Analog Salon #10

Home and work feed our routines. A third space feeds our soul.

Third spaces—places that aren’t home or work—are vital community anchors. They’re where neighbors become friends and creativity grows. They give us room to breathe, to connect, and to be more than just what we do or where we sleep.

Analog Salon is our third space in Denver. It’s a monthly vinyl listening party where music, memory, creativity, and connection all meet under one roof. Hosted at the Posner Center for International Development, Analog Salon invites people to unplug, slow down, and share space through the rich, nostalgic crackle of vinyl and the honesty of personal storytelling.

Each Analog Salon unfolds in three intentional phases:

• Social Mixer & DJ Sets (6:00–7:00 PM)
  Arrive to a room full of groove-worthy vinyl, drinks, and good energy. Local DJs spin genre-crossing, vinyl-only sets to warm up the room and encourage curiosity and conversation.
• Storytelling Through Music (7:00–8:00 PM)
  We welcome a featured guest—someone with a story to tell and a record to match. It’s storytelling through soundscape, where the tracks that shaped their life become windows into shared humanity.
• Chill Vibes & Marketplace (8:00–9:00 PM)
  As the night winds down, guests mingle and browse our rotating Analog Marketplace—a place for local creators to showcase books, vinyl, zines, art, and more.

Analog Salon exists to foster creativity, collaboration, and community engagement. It brings together Denver’s curious and creative spirits to celebrate music’s power to inspire and transform. In a world saturated by algorithms and isolation, Analog Salon offers something different: a space built on human presence, mutual listening, and cultural nourishment.

None of this happens alone. We’re lucky to work with partners who believe in the value of third spaces and the power of gathering: CoCreate, Cross-Pollinate Consulting, FM, Birdy Magazine, Posner Center for International Development, Twist and Shout, and KGNU

Let’s keep showing up, together.

#AnalogSalon #ThirdSpaces #DenverCommunity #VinylStories #SupportLocal

Reiland Rabaka is Professor of African, African American, and Caribbean Studies in the Department of Ethnic Studies and the Founder and Director of the Center for African & African American Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder. He is also a Research Fellow in the College of Human Sciences at the University of South Africa (UNISA).

Rabaka has published 19 books and more than 100 scholarly articles, book chapters, and essays. His books include Africana Critical Theory; Against Epistemic Apartheid: W.E.B. Du Bois and the Disciplinary Decadence of Sociology; Forms of Fanonism: Frantz Fanon’s Critical Theory and the Dialectics of Decolonization; Concepts of Cabralism: Amilcar Cabral and the Africana Tradition of Critical Theory; The Negritude Movement; The Routledge Handbook of Pan-Africanism; and Du Bois: A Critical Introduction.

A wing of his work has made significant contributions to African American musicology, and his books in this area include Civil Rights Music: The Soundtracks of the Civil Rights Movement; Black Power Music!: Protest Songs, Message Music, and the Black Power Movement; Black Women’s Liberation Movement Music: Soul Sisters, Black Feminist Funksters, and Afro-Disco Divas; The Funk Movement: Music, Culture, and Politics; Hip Hop’s Inheritance; Hip Hop’s Amnesia; and The Hip Hop Movement. Academic journals Rabaka has published in include Journal of Black Studies, Journal of African American Studies, International Journal of Africana Studies, Africana Studies Annual Review, Africalogical Perspectives, Ethnic Studies Review, Journal of Classical Sociology, History of Humanities, The Philosopher, Raisons politiques: Revue de théorie politique, and Revista da Associação Brasileira de Pesquisadores/as Negros/as (ABPN), among others.

He has been the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Science Foundation, the National Museum of African American History & Culture, the National Museum of American History, the Smithsonian Institution, the Eugene M. Kayden Book Award, the Cheikh Anta Diop Book Award, and the National Council for Black Studies’ Distinguished Career Award. He has conducted archival research and lectured extensively both nationally and internationally, and he has been the recipient of several community service citations, distinguished teaching awards, and research fellowships.

His cultural criticism, social commentary, and political analysis have been featured in print, radio, television, and online media venues such as NPR, PBS, BBC, CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, MTV, BET, VH1, The New York Times, The Associated Press, and The Guardian, among others. He is also a poet and musician.

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