Join us at the Chautauqua Auditorium on September 15th for an inspiring evening celebrating the accomplishments and activism of famous outdoor athletes and climate champions. Hear from some of the most influential and inspiring athletes in the outdoor world as they share their stories of success, challenge, and advocacy. Learn how they’ve used their platform to make a difference and how you can get involved in important causes that impact our natural world. This event is for lovers of the outdoors and anyone who cares about the environment, and wants to make a difference. We will have swag and product demonstrations, and as well as nonprofit partners to meet and get involved with.
Proceeds from ticket sales support our nonprofit partners:
Tommy Caldwell
Tommy. A singular name for one of the singularly best rock climbers to ever live. Outrageously accomplished in sport, traditional, and free climbing, big wall first ascents and speed records. Known for having the creative vision, skill, and 7-year fortitude to complete the first free climb of the Dawn Wall–the steepest, blankest face on Yosemite’s El Capitan. In 2015, Tommy and his partner Kevin Jorgeson captured the world’s attention throughout their 19-day ascent of which President Barack Obama stated, “You remind us that anything is possible.” The Dawn Wall ascent became a global inspiration, garnering over 34 billion media impressions and was covered by The New York Times, National Geographic, TIME, Vanity Fair, Good Morning America, CNN, ESPN, and more. Beyond his strength on rock, Tommy is revered for being an intellectual, caring father and husband who works diligently and speaks eloquently on climate activism. His father, a bodybuilding mountain guide, introduced Tommy early to twenty-hour days in the mountains, during which he grew deep appreciation for the natural spaces that surrounded his home in Estes Park, Colorado. As a teenager under his father’s guidance, he began establishing the hardest roped climbs in the U.S. and competing (and dominating) on the competition climbing circuit. But bigger objectives began calling out to him. Today, Tommy climbs as much as possible and works as an advocate and industry representative to preserve natural spaces and lobby for climate initiatives. With him on this journey are his wife, Becca, and two special kiddos, Fitz and Ingrid.
Caroline Gleich
Caroline is a professional ski mountaineer, endurance athlete and climate activist who currently resides in Park City, UT. She’s climbed and skied some of the biggest mountains in the world, including Mt. Vinson, the highest peak in Antarctica and Cho Oyu, the sixth highest peak in the world. In 2019, she successfully summited Everest/Chomolungma, the world’s highest peak as a #ClimbForEquality to bring awareness to the disproportionate representation of women at the highest levels of leadership in industries across the world. She was the first woman to ski all 90 lines in “The Chuting Gallery,” a steep skiing guidebook to her home mountain range, the Wasatch. She was elected and served as the first ever Protect Our Winters ski team captain and works with a variety of local and national nonprofit organizations to advocate for clean air, climate action and environmental justice. Caroline has testified to the House and Senate about how climate change is impacting mountain environments. As an athlete, she’s sponsored by a variety of socially and environmentally conscious brands including Patagonia. Caroline continues to merge sport and activism to inspire people to get outside, live a healthy, active lifestyle and advocate for social and environmental justice.
Dr. Len Necefer
Dr. Len Necefer, Ph.D., is the CEO & Founder of NativesOutdoors – a native-owned athletic and creative collective. He holds a Bachelor’s in Mechanical Engineering and a Doctorate in Engineering and Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon University. Previous to this role, Len has worked for the U.S. Department of Energy and, most recently, the University of Arizona. His work melds the intersection of sport, environmental advocacy, and indigenous peoples. His storytelling work melds the intersection of sport, environmental advocacy, and indigenous people and has been featured in the Alpinist, National Geographic, and over 50 film festivals globally.
Clare Gallagher
Clare Gallagher is an ultrarunner and marine ecologist living in Boulder, Colorado. Originally from Englewood, Colorado, she’s won the Western States 100-mile run, Leadville 100-mile run twice, CCC 100km around Mt Blanc, and is supported by Patagonia, La Sportiva and Petzl. Clare is also a PhD student at CU Boulder studying Antarctic toothfish, deep sea ecology and international marine policy.
Hosted by:
Sasha DiGiulian
With support from:
There will not be free shuttle service for this event.
The Chautauqua General Store is pleased to partner with local Boulder favorite, Liberty Puzzles! Established in Boulder in 2005, Liberty Puzzles are a nostalgic entry into a new golden age of wooden jigsaw puzzles. Inspired by the hand-cut wooden jigsaw puzzles of...
