SPEAKER_08 0:00

The complete works of the morning, Boulder County. It's Wednesday, June 10th. I'm your host, Shay Castle. And this is The Frequency. A weekly local podcast covering the news, events, and voices shaping the Boulder Valley. This episode is brought to you by Central City Opera. The 94th Central City Opera Festival begins June 27th. Since 1932, Central City Opera has been one of Colorado's favorite arts traditions, bringing world-class talent to a 19th-century opera house in historic Central City. This summer, CCO is celebrating the 70th anniversary of our world premiere of the Ballad of Baby Doe. The show tells the scandalous historical love story of silver baron Horace Tabor. Yes, that Tabor, who left his wife Augusta for Baby Doe. A performance which rocked Denver society and today remains a staple of Colorado history. You can also catch The Marriage of Figaro, masterclass, and CCO in concert this season, with the cast featuring talent from the Met, San Francisco Opera, and beyond. Tickets start at $32, and seats are going fast, so don't miss out. The festival runs June 27th through August 2nd. Visit centralcityopera.org to learn more. Today, it's a tale of collaboration, community, and noisy kids as we go inside a community-based art class in South Boulder. Stay tuned. You don't want to miss it. But first, the headlines. Erie has reached a tentative deal with an oil and gas company to allow fracking underneath 180 acres of town land. If approved, the deal would net Erie $4.5 million in cash and a 2% share of production revenue for as long as the wells are operational. The project known as the Draco Pad was approved by state regulators in March 2025. Oil and gas operator Civitas Resources needs access to Erie's mineral rights in order to utilize the full 3,900-acre drilling area. 26 wells are planned for the Draco Pad. The pad will sit in Weld County. Wells will be drilled horizontally underground for more than four miles into unincorporated Boulder County. It will be the first new oil and gas activity in Boulder County since 2012. County officials have not yet released a statement on the deal. In addition to cash and revenue sharing, Erie will receive 160 acres of land. Civitas has also agreed to plug 17 wells in and around the town. The company has already been ordered by the state to plug and abandon 22 wells in order for the DracoPad project to move forward. There are more than 14,000 abandoned wells in Colorado, primarily in Weld County. According to an investigation by The Guardian, Colorado has foregone $1 billion in fees from three big oil producers, including Civitas, that it could be collecting and using to plug wells more quickly. Plugging wells can prevent spills, leaks, and other disasters. Read more from The Guardian's investigation at the link in our show notes. The deal between Erie and Civitas is still subject to a public hearing and a vote of town council. Erie will hold that vote and public hearing on Tuesday, May 16th, starting at 6 30 p.m. Attend in person at 6 45 Holbrook Street. The deadline to submit written comments is Friday, June 12th. You do not have to be a resident of Erie to attend or participate. The space is limited at the physical meeting. Find a virtual meeting link in our show notes, along with an article from Colorado Hometown Weekly.

SPEAKER_09 3:50

Alright, first question. Are you excited about participating in a city election that will have more than 50,000 voters? Next question, this one is about vacancies. Do you support a tax on commercial vacancies?

SPEAKER_04 4:23

Okay.

SPEAKER_08 4:29

It's not deja vu. There is another city council election happening in Boulder this year, as the city moves its local contest to even years. Five seats are up for grads, including the mayor. The Rockets Caucus kicked off the election season with a June 6th candidate forum. Seven candidates were there, including four city council members, two candidates who have run before, and one former city councilwoman. The Rockets Caucus is in its fifth year. It is hosted by Boulder Progressives, but open to all candidates.org. Before municipal elections, though, the Colorado primary election is June 30th. Ballots are being mailed out starting this week. Contest with local interest include the C for House District 19, Boulder County Treasurer, and CU Regent for District 2. The Frequency will be publishing our last-minute vote guide episode of the week ballots are due. For now, find more information at bouldercounty.gov slash elections. The Frequency is getting a facelift. Thanks to graphic designer Ruby Kendrick for our new logo, which you may have noticed in your inbox or on your streaming platform. Check it out at boulderfrequency.com and let us know what you think.

