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  • Things to do in Denver this weekend, Jan. 2-4

    By Cassidy Ritter, Special to Denverite

    Happy New Year!

    Ring in 2026 this weekend by attending a vision board party, intention-setting event or a Colorado Mammoth game.

    This weekend is also your last chance to explore several holiday- and winter-themed events and exhibits, such as Magical Winter Nights at Denver Museum of Nature & Science and Zoo Lights.

    Whatever you do, make it a great weekend! 

    (P.S.: Next week, Thursday, Jan. 8, the National Western Stock Show gets underway with a parade in downtown Denver near Union Station.)

    Notes: Events with an * are taking place virtually or outdoors.

    Friday, Jan. 2

    Just for fun

    Magical Winter Nights. Denver Museum of Nature & Science, 2001 Colorado Blvd. 4:15-9 p.m. Free (guests ages 2 and under), $19.95 (guests ages 3-18), $21.95 (guests ages 65 and older), $24.95 (adults). Discounted rates for members.

    *Blossom of Lights. Denver Botanic Gardens – York Street, 1007 York St. 4:30-9 p.m. Free (children ages 2 and under), $20-$29 (members), $24-$33 (non-members).

    Elitch Holidays (formerly Luminova Holidays). Elitch Gardens, 2000 Elitch Circle. 5-9 p.m. Free (children ages 2 and under), $20.26 (adults, when purchased online).

    *Christmas in Color. Red Rocks Park and Amphitheatre, 18300 W. Alameda Parkway, Morrison. 5-9:30 p.m. Starting at $34.99.

    New Year’s Sound Bath. Dandy Lion Coffee Co., 5225 E. 38th Ave. 6-7:30 p.m. $33.85. Advance registration recommended.

    *Trail of Lights. Denver Botanic Gardens – Chatfield Farms, 8500 W. Deer Creek Canyon Road. 5-8 p.m. Free (children ages 2 and under), $10-$12 (children ages 3-15), $16-$18 (ages 65 and older), $18-$20 (adults).

    *Hudson Holidays. Hudson Gardens, 6115 S. Santa Fe Dr., Littleton. 5-9:30 p.m. Free (children ages 2 and under), $17.06 (ages 3-12), $20.26 (ages 65 and older), $22.40 (adults).  

    Kids and family

    ICE! Featuring Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas – Last Day. Gaylord Rockies, 6700 N. Gaylord Rockies Blvd., Aurora. 9 a.m.-8:45 p.m. Starting at $31. 

    *Snow Days. Children’s Museum of Denver, 2121 Children’s Museum Dr. Opens at 9 a.m. Free (children under 1 year of age and members), $17.75 (1-year-olds and visitors ages 60 and older), $19.75 (ages 2-59). All ages.

    *Zoo Lights. Denver Zoo Conservation Alliance, 2300 Steele St. 4:30-8:30 p.m. Free (ages 2 and under), $19 (ages 3-15), $26 (ages 16 and older).

    Comedy and theater

    Emo Philips. Comedy Works Downtown, 1226 15th St. 6:30 p.m. and 8:45 p.m. $25-$30.

    Eddie Ifft. Comedy Works South, 5345 Landmark Place, Greenwood Village. 7:15 p.m. and 9:45 p.m. $25-$30. 

    Rotating Tap Comedy. River North Brewery – Blake Street Taproom, 3400 Blake St. 7:30-9:30 p.m. Free.

    Secret Late Night Comedy Show and Free Pizza. Denver Comedy Underground, 675 22nd St. 7:30 p.m. and 9:45 p.m. $25 (in advance), $30 (at the door). 

    Art, culture, and media

    Moments That Made US. History Colorado, 1200 Broadway. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Free (children ages 18 and under), $15 (adults).

    The Honest Eye: Camille Pissarro’s Impressionism. Denver Art Museum, 100 W. 14th Ave. Parkway. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Free (members and children age 18 and younger), $22-$27 (students, teachers, active military members, veterans, seniors ages 65 and older), $25-$30 (adults). 

    Perfectly Lost. Walker Fine Art, 300 W. 11th Ave., Unit A. 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Free.

    Lumonics Immersed. Lumonics Light & Sound Gallery, 800 E. 73rd Ave., Unit 11. 8-10 p.m. $15-$25. Advance registration required.

    Eat and drink

    Blitzen’s at Shep’s. Omni Interlocken, 500 Interlocken Blvd., Broomfield. 11 a.m.-midnight. No cover.

    Jingle Bao Rock. Bao Brewhouse, 1317 14th St. Noon-midnight. No cover.

    Italian Regional Cooking: Tuscany. Cook Street, 43 W. 9th Ave. 6-9:30 p.m. $132 (per person). Advance registration required.

    Grabados Y Gustación: Printmaking & Mezcal. Manos Sagrados, 9975 E. Colfax Ave., Aurora. 6-11 p.m. $8 (workshop only), $15 (workshop and tasting).

    Chocolate & Wine Pairing Class. The Chocolate Therapist, 2560 W. Main St., Littleton. 6:30-7:30 p.m. $44.52. Advance registration required.

    Music and nightlife

    Laser Billie Eilish. Denver Museum of Nature & Science, 2001 Colorado Blvd. 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. Prices vary.

    Paloma Rose: Tribute to Nina Simone. Dazzle at The Arts Complex, 1080 14th St. 6:30 p.m. Prices vary.

    Worakls. Bluebird Theater, 3317 E. Colfax Ave. 9 p.m. $30.66-$39.94.

    Sports and fitness

    *Denver Nuggets at Cleveland Cavaliers. Watch on Altitude or Prime Video, or listen at 92.5 FM. 5:30 p.m.

    *Ice Skating. Throughout the Denver metro, locations listed here. Times vary. Costs vary.

    Saturday, Jan. 3

    Just for fun

    Coffee & Donuts for the Coworking-Curious. The Process, 1060 Bannock St., Suite 200. 8-10 a.m. Free.

    Clock Tower Self-Guided Tours. Denver Clocktower, 1601 Arapahoe St. 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Free (children ages 5 and under), $8 (Historic Denver and Molly Brown House Museum members), $10 (general public).

    Manifest your 2026 – Vision Board Party. West + Main Homes office, 2010 Youngfield St., Lakewood. 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Free. Advance registration required.

    2026 Vision Boards. Hazel, 1581 S. Pearl St. 1-3 p.m. $33.85 (includes craft supplies and one cocktail).

    Journal Workshop. Ember and Stitch, 918 W. Eights Ave. 1 p.m. $119.22.

    Elitch Holidays (formerly Luminova Holidays). Elitch Gardens, 2000 Elitch Circle. 4-9 p.m. Free (children ages 2 and under), $20.26 (adults, when purchased online).

    Magical Winter Nights. Denver Museum of Nature & Science, 2001 Colorado Blvd. 4:15-9 p.m. Free (guests ages 2 and under), $19.95 (guests ages 3-18), $21.95 (guests ages 65 and older), $24.95 (adults). Discounted rates for members.

    *Zoo Lights. Denver Zoo Conservation Alliance, 2300 Steele St. 4:30-8:30 p.m. Free (ages 2 and under), $19 (ages 3-15), $26 (ages 16 and older).

    *Blossom of Lights. Denver Botanic Gardens – York Street, 1007 York St. 4:30-9 p.m. Free (children ages 2 and under), $20-$29 (members), $24-$33 (non-members).

    *Christmas in Color. Red Rocks Park and Amphitheatre, 18300 W. Alameda Parkway, Morrison. 5-9:30 p.m. Starting at $34.99.

    *Hudson Holidays. Hudson Gardens, 6115 S. Santa Fe Dr., Littleton. 5-9:30 p.m. Free (children ages 2 and under), $17.06 (ages 3-12), $20.26 (ages 65 and older), $22.40 (adults). 

    *Trail of Lights. Denver Botanic Gardens – Chatfield Farms, 8500 W. Deer Creek Canyon Road. 5-8 p.m. Free (children ages 2 and under), $10-$12 (children ages 3-15), $16-$18 (ages 65 and older), $18-$20 (adults).

    1/3 Look on the Flipside LIVE! with Ian Gibbs. Flipside Theatre, 502 Center Dr., Unit M, Superior. 7-9 p.m. $12.

    Kids and family

    *Snow Days. Children’s Museum of Denver, 2121 Children’s Museum Dr. Opens at 9 a.m. Free (children under 1 year of age and members), $17.75 (1-year-olds and visitors ages 60 and older), $19.75 (ages 2-59). All ages.

    Brick Planet: A Magical Journey Made with LEGO Bricks. Denver Museum of Nature & Science, 2001 Colorado Blvd. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Free (guests ages 2 and under and members), $20.95 (guests ages 3-18), $22.95 (guests ages 65 and older), $25.95 (adults). (Learn more about the exhibit here.)

    Arabic Stories & Language Hour. 10:30-11:30 a.m. Virginia Village Branch Library, 1500 Dahlia St. Free. Ideal for ages 12 and under, when accompanied by an adult.

    Kids’ Matinee: The Playmakers, Snow White & The Dazzle Dwarves, An Interactive Event. Dazzle at The Arts Complex, 1080 14th St. Noon. $6.45. All ages.

    Comedy and theater

    Kibbles ‘N Bits: An Animal Rescue Comedy Show. Denver Comedy Underground, 675 22nd St. 4 p.m. $17.50 (in advance), $25 (at the door). 

    Eddie Ifft. Comedy Works South, 5345 Landmark Place, Greenwood Village. 6 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. $25-$30. 

    Emo Philips. Comedy Works Downtown, 1226 15th St. 6 p.m. and 8:15 p.m. $25-$30.

    Art, culture, and media

    Moments That Made US. History Colorado, 1200 Broadway. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Free (children ages 18 and under), $15 (adults).

    Perfectly Lost. Walker Fine Art, 300 W. 11th Ave., Unit A. 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Free.

    Demo Artist: Miriam Dubinsky. Denver Art Museum, 100 W. 14th Ave. Parkway. Noon-3 p.m. Free (members and children age 18 and younger), $22-$27 (students, teachers, active military members, veterans, seniors ages 65 and older), $25-$30 (adults). 

    She Makes an Impression: Colorado Women Take a Look at Themselves – Artist Panel Discussion. D’art Gallery, 900 Santa Fe Dr. 1-3 p.m. No cover.

    Lumonics Immersed. Lumonics Light & Sound Gallery, 800 E. 73rd Ave., Unit 11. 8-10 p.m. $15-$25. Advance registration required.

    Eat and drink

    Blitzen’s at Shep’s. Omni Interlocken, 500 Interlocken Blvd., Broomfield. 11 a.m.-midnight. No cover.

    Anchors Aweigh – Off to the Next Dock Celebration. Dry Dock Brewing Co., 15120 E. Hampden Ave., Aurora. Noon-8 p.m. No cover.

    Jingle Bao Rock. Bao Brewhouse, 1317 14th St. Noon-midnight. No cover.

    French Regional Cooking: Provence. Cook Street, 43 W. 9th Ave. 6-9:30 p.m. $132 (per person). Advance registration required.

    Chocolate & Wine Pairing Class. The Chocolate Therapist, 2560 W. Main St., Littleton. 6:30-7:30 p.m. $44.52. Advance registration required.

    Music and nightlife

    Dub Wub Wonky Bass January. River, 3759 Chestnut Place. 7 p.m.-2 a.m. $19.63.

    Dolly Parton’s Threads: My Songs in Symphony. Boettcher Concert Hall, 1000 14th St., Unit 15. 7:30 p.m. $19.20-$131.84.

    Nora en Pure. Mission Ballroom, 4242 Wynkoop St. 8 p.m. Prices vary.

    Want more live music? Check out the Indie 102.3 concert calendar.

    Sports and fitness

    New Year’s Intention Setting: Morning Sound Healing & Slow Flow Yoga. Dairy Block, 1800 Wazee St., Suite 100. 9-11:30 a.m. Pay what you can. Advance registration recommended.

    Coffee & Free Meditation Class. Kadampa Meditation Center Colorado, 4840 W. 29th Ave. 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Free.

    *Colorado Avalanche at Carolina Hurricanes. Watch on Altitude. 5 p.m. 

    Rochester Knighthawks at Colorado Mammoth. Ball Arena, 1000 Chopper Circle. Watch on ESPN+. 7 p.m. Prices vary.

    *Ice Skating. Throughout the Denver metro, locations listed here. Times vary. Costs vary.

    Sunday, Jan. 4

    Just for fun 

    Magical Winter Nights – Last Day. Denver Museum of Nature & Science, 2001 Colorado Blvd. 4:15-9 p.m. Free (guests ages 2 and under), $19.95 (guests ages 3-18), $21.95 (guests ages 65 and older), $24.95 (adults). Discounted rates for members.

