Before the summer’s (officially) over, here’s a list of Denver events

By in Native

Before the summer’s (officially) over, here’s a list of Denver events
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Although this year’s official last day of summer isn’t until Sept. 23, it sure feels like summer is over once we enter the ninth month of the year.

But the arrival of fall doesn’t mean that the party has to end. It just means the party might move indoors.

Before we kiss summer goodbye, here’s a list of some interesting lineup of events happening this week in Denver: a food and wine festival, live music in Sunnyside, a ladies’ night R&B festival, a chile fest in Westwood, and a celebration of Indigenous communities at the Denver Art Museum.

2023 Denver Food + Wine Festival

Date: Wednesday and Thursday, Sept. 6-9
Location: Tivoli Quad, Auraria Campus, 1000 Larimer St.

Presented by the Colorado Restaurant Association and Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits the festival will be a multi-day event of food, wine and spirits showcasing the Mile High restaurant community.

Two Riedel Wine Glass Seminars will be held on Sept. 6 and 7 starting at 6 p.m. where attendees can get a firsthand experience on how the shape of a wine glass affects unique varietals.

On Thursday, Sept. 7 from 7 to 10 p.m., the Shake + Brake Showdown is a lively cocktail and food truck competition during which either local food trucks and 12 pro bartenders will compete for the title of “Best Food Truck” and “Best Cocktail.”

On Saturday, Sept. 9 from noon to 4 p.m., the Grand Tasting will showcase local award-winning chefs, mixologists and wine professionals who will share food endless bites and more than 700 wines and spirits.

Click here for tickets and the full restaurant lineup.

R&B Jam Fest, Ladies Night Edition

Date: Thursday, Sept. 7, 8 p.m. – 12 a.m.
Location: Your Mom’s House, 608 E. 13th Ave.

If you miss the golden era of 90s R&B, this could be the event for you. Coming back for the fifth volume in a series of R&B music festivals presented by Picasso Gang and Boogie Groove Entertainment, the showcase is keen on highlighting Denver’s R&B talent.

This ladies’ night edition will feature seven local R&B acts including Danae Simone, Cleopatra, Cameron Cade, Xandra Day, DSCRND, Home, Renee and music provided by Guyanese-American DJ MnM.

Click here for a playlist of R&B Jam Fest past and future performers and click here for tickets.

Sunnyside Music Festival

Date: Saturday, Sept. 9, noon to 7:30 p.m.
Location: Chaffee Park, 1901 W. 43rd Ave.

This free, family-friendly event is focused on Colorado musicians, craft beer, cocktails, artisan vendors and the Sunnyside community. The volunteer-run nonprofit is going into its 21st year hosting the festival.

This year the festival will be headlined by Extra Gold, Mono Verde, Lazy Summer Home, Buffalo Commons, and a Colorado Blue Revue featuring The Delta Sonics, Lionel Young, Erica Brown, Jack Hadley and Ken Saydak.

Click here for more information on road closures and safe routes to the festival.

Westwood Chile Fest

Date: Saturday, Sept. 9, noon to 7 p.m.
Location: 3738 Morrison Road

This year’s festival returns to celebrate “business and culture” on Morrison Road, the heart of the Westwood community. What originally began as a small community potluck has evolved into a full-fledged street festival with vendors, food trucks, community organizations, live art installations and live music celebrating Hispanic culture and cuisine.

The event is free and open to the public. It will include entertainment for all ages including a new Salsa de Westwood Competition in partnership with Hecho en Westwood, the longstanding tradition of a Chile Pepper-Eating contest and more than 60 artists and vendors.

Click here for more information and the schedule of live performances.

34th Annual Friendship Powwow at the Denver Art Museum

Date: Saturday, Sept. 9, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.
Location: 100 W. 14th Ave. Pkwy.

As one of the Denver Art Museum’s long-running events, the Friendship Powwow will feature Native American dance competitions, hands-on activities for the whole family, artist, food and vendor booths all in celebration of Indigenous communities across Denver and the Front Range.

There will also be beadwork artmaking activities with local Native artists Katherine Flecking and Chelsea Kaiah, one of the DAM’s former Artists in Residence.

This Saturday is a Free Day at the DAM meaning general admission is free of charge for all visitors.

Click here for more information on the event.

Possible century-old Native American painting found inside wall of North Ridgeville tavern

By in Native

Possible century-old Native American painting found inside wall of North Ridgeville tavern

NORTH RIDGEVILLE, Ohio — There’s a whole lot of history in Northeast Ohio, and some of the buildings here have been around for a lot of it. One of them, the Century Tavern, was built in 1818, just eight years after the first settlers arrived in North Ridgeville.

In that time, it’s had several owners, but it’s revealing its secrets for the latest one.

“This you really couldn’t walk into, and I just decided to open it up. Completely take it back to 1818,” said the owner of the Century Tavern, Thomas Kelly.

