Every Roaring Fork Valley town (except Carbondale) has at some point changed its name: Glenwood Springs was once Defiance. Basalt was Aspen Junction. Aspen was Ute City.
What’s in a name, usually, is history. Which is usually written by the victors, then revisited as times change.… read more →
About a week ago, a local lady, Marlene, asked online: “If I may, I have a question for anyone with a workable answer? Those Black people who have attained some degree of education, wealth, influence… Why don’t they organize, reach out to their fellow man…?”
My… read more →
Perhaps you’ve seen COVID-19 homeschooling memes.
My favorite: Homeschooling going well. Two students suspended for fighting. One teacher fired for drinking on the job.
My San Francisco friend Caroline Nassif, who teaches at the college level, says homeschooling is “ridiculously difficult.” One of her… read more →
Despite a childhood marred by divorce, frequent moves and a parent’s attempted suicide, I have never gone hungry. And until Mary Kenyon mentioned it in a March meeting, I had never heard the term “food insecurity”.
According to the Colorado Health Institute, half a million Coloradoans… read more →
“Oh, a storm is threat’ning my very life today
If I don’t get some shelter oh yeah, I’m gonna fade away…”
I’m quarantined, listening to a 2011 recording of Gimme Shelter produced by Playing for Change, which seeks to “connect the… read more →
To watch MinTze Wu play classical violin — in the Sage string quartet as it performs Joseph Hayden’s Last Words of Christ at Third Street Center — is to witness artistic rapture.
To hear her play Irish fiddle — say, Turkey in the Straw at Beer… read more →
Having experienced several big-city transit systems — San Francisco, Chicago, Denver — I can testify that RFTA is a gem.
When I moved here, I was astonished to learn that the Roaring Fork Transportation Agency is Colorado’s second-largest transit system, after Denver! (Huh, Colorado Springs?) Interestingly… read more →
Having lived in big cities — Denver, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco — my norm was to always be a stranger among strangers, looking warily over my shoulder, carrying mace in my pocket but craving connection and community.
I want to be recognized and remembered.… read more →
When I was a teenager, long before the Marie Kondo simplification trend, a young Japanese woman came once a week to restore order to our home — a house peopled by two adults, three huskies, two cats and five teenagers. Miko’s real reason for housekeeping was to practice… read more →
In this season of gratitude, among the blessings I count are the creativity and inclusiveness that characterize this town.
I could tally many examples, but Third Street Center embodies it all: As I write this, it’s bringing together the town’s English and Spanish-speaking communities for Dia de Los… read more →
