Your Guide to Community, Politics, Arts and Culture in North Denver DenverNorthStar.com
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Volume 5, Issue 10
| July 15, 2024-August 14, 2024
A Vibrant Tradition with a Dark History
COMMUNITY
24th Annual Colorado Dragon Boat Festival at Sloan’s Lake on July 27-28
Tennyson Street Fair Returns July 20 PAGE 3
POLITICS
Espenoza Defeats Incumbent Hernández in House District 4 Primary PAGE 8
TRANSPORTATION City Moves to Reduce Fatalities on Federal Boulevard PAGE 8
EDUCATION DPS School Board Moves Bond Proposal Forward, And More PAGE 9
HISTORY Dr. Daniel R. Lucy, North Denver’s Pioneer Doctor PAGE 14 P ostal Custom er
Sloan’s Lake Equestrian Heads to Mongol Derby
Gideon Kotkowski Takes on Grueling 10-day Race
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Old World Church Festivals in North Denver and Globeville PAGE 4
POLITICS
ALWAYS FREE!
By John Renfrow, Colorado Community Media
COMMUNITY
Denver City Council Members Reflect on Past Year PAGE 6
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Attendees of the Colorado Dragon Boat Festival, 2023.
PHOTO COURTESY OF COLORADO DRAGON BOAT
By Chancy J. Gatlin-Anderson s the legend goes, an ancient Chinese of Sloan’s Lake Park on July 27-28. In addition to poet and court official named Qu Yuan the much-anticipated dragon boat races, the festidrowned himself in the Miluo River in val will include an Asian Marketplace where venprotest of the corrupt imperial government. Ondors and artists will be selling wares, two Taste of lookers from the nearby village rushed into the Asia food courts, and a stage for live music. It will river with their boats to retrieve Qu Yuan’s body, also feature live art demos, eye dotting ceremony, violently thrashing at fish with their paddles along a performing arts stage, water zorbs and a dragonland kids play area. the way to prevent them from eating his quickly decaying flesh. This is said to be the origin of the “Our festival stands out because we are not Chinese Dragon Boat Festival, and ultimately the just about Dragon Boat races. We are an arts dragon boat race. and culture festival that also highlights and promotes the ancient sport of Dragon Boating. On Historically, the Dragon Boat Festival takes land, we feature three stages with over 60 perplace on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, a formances from community orgatraditionally unlucky time of the nizations, including Taiko drumyear. According to the Smithsonian DATES: ming, Indian dance, and K-pop Institute, the festival incorporates JULY 27 & 28 battles,” said Sara Moore, executive several traditions that work to rid SATURDAY: director of Colorado Dragon Boat, people of misfortune during this time. Parents, for example, give 10 A.M. TO 7 P.M. a non-profit established in 2001. Those involved with Colorado their children five threads of colSUNDAY: ored silk to carry around with them Dragon Boat believe that AANHPI 10 A.M. TO 5 P.M. representation is crucial, especially during the Dragon Boat Festival. The WHERE: threads are meant to keep negative in Colorado. The AANHPI umbrella spirits at bay. SLOAN’S LAKE encompasses more than 40 different To honor this Chinese tradition, and cultures. PARK, DENVER ethnicities communities all over the world hold “In Colorado, only about 4% of LEARN MORE: Dragon Boat Festivals, incorporating the population identifies as AANfood, arts and sports, all in celebraHPI, highlighting the need for our CDBF.ORG tion of Chinese history and culture. communities to unite to be seen and Denver’s Sloan’s Lake Park is home to the Unitheard,” said Moore. “This is precisely why Coloraed States’ largest Dragon Boat Festival, attractdo Dragon Boat, the nonprofit that hosts the Coloing nearly 200,000 attendees in recent years. The rado Dragon Boat Festival, was established.” Colorado Dragon Boat Festival debuted in 2001 Moore added that the three founders – with the mission of building bridges of awareness, Ding Wen Hsu, Howie Solow and John Chin knowledge and understanding between the diverse – recognized the necessity of bringing diverse Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific AANHPI communities together to celebrate a Islander (AANHPI) comcollective impact. munities in Colorado and “The Colorado Dragon Boat Festival not only P R E SO R TE D the general public through unites our AANHPI communities in a safe and STA N D A R D cultural education, leadfun environment to celebrate and promote our U . S. P O STA G E ership development and remarkable contributions and achievements, but athletic competition. also invites the general public to join us in celebraD env er, CO The 2024 Colorado tion,” Moore said. “Although we are an AANHPI P erm i t N o. 2 5 65 Dragon Boat Festival will E D D M FESTIVAL, Page 15 take place on the north side
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ubbed “the longest and toughest horse race in the world,” riders from all over the globe will travel to Mongolia this August to compete in the annual Mongol Derby, a treacherous, 10day pilgrimage on horseback. And one of them lives in north Denver. Based on the ancient postal system Genghis Khan used to deliver messages across his empire, the race pits nearly 40 riders against rugged and dangerous terrain for eight hours a day across the Mongolian steppe between August 7-16. Only about 4% of racing applicants are accepted. Gideon Kotkowski, a Sloan’s Lake neighborhood resident, made the cut this year. Kotkowski had just graduated college in 2018 when he discovered the Mongol Derby on social media. He was “broke as a nail” at that time and it’s an expensive adventure. But after going down the rabbit hole and learning more, he put it on his bucket list. “I actually printed out some pictures of the Derby of that year and put them up in my bedroom so that every day as I woke up and went to sleep, it was the first and last thing I saw,” Kotkowski said. “And I thought to myself, ‘One day, I’m going to do this.’”
PHOTO COURTESY OF GIDEON KOTKOWSKI
Gideon Kotkowski at “Los Amigos” ranch in El Paso, Texas, where he earned his stripes as a polo player.
Originally from El Paso, Texas, Kotkowski has been riding horses since he was a child. At about 14 years old, he said he was lucky to land at a polo ranch in El Paso called “Los Amigos.” That turned into a lustrous college polo career at Texas A&M, where Kotkowski snagged a couple of national championships. But even the most experienced riders are in for a big challenge in Mongolia; some don’t even finish the race. At a distance equal to riding from Kansas City to Denver, riders travel over 60 miles per day, changing horses every 25 miles.
EQUESTRIAN, Page 15