yeet. Not a real name, I just made it up’.

Yeet: Oh yeah. No, you can, you can just refer to me by pronouns. If you want to do she/her, that’s fine. I wouldn’t mind getting it out into the world that I’m not a dude. Just to clarify for the people who might be confused, but…

De La Vaca: Perfect I can do that. We’ll do that. I’ll just refer to you as Yeet. I’m calling you Yeet. Yeah.How many followers do you have right now?

Yeet: 15.2K

De La Vaca: Jesus Christ, man.

Yeet: Yeah, dude. It’s insane.

De La Vaca: And this is a two week old account.

Yeet: Yeah.

De La Vaca: Wow. That’s a testimony to both how funny you are and how relatable the content is, but also how much people dislike Cory Gardner.

Yeet: Yeah. I think it’s a testament especially to the second two things. And then I also think like Colorado as a state has done a really good job of branding itself. And I think giving people a joke to be in on, has been really important. I think that’s contributed to the virality of it a lot.

Well, Yeet, we love you. Thank you for the laughs and the activism and working to get our state out to vote. Hopefully you don’t have to do this another six years. Good luck and, for the record, your posts on my feed are my new Moment of Zen. 

https://www.instagram.com/p/CFfyn1-hSyt/

The post Meet Yeet: The Woman Behind @YeetCoryGardner appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

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I love the esthetic of spas. They are tranquil environments, dedicated to the senses. The best spas create space that supports us turning inward where our inner peace resides. They are an immersive sensory art experience and our nervous system is the canvas. Spa directors know which colors, textures, smells, and sounds will bring calmness to our being. Spa therapists are trained to personalize their tones of voice, their touch, and the products they use to help you, specifically, let go of stress and tension.

We could all use a little spa time. Do you know who would appreciate spa time a lot? Moms give us so much of their time, focus, and energy, often placing their own needs on the back burner. It’s no wonder that the gift of spa is such a popular Mother’s Day way to say that we see our mothers and appreciate the effort they put into helping us grow in ways we both know, and perhaps might never know.

In recent times, as we have all been confined to our homes, and our external places of sanctuary have been temporarily shuttered, spas have been taking their expertise to social media to offer us tips on how to create our own worlds of calm in our very own homes. We reached out to a few of our favorite local spas, Jalan Facial Spa, and The Dragontree, to delve into their treasure trove of tutorials and tools to bring you this list of gift ideas that you can share with the mother figure in your life. And they are great ideas for any of us needing a little piece of peace. As Colorado begins to eae lockdown restrictions, those of us that can, should, stay home a little longer, per medical advice. Ease that suffering with this goodness. Note: all links open in a new tab. 

Happy Mother’s Day!

Jalan Facial Spa

Jalan Facial Spa is a lush oasis hiding in Uptown Denver. Upon arrival, you are blessed with easy parking in their parking lot. You are already relaxing. When you open the door the city fades into the distance and you are greeted by a Zen rock garden, and a wall with uplifting words written in moss, as if the very forest itself is here to boost your vibe. A spa shop chills out in the corner, letting you know that the finds within might come home with you later.

Jalan is a Malay word that means “the journey”. At Jalan Facial Spa, the journey you are taking is inward. Every corner is a cozy nook that invites you to sit quietly. They welcome you with nourishing teas and tiny treats. You are offered noise cancelling headphones to listen to guided meditations in the Meditation Garden while a video wall of natural environments takes your mind off of whatever your mind was on. You are invited to take deep breaths as you inhale lemongrass and lavender steam from herbal aromatherapy stations. You are given an aromatic footbath and somehow, instead of being boring, the stone wall you are staring at comes alive and shows you tiny faces in the rocks.

You are in here with other people (just like your mom might be quarantined in a full house) yet somehow you are couched in your own bubble of quiet. There is a camaraderie of solitude.

We hope that by the time Mother’s Day rolls around, you will be able to send your mother off to this wonderland. They tentatively plan to start new bookings beginning on May 11, the day after Mother’s Day. If Mom misses your sweet face, you can join her in a shared retreat.

Just before the world came to a standstill, we were able to experience their wonderfully personalized Hydrating Rose Facial for myself (including an otherworldly gemstone face massage), and a Men’s Urban Facial (dudes….a smoked Bourbon Enzyme Mask?!?!?!) for our editor. We each loved our treatments by highly skilled therapists, and felt deeply replenished well beyond our table time. Gift certificates for these facials and other dreamy treatments can be purchased on Jalan Facial Spa’s website.

However, if the world stays closed for a little while longer, or if your mom has decided she just really likes staying home, Jalan Facial Spa has an array of tools and tutorials that can bring the tranquility of Spa into her home. The spa’s online shop offers a curated selection of tools and products which are used in spa services. From the organic and biodynamic Jurlique skin care line, to beautiful gemstone tools for self-massage (which will be in the online store very soon), these gifts can be paired with video tutorials on Jalan Facial Spa’s Instagram page. You and your mom can learn how to treat yourselves to a daily facial massage that will bring the benefits of spa luxury into your own self-care routines.

Jurlique’s Rare Rose Gel Cream is better than a similarly priced bouquet of roses, and puts the power of what seems like thousand rose petals on your skin. Pair with rose quartz facial rollers and a tutorial on how they work to relax the facial muscles, remove puffiness from the eyes, and more.

Another tutorial highlights the benefits of Gua Sha massage. A Gua Sha tool is a carved, flat gemstone which can be used to sculpt facial muscles, drain lymphatic tissue, and promote circulation. Jalan offers a Gua Sha Facial service at the spa. Gua Sha tools will soon be available on the online shop. Paired with Jurlique’s Nourishing Cleansing Oil, you will soon be reaping the benefits of this sculpting facial massage at home.

These are just a few of Jalan’s tutorials that are free and available to everyone. With so many options available in spa, in the online shop, or on Instagram, Jalan Facial Spa can help you treat your mother to an uplifting, peaceful experience.

The Dragontree

The Dragontree, located on Pearl Street in Boulder, is another gorgeous haven that makes the outside world disappear. The Dragontree’s unique menu offerings of Eastern healing practices of Ayurveda and acupuncture make them a Boulder standout. Founded by Dr. Peter Borten, a doctor of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine, and Briana Borten, a wellness entrepreneur, the spa and apothecary carry their formulations of highly sophisticated herbs.

We did not have the opportunity to enter the dragon and experience their Mother’s Day offerings for this article before the world closed down. I did, however, receive a Mother’s Day gift certificate from a generous friend last year. I can attest that the experience helped me feel relieved of the daily pressure of caring for others. A few hours made me feel as though I had been on a long vacation. Ensconced in the spa’s tranquil environment, putting all decision making into the hands of others, I was escorted from the sauna, to the relaxation room, to a fabulously CBD enhanced Ayurvedic treatment, to one of the best facials I’ve ever experienced, and finally to the not-to-be-missed Sangha Room.

The Sangha Room elevates the art of a footbath into a sublime experience. Seated upon a plush chair in the comfy communal space, my feet were soaked in a beautiful bowl of milk and salt and essential oils. I floated around the room with the aromas as I sipped my tea. Looking at the empty chairs next to me, I thought about how lovely it would be to be in this room with my mom or a friend, taking in this pampering experience together. An afternoon can be made of the Sangha Room retreat, when lunch and a sauna are added. What a sweet way to spend an afternoon with mom.

When the world is open again, a gift certificate for mom to The Dragontree will be a well appreciated gift. But until that time, they have offered us this list of treats and techniques from their apothecary that can be gifted and applied to our home self-care arsenal.

The Dragontree’s 9 Steps for a Fabulous Day at Home – all info can be found on Dragontree’s website, www.thedragontree.com/spas/boulder

Guided Meditation: an MP3 download of 13 meditations to settle your nerves and raise your vibration.

Peace Tea: a soothing herbal sip including rose petals, lavender, and lemon balm.

Muscle Melt Herbal Bath: formulated by Dr. Peter Borten to increase blood flow, move stagnant lymph, decrease muscle and joint soreness.

Dry Skin Brush: natural body brush used for exfoliation, lymphatic flow, and improved circulation.

Relax Massage and Body Oil with CBD: a blend of pure essential oils and CBD oil formulated by Briana Borten. Self-massage can help you lovingly connect to your body.

Dragontree Massage Ball: a self-massage tool to help you hit those hard to reach spots.

CBD Neat: 500 mg of CBD extract in a base of MCT oil, legal in all 50 states.

Muscle Melt Balm with CBD: delivers 300 grams of CBD directly to sore muscles and joints.

Muscle Melt Patches: herb and essential oil patches for muscle relief.

With so many beautiful possibilities, we can give mom a gift of calm, and return to her some of the care that she pumps out to us throughout the year. And you know who else deserves a little self-care? You. Your mom would approve.   

While you’re here: [direct-stripe value=”ds1585187109306″]

The post If Your Ma Can’t Go To The Spa, Bring the Spa to Your Ma: Mother’s Day Gifts to Create Peace and Sanctuary at Home appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

Alana Chen. All photos courtesy of the Chen family.

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The recent death of 24-year-old Louisville local Alana Chen has many in the local LBGTQ community and their allies concerned about a link between Chen’s death and the faith-based “conversion therapy” her family alleges she underwent in Colorado. “My daughter wrote in her journal, ‘I have a story to tell, but nobody will listen,’” says Joyce Calvo-Chen, Alana’s mother.  Calvo-Chen is determined to keep her daughter’s life and struggles in the hearts of the public through telling her daughter’s story. 

She is a mother with a mission. 

On December 9, 2019, Chen’s body was found at Gross Reservoir after an intense search and rescue effort was launched. She had been missing for several days and the efforts to find her reached from law enforcement into regional hiking groups on social media. Her death was ruled a suicide on January 9, 2020, by forensic pathologist Dr. Meredith Frank. According to the autopsy report, Chen hanged herself and left a suicide note.

During the coordinated effort to find her, Alana Chen’s conversion therapy past and her relationship with her family’s church leaders was brought to the forefront of the conversation. She had attempted suicide three years prior, after years of attending conversion therapy sessions with members of her family church. What is conversion therapy? 

Conversion therapy is the practice of treating being LGBT as a mental illness that can be treated through repetitive emotional and traumatic techniques. It has many names, such as “talk therapy,” “reparative therapy,” and “sexual orientation change efforts (SOCE).” According to The Trevor Project, all of the terms mean the same thing, and distinctions are superficial. 

Colorado Governor Jared Polis signed HB19-1129, a bill banning conversion therapy, on May 31, 2019. California was the first state to ban the practice, making it the first state to protect LBGTQ youth from the abusive practice. Colorado’s bill specifically prohibits state-licensed mental health professionals from engaging in efforts to change the sexual orientation or gender identity of anyone under 18 years of age. 

