Open to all disciplines!
Hosted by Dennis Mulherin

Join us in celebrating the release of not one, but two new books by Boulder poet and author, Moudi Sbeity. Moudi is the author of the poetry collection, Alhamdulillah Anyway and the memoir, Habibi Means Beloved.

Moudi will be joined in conversation by restorative justice practitioner & poet, Jamelah Zidan.

About the Author:

Moudi Sbeity is a Lebanese-American poet, author, and contemplative educator. Born in Texas and raised in Lebanon, he moved to the United States at the age of eighteen as an evacuee following the 2006 July war. In Utah, Moudi founded and operated Laziz Kitchen, a Lebanese restaurant celebrated by the New York Times as "the future of queer dining." Moudi was also a named plaintiff in Kitchen v. Herbert, the landmark case that brought marriage equality to Utah and the 10th circuit states in 2014. His poems have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Orison's Best Spiritual Literature. As a lifelong stutterer, he is passionate about writing and poetry as practices in fluency and self-expression.

About Alhamdulillah Anyway:

How totally must a heart break so that gratitude is repeatedly uttered on our lips? In Alhamdulillah Anyway, Moudi Sbeity responds by holding the grief of witnessing the genocide in Gaza and the war in Lebanon alongside praise for existing at all. As a queer muslim who stutters, Sbeity’s debut collection intimately addresses how language and narrative author our collective experience. His poems reach across the divide of border and ideology and into the shared pulse of being, pointing toward the possibility of liberation through a framework of compassion, forgiveness, and awe. So that even with all the difficulties we each face daily, even with all the atrocities of our world, still alhamdulillah– the quieter sister to hallelujah– can be uttered as our final song of gratitude.

About Habibi Means Beloved: A Queer Memoir on War, Stuttering, and Belonging:

Born into a Muslim family from a small Lebanese village, Moudi Sbeity came of age at the intersection of war, displacement, and difference. Queer, with a stutter, and often on the margins of belonging, Sbeity survived the conflicts that fractured their homeland and family before arriving in Utah as an eighteen-year-old evacuee.

From there, Sbeity transformed anonymity into advocacy as plaintiff in Kitchen v. Herbert, the landmark case that secured marriage equality across the 10th Circuit, and as founder of the celebrated Salt Lake City queer-friendly restaurant Laziz Kitchen. Yet behind these outward triumphs, Sbeity felt an inner call to return to their roots through writing and poetry. Habibi Means Beloved interweaves personal narrative, Sufi mysticism, and Lebanese heritage in a memoir of resilience, disconnection, and reconciliation. Both intimate and universal, it invites readers to reimagine belonging and recognize ourselves—and one another—as already beloved.

About Jamelah Zidan:

Jamelah Zidan is a Palestinian-American, restorative justice practitioner, and JD candidate at Vermont Law and Graduate School. She worked as a teacher and facilitator before turning to law, and her interests range from rights of nature to death-positive community, and poetry, of course.

This event is free and open to the public. However, space can be limited. We suggest reserving your spot ahead of the reading at:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/boulder-book-celebration-with-moudi-sbeity-tickets-1998602000384?aff=oddtdtcreator

The Alpine Pickers are a high-energy bluegrass and folk band formed from friendships and Craigslist posts in Denver, Colorado. With a sound that blends folk & americana with modern storytelling, they've been bringing crowds to their feet since the spring of 2025 in venues large and small across Colorado. 

Sid Williamson & The Good Faith is a Colorado-based Americana/Soul/Rock band built around honest songs and loud community nights that leave people sweaty, tired, and feeling a little more human on the drive home.
What started as Sid playing solo with a guitar, harmonica, suitcase kick drum, and tambourine has steadily grown into a full-band sound featuring horns, improvisation, harmony-heavy arrangements, and a rotating cast of musicians from across Colorado’s independent music scene.

Swift Current is an indie folkgrass band based out of Denver, Colorado. Born out of an impromptu jam at a local bar, the duo-turned-quartet features Jason Bishop (lead vocals-guitar), Greg Schlosser (mandolin), Niky Kreiling (upright bass), and Emily Kwiatkowski (banjo-fiddle). The music blends indie rock melodies with traditional string band instrumentation in a mix that is both catchy and unique. Swift Current released its first EP “Start Again” in Spring 2026 and can be found on all streaming platforms.

RUGBURN- “Denver-based garage-rock band RUGBURN, as the name suggests, leaves you rolling on the carpet in a jittering, psychedelic fit of ecstasy! Like driving down a desert highway on acid, the fuzzed-out trio takes your mind on a Hunter S. Thompson trip, with ripping guitar riffage and a thumping, frenetic rhythm section behind the wheel! Gritty and dripping with reverb, RUGBURN's vocal stylings drape over each hard-hitting tune, guiding your ears along the blissful madness. Oozing with kaleidoscope dreams, RUGBURN is the perfect conduit for the pure, cosmic energy blasting from every corner of the Universe."

It’s time again for our 3rd Annual Halloween Edition of Punketry! Punketry is a fusion of improv punk music by the ever-evolving jam band Black Market Translation and poetry from local Spoken Word nerds.

Featuring:
O-Syris
Rosa Vadi
Charlie Sachs
Sarah Rodriguez

Costume Contest at Intermission! Winner scores a $50 Trident gift card! Dress your best and do the Punk-Mash!

Hosted by Eric Fischman

Louis David Klein is a 19-year-old self-produced singer-songwriter raised in Westminster, Colorado, currently residing in Boulder. He has released three albums recorded almost entirely in the comfort of his own basement with songs ranging from folk to rock to shoegaze to ragtime. Louis does not let genres define him. He has been performing since 2024 and has played venues around Colorado such as the Fillmore Auditorium, Lion's Lair, Mercury Cafe, and the Greeley Performing Arts Center.

Eliah Marley is a 19-year-old multi-instrumentalist singer-songwriter. While honing his musicianship through School of Rock, he began writing and performing his own songs. Inspired by countless artists, from The Avett Brothers and Caamp to Gregory Alan Isakov and Sufjan Stevens, his music combines catchy instrumentals with mature and introspective lyrics. He is currently working on recording his debut album while playing shows around the Boulder area, where he is also a student at the University of Colorado.

