Good morning, friends!
It’s Sunday morning, and, if I am lucky and the dog wasn’t too persistent, I will have done the bare minimum to become weekend-level presentable — a quick brush and an elastic to tie back hair that has gone way too long without a trim. It’s been a minute since I had a tonsorial home — the kind of place I loved enough for the hour of pampering and chairside conversation that I would book the next appointment as I paid for the cut I’d just received.
This week’s cover story by Kevin Simpson might be what gets me out of my rut. It’s a compelling tale of a guy who learned the beauty and barber trade leading Floyd’s 99 Barbershop (my current go-to when I can get myself to go) and then turned his attention to making as much of a difference for the people behind the chairs as for those sitting in them.
Editor
The Cover Story
A barber shop built around a mission and second chances
It seems like these days, more than any other time I can remember, people have chosen to see their values reflected in the choices they make as consumers. For many businesses, that sometimes means walking a delicate tightrope between serving their customers needs and running the risk of putting them off. There’s no telling what may trigger a consumer to vote with their feet and go elsewhere, rather than support a business that contributes to the wrong candidate, strikes the wrong tone in an ad or otherwise identifies with the wrong side of an issue.
So it’s particularly noteworthy when you see a business that actually leans into its core belief, and leans on its stated mission — with faith that the marketplace will, on balance, reward rather than punish it. That’s what James Repenning, a transplanted Chicagoan, has done with R&R Head Labs, his year-old barber shop in downtown Denver. By employing formerly incarcerated individuals who have committed to change, he provides them a second chance in a supportive environment. And by engaging their clientele with candor and sometimes employing haircutting skills developed during incarceration, the barbers seize the opportunity to reinforce the value of redemption.
R&R Head Labs’ origin story involves a fortuitous, long-ago hiring and a chance encounter with a Hollywood producer — and a fun backstory to its name. It now heads into its second year on the cusp of a break-even ledger and plans for expansion. It’s a fascinating business model, one that encourages both employees and customers to reveal the best versions of themselves.
READ THIS WEEK’S COLORADO SUNDAY FEATURE
Kevin Simpson | Writer
The Colorado Lens
The federal government whiplash continued last week, but people in Colorado seem to be holding on to what they find dear. Here are a few of our favorite images that provide the photographic receipts.
Eric Lubbers | CTO & Newsletter Wrangler
Flavor of the Week
Your old flip phone is in a museum exhibit
This week’s sign that the apocalypse is upon us (it was a regular feature in Sports Illustrated in the ’90s): The 1990s are history now.
At least according to History Colorado’s latest exhibit: The 90s: The Last Decade Before the Future (ouch!).
Small rooms with photos, videos, news stories and artifacts represent each year of the decade. There’s the national and international — former President Bill Clinton’s saxophone, a piece of the Berlin Wall. Colorado also has its place: approval of Amendment 2, which banned local measures to prevent discrimination against gay people and was later overturned; the arrival of the Colorado Rockies in 1993; the Colorado Avalanche’s first Stanley Cup in 1996; the Denver Broncos’ first and second Super Bowl wins in 1998 and 1999; the 1996 JonBenét Ramsey homicide in Boulder; and the tragic Columbine High School shooting in 1999.
The exhibit is a great illustration of how technology changed our lives, with the ’90s as clear demarcation. (Sure, kids, laugh at those phones in the display case, but I loved my Nokia!) The exhibit references movies, the way we used to watch them (you may want to Google “Blockbuster”), music (heard while I was there: Sinéad O’Connor’s “Nothing Compares 2 U” and Smashing Pumpkins’ “1979”) and sports, each topic with its own focus.
There’s so much more to take in, so Gen Xers grab the kids, Gen Zers grab the olds and get them to History Colorado at 1200 N. Broadway.
And if you need more ’90s nostalgia, walk over to the Denver Art Museum’s Martin Building where Dawoud Bey: Street Portraits is on exhibit through May 11. Bey’s 37 black-and-white portraits of Black Americans in their neighborhoods were taken from 1988 to 1991. It’s fun to look at the young and the old and be reminded of what we were wearing back in the day — apparently so long ago!