The passing of HB19-1129, however, did not save Alana Chen’s life, and now her family wrestles with the complicated aftermath of her struggles. They are specifically concerned that people do not know what conversion therapy is, or how deeply it can change a family forever. 

 “I feel like I was fooled by a church that was very safe and liberal, and I’m usually not fooled. I am devastated. She was amazing, and beautiful. She really did want to be a nun, but at a cost. She was told by the church that God loves you only if you don’t act on your sexual attraction,” says Joyce Calvo-Chen. “I know a lot of open and inclusive Christians, including Catholics. It seems to start with the Bishop and their leadership. These people aren’t saying what Jesus said.”

According to Calvo-Chen, Alana began a series of secret meetings with high ranking members of the St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Boulder when she was 14-years-old. These meetings continued almost until her death, with various members of the local clergy. Calvo-Chen believed Alana was using the bus to go see friends. However, she soon found out her daughter was seeing church staff members.

Calvo-Chen says that although she rebuilt trust with Alana, she believes the church already had an emotional hold on her daughter. She also believes the church has absolved itself of any responsibility. One member of the clergy, Father David Nix, has been removed from the church proper and has been allowed to raise money for himself as a “hermit” priest, according to Calvo-Chen. 

Calvo-Chen, who is trained as a spiritual leader, wants the community to be wary of other people calling themselves “spiritual counselors” or “spiritual leaders.” She believes the term has been co-opted by religious fanatics who target college and university campuses. 

“As a spiritual leader, you listen. You do not give advice. You might talk about a higher power. We have a code of ethics. And they have broken the ethics,” she says of the Sisters of Life, who met with Alana after Father Nix was moved away from the church. 

The Sisters of Life, an organization of nuns who frequent the CU campus and offer what they call “spiritual direction” to LBGTQ students, stepped in to counsel Alana when Father Nix left. Becoming a nun was a vocation which Alana made as a goal. 

“It (faith) did become important to her. I think as she became more involved, she clung to it more. Then, at the church, she was told by a priest she should become a nun – that it was her calling. This priest told Alana not to tell us about these plans,” says Carissa Chen, Alana’s older sister. 

“The Sisters of Life were hired by Bishop Aquila to come down and be Alana’s spiritual director. They wanted her to go, they are still there. They go to Denver and Ft Collins. Their teachings are very specific that these things are sins. I feel responsible for being fooled, for bringing my family there. I’m worried about other students who may be LBGTQ who may go there,” says Joyce Calvo-Chen.  

Alana and her mother

“Alana trusted them. She did want to become a bride for Jesus, but that her sexuality held her back. She thought that they could help her,” says Carissa. “In Alana’s journal entries, she wrote ‘my wires are crossed.’  She believed what they believed.” 

The Denver Mission of the Sisters of Life stated in a letter, “We spiritually accompanied Alana for approximately a year and a half (ending in September 2017) when she chose of her own accord to discontinue that accompaniment.” 

They further say, “We want to clearly state that we never promoted, encouraged or even discussed conversion therapy with Alana or her family. We absolutely respect the free will of each person uniquely created by God in His own image and likeness.” 

In a letter sent January 1, 2020, they assert that they serve mainly on university campuses, offering spiritual aid to students as they search for a life serving Jesus Christ. They write, “Our hearts and prayers go out to Alana Chen’s parents and siblings during this time of tremendous grief.”

But they weren’t the only church staff meeting with Alana. The Chen family says that a man named Father Peter Mussett also ministered to Alana. Joyce Calvo-Chen says Mussett told Alana that she (Alana) could not receive communion due to her confessed same sex attraction. Alana’s mother says the staff’s pressure on Alana to change her sexual orientation caused her daughter grief as the young woman searched for the church’s acceptance. 

Calvo-Chen questions how the church staff approaches young people during vulnerable phases of their lives. She says Father Peter Mussett’s “hipster” look may attract students who want to belong to a group, or who are isolated from close family ties.

Father Mussett has been featured in many regional news outlets as a modern relatable faith leader.

In a statement from St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Center and Father Peter Mussett, Mussett writes, “We do not practice conversion therapy, and reject any other practices that are manipulative, forced, coercive, or pseudo-scientific.” 

The church also writes, “We are devastated over the death of Alana Chen and cannot begin to imagine the pain and grief of her family and friends. Our prayers will continue to be with them during this incredibly difficult time.”

Of the church’s response to Chen’s struggles with being LBGTQ and her depression, Calvo-Chen says, “Bishop Aquila never helped me. He had his monsignor call me, who told me that Father Nix would never call or talk to Alana again. When Alan was receiving in-patient treatment, Father Nix still got in touch with her. The monsignor told me Father Nix is not allowed to be a priest, so the Bishop moved him around.”

“Every time there is a problem. The last move was to a convent in Colorado. Then he went out of state. He recently did an article calling himself a whistleblower, and now points the finger at the Bishop. The Bishop is now approving him (Father Nix) to return and live as a hermit. This is not the teachings of Christ, it is twisted.” says Calvo-Chen. The church has not confirmed any of these claims to us directly. 

A blog written by Father Nix, however, is available online for the public to read. In a blog post, Nix publicly appeals for donations in the amount of $250,000 as a 501(c) to live as a hermit in Boulder County. 

In response to this story and questions regarding Alana’s relationship with him, Father Nix says in a letter, “The things Alana shared with me during spiritual direction are not for me to share publicly, but in my 10 years of priesthood I have never told anyone that it is a sin to be attracted to anyone. In my 10 years of being a priest, I have never done conversion therapy with anyone, and I have never suggested conversion therapy to anyone.”

Nix says Alana was “one of the holiest people I have ever met, and her death is an incredible tragedy.”

Carissa Chen says, “She (Alana) came out to the priest in this secretive period. So, Alana was keeping these secrets, while the priest was telling her attraction to women is a sin.” The elder Chen says their mother didn’t force religion on the family, and that “it was just a part of [their] life.”  

“Her middle name is Faith, which is really interesting. She was raised Catholic and we took Catechism classes when we were younger. She was asked to go to a summer camp, around age 11 and 12 years old. The youth leaders would tell stories about God and they were very moving. She felt a sense of community and felt welcome. Looking back, while she had friends at school, I think she was struggling and didn’t feel comfortable with her sexuality at school, and that she felt comfortable at the church,” says Carissa Chen. 

Area and national LBGTQ organization leaders suggest shame and guilt are large obstacles for LBGTQ youth to overcome. They have statistics to support that belief. 

“No young person should ever be shamed by a mental health professional into thinking that who they are is wrong. Mental health professionals should provide care that is ethical and affirming for all people — including LBGTQ young people. Depression, anxiety disorders, and suicidal ideation and attempts are epidemic in minors in Colorado,” says Sheena Kadi, Deputy Director, One Colorado. 

Kadi says, “Based on One Colorado’s 2018 health survey, Closing the Gap: The Turning Points for LBGTQ Health, almost one in five LBGTQ respondents said that someone – whether a counselor, therapist, or religious advisor – had tried to change their sexual orientation or gender identity. Colorado was proud to lead the successful efforts to ban conversion therapy for LBGTQ youth in Colorado by a licensed medical or mental health professional during the 2019 legislative session with HB19-1129.”

Kadi explains conversion therapy is based on the false claim that being LBGTQ is a mental illness that needs to be cured – a view that has been rejected as scientifically invalid by the American Psychiatric Association, and every major medical and mental health group. 

Senator Steve Fenberg (Senate District 8) shares condemnation of Alana’s struggles with the practice and her subsequent trauma. “It’s incredibly heartbreaking to read about the trauma that Alana experienced as a result of so-called conversion therapy,” Fenberg said in an email to Yellow Scene. He says that, despite last year’s bill banning the therapy on minors, “Alana’s story makes clear that much harm still happens in the shadows.”

“I was the prime sponsor of the bill. It started in my chamber – we were very grateful we were able to pass the bill,” says Representative Dafna Michaelson Jenet, who represents District 30. 

“Our bill would not have protected Alana or anyone getting conversion therapy, as we have separation of of church and state. I am devastated by her loss. She was a bright light that we lost, and we will continue to fight in her name.” She emphasizes that educating families about the practice is key to avoiding similar tragedies in the future. 

LBGTQ community and church leaders see this tragedy as another reason to rally to educate the public on the illegal practice. Chen’s therapy, depression, and suicide is a triggering and traumatic reminder for many LBGTQ people.

“As a survivor of a form of so-called conversion therapy, called reparative therapy, the death of Alana Chen ripped me at my very core,” says Tobi J. Cahill, President of PFLAG Boulder County. 

Cahill immediately organized a public event named “The Greatest of These is Love,” which focused on conversion therapy and took place on February 14, 2020. The panel included Mathew Shurka of Born Perfect, which he created after undergoing conversion therapy. Shurka flew into Longmont from New York to speak at the event, and he was joined by area clergy of open and affirming churches. Carissa Chen also spoke to the audience about her sister’s struggles with faith and sexual identity. Few in the audience were left with a dry eye.

Cahill understands the emotional toll that what some see as manipulation between church and LGBTQ identity can take on a person. 

“When you are told repeatedly that you are going to hell if you choose this lifestyle, it starts to take a toll on you. The mental anguish and internalized homophobia that you have been fed start to make you question your very existence and worth,” says Cahill.  They remind the community that there are several affirming churches that open their doors to LBGTQ people. 

Samantha Gerson of www.unbroken-survivors.com adds that the practice is still overlooked by news outlets and the LBGTQ community due to simple lack of knowledge. “The problem with institutional abuses including conversion therapy is that people think it is a dark age practice, yet somehow, it is still a widespread epidemic that is a six billion dollar industry.” Gerson was sent to a youth camp in Utah at the age of 12 for behavior problems.

Gerson alleges she was kidnapped, taken to the camp, stripped and underwent abuse at the hands of camp staff. She says physical and sexual abuse occurred, along with long periods of complete isolation. As an adult, she still has PTSD and has a hard time building healthy relationships due to the trauma she endured while at the Utah location (details of this camp are not disclosed as Gerson is pursuing legal action currently). Gerson began Unbroken Survivors which offers free legal and therapeutic services to survivors of similar situations. 

Gerson now advocates for survivors of what she sees as a billion-dollar industry —“troubled youth” camps and conversion therapy sessions. She is recognized as a Forbes 30 Under 30 and as a L’Oreal Paris Woman of Worth for her work educating families about conversion therapy and “troubled youth camps.” Gerson says she was already out as a gay young person, and that her mother was overwhelmed by Gerson’s rebellious teenage behavior. 