We’ll open our season with a special program that celebrates connection. Personal connections are a fundamental human desire that can empower us to exceed expectations. Every work in this program amplifies that spirit, allowing both artists and patrons to enjoy a truly meaningful experience together.
CONNECTION features the works of nationally acclaimed choreographers Caili Quan and Amy Seiwert as well as local dance maker Sarah Tallman (Wonderbound) and our own Ben Needham-Wood.
This evening includes two world premieres and the return of two fan-favorites from recent choreographers Caili Quan and Amy Seiwert. Quan’s uplifting piece, To Become Like This was created for Boulder Ballet in 2021. Set to music from Guam-born artist Micah Manaitai, this fun and quirky ballet has energized audiences at every performance. Seiwert’s The Devil Ties My Tongue is a powerful work of contemporary ballet that pulls you in the moment it starts. The sharp, precise movements and intimate connections between dancers keep you on the edge of your seat from beginning to end. Complete with never-before-seen creations from Sarah Tallman and Ben Needham-Wood, CONNECTION is an evening of dance you don’t want to miss.
There will be no free shuttle service for this event.
Say my name and I will live forever….Sheila. Lela. Jocelyn. Abbi. These are the women hidden within the statistics of the Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women (MMIW) epidemic in the U.S. Meet them. See them. Say their names. They are “Who She Is”.By bringing these missing women to life on screen, through animation and first-person storytelling, we learn about their loves and losses and come to know their full life story, not just their tragedies or how they left this earth. Meet them.
Who She Is tells the story of four individual women caught in the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) epidemic. By bringing these missing women to life on screen, through animation and first-person storytelling, the documentary aims to humanize the people behind the statistics. Audiences will learn each woman’s loves and losses and will come to know their story. Through these women, the documentary hopes to shine a light on the wider MMIW epidemic and gendered violence.
Jordan Dresser – Who She Is Co-Director
Jordan Dresser is the Co-Director and Co-Producer of Who She Is. From 2020-2022 he served as the Chairman of the Northern Arapaho Business Council leading Tribal affairs on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming. Jordan is also a journalist, filmmaker and through the Northern Arapaho Tribal Historic Preservation Office plays a key role in repatriation of Tribal artifacts and ancestral remains.
Jordan has served as an advisor on the Not Invisible Act Commission through the Department of Interior. The Commission has been tasked with addressing the MMIW/P crisis by making recommendations for better coordination across law enforcement and intergovernmental organizations and supporting survivors and families. In September 2022 Jordan was recognized by President Joe Biden for being a “Uniter” at the United We Stand Summit part of the federal initiative to combat hate and extremism in the U.S.
Who She Is is Jordan’s 2nd collaboration with Caldera Productions and his directorial debut.
Sophie Barksdale – Who She Is Co-Director
Sophie Barksdale is the Co-Director and Co-Producer of Who She Is. She has been a producer with Caldera Productions since 2016, having relocated from Australia. During her time with Caldera, Sophie has had a hand in all the Caldera films, including Co-Producing the Heartland EMMY nominee, “The State of Equality” in 2020 and the PBS Independent Lens broadcasted feature, “Home From School: The Children of Carlisle” in 2021. Who She Is is Sophie’s directorial debut and first foray in animated film.
Outside of Caldera Sophie has a deep and abiding passion for social justice and a love of storytelling in all its forms. She is also very active in promoting the arts in her community. She serves on the Board of Directors at the Lander Art Center and is a Co-Founder of The Bossert Collective, a local non-profit that strives to create equity and promote diversity with high quality art in public spaces. Sophie sees Who She Is as a melding of all her passions and is excited to bring her love of different mediums to bear in this production, including elevating marginalized voices, and shining a light on a much needed issue.
Lela C’Hair: WHO SHE IS film participant
Lela C’Hair is a member of the Northern Arapaho Tribe and one of the featured women in the film WHO SHE IS about Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women. Lela’s story illustrates the life-long risks that Indigenous women face with higher chances of gendered violence, abuse and human trafficking. Unlike the other stories featured in the film, Lela narrates her own story and bravely faces the camera to offer caution and her hopes for healing and action around the MMIW epidemic. Lela hopes that in sharing her story, she will be able to help others in similar situations.