Sandra Fish | Data Journalist
SunLit: Sneak Peek
“As Joan Approaches Infinity”: Biting satire of suburban existence
EXCERPT: Kika Dorsey’s darkly comedic novel, “As Joan Approaches Infinity,” begins with her deeply flawed protagonist reeling from a DUI arrest, and then proceeds into Joan’s desperate and dysfunctional efforts to rise above her mundane existence to be seen and heard. Her escapist tendencies and escapades provide both a fascinating character portrait and sharp social commentary in this Colorado Authors League finalist for Literary Fiction.
THE SUNLIT INTERVIEW: Dorsey’s novel represented a departure from her roots as a poet, as a series of short stories led her unexpectedly to a longer narrative. Here’s a portion of her very deep and thoughtful Q&A:
SunLit: Tell us this book’s backstory. What inspired you to write it?
Dorsey: I wrote short stories based on a character, Joan, who is living in the suburbs and overwhelmed with caretaking responsibilities and pressure to financially succeed in a job force where being an educator, an adjunct at the community college, left her enervated and feeling unappreciated, especially since she also had full responsibility of raising her two children and running a household.
Those short stories were a way for me to vent some of my own frustrations. My mentor at the time, Sarah Elizabeth Schantz, who now teaches for Lighthouse and Naropa University, saw many of these stories in her Writes of Passage Workshops and told me that I had a novel. I didn’t really believe her at the time. I was just writing dark humor to balance the tragedy of the subject matter of my poetry manuscript, and I had always identified as a poet.
READ THE INTERVIEW WITH KIKA DORSEY
LISTEN TO THE SUN-UP PODCAST WITH THE AUTHOR
Kevin Simpson | Writer
Sunday Reading List
A curated list of what you may have missed from The Colorado Sun this week.
🌞 Leaders at Colorado colleges and universities would like a word about diversity, equity and inclusion: “What we care about is ensuring that people from diverse backgrounds have the opportunity to demonstrate their merit and advance based on it,” Colorado Community College System Chancellor Joe Garcia told Erica Breunlin. “And of course in this country, historically, that’s not always been the case.”
🌞 Yes, there are many questions around what the president’s 1,200-person daily deportation quota means in Colorado. Jennifer Brown and Olivia Prentzel tackled a few of the questions around where ICE agents and other federal law enforcers can pick people up and what places are no longer protected spaces. You can read it and share it in Spanish, too.
🌞 Related: John Ingold is tracking all of the lawsuits Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser has filed against the Trump administration. While we’re at it, Denver Public Schools has sued to keep ICE agents away from schools.
🌞 Restaurateurs struggling against inflationary pressures are most troubled by the speed with which the tipped minimum wage has risen in some Colorado communities. They told Tamara Chuang that a statehouse bill could change that tide, by effectively reducing the hourly wage they pay tipped workers. Of course, there are negative implications for workers’ pocketbooks, especially in Denver and Boulder County.
🌞 In other statehouse news, lawmakers are contemplating a tax increase for vacation rentals, the Colorado Public Employees’ Retirement Association board’s lack of public transparency is in the Senate’s sights, about $3 million could be freed up to address the state’s rape-kit backlog, insurance companies could be forced to reduce rates for homeowners who have taken action to protect their properties against fire, school libraries may get an extra layer of protection from people wishing to ban certain books, and it might finally be legal to drive a tiny Japanese Kei truck in Colorado.
🌞 Kroger canceled Girl Scout cookie sales outside King Soopers stores where workers are picketing. But that hasn’t stopped the tan-and-green brigade from making sure you still get a box or 10 of their seasonal treats. Tracy Ross learned where to find the intrepid sellers.
Dana Coffield | Editor
Thanks for hanging out with us this fine Colorado Sunday morning. We appreciate your support, however you express it. If you know someone who might enjoy this newsletter, please do point them in the direction of coloradosun.com/join.
— Dana & the whole staff of The Sun
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