Denver, CO
“Where Did We Sit on the Bus?” puts the audience in the Loop at the Denver Center | Theater review
The Denver Center is a-humming.
In the theater company’s largest house, Emma Woodhouse — to her own gentle comeuppance — is winking her way through Kate Hamill’s delightful adaptation of Jane Austen’s “Emma.” (See if before it closes Sunday.) Downstairs in the Singleton Theatre, things are positively loopy. Or rather brilliantly looping, as a young, Latina music-maker sets about crafting a mixed tape of her life in the hip-hop-influenced “Where Did We Sit on the Bus?,” directed by Matt Dickson. It runs through June 2.
So convincing is Satya Chávez (who uses the pronoun “they”) in the role of “Bee” Quijada that the audience is likely to assume it’s their life as the fourth child of Salvadoran immigrants that will be recounted for the next fleet, entertaining 80 minutes. It’s not; it’s writer-performer Brian Quijada’s.
Chávez’s intimacy with Quijada’s story might have been earned during the time they spent working (along with Nygel D. Robinson) on the concert series “Songs from the Border” at Colorado Spring’s Fine Arts Center during its 2021-22 season. But the vibrant poignancy and tangible intimacy that Chávez created with the opening-night audience feels very much their own.
Chávez skillfully utilizes the tools of hip-hop and spoken word for the show’s layering of sounds and, more vitally, personal and cultural history: rap’s diving and arcing rhymes, an iPad with a Bluetooth connection, four loopers, and her voice. But Chavez, a talented musician, also plays a keyboard, guitar, ukulele, guitarron, bass, caña, a harmonica and more. And they sing.
Oh, how they sing, warmly, wittily, sometimes plaintively. Chavez punctuates parts of the storytelling with a wordless refrain that soars and wails — just a little — during its exploration of belonging.
“Where Did We Sit on the Bus?” takes its title from the question a 9-year-old Bee asks her elementary school teacher during lessons on Rosa Parks and the civil rights movement. Defying the reigning black-white dialectic of the nation, little Bee wonders about her place as a brown kid, the child of immigrants, in this American life. Bee and her next oldest brother, Marvin, were born in the U.S. Older brothers Fernando and Roberto were born in El Salvador.
The show is disarmingly personable and cleverly participatory as it goes from Bee’s conception and birth (their time in mom’s womb is bathed in red light) to her childhood living first in a trailer park outside of Chicago and then in a suburban neighborhood adjacent to Highland Park, with its large Jewish community.
They share their love of Michael Jackson, an early role model — until he started to tarnish his reputation by what seemed to be a drastic repudiation of his skin color. But they find their emotional place when they become involved in theater.
Chavez wears a monochrome outfit, a richer shade of army fatigues. They begin at a breakneck pace, then find a lively cadence of trust and familiarity, at times teasing the audience with the sly rapport of a lounge singer.
The production design of the show feels like a departure for the theater company, not in quality but in tone. The set by Tanya Orellana (who also created the costumes) and Pablo Santiago’s playful and geometric lighting design recreate the spare intimacy of a black box theater that can also offer a neon-lit portal into Bee’s past. How far back it goes speaks to (and reverberates, thanks to Alex Billman’s sound design) the show’s joys and imagination.
There’s ample sweetness to this journey and little argumentativeness in Quijada’s script — until there needs to be, when nagging quandaries about belonging boil over. Because “Where Did We Sit on the Bus?” is a theater geek’s coming-of-age saga, Bee had described theater as their church. Late in the show, they take us there, to an ongoing, rancorous national conversation about immigration in which immigrants bear the brunt of ire.
And so, Bee takes an extended moment to preach a gospel of inclusion, one inscribed on the Statue of Liberty, but also confesses the kind of hurt and disappointment that comes from witnessing a nation fail its ideals. The nation may falter in moving toward a better and welcoming future, but Bee doesn’t.
“Where Did We Sit on the Bus?” began with Bee telling us that she popped the question to her beloved, who is Austrian and Swiss, in Mexico. It ends with an expansive answer to the question of the title.
Lisa Kennedy is a Denver-based freelance writer who specializes in theater and film.
IF YOU GO
“Where Did We Sit on the Bus?” Written by Brian Quijada. Additional compositions by Satya Chávez. Directed by Matt Dickson. Featuring Satya Chávez. At the Helen Bonfils Theatre Complex, 14th and Curtis streets. Through June 1. For tickets and info: 303-893-4100 or denvercenter.org.
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Denver, CO
Claimed by Christ, Free in Him: Archbishop Golka Celebrates First Juneteenth Mass in Denver
The annual archdiocesan celebration highlighted human dignity, Black Catholic faith and the healing power of Christ’s love.
“This is my first Juneteenth celebration as a priest or a bishop. I’m honored that this could be my first, right here,” Denver Archbishop James Golka said during the Mass commemorating Juneteenth at Curé d’Ars Parish in Denver on Sunday, June 14.
Celebrating the day the Emancipation Proclamation reached enslaved African Americans in Galveston, Texas, Juneteenth marks the end of slavery in the United States. This year’s annual archdiocesan Mass, organized by the Office of Black Catholic Ministry and bringing together parishes and groups from across Northern Colorado, also served to welcome the recently arrived archbishop, who was warmly greeted with processions by the Knights of Peter Claver and Ladies Auxiliary, liturgical participation by the Curé d’Ars youth group and choir, and additional music by the Queen of Peace African Catholic Society.
“You have a very beautiful church here. The building is okay, also,” Archbishop Golka remarked, noting the beauty of the people of God, the Church, amid laughter and applause.
Carolyne Richardson, member of the Knights of Peter Claver Ladies Auxiliary at St. Ignatius of Loyola, was particularly touched by Golka’s quiet enthusiasm.