    *Zoo Lights. Denver Zoo Conservation Alliance, 2300 Steele St. 4:30-8:30 p.m. Free (ages 2 and under), $19 (ages 3-15), $26 (ages 16 and older).

    *Blossom of Lights. Denver Botanic Gardens – York Street, 1007 York St. 4:30-9 p.m. Free (children ages 2 and under), $20-$29 (members), $24-$33 (non-members).

    *Trail of Lights. Denver Botanic Gardens – Chatfield Farms, 8500 W. Deer Creek Canyon Road. 5-8 p.m. Free (children ages 2 and under), $10-$12 (children ages 3-15), $16-$18 (ages 65 and older), $18-$20 (adults).

    Elitch Holidays (formerly Luminova Holidays). Elitch Gardens, 2000 Elitch Circle. 5-9 p.m. Free (children ages 2 and under), $20.26 (adults, when purchased online).

    *Hudson Holidays. Hudson Gardens, 6115 S. Santa Fe Dr., Littleton. 5-9:30 p.m. Free (children ages 2 and under), $17.06 (ages 3-12), $20.26 (ages 65 and older), $22.40 (adults).  

    Comedy and theater

    Georgia Comstock and Friends. Comedy Works Downtown, 1226 15th St. 7 p.m. $14.

    Art, culture, and media

    Moments That Made US. History Colorado, 1200 Broadway. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Free (children ages 18 and under), $15 (adults).

    The Honest Eye: Camille Pissarro’s Impressionism. Denver Art Museum, 100 W. 14th Ave. Parkway. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Free (members and children age 18 and younger), $22-$27 (students, teachers, active military members, veterans, seniors ages 65 and older), $25-$30 (adults). 

    What We’ve Been Up To: Landscape – Last Day. Denver Art Museum, 100 W. 14th Ave. Parkway. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Free (members and children age 18 and younger), $22-$27 (students, teachers, active military members, veterans, seniors ages 65 and older), $25-$30 (adults). 

    Eat and drink

    Drag Queen Bingo Brunch. Denver Milk Market, 1800 Wazee St., Suite 100. 11 a.m.-2 p.m. No cover.

    Blitzen’s at Shep’s. Omni Interlocken, 500 Interlocken Blvd., Broomfield. 11 a.m.-midnight. No cover.

    Jingle Bao Rock – Last Day. Bao Brewhouse, 1317 14th St. Noon-midnight. No cover.

    Date Night: Garlic Lover’s Feast. Stir to Learn, 3215 Zuni St. 5-8 p.m. $240 (for two). Advance registration required.

    Music and nightlife

    Laser Billie Eilish. Denver Museum of Nature & Science, 2001 Colorado Blvd. 4 p.m. Prices vary.

    Neighborhood Music Jazz Jam. Stanley Marketplace, 2501 N. Dallas St., Aurora. 6-9 p.m. Free.

    Sports and fitness

    Rainforest Yoga. Butterfly Pavilion, 6252 W. 104th Ave., Westminster. 7:45 a.m. $12 (member), $15 (non-member). Advance registration required.

    Mother–Daughter Bodyweight Bootcamp + Craft Class. Athleta, 3000 E. First Ave. 9:30-10:30 a.m. Free.

    *Denver Nuggets at Brooklyn Nets. Watch on Altitude2, or listen at 950 AM. 1:30 p.m.

    *Los Angeles Chargers at Denver Broncos. Empower Field at Mile High, 1701 Bryant St. Watch on CBS. 2:25 p.m. Prices vary.

    *Colorado Avalanche at Florida Panthers. Watch on Altitude. 3 p.m. 

    *Ice Skating. Throughout the Denver metro, locations listed here. Times vary. Costs vary.

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  • The U.S. was a leader in cultural heritage investigations. Now those agents are working immigration enforcement.

    The Trump administration has disbanded its federal cultural property investigations team and reassigned the agents to immigration enforcement, delivering a blow to one of the world’s leaders in heritage protection and calling into question the future of America’s role in repatriating looted relics, according to multiple people familiar with the changes.

    The U.S. Department of Homeland Security established the Cultural Property, Art and Antiquities program in 2017 to “conduct training on the preservation, protection and investigation of cultural heritage and property; to coordinate and support investigations involving the illicit trafficking of cultural property around the world; and to facilitate the repatriation of illicit cultural items seized as a result of (federal) investigations to the objects and artifacts’ lawful and rightful owners.”

    Looted: Stolen relics, laundered art and a Colorado scholar’s role in the illicit antiquities trade

    Homeland Security Investigations, the department’s investigative arm, once had as many as eight agents in its New York office investigating cultural property cases. A select number of additional agents around the country also worked these cases, including a nationwide investigation into looted Thai objects.

    The Denver Art Museum has previously acknowledged that two relics from Thailand in its collection are part of that federal investigation.

    Since 2007, HSI says it has repatriated over 20,000 items to more than 40 countries.

    But the Trump administration, as part of its unprecedented mass-deportation agenda, earlier this year dissolved the cultural property program and moved the agents to immigration enforcement, multiple people with knowledge of the change told The Denver Post.

    Homeland Security officials did not respond to requests for comment.

    A few months after Trump took office, a Homeland Security staffer with knowledge of the antiquities field told The Post that they received an email from their bosses. The message, according to their recollection: “The way of the world is immigration. Bring your cases to a reasonable conclusion and understand that the priority is immigration operations.”

    This individual, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, said they were given no time frame for the new assignment. Leadership, though, was clear that there would be no new cultural property cases.

    Instead of conducting these investigations, this individual said they have been driving detainees between detention facilities and the airport for their deportation.

    “I just spent almost a month cuffing guys up, throwing them in a van from one jail to another,” this person said, adding that the work doesn’t take advantage of their specialized training.

    It’s frustrating, the individual said, because cultural property cases don’t require a lot of agents or resources. They don’t need all types of fancy electronic equipment.

    “The juice from the squeeze on these cases is a lot more than people wanna give it credit,” this person said.

    Photo by Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post

    The Bunker Gallery section of the Denver Art Museum’s Southeast Asian art galleries at the Martin Building is pictured on Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2022. Emma C. Bunker’s name was removed from the gallery in the wake of an investigation by The Denver Post. (Photo by Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post)

    Thai objects in Denver under investigation

    For years, HSI has been investigating two Thai relics in the Denver Art Museum’s collection after officials in Thailand raised issues with their provenance, or ownership history.

    The pieces — part of the so-called “Prakhon Chai hoard” — were looted in the 1960s from a secret vault at a temple near the Cambodian border, The Post found in a three-part investigation in 2022. Villagers told the newspaper that they recall dredging the vault for these prized objects and selling them to a British collector named Douglas Latchford.

    A federal grand jury decades later indicted Latchford for conspiring to sell plundered Southeast Asian antiquities around the world. He died before he could stand trial.

    Latchford funneled some of his stolen antiquities through the Denver Art Museum due to his close personal relationship with one of the museum’s trustees and volunteers, Emma C. Bunker, The Post found.

    The museum told The Post last week it hasn’t received any communication from the federal government since December, before Trump took office.

    High-profile cases in New York and Denver are proceeding despite the reallocation of resources, one agent said.

    With the federal government mostly out of the game, cultural heritage investigations will be largely left to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office in New York City, which has an Antiquities Trafficking Unit.

    But the DA’s office relies heavily on its partnership with HSI, which has federal jurisdiction and can serve warrants and issue summonses across the country. The Manhattan DA’s office only has authority over New York.

    “The future for the DA’s office and the (antiquities trafficking) unit is in jeopardy,” said an individual familiar with the Manhattan unit’s dealings, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. “It’s unclear who’s going to be swearing out warrants going forward.”

    A spokesperson for the Manhattan DA declined to comment for this story.

    Department of Homeland Security Investigations agents join Washington Metropolitan Police Department officers as they conduct traffic checks at a checkpoint along 14th Street in northwest Washington, Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
    Department of Homeland Security Investigations agents join Washington Metropolitan Police Department officers as they conduct traffic checks at a checkpoint along 14th Street in northwest Washington, Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

    ‘Doing the right thing still has power’

    These changes in enforcement priorities mean countries seeking the repatriation of their cultural items have fewer partners in the U.S. who can help them deal with museums and private collectors.

    “A few years ago, the United States led the world in restoring stolen history — and it mattered,” said Bradley Gordon, an American attorney who for years has represented the Cambodian government in its quest to reclaim its pillaged history from art museums, including Denver’s.

    It’s a shame, he said, that federal agencies have stepped back, even as the Manhattan DA continues its work.

    “This work isn’t just about art; it’s about security, diplomacy and restoring dignity,” Gordon said. “These looted objects were never meant to be hidden in mansions or displayed in museum glass cases far from their origins. When they are returned, entire communities celebrate with sincere happiness. It’s a reminder that doing the right thing still has power in the world.”

    Representatives from Thailand’s government, meanwhile, said they haven’t gotten an update on the Prakhon Chai investigation since Trump returned to office this year.

    Cultural heritage experts say these investigations can serve as an important diplomatic tool and use of soft power — a way for the U.S. to strengthen connections to allies or thaw fraught relations with longtime adversaries.

    In 2013, for example, President Barack Obama’s administration returned a ceremonial drinking vessel from the seventh century B.C. to Iran. For years, American officials said they couldn’t return the million-dollar relic until relations between the two countries normalized. The move — which NBC News titled “archaeo-diplomacy” — represented a small but important gesture as the U.S. sought a nuclear deal with the Middle Eastern power.

    “The return of the artifact reflects the strong respect the United States has for cultural heritage property — in this case, cultural heritage property that was likely looted from Iran and is important to the patrimony of the Iranian people,” the U.S. State Department said at the time. “It also reflects the strong respect the United States has for the Iranian people.”

    A lack of law enforcement activity in this space could also mean that museums and private collectors will be less inclined to return stolen pieces, said Erin Thompson, an art crime professor at New York’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Museums, instead, will maintain the status quo.

    Sam Tabachnik

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  • One Book One Denver resumes this fall with a Pulitzer-Prize winning adult title

    If you’ve dropped by a public library in Denver recently and, like more than a thousand other people, were offered an orange and yellow paperback book for free, it wasn’t a fluke.

    It’s part of a reading program led by the Denver Public Library that has been reinstated this year after taking a hiatus. The program is called One Book One Denver, and it’s intended to get people out of post-COVID isolation and reading the same book – one that could spark connection and community-building. 

    Most recently, it was a program for young people, but this year, it’s returned with an adult title: “Stay True,” a page-turner of a memoir set in the 1990s by Hua Hsu, who is the son of Taiwanese immigrants and works as a college professor in New York. Now in his late 40s, he spent 20 years working on the book, which was published in 2022 to great acclaim. It won a Pulitzer Prize and was a best-seller.

    “Stay True” author Hua Hsu.
    Courtesy of Denver Public Library
    The cover of the book Stay True by Hua Hsu
    The cover of “Stay True” by author Hua Hsu.
    Courtesy of Denver Public Library

    It takes a microscope to a friendship between Hsu and another Asian student named Ken while they attend college together in Northern California. Hsu is more of an introvert who writes a ‘zine, listens to hip-hop and shops in thrift stores, while Ken is more outgoing, taking dance classes in public and finding ways to befriend a wide swath of people. 

    The two bond despite outward differences because they both enjoy some of the same things, including underground film Berry Gordy’s “The Last Dragon” and smoking cigarettes on balconies. About two-thirds of the way through, the plot twists when an unexpected act of violence takes Ken away from their friend group.

    The library gave out 1,500 copies of that book — 100 of them in Spanish, to the surprise and delight of the author, who declined interviews but provided the library with a statement: “It’s so great that this city-wide reading program is back, and I feel honored to be a part of its return. I wrote Stay True for quite personal reasons, not imagining the reception it’s gotten over the past few years. Witnessing how it has resonated with strangers has been such an amazing surprise. I hope it’s a book that brings people together in discussion and friendship.”

    The title was selected with deliberate care, according to Jessie de la Cruz, who coordinated the project as Program Manager for Civic and Literary Initiatives.

    When asked what made DPL select “Stay True,” she said: “We were going off of some surveys from adults and looking at circulation trends, and we saw that a lot of our adult readers gravitate towards non-fiction.”

    Another reason, she said, is that the book touches on things everyone experiences: friendship, loss, grief and coming-of-age.

    Several people crowd around a printing station at an event some hold up posters they made
    One Book One Denver visitors hold up posters they’ve made.
    Courtesy of Denver Public Library

    “I think when I read this book and I came across it, I felt that it had a lot of universal themes that would be applicable to all backgrounds, to all genders, to all identities,” she said. “I think we can all relate to that version of ourselves … that was awkward and clumsy, and trying to figure out who we are, those new friendships that you develop in college on top of trying to understand and grapple with your identity and your independence.” 

    The program originally began in 2004, with the focus being children’s books for part of the time, and interest seemingly fizzling out, leading to the program’s end a dozen years ago.

