2 westword.com WESTWORD OCTOBER 1-7, 2026 | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | NEWS | LETTERS | CONTENTS | W ® 8 HALF EMPTY / HALF FULL We looked into the state of Colorado craft beer in 2026. BY RYAN PACHMAYER 4 TICKET TO NOWHERE Denver police can’t cite Waymos, but state lawmakers may change that. BY HANNAH METZGER 6 ALWAYS A BOY Identity, family and acceptance are at the heart of a play debuting Oct. 9 at Pluss Theatre. BY TEAGUE BOHLEN 13 CONTRASTING EFFECT Sunstoney taps into the healing powers of music and dances her way through the darkness. BY CLEO MIRZA 6 Culture 8 Cafe 13 Music CONCERTS/CLUBS ................................... 14 19 Marijuana CANNABIS CALENDAR ............................ 20 HIGH NOTES ............................................. XX VOLUME 50 NUMBER 6 OCTOBER 8-14, 2026 E D I T O R I A L Senior Editor, News Thomas Mitchell Food and Drink Editor Antony Bruno Culture Editor Kristen Fiore Music Editor Dave Herrera Social Media Editor Katrina Leibee Staff Writers Sage Kelley, Hannah Metzger Senior Contributors Gil Asakawa, Brendan Joel Kelley, Michael Roberts Contributors Abigail Bliss, Teague Bohlen, Justin Criado, Nick Hutchinson, Karl Christian Krumpholz, Adam Linnabary, Skyler McKinley, Tom Murphy, Ryan Pachmayer, Kristin Pazulski, Adam Perry, Sara Rosenthal, Evan Semón, Toni Tresca Music Listings Matthew Jones Cover Designer Kristin Bjornsen Editor Emeritus Patricia Calhoun P R O D U C T I O N Production Manager Michael Wilson Assistant Production Manager Erin Kirk Graphic Designers Caleigh Gearheart, Tori O’Connor C R E A T I V E S E R V I C E S Senior Graphic Designer Allie Seidel A D V E R T I S I N G Senior Multimedia Account Executives Amy Camera, Aaron Lembke Multimedia Account Executives Brad Belanger, Remy Diamond, Rachel Gilmore, Keith Gordon, Trey Konsella, Kirby Quick, Allison Wissink Operations Manager Carver Hodgkiss Digital Sales Coordinator Anne-Grace Hartman Director of Digital Sales Alan Heath C I R C U L A T I O N Circulation Manager Ty Koepke B U S I N E S S Director of Business and Operations Russell Breiter Financial Accountant Robert Scribner AR Coordinator Stacy Phillips IT Systems Manager Kris Robinson Receptionist Cindy Perez Associate Publisher Tracy Kontrelos Publisher Scott Tobias V O I C E M E D I A G R O U P Executive Editor Chelsey Dequaine-Jerabek National Editor Sam Eifl ing Editorial Operations Director Bridget Thomason Director of Membership and Community Development Jennifer Robinson Digital Operations & Audience Strategist Allison Stephenson Audience Strategist Lauren Antonoff Hart Corporate Controller Beth Cook Legal Counsel Steve Suskin Chief Financial Offi cer Jeff Mars Chief Executive Offi cer Scott Tobias V M G N A T I O N A L National Advertising: 1-888-278-9866, www.voicemediagroup.com Senior Vice President of Sales Operations Joe Larkin D I S T R I B U T I O N Westword is available free of charge. 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Peri- odicals postage paid in Denver. Domestic subscriptions may be purchased for $100/year or $50/six months. Postmaster: Send address changes to Westword, P.O. Box 5970, Denver CO 80217. Mailing address: P.O. Box 5970, Denver, CO 80217 Street address: 1278 Lincoln Street, Denver, CO 80203 For general information, call: 303-296-7744 For Editorial, email: [email protected] ON THE COVER PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY MICHAEL CHUANG 50 for 50 FOR WESTWORD’S 50TH ANNIVERSARY, WE’RE WRITING ABOUT 50 YEARS OF COLORADO HISTORY, WITH TIES TO WESTWORD STORIES. La Raza BY PATRICIA CALHOUN On June 28, 1981, hundreds of people congre- gated in a Northside park for an unoffi cial annual gathering that had been going on for a dozen years, to welcome summer and celebrate this place that had become the heart of their community. When Denver opened the park off West 38th Avenue in 1931, it was named Columbus Park, in recognition of the Italian-American immigrants who’d made this area home at the turn of the century. But the Mexican- American residents who now increasingly dominated the neighborhood called it La Raza Park, to honor “the people.” By the 1970s, metro Denver had become ground zero for the Chicano Movement. In 1965, poet/boxer Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzales had founded the Crusade for Justice, which pushed civil rights causes around the city. When Chicano students complained that they were being harassed, the Crusade led student walk-outs on March 20, 1969, that became known as the West High School Blowouts, with demonstrators confronting the “Special Services Unit” that then-Police Chief George L. Seaton had created in