by Kimi Eisele For a time, the novelist Matt Mendez had an office at Denny’s. Late at night, after his shift as an aircraft technician at the Air National Guard, he’d go to one on Tucson’s south side and write until two in the morning. Over cheese sticks and “gallons of terrible coffee,” he drew from his childhood in El Paso to write the ... [Continue Reading]
The Arizona African Diaspora: A Conversation with Rod Ambrose and Barbea Williams
by Kimi Eisele Rod Ambrose and Barbea Williams both came to Arizona from Chicago, Illinois and created lives as artists in the Southwest. Rod is an actor, director, and storyteller in the griot tradition and Barbea a dancer, choreographer and director working to pass on traditional African and African-inspired dance forms from Africa, Haiti, ... [Continue Reading]
The Convict Code
In prison those who share your race or ethnicity are your gang, your people. Everyone else is the enemy. by Nate McKowen Prison is full of borders. The obvious one stands around the perimeter, 20 feet tall, chain-linked and topped with razor wire, separating the outcasts from the rest of society. Then there are borders inside, dividing the ... [Continue Reading]
Thinking Like a Folklorist: Barrio Stories as Theatre
by Marc David Pinate Atop the concrete courtyard of the Tucson Convention Center, a mother and daughter wandered, dressed for shopping downtown; Blind Mike played an accordion on the corner; mambo music spilled out from an imaginary nightclub; a grandmother made fresh tortillas on an outdoor stove. For four days, Tucson’s original Mexican ... [Continue Reading]
From Cameroon to the Desert: Atelier Diama Designs by Tradition
by Lisa M. O'Neill “This is the first collection,” says Ndifor Chesi, as he gestures to a rack full of brightly patterned dresses. Chesi is the designer for Atelier Diama, a Tucson-based designer clothing studio. He pulls out a lime green and brown short dress with an open back and a V-neckline, and places it on the mannequin, running his ... [Continue Reading]
Indigenous Stories, One Podcast at a Time
by Kimi Eisele Tina Vavages-Andrew isn’t afraid to laugh out loud. She does it readily in conversation. And at least once a month she laughs into a microphone. She’s the host of a monthly podcast—two of them actually—aiming to make indigenous voices (and laughter) more audible in the Southwest and beyond. Podcasting, Vavages-Andrew ... [Continue Reading]
Hello Kitty in Kimono: Exhibiting the Everyday Lives of Master Traditional Artists
If there’s such a thing as a “master curator,” Leia Maahs qualifies as one. As the program manager of the Southwest Folklife Alliance, she handles a lot of people, information, and cultural expressions. And for the past few months, she’s been curating a special exhibit for Tucson Meet Yourself to showcase master traditional artists along with their ... [Continue Reading]
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