In 2019, Kelly bought the old Century Tavern. Much has changed in the two centuries since the first beams were laid, but as he began renovations, the building slowly revealed its hidden history.

That includes the original bricks from when the building was first built, the visible stress on the wood, and a door frame and glass that’s more than 200 years old. But there’s one hidden gem that brings many questions.

“I didn’t even know this was here, and suddenly I started pulling a wall back, and I saw a face, and I thought, wow,” said Kelly.

Behind the wall was a painting done on the plaster that shows three Native Americans sitting. Kelly thinks it was painted by a Native American tribe.

Bill Noll with the North Ridgeville Historical Society saids even though the painting doesn’t include an artist’s name, it is possible a Native American painted it.

“Ridgeville had a tribe of Indians that used to come through here all the time, and they’d stop and do some training in the city,” said Noll.

Kelly believes the painting dates back more than 100 years. He plans to cover the painting with a plastic barrier and preserve it with the rest of the building.

“The place was just like a beautiful woman that just got reincarnated,” Kelly continued, “I hope the old lady appreciates all I’ve done for her” — all so he can give North Ridgeville a piece of history to appreciate.

Now since Tom still isn’t sure who painted the art, Native American historians are asking for pictures of the brush strokes or even a chip of the paint so they can decide which artist or tribe is responsible for creating it.

Kelly hopes to open the Century Tavern by St. Patrick’s Day 2024.

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Native American foods showcased at ISU Horticulture Center Autumnal Festival

By in Native

Native American foods showcased at ISU Horticulture Center Autumnal Festival

The Illinois State University Horticulture Center is going back to “native roots” for this year’s Autumnal Festival, literally.

The center on Raab Road in Normal is honoring the connection to indigenous plants as part of the annual fundraiser for the center, Saturday and Sunday.

Matt Horton is the executive chef for ISU’s food service and dining program, which will be serving Native American cuisine. It’s not just “cuisine” — the word should be plural, Horton said, because there are many Native American groups and lifeways. Native Americans of the plains ate differently that did Woodland tribes, or west or east coast nations.

“It’d be a lot like saying, Mexican food, or Chinese food, or Indian food represents an entire continent. There’s a lot more to any kind of cuisine when you’re talking about thousands of different cultures over thousands of years,” said Horton.

Fall display at ISU Horticulture Center

Dan Swaney

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ISU Horticulture Center

Fall display at ISU Horticulture Center

Horton said they will start Saturday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. with foods common to tribes in the upper Midwest, including a wild rice pilaf.

“Most people think wild rice is the same thing you might find with Ben’s original box mix, but they’re actually quite quite different. Authentic wild rice is not a rice, it’s a grass. The habitat where it’s grown is small, parts of northern Minnesota and just a little bit in California. That’s about it,” said Horton.

It cooks a lot faster than a lot of other rice, about 15 minutes. Horton said he’s borrowing recipes from the “Sioux Chef’s Indigenous Kitchen” by Sean Sherman. Chestnuts and several kinds of mushrooms will also be in the pilaf. Those were more available to Woodland tribes, though are hard to find after an invasive species of fungus killed most American Chestnut trees in the early 20th century.

Many Native American groups had diets that capitalized on foraged berries and other seasonal foods. In the Midwest that can be cherries, currants, blueberries, and chokeberries – also known as Aronia.

An illustration shows a tree rising from a tangle of roots underground

ISU Horticulture Center

The Horticulture Center festival Saturday and Sunday will also include Native American artifact identification, presentations on rangeland management, and Native American artists and musicians.

Horton said he has tried to make sure ISU educates students about different local products. There is even a 28-acre farm just outside Bloomington that grows nothing but Aronia berries.

There will also be bison to eat at the event, taken from Plains Indians diets.

“We’re going to do a seared bison strip steak with a Wojapi sauce. You can use different kinds of berries but we’re going to use the local Aronia berries. It’s an intense flavor. When you taste it on its own, it’s like eating a big bite of something really tart, like cranberries. When you have the sauce with that bison they really interact and the savory bison lessens the tartness,” said Horton.

A recurring theme in a lot of Native American cultures is the “three sisters” — corn, beans, and squash planted all together. They reinforce each other and self-fertilize each other. Horton said he is planning a three sisters mash this year as part of other programming in the campus dining service and education programs that emphasizes sustainability.

“Most indigenous cuisine had a relationship where one item proliferated from others. To go back to the wild rice example, the traditional harvesting method would be in a canoe. They would pull those reeds and smack them, and the wild rice would fall off into the boat. Some of that also fell back into the water. That was what naturally re-fertilized for the next growing season,” said Horton

Food has a power to sustain or erode the culture of a people.

