In The NoCo

We're celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month with conversations featuring Hispanic and Latino changemakers, innovators and creators. Today's episode is about music - specifically, mariachi. The style is rooted in Mexico's history, dating back to colonial times, and started to grow in the United States around the 1930s, when people began hearing it on radio stations and in films. 

These days, it's showing up more often in Colorado schools' music programs, alongside the usual  jazz, orchestra, or symphonic band options for students. That provides the opportunity for more culturally relevant programming to serve increasingly diverse student populations, says Ben San Martin Kellogg. 

Kellogg isn't from Mexico himself – he's of European and Peruvian ancestry – and he didn't grow up listening to or playing mariachi. But he fell in love with the style when he was brought in to play trumpet in a mariachi ensemble while a student at Metropolitan State University of Denver. He's now a music educator at Edgewater Elementary, where he guides students in learning several styles of music, including mariachi. 

In today's episode, he shares why it's so important to train more educators to teach different genres of music, and what we should pay attention to when we listen to mariachi.

You can hear Ben perform with his ensemble for a Hispanic Heritage event on October 14 at Luki Brewery in Arvada. And he was featured in this 2017 KUNC story about the MSU mariachi program he went through. 

Colorado has an all-state youth mariachi ensemble, Mariachi Estelares de Colorado. And the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley has a new Bachelor of Arts in Latinx Music degree program that launched this year.

A new exhibit opening this weekend at the Museum of Boulder promises to illuminate the stories of Black Coloradans, highlighting their influence on the region's history and their impact on the future. "Proclaiming Colorado's Black History" centers on places like the once-bustling farming community of Dearfield; and notable people like businessman Barney Ford and philanthropist Julia Greeley. 

It's about sharing the lives and stories of people who aren't necessarily in Colorado's history books, said Adrian Miller, co-Project Director and lead curator for the exhibit. The project was several years in the making, and was shaped with a lot of community input and collaboration, Miller said. It includes a variety of installations, collections of oral histories, and an art display that delves into Afrofuturism. Miller joined host Erin O'Toole to discuss the origins of the project, how it came together, and why now is the right time to launch.

Proclaiming Colorado's Black History opens Friday evening with a special kickoff event and tours. Saturday will feature a discussion with hip-hop scholar Adam Bradley, and music on the museum rooftop. Find details and tickets for the opening weekend events at the Museum of Boulder website. 

On June 25, 1953, a group of librarians and publishers issued a statement affirming the right of Americans to read freely. But that right has been challenged continually over the decades, including right now. Within the last several years, there’s been a surge in efforts across the country to challenge and remove books from library shelves. According to an analysis by PEN America, a free speech advocacy group, book bans have been reported in more than 30 states. 

Many of the challenges commonly target books about race, racism, or with LGBTQ characters or themes – but in some places, those challenges have expanded to include titles that discuss grief and loss, violence, and adolescent health and well-being. 

Banned Books Week was developed as a way to celebrate the freedom to read, and to draw attention to efforts at censorship. For librarians and book fans alike, it feels especially weighty this year, the 70th anniversary of the issuing of the Freedom to Read statement.

For Diane Lapierre, executive director of Poudre Libraries, the week is an important acknowledgement of our First Amendment rights, and the critical role of libraries in defending intellectual freedom and the right to read. She spoke with host Erin O'Toole ahead of Banned Books Week, October 1 – 7.

Poudre Libraries will host programming and events throughout the week, including the Let Freedom Read Challenge (ages 12 and older). The Lyric in Fort Collins will host "Let Freedom Read: Uncensored" – which features live readings of passages from books that are frequently challenged. 

And Colorado Press Women will host a discussion on book banning and information suppression at the Columbine Library in Littleton on Oct. 7.  You can find more information and resources here.

All eyes are on an Aurora courtroom as trials get underway in the Elijah McClain case. Mclain, a 23-year-old Black man, died four years ago during a violent encounter with Aurora police and paramedics. His death has had major reverberations in Colorado and far beyond. The first of three trials involves two police officers charged in his death — Randy Roedema and Jason Rosenblatt. They have pleaded not guilty. Today we focus on what we know about police’s involvement in McClain’s death with KUNC reporter Rae Solomon. She covered his death and many of the developments that followed.

In the episode, we mention a conversation host Erin O'Toole had with Elijah's mother, Sheneen McClain. You can listen to that here.