    Then came a request:

    “Last year, the Mayor’s Office approached Denver Public Library about reviving One Book One Denver,” said library spokesperson Alvaro Sauceda Nuñez in an email. “Denver Public Library programs, such as the Silent Pages Society, showed us that adults in Denver are hungry for meaningful, low-pressure ways to engage with books and with each other. OBOD is a response to that need.”

    He also noted that research has shown that adult reading for pleasure is in steady decline, especially among younger adults and their internal program showed patrons were hungry for meaningful ways to engage with books and each other without pressure. “In relaunching OBOD, we intend to spark curiosity and engagement—not just among our regular customers, but also among adults who may not see themselves as ‘readers’ right now.”

    Community activities

    Besides making 20 copies of the book available for free to rent and unlimited copies available to download, the library also came up with suggested conversation questions for use in group discussion sessions. But de la Cruz saw a bigger opportunity to bring the book and the project into a larger context.

    She designed some other engagement opportunities at different branches, such as:

    • An opportunity to explore storytelling through ‘zine creation – one of Hsu’s passions – on Saturday, Sept. 20, at the Bob Raglan Branch;
    • A creative writing workshop during which participants will use objects to tell stories, on Sunday, Sept. 28, at the Ross-University Hills Branch; and
    • A chance to make a mix tape, like the ones Hsu and his friend Ken exchanged, on Friday, Sept. 12, at the Blair-Caldwell African American Research Library.

    “It was really important that this program didn’t just exist within the library, but how do we activate and bring it out into the city?” said de la Cruz. “How does it spill out of the library into the city streets?”

    Expressing books visually

    Another way she found to connect people with the book’s themes was to link up with the Colorado Photographic Arts Center, located near the library’s main branch. The center found a way to use photography to express the ideas in the book visually. 

    Samantha Johnston, curator and executive director of the arts center, put together an exhibit called “What Remains.” It includes photos by three photographers, two from Colorado, whose images “explore complexities of identity, fear, memory, and the solace that can be found through art,” according to the center’s promotional documents.

    Work by Emily “Billie” Warnock in the “What Remains” show at the Colorado Photographic Arts Center on Lincoln Street. Sept. 4, 2025.
    Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite

    During a recent visit to the center, Johnston led a tour of the exhibit. “All the work is part of the ‘What Remains’ exhibition, but each artist has their area,” she said, pointing out four walls with the work that will be displayed until the end of the month, by photographers Carl Bower, Dana Stirling and Emily (Billie) Warnock. 

    Among the most arresting is a photo essay on fear by local photographer Bower, featuring stark images of people looking intensely at the camera, alongside a written answer the subject provided about what they fear.

    Work by Emily “Billie” Warnock in the “What Remains” show at the Colorado Photographic Arts Center on Lincoln Street. Sept. 4, 2025.
    Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite
    “Veronica” by Carl Bower in the “What Remains” show at the Colorado Photographic Arts Center on Lincoln Street. Sept. 4, 2025.
    Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite

    She said fear is a common theme in Bower’s photos as it is in Hsu’s words. “It’s where Hua Hsu speaks to that loss of Ken and also that the fear of … forgetting those memories of his friend and who he is, and again, all tying differently, but underlying connections into how I curated the work.”

    “Stay True” author Hua Hsu will speak on Friday at Denver Public Library’s Central branch, and on Saturday, Lighthouse Writers Workshop is holding an event at the arts center, during which people will look at the exhibit, then use it and Hsu’s book for inspiration for a creative free-writing session.

    “Communities form when we listen to and share with one another,” Hsu said in his statement. “I hope reading about my friends and I inspires others to think about the bonds that run through their lives, the everyday stories worth cherishing, and the visions of community they hope to find in the real world.”

    The “What Remains” show at the Colorado Photographic Arts Center on Lincoln Street. Sept. 4, 2025.
    Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite

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  • Posers and paddling pools: Africa’s top shots

    A selection of the week’s best photos from across the African continent and beyond:

    These designers hit the red carpet at Sun City in South Africa with fashionista flair for the annual National Arts And Culture Awards on Friday. [Oupa Bopape/Gallo Images/Getty Images]

    Two people standing wearing elaborate pink fancy dress. They both have on pink wigs. There are other people in fancy dress behind them in Johannesburg, South Africa - Thursday 28 August 2025

    It is all fancy dress at South Africa’s Comic Con Africa Championships of Cosplay in Johannesburg on Thursday as competitors gather backstage before the contest starts. [Kim Ludbrook/EPA/Shutterstock]

    Two girls wearing colourful patterned dresses with a colourful umbrella smile and pose whilst taking a selfie. Their hair is in braids. They are outside and there are some women in dresses in the background as well as trees - Mekelle, Ethiopia. Sunday 24 August 2025.

    Young women celebrate the Virgin Mary at the centuries-old Ashenda festival in Ethiopia’s northern city of Mekelle on Sunday…. [Girmay Gebru/BBC]

    Three girls wearing white and black dresses with their hair in braids pose and smile for the camera. They are outside and there are some palm trees in the background and other women wearing dresses who are participating in the festival in Mekelle, Ethiopia. Sunday 24 August 2025.

    They dress up for the events that take place over three days and braid their hair in a special way. Ashenda means “the tall green grass” in the region’s language. [Girmay Gebru/BBC]

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    A man is reading a black bible under a roof in Nairobi, Kenya - Sunday 24 August 2025.

    On the same day over in Kenya's capital, Nairobi, a Rastafarian man takes part in a prayer ceremony. [Gerald Anderson/Anadolu/Getty Images]

    Motorbikes and bicycles parade with Palestinian flags during a motorcade in solidarity with Gaza, in Nairobi, Kenya - Sunday 24 August 2025.

    Bikers roll into Nairobi on Sunday for a parade in support of Palestinians amid the ongoing Israel-Gaza war. [Gerald Anderson/Anadolu/Getty Images]

    Nigeria's President Bola Tinubu, wearing a green outfit and maroon hat, reviews ceremonial guards dressed in white trousers, blue jackets and elaborate helmets at Planalto Palace, Brasília, Brazil - Monday 25 August 2025.

    There is pomp and ceremony in Brazil the next day as Nigeria's President Bola Tinubu reviews the guard of honour welcoming him to Planalto Palace in Brasília... [Evasristo Sa/AFP/Getty Images]

    Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a blue suit, white shirt and maroon tie, and Nigeria's President Bola Tinubu, wearing a green outfit and maroon hat, raise their hands during a signing ceremony at the Planalto Palace in Brasília, Brazil - Monday 25 August 2025.

    He and his Brazilian counterpart, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, went on to sign various bilateral agreements. [Adriano Machado/Reuters]

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    Men wearing primarily red and green hold up flags with Arabic writing on it in Omdurman, Sudan - Saturday 23 August 2025.

    In Sudan's city of Omdurman on Saturday some Muslim faithful participate in a procession ahead of the Prophet Muhammad's birthday... [AFP/Getty Images]

    A man standing knee deep in dirty water with his hand up in the air. There are other workers behind him who are standing in the back who also have their hands in the air. They appear to be under some sort of bridge. Municipal workers react while operating a pump draining a flooded highway overpass in Sudan's capital Khartoum following heavy rain - Wednesday 27 August 2025

    Later in the week in Khartoum, a Sudanese man stands knee-deep in water after heavy rain as workers try to use a pump to drain the flooded road. [Ebrahim Hamid/AFP/Getty Images]

    Three children are in a paddling pool and one child is outside it. They are outside and there are some dilapidated buildings in the background in Cairo, Egypt - Tuesday 26 August 2025.

    In neighbouring Egypt, these children are enjoying their paddling pool in the capital, Cairo, on a hot Tuesday... [Ahmad Hasaballah/Getty Images]

    A woman, wearing colourful print wraps, carries a massive log on her back through a clearing in Kibumba, DR Congo. Piles of logs are in front of her and behind a truck stacked with wood - Thursday 28 August 2025.

    In the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on Thursday a woman lugs logs in Kibumba. [Jospin Mwisha/AFP/Getty Images]

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    A smiling man wears a straw hat and holds big green leaves - his clothes and hat are adorned with leaves and yellow flowers during a campaign rally in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania - Thursday 28 August 2025

    On the same day in Tanzania's main city of Dar es Salaam, it is all smiles for a man attending the launch of President Samia Suluhu Hassan's election campaign. [Anthony Siame/EPA/Shutterstock]

    Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara stands up through the roof of a sunroof of a black car surrounded by security officers and his supporters as he arrives at the electoral commission in Abidjan - Tuesday 26 August 2025.

    Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara greets his supporters through the sunroof of his car on Tuesday in Abidjan as he announces his candidacy for October's election. [Egnan Koula/EPA/Shutterstock]

    South Africa's Vainah Ubisi celebrates with Lerato Makua - in white shorts and green tops - at the end of a match in Northampton against Brazil - Sunday 24 August 2025.

    And South Africa's Springbok women celebrate after scoring a whopping 11 tries to win 66-6 against Brazil at the Women's Rugby World Cup in the UK on Sunday. [Andrew Boyers/Reuters]

    More BBC Africa stories from this week:

    A woman looking at her mobile phone and the graphic BBC News Africa

    [Getty Images/BBC]

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    Go to BBCAfrica.com for more news from the African continent.

    Follow us on Twitter @BBCAfrica, on Facebook at BBC Africa or on Instagram at bbcafrica

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  • International festival pros say Denver has best fest

    International festival pros say Denver has best fest

    Denver news

    Cherry Creek Arts Festival is the Gold Grand Pinnacle winner. You hear that, Pasadena Tournament of Roses?

    A visitor peruses paintings at an artist’s booth at the 2023 Cherry Creek Arts Festival.

    Gigi Youngblood

    When the International Festivals and Events Association really wants to honor your event, it bestows the impressively named Gold Grand Pinnacle award upon it.

    This year, Denver’s 4th of July weekend staple, the Cherry Creek Arts Festival, claimed that top honor, beating out the Pasadena Tournament of Roses and the Philadelphia Flower Show.

    “To be recognized among those leading organizations and events is really an honor,” said CherryArts board chair Jeff Pfeifer, “and something that we think speaks highly of Colorado and the quality of events and art opportunities that we have here.”

    Cherry Creek Arts Festival, which is put on by the CherryArts nonprofit, marked its 33rd year this summer. More than 150,000 people attended over its three days, drawn by works from 250 artists — including seven international artists and 35 from Colorado.

    This is the first time in more than a decade the festival has won a Gold Pinnacle — it’s brought home a half dozen over its history, though — and organizers said it underlines that Cherry Creek Arts has become one of the top fine arts festivals in the country.

    Pfeifer said the associations’ judges considered several criteria. Those include the festival’s accessibility — it’s free and opens early on its first day for those with mobility limitations and other concerns — as well as its environmental commitments and its focus on diversity, equity and inclusion.

    “That goes from the mix of artists that are represented, as well as efforts to outreach in our community to make sure that other groups are represented as part of the festival,” said Pfeifer.

    The festival also serves as a big fundraiser for CherryArts’ efforts to bring arts education to more children and adults in the metro area. The nonprofit operates a mobile gallery and sponsors students to purchase original art for their schools. It also gives a handful of early career artists a leg up each year through the Emerging Artists Program, supplying them with mentoring, a free booth at the festival and — new this year — financial support.

    Meet two of Denver’s new ‘emerging artists’ at the Cherry Creek Arts Festival

    “The more successful we are at the festival, the more it helps to fund and drive those kinds of year-round activities which support mission of the organization, which is to create art experiences for everyone,” said Pfeifer.

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  • Holy Pho-zole! Saigon Azteca Night Market returns to Westwood

    Holy Pho-zole! Saigon Azteca Night Market returns to Westwood

    Dancers bounce around the RISE Westwood patio during the Saigon Azteca Night Market. Aug. 18, 2023.

    Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite

    Westwood’s signature fusion event is back.

    The Saigon Azteca Night Market brings Denver’s Latino and Asian communities together for a night of cultural celebration on Saturday from 2-10 p.m.

    Organizers say the event, returning for its second year, is a big block party designed to celebrate traditions and foster unity.

    Saigon Azteca will take over Morrison Road, from S. Patton Court to S. Quitman Street. Event highlights include cultural dances, DJ battles, local artists and vendors, a car show and cuisine aplenty. 

    Damaris Ronkanen of Hecho en Westwood and Mimi Luong of the Far East Center host the free, family- and pet-friendly event.

    These community leaders and friends are holding the line against gentrification in Westwood — and have a good time, too.

    “I don’t know about you, but I think Asians and Latinos know how to party,” Truong said.

    Here’s what’s in store at the second-annual Saigon Azteca Night Market.