Another hazard LBGTQ youth face if rejected by their church or home is homelessness. Of the homeless youth in Colorado, 40% identify as LBGTQ. All LBGTQ youth face serious high numbers of suicide attempts and or ideation. 

According to the 2017 Healthy Kids Colorado Survey, nearly half (44.8%) of lesbian, gay, or bisexual students had considered suicide in the past 12 months, a prevalence more than three times higher than that among heterosexual students. Among transgender youth, 58.9% had considered suicide in the past 12 months, while 16.3% of cisgender (straight) considered suicide in the past year. In total, 19.9% of lesbian, gay or bisexual students had attempted suicide in the past year compared to 5.1% of heterosexual students. 6.3% of cisgender youth reported attempting suicide compared to 32.5% of transgender youth. 

To lower these numbers, getting the word out about safe places for LBGTQ youth and their support networks is key. Many LBGTQ youth who are excluded from church or home may simply not know there are many open and affirming churches in Colorado. There are also distinctions to make between churches about what “open and affirming” means. 

“Affirming churches exist and gladly welcome those who identify as LBGTQ. Folks need to get past the idea that being LBGTQ and being a person of faith are exclusionary identities. They are not. Many in the LBGTQ community identify as people of faith. It’s important to share stories of those who are, to demonstrate that these two worlds can and do co-exist,” says Kadi. Community church leaders are reaching out to LBGTQ people through events like “The Greatest of These is Love,” in which Rev. Sarah Verasco, Senior Pastor of Longmont United Church of Christ, spoke to attendees. 

Verasco explains the differences between words churches use such as “open and affirming” and merely being “open.”

“It has become common for churches to say they are ‘open’ to people of all lifestyles and open to people however they identify.  This openness can be misleading and is not the same as full inclusion or affirming the LBGTQ community.”

“If you want to know where a church stands on LBGTQ matters you must ask the following three questions: Can my partner and I be married in this church? Can I be ordained (or a clergy leader) in this church? Will you formally and ritually acknowledge my transition by offering me sacraments (Baptism in particular) with my new name?” says Verasco. 

Concerns about a church’s authentic inclusion of LBGTQ people is of special concern to Carissa Chen. She is concerned that churches near the young people at University of Colorado use coded language and a relatable style to entice LBGTQ youth to join their congregation. She worries that words like “spiritual direction” may emotionally hook people into changing their sexual identity at the guidance of church leaders. 

According to a 2009 report of the American Psychological Association, techniques used to try to alter sexual orientation and gender identity include showing the patient homoerotic images, electric shock use, using shame to create aversion, and quoting Biblical passages. 

The association “advises parents, guardians, young people, and their families to avoid sexual orientation change efforts that portray homosexuality as a mental illness or developmental disorder and to seek psychotherapy, social support, and educational services that provide accurate information on sexual orientation and sexuality, increase family and school support, and reduce rejection of sexual minority youth.”

Sheena Kadi underwent the trauma of conversion therapy. “As a survivor of conversion therapy – both by a religious counselor and by licensed mental health practitioners as a minor – the shame and hopelessness that survivors struggle with is very real. Adding in the dynamic of being a person of faith, it caused me to question my very existence. I spent years trying to reconcile my sexual orientation and my personal relationship with God in non-affirming churches. We have to continue to share these stories,” Kadi says. 

These concerns are echoed by the Pan American Health Organization, which says the practices “lack medical justification, and present a real threat to the well-being of affected people.” Risks for youth are even greater than for adults. Lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth are more than five times more likely to have high levels of depression and are more likely to use illegal substances compared to those from a supportive family. 

According to the Trevor Project, “Conversion therapy… ’ is any of the several dangerous and discredited practices aimed at changing an individual’s sexual orientation nor gender identity. More than 700,000 LBGTQ people have been subjected to the horrors of conversion therapy. Estimated 80,000 youth will experience this unprofessional conduct in the coming year, often at the insistence of well-intentioned but misinformed parents or caretakers.” 

The Trevor Project is the world’s largest suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization for LBGTQ young people. It runs Trevor Space, a safe space social network site for LBGTQ youth and runs educational, research, and advocacy programs. 

Casey Pick, Senior Fellow for Advocacy and Government Affairs at the Trevor Project, says the 50 Bills 50 States campaign works to introduce and promote legislation to protect LBGTQ youth from conversion therapy in every state. The aim of the campaign is to “educate lawmakers and the public about the dangers of conversion therapy,” and by building a grassroots campaign of volunteers to get the mission accomplished by email, calls, and meeting with elected officials.   

The repeating theme of “support” is of utmost importance to organization leaders. Even Psychology Today lists a national search bar on its website for trans, non-binary, and all LGBTG people who want to find a supportive network and therapists who do not condone conversion therapy. 

scott 

Scott McCoy of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) represented several young men and two of their mothers in a landmark case against conversion therapists in New Jersey. The suit was brought under the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act (CFA). The clients were awarded the amount they spent on conversion therapy which totaled around $1,000 for individual and group therapy sessions, and included the amount for a program called Journey Into Manhood. This program involved weekends in the woods with others struggling with same sex attraction in the hopes of converting them. One plaintiff, Ben Unger, won over $17,950 because he was reimbursed for what McCoy calls “legitimate” therapy Unger needed after undergoing conversion therapy. Which is all to say, apart from the trauma conversion therapy can wreak on a person’s emotional and psychological state, the financial implications can be devestating. 

In Tampa, a case against a well known conversion therapist named Dr. Joseph Nicolosi alleges that Kevin Shelton spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on conversion therapy. This case was settled, but McCoy says, “These conversion therapists are charlatans who take advantage of desperate people and at great cost both financially and emotionally and psychologically.”

Sharing this kind of information and networking are of equal importance according to non-profit organizations, legal counsel, and church leaders. Sheena Kadi says that people must share their stories to stigmatize it to the point that faith communities hold their leaders accountable and stop trying to change someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity. Kadi remains optimistic for the future and cites the passing of Jude’s Law (HB19-1039) as a step forward. The bill streamlines the process of name changing for trans people. 

“We also saw the passing of HB19-1120, allowing youth in Colorado as young as twelve to talk to a mental health specialist without parental notification. This allows questioning LBGTQ youth the chance to speak with an affirming counselor without fear of being rejected or kicked out by   a non-affirming family,” Kadi says. In the future, One Colorado wants to add gender identity to the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act (CADA), banning the gay and trans panic defense, mandating LBGTQ affirming trainings for foster and adoptive parents, and treating mental health days as an excused absence at school. 

Rep. Brianna Titone, who is the first openly trans person elected to the state of Colorado, says she headed a grassroots effort to get municipalities and cities to make proclamations against the practice to help raise awareness about the issue and try to sway the committee. 

“Since I’ve started fighting to ban conversion therapy, I’ve spoken to more and more people who have told me their story. I realized that there had to be more who have been keeping it to themselves, or worse, died by suicide and their secret story also lost,” says Rep. Titone, who represents House District 27.

Rep. Titone says she thinks the best way to overcome the remaining barriers is to elect more LBGTQ people. “This helps people have the courage to be themselves, accept people who are different from them, and removes the stigma of being different. We all share the same basic goals and aspirations and elected officials help to show that we really do care about everyone.” 

“I look back on myself as a kid; not being out, just being an awkward geeky kid and dealing with bullying. It makes me angry to think that kids are being told they can’t be themselves. To me, that’s bullying those kids in a different way and often by the people they are to trust the most,” says Rep. Titone. 

“Colorado is fortunate to have made a lot of progress since 1992 when we were dubbed the ‘hate state.’ Since then, we have enacted many protections for LBGTQ community including banning conversion therapy for minors and removing burdensome requirement for trans people to get their birth certificate changed. However, there are always more thing we can do to clean up statutes and fill in holes where the LBGTQ community has been left out.”

Carissa Chen remains concerned that not enough is being done to enforce legal consequences against churches or individuals, such as clergy, who practice conversion therapy. “I need to find strength in this,” Carissa Chen says of her sister’s life, struggles with her sexual identity, and ultimately, her death. 

Carissa Chen says her younger sister, Alana, “was special. She was talented in so many different ways. She got the best grades. She loved fashion. In her room, even now, there is a rack of clothes from a thrift store she was going to repurpose. She was into sustainable fashion, and she made jewelry. She was artistic in many ways.”

“I think a lot of people don’t understand that conversion therapy can be emotional and psychologically change someone through talk. My parents didn’t let or make her do anything. Alana herself at the time wanted to do this so she could be perfect for God, and become a nun,” Carissa Chen says.  

Also revealed in Alana’s journal entries, which Carissa chose to share with Yellow Scene, Alana wrote about climate change advocacy and how to help local people in need. Carissa says Alana purposefully sat among the homeless in Boulder County and became close to a woman named “Shorty.” According to Carissa, her sister helped Shorty get into a rehab facility. “Alana wanted to help people.”

Joyce Calvo-Chen is dealing with immense grief and loss. But she wants her daughter’s story to reach someone and to make a difference. “I hope my daughter’s story will save lives. I want this outlawed for everyone, not just minors. It’s wrong.”

Since her death, Alana’s family has created a foundation to further educate people on conversion therapy and what the family sees as a major injustice. On the website, Chen’s mother shares the ways she feels the church mistreated her daughter. She asks supporters to contact the church to demand justice. 

The newly created foundation’s page says, “The Alana Faith Chen Foundation is an organization that works diligently to provide mental health support and community education on mental illness and effects of trauma. The Alana Chen Foundation will be inclusive to all, including specific programs dedicated to helping the LBGTQ+ community.” 

LBGTQ youth, parents, and community members can find support at coloradocrisisservices.org, the trevorproject.org, and crisistextline.org. 

The post I have a story to tell, but nobody will listen: The Story of Alana Chen appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

.When Lucy Wallace taught her first Dance To Be Free class in 2015 at a women’s correctional facility in Denver, she was not yet aware of just how profound the effects of dancing would be on the imprisoned women. “I was nervous, intimidated. I didn’t know what to expect. But, I’m willing. I walked into the gym with the eight women waiting for us. I had two friends with me. I put on my music. I played a song that was maybe not the best choice of lyrics. “I want to kill it with you.” As soon as they started moving, this woman behind me who I knew was serving a life sentence said, “oh this is spiritual.” Right away. I thought, she understands that this is not exercise.This is a vehicle in. Dance is an avenue to go deeper.”

