Kunc's Colorado Edition

Have you ever felt uncomfortable, threatened, or simply like you didn't belong while trying to enjoy live music at a concert or festival? Traditional venues for music, theater and the arts aren’t always the safest and most welcoming places – especially for women, people of color and individuals from marginalized communities. It can be difficult to enjoy what’s happening on stage when you’re feeling uncomfortable, or worried about being inappropriately groped or harassed.     Amy Karp and Ileana Rivera met as college students at the University of Colorado Boulder. They racked up a lot of hours in the local music and arts scene, and witnessed too many examples of problematic behavior including physical and sexual harassment. To acknowledge and address these issues, they co-founded the Text Me When You’re Home collective -- which organizes events across the Front Range and seeks to make the overall arts scene in Colorado safer, more inclusive and more uplifting. We spoke with them in November about their work.