With support from:
There will not be free shuttle service for this event.
As world travelers for nearly two decades, Rising Appalachia have merged multiple global music influences with their own southern roots to create the inviting new folk album, Leylines. Remarkably the band has built its legion of listeners independently — a self-made success story that has led to major festival appearances and sold-out shows at venues across the country.
Founded by sisters Leah and Chloe Smith, the band established an international fan base due to relentless touring, tireless activism, and no small degree of stubborn independence. However, for the first time, they opted to bring in a producer for the new album, teaming up with the legendary Joe Henry on the sessions. These were also their first recording sessions outside of the South. For 10 days, all six band members lived and recorded in a castle-like studio in Marin County, California, overlooking the Pacific Ocean. As a result, a sense of unity and immediacy can be heard throughout their seventh album, Leylines.
“As far as recording goes, we’re open creatively, but we’ve often preferred elements of live recording. I mean, we’re folk musicians at our core,” Leah explains. “The experience of playing music together in one room, looking at each other, is the bedrock of what we do and how we’ve grown up with music. I think Joe very much felt that way as well. He was very clear at the beginning that he was going to encourage us to have as many elements of a live recording as possible.”
Although Leah and Chloe Smith consider their voices as their primary instrument, Leah also plays banjo and bodhran on the album, while Chloe plays guitar, fiddle, and banjo. They are joined on Leylines by longtime members David Brown (stand-up bass, baritone guitar) and Biko Casini (world percussion, n’goni), as well as two new members: West African musician Arouna Diarra (n’goni, talking drum) and Irish musician Duncan Wickel (fiddle, cello). The sonic textures of these two cultures are woven into Leylines, enhancing the stunning blend of folk, world, and urban music that has become Rising Appalachia’s calling card.
“Our songwriting ties into those traditions as well,” Chloe says. “With some of our original songs, it’s a reflection of the times. We’re folk singers and we consider this a folk album, so there’s a lot in there. There’s word of politics, of being women in the music industry, as well as a lot about our lives on the road.”
Indeed, Rising Appalachia has toured British Columbia by sailboat, traversed the U.S. and Europe by train, and engaged in immersive cultural exchange programs in Bulgaria, Ireland, Southern Italy, Central, and South America – not to mention the countless miles in a van. Tour highlights include: Hardly Strictly Bluegrass in San Francisco; Music Hall Williamsburg in Brooklyn, New York; Boulder Theatre in Boulder, Colorado; and the Showbox in Seattle, Washington. The band consistently sells between 400 and 1500 tickets wherever they play, a testament to their loyal fan base.
Leah and Chloe grew up in urban Atlanta as the city’s hip hop scene began to flourish. They absorbed those rhythms through the music they heard at school, then traveled with their family to fiddle camps all across the Southeast on the weekends. The young girls weren’t all that interested in the old-time playing, but their parents were incredibly devout in their study and practice of Appalachian music.
After high school, Leah decided to postpone college and travel internationally. Feeling homesick while living in Southern Mexico, she looked for a connection to her past and taught herself how to play the banjo. “I realized that I wanted something from home that I could share, something that would tell people a bit more of the story of where I came from, other than the news,” she recalls.
A few years later, when Chloe came to visit her abroad, Leah offered some clawhammer banjo lessons. They didn’t necessarily realize it at the time but a musical partnership had been established. Upon their return to the United States, they recorded an album, which they considered an art project, to sell whenever they sang at farmer’s markets. They printed 500 copies, figuring that would last them a lifetime. However, when a local college professor heard them singing at a Christmas party, he booked them as part of a Celtic holiday concert in Atlanta. After two performances, every CD had been sold.
Surprised and overwhelmed, they mulled over a career as full-time musicians, then realized that performing could be just one component of a greater overall vision – one that includes advocating for social justice, racial justice, environmental justice, and Indigenous rights.
“We’re able to filter in so many of our passions into this project,” Chloe says. “We do a lot of activism work. We do a lot of outreach. Leah is a visual artist and she can funnel her visual eye into the project. I love to write, so that comes in. There’s a big container and canvas for our life’s work here. Music is part of it, but there are a lot of other creative vehicles that are driving Rising Appalachia.”
