Oct. 20 | Veteran’s Hall | Truckee
Being a teenager in Tahoe isn’t always as easy as it looks. In fact, if you’re not into team sports or outdoor adventure, you might feel out of place.
“A lot of people don’t fit with the culture in a way that feels especially inclusive for them,” says 17-year-old Nico Bolen of Kings Beach.
“It’s a wonderful place, but there’s not a lot of diversity. You see a lot of people fitting into Tahoe stereotypes, but there’s a lack of community for LGBT or different spaces along those lines. It can be really insolating and difficult.”
When Bolen first went to Holland Project, and all-ages arts and music venue in Reno, Nev., his outlook immediately changed.
“I remember being super excited that there were a lot of people who dressed like me and expressed themselves in the way I do,” says Bolen. “I found people who spoke that same language with a passion for music and arts. The band started playing and everyone crowded up to the stage because they wanted to see the music and really experience it. By the first couple shows, I’d made multiple friends. It was like my world had been expanded.”
Holland Project was founded in 2006 as an initiative made by and for young people in Reno that strives to empower youth through music, art, education and activism. Now, Bolen and other local teens, including Eliot Lowe and Leo Murrell, are working to build a similarly inclusive community in the Tahoe Sierra.
Aspen Collective hosted its first live music event in August at the Community Arts Center in Truckee. Featuring Bolen’s band By Chance and Reno indie rockers In The Works? and Evangeline, the mini-festival was a financial and cultural success.
“We’re bringing something a little bit different that more people can fit into,” says Bolen. “The alternative scene attracts a lot of people of marginalized identities. There are lot of queer voices and the music centers around injustice and inequality. It’s a community that can be welcoming to people who need that and want that.”
Aspen Collective’s next event will be held Oct. 20 at the Veterans Hall in Truckee. The all-ages concert will feature Nevada City post-punk group Checked-Out and Reno indie bands Heterophobia, Meat Blanket and Minute on the Moon.
“It gives teens a sober, safe activity,” says Bolen. “There’s not a lot going on for teenagers that is a healthy environment with community-building. Our goal is to be hosting shows pretty regularly. Hopefully, we’ll create connections with local organizations like Sierra Community House and Fox Cultural Hall and involve them in our events. Once the word’s gotten out, we can start running more programs.”
The power of youth community
While touring up and down the West Coast, Checked-Out’s guitarist, Griffin Rodriguez, has seen the power of DIY youth arts communities.
“It’s really cool to see locals in Tahoe start up a scene,” says Rodriguez. “A very arduous task, but it’s completely selfless and brings many people joy. It seems like the people in charge of Aspen Collective really care about their community of local musicians.”
All-ages events like those hosted by Aspen Collective and Holland Project are essential for introducing new generations to live music, arts and community activism in a safe, structured way.
“As someone who didn’t have easy access to these sorts of spaces when I was underage, it was a difficult journey cutting my teeth as a performer in dive bars,” says Jace Godbey of Heterophobia. “I’m very grateful these spaces exist and are accessible. We can take care of each other, and more easily unite whenever needed.”
Music, art and the communities they create provide a supportive, therapeutic outlet for young people growing up in today’s complex sometimes unforgiving world.
“The type of songs I write are incredibly personal, probably too personal at times,” he says. “I see our music as a reaction to the trauma of growing up as a gay kid in a world that was often incredibly hostile.”
Tickets for Aspen Collective’s Oct. 20 Spooky Show at the Veteran’s Hall will be $13 at the door, $10 if you’re wearing a costume. Tickets on eventbrite.com. | @theaspencollective_truckee