SPEAKER_05 5:53

That looks like the galaxy. I mean, earthquake. The solar planets. And it was a baby. The solar system planets. Now it's starting to look like a blob. I think I think so. I mean now it's starting to look like a blob. Hey! It got bigger and expanded and started.

SPEAKER_08 6:22

It's a Monday evening in early May. I'm at the community center of South Boulder Affordable Housing Complex, Tantra Lake. The environment is one of controlled chaos. There's loud music playing and lots of laughter. Tiny humans are eating snacks, playing pool, shouting across the room at one another. Local artist Jerismika Rose, aka Miss Rizzo, is leading a class of school kids through making a geode painting using markers, water, salt, and glitter, all of which are getting everywhere.

SPEAKER_04 6:58

Anyone know what a geode is? What? A raw. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 7:05

Microscope!

SPEAKER_04 7:09

That's right. So it's a raw and then soft inside. It usually makes crystals. Has anyone seen a crystal before? Really? So I'm gonna teach you how to use markers to make watercolors and use it like the baby. So everyone knows about the concept of what we'll be happy to make and the salt. When we use it with the water and the markers, it's gonna make like a crystallized image, like a crystal. So we'll be making geodes on paper. So the first step is everyone don't get. Wait something. Just don't get. You're gonna grab one piece of paper and four collars. So four collars won't make your crystals, okay? One piece of paper, four markers. Okay, ready to go.

SPEAKER_08 7:56

For seven weeks, these kids have been gathering in this room every Monday afternoon. When I was there in early May, they had one more class to go. Aside from Miss Rizzo and the dozen or so children, there are a couple parents in the room. But many people work to make this eight-week series happen. Not only does the art teacher actually get paid, but the classes are offered completely free. The nonprofit Streetwise Arts selected Rose from their roster of artists. Play Boulder Foundation provided the funding. Boulder Housing Partners supplied the idea, organizing, and space. Tantra Lake is one of their communities. After this, I'll refer to Boulder Housing Partners by their acronym, BHP. Jamila Richmond is a resident services coordinator for BHP. Among her many responsibilities and talents are bringing programs like this one to life.

SPEAKER_02 8:49

I am a child who was born of the arts. I went to a performing arts elementary school, and that was just like a regular public school. And like by the time I graduated fifth grade, I was just telling Jesene, I had already seen over 20 Broadway shows. And coming from a household where we were deeply low income, and both my parents were heroin addicts, and like I got to do things just because of the school that I attended that I would never have been able to do that helped me to see my world from different perspectives, and so I feel really passionate about the arts and just access in general for everybody, because I think everybody should be like how much something costs should not be the yes or no or the determining factor to whether or not you should be able to have access to it. So thankfully, Play is a partner who's equally invested in equity, and they saw my brain baby and said, yes, to funding it.

SPEAKER_08 9:52

A spokesperson for Play Boulder said the organization has consistently heard from parents and kids over the years who want access to arts and cultural opportunities as well as sports. Quote, this art series is a direct response to that community feedback. Access manager Greta Sandberg wrote to me via email. Quote, we see it as an opportunity to explore how PlayPass can thoughtfully expand access to arts experiences while staying true to our mission of removing barriers for youth. Our hope is that this is just the beginning of creating more opportunities for youth to engage in the arts, just as we've done with recreation and physical activity. Through this partnership, Play Boulder and Jamila will also be bringing soccer to Tantra Park and other BHP communities. But it's nice to have a free extracurricular focused on art. Modern school curricula don't have a heavy focus on the arts. Kids are lucky if they can get one art class a week or every two weeks.

SPEAKER_07 10:50

Do you guys have art classes at school?

SPEAKER_05 10:52

Yeah. Yeah, yeah. This week, well, we used to have one day uh like of everything, but then we started doing it for each weekend.

SPEAKER_07 11:02

What's your favorite project you guys have done so far in these classes?

SPEAKER_05 11:08

Um like yarn and um I like them.