“The church was overflowing with diverse ethnicities joining in this celebration. Everyone was elated to meet Archbishop Golka. He seemed to look each parishioner in the eye with genuine care and concern,” she noted. “It was sheer jubilation watching him sing the gospel songs along with the choir.”
Recalling his time with fellow bishops at their annual spring meeting in Florida, the archbishop reflected on Pope Leo’s encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, and its discussion on the reality of slavery.
“Although there was not always consistency in practice — slavery was long tolerated before being unequivocally condemned — there has been a continuous affirmation throughout history of the dignity of every human being created in the image of God, even if it took eighteen centuries for the full incompatibility with slavery to be explicitly recognized,” the Holy Father wrote. “This constitutes a wound in Christian memory, one for which we cannot consider ourselves detached. It is impossible not to feel deep sorrow when contemplating the immense suffering and humiliation endured by so many in stark contrast to their immeasurable dignity as persons infinitely loved by the Lord” (Magnifica Humanitas 176).
“Finally, Pope Leo says this to you, to all of us,” the archbishop noted as he finished quoting the Holy Father’s encyclical. “‘For this, in the name of the Church, I sincerely ask for pardon.”
(Photos by Matt Walker/Denver Catholic)
In his characteristically deeply pastoral way, Archbishop Golka offered the deep, personal love of Christ as a spiritual foundation and antidote to any and all attacks against humanity, be they in the form of slavery or the lurking dangers of artificial intelligence.
“At your Baptism, you were claimed by Jesus Christ. That’s our identity. The evil one tries to make us forget that. We forget that we are beloved children of God. We begin to think that maybe we are worthless, that there’s no reason why we’re here. That is a lie,” the archbishop emphasized. “When God created the universe, he had you in mind, to be here at this time, and this place for his purposes. And he wants to use you in everything. That means, he can use your weakness and your mistakes if you let him.”
The call to surrender more completely to the Lord of love, whose Sacred Heart burns in love for souls, resonated deeply with those in attendance.
“The Mass was more beautiful than I could have imagined,” said Kateri Williams, director of the Office of Black Catholic Ministry. “Archbishop Golka’s homily deeply touched those in attendance, and many were moved to tears as he spoke of the Father’s unconditional love and as he reminded us that each of us has a unique purpose and calling in God’s plan.”
Osahon “Osi” Ogbeide, one of several members of the Youth Ministry at Curé d’Ars who read the Prayers of the Faithful, was also taken by the seeming contradiction in Archbishop Golka’s homily.
“The homily focusing on being a slave and surrendering to the lord was very impactful because it reminded me that God wants the best for us. And that can only be achieved in surrendering to him,” he said.
As we continue to surrender to God and follow his plan, even when it surprises and confounds us, we participate in the Kingdom of God, the archbishop concluded.
“God’s purposes are much more immense than my plan. My plan is pretty puny,” Archbishop Golka said. “God’s purposes began with creation, and they’re going to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ and the Reign of God. We get to participate in the Reign of God coming, if you use God’s gifts for God and God’s purposes.”
Factors such as declining birth rates and families moving out of the city are contributing to declining enrollment at Denver Public Schools. In turn, it’s reshaping the district’s future.
“I think we’re in a good position, but it’s responsible for us to always be looking in the future and knowing we have to make some adjustments,” said Chuck Carpenter, the district’s CFO.
In a two-year span between this past school year and next, DPS expects a decline in enrollment of around 1,700 students.
“We haven’t really seen anything like this,” said Carpenter in response to the consistent decline.
Because of this trend, the district is facing a $28 million structural deficit over the next five years.
“We have a balanced budget now, and we’re not predicting that we’ll have an unbalanced budget in three years,” said Carpenter. “We’re saying we need to make adjustments over the next three, four years, so that our budgets are balanced.”
DPS’s Director of Campus Planning, Andrew Huber, told CBS Colorado in an interview last month that those adjustments will likely include closing down more schools.
“Additional school closures will be necessary in the upcoming years. When exactly that would be is hard to forecast right now,” said Huber.
The district’s CFO says his biggest takeaway from a recent round of closures is to make sure to give families options for what’s next.
“No one wants their school closed, but the second-best option isn’t going to be the same for every family,” said Carpenter.
This issue could be one Denver faces for years to come.
“We sort of say, how many kids are born here? Because in five years, those kids will be kindergartners,” Carpenter added.
The city’s birth rate peaked in 2005, meaning those babies have already graduated high school. And, according to the Colorado Department of Local Affairs, more young families move out of Denver and into surrounding counties than move into the city.
“I think school consolidation is very — I understand why people want to talk about it, but I think it’s more about, like, how do we make sure that the programs that are offered are rich programs,” said Carpenter.
Carpenter also says the district is closely monitoring some potential cuts to federal grants for students of poverty and language learners. He says those decisions will be made by October for the start of the new fiscal year, and cuts would have a “terrible” impact.
The Denver Broncos hosted eight tryout players at mandatory minicamp this week, including quarterback Sawyer Robertson. It sounds like the team has made decisions on those tryout players, and Robertson won’t be signed (at least not right now).
Instead, the Broncos are signing offensive lineman Reid Holskey (according to ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler) and cornerback Blake Cotton (according to the Denver Post‘s Parker Gabriel). Holskey (6-6, 306 pounds) spent time on the Houston Texans’ practice squad in 2025 before joining the New York Giants in January. He was cut by New York last month. Cotton (6-2, 195 pounds) is a rookie who spent last fall at Utah, totaling 30 tackles and seven pass breakups in 13 games.
The two moves came one day after Denver wrapped up minicamp. The 91-man offseason roster was already full, so the Broncos will need to make corresponding moves to make room for Holskey and Cotton on the roster.
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