Lively conversation for language learners, native speakers, and everyone in between. We regularly have 10+ languages spoken and always have spirited discussions! 

Join us for an evening reading in the courtyard with author & photographer, Stephen Collector, celebrating his new book of essays & photos, No Do-Overs in Paradise.

About the Book:

Stephen Collector’s No Do-Overs In Paradise is a collection of once-in-a-lifetime opportunities that many of us could only dream of. His work as a professional photographer has taken him front and center to many of the most remarkable sporting locations the western hemisphere has to offer. He shared time with Legends of the Fall author Jim Harrison, dined and cooked at Jimmy Buffett’s home in Key West, witnessed the indigenous wisdom of a Cheyenne medicine woman in Montana, fished countless famed Western trout waters, and so much more. These enchanting essays, along with many of his award-winning photographs, cover all four seasons of the sporting year. Collector captures all the thrills, the disappointments, and the remarkable lessons this world has to pass on to each of us.

About the Author:

Stephen Collector was born in Virginia in 1951. After attending George Washington University for two years, he transferred to the University of Colorado in 1971. A longtime freelance photographer, his book of Stock Detectives, Law of the Range; Portraits of Old-Time Brand Inspectors was published in 1991 by Clark City Press, Livingston, Montana. His feature writing has appeared in The Drake, Anglers Journal, American Angler, The Big Sky Journal, Tail Fly Fishing, Quail Forever Journal, Modern Huntsman, and The Pointing Dog Journal. His photographs have been widely exhibited throughout the West. Collector resides in Boulder, Colorado.

Bring an acoustic instrument and sit in with Boulder Old-Time Jam! Every first Thursday on the Trident Patio, starting at 6 p.m.

Join us for an afternoon courtyard reading with professor and essayist, Jennifer Sinor, as she celebrates her new novel about the unassuming beauty and grace of the Great Plains, The Beautiful Plain.

Jennifer will be joined by yoga practitioner and scholar, Michael Sowder, author of Sacred Letters.

About The Beautiful Plain:

Set amid the cornfields of central Nebraska, The Beautiful Plain opens on a hot afternoon in a hay barn, where three adolescents push a cardboard box filled with a girl to the edge of the loft. What begins as a prank will reverberate for decades, especially for Laura, who learns that afternoon just how far she will travel for acceptance. Rejected by her former husband and with her precocious child in tow, Laura returns to her hometown of Platte, Nebraska, to see if she can recover what was sent to the ground that summer afternoon long ago. Immersed in the unassuming beauty of the Great Plains and following a single year of one woman’s life, The Beautiful Plain invites the reader to reconsider where beauty and grace reside.

Advance Praise for The Beautiful Plain:
“A study in guilt, grief, and reawakening, The Beautiful Plain examines the bifurcation that comes from the suppression of our shadow selves. Through fragmented recollections—ancestral diaries, personal memories, and traumatic stories of war—Jennifer Sinor interrogates what it means to know and not know, to see and not see, to blindly box ourselves in while the wild world goes on without us, as well as the courage and community it takes to turn and face the refining fire of our own agency.”—Kim Barnes, author of In the Wilderness: Coming of Age in Unknown Country, finalist for the Pulitzer Prize

About Jennifer Sinor:

Jennifer Sinor is the author of five books of creative nonfiction and a novel entitled The Beautiful Plain. Her essay collections include Sky Songs: Meditations on Loving a Broken World and Letters Like the Day: On Reading Georgia O’Keeffe. The recipient of the Stipend in American Modernism, her work has appeared in Best American Essays and The Norton Reader. Jennifer teaches creative writing at Utah State University where she is a professor of English.

About Sacred Letters:

In Sacred Letters, Michael Sowder offers poetic meditations on the letters of the Sanskrit alphabet as key to understanding Yoga and the Divine.

These original meditations on the Sanskrit letters range from personal narratives to metaphysical and theological speculations, linguistic play, and inter-spiritual allusions to other works and traditions, all relevant to living a contemplative life in the contemporary world. Sowder’s book is anchored in a devotional Tantrik, Śaiva-Śakta tradition, focused on the Divine Feminine, but allusions to western mystics (Christian, Jewish, Muslim) also appear frequently. No other book like this exists.

About Michael Sowder:

Called by David Bottoms, “one of our finest spiritual poets,” Michael Sowder, long-time yoga practitioner, poet, scholar, Sanskritist, essayist, and father writes about wilderness, fatherhood, yoga, Buddhism, and inter-spirituality.

An emeritus professor of English and an Affiliated Faculty Member of Yoga Studies and Religious Studies at Utah State University, he teaches meditation, Sanskrit, yoga, and philosophy at Utah State, at the Amrita Yoga Meditation Foundation, which he founded, at Sol Speak Yoga Studio and other venues. He is available for lectures, teachings, and leading retreats.

Wave Collector is the downtempo electronica project of Neal Wright. The project’s recent full-length release, Your Call is Important to Us, mixes vibey, warm, retro electronica with sci-fi worldbuilding to create a hold music concept album. Since starting in 2015, Wave Collector has released 4 full-length albums as well as several singles and remixes. Their sound includes soaring analog synth lines, unique organic sampled elements, and acoustic instruments, and covers genres including synthwave, IDM, and downtempo. Their live set features a live drummer and an all-hardware array of samplers, sequencers, and synthesizers with rich effects and improvisational elements.

Stop the screens, stop the algorithms, stop and listen. Needle Drop Sessions is an afternoon spent listening to a full album on vinyl! Each Second Sunday we gather on the back patio to slow down and enjoy pure music. Bring a record, let’s drop a needle on it!

This session will begin with a very rare original pressing of Fantasia’s This Old Town - a synth, new wave album out of the UK (thanks Bodhi!). We will follow it up with other records and tracks brought by the audience.

Stereo system courtesy of Crescendo Fine Audio!

Brigitte benson is a singer/songwriter and jazz musician whose sound lives at the crossroads of folk, funk, and heartfelt storytelling. Based along Colorado’s Front Range, she has spent years playing shows up and down the region, while slowly building a community—one song and one listener at a time.

Brigitte’s music is rooted in honesty. Her lyrics lean into vulnerability, connection, and the small truths that make people feel seen. With a background in jazz and a love for raw, acoustic textures, her songs blend warm and captivating melodies with thoughtful, reflective writing. 

