2018 January Oak Cliff

SNAPSHOTS FROM OAK CLIFF

F I GHT CAN CER

Texas Oncology brings cancer-fighting technology and expertise to your community, so you can have easy access to leading-edge cancer treatment. Our services include medical oncology, radiation oncology, breast surgical oncology and general surgery. We also provide access to national clinical trials and genetic counseling. With Texas Oncology, you can fight cancer close to home with your support network by your side.

TEXAS ONCOLOGY PHYSICIANS:

Ashwani K. Agarwal, M.D. • Mammo Amare, M.D. • Darshan Gandhi, M.D.

Arve Gillette, M.D. • Kesha Harris-Henderson, M.D. • Cheryl Harth, M.D.

Lakshmi Priya Kannan, M.D. • Atisha P. Manhas, M.D.

Srinivasu Moparty, M.D. • Inna Shmerlin, M.D. • Dilip Solanki, M.D.

TEXAS BREAST SPECIALISTS PHYSICIANS:

Allison A. DiPasquale, M.D. • Katrina P. Emmett, M.D. • Martin L. Koonsman, M.D.

To schedule an appointment, call Texas Oncology at 972-709-2580 or Texas Breast Specialists at 214-943-8605.

ON THE COVER: A demolition crew takes down the former El Corazon de Tejas restaurant.

PHOTO BY DANNY FULGENCIO

OPENING REMARKS

By RICK WAMRE

Gratitude game

Recently, I read an article about reconnecting, about the importance of finding someone who has done something nice for us over the years and deliberately letting that person know how much they mattered in our life.

It seemed like a good idea, and I decided to do it. I didn’t have anyone in particular in mind, but how hard could it be to find someone who has provided a boost to my life or career and just say “thanks?”

But as time slid by, I moved on to other things and forgot all about thanking someone who deserved it.

Then a couple of weeks ago in church, our pastor talked about this exact same thing.

And before I could forget to proceed yet again came the clincher: While moving some stuff around in my office, I ran across a book given to me by one of my high school teachers when I graduated. The book, “J.B.” by Archibald MacLeish, is a “play in verse” loosely based on the Biblical story of Job, a guy who the devil bet he could turn against God by throwing a few obstacles in Job’s life path.

For years, I’ve been toting the book with me from apartments to homes to offices. It was always there, but rarely visible. For years, I wouldn’t even run across it, and then out of the blue, there it would be again — waiting for me to pick it up, flip it open and remember the guy who gave it to me.

Mr. Hassenstab was the adviser for our high school student newspaper, my first experience with journalism. He was also our English teacher, and he gave me my first “F.” I defied him on an assignment that was half the grade for the entire

class, and he followed through with the grade I deserved.

Inside the book rests a worn and now-faded note with a bit of advice I’ve referred to time and again over the years.

“Academically, your education is just beginning. You will get very frustrated during the next four to six years. But do not forget the value of academics and become too relevant. Make sure your ‘thing’ is worth doing.

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“Good luck in the coming years. Feel free to stop in at any time and write to us to let us know how things are going.”

I always meant to follow through and let him know how I was doing; I just didn’t do it. And I’m sure not hearing from me probably didn’t keep him awake at night, either. After all, I was just one of hundreds, maybe thousands, of students who passed through his classes.

But it’s a new year, and there’s no good reason to keep doing things the same way I’ve been doing them.

So the next note I type will be to Mr. Hassenstab, just to say “thanks.”

Rick Wamre is president of Advocate Media. Let him know how we are doing by emailing rwamre@advocatemag.com.

contributors: Angela Hunt, Christina Hughes, George Mason, Brent McDougal

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contributing photographers: Rasy Ran, Kathy Tran

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or advertising material. Opinions set forth in the Advocate are those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect the publisher’s viewpoint. More than 200,000 people read Advocate publications each month. Advertising rates and guidelines are available upon request. Advocate publications are available free of charge throughout our neighborhoods, one copy per reader. Advocate was founded in 1991 by Jeff Siegel, Tom Zielinski and Rick Wamre.

