Non Profit Org. U.S. Postage PAID Alumni Association 459 UCB PPCO Boulder, CO 80309-0459 LEADERS EMERGING CU BOULDERENTERSAREFORMEDERAOFLEADERSHIP. Alumni Magazine Summer 2021 MARCHN 2021 O W The mass shooting at the Table Mesa King Soopers on March 22 left the Boulder community reeling. For lo- cal artist Michael Grab (Soc’07), his natural response was to create art. For several days following the tragedy, 10 delicately balanced stone towers, one for each victim, stood quiet and tall in a slightly hidden spot in Boulder Creek, not far from Folsom Field. Grab creates his temporary art installations with nothing but stones, balance and concentration. “The true power of applying this art form in a memorial style like this exists very much in its transience,” he said on Instagram. “The fact that nothing lasts holds a very distinct style of almost melancholic beauty.” Glenn Asakawa FEATURES EDITOR’S NOTE The COVID-19 pan- demic illuminated social inequities as the ubiquity of phones and digital media focused attention on interrelated issues including racial injustice, gender, voting rights, gun violence and access to health care and education. These challenges gave rise to another topic that ancient philosophers, modern researchers and CU students have sought to better under- stand: leadership. While there is an eagerness to return to “normal,” new types of leaders are emerging to usher forth the future as it unfolds. In this issue, we exam- ine leadership research, education and practice through CU’s Center for Leadership and explore one alumna’s dedication to Colorado’s future CU Boulder is poised COVER 17 27 luminaries. I invite you to welcome a new genera- Is It Time to Rethink Sing Me to Sleep, Sing Me to read these, plus sto- tion of world leaders. Illustra- Leadership? to Wake tion by James Yang. ries about an unlikely As CU Boulder creates initiatives to focus on The Colorado Lullaby Project is a heartwarming hand- book-turned-movie, ABOVE In February, CU leadership development, campus communities ask: shake between music and mental health research. robot-fueled sustain- Boulder professor of art and What does leadership mean in today’s world? ability and the power art history George Rivera’s of lullabies. “Stop Hate” billboard stood 31 The End of the Death Penalty? The challenges of atop I-25 near downtown 23 Colorado Born, On the eve of his retirement, sociology professor the past year will not Denver and the Auraria Michael Radelet says “yes.” resolve quickly, but For- Campus. “My artwork Leadership Raised ever Buffs instill hope asks us to stop hate from growing and to examine the Katie Kramer found her calling at the helm of a 35 for a brighter future. phenomenon of hate in our leadership-focused foundation. The Shecession own hearts,” Rivera told CU What the pandemic revealed about gender in- Maria Kuntz Boulder Today. 25 equalities — and what needs to change. Life, Reincarnated CONTACT THE EDITOR AT D. Eric Maikranz propelled his self-published book [email protected] to the silver screen with guerilla marketing. 39 Sorting Smart Matanya Horowitz uses artificial intelligence and robots to streamline recycling. DEPARTMENTS 1 NOW 7 Campus News 15 ORIGINS 45 CU Around 55 Class Notes Memorial CU’s First Library 8 Boulder Beat 47 Chancellor’s Essay 61 Feedback 5 INQUIRY RTD Railway 33 Infographic Olympics Austin C. Okigbo 49 Sports 65 THEN 1963 13 LOOK Dogs 43 Alumni News 3 COLORADAN Casey A. Cass SUMMER 2021 44 INQUIRY Austin C. Okigbo musician Fela Kuti. He PEOPLE ARE EXPRESSING was the inventor of The Music of Pandemics Past Afrobeat music and was Austin C. Okigbo, associate professor in the College of THEIR FEELINGS ABOUT very political and radi- Music and a liate faculty in Ethnic Studies and Global cal in his thought. Even Health, studies the intersection of music and public ECONOMICS, POLITICS though he died in 1997, health. He traces the way people express themselves his music still feels like musically during times of widespread illness — a AND RELIGION WITH MUSIC. it’s speaking to the Austin C. highly relevant topic given COVID-19. Here he present. The things he Okigbo discusses his research on past health crises and how able to identify some of example, conspiracy criticized in his mu- music has played a role in the current pandemic. the political extremities theories about vaccines sic (like government that have characterized now echo those that corruption, wasteful our nation’s response to followed the invention spending and economic Your areas of inter- doing archival studies seeks to understand the pandemic. of the smallpox vaccine disparities) are relevant est are really diverse on past public health how people articulate in the 1790s. New York to how many countries (music, African stud- crises and epidemics their personal experienc- You found that and