This fall, Brigitte is set to release her first recorded music, her debut EP titled “Quarter Life Crisis.” This is a milestone project she hopes will reach the people who resonate with sincerity, soul, and the genuine human experience. Her greatest dream is to create music that invites others in, encourages connection, and builds a space where listeners can settle into the world she's creating. 

Lively conversation for language learners, native speakers, and everyone in between. We regularly have 10+ languages spoken and always have spirited discussions! 

Join award winning authors & educators, Alexander Shalom Joseph and Andrew Schelling, as they celebrate Alexander’s latest poetry collection from Middle Creek Publishing, Buffalo Elegies.

The cover image of Buffalo Elegies shows a bracketed blank space [___] projected over an obscured image of the plains. Within the book itself, [___] was substituted for “Buffalo” each time the word appeared in a poem. This was done because this hard cover, special edition collection is a series of 23 elegies about the eradication of the Buffalo from the American West, the massacre which took the population of the great herd from 60 million to a mere 23. [___] exemplifies the space left in their absence, the impossibility of speaking to this animal without naming its loss, and the emptiness of the West without their feral thunder.

In a show of continued support for the twenty three who survived, $1 from the sale of this book, will go to the Buffalo Field Campaign, a non-profit dedicated to caretaking the descends of the last wild herd. 

More About the Book:
In Buffalo Elegies, Alexander Shalom Joseph confronts one of North America's greatest ecological tragedies through a series of powerful, deeply humane poems that mourn the near extinction of the American Buffalo while exploring the enduring consequences of colonization, environmental destruction, and cultural amnesia. These poems move between personal reflection and historical witness, revealing that the empty plains and mountain vistas we celebrate today are also places haunted by profound absence.

About Alexander Shalom Joseph:

Alexander Shalom Joseph, MFA, MA, is an award winning existentialist, animist and nature focused author of seven published books spanning poetry and fiction. He teaches writing in universities, libraries, museums, hiking trails, schools and prisons across the Colorado Front Range.

About Andrew Schelling:

Andrew Schelling has been a long-time teacher of poetry and Sanskrit language at Naropa University. He lives in the “middle mountains” below the Indian Peaks and has published twenty-odd books. Poetry, translation, essays, anthologies. Mountains, Zen, animal tracks, Asian poetry. Recent poetry book is Forests, Temples, Glacial Rivers (Empty Bowl, 2025).

Duncan Coker is an unrepentant balladeer from the Colorado piedmont with a voice that carries and songs that don't let go.  As frontman for the band Flattop Rider he delivers original songs with a western swagger that lands like boots on barnwood. The latest release, Roadside Attractions, reached the Top 10 on Americana college radio and was named a top release by Westword.

Bitterroot began as a Boulder-based trio comprised of songwriter/vocalist/guitarist Caroline Quine, bassist/vocalist Matt Cantor, and guitarist/vocalist Kevin Johnson. The project has welcomed additional local and national artists as they add studio recordings to their songcraft, including producers Julian Peterson and Max DeVincenzo.

Bitterroot's Americana/folk sound features original compositions, engaging vocals, and soulful instrumentation.

MOONS OF PANGAEA are a set of interdependent probability waves. At the Newtonian level, they make instrumental post-rock evoking the alien soundscapes of Mogwai and the fierce riffage of Godspeed; as a quantum phenomenon, it is unclear if they exist at all. Seek enlightenment and/or annihilation in this ocean of heavy guitars and freaked-out synthesizers. 

SLZY MYLFS is a spectacular synth-punk band based in Boulder. Featuring members with collective expertise in art, music, dance, comedy, and forestry management, the band stages elaborate performances that are incandescent with feminist and anti-capitalist rage.

SLZY MYLFS' first EP, ppl slzr, was self-released in late 2025, following the release of a music video for "Cybertruck." Both releases were awarded numerous accolades by the band's friends, as well as grudging respect and/or indifference from its enemies.

As Grodius Maximus (guitarist of GWAR) declares: "When the SLZY MYLFS come to town, you know what's around."

Scott Martin is a singer-songwriter and fingerstyle guitarist newly re-located to Boulder County. His work draws on the folk and Americana traditions of artists like Jackson Browne, Joni Mitchell, and James Taylor, with influences from jazz, pop, and his classical training.

Martin's 2018 record, "Missing," is a song cycle about historical missing persons, including Amelia Earhart and others. His most recent project, "Corner of the World" (2022), charted at #21 on the US Folk DJ chart and on the Euro Americana Chart.

"Martin's vocals are reminiscent as prime James Taylor... a groove that summons that feeling of the sweet baby James crooner." — John Apice, Americana Highways

"Scott's voice will connect your heart... His words and his music combine to create something cinematic." — Alan Cackett, Americana, Roots, Country & Bluegrass Music

He's been a finalist at the Telluride Troubadour Contest, a winner at Songwriter Serenade, and a two-time Kerrville New Folk Regional Finalist. As a session vocalist he's worked on film and TV in Los Angeles, and has opened for, performed, or recorded with Eliza Gilkyson, Kenny Rankin, Valerie Carter, Patty Loveless, and others. He toured internationally with Lynda Carter, including appearances on The Tonight Show and TV specials.

More at scottmartinsongs.com

Lively conversation for language learners, native speakers, and everyone in between. We regularly have 10+ languages spoken and always have spirited discussions! 

An evening of poetry with The Benson Center for the Study of Western Civilization from CU Boulder.

Featuring A.E. Stallings, reading from her debut poetry collection, Archaic Smile and Dana Gioia, reading from her most recent collection of poetry, Meet Me at the Lighthouse.

with introduction from Joseph Bottum

About A.E. Stallings:

In Archaic Smile, by the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Critics Circle Award finalist A. E. Stallings, the poet couples poetic meditations on classic stories and themes with poems about the everyday, sometimes mundane occurrences of contemporary life (like losing an umbrella or fishing with one’s father), and she infuses the latter with the magic of myth and history. With the skill of a scholar and translator and the playful, pristine composition of a poet, Stallings bridges the gap between these two distant worlds.

Stallings “invigorates the old forms and makes them sing” (Meryl Natchez, ZYZZYVA) in her poetry, and the scope and origins of her talents are on full display in the acclaimed author's first collection. The poems of Archaic Smile are sung with a timeless, technically impeccable, and utterly true voice.