    • Lion and dragon dancers will intertwine with Danza Mexica Aztec dancers
    • Traditional folklorico and fan dancers will perform together
    • Low riders will have a showdown with JDM sports cars
    • K-pop performers will go head-to-head with Mexican hip-hop artists
    • DJs will spin hits from around the world
    • Guests can participate in Pho-zole and Birria ramen eating contests
    • Kids and families can enjoy a craft station
    • Local artists and vendors will sell their wares

    Find a full schedule of events here. 

    Salud, chúc mừng, and cheers!

    Correction: Mimi Luong’s last name was initially incorrect in this post. We fixed it!

    Lauren Antonoff Hart

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  • Is Denver a city where musicians can make it big? Here’s what artists had to say

    Is Denver a city where musicians can make it big? Here’s what artists had to say

    Denver has a vibrant local music scene. Many musicians working in the city describe it as a supportive and welcoming community, without the competition they’ve seen in other cities.

    The city is also home to CU Denver’s Music and Entertainment Studies program, which won Billboard Magazine’s “Top Music Business School” award in 2021, 2022, and 2023.

    Storm Gloor, an associate professor in CU’s program, has taught many of the city’s local artists and industry professionals. One thing that sets Colorado apart from other markets is the music fans.

    “Statistically our fans, Colorado fans — I’ve seen the reports and the research — attend concerts more than other cities,” he said.

    Although Colorado has a greater likelihood that fans will come out to support live shows, the state presents challenges for musicians trying to build long-lasting careers.

    Colorado is a long drive from the nearest big cities, and even more removed from the coasts. This makes touring difficult, with long and expensive hauls between home and places where gigs can be strung together in close proximity. 

    There’s also the issue of networking in a smaller market. Though launching a career in a less competitive city can be easier, establishing a base in a bigger city with more powerful players presents more opportunities for growth. 

    This leads a lot of artists to wonder whether they should pursue their careers elsewhere or stick it out in the state’s vibrant-yet-secluded scene. 

    Here’s what four artists with local ties had to say.

    Chris Bowers Castillo of Kiltro

    The Underground Music Showcase. July 27, 2024.
    Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite

    Chris Bowers Castillo was born in Aurora and grew up splitting his time between Colorado and Santiago, Chile. Shortly after graduating from CU Boulder, he moved to Valparaíso, a coastal Chilean town, where he started developing Kiltro’s sound.

    He said he performed in Valparaíso a few times but didn’t “do it in an active, dedicated way” until he moved back to the States. But when he landed back in Denver and began to focus on the project, he saw fans take an interest in his work.

    “People can smell authenticity the way they can sense fear,” he said. “If you have something that’s sincere and your own — and it can’t be found easily elsewhere — they’ll come to you for it.”

    To overcome the competitive nature of the field, he said artists have to find their voice and create a product that is impressive in some way — whether that’s technical ability, the personality of the live performance, or something else.

    That strategy proved successful for Bowers Castillo: Kiltro is known for its distinct, ambient-yet-soulful Latin sound.

    But the music can’t speak for itself, artists have to get their work in front of the right people.

    “In Denver, you probably have to put yourself into many, many rooms before it really helps you out,” he said. “It’s an industry of luck, but you have to put yourself in the way of getting lucky.”

    Since Denver isn’t a top city for the music industry, the “right room” is harder to find.

    On the other hand: “It’s a smaller scene and that can be its own catapult.”

    That was the case for Kiltro, which Bowers Castillo said gained its initial momentum via local radio plays. From there, he said, “Our following just started growing. It felt pretty organic, and that was really cool.”

    Since the band’s 2019 debut album, “Creatures of Habit,” Kiltro has been signed to national label 7S, toured the country, been featured on KEXP and NPR, and will soon be touring with Y La Bamba.

    Carla Huiracocha, aka Neoma

    Neoma plays the Underground Music Showcase’s Underground Stage. July 27, 2024.
    Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite

    Carla Huiracocha, who performs under the name Neoma, began her music career in her hometown of Cuenca, Ecuador, an Andean city slightly smaller than Denver. In 2017, she hit the top of the Ecuadorian charts with her dreamy-yet-energetic synth pop single “Real.”

    But she knew a career in Ecuador could only reach a certain level. 

    “There’s a lot of great artists and music in South America,” she said. But “there’s no resources, no one even cares about art because there’s so many other things happening down there.”

    So she decided to move, and her choices came down to Colorado or New York. She had family in both states, but thought the pace of life would be a better fit in Colorado. So she came out to visit her now partner and producer Danny Pauta, who already lived in Denver, and stayed.

    Since relocating, Huiracocha has found musical success, but still needs to work a day job.

    “I would love to pay my bills with music,” she said. “Sometimes I’m able to do that. If we play a lot of shows, I’m able to cover the rent, but that’s pretty much it.” 

    “Right now, it feels like I have two jobs,” she continued. “I have my day job, and then at night I’m writing, I’m producing, I’m working with other musicians. I take lessons. I try to learn all the time and get better.”

    She hopes that as Neoma grows, she can spend more time focused on her music. 

    Her advice for other musicians trying to make it in the Denver scene is to build authentic connections. “Go out, meet people and be like, ‘Hi, this is my project, come to my show.’ Don’t be shy about it.”

    That’s how she’s built relationships with fans and other artists, including Bowers Castillo. This past spring, she joined Kiltro on the band’s West Coast tour.

    “They were one of my favorite bands when I first came to Denver,” she said. “So it was crazy for me that they asked me to go on tour with them, and that was very beautiful.”

    Forrest Raup, freelance drummer

    Forrest Raup playing drums at the Grace DeVine EP release show at Globe Hall on Sept. 15, 2023.
    Forrest Raup playing drums at the Grace DeVine EP release show at Globe Hall on Sept. 15, 2023.
    Julianna Williams (@juliannaphotography)

    Forrest Raup, a freelance drummer who has played with an array of local and national acts, grew up in Boulder. He studied performance and arranging at the Berklee College of Music in Boston for a year, then returned to Colorado to study audio engineering at the University of Colorado Denver.

    When the COVID-19 pandemic shut things down in 2020, Rupp was in the early stages of his program at CU Denver. No longer able to use the equipment at school, he invested in a few pieces of basic gear and began recording at home.

    “I just started putting clips up on social media. I would sync the audio I recorded with little videos I took of myself playing, just to get the word out there to be like, ‘Yo, I have a home recording set-up,’” he said. “And it was such a perfect time for that because no one could play music together, so the only way you could collaborate was remotely.”

    Shortly after he started posting his videos, he said people began reaching out to him with work.

    Raup said that his approach to building his music career here has been to “say yes to everything at first. Even if the pay isn’t great, or even if it doesn’t pay anything but it might lead to a cool experience or meeting a group of cool people, then say yes to it.”

    That’s how he’s built his career. He’s said yes to collaborating with all sorts of acts, including Pink Fuzz, Eldren and The AJ Fullerton Band, among many others. He has since toured with Twen and Celtic Thunder.

    When it comes to growing his career, he said he has considered moving to a bigger market.

    “It’s a very real possibility that by moving to a place like LA or New York, you will be a small fish in a big pond and it might stay that way,” he said. “But at the same time, it’s like a leap of faith. And to eventually grow into a bigger fish in a bigger pond would be ultimately very rewarding. But I think the work that it takes and the risks involved are very, very daunting — and just not doable for a lot of people too, because it’s so expensive to live in those places.”

    Olivia Rudeen, singer-songwriter

    Olivia Rudeen plays a set at Baere Brewing during the Underground Music Showcase. July 27, 2024.
    Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite

    Olivia Rudeen is a singer-songwriter from Denver who moved to Nashville in 2013 after graduating from CU Denver’s music program. She met a music publisher at the Durango Songwriters Expo and turned that meeting into a publishing deal before graduation. 

    “I had this pretty clear opportunity to move out there,” she said.

    She doesn’t think artists need to move elsewhere to make it big, but she does think it’s crucial to network in the country’s more saturated music scenes. 

    “I think it’s really important to have some sort of presence, whether you can make those connections long distance with people, or go to something like the Durango Songwriters Expo,” she said. “When I was in college, I was living at home, so I was saving money and I was using that money to make trips as often as I could. (I would) go for a week to LA or Nashville and just try to play open mics and meet people.”

    No matter where you live, she said it’s important to make music that feels authentic.

    “What’s cool will change. You can try to chase something because it seems like it would be successful in the mainstream,” she said. “And then what’s successful shifts and you have to stick to your guns.”

    She continued, “there are these moments that make it so worth it. These kind of transcendent moments when everything works – and there’s nothing else like that feeling.”

    Lauren Antonoff Hart

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  • Things to do in Denver this weekend, July 5-7

    Things to do in Denver this weekend, July 5-7

    By Cassidy Ritter, Special to Denverite

    While you recover from 4th of July celebrations, here are some ways to unwind and stay entertained this weekend. Happenings across Denver include a Gluten Free Farmer’s Market, Cherry Creek Arts Festival and Fan Expo Denver. The Colorado Rockies are also in town playing the Kansas City Royals. 

    Notes: Events with an * are taking place virtually or outdoors.

    Friday, July 5

    Just for fun

    First Friday: Frida Kahlo’s Birthday Celebration. Museo de las Americas, 861 Santa Fe Drive. Starting at 5 p.m. Free. 

    The Blossom Party. The Block Distilling Co., 2990 Larimer St. 7-10 p.m. Free.

    Costume Party and Fan Expo After Party. Mile High Spirits – Tasting Room, 2201 Lawrence St. 8 p.m.-2 a.m. No cover.

    Kids and family

    Family Science Night. Butterfly Pavilion, Butterfly Pavilion, 6252 W. 104th Ave., Westminster. 5:30-7:30 p.m. $4.50 (members), $5 (non-members).

    Comedy and theater

    First Friday Films. Denver Community Media, 2101 Arapahoe St., Unit 1. 6-8 p.m. Free.

    Josh Blue. Comedy Works South, 5345 Landmark Place, Greenwood Village. 7 p.m. $30.

    Troy Walker. Comedy Works Downtown, 1226 15th St. 7:30 p.m. and 9:45 p.m. $25.

    *Cinema in The Sky: The Sandlot. Halcyon, 245 Columbine St. 8:30 p.m. Free (Halcyon guest), $25 (includes popcorn and pool access). 

    Arts, culture, and media

    The Center Cannot Hold. Union Hall, 1750 Wewatta St., Suite 144. Noon-6 p.m. Free. 

    First Friday Art Walks. Santa Fe Art District, from 13th to Alameda avenues and Kalamath to Inca streets. 5:30-9:30 p.m. Free.

    First Friday: RiNo. Throughout Denver’s River North Art District. 6-9 p.m. No cover.

    Music and nightlife

    *Alley Soundscapes: Emily Barnes. Dairy Block, 1800 Wazee St. 5-7 p.m. Free.

    Live Music with Charlie White. Spirit Hound Distillers Denver Highlands Tasting Room, 3266 Tejon St. 6 p.m. Free.

    Feel Good Friday. Wild Goose Saloon, 11160 PikesPeak Drive, Parker. 6-11:45 p.m. No cover.

    *The Avett Brothers. Red Rocks Park and Amphitheatre, 18300 W. Alameda Parkway, Morrison. 7:30 p.m. Prices vary.

    Saturday, July 6

    Just for fun

    *Clayton Community Days. 3840 York St. Noon-6 p.m. Free.

    *Urban Market. Union Station, 1701 Wynkoop St. Noon-6 p.m. No cover.

    Bookswap. Comrade Brewing Co., 7667 E. Illiff Ave. 2:30-4:30 p.m. Free.

    Kids and family

    Fun at the Firehouse. Denver Firefighters Museum, 1326 Tremont Place. 10 a.m. $15 (children, includes program and museum admission). Advanced registration required.

    *Celebrate Independence Day. Four Mile Historic Park, 715 S. Forest St. 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Free (members), $8 (youth ages 3 and up), $9 (seniors and military members), $10 (adults).

    Comedy and theater

    Josh Blue. Comedy Works South, 5345 Landmark Place, Greenwood Village. 6 p.m. $30.

    Troy Walker. Comedy Works Downtown, 1226 15th St. 7:30 p.m. and 9:45 p.m. $25.

    Art, culture, and media

    The Center Cannot Hold. Union Hall, 1750 Wewatta St., Suite 144. Noon-6 p.m. Free. 

    Lumonics Immersed. Lumonics Light & Sound Gallery, 800 E. 73rd Ave., Unit 11. 8-10 p.m. $15-$25.

    Eat and drink

    *City Park Farmers Market. City Park Esplanade, East Colfax Avenue and Columbine Street. 8 a.m.-1 p.m. No cover. 

    *Glendale Farmers Market. 4601 E. Kentucky Ave. 8 a.m.-1 p.m. No cover.

