If your organization is planning an event of any kind, please email Caitlin at crockett @ boulderweekly.com.
EVENTS
Fifth Annual Virtual Colorado Pollinator Summit. 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 5. Registration is $20, butterflies.org/copollinatornetwork.
The Colorado Pollinator Network was established in 2016 with a mission to bring organizations together to conserve, protect and create pollinator habitat while educating communities across the state of Colorado on how to protect pollinators. Through this summit, a broad audience of researchers, educators, land managers, policy experts, community organizers, homeowners and landowners will come together to explore the state of pollinator conservation in Colorado; identify impediments to conservation action across disciplines; and identify strategies to overcome the challenges of pollinator conservation here in Colorado and beyond.
Longmont Public Library hosts Bilingual Mexican Bingo. 4 p.m. Nov. 7 and Nov. 21 via Webex, bit.ly/LibProgramas.
After a lengthy COVID-19-related hiatus, Longmont Public Library’s popular bilingual family program “¡Lotería Mexicana!” returns via Webex. Families are invited to play a few rounds of traditional Mexican bingo using game boards provided by the library during two Saturday sessions, on Nov. 7 and Nov. 21, from 4 to 5 p.m. For the Nov. 7 game, participants will be provided with special Day of the Dead game boards. During the bingo game, players can use beans, coins, small rocks, etc., as chips to mark the images as they are called out. Each player will need 16 chips to fill the entire game board during rounds of “blackout” or “tabla entera.” Those who would like to practice their Spanish will have the opportunity to be one of the card callers or cantores. Names will be drawn at the end to receive special prizes. Registration is required and available online. Once registered, participants will receive emails in English and Spanish with instructions to pick up their game boards and log in to the Webex programs.
Flamenco Fantasy Dance Theatre presents ‘Alegrías.’ 7 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 7, Dickens Opera House, 300 Main St., Longmont. Price: $18-$22, dickensoperahouse.com.
Legendary local flamenco guitarist René Heredia’s Flamenco Fantasy Dance Theatre brings the heart and soul of Spanish gypsy flamenco to the main stage at Dickens Opera House, complete with colorful costumes, castanets, stomping feet and fiery passion. In this performance, three dancers blend light, graceful arm movements, syncopated hand-clapping and powerful, synchronized foot work to the beautiful music of talented flamenco guitarist Andréana Cortés, René’s niece. These are challenging times and Flamenco Fantasy Dance Theatre is keen to continue doing their part by offering entertainment at a price point people can afford. Guests must wear masks unless seated at their table. No dancing will be allowed. No bar service; table service only. Only 50 tickets are available.
Dare to Care Food Drive. Nov. 10 to Dec. 30. Food drop locations and information on how to donate at creativecatalyzers.org.
Approximately 10,000 grade-school students in Boulder County are affected by food insecurity due to recent COVID-19 public school closures. Local nonprofit organization Creative Catalyzers has mobilized some 20 local artists to turn food crates into sculptural attractions for a food drive in businesses in Niwot, Longmont, Central Boulder, Lafayette and Louisville. If you can’t make it to any of the delivery depots, Creative Catalyzers is also accepting monetary donations toward this project: $20 is equivalent to six school lunches, $100 can feed lunch to a classroom. Even $5-10 makes a difference. Food requests: nut butters, soups, cereal, oatmeal, canned tuna and chicken, beans, canned fruit, canned vegetables, pasta, pasta sauce and rice.
‘Return to Nam’ Zoomback @ The Boe. 7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 11 via Zoom. Free but registration is required, truecare.org/returntonam.
The Dairy Arts Center and TRU Community Care Hospice have come together with Old Glory Honor Flights for an event commemorating this year’s Veterans Day with a screening of Return to Nam, a 2019 documentary following 52 Vietnam veterans returning to the Southeast Asian country that birthed so many of their memories and demons. Return to Nam is a story of healing, and the hour-long documentary will be followed by a talkback featuring veterans from the film. There will also be an opportunity for participants to ask questions and share their own thoughts and memories.