Special guests on Leylines include folk hero Ani DiFranco, soulful songwriter Trevor Hall, and jazz trumpeter Maurice Turner. The album title alludes to the concept of invisible lines believed to stretch around the world between sacred spaces, bonded by a spiritual and magnetic presence. That deep sense of connection is key to understanding Rising Appalachia as a whole.
“Rising Appalachia has come out of this idea that we can take these traditions of southern music – that we’ve been born and raised with – and we can rise out of them, creating all these different bridges between cultures and stories to make them feel alive,” Leah says. “Our music has its foundation in heritage and tradition, but we’re creating music that also feels reflective of the times right now. That’s always been our work.”
Patrick Dethlefs
(Pronounced “DET-Lefs”)
Patrick Dethlefs’ songwriting crests like a humble Townes Van Zandt, innocent of his own haunting melodies and lyricism. Dethlefs’ music offers folk Americana with effortless sincerity at a time when many acts strive purposefully to revive the stripped-down feel of a musical history long past.
Tommy. A singular name for one of the singularly best rock climbers to ever live. Outrageously accomplished in sport, traditional, and free climbing, big wall first ascents and speed records. Known for having the creative vision, skill, and 7-year fortitude to complete the first free climb of the Dawn Wall–the steepest, blankest face on Yosemite’s El Capitan. In 2015, Tommy and his partner Kevin Jorgeson captured the world’s attention throughout their 19-day ascent of which President Barack Obama stated, “You remind us that anything is possible.” The Dawn Wall ascent became a global inspiration, garnering over 34 billion media impressions and was covered by The New York Times, National Geographic, TIME, Vanity Fair, Good Morning America, CNN, ESPN, and more. Beyond his strength on rock, Tommy is revered for being an intellectual, caring father and husband who works diligently and speaks eloquently on climate activism. His father, a bodybuilding mountain guide, introduced Tommy early to twenty-hour days in the mountains, during which he grew deep appreciation for the natural spaces that surrounded his home in Estes Park, Colorado. As a teenager under his father’s guidance, he began establishing the hardest roped climbs in the U.S. and competing (and dominating) on the competition climbing circuit. But bigger objectives began calling out to him. Today, Tommy climbs as much as possible and works as an advocate and industry representative to preserve natural spaces and lobby for climate initiatives. With him on this journey are his wife, Becca, and two special kiddos, Fitz and Ingrid.
Caroline is a professional ski mountaineer, endurance athlete and climate activist who currently resides in Park City, UT. She’s climbed and skied some of the biggest mountains in the world, including Mt. Vinson, the highest peak in Antarctica and Cho Oyu, the sixth highest peak in the world. In 2019, she successfully summited Everest/Chomolungma, the world’s highest peak as a #ClimbForEquality to bring awareness to the disproportionate representation of women at the highest levels of leadership in industries across the world. She was the first woman to ski all 90 lines in “The Chuting Gallery,” a steep skiing guidebook to her home mountain range, the Wasatch. She was elected and served as the first ever Protect Our Winters ski team captain and works with a variety of local and national nonprofit organizations to advocate for clean air, climate action and environmental justice. Caroline has testified to the House and Senate about how climate change is impacting mountain environments. As an athlete, she’s sponsored by a variety of socially and environmentally conscious brands including Patagonia. Caroline continues to merge sport and activism to inspire people to get outside, live a healthy, active lifestyle and advocate for social and environmental justice.
Dr. Len Necefer, Ph.D., is the CEO & Founder of NativesOutdoors – a native-owned athletic and creative collective. He holds a Bachelor’s in Mechanical Engineering and a Doctorate in Engineering and Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon University. Previous to this role, Len has worked for the U.S. Department of Energy and, most recently, the University of Arizona. His work melds the intersection of sport, environmental advocacy, and indigenous peoples. His storytelling work melds the intersection of sport, environmental advocacy, and indigenous people and has been featured in the Alpinist, National Geographic, and over 50 film festivals globally.
Clare Gallagher is an ultrarunner and marine ecologist living in Boulder, Colorado. Originally from Englewood, Colorado, she’s won the Western States 100-mile run, Leadville 100-mile run twice, CCC 100km around Mt Blanc, and is supported by Patagonia, La Sportiva and Petzl. Clare is also a PhD student at CU Boulder studying Antarctic toothfish, deep sea ecology and international marine policy.