Wallace wanted to be of service, she wanted to share dance. How much it can help the women she serves has been revealed over time. “I don’t want to go in there and say “hey ladies, let’s heal your trauma.” I just go in there and say “let’s dance together.” But in that, so many revelations come to these women that are beyond my expectations. One woman in Pueblo’s prison began to cry and shared, ‘I realized for the first time that I love myself.’ That’s a huge revelation. That’s just from moving. I don’t know what happened. It’s such a mystery to me. I love that it’s bigger than me.”

Wallace has been steeped in the power of dance since she was 8 years old. She started with ballet, and then moved on to a modern dance major in Ohio. She made her way to Boulder to get her Master’s degree in Naropa’s psychology program. At Naropa, the emphasis is on Somatics, a modality which addresses the relationship between the mind and body. She explains, “it’s more along the lines of, in order to access trauma that is frozen in the body, frozen in time, you have to get at it through the breath, through movement.”

A Pathway Out of Trauma

By bringing the healing potential of dance into the prison environment, Wallace is offering women an opportunity to move through trauma and into empowerment. The women who attend Dance To Be Free have often experienced a lifetime of violence and trauma. They may never have experienced their own body as a safe place to be. Dance offers an experience of their body that they can own, forging a new pathway to freedom within themselves.

“I just heard a really disturbing statistic from Van Jones that 82% of women in prison arrive having suffered abuse. They arrive into a traumatizing environment where they can’t physically move. With trauma you need movement. They go into a sedentary environment with PTSD symptoms. Lights on all of the time, sleeping barracks style. In some prisons, the conditions are worse than others. My sense is that they come out more traumatized.”

“There are women who messed up, who did armed robbery and got forty years. There are people serving life sentences because they’ve committed three crimes. It’s not good. What happened to that person? I always try to rewind it back to asking why are they making bad decisions? What happened to them that they have poor impulse control? How is the trauma affecting their brain? Was she abused, was she raped? I can’t believe what these women have been through.”

Wallace describes how trauma gets frozen in the body, in the part of the brain responsible for fight, flight or freeze. She explains, “you can do all of the talking up in the frontal lobe about making better decisions, but the trauma is frozen in the background. Repetitious, rhythmic movement gets at the part of the brain that’s holding that. To me dance is getting at the wound without retraumatization. The movement with the empowering music is such a safe, clean way to get toward healing.”

“The movement and dance bring back control and joy. There is a feeling of “I am in control of my body. Someone else is not violating me. I am the one lifting my chin up, arching my back, kicking my leg. There is a sense of owning my body, owning the experience. And that leads to tears falling in total joy. It’s very powerful.”

A Pathway to Belonging

The recidivism rate in Colorado is an unfortunate 50 percent. The Director of Colorado’s Department of Corrections, Dean Williams, attributes some of this to the dehumanizing culture within the prisons. He cites a lack of social belonging among the biggest reasons for people to be driven back into the prison system. Wallace describes the community building aspects of dance; “There has been research by a woman named Bronwyn Tarr that dancing in rhythm with a group of people increases trust and pain tolerance. So then they are having this sense of community and they are healing in community. It’s such a connection of the body, mind and heart. I heard this quote, “I learned to belong by dancing.” 

The women who participate in Dance To Be Free are learning how to belong. Wallace says, “Something I didn’t see on the horizon when I started this is the sense of community is so huge. One woman said “I have my tribe now.” They would be dancing next to someone that they never talked to, or who was an enemy. They are a Dance to Be Free tribe now.”

A Self-Sustaining Model

The Dance to Be Free program has evolved in ways that Wallace had not expected when she began four years ago. In the beginning she was teaching weekly classes to prisoners in Denver. After six months, she decided to teach the women how to teach the classes to each other, so she offered a teacher training. The women then had the means to sustain the program for themselves. This allowed Wallace to expand to another prison in Pueblo. When she expanded again to Nebraska, she began to see that the teacher training program was a very successful, self-sustaining model that could be replicated all over the country. Dance To Be Free has thus far been implemented in thirteen prisons in eight states.

Wallace offers continued support to the women holding Dance to Be Free programs in their prison communities by sending videos of new choreography from the weekly classes she teaches in Boulder at Block 1750. The teacher programs empower the women to create their own choreography, as well. Wallace shares their choreography with the women in all of the other prisons that hold the program. In this way, the women are able to reach beyond the walls of their own prison to build community with other women. “It’s a cool web. They see other people dancing their movement.” 

Dance To Be Free recently took yet another evolutionary step when, after her eighth trip to Nebraska, Wallace held a facilitator training that will teach the women to hold the teacher trainings themselves. This development has grown the program into a completely self-sustaining model. “It’s a full three-day, twelve-hour experiential growth workshop. We journal, write poetry, have circles, watch inspirational videos, do breathing exercises. The women can decide they want to do this, they want to teach, or they can just participate for their own well being.” About 5 percent of the women decide to go on to teach within the facility. “Leading dance can be challenging. It takes a certain personality. The women who go through the training just for themselves benefit just from learning how to teach.”

A Pathway to Success

Wallace plans to offer a certification program for facilitators who can aid in her effort to implement Dance To Be Free programs in more prisons. Though people all over the world reach out to her for training, she says it takes a very special person to be able to do the work.  “The real goal is that I want the women who are in and have been in prison to hold the torch.”

Wallace says, “The most common theme written about in the class journals is an urge to help other women.” Both lifers and women who have completed their sentences are learning a means to lift other women out of their isolation and trauma by sharing Dance To Be Free. They can be a source of inspiration and healing. “If we can get to the core of what’s fueling the bad decision making problem, which to me is unaddressed trauma, we can prepare someone with job skills, or resume building, or entrepreneurial skills. The dance does it, they have this awakening. It’s one answer. It’s a choice.”

How Our Community Can Support Dance To Be Free

“Prisons don’t pay. We do all of the fundraising on our own, so it’s quite the challenge. Even when they tell us they love the program, it’s changing culture, the women are responsive, it’s enhancing the work they are doing, they still won’t pay for it. Prison reform is desperately needed. All of the funding that supports Dance To Be Free comes from donors in the Boulder and Denver community.” 

To help Lucy Wallace change the lives of more women in more prisons, you can donate to Dance To Be Free at https://www.classy.org/give/243137/#!/donation/checwkout

To participate in community dance classes with Wallace, and dance the movement that is sometimes filmed and shared in the prisons, you can join her at Block 1750 on most Wednesdays at 9:30 and Saturdays at 11:15. block1750.com/

Recently, CNN featured a story on Dance To Be Free. You can view it here https://www.facebook.com/cnn/videos/365914294338440?sfns=xmwa

See more videos of the Dance To Be Free program in action, in the prisons Dance To Be Free: Home

The post Dance To Be Free: Empowerment through Movement appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

Photos by Sam Bourland for Yellow Scene

A DiverCity conversation with Serene Singh, on the eternal sunshine of the ambitious mind, the soulfulness of Sikh love, kicking open a couple of Rhodes Scholarship doors, and being a person whose smile is literally infectious.

Serene Singh. She’s a proud Coloradan. She is someone who defines herself by the things she is rather than the things she isn’t, a distinction I appreciate. It reminds me of being for things rather than just against. It reeks of optimism, and if you’ve ever met Serene…but I digress. Serene identifies as a proud South Asian Indian (her parents were born in New Delhi), Sikh (her religion, the fifth largest in the world), American, woman.

She has spent her life, thus far, on work supporting and uplifting religious groups, minority groups, and women, to uplift them “to the point that they don’t need to be uplifted anymore”. That’s what she does. That’s who she is.

But why is she? For Serene, it’s because of growing up in a Sikh household. We cannot mistake the indelible imprint of culture, and religious culture, on our lives. In a Sikh household, coming of age in a time where early memories began taking root post-9/11, she remembers bibles forced on family members, conversion attempts closer to kidnapping attempts, violence directed at their bodies, hate in their faces. Her father was the first Sikh man in the US Army and she can only imagine what he endured there.

“The wound is the place where the Light enters you.”- Rumi

There was a certain amount of darkness in seeing all of that, living it, surviving it. Darkness either swallows you or you find light. “I had to find a way to heal,” Serene tells me in a crowded Starbucks on Pearl street, her mother and best friend nearby holding bags of clothes and shoes for our photoshoot. “I had to find a way to heal long term, so I wouldn’t be keeping it on myself, but never letting it allow me to grow.”

Looking at the world around her, as Sikh people constantly having to explain who they were to people who didn’t know – didn’t want to know – she wondered how much better life would be if community leaders and political leaders put down their ignorance and biases and went out to understand every aspect of their communities, every group. As a student government leader at CU Boulder, that was how she engaged, going “out of my way to understand the people on this campus, out of my way to understand the people of Colorado that I love so deeply”.

“Be the person you needed when you were younger.” – Ayesha Siddiqi

Speaking of CU Boulder: we would list her accomplishments, but her LinkedIn is online and there’s too many to list. What matters is not what happens in the middle, necessarily, but where you are going. After graduating with a mind boggling amount of accomplishment and accolades, she put a feather in her cap, becoming the first Sikh American (man or woman) and the first woman ever at CU Boulder to win a coveted Rhodes Scholarship.

Serene told me that Rhodes’ intention behind the scholarship was white, “anglosaxon men taking over the world to spread the white race. They have the ability to cure the rest of the world.” She sees it now, the transformation, the co-opting of that horror, with attending benefit, for others it wasn’t intended for. Since that was the intention, Rhodes must be turning in his grave as “a Sikh American woman, the first woman of her university, a predominantly white university, who’s able to step in and have that platform that was once only awarded to men.” That’s incredibly powerful. From a pageant girl, a Bhangra dancer, no woman, no South East Asian, will ever be at CU and wonder if it’s possible.

“That door has been kicked wide open,” she says.

“Breaking down a closed door is quicker than waiting for someone to answer it.” – Matshona Dhliwayo

How did she get to this place and how does she keep going? Her plate is full and her identities would make any life hard, and yet she persists.

“It’s reflection,” she says, “because I’m constantly going back to my why. I’m constantly going back to my deepest intentions … if I’m not challenging who I am, my biases, if I’m not taking risks that stress me out and scare me, I’m not growing … I have that light at the end of the tunnel of, I want our supreme court to have more justices that care about the things that I care about in a judiciary that works.” She uses the same technique to stay grounded as she moves through life, grounded in her family history and struggles, her ambitions and goals.

She’s never identified as an extrovert, but she loves humans, and loves inspiring and making other people’s days better.

.“There has to be people like that,” she says. “My unique purpose is like that. I was born into my family’s life, into a Sikh American’s life, into the world around me that was full of a lot of pain and a lot of hurt. The single worst thing I could’ve done in that time was to make it harder, made it more cloudy, than it already was. Throughout my life I’m always trying to be that more bubbly, uplifting, optimistic person.” Even when her friends have questioned her ability to do “x, y, x, y, and z” she responds, “no, no, I will, watch me”.