SPEAKER_07 11:16

That's cool. Did you give yours a woman or do you wear it?

SPEAKER_05 11:23

Where I put it in my house. It's in my teddy bear. You put it on your teddy bear? Yeah, it's like a safety place.

SPEAKER_00 11:32

Um a lot of times schools, you know, have one art teacher who has very limited resources to serve the student body. So, what we like to do is find ways that we can partner with schools through grant funding or sponsorships and bring more art programming, a lot of times with surrounding mural programs, so the kids learn from and get mentorship from an artist about creating a mural together as a project. But it also goes beyond that. We do all kinds of art programming classes, residencies in schools, and now in communities, really led by local artists. So we want to support local artists in their creativity and their specialties, and then pair it with communities so they can kind of share their knowledge and share their experience with the next generation to inspire them, to empower them, to build connections. I think the more in-person, hands-on things that we can do together as a community is gonna bring more connection and positivity to the world. So, you know, I think that's always been really important to the organization from the beginning. We've done our education programs really to foster that next generation. I think it's really important. I'm Leah Brenner-Glack, and I'm the executive director of Streetwise Arts.

SPEAKER_08 12:44

That mural Leah mentioned was the first project Streetwise started working on at Tantra Park. Another Jamila Brainchild, the mural and the art class series are part of a full year of programming at Tantra and other BHP properties. That includes another art series and the aforementioned Soccer program, but also a permaculture workshop with the local hip hop artist and the creation of two murals in the community. It's great to have free classes and clubs for low-income boulderites, Jamila said, but it's even better to offer them in the neighborhoods where people actually live.

SPEAKER_02 13:24

Like going out there is part of the barriers, right? There are people who can do that, but also what about the people who can't? And are we thinking about and creating for them with parenting? The solutions often are here's this resource and now go seek it out. But when you're a lower income person, um there is a time deficit. Absolutely, and when you're a lower income person with children, nobody talks about how much it costs for you to map out how to get here or there or do this or do that and do it and like find the thing that's financially accessible and get to it, and then you may have another child, and then you've got to get that. Like, there's a lot. There's so many barriers, so many barriers that nobody looks at or thinks about when in in from a holistic perspective, when it comes to creating resources to support families in a meaningful way.

SPEAKER_08 14:32

Not everybody at Tantra Lake Programs lives in that community. The art classes were open to all BHP properties, and there was significant crossover.

SPEAKER_07 14:41

Do you all go to the same school? No. Only us two.

SPEAKER_05 14:49

I am mad at those two.

SPEAKER_06 14:51

Yeah, we can't tell these two are friends.

SPEAKER_07 14:54

So did you guys become friends here? Then you met here. Um yeah.

SPEAKER_05 15:05

And then I just went into my friend's house. And I just walked in.

SPEAKER_08 15:20

Two of the girls you heard in that second clip are homeschooled. The art classes are one of the only opportunities they have to interact with children their own age, they said. And they offer a unique opportunity to work with their hands, away from screens.

SPEAKER_06 15:34

Yeah, I'm home basically all day. Me too. If all I do is be an iPad kid and do my school and do my online school.

SPEAKER_07 15:44

So is this the only time you get to see like other people your age?

SPEAKER_06 15:49

Um sometimes my mom be just um organizes thingies for me to go out, sorry, to touch grass like a normal kid.

SPEAKER_03 16:02

Art school online is like doing the art classes and stuff, it's not that fun for her. Um especially because it's like so much of it is like watch this YouTube video about how to draw on, watch this YouTube video about how to do this, and she just kind of gets bored with that.

SPEAKER_08 16:17

That's Kylie, mom of Ella, the quieter girl you can just barely hear in those earlier clips. They don't live in Tantra Park, but learned about the art classes through BHP. Kylie had been noticing Ella feeling lonely and disengaged with her online curriculum. The art series has been a gift, Kylie said.

SPEAKER_03 16:37

Yeah, this is hard to say more engaged with school because she has something else to explain too, and they didn't just like, oh, I have to learn math, you know?