    *University Hills Farmers Market. University Hills Plaza, 2500 S. Colorado Blvd. 9 a.m.-1 p.m. No cover. 

    *Cherry Creek Fresh Market. Cherry Creek Shopping Center, 1st Avenue and Univesity Boulevard. 9 a.m.-2 p.m. No cover

    Gluten Free Farmer’s Market. Denver Celiacs at 333 W. Hampden Ave., Englewood. 10 a.m.-2 p.m. No cover.

    Date Night: Summer in Paris. Stir Cooking School, 3215 Zuni St. 6:30-9:30 p.m. $220 (per couple).

    Music and nightlife

    *Totally Tubular Festival. Fiddler’s Green Amphitheatre, 6350 Greenwood Plaza Boulevard, Greenwood Village. 5:30 p.m. Prices vary.

    *The Revival: Flobots with Kayla Marque. Levitt Pavilion, 1380 W. Florida Ave. 6 p.m. Free (general admission, lawn seats), $35 (VIP tickets). Advanced registration is required.

    *Alley Soundscapes: Brianna Straut. Dairy Block, 1800 Wazee St. 6-8 p.m. Free.

    *The Avett Brothers. Red Rocks Park and Amphitheatre, 18300 W. Alameda Parkway, Morrison. 7:30 p.m. Prices vary.

    Sports and fitness

    *Fitness on the Plaza. Union Station, 1701 Wynkoop St. 8-8:45 a.m. Free. Advanced registration required.

    Sunday, July 7

    Just for fun

    *Urban Market. Union Station, 1701 Wynkoop St. Noon-6 p.m. No cover.

    Kids and family

    Frida Kahlo’s Birthday Celebration. Sam Gary Branch Library, 2961 Roslyn St. 2-4 p.m. Free. All ages.

    Comedy and theater

    Comedian Bingo with John Davis. WestFax Brewing Co., 6733 W. Colfax Ave., Lakewood. 2-4 p.m. No cover.

    Matt Cobos. Comedy Works Downtown, 1226 15th St. 7:30 p.m. and 9:45 p.m. $12.

    Steve Gillespie. Comedy Works South, 5345 Landmark Place, Greenwood Village. 7 p.m. $14.

    Eat and drink

    *South Pearl Street Farmers Market. 1400 and 1500 blocks of Old South Pearl Street between Arkansas Avenue and Iowa Avenue. 9 a.m.-1 p.m. No cover.  

    Date Night: Spicy Szechuan. Stir Cooking School, 3215 Zuni St. 5-8 p.m. $220 (per couple).

    Music and nightlife

    *Alley Soundscapes: D’Lovelies. Dairy Block, 1800 Wazee St. 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Free.

    *2024 Summer Music Series. Stanley Marketplace West Patio, 2501 Dallas St., Aurora. Noon-2 p.m. No cover.

    *Japan Fest 2024. Levitt Pavilion, 1380 W. Florida Ave. 4 p.m. Free (general admission, lawn seats), $35 (VIP tickets). Advanced registration is required.

    *City Park Jazz Concert: JoFoKe & Same Cloth. City Park Pavilion, 2001 Steele St. 6-8 p.m. Free.

    *The Avett Brothers. Red Rocks Park and Amphitheatre, 18300 W. Alameda Parkway, Morrison. 6:30 p.m. Prices vary.

    Sports and fitness

    *Colorado Rapids vs. St. Louis City SC. Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, 6000 Victory Way, Commerce City. Watch on Apple TV. 7:30 p.m. Prices vary.

    All Weekend

    Just for fun

    Wright’s Amusements Giant Carnival. Town Center at Aurora, 14200 E. Alameda Ave., Aurora. 4-11 p.m. (Friday) and noon-11 p.m. (Saturday and Sunday). No entry free, $1 per ticket or $40 for unlimited rides.

    Fan Expo Denver. Colorado Convention Center, 700 14th St. 10 a.m.-6:30 p.m. (Friday), 8:45 a.m.-8 p.m. (Saturday) and 8:45 a.m.-4:30 p.m. (Sunday). $29 (single day), $109 (4-day pass), $149 (ultimate fan package).  

    Art, culture, and media

    *Cherry Creek Arts Festival. 2 Steele St. 10 a.m.-8 p.m. (Friday and Saturday) and 10 a.m.-6 p.m. (Sunday). Free.

    Legally Blonde The Musical. PACE Center, 20000 Pikes Peak Ave., Parker. 7:30 p.m. (Friday), 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. (Saturday) and 2 p.m. (Sunday). Prices vary.

    Biophilia. Denver Art Museum, 100 W. 14th Ave. Parkway. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Free (members and visitors 18 and younger), $15-$22.

    Mile High Magic. History Colorado Center, 1200 N. Broadway. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Free (members and children 18 and under), $15 (adults).

    Museum of Illusions Denver. 951 16th Street Mall. 10 a.m.-9 p.m. (Friday and Saturday) and 10 a.m.-8 p.m. (Sunday). $20 (children ages five-12), $22 (seniors and active military), and $24 (adults). Advanced registration is required for timed entry.

    Sports and fitness

    *Kansas City Royals vs. Colorado Rockies. Coors Field, 2001 Blake St. 6:10 p.m. (Friday), 7:10 p.m. (Saturday) and 1:10 p.m. (Sunday). Watch on MLB.TV or Fubo. Prices vary.

    Worth the Drive

    Saturday & Sunday

    Broadmoor Traditions Fine Art Festival. The Colorado Springs School – 21 Broadmoor Ave., Colorado Springs. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Free.The Colorado Shakespeare Festival – The Merry Wives of Windsor. University Theatre Building, 261 University of Colorado, Boulder. 7 p.m $22-$76.

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  • It’s mochi-making time ahead of the 50th Denver Cherry Blossom Festival

    It’s mochi-making time ahead of the 50th Denver Cherry Blossom Festival

    Volunteers sculpt balls of mochi inside the Denver Buddhist Temple downtown, ahead of their annual Cherry Blossom Festival. June 21, 2024.

    Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite

    On Friday, the kitchen stove at the downtown Denver Buddhist Temple was packed with stainless-steel pans brimming with soft, glistening dough.

    A radio pumped pop songs into the air, where the music mixed with sweet rice flour and swirled around a group of women as they prepared an enormous amount of mochi manju for the 50th Annual Denver Cherry Blossom Festival this weekend.

    “We’re trying to make 3,000,” said Gayle Goto, a longtime temple volunteer. “We make 1,500 with the azuki, or the red beans, and then 1,500 with the white ones.”

    Gayle Goto (left) and DJ Ida pull hot dough out of a bowl as volunteers at downtown’s Denver Buddhist Temple make mochi manju, ahead of the annual Cherry Blossom Festival. June 21, 2024.
    Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite

    Mochi manju are bite-sized desserts, made from steamed, sweetened rice flour shaped around a filling. In this case, the mochi are being stuff with either a sweet red bean paste made from anko beans or a sweet white bean paste made from lima beans.

    “If you go to Hawaii or some other places, they’ll put fruit paste, jam, peanut butter, chocolate, ice cream. They do all that,” Goto said. “We’ve tried it in different years, but it doesn’t sell well at our festival when we try different things. So we’ve just stayed with the sweet bean paste.”

    This tradition began when the original Nisei, or children of Japanese immigrants, prepared for the city’ first Cherry Blossom Festival in the 1970s. As time passed, the responsibility was handed down from generation to generation. This year, the third generation is training the fourth.

    “We’ve been doing this all our lives,” said DJ Ida, with a laugh. “Seriously. We grew up in this temple,” she said, gesturing to the others lining the large, flour-covered table.

    “We used to look up to the elders,” Ida continued. “We are now the elders.”

    Balls of red bean ready to be tucked into mochi dough.
    Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite
    Ruby Miyazawa wraps dough around a red bean core, making mochi manju.
    Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite

    The Denver Cherry Blossom Festival is a celebration of Japanese heritage and culture.

    This annual festival takes place in Sakura Square, a downtown city block nestled between Larimer and Lawrence streets from 19th Street to 20th Street.

    The festival takes its name from its location — “Sakura” is the Japanese word for cherry blossom.

    This year, celebrations will take place on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

    Volunteers sculpt balls of mochi.
    Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite
    Dr. Jane Kano carries a tray full of freshly finished mochi manju.
    Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite

    Arts and entertainment include taiko drumming, Japanese artwork and flower arranging, a marketplace offering jewelry, anime, pottery, fine art, apparel, and informational booths representing Japanese and Japanese American organizations.

    The Denver Buddhist Temple will be providing food for sale, which includes teriyaki chicken bento, teriyaki beef bowl, tofu bowl, teriyaki burger, gyoza, SPAM musubi, onigirazu, inari sushi, mochi manju, yaki manju, and dorayaki manju, karma korn, rie crispy sushi, and matcha vanilla pretzels.

    Outside food vendors include Daboba, Island Noodles, Lucky Canes, Sweet Daruma Tea Wagon, and Confetti Confections.

    Beverages include beer, sake and non-alcoholic options.

    Admission is free and proceeds support the Denver Buddhist Temple and the Sakura Foundation.

    Volunteers sculpt balls of mochi inside the Denver Buddhist Temple downtown, ahead of their annual Cherry Blossom Festival. June 21, 2024.
    Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite

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  • The Zimbabwean musician bringing the marimba and mbira to township youth

    The Zimbabwean musician bringing the marimba and mbira to township youth

    Harare, Zimbabwe – Dzivarasekwa, a nondescript township on the southwestern rims of Zimbabwe’s capital, copies the 1907 template of the first ghetto, Harari (now Mbare): grim, monotonous, matchbox houses laid out on grids.

    Driving on its streets, one often sees skeletal silhouettes of young men – sometimes women – in a drug-induced haze who look at you with a tortured grin as they trudge along in a slow, vaguely meditative gait as if their next step is the last. Sometimes it is.

    Their circumstances are the result of the drug plague that has haunted Harare for more than a decade.

    Easily available on the township’s streets are cheap moonshine and the dregs of narcotics that find their way into Zimbabwe. Even diazepam, known in local slang as Blue, a drug prescribed for anxiety and seizures, is consumed.

    Yet it is also in Dzivarasekwa where one finds the Tsoro Arts and Social Centre, an initiative run by the Zimbabwean musician Jacob Mafuleni, 46, from the front yard of his house.

    Jacob Mafuleni plays a mbira [Percy Zvomuya/Al Jazeera]

    Every Saturday afternoon, about two dozen young people from the ages of 6 to 23 – including Mafuleni’s son Abel, 23, who is following in his musician father’s footsteps – gather around half a dozen marimbas.

    The marimba is a percussive instrument whose origin is sometimes traced to present-day Mozambique, where it was a court instrument before the arrival of the Portuguese, the country’s former colonial ruler.

    The traditional marimba is made of wooden slats placed over resonant calabash gourds that produce a buzzing, polyrhythmic sound when hit with a mallet. Today, resonator pipes of different lengths are a substitute for the gourds.

    In Mozambique, the instrument is known as the timbila and is closely associated with the master musician Venancio Mbande, who died in 2015. Iterations of the original instrument can be found all over the Americas, where it was brought by enslaved Africans.

    The Tsoro Arts and Social Centre is not only about the marimba but also the mbira.

    The mbira is an instrument in the lamellophone family in which long and narrow metal keys are attached to a wooden sound board and played in a calabash gourd. The instrument comes in a variety of forms, sizes and number of keys, including the nyunga nyunga, njari, mbira dzevadzimu and matepe.

    Marimba to mbira

    Although the terms “marimba” and “mbira” may, to ears not used to Southern African languages, sound similar, the two instruments are very different.

    Mafuleni is skilled at both – with expertise in playing and making the two instruments. He also plays the African drum.

    Until September, Mafuleni’s front yard was also a workshop for both the marimba and the mbira, where he worked with a team of assistants into the night. Now, due to the demands of an expanding operation, he has moved his workshop to the Tynwald Industrial area, less than 15 minutes away.

    Although Mafuleni is as likely to get a commission to make a marimba as a mbira, he told Al Jazeera about his longer history with the former.

    Jacob Mafuleni
    Jacob Mafuleni, 46, works in his front yard [Percy Zvomuya/Al Jazeera]

    Mafuleni was first exposed to the marimba in 1990 when he joined the Boterekwa Dance Troupe, a group founded and led by the late bandleader and musician David Tafaneyi Gweshe. In the dance troupe, he initially became acquainted with Zimbabwe’s various dance styles before he mastered the marimba.

    When he joined Boterekwa, the band was already a fixture on the world music festival circuit, so he had to be content to be in group C, the third tier of the band. Being in group C meant you were an afterthought, a hapless extra caught up in the matrix of ambitions of senior protagonists in the ensemble.

    “If you were in C and you handled the marimba, you could even be barred from attending sessions for two weeks,” he recalled. Then one day he found himself moved from the back of the class right to the front row – the holy of holies. The promotion happened by a confluence of luck and his keen ears – and hands – for music.