“Destruction of habitat or people’s land was a very easy way to ‘talk people into relocating,’ so to speak. If you don’t have means to feed yourself to survive, then quickly, you’re dependent on others. Things that would be classified as colonial ingredients — wheat flour, milk, sugar, domesticated animals, like pork, and beef — all those things were not part of Native American food. Food sources affected things like diabetes and heart disease,” said Horton.

Food was a weapon in the Euro-American campaign to dislocate Native Americans in the late 1700s to the late 1800s.

“I think we’ve seen in history, no matter where you go in the world, that was always a tactic. If you want to win in battle, you certainly look at the logistics and if you take away clean drinking water or different ingredients, that shapes things very quickly,” said Horton.

Horton said he wants to go beyond the Autumnal Festival and some classroom-centered presentations to help teach students in interdisciplinary ways.

“How do you take the steps to make it a common part of our menu and the education is ongoing as students eat throughout the year. We’re getting ready to build a brand-new dining center. I think that’s scheduled to open in just a couple years. One of the things we want to include in that center would be an international cuisine station. And so that includes Native American cuisine. I look at every recipe we’re developing or showcasing right now, as work towards that,” said Horton.

Horton said he hopes to showcase ingredients such as pecans, maple sugar, pumpkins, honey, and whitefish, all common to the Midwest.

The Horticulture Center festival Saturday and Sunday will also include Native American artifact identification, presentations on rangeland management, and Native American artists and musicians.

The Horticulture Center is a part of the Agriculture Department at Illinois State University. It encompasses 10 acres and is located on Raab Road, north of the University Golf Course, and across the street from Heartland Community College in Normal, Illinois. The Horticulture Center is also linked to Constitution Trail.

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Photographer comes out of retirement to pay for his wife’s Alzheimer’s care

By in Photography

Photographer comes out of retirement to pay for his wife’s Alzheimer’s care

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — John Ross and his wife, Lisa, joke that they’re attached at the hip.

The two have been married for 31 years. At one time, they worked together at their company, Phoenix Photography.

“She ran the company, she ran the business, and I was just the technical person who did all the camera work,” John said.

John Ross, Phoenix Photography

But he had to take on more work at the studio when Lisa was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2020.

John said he noticed symptoms as early as 2018 but didn’t know what was going on.

“As this developed, we had to close,” John said. “I couldn’t do everything, and it was a huge emotional adjustment for me.”

It was also a big financial adjustment.

“When you need to get a caregiver, you’re looking at somewhere in the vicinity of $600 a week,” John said.

That’s why he had to pick up his camera, come out of retirement and once again open the doors to their photography studio.

Doctor’s orders state Lisa can’t be left alone.

However, their studio is conveniently attached to their home.

“There’s a number of things that I need to cover and take care of, our bills, and keep her here,” John said. “We’ve been in this house for 30 years now, so I want her to stay.”

The Alzheimer’s Association reports the disease now costs $45 billion to treat and care for patients, with cost of care expected to grow to $1 trillion by 2050.

“Alzheimer’s is a huge health crisis, but it’s also very much becoming a financial crisis as well,” said Michelle Garrard, community program specialist for the Alzheimer’s Association Heart of America Chapter.

Michelle Garrard, Community Program Specialist for the Alzheimer's Association Heart of America Chapter.

Through her work with those struggling with the disease and with the association, Garrard has seen the struggles of caregivers like John.

“I think it’s been a big issue, but for sure, with the pandemic and the staffing crisis that we have encountered, prices are just going up and up and up for long-term care,” Garrard said.

The emotional toll of caregiving can be just as difficult.

“One thing to take away is when it’s your spouse, you don’t get to go home,” John said. “You don’t get to go someplace and rest. You’re not out of it ever.”

But with Lisa by his side, John said he wants to continue to capture photos and moments.

“We have years left, and I want to make sure she’s 100% taken care of here,” he said.

The photography studio is having a grand reopening on Sunday, Sept. 10.

Details are below.

Embracing the Magic of Fall: Your Guide to Nailing Fall Landscape

By in Photography

Embracing the Magic of Fall: Your Guide to Nailing Fall Landscape

Hey, fellow landscape photography enthusiast! Can you feel that slight chill in the air yet? Yep, fall is right around the corner, and you most likely already know what that means: it’s prime time for capturing those breathtaking autumnal landscapes. The vibrant colors and the cozy vibes are a landscape photographer’s dream come true. But, before you dash out with your camera, let’s chat about how to get prepped for some epic fall photography.

Scoping Out the Scene

Let’s start by scoping out the best spots. Do some research before you even pack up your camera bag; this can be online, hitting up photography forums, and perhaps even consider stalking Instagram for those jaw-dropping autumn shots that may be in your area. Each will form inspiration and build your hunger to catch your own shot.  Make a list of spots you’re dying to explore – from classic locations to hidden gems that’ll may make your portfolio pop. And yeah, don’t forget to figure out how to get there without getting too lost (GPS is your friend). By planning it out in advance, you take the guess work out, except that is the guess work regarding the weather. If you are like me here in Ireland, you know that clouds and rain main ruin your day, even though they weren’t exactly forecast. However, this adds to the chase and makes catching those banger shots even more worthwhile, at least for me. 