“People who say it cannot be done, should not interrupt those who are doing it” – Bernard Shaw

In a special moment, perhaps without intention, she told me exactly who, how, and why she is. “From a very young age,” she says with a certain rapidity, “my mom was like, ‘who is this girl? Why is she so so sure of herself?’ … I think, just believing so recklessly in the power of optimism and even dreams that are way out there is what got me to be who I am today.”

Believing recklessly. For those going forward, this is your goal: to believe recklessly, in optimism, in the power and beauty of who you are, in your dreams, in a world for all of us.

In Sikhism, Serene says, reminding me that attending temple is part of her self care and what rejuvenates her, there’s a concept called Charhdi Kala. It means high spirits, to be consistently and eternally in high spirits. She takes inspiration from Sikh people who have gone through so much, yet remain in high spirits.

In the course of our conversation, Serene must have mentioned the word justice(s) a dozen times. She is adamant that, following her role as CU Chief Justice, she will be the first South Asian Sikh American woman on the US Supreme Court. Given her tenacity, her brilliance, her heart, her grounding, and her ability to believe recklessly, we’re absolutely sure that she will take her Charhdi Kala – her high spirits – to the high court.

The post DiverCity Series: Serene Singh’s High Spirits appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

Heidi Ganahl

Empower: To promote the self-actualization or influence of (Merriam-Webster). In more colloquial terms, empowerment can be defined as gaining strength and autonomy, especially by self-determined direction of one’s life and by claiming one’s rights. 

Speaking of rights, we are in a pocket of unprecedented legislative regression for American women. Combined with statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau – such as more women than men now earn advanced degrees, and social support for womens’ revelations of injustice continuously grows – and you have a time unlike any other. It’s a pressure cooker for personal and social reform. With #MeToo ablaze, child marriage still legal in 48 states, Kavanaugh seated, and reproductive rights for women in multiple states under siege, one thing is clear: it is not, nor has it ever been, a time to trifle with female empowerment, women’s rights, or human rights, personally or collectively.

The concept of women’s empowerment is the compelling centerpiece of Heidi Ganahl’s 200-page book, SheFactor. You may also know Heidi Ganahl (nee Heidi Flemming) as the accomplished female founder of the $100 million canine daycare and boarding franchise, Camp Bow Wow. Heidi actively participates in several other leadership and community initiatives. She leads her social entrepreneurship incubator, the Fight Back Foundation, and was recently elected to the Board of Regents at the University of Colorado. She has earned a remarkable paragraph-worth of awards and recognitions. If empowerment involves the span of influence, then there’s no question Heidi Ganahl has wings.

At the same time, like a wheel out of balance on an otherwise fabulous ferrari, I pause to note one disorienting peculiarity. To speak to the concept – and reality – of women’s equality, one significant misalignment cannot be ignored. Heidi supported Trump in his 2016 bid for President of the United States, and remains a long-standing member of a political party with a legacy of legislation fueling the war on women; a party and president with a penchant for measures that serve to smother the fiery feminine which SheFactor aims to ignite.

How can a message of women having power and choice be reconciled with affiliation to a party that denies a woman’s right to choose? What is SheFactor really about? Our interview with Heidi Ganahl at Boulder Book Store provided a chance to find out.

SheFactor, released on February 10, 2019, is available in hardcover, Kindle, audiobook, and as an app. Heidi’s daughter, Tori, inspired her to create the book. After college, Tori found that the “plan” set for her life wasn’t what she expected, or wanted. Heidi created SheFactor to assist her and other women seeking their true path.

But what is SheFactor? Without a chance to read it, I wondered if a new emblem of pop-culture iconography had been achieved. A kind of X factor-esque essence freshly extracted, perhaps a radiance from the core of a female’s personal power. But my ruminations led me astray.

The SheFactor is, in short, a number generated by taking an average of inputs. Said inputs are gathered by self-assessed and self-entered measures in nine areas of life (e.g. faith and freedom). The user determines and sets her unique goals and tracks them herself. A type of gamified goal-setting geared towards real-life results. The design helps you enjoy achieving what you want, while also learning work-life balance and organizational skills and learning about yourself. It offers practical tools to help organize and shape your life.

SheFactor invites users to engage with fellow users, online and off. One of the more uncommon aspects of the book, especially in our digital era, is the encouragement to form offline community with other users; to physically get out in the world and get together for support and camaraderie, with a dash of friendly competition.

When asked about how to reconcile SheFactor‘s female empowerment message with her alignment to a party that can’t be said to support that aim, Ganahl’s response was that we can “agree to disagree.” She says she focuses more on the free market aspects of her party affiliation. Given that some define the feminist and women’s empowerment movements by a woman’s right to choose (not solely regarding bodies, but everything), this left more questions than answers. Is it woman empowering or fiercely feminist to overlook the right to choose in favor of free market ideology? Doesn’t overlooking the physical rights of women in favor of fiscal concerns maintain a certain status quo? She also acknowledged that there are issues in her party, as well as with the Democratic Party, which is fair.

SheFactor is available in
at the following locations:

– Boulder Book Store (Boulder)

– Book Bar (Denver)

– Old Firehouse Bookstore (Fort Collins)

The next stop of Heidi’s nationwide book tour is in Fort Collins on June 15th, followed by Tucson, Arizona on June 20th. Tentative plans include New York, California, and Oregon. The Tucson leg includes a Happy Hour – a unique offering making the author all the more accessible to attendees. The book tour develops continuously. Further updates can be found on SheFactor’s “Events” page.

Let’s return to the definition with which we began. If empowerment is about self-directed determination and claiming one’s rights, and SheFactor is designed to help achieve your true goals, certainly this book helps with self-direction. Career success and work-life balance are key for women. But so are decisions about her own body and the right to make that choice. After all, if a woman can do anything, that should include choices about her physical self. I believe we need advocacy for the whole woman, not only parts. SheFactor has much to offer to many. And, as we move towards the equality of women in America, we will need many factors in the form of each of us stepping up and defining and claiming our rights.

In conclusion, here’s a list of dope books on women’s empowerment for your summer reading list. Compiled by the author. Enjoy!

The post Summer Books: SheFactor and the Politics of Empowerment appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

When walking home from a birthday party in 1972, two 11-year-old girls were kidnapped at gunpoint, sexaully assaulted, and shot near Chautauqua, Colorado. The people of Boulder were outraged, said Janine D’Anniballe, Ph.D., director of Moving to End Sexual Assault (MESA). The incident, which tragically left one of the girls dead and the other injured, prompted the founding of the organization now known as MESA, the third oldest rape crisis center in the country.

Every year in April, MESA – and sexual assault prevention organizations across the country – promotes Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM), which is used to shine a spotlight on what D’Anniballe refers to as an “epidemic crime,” for which both men and women need to take preventative action. D’Anniballe, who is in her 20th year as the director of MESA, also wears the hat of Director of Trauma Services with Mental Health Partners and was named BOCO Woman of the Year in 2015. D’Anniballe started in sports psychology. She discovered students wanted to share trauma stories instead of talking about their game.

“It started fueling the underlying, hidden activist in me, really,” she said about her path. “And, realizing that this issue is not just about psychological trauma, it’s about social justice. Because, people on the margins in our society are more likely to be victimized sexually, whether we are talking gender, gender identity, race, class, or ability.”

MESA’s Prevention Director Sarah Dobson said, for Coloradans, 1 in 4 women and 1 in 6 men will experienced some form of sexual violence in their lifetime. Dobson says there is a high prevalence of minors being victimized with 60 percent of sexual assault victims under the age of 18 and 29 percent under the age of 12.

#MeToo

D’Anniballe MESA has experienced its highest call volume in its history within the last 12 months.

“I think [#MeToo] is important because, when Tarana Burke founded this [#MeToo] idea, she had an experience and she said, ‘This happened to me. Who else has it happened to?’ And, she kind of invited a raising of hands, of sorts,” D’Anniballe said. Social media played a significant role in providing anonymity and solidarity as the movement formed and evolved in unprecedented ways.

“Then, as it grew with one person coming out, then three, then 10. I think people found safety in numbers and found a community in numbers. The next thing we knew, people who had never told their story, ever, maybe even to anyone, all of a sudden, felt like it was okay to finally speak their truth. I’ve never seen anything like it my career.”

D’Anniballe believes it is thanks, in part, to #MeToo that people are feeling more comfortable speaking up and out about sexual assault. “Maybe [people are] more aware of labeling what happened to them as sex assault and then feeling more comfortable reaching out”.

Prevention

Both D’Anniballe and Dobson believe that prevention of sexual assault is key with MESA currently planning to expand prevention programs for Boulder County with a focus on prevention and consent education.

“[Prevention] has to be a relentless, persistent challenge of rape culture in all of its forms,” D’Anniballe says. However, prevention education is “grossly underfunded”.

“We have evidence-based programs. We know what to do. We know what works. It’s being able to get the resources to do it,” she says. Sexual assault also needs to be looked at as a public health issue considering how much trauma impacts physical and mental health, as well as work productivity.

Dobson said she aims to help others reimagine how all are interconnected and to rehumanize each other. “We talk a lot about the gender binary, and the violence that causes,” she said. “We look at rape culture and the way we dehumanize and sexualize certain groups of people, whether it’s women or the female body, or feminine, or transgender, or non-binary, or people of color, people with disabilities, all of these different groups who have been marginalized and dehumanized in our media, in our language, in our infrastructure. The more distance we have from people, the easier it is to enact violence, so a lot of our work is shifting toward cultures of equity and equality, cultures of nurturance, re-valuing femininity, feminine values, and expanding beyond binary notions of identity.”

Programs

According to FBI crime statistics, while people of all genders have perpetuated sexual violence, the majority of those arrested are men, at 95 percent. MESA has created programs especially for men and boys.

MESA offers the Men of Strength club (MOST), prevention programs for middle and high school boys, up and running in three Boulder County schools so far. The club is a safe space, with an adult male mentor, for middle and high school boys to talk about what it means to be a man.

MESA also collaborates with Safehouse Progressive Alliance for Nonviolence (SPAN), which focuses on domestic and intimate partner violence in Boulder County, for a Peers Building Justice (PBJ) program. PBJ is an eight-session, healthy relationships curriculum and after-school program.

“I think there are a lot of people who would be very capable of learning consent if that’s what we are teaching, are expecting, and holding people accountable to,” Dobson said.

PBJ also offers an after-school program and students delve into social justice issues and create exhibitions to educate the community, particularly adults, about issues that are personal to them. The next showcase will be held from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, May 11, 2019, at the Boulder Public Library.