SPEAKER_08 16:45

It's not only kids who make new friends at these BHP events. Parents are welcome to stay during the sessions and connect with one another. Most of them don't choose to hang around. What parent wouldn't say no to nearly two hours of free time?

SPEAKER_02 17:00

A lot of the programs that people build require parents to be present and supervising their children. I'm giving you an hour and 45 minutes of go breathe. You may not choose to do that, but I'm giving you this space with people who are here to supervise and care for and support your kids in meaningful and healthy ways.

SPEAKER_08 17:23

Jamila and Streetwise plan to keep the relationship going with more art classes and co-sponsored events at other BHP properties. The women have a special connection to Tantra Park, where they both used to be residents.

SPEAKER_00 17:37

Yeah, you've got Tantra Park, and then you've got CU South, and like some epic views, and it's such a diverse community, and like, yeah, it's just it's a very peaceful, beautiful place.

SPEAKER_02 17:48

So there was nothing when my daughter and I first moved in for us to do.

SPEAKER_07 17:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:53

And I didn't have a car, and like I came in in a deep from a DB situation, and I felt really isolated because I'm not from Colorado, I'm from New York. Yeah, I didn't have community, I didn't so and then like my neighbors were all the same, but we're all single moms, we're all single moms, and we're all like our kids were all in the same age range, and we were all trying to figure out like stuff, and stuff usually lives somewhere else. Um and then when I got my car, great, I can go drive off-site and go do something or whatever, but like, what about here? There's a hundred kids here. What about here and what about the kids?

SPEAKER_08 18:35

You can support Playboulder Foundation and Streetwise Arts through the donation links in our show notes. I'll make it easy for you and tell you those websites right now. They are playboulder.org slash donate and streetwisearts.org slash donate. Thank you to BHP, Playboulder, and Streetwise for letting me spend the evening with the kids. And thank you to each of them Zella, Maximo, Keegan, Ella, Abhinov, Alexia, and Atexi. I'm withholding last names for privacy. I'll give the last word to the kids. We'll see you next week.

SPEAKER_07 19:13

Do you like coming to these art classes? Sometimes. What do you like about it? What do you not like about it?

SPEAKER_05 19:25

And I like that we get to do like our videos. It looks like we're back. But it actually looks like an avocado.

SPEAKER_07 19:35

Would you eat a pink avocado? No.

SPEAKER_05 19:38

I don't like avocados. I'm like bumps. Literally avocado. Avocados are squishy. You squish to make it. You squish. Oh. It's kind of like um love ketchup, but egg tomato. What? Yeah, some people do something.

SPEAKER_01 20:17

I was I was a pretty passionate creative writer. And I tried my hand at a little poetry too. Um, and I know how powerful that process can be. Because growing up, you know, my family, everybody knows we didn't come from great wealth. We didn't have a lot of advantages or luxuries or things like that. But my parents always made it clear that the arts, even though they weren't educated, they knew that the arts, things like poetry and music and drama and writing, those things weren't luxuries. They were necessities. You know, no matter where you come from, they knew that we needed those experiences to feed our souls and to make us whole and complete individuals. So they did everything in their power, uh, spent every penny they didn't have to make sure we had piano lessons. And I see the parents nodding, um, enrolling us in summer programs at our church where we put on plays and we do musical performances. I was actually a little fairy once, and I had to sing. I wasn't a good singer, but somehow that must have done something for me in the end. My parents encouraged me to become a writer myself. So as a kid, when I was feeling anxious or bored or lonely, I I would often sit down and just write and write and write, and I would get lost in that writing. Uh and uh, you know, it it helped me on so many levels to be able to pour out feelings and frustrations onto paper, and then eventually I would always feel better, more empowered, more in control. And like many young people, I didn't just get the emotional benefits of writing, I also got the academic benefits as well. Uh, because as I I I improved my writing just because it was fun and it was an outlet, I also improved my thinking. Uh, I was better able to organize my thoughts in class, I was better able to clearly express my ideas on paper and exams. It was second nature. And that's the power of the arts.