London experienced are responding to the ies, global health). in the area to give my es of a disease. Music is social and cultural violent resistance to current pandemic, How do they inter- research a broader a means by which peo- events surrounding quarantine measures in especially in Nigeria sect? Ethnomusicology historical context, like ple express what is on pandemics fueled 1918. You would think and Africa. is by definition a very the 1713 outbreak of their minds… And what the responses and that culture has changed interdisciplinary field. smallpox and the influ- are people expressing? behaviors toward a lot or that people’s What’s next for your I study African music enza of 1918. I began to Feelings about econom- them. What would mindsets would have research? I’m working and, within those stud- identify where and what ics, politics and religion. you say were the changed a lot… but on a book project now. ies, my subject area is the musical responses major events at play it didn't matter. The It’s a comparative study global health. I did my were and compare them Do you see peo- in 2020? Disease epi- precedents in history of African concepts of PhD research working to what we were seeing ple making similar demics reveal the fault are there; we often just justice, which interest- with HIV/AIDS choirs with HIV/AIDS. The re- creative works and lines already present aren’t aware of it. ingly will include issues based in South Africa. search just kept going. music today? Ab- in a society. The social I seek to understand solutely. For two and cultural difficulties how people use music What themes did you semesters during the that this country faces CONSPIRACY THEORIES to articulate their expe- see carrying through coronavirus pandemic, as a nation are real. The riences of disease in a in your research of I taught classes around pandemic highlighted ABOUT VACCINES NOW global health context. this music? There is disease and music. inequalities at the level plenty of research about I asked students to of race, social class and ECHO THOSE THAT Why study the music how music is used as an use the current artis- economic class. FOLLOWED THE INVENTION of pandemics? When educational tool during tic responses they’re Diseases tell us who I was doing research in public health crises — seeing today to launch we are at an individual OF THE SMALLPOX South Africa, I started for example, promoting a broader conversation. and a broader societal protective measures. It’s been fascinating. level. The disease is a VACCINE IN THE 1790s. However, my research Students have been sickness itself, but it does reveal other forms of sickness. It’s social, What about physical of justice in the context political and economic sickness leads us to of epidemics. I’m also maladies that we suffer express ourselves thinking about a book from as well. musically? Music is an project that will look at expressive form, and the music and the global Did your fi ndings arts are a part of how history of pandemics. It surprise you? Initially, people bring out what will allow us to explore yes. I was juxtaposing they have on their minds the ways humans have historical epidemics and articulate their life responded musically that spanned over 300 experiences. to global outbreaks of years. And yet there diseases across centu- was consistency—for Have you been ries, going back to the listening to any Renaissance and up to INTERVIEW Members of the Siphithem- favorite music over this moment. ba Choir, an HIV/AIDS choir the course of the BY KELSEY YANDURA. studied by Okigbo, after a pandemic? I have been CONDENSED AND EDITED performance in late 2007. listening to Nigerian FOR CLARITY. 5 COLORADAN Photo courtesy Austin C. Okigbo SUMMER 2021 6 BOULDER BEAT RTD CAMPUSnews B Line to Boulder Dance Like Somebody Is Watching (Finally) Nii Armah Sowah’s dance class allows socially starved students to regain community. ii Armah Sowah dreaded teaching CU’s “African Dance — Ghanaian” during the pandemic. “The whole course is based on expression and connection,” said Sowah, who’s instructed African dance classes at CU for more than 20 years. To cut aerosol transmissions, Sowah decreased the chanting that N accompanies dances, restructured classes and cut the typically required extracurricular bonding. But the losses in no way caused a loss of heart. “COVID deprived so many students of human contact. When we start- ed dancing, there was this sense of strong desire to connect… this longing has helped us build a good community in the classes,” Sowah said. In 2021, Colorado’s RTD recommitted to a feasibility study of a Boulder-to-Denver railway. When Sowah moved to the U.S. from Ghana in 1994, he soon realized that Americans identified him as “African” rather than Gha- Boulder was in its forma- carbon emissions worsen the Denver Art Museum.