    Gweshe had been trying to teach a melody on the marimba, but no one quite knew how to do it. Because the marimba was off limits for people in group C, Mafuleni could only watch Gweshe’s tirade, his heart throbbing, thinking, “But I know how to play that tune.” Eventually, he summoned his courage and stepped up: “And then I took the sticks and then went and played what he was telling us to play.

    “Riidza tinzwe, Jacob,” Gweshe said in Shona, the majority language in Zimbabwe. “Play, Jacob, so that we can hear you.”

    “He was ecstatic at my playing and started to play together with me,” Mafuleni recalled.

    A mbira
    A mbira crafted by Jacob Mafuleni [Percy Zvomuya/Al Jazeera]

    This moment is what democratised the instrument for the rest of the band, the reasoning being, “all this while we didn’t know we had this genius”.

    Sometimes when the instrument didn’t sound the way he wanted, the temperamental Gweshe would demolish it in a huff and then make a brand new one. When the new instrument was being made, Mafuleni would help out. “I wanted to learn and was watching all that was going on.”

    He wanted to know the measurements of the slats, how to make the grooves, how to place the resonators. Once, while Gweshe was away on tour, one slat broke and he managed to repair it. On his return, Gweshe was none the wiser that the marimba had been repaired. “This means I had done it well,” Mafuleni deduced.

    Musician to craftsman

    But Mafuleni’s real break with the marimba came much later in the United States, where Southern African instruments have been studied with religious devotion for more than half a century. He was visiting the US on tour as part of Mawungira eNharira, a Zimbabwean drum and mbira group.

    At some of these festivals, they shared stages with bands with Shona names but whose members were all white Americans who knew how to play all the marimba standards. “I was happy about this, but what came to my mind was, ‘Do the people at home know that marimba is being played like this?’”

    Marimba players
    Musicians play a marimba in Guatemala [File: Jose Cabezas/Reuters]

    He then told himself that when he got back home, he wanted to assemble a marimba band.

    During a break in the tour, he hooked up with an American master marimba maker, Rob Moeller, who for a token fee (only $300)  gave him an expedited curriculum on the intricacies of the craft: selecting the timber, measuring and cutting up the slats, how to affix them to the stand and how to tune the instrument. On the last day of the course, the teacher not only gave him the marimba he had made but also a Seiko tuner. And so his journey as a marimba maker had begun.

    Similarly, his transformation from being a mbira player to also being its craftsman happened through happenstance, his adventurous spirit and an unhappy encounter with a tardy but expert producer of the instrument.

    In 2003, when he was in a band called Sweet Calabash, a drum and mbira ensemble, the group found a promoter who wanted to get them mbira instruments and costumes. Mafuleni placed an order with a well-known mbira maker in Harare, paid the fee but the instruments wouldn’t come.

    A child plays a marimba
    A child plays a marimba [Percy Zvomuya/Al Jazeera]

    Every day for two months, he went to sit with the mbira craftspeople. But they kept on coming up with excuses why their instruments were not ready. Yet he was watching what they were doing.

    “And then I started asking the makers what to do if I want the instrument to sound in a certain way, and they would tell me. I was always asking them questions.”

    And then he took a hiatus from going to pester the mbira smiths.

    He got a board, some metallic metal keys and put them together. Just like that – he had made his first mbira.

    When he took it back to the master mbira makers to show them and to resume his vigil, they didn’t believe it was him who had put it together. “The way they didn’t believe I had made it was proof that I had done it properly.”

    Because of his experience with playing in Western-style band formats, he already knew the language of music: G sharp, octaves, etc. It is this knowledge that he has brought to his practice, giving him a distinct advantage over the traditional mbira maker.

    On the Saturday Al Jazeera visited, amid the sound of the marimba and the animated hubbub of the children, Mafuleni expanded on the social role Tsoro plays in the community.

    “At the centre, we don’t only teach music but a lot of other life skills. When we were still here after practising, I would urge the boys and girls to come help with the making of instruments. Even where we are now [in Tynwald], some still come to help out and learn.”

    During the April school holidays, he took nine children on a day’s retreat to Mukuvisi Woodlands, a lush forest on the eastern outskirts of the city, to teach them marimba, mbira and life lessons.

    In Dzivarasekwa, it may be music that will play a key role in breaking the cycle of drugs, teenage pregnancy and associated ills – especially among the township’s youth.

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  • The Denver Art Museum and the Kirkland Museum are merging

    The Denver Art Museum and the Kirkland Museum are merging

    Bannock Street Façade of Kirkland Museum of Fine and Decorative Art.

    Photo courtesy Wes Magyar

    The Denver Art Museum and Kirkland Museum of Fine & Decorative Art announced plans Thursday to merge operations, which they say will enhance the city’s cultural offerings.

    The Kirkland Museum, near the Denver Art Museum, will become the Kirkland Institute of Fine & Decorative Art at the Denver Art Museum. Its collection of decorative arts with a focus on Colorado artists — as well as its collection of work made by its namesake, Vance Kirkland — will join the DAM’s collection and programs.

    The Kirkland Museum struggled in recent years after the pandemic kept it closed and a 2021 flood created by burst pipes damaged each of the building’s three floors, including their gallery space and storage area. After extensive repairs, it reopened in August 2021.

    “This merger represents a bold step forward in our collective mission to honor our shared heritage, foster creativity, and cultivate a deeper appreciation for the arts,” said Merle Chambers, Kirkland Museum co-founder, in a statement.

    Officials said the merger will optimize resources to extend the museum’s reach with visitors and in its educational programs.

    The Kirkland Institute will maintain its vignette-style exhibits and preserve Kirkland’s three-room studio building, while joining architecturally distinct buildings.

    The integration process will take 12 to 18 months, with officials hoping to complete their operational merger by September. Members of each museum will have access to the other starting this summer.

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  • Fastest waiters in Paris compete in ‘coffee run’ street race

    Fastest waiters in Paris compete in ‘coffee run’ street race

    Paris, France – One of Paris’s most fashionable districts was flooded with white-shirted waiters balancing trays of coffee and croissants as the iconic Course des Cafes (“coffee race”) returned to the French capital on Sunday.

    The competition, which began in Paris 110 years ago, sees waiters race each other while holding trays of typical French fare.

    The event had not been held since 2011 because of budget issues. But with the Olympics coming to town this year, the city of Paris decided to revive the tradition to contribute to the spirit of athletic competition.

    “Slaloming between tables and serving orders in record time without spilling one’s plate – that’s a sport,” the city said in a statement.

    Thousands of people gathered to watch around 200 waiters take part in the race, which traverses a 2km (1.2-mile) route around Le Marais in central Paris. Without running, each waiter had to reach the finish line while balancing a tray with a glass of water, a cup of coffee and a croissant – and without spilling anything.

    Competitors were required to wear a white top, black trousers and a waiter’s apron, the traditional garb for Parisian waiters. The dress code was meant to “pay homage to this legendary historic race”, said Paris Deputy Mayor Dan Lert.

    Lert is also president of Eau de Paris. The public service company sponsored the race as part of a public relations campaign to encourage people to drink more tap water and consume fewer single-use plastic water bottles.

    The race starts and finishes at the Paris City Hall, an imposing Renaissance Revival building in the 4th arrondissement, close to the River Seine. Competitors must weave their way through some of the narrower streets of Le Marais district, one of the only parts of the city where the cramped alleys common to medieval Paris remain intact.

    Racing waiters also have to contend with hordes of tourists coming to explore the Marais, a popular spot for visitors thanks to its elegant 17th-century mansions, the Picasso Museum and writer Victor Hugo’s house.

    The district is also known for its boutique shops and, due to its roots as the Jewish Quarter following the French Revolution, home to a couple of famous falafel shops as well.

    The race’s female and male winners, ⁠Pauline Van Wymeersch and ⁠Samy Lamrous, were each given tickets to the opening ceremony of the Olympics this summer. Other top finishers received gift cards to restaurants around the city.

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  • Oppenheimer reigns supreme: Five takeaways from the 96th annual Oscars

    Oppenheimer reigns supreme: Five takeaways from the 96th annual Oscars

    It was an explosive night at the 96th annual Academy Awards, with the biopic Oppenheimer running away with the most trophies — and artists and protesters taking advantage of the spotlight to call attention to deadly conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine.

    Outside the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, California, traffic snarled to a standstill as demonstrators called for a ceasefire in Gaza, the Palestinian enclave that has been subject to a five-month-long Israeli military offensive.

    And inside the auditorium, actors and artists used their wins to call for peace, drawing on themes presented in the various nominated films.

    With 13 nominations, the biopic Oppenheimer was the frontrunner going into the night’s Oscar ceremony. And it made good on early predictions about its Oscar success, with seven wins in major categories.

    Here are the night’s biggest takeaways.

    Emma Thomas, left, and Christopher Nolan accept the award for Best Picture for Oppenheimer [Chris Pizzello/AP Photo]

    Oppenheimer cleans up with seven wins

    With its blistering portrayal of J Robert Oppenheimer, the so-called father of the atomic bomb, the film Oppenheimer started the night slow but quickly built momentum, grabbing some of the ceremony’s biggest prizes.

    Robert Downey Jr scored the first win of the night with his much-expected Best Supporting Actor trophy. But his co-star Cillian Murphy faced tight competition in the Best Actor category — and still made off with the golden statuette, prevailing over leading men like Paul Giamatti.

    The film also delivered a long-awaited win in the Best Director category for Christopher Nolan, whose relationship with the Academy Awards stretches back over two decades.

    Nolan was first nominated for an Academy Award in 2002 for the memory-loss mystery Memento, but while his films have earned major prizes at the Oscars, Nolan himself had consistently come up empty-handed.

    That changed, however, with Sunday’s ceremony. Not only did Nolan grab Best Director, but his wife, producer Emma Thomas, took the stage with him to receive the Best Picture honour, the most-coveted trophy of the night.

    Lily Gladstone on the Oscars red carpet
    Lily Gladstone from Killers of the Flower Moon lost the Best Actress race to Emma Stone of Poor Things [John Locher/AP Photo]

    Killers of the Flower Moon shut out

    One of the final categories of the night was Best Actress — and the auditorium at the Dolby Theatre held its collective breath while the presenters unveiled the winner.

    The race was one of the tightest of the evening, but Lily Gladstone was widely believed to be the frontrunner, on the cusp of delivering a history-making win for her role in Killers of the Flower Moon.

    Never before had a Native American woman won the category, much less been nominated. Gladstone, a member of the Nez Perce and Blackfeet nations, played the role of Mollie Kyle, a real-life Osage woman who lost close family in a 1920s killing spree known as the Osage Reign of Terror.

    It was a quietly stunning performance, with Gladstone exuding steady intelligence in every scene. But in a surprise twist, she lost the Best Actress category to another top contender, Emma Stone, who delivered a zany, off-kilter performance in the surreal comedy Poor Things.

    With Gladstone’s loss, Killers of the Flower Moon was entirely shut out of the Oscar race, despite 10 nominations. Poor Things, meanwhile, picked up four wins, largely in technical categories like Best Production Design and Best Makeup and Hairstyling.

    Billie Eilish and Finneas at the piano on Oscar stage
    Singer Billie Eilish, right, wore a ‘Artists for Ceasefire’ pin on the red carpet at the 96th annual Academy Awards [Chris Pizzello/AP Photo]

    Gaza in the Oscars spotlight with red-button pins

    On stage and off, however, world events dominated the conversation. Outside the Dolby Theatre, groups like the Los Angeles branch of Jewish Voice for Peace held up placards and chanted for a ceasefire in Gaza, blocking several lanes of traffic.

    Among the protesters was SAG-AFTRA Members for a Ceasefire, a group of working actors.

    The demonstrators said they sought to ensure that Israel’s assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah was not ignored, even amid the glitz and glamour of the evening.

    More than 30,000 Palestinians have been killed so far in Israel’s military offensive, which has prompted concerns over the risk of genocide and famine.

    On the Oscar red carpet, appeals for peace in Gaza continued, with celebrities like singer Billie Eilish and Poor Things star Ramy Youssef sporting “Artists for Ceasefire” pins to raise awareness about the unfolding humanitarian crisis.

    “I think it’s a universal message of just: Let’s stop killing kids,” Youssef told the magazine Variety. “Let’s not be part of more war.”

    The director of the chilling Holocaust drama The Zone of Interest likewise lent his voice to the cause, while accepting his Oscar for Best International Feature.

    “Right now, we stand here as men who refute their Jewishness and the Holocaust being hijacked by an occupation that has led to conflict for so many innocent people, whether the victims of October 7 in Israel or the ongoing attack on Gaza,” he said to applause.

