Meet Lily Duffy: Poet, editor, and life of the party. I remember, years ago, hearing Lily read a poem about a blind date at a red-themed restaurant. The interior was painted red, its patrons wearing red, and even the food: red. Sometimes, when I’m driving to and from various obligations, I hear her words, unexpectedly, and there they ruminate like setting your favorite jam to play on repeat. And like all great jams, the playfulness on the surface of the song invites us to leap, headfirst, into its undercurrent looking for the subtext of the melody. Red: the color of love, but also the color... Read More

Good news! Hillary Susz has a new single, just released, and it’s called “Pollution.” The folk music resurgence is still going strong, but you probably haven’t heard a take on this familiar genre like Hillary’s. She’s a formally trained poet, originally from Spokane, Washington, who currently teaches and studies fiction at CU Boulder. With such an extensive writing background, you know that means you’re in for some tightly-spun and surprising lyrics: “Her hands are like pollution / Though not like trash / more like a purple sky / A shiny foil wrapper  / that holds me hold me... Read More

  The Boulder Jazz Dance Workshop gives dancers the chance to train with a professional company as well as work with some of Boulder’s best dance teachers. The youngest dancers in the workshop are fifteen, but most are college age or older. This is not a beginning level workshop. The classes are geared towards pre-professional dancers, but as long as a dancer has had a few years of technical training, the classes should be manageable. The 2017 workshop takes place on CU Boulder’s campus from July 24th– August 5th and people from all over the country to take ballet, modern, hip-hop,... Read More

Katharine Hawthorne’s performance, Between the Wish and the Thing appeared at the Boulder Fringe Festival this year. The performance was a dive into the unknown, exploring passing time and the past, present and future. Her piece appeared at the Boulder Fringe Festival in Kelly’s Barn in collaboration with Elizabeth Chitty and John Chandler Hawthorne. The dancers broke the fourth wall and engaged the audience with interaction. When the performance started, we were all asked to open fortune cookies that had been laid out on the patio for us as the performer danced a few of our fortunes. As... Read More

At the end of the Boulder Jazz Dance Workshop, the resident dance company, Interweave Dance Theatre, put on the show “Rooms,” using both students and faculty from the workshop as dancers. Local choreographers and choreographers from the workshop created work for this performance. Before the show began, a stone castle was projected onto the back screen. As the performance progressed, the audience got an intimate look into the rooms of the castle. Here were a few of my favorite rooms: “Mystery:” “Mystery,” along with several other pieces in the performance were inspired by the board game,... Read More

Today I’d like to introduce you to the work of Nate Ragolia. Nate graduated from the University of Colorado, Boulder, in 2004 with a degree in Creative Writing, and since then he’s been quite busy creating new stories, comics, and editing an online journal. Of course I’m only naming a few of the many artistic hats Nate wears everyday. In 2015, Black Hills Press published Nate’s first collection of short stories, There You Feel Free, about young people (one could say hipsters) battling disillusionment, ultimately finding love and themselves. The stories all meet and converge through a contemporary... Read More

Streetside Studios in Boulder houses all types of dance, but focuses on hip-hop classes and hip-hop fusion classes for both kids and adults. One of these fusion classes is Groovalicious, taught by Lindsay Miller. The description of the class uses the tag line: “Unleash your inner diva (guys that includes you too!)” I’ve gone to Groovalicious for several weeks and I find that the class is high energy, fun and beginner friendly. The movements about letting loose and doing movement that feel good on the body. There’s plenty of hip shaking, booty popping and grooving. Lindsay’s class offers... Read More

Jared Elmore “Boulder has been on my mind because of its unbeatable and original outdoor beauty. Inspiring because the music I  make has historically and even now come from the mountains. Music bit me like a bug. Performing is what keeps me alive.. It’s a thrill!” Thanks Jared!  Read More

Trius has never liked jobs that makes him unhappy. There’s no point to get up and go work for something that doesn’t fill you with passion and joy.  There are interactions that would have never been made if he didn’t go out into the world and create his art. Not only create art, but re-create himself into someone he whole-heartedly believed he is meant to be. Being trained in Realistic Art People’s faces, he sees each face is different, equipped with a new personality that makes up the characteristics on the face sort of like everybody has their own finger print! Thanks... Read More

As of January 1st of this year, Boulder City Council launched its Community Culture Plan through the City of Boulder Office of Arts + Culture. Their vision: “Together, we will craft Boulder’s social, physical, and cultural environment to include creativity as an essential ingredient for the well being, prosperity, and joy of everyone in the community.” You can read the plan details, in full, here. According to Jennifer Heath, cultural journalist, curator, and author/editor, Pearl Street was once “hot with music venues” and you could find “prestigious recording studios” housed in the... Read More

MediaLive is an annual week long festival of performances, workshops, and events from compelling artists and thinkers working internationally in new media brought to you by the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art (BMoCA). Saturday evening, I got to watch one such artist perform and I’m thrilled to tell you about her. Michelle Ellsworth teaches dance, theater, and interdisciplinary specialty courses that combine dance, theater, science, technology, music, and film at the University of Colorado at Boulder. She’s won a ton of awards and honors and was recently feature in the New York Times. A... Read More

Welcome to AboutBoulder.com’s new artist’s blog where each week I’ll use this space to feature one of the many artists, writers, and/or musicians that are shaking things up around Boulder. From the mountains to the plains, Boulder is a haven of creativity. And it’s not just the greenery and mountains in our backyards that ignite this creative energy alone, but also the coffee shops, bookstore, organizations, and public spaces around town that help amplify creative talents. It’s no secret that the Boulder arts community is forever indebted to the generosity and support of Brian Buckley... Read More