2 westword.com WESTWORD NOVEMBER 13-19, 2025 | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | NEWS | LETTERS | CONTENTS | W ® 5 CHANGING COURSE How the “Grand Sport of Golf” helped intregrate a divided Denver. BY DAVID DUBERSTEIN 10 CHECK IT OUT Central Library restores hours and opens a new chapter after a massive renovation. BY KRISTEN FIORE 13 ON A ROLL! The best sandwiches in Denver right now. BY MOLLY MARTIN 15 STILL LIFTED John Legend refl ects on his career and shares advice for young musicians. BY EMILY FERGUSON 10 Culture 13 Cafe 15 Music CONCERTS/CLUBS ................................... 16 20 Marijuana CANNABIS CALENDAR ............................ 20 HIGH NOTES ............................................. XX VOLUME 49 NUMBER 11 NOVEMBER 13-19, 2025 E D I T O R I A L Editor Patricia Calhoun News Editor Thomas Mitchell Food and Drink Editor Molly Martin Music Editor Emily Ferguson Culture Editor Kristen Fiore Social Media Editor Katrina Leibee Staff Writers Bennito L. Kelty, Hannah Metzger Senior Contributors Brendan Joel Kelley, Alan Prendergast, Michael Roberts Contributors Gil Asakawa, Teague Bohlen, Hyde Chrastina, Jacqueline Collins, Justin Criado, Audrey Ferrer, John Flathman, Susan Froyd, Jason Heller, Nick Hutchinson, Danielle Krolewicz, Karl Christian Krumpholz, Kristen Kuchar, Skyler McKinley, Abi- gail Nueve, Ryan Pachmayer, Kristin Pazulski, Adam Perry, Evan Semón, Amber Taufen, Toni Tresca, Kastle Waserman, Helen Xu Music Listings Matthew Jones Cover Designer Monika Swiderski P R O D U C T I O N Production Manager Michael Wilson Assistant Production Manager Erin Kirk Graphic Designers Kami Miller, 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 Remy Diamond, Nate Easley, Trey Konsella, Kirby Quick, Christian Sanders, Allison Wissink Operations Manager Carver Hodgkiss Digital Sales Coordinator Anne-Grace Hartman Director of Digital Sales Alan Heath Advertising Director Teri Driskell 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 Editorial Director Chelsey Dequaine-Jerabek Editorial Operations Director Bridget Thomason Director of Membership and Community Development Jennifer Robinson Digital Operations & Audience Strategist Allison Stephenson Audience Strategist Dallon Adams 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 OF BEN COLLIER, DESIGN BY MONIKA SWIDERSKI ICYMI T O T H E E D I T O R YOU CAN COMMENT ON ANY STORY AT WESTWORD.COM; SEND LETTERS TO [email protected] Don’t miss a word! The stories in this print edition are just a fraction of the pieces we publish every week on westword.com. For a cheat sheet on all that content, subscribe to our daily newsletter at westword.com/profi le. You can also follow @denverwestword on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok. And it’s all free! MONIKA SWIDERSKI J U R I N S K Y L O S E S I N A U R O R A Aurora has a way of surprising people. Even for people who grew up in Aurora, it was sur- prising to see the city thrust into the middle of last year’s presidential debate because of overblown stories of violent Venezuelan gangs. In October 2024, Donald Trump came to Aurora, today a city of 100,000 foreign-born residents and 160 languages, to play into the anti-immigrant fervor that emerged after an embattled landlord said Venezuelan gangs had taken over the town. The once-and-future president even named his mass deportation plan Operation Aurora. And as soon as he was re-elected, he began rolling out that plan. Aurora City Councilmember Danielle Jurinsky had earned a national profi le by sounding the alarm on Tren de Aragua, and she was knighted by Trump himself to lead the transformation of Aurora into a conservative bastion right at liberal Denver’s doorstep. As a result, Westword named her to our People to Watch list in January, calling her “the face of Aurora.” So it was surprising to see her lose her re-election bid. “While last night’s election didn’t go the way we had hoped, I am deeply proud of the work we’ve accomplished together,” Jurinsky said on social media, when she fi nally conceded late November 5. “I have served my hometown and all of you with every ounce of passion, loyalty and heart that I have…..Now, God has a different plan in store, and that’s okay.” She won’t be alone in exiting council chambers. Fellow conservative at-large councilmember Amsalu Kassaw also con- ceded with a message on social media late November 5. Republican councilmember Steve Sundberg also lost his race. As a re- sult, progressives will be in the majority on Aurora City Council, 6-4, for the fi rst time a decade. – Bennito L. Kelty T R U M P P A R D O N S J O H N E A S T M A N President Donald Trump just issued preemp- tive pardons to dozens of allies who supported overturning the results of the 2020 election, including legal strategist John Eastman. In the process, he’s given Colorado a good reminder that it pays to study references before bringing in a conservative, any conservative. The Bruce D. Benson Center for the Study of Western Civilization at the University of Colorado Boulder was founded by Bruce Benson, the former Republican gubernato- rial candidate who became president of CU from 2008 to 2019, to support “research that explores the ideas emerging from his- torically Western traditions and traces their continued infl uence. It focuses particularly on their role in establishing the foundational ideals and institutions of the United States.” It is not supposed to encourage the de- molition of those foundational ideals and institutions. Enter Eastman, the conservative Chapman University law professor who was appointed the Benson Center’s Visiting Scholar in Con- servative Thought and Policy for the 2020-21 academic year. Midway through his CU stint, Eastman went to Washington, D.C., where he advised Trump on how he could secure the presidency despite losing the election in November 2020. And Eastman was back on January 6, joining Rudy Giuliani — who also just received a preemptive pardon — to rally the troops on the Ellipse outside the White House. Eastman’s strategy counted on the coop- eration of Mike Pence, who simply needed to postpone the count of electoral votes — but the then-vice president refused to cooperate. As Pence’s refusal showed, all conserva- tives are not created equal, and, like Chap- man University, CU was quick to jettison Eastman following the Insurrection, after university offi cials “determined Eastman’s continued pursuit of these duties would likely be disruptive and damage the interests of the campus and the Benson Center.” (It helped that only a handful of students had signed up for his two CU classes that term.) At the time, Eastman threatened to sue, but no legal action was forthcoming. From that direction, at least. In December 2022, the House January 6 Committee recom- mended that Eastman – who’d taken the Fifth over a hundred times during his testimony – be prosecuted on two counts of conspiracy to defraud the United States and obstructing an offi cial proceeding. –Patricia Calhoun Read these stories and more on westword.com.