About Dana Gioia:

Dana Gioia has been hailed for decades as a master of traditional lyric forms, whose expansive and accessible poems are offerings of rare poignancy and insight. In Meet Me at the Lighthouse, he invites us back to old Los Angeles, where the shabby nightclub of the title beckons us into its noirish immortality. Elsewhere, he laments the once-vibrant neighborhood where he grew up, now bulldozed, and recalls his working-class family of immigrants. Gioia describes a haunting from his mother on his birthday, Christmas Eve. Another poem remembers his uncle, a US Merchant Marine. And “The Ballad of Jesús Ortiz” tells the story of his great-grandfather, a Mexican vaquero who was shot dead at a tavern in Wyoming during a dispute over a bar tab. “I praise my ancestors, the unkillable poor,” Gioia writes. This book is dedicated to their memory.

Including poems, song lyrics, translations, and concluding with an unsettling train ride to the underworld, Meet Me at the Lighthouse is a luminous exploration of nostalgia, mortality, and what makes a life worth living and remembering.

About Joseph Bottum:

Joseph Bottum is one of the nation’s most widely published writers, with over a thousand essays, reviews, poems, and short stories from the Atlantic to the Wall Street Journal. Holding a Ph.D. in medieval philosophy, he is currently the Visiting Scholar of Conservative Thought and Policy for the Benson Center at the University of Colorado. “A poet and critic and essayist with a sideline in history and philosophy,” according to the New York Times, Bottum has twice been the #1 nationally bestselling ebook author. His print books include four volumes of poetry along with the sociological study, An Anxious Age, and The World Is Awake, for which he shared the Christopher Award for the year’s best children’s book. National Review has called him the “poetic voice” of American commentary who “shaped the minds of a generation,” adding that “his name would be mandatory on any objective short list of America’s public intellectuals.”

The mission of the Bruce D. Benson Center for the Study of Western Civilization at the University of Colorado Boulder is to promote the study of Western Civilization and foster intellectual and ideological diversity on campus. The Center brings together faculty, students, and community members who share a common interest in the ideas, institutions, and interactions have shaped Western Civilization, and its importance today for the United States and Colorado. The Center holds events and encourages conversations that engage a range of viewpoints, challenge assumptions, and ask big questions about human flourishing and the world we inhabit.

danah boyd is the Geri Gay Professor of Communication at Cornell University. Her research focuses on the intersection of technology and society, with an eye towards how structural inequities shape and are shaped by sociotechnical systems. Her upcoming book Data are Made, Not Found: A Story of Politics, Power, and the Civil Servants Who Saved the US Census is an ethnography of the US Census Bureau, Jenga politics, and the struggle to make democracy’s data. She has also conducted research on media manipulation, privacy practices, social media, and teen culture. Her monograph It’s Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens has received widespread praise. She founded the research institute Data & Society, where she currently serves as an advisor. She is also a Distinguished Visiting Professor at Georgetown University, a fellow of AAAS, a non-residential fellow at the Center for Democracy and Technology, a trustee of the Computer History Museum, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and on the advisory board of Electronic Privacy Information Center. Previously, she worked at Microsoft Research. She received a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Brown University, a master’s degree from the MIT Media Lab, and a Ph.D in Information from the University of California, Berkeley.

Colette Perold researches the relationship between media technologies, labor and U.S. foreign policy, specifically the ways in which multinational IT companies shape U.S. foreign policy priorities in Latin America. Her current project draws from the business history of computing and political economy of media industries to analyze the relationship between the U.S.-based IT sector and U.S. foreign policy in Brazil prior to modern computing. Her research has been funded by various sources including the Hagley Library, the Tinker Foundation, and the Charles Babbage Institute, where she received the 2019-2020 Tomash Fellowship. She most recently received the 2022-2023 Brooke Hindle Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Society for the History of Technology.

Live Jazz!

Brody Schenk is a rising Nashville singer-songwriter whose music blends heartfelt storytelling with a variety of musical influences. Brody's songs are deeply rooted in humanity, nature, the universe and the beauty found in honest moments.

Fans of artists such as The Meters, Bob Dylan, The Grateful Dead, Ravi Shankar, Jack Johnson, Fela Kuti, Bob Marley, and Keller Williams will all find pleasure in Brody's performances which create a unique blend of singer-songwriter lyricism, infectious rhythm, and undeniable musicianship through the use of effects and live looping techniques.

Andie Zuzarte & Dalton Brake -Decadent vocals meet dreamy, high octane energy on stage. Inspired by artists like Fleetwood Mac, Brandi Carlile, and Lana del Rey, this act blends folk, rock and country to bring something new to the indie music scene. Their performances showcase the true art of live music and that connection between the artist and fan hasn’t been lost in the digital age.

About the Author:

Mai-Linh Hong is a poet and literary scholar. She is the author of Trio House Press Award recipient Continental Drift, and her poetry has received support from Voices of Our Nation, Tin House, and Vermont Studio Center. Dr. Hong is coauthor and coeditor of The Auntie Sewing Squad Guide to Mask Making, Radical Care, and Racial Justice (University of California Press, 2021). Born in Vietnam and raised in Virginia, she teaches literature at the University of California, Merced.

About Continental Drift:

“To survive is to refuse / death, but how / to tell refusal from retreat?" In the 2025 Trio Award winning poetry collection Continental Drift, Mai-Linh Hong honors and explores the geography that made and continues to shape her ancestors' story, her own story, and the future story of her descendants. From Vietnam to Virginia, California to Thailand, Hong plumbs the fault lines, crosses the oceans, crystallizing moments into meaning. Whether luxuriating in the small joys of nature and of existence, or marveling at the process of geological shift, these artfully crafted poems bring the reader into complex promises and griefs of migration, navigation, and claiming space in a postcolonial world. 

About Rajiv:

Poet, memoirist, and translator, Rajiv Mohabir is the author of five books of poetry, the latest is Seabeast (Four Way Books 2025). His books have been awarded gold in Forward Indies and Eric Hoffer Medal Provocateur. His other honors include being finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, the PEN/America Open Book Award, the Lambda Literary Award, the Publishing Triangle Award for Poetry and Gay Nonfiction, and both second place and finalist for the Guyana Prize for Literature. His translations have won the Harold Morton Landon Translation Award from the American Academy of Poets. Currently he teaches poetry at the University of Colorado Boulder.

