It’s been a dozen years since Denver Public Library paused its once popular “One Book, One Denver” program. But pages are turning again.

“One Book, One Denver” is a city-wide reading initiative that provides a shared reading experience for all. And on Aug. 8, the library threw a party to celebrate the selection of the book that is going to bring it all back:

It’s “Stay True,” Hua Hsu’s Pulitzer Prize-winning, a coming-of-age memoir that is being celebrated for how it navigates identity, friendship, loss and grief through the lens of memory. He spent 20 years writing the book as an homage to a friend, Ken, who was randomly murdered in a carjacking one night after a college party.

The Guardian called the book “a perfect 193 pages.”

Book-related activities will be held throughout the year. Cultural partners will include the Clyfford Still Museum, Sie FilmCenter, Shop at MATTER and others. The big one: An author talk event with Hsu himself coming up Sept. 5 at the Denver Central Library.

There will also be screenings of related films, story-telling activities, creative-writing workshops and lots more. You can scan the extensive list of all “One Book, One Denver” programs already planned at denlib.org/obod.

Opera Colorado leader arrives

Barbara Lynne Jamison, who was named to replace Greg Carpenter as General Director and CEO of Opera Colorado back in April, has checked in from Kentucky and is now on the clock in Colorado. She spent most of her first week here making the media rounds and talking up the company’s abbreviated upcoming two-show season.

“Denver is a robust city that deserves a robust and exciting opera company as well,” said Jamison. “I am honored to join Opera Colorado at this meaningful moment in its history.”

Perhaps no more meaningful moment than right now for the 44-year-old company that was tossed by COVID like a ship at sea.

It was at this time a year ago Opera Colorado announced that a major budget shortfall would reduce its seasons moving forward, at least for now, from three mainstage productions to two. Also: Carpenter would be stepping down, necessitating the company’s first major leadership transition in 20 years.

Opera Colorado scrapped its 2024-25 season-ending production of Verdi’s “Il trovatore” in favor of a scaled-down, “semi-staged” concert version. Officials called it a strategic, cost-cutting move that was being made “as part of our commitment to sustainability and artistic excellence.”

The company has announced a sure-thing 2025-26 season of “La traviata” (Verdi’s more popular opera) for Nov. 1-9, and Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly” next May 2-10.

“We have two of the world’s most famous operas by two of the world’s most famous composers in the same season, so we are really excited,” Jamison told Denver Gazette news partner 9News.

Boulder filmmaker in person

The director of the important new documentary “Match in a Haystick” is Boulder’s own five-time Emmy Award-winner, Joe Hill. I will be moderating a conversation with Hill following a screening of the doc at 6:30 p.m. Friday at the Sie FilmCenter.

The film follows Ukraine’s most determined female dance group as it attempts to create its first show after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. The Executive Producer is none other than pioneering ballet dancer Misty Copeland. Join us as we talk about (and celebrate) how art is resistance, full stop. Tickets at denverfilm.eventive.org

Josh Blue has a memoir

Denver comedian and now author Josh Blue, best known from “Last Comic Standing” and “America’s Got Talent,” has released his memoir, titled “Something to Stare At” – a self-effacing poke at his life as a famous person with cerebral palsy.

In fact, he says, “I’m the comic who puts the cerebral in cerebral palsy.”

“Something to Stare At,” says Blue,” is all about his life: “From my harrowing birth and subsequent emergency flight out of Africa, to sharing a zoo cage with a silverback gorilla, to traveling the world as a Paralympian on the U.S. soccer team, my journey has been as unpredictable as my right arm,” he said.

The book is available at Barnes & Noble or online at barnesandnoble.com

To Infinity and beyond

The Infinity Theater at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, closed for renovations since April 8, has reopened in City Park with a new laser projection system and other upgrades.

Now showing through Aug. 27: “Angkor,” as part of the “Lost Empire of Cambodia” exhibition; “Animal Kingdom 3D” (cute penguins, wise elephants and quirky dung beetles); and “T. Rex 3D,” which chronicles how a gaggle of North Dakota Dino-Mites unearthed a teenage T. Rex that now resides at the Denver museum. Tickets at dmns.org/purchase/tickets

And finally …

This is me not telling you that third Wednesday nights at The Bug Theatre have in very short order become almost automatic sellouts thanks to the antics standups and self-described heartthrobs Adam Cayton-Holland, Rory Scovel and Ben Roy. But why? All I can tell you is that it’s called “Movie Night.” What movie? I know, right? (No, I really don’t know. That’s kind of the point.) Tickets at thegrawlix.ticketsauce.com.