Volume 2, Issue 21 September 28 - October 11, 2000

Does a subculture have a responsibility to the culture that spawned it? Heath Rezabek thinks it does. A relative newcomer to Denver, he has created a collaborative subculture community, Fuse, to try and build bridges between the local youth scenes. Eventually, he hopes to create ties between it and Denver at large. Starting with fewer than 20 people, the group just celebrated its first birthday and its 100th subscriber to the group's e-mail list.

What is Fuse? "Fuse is an environment for different kinds of people throughout Denver's youth subcultures, despite their different styles or ideas, to get together and learn from the friction produced by these genuine differences," said Heath. In the process, Fuse acts as a springboard for collaborative artistic projects.

Right now, those projects include Wholesignal, a multi-use creative studio for shows, events and workshops on the arts; Scrytch, a collaborative, open-revision writing workshop; New Urban Denver, an informal urban-renewal classroom; Healing Circle, a group devoted to ritual and musical healing of individuals and places; and Synergy, a role-playing games forum. Fuse also supports the Denver Cacophony Society-- a "mobile dischordian mayhem unit"-- and various charitable causes. Several Burning Man festival artists are members, as are journalists, actors, DJs, photographers and other creative people.

The group meets several times a week to work on different projects and has regular meetings on Sundays to run creative workshops, on Thursdays at St. Mark's Café on 17th Avenue and on Friday nights at Café Netherworld. At the Friday meetings, Fuse tends to fill the back corner of Netherworld in front of the patio, to the right of the pool tables. Although dress ranges from casual to techno, the waft of cloves and a lot of black clothing make it clear that Fuse is very goth-friendly.

In some ways, Fuse seems to be a social experiment. Heath did not found Fuse out of general interest. He came deliberately to Denver from Austin, Texas, where he'd had other projects, to try out his thoughts on community building. He chose Denver for its large population, isolation from other cities, and its surrounding sprawl, which he sees as a breeding ground for discontented youth.

"Denver is surrounded by sprawl, with its pervasive monoculture. It was only a matter of time until all of those who were walking a different path would realize the need to work together," said Heath.

If Fuse is a social experiment, its experimental results may uncover how well an e-mail list group can work in real life. The group stays in touch over its lively e-mail list at www.egroups.com/groups/fuse-dnvr. Use of the Web as a forum means that most of the members have to be comfortable online which influences the membership and activity. Heath feels that that Fuse suffers from a gender imbalance that the computer emphasis might create. Several Fuse members said that sometimes the group is online too much. "I'd like to see more real-life stuff instead of the Internet," said Fuse member Meli Trumbo. "I'd especially like to see Wholesignal get going more."

The group lacks a large non-white population. Heath sees that as a problem of location and not insurmountable differences-- or online presence. "We haven't been very successful attracting people of different ethnic backgrounds," he said. "For that, we'd need to live in integrated neighborhoods where we could interact more, and there aren't many of them in Denver. Social ties are key."

However, the web drew in many members and has helped the group get started. "I joined Fuse in early March; I knew Heath from the Colorado goth e-mail group," said Meli. "Fuse is different from other e-groups, though-- it has more real activities."

One of those real activities, recently, has been the Burning Man festival, which caused some controversy among the group. A lot of Fuse members attended, and, according to discussion on the list, many Fuse activities were slowed or suspended for the months leading up to the festival.

As a Denver-focused, civic-minded leader of "alternative" youth, Heath has a unique perspective on the recent Burning Man festival. "First, there's the energy that it sucks away from a locality for two months before and two months after, as well as time, money, and social structure. People pour their whole hearts into it, and long to be back on the playa for the rest of the year," he said.

"Second, to me there's a question of whether or not the creative crucible that is Burning Man, the very energy it purifies, can be effective in bringing people together. I wonder if it sometimes doesn't alienate outsiders and the Burners from each other. All the things that go on there are almost normal for big metropolises like New York; they can revel in the extension of their culture. But for a smaller city like Denver, without that daily culture-- where real change that affects 'regular' people can nevertheless occur-- I wonder if Burning Man creates resentment both ways," he continued.

However, Heath acknowledges that Burning Man has the potential to help Fuse by inspiring its members. "A lot of [Fuse's] fate will be determined by what the Burning Man people bring back and put into the community, rather than into the next Burning Man." Burning Man attendees have already posted to the list that they have new energy and creativity for Fuse.

Heath's feelings stem from a desire to protect Denver's potential. "Smaller cities have more ability to change the mainstream than big cities, to create a real enthusiasm for all kinds of diversity, not just tolerance. We're looking for change. But I don't speak for the group-- the community as a whole will determine where Fuse goes from here."