    Mstylav Chernov
    Mstyslav Chernov accepts the award for Best Documentary Feature film for 20 Days in Mariupol [Chris Pizzello/AP Photo]

    Documentary renews calls for Ukraine peace

    The war in Gaza was not the only international conflict to grab the Oscar spotlight. With a win in the Best Documentary Feature category, the film 20 Days in Mariupol renewed attention about the ongoing Russian invasion in Ukraine.

    It has been over two years since Russia launched its full-scale military assault in February 2022. With his documentary, filmmaker Mstyslav Chernov captured the early days of that war, as the southeastern city of Mariupol faced Russian bombs.

    Chernov’s win in the category was historic. He explained from the Oscar stage that he was bringing home Ukraine’s first Oscar, but that he would trade it all for peace in his homeland.

    “Probably, I’m the first director on this stage who will say: I wish I had never made this film. I wish to be able to exchange this to Russia never attacking Ukraine, never occupying our cities,” he said with deep emotion as he faced the crowd.

    “But I cannot change the history. I cannot change the past,” he continued, appealing to the filmmakers in the audience to continue to shine a light on Ukraine.

    “We can make sure the history record is set straight, and that the truth will prevail, and that the people of Mariupol and those who have given their lives will never be forgotten. Because cinema forms memories and memories form history.”

    Currently, the US Congress is struggling to pass foreign aid to Ukraine, amid Republican opposition to the funding.

    Jimmy Kimmel holds up a pair of pink sparkly pants.
    Jimmy Kimmel holds up a pair of pink sparkly pants, similar to those worn by Ryan Gosling during his performance of the song I’m Just Ken [Chris Pizzello/AP Photo]

    Host Kimmel roasts Trump from the stage

    The political divides in the US — and the presidential election looming in November — also briefly coloured the night’s events.

    The Oscars delivered its usual mash-up of spectacle and glamour. In one of the night’s highlights, Canadian actor Ryan Gosling took to the stage for a live performance of his Barbie-themed power ballad I’m Just Ken, dressed in a sparkly pink suit and backed by cowboy-hatted dancers.

    In another eye-ball popping moment, actor and wrestler John Cena appeared naked on stage to present the Best Costume prize.

    But four-time Oscar host Jimmy Kimmel couldn’t resist sprinkling a little political humour into the night’s movie-themed zingers.

    He first took a shot at Katie Britt, a US senator from Alabama who recently delivered the rebuttal to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union speech.

    Kimmel compared Britt to the Frankenstein-like heroine of Poor Things, played by Oscar winner Stone.

    “Emma played an adult woman with the brain of a child, like the lady that gave the rebuttal to the State of the Union on Thursday night,” Kimmel quipped.

    Then, before the night closed, Kimmel reappeared on stage to read a mean social media post directed at him. Its author? Former President Donald Trump, a frequent target of Kimmel’s comedy.

    “Has there ever been a worse host than Jimmy Kimmel at The Oscars?” Kimmel said, reading from his phone screen. Looking up, he addressed the president, who faces four criminal indictments, directly: “Thanks for watching. Isn’t it past your jail time?”

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  • Dahomey doc on Europe’s looted African art wins Berlin film festival

    Dahomey doc on Europe’s looted African art wins Berlin film festival

    Dahomey, a documentary by Franco-Senegalese director Mati Diop probing the thorny issues surrounding Europe’s return of looted antiquities to Africa, has won the Berlin International Film Festival’s top prize.

    Kenyan-Mexican Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o announced the seven-member panel’s choice for the Golden Bear award at a gala ceremony in the German capital Saturday.

    Diop said the prize “not only honours me but the entire visible and invisible community that the film represents”.

    Al Jazeera’s Dominic Kane, reporting from Berlin, said the documentary “confronts an issue that has been the forefront of many people’s minds, not just in the film world but also across Europe.

    “DDahomeyconcentrates on the Benin bronzes and the struggle to return those bronzes. The whole principle of restitution, that is what the director Mati Diop referred to in accepting the prize, the Golden Bear at this festival,” Kane said.

    South Korean arthouse favourite Hong Sang-soo captured the runner-up Grand Jury Prize for, A Traveller’s Needs, his third collaboration with French screen legend Isabelle Huppert.

    Mati Diop celebrates with Berlinale Artistic Director Carlo Chatrian, right, and Head of Programming Mark Peranson backstage during the awards ceremony in Berlin [Nadja Wohlleben/Pool/AFP]

    Hong, a frequent guest at the festival, thanked the jury, joking, “I don’t know what you saw in this film.”

    French auteur Bruno Dumont accepted the third-place Jury Prize for, The Empire, an intergalactic battle of good and evil set in a French fishing village.

    Dominican filmmaker Nelson Carlo de los Santos Arias won best director for, Pepe, his enigmatic docudrama conjuring the ghost of a hippopotamus owned by the late Colombian drug baron Pablo Escobar.

    Marvel movie star Sebastian Stan picked up the best performance Silver Bear for his appearance in the US satire, A Different Man.

    Stan plays an actor with neurofibromatosis, a genetic disease causing disfiguring tumours, who is cured with a groundbreaking medical treatment.

    The Romanian American star called it “a story that’s not only about acceptance, identity and self-truth but about disfigurement and disability – a subject matter that’s been long overlooked by our own bias”.

    ‘Collusion’

    The United Kingdom’s Emily Watson clinched the best supporting performance Silver Bear for her turn as a cruel mother superior in, Small Things Like These.

    The film, starring Cillian Murphy, is about one of modern Ireland’s biggest scandals: the Magdalene laundries network of Roman Catholic penitentiary workhouses for “fallen women”.

    She paid tribute to the “thousands and thousands of young women whose lives were devastated by the collusion between the Catholic church and the state in Ireland”.

    German writer-director Matthias Glasner took the Silver Bear for best screenplay for his semi-autobiographical tragicomedy, Dying. The three-hour tour de force features some of the country’s top actors depicting a dysfunctional family.

    The Silver Bear for outstanding artistic contribution went to cinematographer Martin Gschlacht for the chilling Austrian historical horror movie, The Devil’s Bath. It tells the tale of depressed women in the 18th century who murdered in order to be executed.

    A separate Berlinale Documentary Award went to a Palestinian-Israeli activist collective for, No Other Land, about Palestinians displaced by Israeli troops and settlers in the occupied West Bank.

    “In accepting the prize, the two men most involved in this film – one Israeli, one Palestinian – both spoke about the need for a ceasefire immediately, and that is a thought picked up by many other people – some recipients of awards, [and] some people presenting awards,” Kane said.

    Cu Li Never Cries, by Vietnamese filmmaker Pham Ngoc Lan won the best first feature prize. The film tells the story of a woman who returns to Vietnam from Germany with the ashes of her estranged husband.

    Best short film went to, An Odd Turn, by Argentina’s Francisco Lezama about a museum security guard who predicts a surge in the dollar’s value with a pendulum.

    The Berlinale, as the festival is known, ranks with Cannes and Venice among Europe’s top cinema showcases.

    Last year, another documentary took home the Golden Bear, France’s, On the Adamant, about a floating day-care centre for people with psychiatric problems.

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  • Photos: Young Kenyan ballet dancers stage early Christmas performance

    Photos: Young Kenyan ballet dancers stage early Christmas performance

    As the sun sets on the narrow streets of Africa’s largest informal settlement, children hurry to change from daily clothes into pointe shoes and other ballet gear.

    Fifteen-year-old Brenda Branice is among the dancers and can’t hide her joy. It’s time for the Christmas performance in Kibera, one of the busiest neighbourhoods of Kenya’s capital, Nairobi.

    Instead of a stage, there is dust-covered plastic sheeting in an open field. The holidays have come early for residents as more than 100 local ballet students perform. They have been practicing every day after school.

    “I am happy to be a ballerina,” Branice said. “I am also happy to entertain my friends.”

    Eyeshadow sparkles. A girl’s braided hair swings. Some dancers go barefoot.

    The mother of another ballerina, Monica Aoko, smiles as she watches the performance. Hundreds of residents, young and old, have come to the annual holiday event.

    “This dance has given me a Christmas mood. Now I know Christmas is here,” Aoko said. She said she’s impressed knowing that when her daughter steps outside their home, she’s engaged in something meaningful.

    The ballet project is run by Project Elimu, a community-driven non-profit that offers after-school arts education and a safe space to children in Kibera.

    “Dance has the ability of triggering resilience, creativity, and also calmness in you as an individual,” said founder Michael Wamaya. “I want to use dance for emotional well-being of children here in Kibera.”

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  • BBC accused of censoring acts of Gaza solidarity in BAFTA awards coverage

    BBC accused of censoring acts of Gaza solidarity in BAFTA awards coverage

    Ceasefire calls by artists during a ceremony in Scotland did not make the final cut on the BBC’s streaming service.

    Glasgow, Scotland – The BBC has been accused of editing out multiple calls for a ceasefire in Gaza in its coverage of an entertainment awards ceremony in Scotland.

    The Scottish arm of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) held its ceremony on Sunday in Glasgow.

    At the event, some public figures used their moment on stage to express solidarity with Palestinians from the besieged enclave.

    But they later found their words of support cut from the final edit of the show, which appeared on the British public service broadcaster’s streaming service, iPlayer.

    Among those to accuse the BBC of censorship was director Eilidh Munro, who prevailed in BAFTA Scotland’s best Short Film and Animation category.

    She used her acceptance speech to call on guests to “use your voice as filmmakers and artists” to lobby for a halt to Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, as her colleague Finlay Pretsell displayed a poster that read, “I refuse to be silent. Ceasefire now.”

    While Munro’s entire award-winning segment, which included her acceptance speech, was seen by viewers watching the livestream version produced by BAFTA Scotland, it was not included in the final BBC iPlayer edit.

    Munro told Scotland’s The National newspaper: “It is deeply concerning that the BBC decided to cut the entire segment of our award acceptance speech from their coverage of the BAFTA Scotland Awards.

    “It is also somewhat surreal that an event which celebrates artists and filmmakers for using their voices and creating work to speak out against injustice can also be censored.”

    She added to The National: “In my opinion, the BBC’s editorial decision to omit these peaceful signs of solidarity is neither neutral nor impartial.”

     

    Pretsell’s poster is understood to have come from the campaigners who had gathered outside the ceremony’s venue at a Glasgow hotel.

    Art Workers for Palestine Scotland handed out pro-Palestinian paraphernalia to attendees, including Scotland’s Muslim First Minister Humza Yousaf.

    Yousaf was seen at the event with his Scottish-Palestinian wife Nadia El-Nakla, whose parents escaped Gaza after becoming trapped in the Palestinian territory for weeks after the start of the bloody conflict.

    Social media users outraged by the BBC edits have been sharing a video clip by the popular American TikTok user YourFavoriteGuy, who alleged the British broadcaster does not care “about [the Gazan] genocide or the Palestinians”.

    More than 14,500 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed by Israeli air strikes in a matter of weeks. Israel’s bombardment began in retaliation for the Hamas attack on southern Israel nearly 50 days ago, during which about 1,200 Israelis were killed and more than 200 were taken hostage.

    A truce is hoped to take hold early on Friday.

    A BBC spokesperson told Al Jazeera that “the programme on iPlayer is a highlights show and therefore significantly shorter than the actual event itself”.

    The spokesperson added: “Some edits were made so the content was compliant with BBC editorial guidelines on impartiality.”

    According to those rules, which are published on the BBC’s website, the broadcaster “must be inclusive, considering the broad perspective and ensuring that the existence of a range of views is appropriately reflected. It does not require absolute neutrality on every issue or detachment from fundamental democratic principles, such as the right to vote, freedom of expression and the rule of law”.

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  • Hollywood actors to end strike after agreeing tentative deal with studios

    Hollywood actors to end strike after agreeing tentative deal with studios

    The months-long strike has crippled the entertainment industry, halting hundreds of films and television productions.

    Hollywood actors have reached a tentative agreement with major studios to end a months-long strike that has halted the production of hundreds of films and television shows.

    The Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA) said on Wednesday that its strike would end at midnight (08:00 GMT on Thursday) after negotiators reached a preliminary deal on a new contract.

    The group’s national board will consider the agreement on Friday, and the union said it would release further details after the meeting.

    Members of SAG-AFTRA walked off the job in mid-July asking for an increase in minimum salaries, a share of streaming service revenue and protection from being replaced by “digital replicas” generated by artificial intelligence (AI).

    The union’s negotiators reached the preliminary deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), which represents companies including Netflix, Paramount and Walt Disney. There was no immediate comment from the alliance.

    Union team captains Romel De Silva and Brendan A Bradley pose with a symbolic cone as they celebrate the tentative agreement [Mario Anzuoni/Reuters]

    The breakthrough means Hollywood can ramp up to full production for the first time since May, once union members vote to ratify the deal in the coming weeks.

    The news spread rapidly across Hollywood, with celebrities expressing joy and relief.