the wake of the 1968 Democratic National Convention protests in Chicago. That action was focused at Lincoln Park, which westside neighbors called La Alma. There was also action at Columbus Park, where residents protested poor conditions at the popular neighborhood pool with “splash- ins.” Gonzalez’s daughter worked as a lifeguard there, and, during the summer of 1969, the Crusade organized demonstrations in white neighborhoods in southeast Denver, demand- ing equality in the city’s recreational areas. But the history of Chicano activism in Colorado stretches back much further. “The reality is El Movimiento did not begin in the late ‘60s,” says Lucha Martinez de Luna, the associate curator of Hispanic, Latino and Chicano History at History Colo- rado and daughter of Emanuel Martinez, a onetime Lincoln Park lifeguard who was arrested during the Blowouts and pioneered this city’s Chicano mural movement. “We’ve had several different social justice move- ments since 1848 and the Treaty of Guada- lupe Hidalgo,” which shifted the U.S.-Mexico border, affecting people already living in what would become southern Colorado. “Iterations of social justice movements are connected to a lack of acknowledgment that they were there,” she explains. “At many different times, there has been a concerted effort to erase this history, erase these people who were in these places.” Such places included Denver’s parks, which became such an important part of Chicano culture in the ‘70s, places where the community could exercise control and keep youth safe. And that was particularly true at Columbus Park. “This was at the time of white fl ight in Denver, because of desegregation,” Martinez de Luna says. “There was a lot of friction between Italian-Americans and Chi- canos, playing out a lot of times at the park.” Police would harass the kids who gathered there — intentionally throwing over trash cans and breaking bottles, just to antagonize them — particularly after a curfew was enacted in 1973. At one point that year, two 12-year-olds handing out summer job fl iers were arrested; volunteers from Our Lady of Guadalupe Church patrolled the park to keep kids safe. “It was all very much connected and related to each other, how communities were or- ganizing to protect the youth,” Martinez de Luna adds, noting that by 1981, “there had already been 12 years of this going on.” Then came the annual gathering on June 28, when Denver Police Department offi cers descended on Columbus Park. Saying the event was not permitted, they used tear gas and attack dogs to disperse the crowds, send- ing hundreds of men, women and children running along West 38th. “It was terrible,” Councilmember Amanda Sandoval told Westword in 2023, two years af- ter the park had fi nally been renamed La Raza. “That was unprovoked. Nobody did anything to have them come down like that and start swinging and throwing tear gas.” Victims of what became known as the La Raza Park Riot fi led a civil rights lawsuit against Denver. Gonzales, who’d been sched- uled to speak at the 1981 gathering, testifi ed for 12 hours during the 1984 trial, charging that the DPD action was part of a pre-planned conspiracy involving one of Denver’s most notorious racist cops, Buster Snyder. But ulti- mately, the jury rejected the plaintiffs’ claims. That year, Denver closed the Columbus Park pool without giving advance notice. “The pool was fi lled in in the middle of the night,” recalled Sandoval, who grew up in the neigh- borhood. “That didn’t happen in Congress Park. That didn’t happen in Washington Park. That happened in communities of color.” The fi ght to rename the park was ultimately successful, as was Sandoval’s push to make La Raza Park Denver’s third cultural district. The proclamation cited the park’s art that cel- ebrated Chicano culture , including the 45-foot kiosko and murals created by Martinez, along with his 2021 “La Raza Unida” sculpture. “It’s not just about the preservation of those fea- tures,” Sandoval noted when council passed the proposal. “It’s also to highlight in mainstream media and to my colleagues on council and to the public the signifi cance that the Chicano movement played in the makeup of Denver.” La Raza got a new playground this year, but it never got another pool. And while Denver banished Columbus Day long ago and will celebrate Indigenous People’s Day on Oct. 12 with “the most Latino representation we’ve ever had, on Denver City Council,” Martinez de Luna worries that the community still faces many challenges, including severe displacement of that community as Denver continues to gentrify. “The generational trauma has not been addressed,” she concludes. ■