About Banbas / Exile:

Rajiv Mohabir first learned of the Ramayan from his grandmother while sitting on his parents’ brown-tiled porch, surrounded by the scrub forest of central Florida. Descended from generations of Indian indentured laborers who were brought to Guyana under nefarious contracts, they receive the ancient Hindu epic poem as a tale of exile in anthropomorphic wilderness, passed along as it was in stories and songs shared vocally in the cane fields.

Here, in a singular gesture of deeply layered translation, this ember of song is passed along again. Drawing on his grandmother’s Creole, Caribbean Hindustani, and the King’s English on his own decolonized terms, Mohabir reimagines the Ramayan anew. Classical in form yet rooted in Guyanese ancestry and its diasporas, Banbas / Exile is a genre-bending collection of poetry, stories, songs, and reflective prose. Speaking through heroes, villains, and animal deities, this extraordinary translation gives voice to lives shaped by exile and to the enduring search for a world that can hold both difference and communion.

Learn more about Banbas / Exile at
https://milkweed.org/book/banbasexile

Lively conversation for language learners, native speakers, and everyone in between. We regularly have 10+ languages spoken and always have spirited discussions! 

Open to all disciplines!
Hosted by Dennis Mulherin

Join Rachel Turney for an evening of writing for fems and women. Open to all forms of writing. Set time aside to write among a collective, with space for support and discussion.

About Rachel Turney:

Rachel Turney, Ed.D. (she/her) is the Writer in Residence (2026) at NKollectiv in Englewood, Colorado. Her poems, research articles, reviews, and drawings can be found in a variety of publications. Rachel is passionate about immigrant rights, teacher support, and empowering other artists. She is a Writers’ Hour prize winner and has been nominated for Best of the Net and Best Microfiction. Her photography appears on a few magazine covers. Rachel is the founder of the popular online reading series Poetry (in Brief) and EIC of PIB (the Magazine). She is on staff at Bare Back Magazine with her monthly column Friday Night in the Suburbs. She reads for The Los Angeles Review. Her debut poetry collection, Record Player Life (the b-side) is available with The Poetry Lighthouse. Her second poetry book, Retired Wannabe Club Kid, is out now with Parlyaree Press. Website: turneytalks.com Instagram: @turneytalks Bluesky: rachelturney

Artists' Resistance Coalition is hosting our very own ARC fundraiser! For those of you who have supported our efforts of towards community, advocacy, and activism through the arts, this event is your chance to:

• Meet the ARC team who has brought this work to life

• Hear some music and poetry from ARC's own team

• Contribute to a community canvas that will be available throughout the entire event

Community support is what helps us to keep doing this work that means so much to us. So join us for a night of music, poetry, paint, and community! Show your support! Pay what you can!

RSVP: https://www.arccolorado.org/event-details/arc-fundraiser-1

About ARC:

Artists’ Resistance Coalition (ARC) envisions a world where resistance is seen through the expansive lens of creativity, community, and mutual aid, guided by community input and collaboration. ARC aims to address the ways in which marginalized members of our community feel limited in how they participate in resistance.

ARC’s mission is to embody adaptive, community-driven action by providing resources to creative community leaders, addressing community-based needs, and prioritizing pathways for creative community-building.

ARC got its start when a group of Colorado artists came together to find ways to use our creative talents to organize, mobilize, and continue the fight for social change. ARC is an attempt to handle the woes of living under a fascist regime in a country that exists in deep denial of its own history, as well as the effects said history has on the people within it. ARC was born with the idea that there are many people and organizations already doing great work to serve our local communities in need of support, and creativity will be the strategy to connect our worlds of mutual aid with that of artistic adaptation.

We all have a place in the Resistance!

Silent Films with a live score. Curated by Tyson Bennett

Lively conversation for language learners, native speakers, and everyone in between. We regularly have 10+ languages spoken and always have spirited discussions! 

Come celebrate Nederland’s very own Carousel of Happiness, with readings from the creator, carver and author, Scott Harrison. Scott will be joined by Burt Rashbaum, Ned-poet, writer and carousel operator. Featuring music by Daryl Purpose and Sarah Banker.

About Scott Harrison:

Scott Harrison was born in Dallas Texas, learned things at a Texas high school, fields in Vietnam, and then the University of Texas. He figured out how to build a boat in Alviso, California and then sail it in the Pacific. He joined Amnesty International where he worked for 32 years with his co-staffer and wife, Ellen. They made two kids and moved to Nederland Colorado where the kids were raised, mostly outside. Scott then carved enough animals to create the Carousel of Happiness, The Council of Kindness, and is nearing completion of his third circle of wooden animals, A Gathering of Sorrow. He is the author of Haiku Poetry and Carousel Soul.

About Burt Rashbaum:

Burt Rashbaum’s many publications include, Of the Carousel (The Poet’s Press), Blue Pedals (Editura Pim, Bucharest) and a recent novel, From Where We Came (Story Sanctum Publishing). His new poetry collection, Pathways to the Hidden Wood (The Poet’s Press) will be out in 2026 and his new short fiction collection Jigsaw Puzzle (Prolific Pulse) will be out in 2027. His stories and
poems have appeared in various journals and over a dozen anthologies. Although he was born and bred at sea level, he now only feels at home in Nederland, CO, where he is closer to the sky.

About Daryl Purpose:

A master of the ‘narrative’ folk tradition, Purpose has earned a reputation as a top-shelf songwriter and performer with a keen eye for detail and an uncanny knack for subtle twists that engage his listeners through his unusual, beautiful melodies and personal stories.

Purpose’s love for telling stories is almost as compelling as the life he’s made for himself. As a teenager, he hitchhiked to Las Vegas and began a legendary career playing blackjack. A few years later he joined a “March for Peace” that began in Los Angeles and walked across the country to Washington, DC. He then continued on to walk in the then Soviet Union. He began performing music on the marches, including participating in the first ever outdoor stadium concert in Russian history, produced by the legendary Bill Graham and featuring Santana, James Taylor, Bonnie Raitt and others.

