24 JUNE 13-19, 2024 westword.com WESTWORD | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | LETTERS | CONTENTS | Karl asked Kourisa and Gil if they wanted to take over the building for their own bar. The couple already had a successful embroidery business, but the opportunity seemed too great to pass up. After refunding their embroidery customers $20,000 (“We pissed a lot of people off,” Kourisa admits), Kourisa and Gil poured the rest of their savings into River, which opened in June 2021. Before hip-hop entered the picture, Kourisa’s goal was to fi ll the space with art to make it look like an alley in RiNo. She issued a call for artists on Instagram, and “none of the bigger artists wanted anything to do with it,” she recalls. “It was beautiful, though, because it ended up being all new artists who just wanted an opportunity to paint in RiNo. And that’s when I learned about gatekeeping,” she adds with a laugh. “We started posting about it, and then all the heavy hitters seeing the little guys, they wanted to come in, too,” she continues. “I lost count at probably 500 artists that came through in the fi rst year we were open...and so I thought the music scene was going to be the same. And it was, but not at fi rst.” When she and Gil started bringing music into River, “I knew nothing about the music scene,” Kourisa admits. She soon discovered that venues, like art- ists, could be taken advantage of by promot- ers. One of the fi rst promoters River worked with received 100 percent of the ticket sales, but then began asking for cuts of the bar’s drink sales, too. Turned out the promoter was also charging artists up to $1,200 to play. Needless to say, River cut those ties. The venue eventually started making a name as a place to perform through word of mouth, and event promoters such as Double Up started bringing their shows to the bar. “We don’t charge anybody to do anything here,” Kourisa notes. “It’s just mutually benefi cial. We keep our liquor sales, you keep your door sales.” While that business model hasn’t brought in the cash that River could be getting if it operated like other venues, there’s satisfac- tion in providing a platform for artists with a vision, such as Burke. “Why not create a space where you can keep your ticket sales?” Kourisa says. “I don’t really go around visit- ing other places to see what they’re doing. I just hear about, ‘Well, it costs $100 to even put on a show there, and they keep 40 per- cent of our ticket sales.’ Which I get, because we struggle.” But they’d rather struggle than dilute their commitment to the artists. As the high energy at Beats Bodega sug- gests, that commitment was more than nec- essary for the hip-hop community. “We’ve learned hip-hop was our niche,” Kourisa says. “There’s so much opportunity there. ... I remember saying we’re going to be known for this — we’re going to be known for hip- hop and rap, true, underground hip-hop.” “It’s just good people, good vibes and good music coming in,” Gil concludes, “and coming together as a community and mak- ing us one.” Beats Bodega, every Thursday starting at 9 p.m., River, 3759 Chestnut Place, $10. 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