Volunteers Needed

Dobson works to recruit and train volunteers. “[Sexual Assault Awareness Month] is a great time to get in your volunteer applications,” she said. “Without the volunteers, it would be very hard to do what we do. We always need more volunteers.” The majority of the volunteers act as hotline advocates for MESA’s 24-hour hotline (303.443.7300), which is available for people to call for resources and emotional support for themselves or a loved one, who may have experienced sexual violence. Volunteers receive up to 40 hours of training for a certification in Confidential Sexual Assault Advocate.

Check out the website for ongoing and cointnuing events. And be sure to check out the new podcast, Sex by Invitation Only, launched recently by MESA. Several episodes have already dropped. “The way that sexual assault is talked about in the news leaves a lot wanting,” Dobson said. “MESA wanted to add a more nuanced perspective to talk about the news.”

Donations can be made on MESA’s website. More information is available by visiting https://movingtoendsexualassault.org/. Victims of sexual assault are encouraged to call the 24-hour hotline at 303.443.7300.

The post You, too, can help stop Sexual Assault appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

This spring, opportunities to enjoy dance are abundant. Performances from BOCO’s many local dance companies are popping up like our very own superbloom. One to watch is Cindy Brandle Dance Company’s A World on Fire, premiering April 19 – 20 at The Dairy Arts Center. This work takes on “social privilege, racial discrimination, the #MeToo movement, LGBTQ marginalization, and the constantly evolving antics of the current administration. Utilizing fierce, compassionate and athletic movement, CBDC’s choreography is inspired by the writings of local poets to create an evening of compassionate, compelling dance and film.”

Sound heady? Brandle says, “This show is deep, a little dark, but also hopeful. I aim for people to be touched, and find entertainment within the conceptual work.” Most of us are familiar with the gymnastic and virtuoso dance we see on television with such shows as So You Think You Can Dance. While impressive and thrilling to watch, that intellectual connection that Brandle offers is so often missing from the experience. Not so much reaching for the stars as reaching for their audience, CBDC wants you to think and feel their work. Brandle finds dance to be a “richer and more satisfying experience when the work has substance and depth.”

Yet beautiful movement is also important to the company esthetic. “We are working hard for the dancers to present beautiful movement, executed in an advanced technical performance.” Discussing her movement theory, Brandle says, “the energy comes from the inside out, so everything you’re doing is connected to your chi, and it’s connected to your center sacral connections, so you are really utilizing what is happening inside of your body to inform what is happening outside of your body.”

Such internal motivation offers the audience a recognizable experience of dance. We recognize movement which comes from the dancer’s somatic experience because we also have bodies that house these felt experiences. The movement touches our own inner landscape, and we can be more viscerally connected to what we see. So, while perhaps you may be impressed by a dancer’s skill, you can also recognize the feeling of the movement within yourself.  

Brandle is a choreographer who wants to go deeper. Discussing her love of dance, she says, “modern dance in particular brings a whole intellectual experience, because it will offer the audience a chance to interpret it as they see it, which I think is amazing. Sometimes people will come to me and talk to me about what they’ve seen, and it will be slightly different from my intentions, and that’s ok. I love that people are utilizing a thought process while they are watching. They are not just being entertained. There is something to digest and something to have a moment to contemplate. Abstract art makes you give pause and really think about what you saw and how you interpret it.”  

I had the chance to peek at a final rehearsal while the dancers were doing a run through of the completed work. I saw strong dancers with long lines, moving fiercely and succinctly through Brandle’s choreography of large movement, punctuated by precise gesture. The full company of nine women on the stage, moving together, is powerful, the way a community can be powerful when unified by an ideal or purpose. When the dancers break into smaller groups, supporting, throwing and lifting one another, there is a sense of human interaction to the movement. Solo dancers convey vulnerability, but also a sense of self-sufficient resolve.

Some of the dancing is performed against a backdrop of original poetry layered over music. These poems give the work it’s socio-political content, discussing a variety of issues that are currently in the public discourse. There is a poem written by a transgendered woman, another by a member of the LGBTQ community, who is also a woman of color, about what it is like to be in brown skin, another speaks of the #MeToo movement, a man discusses race from the perspective of a person of color, and his wife speaks of gun control.

Brandle hopes the content of the work will “open a dialogue for a deeper appreciation and understanding of the intense division in the world when addressing racial discrimination, LGBTQ marginalization, gender inequality, and the #MeTOO movement.”

I missed the opportunity to see the stage technologies of film and lighting that will add more layers of content and visual interest to the performance. Multimedia performance such as this has been growing in popularity, offering a variety of facets for audiences to connect to the work.    

So, why give dance a chance? As a dancer and choreographer for over 34 years, Brandle obviously has a great love of modern dance, although she laughs at the irony of choosing a career in such an obscure art form that gives little monetary reward. “I love the nonverbal communication of dance and how our bodies can create so much emotion. I think it inspires people. We are telling a story. We are communicating with our bodies. Seeing a live performance can be a rewarding experience to see live breathing people on a stage. I believe in my company and I think we are totally worth checking out. And I think there are some very talented people in the Front Range dance community.”

We all live in bodies that move and express ideas and emotions, even if we are not directly aware or deliberate about our expression. Watching this more intellectually driven dance can touch that awareness in each of us, making us remember our shared humanity. Remembering how we are all connected, despite our differences, is something we sorely need these days. A World on Fire offers an experience of connection, to ourselves, to issues that we are all dealing with in our communities, in relating to one another. It’s dance that we can relate to. We can see beautiful movement, and think and feel while we watch. Definitely worth checking out.

You can purchase your tickets here.

The post Preview | Cindy Brandle Dance Company: A World on Fire at Dairy Arts Center April 19 – 20 appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

Evolving Doors Dance, a staple in the Front Range contemporary dance scene, is back with their first full-length performance in two years. A Rip in the Sky & Mending the Moon, a premiere of contemporary dance, theater, poetry and original music, opened on Thursday, March 7 and runs until March 9 at The People’s Building in Aurora. The 75 minute piece weaves together multiple disciplines in an exploration of approaches to “tearing, fraying, unraveling, and…the sometimes unfathomable task of mending.”

The cast, assembled from dancers and actors, each bring their own unique skills to the stage. Some of the performers also brought their own written essays and poetry to the creative process, which comprise the spoken portions of the performance. Whatever their main discipline, all cast members speak and dance. The shifting focus from words to dance to the ways they mingle brought layered interest to the work.

Among the cast members were the Evolving Doors Dance company directors, choreographer/dancer Angie Simmons, and composer/musician Amy Shelley. Simmons and Shelley share life as a married couple as well as sharing a partnership as artistic collaborators. They have worked together for many years, learning to seamlessly interweave their personal and creative lives. It is lovely to hear the way a blanket reminds Simmons of their shared history in a snippet of dialogue. Their success in working well together is evident with A Rip in the Sky’s overarching theme of relationship.

Shelley’s sound score provides an ambient backdrop, sometimes adding an urgent element to the performance, such as when Shelley hits the drum set during a dance duet. Pre-recorded sounds are mixed with live music in an abstract soundscape, allowing the sounds to be interpreted by the listener. At one point, I imagined that I heard scissors sliding through fabric.

From sewing lessons and brief lectures on cultural fabric traditions, to shrouding the dancers, cloth is laid out, literally and metaphorically, quilting together the assorted elements of dance, poetry, memory, and music. Though sometimes the performers speak of repairing cloth, the dancers’ bodies intertwine, pulling together, pushing away, speaking of relationship. From there, the language flows into poetry about loss, or desire to reconnect, while bodies strive to make contact, or dancers tie fabric to form a bridge.

Outstanding among the spoken and danced elements was a piece written by Simmons which reimagines Homer’s Penelope weaving and unweaving a shroud in order to maintain her rulership as a single female.

The Mourning Star by Ian D, a poem about his empty feelings after the passing of his mother, was emotionally potent.

Later, a bit of dialogue stating that “America has no fabric tradition” left my viewing partner and I with questions about how indigenous fabric traditions fit into this point of view. Simmons later explained that she intended to convey that the USA has many fabric traditions, including indigenous and imported traditions, but denim is as close as we come to having a fabric representative of blended culture. She felt that as a company without Native representation, claims about indigenous fabric traditions were tricky to navigate without appropriating culture, but thought the phrasing could be reworked for better clarity.

Throughout the evening, the dance held steady, supported by the musical score, while the stories provided emotional context and variety. The assorted narratives come together, not like a story with linear plotlines, but like a quilt the performers have sewn together and laid gently across the stage by the end of the show. The dancers conclude the show by spreading scraps of fabric upon the stage floor, lending visual imagery to this perception.

The piece is presented “in the round,” with the stage in the center of the audience. This is a different configuration than the standard proscenium stage presentation, with its imaginary “third wall” separating the world of the performers from the audience. The “in the round” presentation offers a more intimate experience to the viewer, freeing the performers to direct their actions to all sides of the stage. The audience members each experience a unique viewing of the piece, but are more connected by facing one another. At times, my eyes drifted outward from the performance to another audience member’s face. Their experience of watching became part of the performance, giving a feeling of being “in this together.”

As a dancer and choreographer, it was a pleasure to return to dance as an audience member to view A Rip in the Sky & Mending the Moon. I found familiarity in the gestural and grounded movement style that seems to grow locally. The Front Range is home to a creative contemporary dance and theater scene, producing experimental, immersive or multidisciplinary work like EDD’s A Rip In the Sky & Mending the Moon. Like EDD, these companies are artist owned and produced, crowdfunded ventures. These hidden gems are worthy of  attention, and should be sought out whenever possible.

Duet with fabric, image by Evolving Doors Dance Company

The post Evolving Doors Dance Company Rips the Sky, Mends the Moon: Contemporary Dance Review appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

The Lincoln Center. It’s a gorgeous theater up in Fort Collins. Perhaps you’ve heard of it, perhaps not. Entertaining us on stage at the Lincoln Center this past January 20 was the vibrant and eternal Mavis Staples. “At the beginning of her eighth decade of singing truth,” her Lincoln Center bio tells us, “Mavis Staples has delivered a new recording, If All I Was Was Black, featuring ten songs about America today where the present is filled with ghosts of the past.” We were excited to be in the crowd. As noted, “Mavis Staples is an alchemist of American music and has continuously crossed genre lines like no musician since Ray Charles. Weaving herself into the very fabric of gospel, soul, folk, pop, R&B, blues, rock and even hip-hop over the better part of the last 60 years”

The crowd was not disappointed. From the first moments of her entry and the start of the show the entire venue and stage was pulsing with a buzzing energy. Having earned a place in both the Blues as well as the Rock-n-Roll halls of fame, Mavis has been at this for 71 years. She opened by saying she wanted to send out “positive vibrations” that night, and they were well received.