MUSIC
Live and live streaming shows
Arise Online featuring a live streamed performance by Magic Beans. 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 5. Streaming provided by NoCapShows. Once purchased, private links will be sent via email and text to attendees. Tickets start at $5, arisefestival.com.
Arise Music Festival announces its newest project, ARISE Online, with a live streaming performance from one of Colorado’s neo-jam favorites Magic Beans, performing from the legendary Colorado Sound Studios in Denver. With their signature combination of soul, rock and funk, Magic Beans have performed at festivals and venues across the country, including Red Rocks Amphitheatre and their very own Beanstalk Music Festival in Colorado. Their latest album, Off Leash, weaves genres to build a distinct neo-jam sound, pushing limits both on stage and in studio. Magic Beans new album, Casino Cabaret, is due out March 16, 2021.
Johnny & The Mongrels. 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 6, Dickens Opera House, 300 Main St., Longmont. Price: $20, dickensoperahouse.com. Tickets are limited.
Johnny & The Mongrels is a high-powered, New Orleans-influenced band combining funk and deep bayou soul. Its founders, currently based in Fort Collins, are singer/songwriter Johnny Ryan and singer/bassist/songwriter Jeff Bostic. Their debut LP, Creole Skies, was produced by JoeBaby Michaels and Scott Sharrard (formerly of The Gregg Allman Band). At this Dickens Opera House show, guests must wear masks unless seated at their table. No dancing is allowed and no bar service will be available (table service only).
Boulder Theater Intimate Dinner Concerts (2032 14th St., Boulder):
All tickets are sold in tables of four or eight and include two drinks (beer, wine or well), two McDevitt Taco Supply tacos (chicken, pork or veggie), and chips and salsa per person. Additional beverages, food and upgrades are available for purchase at the table. Gratuity is not included. Tickets are $50.
Jane and Matthews. 7 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 7.
Jordan “Jane” and Jarrod “Matthew” formed the group Jane and Matthews in pursuit of blending popular music genres with top-tier musicianship. The duo showcases influences from a variety of genres, including Americana, country, pop, rock, prog, classical, jazz, funk, blues, bluegrass and metal.
Bowregard. 7 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 8.
Bowregard — winners of the 2019 Telluride Bluegrass Band Contest and the 2018 UllrGrass Band Contest — is a five-piece bluegrass band from Boulder. With driving rhythm and tight three-part vocal harmonies, Bowregard’s underpinnings in traditional bluegrass meld with old-time, Americana and progressive sensibilities to provide the foundation for their original songwriting and creative reinterpretations of the classic bluegrass repertoire
BOOKS
One Book, One Boulder talks race with bestselling author Ijeoma Oluo. 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 5. For more information, to register for this free online event and to watch previously recorded One Book, One Boulder events, please visit boulderlibrary.org/one-book.
Ijeoma Oluo, bestselling author of So You Want to Talk About Race, will make a virtual appearance at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 5, for the finale of Boulder Public Library’s One Book, One Boulder 2020 event series. Oluo will discuss her book and engage in a community Q&A. Oluo is a Seattle-based writer and speaker. Her work focuses primarily on issues of race and identity, feminism, social and mental health, social justice, the arts and personal essay.
Local author alert: ‘They Died On My Watch,’ by Noel Bailey.
In this reference book, Longmont author Noel Bailey covers the who, what, when and where of popular culture of the last 75 years. How many actors died of cancer-related illness in 1996? How many husbands did Elizabeth Taylor divorce in her lifetime? What well known actor died just a few days after David Bowie? They Died On My Watch can answer these questions and many more. It’s the ultimate umpire in any pop culture argument that may arise regarding a dead celebrity.
JLF Colorado 2020. Sunday Nov. 8 to Wednesday, Nov. 11; Sunday Nov. 15 to Wednesday, Nov. 18. All sessions are from 6:15 p.m.–9:30 p.m. MST. Suggested donation of $25. Registration is required: jlflitfest.org/colorado.