In 2021, Nicki Gonzales became Colorado’s first Latina state historian. History is a lifelong vocation for the Regis University professor, one that has helped Gonzales to pay tribute to her family’s legacy and inform her own identity.

Gonzales’s work has helped to provide us with a fuller picture of Colorado’s cultural landscape, uncovering state history and acknowledging its problematic details. In 2020, she was appointed by Gov. Jared Polis to serve on the state's Geographic Naming Advisory Board, which helps replace the names of geographic features and areas bearing derogatory titles - something Gonzales says helps the state reckon with problematic elements of its racial racist past. She and board members recently took on the high-profile renaming of Mount Evans, the namesake of a disgraced Colorado territorial governor. The iconic 14er is now Mount Blue Sky. 

On today's episode, Gonzales reflects on her search for identity and deeper meaning, starting with her own family history.

We're celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month with a series of conversations featuring Hispanic and Latino changemakers, innovators and creators. 

Colorado's housing crisis is impacting residents in different ways. Recent survey responses point to housing affordability and homelessness as top concerns. And the data reflects those concerns. In Denver County alone, there were around 1,200 eviction filings in August – nearly double the number a year earlier. And for people who are displaced, either by eviction or because they simply can't afford their rent and move out, there are very few affordable housing options to turn to. In today's episode, executive producer Robyn Vincent talks with eviction attorney Zach Neumann, who helped found the Community Economic Defense Project.

Fall officially begins on Saturday, September 23. After a long, hot summer, many of us are eagerly anticipating what the change of season brings: enjoying cool evening air, getting your favorite sweaters out of storage, and visiting the nearest pumpkin patch or corn maze. And for thousands of tourists, this time of year means an annual trip into the high country to marvel at the beautiful changing autumn leaves.

But when it comes to how spectacular and vibrant that display of fall colors is – it's safe to say that some years are better than others. For more on what we can expect this autumn, host Erin O'Toole talks with renowned leaf-peeping expert, Dan West. He serves as the state's forest entomologist, working out of the Colorado State Forest Service at CSU.

The impacts of wildfires are something Northern Colorado homeowners are increasingly confronting. A recent report from the company CoreLogic shows thousands of homes in Northern Colorado are susceptible to damage from wildfires. In Boulder, nearly 10,000 homes are at risk. In Fort Collins, that number rises to more than 14,000. These statistics position Colorado in the number two slot nationwide — right behind California — when it comes to the level of property damage homeowners could face here. We discussed these risks and more with Jude Bayham. He researches wildfire management at Colorado State University.

We mentioned the pay raise for federal wildland firefighters that's stalled in Congress. And you can learn more about protecting your home from wildfire here.

We’re kicking off Hispanic Heritage Month with a series of conversations highlighting Hispanic changemakers, innovators and creators in Colorado. Democratic Representative Yadira Caraveo knows a lot about duality, about the different cultural identities many people try to balance and preserve as they navigate life. “It’s really been a lifetime of being ‘the first’ or ‘the only’ in a lot of rooms,” she says. Caraveo is Colorado’s first Latina member of Congress, representing the newly drawn 8th Congressional District. In today’s episode, the pediatrician and daughter of Mexican immigrants discusses how her upbringing and life experiences have informed her work as a physician — and now as a member of Congress.

Summer may be winding down, but many northern Colorado farmers' markets are still humming, with people lining up to buy crates of Palisade peaches, Olathe sweet corn, Pueblo chiles, and other locally grown produce. But growing in Colorado can be challenging – the growing season is short, the sun is scorching, and the rainy season can be very unpredictable. 

Coloradans seem to appreciate how difficult it is for farmers – which may help explain some of the demand for fruits and vegetables grown here. But there are plenty of other reasons for that homegrown produce pride, according to Colorado State University professor and agricultural economist Dawn Thilmany. In today's episode she talks with host Erin O'Toole about why we place so much importance on buying local.

In the episode, we brought up this story from KUNC's Rae Solomon about folks suffering from "peach anxiety" this Spring. 

We also mentioned the idea of visiting local farms and ranches in the episode - including Miller Farms in Platteville, which celebrates the Fall harvest by allowing you to come harvest your own veggies through mid-November. And there are plenty of corn mazes, pumpkin patches, and CSAs near you if you're ready to get out and celebrate the coming of autumn.