There was one word running through my mind the entire night, that word being history. It was reflected in everything that night: from the music itself, the playlist, and all the talking points. This is compounded by the fact it was the night before Martin Luther King Jr Day, this being important because Mavis marched with him on the streets during the civil rights movement. Every aspect of the show was infused with events of prior years, used to inform the present and affecting the show in minute as well as major ways.

The most noticeable aspect being the talking points, the lyrics, the words. Staples told us stories about what she did in the civil rights movement, about marching in the streets and being arrested for singing and walking. She told us about equal rights movements today and how we can draw parallels from the past. It was beautifully poignant in an America that is witnessing some of its most divisive times in a generation.

However, as I mentioned, this is not the only place history was shining through that night. The next most obvious way was through the music selection. She played mostly original music from throughout her discography, but performed a few key covers from various eras, most interesting to me being her choice of Slippery People by the Talking Heads. Speaking in Tongues was released in 1983, and Mavis has been active since 1950. This may be confusing, because I’ve been talking about history and how the past has affected the present, so if the album came out after the most active years for soul music, that seems contradictory. However, this choice represents an understanding of how new music can affect old, and how it can help older styles of music evolve. Playing newer music in styles of older genres shows that we must be aware of the future and that we must be dynamic to changing times.

Finally, the least obvious way (at least to those without a background in music theory), is within the music itself. She plays what can only be described as quintessential soul music. Soul music is the culmination of jazz music from years prior as well as gospel music before it. Jazz most affects the sense of rhythm, feeling beats 2 and 4, feeling the syncopation, while the gospel music affects the accessibility of the music in the form of crowd participation and simple chord changes. While this may sound like a criticism of the music, I would say it’s one of this genre’s strongest aspects; it allows everyone to join in, which is the entire point.

This leads me to the thing that was occupying my thoughts second-most often – Inclusivity. Because of the band’s charisma and the chemistry between its members, as well as the crowd’s energy, everyone in that room was included in the fun that night, which isn’t always the case. Staples would get the crowd to sing along with her, and you would see her laughing on stage with her band members and interacting with them. This alone captures the entire essence of the music: everyone join in, loves each other, and contributes.

Returning back to my point about jazz and gospel, the influence from these genres is also seen in the interaction. Jazz is often about interaction between band members (at least in small groups of trios to quintets). The point is to listen to what any one member is playing and play it back with your own twist. You could see each member looking at each other, as if to say “here’s what I’m saying” and the other members listening back saying “I hear you”. Gospel music is about getting everyone in the pew to sing along, and it sure seemed like everyone in the crowd was singing along. No one was left out. Staples even made jokes about taking the crowd on tour with her on extra busses.

Tying back in to my point about the setlist, her choice of covers and her own music is also what made this event so accessible for everyone – there was at least one song everyone knew and could sing along to. I saw people of all ages in the crowd, so covering the Talking Heads was a way in for the middle aged people, and her music was a  way in for the older people who grew up with her music.

Her ability to speak on current events, overlapping with her life of involvement with the civil rights movement, tied both generations together. Our society is faced with similar problems of racism and bigotry today as it did then. To quote Staples: “We aren’t done yet”. When she got arrested, she told us that they would just go back out and start up again. In her Freedom Highway song, one particular lyric stood out to me: “Made up my mind and I won’t turn around”. We’ve come too far to turn around now, and we have to keep marching, together, and remember how far we’ve come together and remember what has brought us here today. Good thing we have soundtracks from Mavis Staples to keep us smiling and singing along the way.

For the new album from Mavis Staples, If All I Was Was Black, you can check out her Bandcamp or her website. Her next album, Live In London, will be available February 8, 2019.

The post Mavis Staples brings old ghosts to new music at Lincoln Center appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

Boulder is a magnet for world-class athletes, but sports legends do not simply vanish upon leaving their field of play. Our community’s victory is retaining these champions in our midst. This is the story of those Boulder County athletes that chose to become champions…after sports.

The Phinney Foundation

“Did you ever imagine you could have a greater impact than your racing results?” I asked Davis Phinney, a two-time Tour de France stage winner and Olympic medalist. Phinney’s words come slowly — almost two decades ago, seven years after his retirement from professional cycling, he was diagnosed with early-onset Parkinson’s. When he speaks, though, his eyes are bright, his words articulate, his thoughts poignant. His demeanor reveals the self-effacing confidence of one who devoted half a lifetime to honing himself as a competitor before learning that he would spend the rest of his life redefining “victory” altogether.

This time, however, Phinney answers with immediacy: “Never,” says the man with more victories than any other cyclist in American history. He paused, slowly, carefully, sipping iced tea, “I was too in it.” The Davis Phinney Foundation, co-founded with wife and Olympic champion cyclist Connie Carpenter in 2004, directed nearly two million dollars last year alone toward increasing quality of life for those with Parkinson’s. “I did not set out with the intention of saving the world,” he says, reminiscing about the training camps he and Carpenter started as their initial post-racing-life venture. “I fell into it later, after my diagnosis.”

Decades ago, Phinney led Boulder’s rise to cycling Mecca status. Now, his foundation is expanding reality for his Parkinson’s community. “It rings quite true,” says Davis Phinney Foundation ambassador Rich Wildau. “When I hear others comment, ‘if you have to have Parkinson’s, Boulder, Colorado is the best place to have it.’” The Foundation’s work is now what Phinney’s name is known for. “In a sense it couldn’t make me happier,” he says. “I’d hate to sustain myself on work I did half-a-lifetime ago.”

Unwavering focus and appetite for challenge are characteristics that bleed unbidden into civilian life. “Whatever I was doing I was so laser focused on it that I didn’t step back,” explains Phinney. “As a bike racer I was obsessed with winning and now as a person with Parkinson’s I’m obsessed with winning, but in a much different way.”

Davis Phinney Foundation Victory Summit

Boulder Climbing Community

Like Phinney, Roger Briggs grew up in Boulder. He was rock climbing by twelve: “We were hanging out on Flagstaff, and we would see people rappelling and ask them questions. It just seemed inevitable.” By sixteen, Briggs climbed Longs Peak’s Diamond, an ascent he has since made more than one hundred times. He was one of the pioneers of free climbing — part of a then-revolutionary class that jettisoned the pitons used to cut into rock in favor of just hands and feet — the climbing style that is now the standard.

Briggs now works to preserve those climbs of his youth. In 2010, he founded the Boulder Climbing Community, a non-profit that helps local land authorities build sustainable access trails, maintain routes, and monitor Golden eagles.

His tone is casual and intelligent — as befits a former high school physics teacher —imparting concepts explained a thousand times and intimately understood. “It’s just staggering,” Briggs says, describing the popularity of climbing. When pressed, Briggs will talk about his storied reputation and list of first ascents, but will quickly pivot back to his greatest accomplishment: “this stewardship.”

Briggs’ extraordinary acts have often gone unheralded – even in his heyday as an athlete. In 2017, BCC quietly built nearly five thousand feet of retaining walls and hundreds of steps, paving a path for an ever-increasing supply of eager climbers.

Pedaling Minds

Mike Friedman is still honing that confidence — his business cards read, “2008 Olympian, last place”, a tag that betrays understanding of the significance of his accomplishments but veils them with self-deprecation. A former cycling national champion, Friedman founded Pedaling Minds in 2016, a non-profit devoted to teaching kids how to ride bikes safely — with a focus on control, safety, and confidence — explaining the science, math, and engineering that make those bicycles work.

The words flow quickly as Friedman describes his passion for Pedaling Minds. “It made me feel good and gave me a sense of belonging,” he says of his own cycling career. “I could see progress quickly.” He seeks the same emotional boon for his students: “The change that you see … not just learning how to ride a bicycle but the emotional growth, the confidence, the self-belief, the happiness, it’s an amazing thing.”

“He’s the bike whisperer,” six-year-old Evynne Ondatje’s parents said as their pink-sunglassed daughter practiced nearby. This was Evynne’s second lesson. Before the first, she got off to turn corners. Now she streaks directly toward Friedman before he yells “hard stop!” and she grabs a fistful of brakes. “She trusts him more than she trusts us.”

Skirt Sports – Running Start

Nicole DeBoom winning the Ironman Wisconsin

It actually took Ironman Wisconsin winner Nicole DeBoom moving beyond sport to find her focal point. “I got as much fulfillment out of not winning races as winning them,” she says. “I knew I was an all-in kind of person, so I might someday be willing to give that kind of sacrifice to something else. I just didn’t know what that would be until [Skirt Sports]”.

Skirt Sports is a clothing store DeBoom founded in 2004 to empower active women with something better than poorly-fitting men’s running shorts. Entering, you are blasted with bright colors. Photographed models are of all ages, sizes and — importantly, in this town — all levels of fitness. It’s a place of community, something DeBoom found missing during her individual-sport competitive career.

Her vision extends beyond retail — the true soul of Skirt Sports is Running Start, a twelve-week 5k training program that pairs beginner runners with personal mentors. Beginner applicants face challenges ranging from health or family obligations to addiction or financial distress.

Each of these champion athlete-entrepreneurs exuded intuition and certainty of purpose, whether talking of past wins or current ventures. “I’ve always kind of known the next steps to take,” Briggs said, describing an endemic faith similar to that of one seeking the next handhold on a slick rock wall. “Then suddenly you look back, and it’s a career.”

World – OCR

Ian Adamson, a ten-time adventure race world champion and X-games medalist, has followed the path of adding professional ventures one-by-one, always goal-oriented on making sport more accessible. Once a race director, then a TV producer, an advanced training center principal executive, and the director of product development at Newton Running in Boulder, he is now the president of World-OCR, the International Federation of Obstacle Course Racing.

In promoting OCR, Adamson hopes to expand the reach of an appealing, widely accessible sport. “As athletes, we know that if you get focused and driven through sport,” he explains, “That taps into your intrinsic humanity because we are competitive animals, that’s how we survive…it lifts people from the couch to something healthy and positive.”

The Aspen Invitational

The Aspen Invitational, a charity bicycle event she co-founded, is how Cari Higgins is giving cyclists the opportunity to test themselves while also helping those who may not have chosen a life of challenge. The former professional cyclist’s event last year raised $30,000 to benefit World Vision, an organization that brings bikes to Zambia where they are used to take goods to market, create healthcare access, and get children to school.

“I will get through this without crying,” declared the 17-time national champion, describing her own Zambia trip. Three words later her voice broke describing riding home from school with one young bike recipient only to discover the middle-school-aged girl— who had never missed a day of classes — had no parents and was caring for three siblings. “Our bikes are such a privilege,” Higgins says. “And this little girl is working her ass off just to get to school thinking that was going to be her way in the world.”