In his thirties, Purpose began his current vocation as a performing songwriter. He has released 8+ albums of original material. Still The Birds (2016) and Next Time Around (2012), recorded at Blue Rock Studios, spent weeks at #1 for airplay on Roots Music Report. His release of Dave Carter's Gentle Arms Of Eden, was the #1 played song in the world on the FolkDJ list for July 2021.

Purpose's most recent release, Connected (2025) has been in the top ten Folk DJ albums for both August and September 2025.

Purpose is inspired by his daughter Kari, the love of friends, the teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh, and the beauty of trees, water and land.

About Sarah Banker:

Sarah Banker's soothing voice and catchy lyrics accentuate her soulful pop-folk vibe and message of compassion and resilience. Her ability to capture the complexity of emotions in simple yet expressive lyrics is a consistent strength across her music. Her songs feel both universal and deeply personal, inviting listeners to reflect, heal, and embrace what’s to come. Ultimately, her musical intention is to be a source of light and love through sound.

About the Author:

Mary Lemmer is the author of How to Handle Anything: Four Improv Principles for Navigating Life’s Curveballs, and the creator of The Improve Method™, an approach that uses the principles of improvisation supported by research and nervous system science to help people navigate uncertainty, adapt to the unexpected, and move forward when there is no script to follow.

Mary started her first business as a teenager, beginning a career that has since spanned building companies, venture capital, leadership in fast-growing startups, and advising founders and organizations, all while training and performing as an improviser. For more than a decade, she has brought those worlds together to help people and teams become more adaptable, confident, and creative in the face of change. She has brought her work to organizations including Google, Verizon, Square, TED, and Pfizer.

Mary is a graduate of the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan and trained in improvisation at The Second City, the Upright Citizens Brigade, and The Groundlings. She delivered the TED Talk “How Improv Can Improve Your Leadership and Life,” hosts the How to Handle Anything podcast, and writes Life, Improvised on Substack. She has been featured in The New York Times, Forbes, and Fast Company.

About How to Handle Anything:

Drawing on more than a decade spent training leaders and teams — plus a career that has taken her from executive boardrooms and high-growth companies to TED and the improv stages of The Second City — Mary Lemmer translates four core principles of improv into a practical, research-backed toolkit for navigating uncertainty with greater resilience, creativity, and confidence.

It’s a guide for anyone who wants to meet the unplanned, the unexpected, and the unscripted with a little more steadiness, and a lot more joy.

Bring an acoustic instrument and sit in with Boulder Old-Time Jam! Every first Thursday on the Trident Patio, starting at 6 p.m.

The Magic Circle: Sonic Substance in Psychedelic Music
by Trace Reddell

Part book release, part DJ set, part show - join us at Trident for an “experience” Dec 4th with author Trace Reddell and local psychedelic band Infinite Cousins.

About the Book:

In the mid-sixties, the Beatles abandoned live performance, complaining they could no longer hear themselves on stage. Obsessed with the latest records of Bob Dylan and Brian Wilson, and with imaginations fueled by weed and acid, they retired to the studio. With the help of their producers and engineers, the Beatles left a trail of novel recording practices, audio technologies, and records in their wake. But their realization that the act of listening to recorded sound was itself a means for altering consciousness may be the Beatles’ most significant, though largely unacknowledged, contribution to psychedelia. The records of subsequent groups such as the 13th Floor Elevators, Pink Floyd, the Byrds, and Love further reveal how psychedelic music changes not just what we hear but how we listen.

In The Magic Circle, Trace Reddell threads accounts of his own psychedelic listening sessions into a hallucinatory tapestry of rock lore, drug literature, media studies, cognitive philosophy, and psychopharmacology. Proposing that the psychedelic record is a mind-manifesting drug, Reddell traces the effects of a magic circle—the feedback loop between the record and the listener—as it transforms culture, technology, and consciousness.

About the Author:

Trace Reddell is Professor of Art, Culture & Technology at the University of Denver. He is the author of The Sound of Things to Come, and his audiovisual performances and video works have screened at over thirty international venues. Find out more at https://sonicsciencefiction.com/

About Infinite Cousins:

Drenched in melodies, birthed from dissonance and smoothed out with harmonious layers: Infinite Cousins is a frying pan of soaring synths, hypnotic baselines, ol' fuzzy guitars and locked in grooves. Conceived by multi-instrumentalist, Ted Stevens (Light Technics), the songs explore topics of social unrest, parallel timelines, dystopias and their utopic antidotes and space as a whole. The main band currently consists of Will Tyson (Ellie & The Alibis), Sam Moylan (Red Light Ritual), and Ryan Schlictman

Author Talk from 6:00-7:30
DJ Set from 7:30-8:00ish
Infinite Cousins from 8:00ish to close

We are FROSH, a band based in Boulder Colorado. We are all members of the Thompson Jazz Studies Program at CU Boulder.  With Stephen Carsile (Trombone), Jason Cubas (Saxophone), Dominic Herbst (Bass), and Julian Whitworth (Drums), We produce a very unique and immersive experience. Our repertoire consists of traditional jazz standards and arrangements of songs from genres including Emo, Shoegaze, Funk, Rock, Metal, RnB, and much more! If you want something new, unique, and simply fun, come check us out!

The Flowermancer is back at Trident with even newer spells and songs that he learned during a recent trip to the flower realm. Many of these have been compiled into a brand new album, which is called “Ice Cave” and will release on the winter solstice, December 21st. He is excited to play these live to welcome in the winter months as we enter a time of solitude, quiet introspection, and imagination. This new album explores ambient and electronic music, but his show is sure to feature the upbeat indie pop that his fans have come to love. His shows are often unpredictable and adventurous, and he hopes to leave the audience with a sense of magic and wonder.  

Tiffany Brittin seeks to create music that conveys a truth she deeply believes, that both softness and strength can coexist. And when we embrace this within ourselves, we become free.

She enjoys blending haunting melodies with powerful, yearning vocals. Through her lyrics, she explores the at times messy dance of remembering how to love oneself while balancing the societal and familial beliefs of others. Her art is for anyone who has ever felt lost or disconnected from their truth, and is there to remind you, you are welcome exactly as you are.

Lively conversation for language learners, native speakers, and everyone in between. We regularly have 10+ languages spoken and always have spirited discussions! 