Getting Your Gear Game On

Time to give your gear some love! You may have been out over the summer in some wild places, so best to take the opportunity to “fall clean” as such and ensure that everything is in tip-top shape. Clean that camera sensor, give your lenses a wipe down, and make sure your filters aren’t smudged. Nobody likes spots ruining a perfect shot. Oh, and a tripod? Non-negotiable for some. It is like that steady rock that’ll keep your shots tack sharp, especially when that golden hour light starts playing its magic tricks. Some may argue against a tripod, and that’s fine too. Go with whatever you feel comfortable with, as this is all that matters at the end of the day. Trying some macro shots can also be fun, as you may encounter some fungi on the forest floor.

Befriending the Light

Speaking of magic tricks, let’s talk about that dreamy fall light. Early mornings and late afternoons, that’s when you’ll want to be out and about. The sun’s not too harsh, and the colors get all warm and cozy. But don’t ignore overcast days. They’re like nature’s soft box, making colors pop and shadows play nice. Embrace the weather, whether it’s sunny, cloudy, or somewhere in between. If it’s cloudy, then woodlands can be perfect, as can waterfalls, as you won’t have to deal with hot spots in your frame from direct light as it streams through the foliage.

Rocking Composition

Alright, let’s geek out on composition for a bit next. You know the rule of thirds? Use it to create some balance and interest in your shots. I call it a tool rather than a rule, as it isn’t the make or break for an image. Instead, do what feels right and tells your story of the scene that you see. Leading lines? They’re like breadcrumbs guiding viewers through your photo story and can come in many different shapes and sizes. The key is to look out for them when composing your shot, and in fall, it could even be leaves as they lie on the ground in front of you.  And don’t forget about framing — using natural elements to add depth and context to your shots. Play around, break some rules, and find your style, but most of all, enjoy being out in the fall conditions more so. That being said, it can also be good to explore as fall ends, as you will end up with less foliage, and some last leaves may shine through. 

Rain, Fog, and Drama

Remember, it’s not just about the perfect blue skies. Rain and fog can be your new BFFs. Raindrops on leaves? Instantly adds a touch of magic. Fog? It can create mysterious and moody landscapes. So, don’t stay tucked in when the weather gets a bit dramatic. Grab that rain cover for your gear and maybe even an umbrella for yourself. It’s all part of the adventure, after all. I firmly believe that bad conditions do not exist in landscape photography; there is always a shot. Granted, it may not be a banger, but it still will be a shot. What has happened quite often is my expectations were low to begin with, based on the poor weather, which meant when I did bag a shot, it felt like a bonus.

Time for Some Fun Techniques

Ever tried that artsy shot with a blurry background and a single leaf in focus? You will be familiar with shallow depth of field, and fall is perfect for it. Macro shots of fallen leaves or dew-covered grass can also create a shot which shows the true essence of fall photography, as the colors will be more vibrant. Also, long exposure shots are your secret weapon. Capture the motion of falling leaves or flowing streams, and watch the magic happen as the leaves follow the flow of the water and leave their streaks behind in your shots. Watch the water before you compose and look out for swirling patterns as the leaves take their journey, as these will develop into circular patterns in your long exposure shots. 

Dress the Part

Okay, I know we’re all about the shots, but let’s not freeze our fingers off. Layer up, as you can always peel off if you get too toasty. A warm hat, gloves, and a jacket that’s wind-resistant should be in your bag. You may feel that you don’t need them when heading out; however, it’s best to have them rather than be looking for them. There is nothing worse than being beaten back by the cold when an extra 30 minutes may have been needed for those perfect conditions to occur. Don’t forget comfortable shoes. You might have to hike a bit for that perfect shot, so make sure your feet are up for the adventure. Many people, when starting out in landscape photography, underestimate the power of comfortable and waterproof shoes. These will allow you to get into that stream and catch the flow of the water far mor easily.

A polarizing filter is an especially good tool to have in your camera bag all year round. However, it is in the fall that this tool can effectively be a game-changer. Two of the properties of this filter can really come into their own during this season: the ability to remove glare and see into the water in front of you and to enhance the natural colors of a scene. When I am shooting in fall, this is the single most important filter to have in my bag, as it is the only filter that cannot be replicated in post-production.

So, there you have it, your guide to embracing fall with open arms and a camera in hand. Get ready to capture the magic of this season like never before. It’s time to let your creativity run wild and document the world, as it transforms into a canvas of warm hues and enchanting landscapes. Happy shooting! 

Have you more to add to this article? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.

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