As an athlete, Higgins was a leader. This venture gives her the purpose that was missing from her inward-focused athlete life. “When we leave this earth, we’re gone,” Higgins tells me, and “[This] makes life a bit more worthy.”

Paradox Sports

Paradox gear placement lesson in Joshua Tree (credit Will Strathmann)

“They’re taking conventional problems, but applying unconventional solutions,” explains Timmy O’Neill — a climber with an international array of first ascents and speed-climb records — of his fellow athlete-entrepreneur-activists. O’Neill co-founded Paradox Sports in 2017 with injured Iraq war veteran DJ Skelton to promote adaptive climbing for those affected by spinal cord injuries, amputations, traumatic brain injuries, blindness or neurological problems.

“Decided discomfort, voluntary suffering, elective challenge, those concepts are the same whether you’re solving a problem with somebody who’s missing a limb, or missing their eyesight, or if you’re trying to decide the best way to get through a particular section of whitewater or vertical rock,” O’Neill says. Disabilities aren’t voluntary, but, “we do elect all the time to go and have difficult experiences in the backcountry.”

After O’Neill’s older brother was paralyzed from the waist down in 1991, he pioneered methods to help him climb. They ascended Yosemite’s El Capitan 15 years later. Paradox has grown over the last 10 years, providing 1100 experiences in 2017 including trips, training clinics for gyms across the country, and community climbing nights.

Boulder Rock Club hosts community nights that are packed with confident, lithe movement. At Paradox’s selected section of wall, Sam White, with floppy blonde hair and focused eyes, lifted himself from a wheelchair. Once climbing, no bystander could have discerned an ability difference between him and anyone else. “When he first came here, he wouldn’t use his feet,” his instructor explains. That was just eight months ago.

Legacy Motives

Briggs  climbing Castle Rock (credit Dudley Chelton)

An athlete’s accolades are inherently ephemeral — even the most impressive are vulnerable to fading and eclipse. It is creating, enabling, or supporting a community that creates true legacy. “If you can…plant these seeds, and provide this inspiration, and change lives in an enduring and positive way, then you can essentially transform humanity”, O’Neill says. “It transcends a single life.”

One sunny morning, mist lifting from Boulder Canyon after a night of rain, I followed Roger Briggs to his worksite. The storm had traced rivulets through loose sand. Tree roots twisted high above the mud, marking years of erosion. We chatted with a crew of workers and volunteers skillfully splitting and carrying great stones in litters, crafting a durable staircase. “These are big rocks,” said Briggs, “in a hundred years, these will still be here.”

Briggs’ movements are still fluid, confident. He doesn’t climb as much anymore, managing arthritis. “It’s still a glorious experience to touch rock,” he said, hand to a boulder. “To be on warm rock and just the beauty of places — that’s really what climbing is about, is beauty.” He started this movement, so he understands intimately the need to preserve for future generations. “We are trying to change the culture of [modern, westernized] humans, really, across every area, away from being users of the earth … extracting, exploiting. We want to be stewards of it.”

It’s one thing to have the audacity to conceive of physically accomplishing something never done before. It’s quite another to take that same boldness in the belief that you can shift humankind.

“I’m just a human being,” Briggs tells me, squinting in the tree-filtered sun, after so many years still unsure what to make of those awed by his past and current work. “I just followed my calling.”

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eXXXotica after party, by De La Vaca

Sex work is real. It’s happening all around us. eXXXotica, “The Largest Adult Event in the USA Dedicated to Love & Sex” just hosted their second event in Denver. “It was created for like-minded adults who are looking to ‘celebrate sexy’”. And celebrate they did, with educational seminars, exhibits, demonstrations, million of sex toys and products for your love life, performances (including the Miss eXXXotica Denver competition, see below), and after parties both on site and at local strip club, Platinum 84).

It would be easy to get caught up in the overwhelming amount of sex on display, but we were there with a purpose. With Backpage being shut down over sex trafficking allegations, and sex work the zeitgeist, we thought we’d introduce our new section: Red Scene. We showed up at this risqué event to ask porn stars one simple [read: not at all simple] thing:

What do you wish people understood about sex work / sex workers? Here’s what they said.

Shay Evans, the “Puerto Rican Princess”, is 26 years old. She says, simply, “That we’re people, too. We’re real people.” We had actually spoke at length and I’d be lying if I didn’t say that, off the bat, I was impressed by the depth of knowledge and passion in this community. Jade Kush, a 19 year old Chinese American porn star, is thoughtful, and her thoughts mirrored Shay’s. She added, “One of the things that bugs me the most is people asking for stuff for free. People don’t understand that this is work.” When she suggested that a fan buy her work, he asked why, when he can just download it for free. “To be told that to your face is really deflating. Like saying you’re not worth my time or my money. People are entitled.”

“Honestly,” says Sheridan Love, a 33 year old white American, “when it comes to the fans looking in on the porn industry, I want them to understand that it’s not big money. It’s actually hard work and there’s a million different things we do to make the money.” Which is to say, these women aren’t making millions (even if some have). They’re working tenaciously in an industry they love and, as workers, deserve protections and respect. #SWeconomicrealities.

Gia Vendetti is 26, an Italian American. She reminds us that, “We love it. There’s nothing negative about being in the industry.” But Gia wants more than a basic understanding. “I need people to know there’s a difference between sex trafficking and sex workers. People think sex workers are in the same situation, and it makes me sick.” Jezabel Vessir, a 27 year old African American, says, we’re “normal people who have normal lives.” Like Vendetti, she’s much deeper. “Normality is subjective so it all just depends what your interpretation is.” Psych 101.

Miss eXXXotica Denver 18 winner, Jade Baker, elucidated this idea by pointing out something every professional can understand: “The only reason most of us are doing what we do is because it’s what makes us most comfortable. I sucked at my ‘normal’ job but I’m a great sex worker.” Jade is a stripper, a cam girl on myfreecams and she just finished her first porn shoot. She also dabbles as a dominatrix, the mix of which reminds us of Sheridan Love’s point that sex work is multi-faceted and girls do a lot to make money.

Jade’s experience is an interesting one because, in winning Miss eXXXotica, she learned some valuable lessons and dealt with some drama. She says, “After I won there was a lot of drama between the other competitors and I. I woke up to a million Instagram notifications the next morning that said I won because I showed my vagina, which wasn’t even true. Other girls even slut shamed me, which I thought was hypocritical. In the end I learned any publicity is good publicity.”

Jade Baker, Miss eXXXotica Denver 18, by De La Vaca

Finally, in a surprising bit of luck and graciousness, Tera Patrick (41, mixed Asian, retired) – one of the greatest, most famous, and wealthiest porn stars – talked to us about dimensionality. Say what? Oh yeah, before porn she was a chemist. Don’t judge sex workers (or books) by their covers.

Asked what she wished people knew about sex workers, Tera is clear: “the simple answer would be that we’re not one dimensional. We’re humans. We have other lives. I’m a chemist; I retired. I made millions of dollars from this industry. I’m raising a family and I live on another continent. This was a great vehicle for me. I’ll always be Tera Patrick; I’ll never get away from that. But I’m a mother, I’m a wife. People, of course, they’ve jerked off to me so they just think I’m a porn star. To put that only label on me is really…” One dimensional, I replied. She agrees. “There’s so much to each of us.”

It’s ok to find it reassuring that sex workers are critically aware, conscious of intersectionality, and prepared to defend their position. In fact, sex workers have been at the forefront of social change for generations. Vice recently wrote an article on “What we owe the hidden, groundbreaking activism of Sex Workers.” Stormy Daniels (a porn star) was almost the person who took down Trump after thousands have tried. She’ll be performing at Diamond Cabaret this June, if you want to see her work. The funny part, echoing Tera Patrick’s sentiments, is that sex workers are our neighbors, our mothers, our sisters, our friends, the girls that live down the street, someone we’ve never met and someone we already met but would never guess does sex work. And sex work spans many areas. Read: it’s not all porn. There are massage therapists, exotic dancers, burlesque dancers, and many more.

Now if we can just treat sex work like work and show them some damn respect.

The post Red Scene: eXXXotica Denver 18 appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

Yuki Sanda

Sushi Zanmai, Boulder

Yuki Sanda can’t stop giggling when Yellow Scene talks to her. This can partly be put down to the fact that she’s nervous, English being very much her second language. But she also strikes us a naturally bright, happy and bouncy person. This energy, along with a lot of determination, has helped her become one of the best, and indeed one of the only, female sushi chefs in the United States since arriving here from Osaka, Japan in 1995.

Traditionally, sushi chefs are male. Sanda says that there are a variety of reasons for this although, in this day and age, they all seem a little out of date. “They say that the temperature of a woman’s hands is a little bit warmer,” she says. “Also, the cosmetics that women wear can affect the food.”

This doesn’t seem to hold much water. Some females have extremely cold hands, and surely it’s easy to just not wear make-up when preparing sushi. Thankfully, Sanda’s boss saw her potential when she applied for a kitchen assistant position, and convinced her to try her hand at sushi.

“It’s been very challenging,” Sanda says. People are not used to it. They’re not angry, just very surprised. But I’ve been doing it for 20 years now.”

Traditionally, sushi chefs are male… “They say that the temperature of  a woman’s hands is a little bit warmer.”

It’s a testament to the open-mindedness of Colorado and the United States versus the relative conservativeness of Japan than Sanda is able to work in – and excel at – her chosen field. It seems silly in this day and age that we’re discussing the gender of a chef at all, but ethnic cultures are a delicate thing. Who are we to say what’s wrong?

The flip side is that Sanda feels a duty to inform American sushi-chowers that Californian rolls are not really sushi. “Americans love their mayo and crab,” Sanda says. “Sushi is different in Japan, and it’s just a matter of getting used to it. People make mistakes here though – they put too much wasabi and soy sauce on the sushi, and that means that you can’t really taste the flavor of the fish.”

Take that as a lesson. Meanwhile, Sanda says that the sashimi is her personal favorite dish on the menu. “There are so many varieties of fresh sashimi from Japan,” she says. “I really like preparing that.”

She’s right too; the joy of great sushi, and the sushi served at Sushi Zanmai in particular, is the simplicity – the clean, fresh smell and taste of the fish with some room temp rice. Done right, the food is highly addictive. The fact that it’s being prepared by a woman is really neither here nor there. Still, Sanda has some sound advice for other females looking to get into the field.

“Don’t put on too much make-up or nail polish,” she says. “And don’t be afraid.“

The post Favorite Chef: Yuki Sanda appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.