Join us for an evening reading with local poets & scholars, Mathew Cooperman & Stephen Fredman, as we celebrate the release of Cooperman’s new collection, Time, & Its Monument.

About the Book:

Human folly is to believe our ziggurat is real, a really long time. But as the founder of modern geology Sir George Lyell declared only as recently as 1830, “Amidst the vicissitudes of the earth’s surface, species cannot be immortal, but must perish, one after another, like the individuals which compose them.” Watching the days go by, we write, we build, we grasp, we render frangible towers in the sky. Matthew Cooperman’s Time, & Its Monument captures this eroded sequence by tracking signs of human impermanence: solve et coagula, the inevitable falling away and coming together of all matter, how and what we watch, and who, and the collaborative acts of empathy by which humans might, if not extend, meaningfully ornament the Anthropocene. These are prose poems, cut-ups, necessary collages. They vary in such matters as Wittgenstein, the panopticon, and the Gulf Wars to the poetics of drought emerging through erasure with Ed Dorn’s The Shoshoneans, his famous study of the Great Basin. Cooperman’s Time, & Its Monument frames the artifacts of the human set: “in the long run recurrence / the stacking of shells / days certain seasons / the steeple accrues.”

About the Mathew Cooperman:

Poet, critic, editor, educator, Matthew Cooperman’s work explores the inter-disciplinary boundaries of poetry, ethnography, ecopoetics and visual arts. He is the author of, most recently, Wonder About The (Middle Creek Publishing, 2023), winner of the Halcyon Prize. Other works include NOS (disorder, not otherwise specified), w/Aby Kaupang, (Futurepoem, 2018), & Spool, winner of the New Measure Prize (Free Verse Editions/Parlor Press, 2016). Matthew Cooperman is a Professor of English at Colorado State University, and lives in Fort Collins with his wife, the poet Aby Kaupang, & their children.

About Stephen Fredman:

Originally from California, Stephen Fredman taught in the English Department at the University of Notre Dame from 1980-2017. His main field of expertise is modern American poetry and poetics. He is the author of five monographs, the most recent of which is American Poetry as Transactional Art (University of Alabama Press). His newest book is a poetic memoir, Pass Through: A Book of Memory Pieces (Dos Madres Press). Fredman now makes his home in Fort Collins, CO.

Hailing from the mystical realm of Denver, Colorado, The Peasantry's unique brand of theatrical folk music delights and demands audience attention. Multifaceted and multi-instrumental, the duo sing in harmony over piano, mandolin, anvil, bicycle wheel, and anything else they can get their grubby little hands on. Their songs range from shanties of nautical adventure to grim industrial tales; currently, the two serfs have found themselves entrenched in the whimsical world of bugs, with their recently-released EP “Bugs 1: Of Many Swarms” kicking off their descent into the land of the small and many-legged.

Kevin Bang is a Boulder-area singer-songwriter whose melody-driven songs blend alternative roots, folk, and modern pop influences. After four decades of writing, performing, and recording—including his years in the acclaimed Midwest alternative band World in a Room—he has returned to the stage with a renewed focus on original music.

Since relocating to Colorado, Kevin has become a regular presence at open mics and listening rooms across the Front Range while helping foster the local music community. He also co-hosts Henry's Open Mic in Louisville, creating a welcoming space where musicians of all experience levels can connect and share original songs.

Katie Mintle is a born and raised Colorado artist and singer/songwriter. She first fell in love with celtic music at age 11 and enrolled in private harp lessons. She began performing her music almost immediately thereafter, busking on the streets of Boulder as a child with her little harp, rain or shine. Though music has been a part of her life since she was very young, singing and songwriting is a more recent passion. Katie began singing harmonies in 2020 during lockdown and has been singing professionally ever since.

Adam C. Hill is a singer-songwriter jamming around Denver, Boulder, and the Front Range. A classically trained cellist turned vocalist/guitarist who fronted a college band, The Mojo Wire, out of Isla Vista in the late '90s, Adam left music aside to do what every “responsible adult” does: join the family business and climb the corporate ladder.

Join author and filmmaker, Larkin McPhee for a celebration of her new book, I’ll See You in My Dreams: A Sister’s Memoir.

McPhee will be joined by the ALS United Rocky Mountain Group

About the Author:

Larkin McPhee is a Peabody and Emmy award-winning producer of documentary films covering topics ranging from the environment to mental health to the cosmos. She has been writing documentary scripts for over thirty years and articles related to her films for publications including the Boston Globe and Minnesota Star Tribune. She was inspired to write I’ll See You In My Dreams: A Sister’s Memoir after losing her younger brother to ALS. Charles was host of a popular radio show on dream interpretation, and his story was picked up by multiple media outlets including spots on the Today Show, as well as several articles in the New York Times.

About the Book:

I’ll See You In My Dreams: A Sister’s Memoir is an unforgettable portrait of sibling love as told by Larkin McPhee, a Peabody and Emmy award-winning documentary filmmaker, and her dream-expert younger brother, Charles McPhee, host of the nationally syndicated radio program The Dream Doctor Show. At forty-four, Charles’s life changed forever when he was diagnosed with the fatal neurodegenerative disease ALS. Using remembered moments, dreams, emails, and excerpts from his radio show, Larkin looks back on the years with her brother, both before his diagnosis and afterward, tracing a poignant but joyful journey across time as they encourage each other’s creativity and non-traditional careers. In addition to helping his radio listeners, Charles guides Larkin through her dreams and their impact on her life, helping her discover her voice as a documentary filmmaker. And in the face of insurmountable odds, Charles finds hope and beauty, ultimately showing Larkin, and all of us, how to live.

About ALS United Rocky Mountain Group:

ALS United Rocky Mountain provides compassionate support, trusted resources, and personalized care for individuals and families living with ALS across Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming. Our free programs include care coordination, support groups, educational events, equipment loans, financial assistance, and resources for caregivers and children.

Learn more at www.alsrockymountain.org or contact our Care Services team at 303-832-2322.

Lively conversation for language learners, native speakers, and everyone in between. We regularly have 10+ languages spoken and always have spirited discussions! 

Heather Gardner will be reading from her debut poetry collection, Out of Plato’s Cave.

