My name is Jake Hoffman and I run an independent music publication called Wyoming Out Loud. I cover local events and try my best to amplify the local art scene in Casper, Wyoming. Wyoming can get a stigma about it that it has nothing going on, but that's far from the case and it's my mission statement to enlighten people about that, along with giving the arts an extra boost. I take photos at concerts, local events, and pretty much anything else cool going on in our community that people might not know about.

After the COVID-19 pandemic, Wyoming was choosing to be alive. There were new venues opening up in Downtown Casper and my kid was having a bunch of fun going down there and dancing. She was two at that time, and seeing her grow up around music made documenting all the things going on in town really easy.

Casper has a very alive and well-kept art scene. What I do is amplify it to the people who may or may not already know it exists.

This is important to me and these communities because you gotta be able to express yourself as whoever you are as an American. Casper is a very colorful place. This is where we all are supposed to be able to be proud of who we are. So thats where I and Wyoming Out Loud come in, while someone is expressing themselves, I'll be there to capture the purity behind that and show others that it's okay to do that.