    “Incredible! I’m so happy we were all able to come to an agreement. Let’s get back to work! Let’s go! I’m so stoked,” Zac Efron told reporters at a premiere of The Iron Claw.

    “PERSEVERANCE PAYS OFF!” wrote Oscar winner Jamie Lee Curtis on Instagram.

    SAG-AFTRA represents some 160,000 performers.

    While Hollywood’s top stars earn millions, many less well-known actors said it had become almost impossible to earn a decent living in recent years, as longstanding pay structures failed to keep pace with inflation and the rise of streaming services.

    When SAG-AFTRA walked out in mid-July, Hollywood writers were also on strike.

    It was the first time that the two unions had headed to the picket lines simultaneously since 1960 when actor (and future US president) Ronald Reagan led the protests.

    The writers’ union resolved their dispute in late September, saying they had secured “meaningful gains and protections for writers”.

    The industrial action forced studios to delay the release of big-budget films, including Dune: Part Two and the next instalment in the Mission: Impossible franchise, while broadcasters were forced to fill their schedules with re-runs, game shows and reality programming.

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  • Announcing the U.S. Home of the Luciano Pavarotti Foundation and an International Center for the Arts

    Announcing the U.S. Home of the Luciano Pavarotti Foundation and an International Center for the Arts

    Indoor and outdoor theaters, an International Voice Academy, a Pavarotti Museum, and more


    NAPLES, Fla., November 3, 2023 (Newswire.com)
    –
    An international center for the arts is coming to Naples, Florida. Benefiting the lives of exceptional young classical singers from around the world and further enriching the cultural fabric of the Naples community, Theater in the Garden is excited to announce its plans in partnership with the Luciano Pavarotti Foundation.

    It is planned to be a multi-purpose space designed to honor the legacy and vision of the world-renowned tenor, Luciano Pavarotti, while also fulfilling the long-standing need for such a multi-use facility in Naples. The property will embrace a 900-seat state-of-the-art indoor theater, an outdoor amphitheater in a landscaped garden setting, the Luciano Pavarotti Museum, The Luciano Pavarotti International Voice Competition, and Luciano’s Restaurant. It will be the first Foundation location to be established outside Modena, Italy.

    “I am thrilled the Luciano Pavarotti Foundation will soon have a permanent presence in the United States, especially one in a cultural center as rich and diverse as Naples,” commented the maestro’s widow, Nicoletta Pavarotti. “The city has much in common with many of those in our homeland. Naples has vigorously embraced and encouraged the performing and visual arts from its inception a hundred years ago, wisely seeing them as the bedrock of a cultivated and envied civilization.”

    The Academy is aligned with the maestro’s wish to see the continued advancement of the appreciation of all forms of vocal performance and the support, encouragement, and development of the next generation of exceptional young singers, especially those from underprivileged backgrounds. The Academy will provide students with voice, acting, and diction lessons, and provide opportunities to showcase their talent through public performances.

    The state-of-the-art indoor theater and the outdoor amphitheater in the surrounding gardens will be available for use by the Academy and other performing arts groups based in Collier County. 

    Luciano Pavarotti’s theatrical costumes worn during his starring roles in the great opera houses of the world, and posters, photographs, and a lifetime of memorabilia will be part of the Pavarotti Museum as well as other collectibles from his legendary “Three Tenors” and “Pavarotti and Friends” tours, memories from his special friends as film director Franco Zeffirelli, Princess Diana, Frank Sinatra, and collaborations with such pop icons as Sting, Lionel Richie, and U2.

    Estimated to cost $25-30 million, Theater in the Garden will serve as a cultural epicenter for generations. It will host various performing arts organizations, providing a place for both artists to showcase their talents and for the community to enjoy the arts like never before in Southwest Florida.

    Through Theater in the Garden, Pavarotti’s musical legacy will profoundly impact the cultural arts of Southwest Florida and well beyond. Those interested in supporting the development of Theater in the Garden or donating are encouraged to contact Robert Kovacevich, Development Director, at avatarway@icloud.com.

    The conceptual team is made up of

    • Nicoletta Pavarotti, President of The Luciano Pavarotti Foundation
    • Livio Ferrari, Director of Theater in the Garden Inc.
    • Robert Kovacevich, Development Director of Theater in the Garden Inc.
    • Tim Ronalds Architects
    • Raf Orlowski, Acoustician

    The advisory board of Theater in the Garden includes

    • Joseph Calleja, world-renowned tenor
    • Teresa Heitmann, Mayor, City of Naples
    • Iliana Lopez, Founder, Gulfshore Ballet
    • Ramón Tebar, international concert pianist and conductor, and Cultural Ambassador, City of Naples
    • Roger Weatherburn-Baker, Corporate Marketing and PR consultant

    ABOUT THE LUCIANO PAVAROTTI FOUNDATION
    The Luciano Pavarotti Foundation is a non-profit organization with a double goal: to keep alive the human and artistic memory of Maestro Pavarotti through major international events and to support promising young opera singers. For more information, visit http://www.lucianopavarottifoundation.com/en.

    ABOUT THEATER IN THE GARDEN
    Theater in the Garden was created in partnership between Luciano Pavarotti’s widow, Nicoletta Pavarotti, The Luciano Pavarotti Foundation, and a conceptual team. Filling a void in Southwest Florida’s cultural and performing arts scene, Theater in the Garden will serve as an international center for the arts and the United States location for The Luciano Pavarotti Foundation. For more information, visit http://www.theaterinthegarden.com.

    Source: The Luciano Pavarotti Foundation

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  • Spirit Tales: Iraq’s shape-shifting Tantals

    Spirit Tales: Iraq’s shape-shifting Tantals

    The Middle East abounds in tales of spirits and their antics. Today, Al Jazeera brings some of these tales to life.

    Myths and legends, whispered under the veil of night from elder to child, offer glimpses into a culture’s most profound fears, dreams, and values.

    In Iraq, the enigmatic Marshes resonate with tales of the Tantal, an elusive creature that can shape-shift – from man to beast to inanimate object.

    It is the essence of mischief, a trickster that delights in its trickery.

    Imagine encountering a stranger in the Marshes, adorned in flashy, seemingly tasteless attire. This stranger, possibly a Tantal in disguise, might pose a peculiar question: “Do you think these clothes would suit you?”

    Your answer holds weight. Admire his choice, and he may not only befriend you but also shower wealth upon you. Disapprove, and you risk the creature’s wrath, which could spiral you into madness.

    Marsh dwellers will tell you the Tantal is a creature of the night, a guardian of hidden marshland treasures and a malevolent spirit quick to ensnare the unwary, especially children.

    Visually, the unadorned Tantal is unsettling – with eyes oriented vertically like a cat’s and strikingly long, sharp canine teeth in an ambiguous “face” that hovers over a giant’s body that shuffles along, loose-limbed and terrifying.

    Of course, it often appears disguised as another creature – a man, woman, child, cat, or dog – when it is out and about to ensnare the unwary.

    Tales of the Tantal were also cautionary tales as grown-ups told children of the Tantal’s wrath, of how it could pull the defiant deep into watery graves.

    Tantals take their names from the names of the Marshes – among the most famous names known in Iraqi folklore are Tantal Abu Ghraib, Tantal Umm al-Ubaid, Tantal Abu Asmej, Tantal Dawar, Tantal Salin, and Tantal Hafiz, who is considered the ruler of many Tantals in the Marshes.

    The Tantal goes back to the legend of Hafiz himself, which was passed down from generation to generation among the clans of southern Iraq.

    The legend says that in ancient times there were two great kingdoms in southern Mesopotamia, ruled over by two kings, Al-Akr and Abu Shadhar, who had a brother named Hafiz.

    Life flourished in the two kingdoms, and the kings built ornate cities and temples with arched arcades and splendid balconies that looked over lush palm and fruit orchards the kings had ordered the planting of.

    And they had huge fences built around their kingdoms to protect them from flooding from the Marshes. They felt they had done everything they needed to ensure a safe kingdom and a happy populace.

    But the life of plenty and luxury meant they eventually strayed from the right path – they forgot God, forgot to dedicate their life to obeying the divine, and faltered in their worship.

    God’s anger was swift, and he sent an earthquake that largely destroyed the kingdoms, including the fences, and a flood that drowned what was left, till all that remained was ruins.

    Then God sent down Tantals and Jinn to guard the remains of these one-mighty kingdoms, which had been buried whole, with their treasures and delights.

    And that is what the Tantals have done. Through the centuries, they have used fear and trickery to keep people away from whatever buried treasure the Marshes hold.

    But if you were ever to get close to a Tantal, you would find that they have a gift: the power of foresight. Befriend it, and you may receive prophecies of the future.

    Yassir Kareem, an Iraqi filmmaker, once interviewed an elderly man from the Marshes.

    The man firmly believed the Tantal had visited him in a dream, predicting a future where the land would parch, and outsiders would claim it, forcing the native inhabitants away. This was a prophecy, he said, given the climate change that dried out the Marshes and the foreign oil companies that flooded into the oil-rich regions of Iraq.

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  • Hollywood writers reach tentative deal with studios to end strike

    Hollywood writers reach tentative deal with studios to end strike

    Hollywood’s writers union says it has reached a preliminary labour agreement with the industry’s major studios in a deal to end one of two strikes that have halted most film and television production for nearly five months.

    The Writers Guild of America (WGA) announced the deal on Sunday with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), the group that represents studios, streaming services and producers in negotiations.

    The three-year contract agreement – agreed to after five marathon days of renewed talks by negotiators WGA and the AMPTP – must still be approved by the guild’s board and members before the strike can be declared officially over.

    The WGA, which represents 11,500 film and television writers, described the deal as “exceptional” with “meaningful gains and protections for writers”.

    “This was made possible by the enduring solidarity of WGA members and extraordinary support of our union siblings who joined us on the picket lines for over 146 days,” the negotiating committee said in a statement.

    There was no immediate comment from the AMPTP.

    The WGA settlement, while a milestone, will not return Hollywood to work as the SAG-AFTRA actors union remains on strike.

    The WGA members walked off the job on May 2 after negotiations reached an impasse over compensation, minimum staffing of writers’ rooms, the use of artificial intelligence and residuals that reward writers for popular streaming shows, among other issues.

    The writers strike immediately sent late-night talk shows and comedy sketch show Saturday Night Live into hiatus, and has left dozens of scripted shows and other productions in limbo, including the forthcoming seasons of Netflix’s Stranger Things, HBO’s The Last of Us and ABC’s Abbot Elementary, as well as films including Deadpool 3 and Superman: Legacy.

    The Emmy Awards were also pushed from September to January.

    Efforts to restart daytime talk shows without writers, such as The Drew Barrymore Show, collapsed this month in the face of criticism from striking writers and actors.

    At picket lines, protests took on the rhetoric of class warfare.

    Writers assailed media executives’ compensation and said working conditions had made it hard for them to earn a middle-class living.

    Executives at times fanned tensions.

    Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger, fresh from a contract extension that gave him an annual bonus of five times his base salary, criticised striking writers and actors as “just not realistic” in their demands.

    Iger subsequently struck a conciliatory note, citing his “deep respect” for creative professionals.

    The work stoppages took a toll on camera operators, carpenters, production assistants and other crew members, as well as the caterers, florists, costume suppliers and other small businesses that support film and television production.

    The economic cost is expected to total at least $5bn in California and the other US production hubs of New Mexico, Georgia and New York, according to an estimate from Milken Institute economist Kevin Klowden.

    Four top industry executives – Iger, Warner Bros Discovery CEO David Zaslav, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos and NBCUniversal Studio Group Chair Donna Langley – joined negotiations this week, helping to break the months-long impasse.

    As with past writers strikes, the action is partly a response to Hollywood capitalising on a new form of distribution – and writers seeking their share of the newfound revenue.

    The 100-day strike in 2007-08 focused, in part, on extending guild protections to “new media,” including movies and TV downloads as well as content delivered via advertisement-supported internet services.

    This time around, a central issue is residual payments for streaming services, which writers said represented a fraction of the compensation they would receive for a broadcast television show.

    Writers also sought limits on AI’s role in the creative process. Some feared that studio executives would hand a writer an AI-generated script to revise and pay the writer at a lower rate to rewrite or polish it. Others expressed concerns about intellectual property theft if existing scripts were used to train artificial intelligence.

    Even as studio executives celebrated the end of the longest-running writers strike since 1988, it is only half the labour battle. The studios must still find a way to get actors back to work.

    SAG-AFTRA, representing 160,000 film and television actors, stunt performers, voiceover artists and other media professionals, walked off the job in July, the first time in 63 years that Hollywood faced a strike by two unions at the same time.

    At issue are questions of minimum wages for performers, protections against the use of artificial intelligence replacing human performances and compensation that reflects the value actors bring to the streaming services.

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