Join Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF) Colorado (virtually) for its sixth iteration – streaming online with back-to-back sessions. JLF is a literature festival unlike any other where you can experience the reflections and imaginations of distinguished contemporary authors from around the globe. JLF Colorado kindly asks for your support with a suggested donation of $25.
The festival line-up includes:
• Yann Martel, Life of Pi, Booker Prize-winning and internationally renowned author
• David Abulafia, Mountbatten Literary Award-winning author, The Boundless Sea: Human History of the Oceans
• Eric Cornell, Nobel Laureate in Physics
• Hussain Zaidi, Indian author and journalist
• Jo Nesbø, Norwegian writer, musician, economist and former soccer player, author of The Snowman
• Kara Keeling, UCLA humanities academic and author of Queer Times, Black Futures
• Kim Ghattas, Dutch-Lebanese journalist and author of The Black Wave
• Nathalie Etoke, author and professor of Black French experience, Africana thought, and Queer studies in Africa and the Caribbean
HOMEVIEWING
Barbara Bridges and Jill S. Tietjen on ‘Hollywood: Her Story’
If there’s a specific resistance to women making movies, I just choose to ignore that as an obstacle for two reasons: I can’t change my gender, and I refuse to stop making movies. —Kathryn Bigelow
Kathryn Bigelow was the fourth woman nominated for a Best Director Oscar in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ then 82-year history, and the first to take the statue home. The movie she won for — 2008’s The Hurt Locker — will air Tuesday, Nov. 10 as part of TCM’s Women Make Film, a 14-week series designed to reframe cinema’s history with an emphasis on gender inclusion. An aspect of the industry that has been present since 1896 but excised from the collective memory.
“Women helped found the movie industry,” Barbara Bridges, founder of Denver Film’s Women+Film Festival, says. “They were the early filmmakers. They owned their studios. They developed many of the filmmaking techniques.”
But when the historians sat down to pen the history of movies, women were left out and their names were left off. In recent years, the name Alice Guy-Blaché has bubbled back into the conversation, but 20, 30, 40 years ago, forget it.
“She was the first to use film to tell stories,” Bridges says, “[and] she was doing all kinds of experimenting with filmmaking.”
Same for 1,200-plus talents featured in Bridges and Jill S. Tietjen’s book, Hollywood: Her Story, An Illustrated History of Women and the Movies — a “horizontal approach” to film history through archival photographs and direct quotations. For those following TCM’s series, there’s plenty from Lois Weber, Dorothy Arzner, Ida Lupino, Ava DuVernay and Barbara Streisand — whose Yentl will air Nov. 18 on TCM.
There’s a lot Bridges and Tietjen convey with their book, chief among them: There is no one way to or through Hollywood.
“So many of these women didn’t have the conventional path that they could follow,” Tietjen says.
So, as Tietjen points out, they do it all: Write, produce and direct. Sometimes, like Lupino, they act. Sometimes, like Streisand, they sing.
“Because that’s what it takes,” Tietjen continues.
And while that’s true today, Tietjen notes that technological advancements have granted access to filmmakers. As DuVernay says in the book, “I’m grateful that I live at a time when access to cameras and distribution platforms and ways to reach audiences outside of the normal Hollywood infrastructure are possible for me, a black person, a woman, than ever before.”
DuVernay was also nominated for an Oscar, by the way, in 2017 for 13th. And if you go to the book’s companion website, hollywoodherstory.com, you’ll find two categories relating to the Oscars: nominees and winners sorted by chronology and by category.
“When you look at it by date, you can see how more and more women over the years have been nominated,” Bridges says. “And when you look at it by category, you can see the categories where women really have been able to thrive … and you can see the categories where they have struggled.”
‘Hollywood: Her Story, An Illustrated History of Women and the Movies’ can be found in bookstores and online. TCM’s Women Make Film continues Tuesday, Nov. 10.
