‘Come, Let Us Rejoice’

Scenes from the “FuchsiaPurpleLoveFest” benefit for Julieanne Fowers, Saturday, Nov. 1, at Kamikazes in Ogden, Utah. Photo by Sam Crump Photography

Ogden’s griterati came together Saturday evening at Kamikaze’s storied stage to take care of one of their own. Gathered for worship, as it were, in this Temple of Rock, Talia Keys and Gordon Greenwood led the call to alms, along with a host of Ogden’s musical best, among them local favorites Simply B, Tim Daniels, and Billy Bommer, and a couple hundred faithful friends. The blessed center of the night’s revels was Julieanne Fowers (“Jewls” to all who know her), a local tile setter and music enthusiast who suffered a severe, late-summer biking accident on Moose Tracks at North Fork. Now, with a life flight mountain rescue, spinal cord damage, and several weeks of recovery behind her, Jewls sat, chatting with friends, hugging and smiling, taking a brief, gentle turn on the dance floor, neck brace notwithstanding. And here too, leathered, chained, bedazzled and costumed celebrants danced, cheered, and otherwise offered up their oblations for their friend in a collective outpouring of community love and generosity. 

Ogden’s reputation for violence and vice still holds the prurient attention of locals and visitors alike. But these social narratives that cut through Ogden, as well as towns and hearts across the country, separating and dividing us into neat categories often blur, as they did Saturday night at a one-time church turned bar and musical stage on Adams Avenue. And while it is also true that you will continue to see some strange things in Ogden, a closer look reveals a village taking care of its own, a refuge of kindness, absent the conspicuously pious trappings, where friends and strangers gather to sing and dance together, glasses raised in joy for a friend.