Cassidy’s Hammer is a new musical project made up of old friends. Clay Carlin, Jon E. Gilmore, and Mike Stephens' time together and their musical connection go hand-in-hand, as proven by their intuitive musical chemistry. Cassidy’s Hammer’s music is built off of catchy, original songwriting, engaging, poignant lyrics, and an improvisational spirit fostered by a willingness to stretch the boundaries of their jamming. It is difficult to place their songs in a specific box or genre, especially since they don’t see walls in their music. The best way to describe their sound is to use a term they coined, “Psychedelic Americana,” drawing from a variety of genres including Americana, folk, country, blues, jazz, and rock. They sing songs that resonate with the soul, fill the spirit with light, and make the body move. Here’s a few more fun facts about the band:

You can find Cassidy’s Hammer on Instagram @cassidyshammer and on streaming platforms coming soon!

Lively conversation for language learners, native speakers, and everyone in between. We regularly have 10+ languages spoken and always have spirited discussions! 

Join author, mother, and scientist, Stephanie M. Hill to discuss her new book, Instructions Not Included: Lessons from Raising a Son with Autism.

About the Author:

Stephanie M. Hill is an author, an internationally recognized Lean consultant, Senior Continuous Improvement Advisor for the Cleveland Clinic, and a mother of two sons. She holds a BA in Chemistry from Kenyon College and a master’s degree in Public Health from Des Moines University. She lives in Cleveland, Ohio, with her two ginger cats. Stephanie loves to dance, read, climb, and build LEGO sets.

About Instructions Not Included: Lessons from Raising a Son with Autism:

Instructions Not Included: Lessons From Raising a Son with Autism encourages caregivers to see parenting through a more human, compassionate lens. Drawing from her experiences as a mother, along with her background in Lean, chemistry, and leadership, the author shares practical lessons learned while raising her son with autism. Through personal stories and reflective questions, readers are invited to connect the insights to their own caregiving journeys and rethink how they support and understand others.

Instructions Not Included transforms everyday struggles into extraordinary lessons about empathy, resilience, and respect for people. Stephanie repeatedly demonstrates how she strives to adjust her own lens rather than work to change her son. She combines her thoughtful leadership and scientific qualities – curiosity, experimentation, reflection, and heart – to bring the reader practical insights that extend beyond parenting and autism.

Lively conversation for language learners, native speakers, and everyone in between. We regularly have 10+ languages spoken and always have spirited discussions! 

Open to all disciplines!
Hosted by Dennis Mulherin

Boulder County's original folk n' roll band performs boisterous, uplifting songs anchored in singable melodies and family harmony. Mercy Club is always a big draw at Trident so come early for a good seat!

Join the CU Boulder Creative Writing Department for the second event in our MFA Reading Series! With readings from Ahnivenitta Surratt (2nd Year MFA, Fiction) and Maggie Rahilly (2nd Year MFA, Poetry)

Malachi Bogardus (2nd Year Literature MA) will be moderating a Q&A with the readers about their work and creative processes.

Open to the public and free to attend!

Rosewood Bitters is a genre defying Americana quartet hailing from Boulder, CO, bringing a swell of catchy, melody-heavy compositions, rich vocal harmonies and rhythmic, groove oriented, all original songs to the Colorado front range and beyond

Static Parade is a reading series hosted by the CU Boulder creative writing MFA students. Every semester, this series introduces writers from our program to the larger Boulder community through our longstanding partnership with Trident Booksellers. Please join us to hear our writers as they present fiction, poetry, or share their latest work from the program.

Free to attend

Michael Hardt teaches political theory in the Literature Program at Duke University.  His works combine philosophical investigations with analyses of our current political situation.  Studying the current forms of social domination, including the mechanisms of capitalist control, which form the bases of the contemporary global power structures, is a central focus.  Key, too, is engagement with contemporary social movements that refuse domination and present the potential for new, democratic modes of social organization. His first book was Gilles Deleuze: An Apprenticeship in Philosophy (1993). Over the course of several decades, his collaborations with Antonio Negri resulted in six books: Labor of Dionysus (1994), Empire (2000), Multitude (2004), Commonwealth (2009), Declaration (2012), and Assembly (2017).  His latest book, The Subversive Seventies (2023), analyzes liberation movements of the 1970s in a wide range of countries throughout the world, highlighting their relevance for political struggles today.

Rachel Kushner is the author of the novels CREATION LAKE, THE MARS ROOM, THE FLAMETHROWERS, and TELEX FROM CUBA, a book of short stories, THE STRANGE CASE OF RACHEL K, and THE HARD CROWD: ESSAYS 2000-2020. She has won the Prix Médicis and been a finalist for the Booker Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Folio Prize, the James Tait Black Prize, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, and was twice a finalist for the National Book Award in Fiction. She is a Guggenheim Foundation Fellow and the recipient of the Harold D. Vursell Memorial Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Her books have been translated into twenty-seven languages. Her fiction has been published in the New Yorker and the Paris Review, and her nonfiction in Harpers and the New York Times Magazine.

Static Parade is a reading series hosted by the CU Boulder creative writing MFA students. Every semester, this series introduces writers from our program to the larger Boulder community through our longstanding partnership with Trident Booksellers. Please join us to hear our writers as they present fiction, poetry, or share their latest work from the program.

Free to attend

Arne Höcker is Associate Professor of German Studies at CU Boulder. His publications include The Case of Literature: Forensic Narratives from Goethe to Kafka (Cornell UP 2020), and Paranoia and the Totalitarian Drift of Modernity (Cornell UP 2026).

Lilla Balint is Assistant Professor of German at the University of California, Berkeley. She specializes in twentieth- and twenty-first-century German literature, culture, and thought in its transnational European contexts. Her work has appeared in venues such as Critical Quarterly, German Quarterly, Gegenwartsliteratur: A German Studies Year Book, and Studies in 20th and 21st Century Literature, among others. She is coeditor of Text + Kritik 244—Judith Schalansky (2024). Her monograph The Contemporary: History and Temporality after 1989 is forthcoming with De Gruyter.

Benjamin Kunkel is the bestselling author of Indecision and Utopia or Bust, and a co-founder of n+1. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, the New Yorker, the New York Review of Books and the London Review of Books.

This event is made possible by CU Boulder’s 2026 Kayden Book Award.