The simple act of going back to say ‘thanks’

But as time slid by, I moved on to other things and forgot all about thanking someone who deserved it.

DIGITAL DIGEST

Readers react to Vandals deface

Shepard Fairey mural in West Dallas

This is heartbreaking. That was a beautiful mural. I just can’t understand why people want to destroy their own community.

JENNA SCHMIDT WILSON

This is a busy well-lit street. Surprised no one saw the vandals.

MARSHA FOGLE

This is why we can’t have nice things.

LINDSEY DIXON

Trump supporters.

LES HALL FOLLOW US:

“Adjacent murals painted by local artists weren’t vandalized.” Yet.

ROBBIE CHRISTOPHER DAWSON

L A UNC H

JAN. 1-12

‘Retro–Matico’

Retro–Matico is a retrospective exhibit of Jose Vargas’ artwork, which includes photography, prints, painting and mixed media. Artist and professor Cristina Medina curated the works.

Oak Cliff Cultural Center, 223 W. Jefferson Blvd., 214.670.3777, occc. dallasculture.org, free

Out & About

JAN. 13

ADULT PAINTING

Express yourself through painting with the library staff and the help of the library’s current artist in residence. This event is for adults only, and supplies are included.

North Oak Cliff Library, 302 W. Tenth, 214.670.7555, dallaslibrary.org, free

JAN. 13-31

LOCAL ART

Check out work by Manuel Pecina, a photographer and multimedia artist who works in film and digital arts. His work has been in the Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas Contemporary and George Pompidou Centre in Paris.

An artist reception is from 6-9 p.m. Jan. 13.

Mighty Fine Arts, 409A N. Tyler St., 214.942.5241, mfagallery.com, free

JAN 25

GLASS CLASS

Students will learn a variety of kiln glass techniques and create a pair of glass bowls in this introductory class at 6:30 p.m.

Oil and Cotton, 817 W. Davis, 214.942.0474, oilandcotton.com, $70

JAN. 26

ONE-MAN SHOW

Joe Bob Briggs will entertain with “How Rednecks Saved Hollywood.” Briggs’ 8 p.m. show will explain the history of rednecks in cinema with classic film clips of exploitation cinema.

The Texas Theatre, 231 W. Jefferson Blvd., 214.948.1546, thetexastheatre. com, $12 - $18

JAN. 27

NOVEL TALK

National bestselling author Victoria Christopher Murray discusses race, motherhood, marriage, vigilante justice and other themes of her novel, “Stand Your Ground” at 3 p.m.

Bishop Arts Theatre

Center, 215 S. Tyler St., 214.948.0716 bishopartstheatre. org, $15 - $22

JAN. 27

NEIGHBORHOOD ROCK

Join one of Dallas’ most popular bands, Somebody’s Darling, for a concert ahead of their newest release. Doors open at 7 p.m., and the concert starts at 8 p.m.

The Kessler Theater, 1230 W. Davis St., 214.272.8346, thekessler.org, $22

THE DOCUMENTARIANS

Three projects that aim to tell our neighborhoods’ stories

By RACHEL STONE

Photos by DANNY FULGENCIO

Oak Cliff in black-and-white

Teach for America called to E.J. Johnson after he graduated with a marketing degree from Abilene Christian University in 2011.

It was during that year, in Baton Rouge, La., that Johnson, now 28, picked up a camera. He’s self-taught. Johnson says he learned everything he knows from trial-and-error and YouTube.

“As a way of escaping, I would go explore Louisiana,” he says. “I would find myself taking pictures of rivers, swamps, bayous, carnivals.”

Since then, he’s taken freelance assignments from local and national publications, but he’s also turned his lens onto the people of Oak Cliff.

He shoots striking black-and-white photos of people, places and events in our neighborhood.

Johnson’s series, “Oak Cliff Documentary,” had a show at the South Dallas Cultural Center last year, and as the

project progresses, he is looking for an opportunity to show his photos again this year.

“I started thinking ‘How can I continue that storytelling here?’ ” he says. “And that eventually led to me documenting Oak Cliff, where my parents grew up.”

Johnson was born in Dallas but was raised in Oklahoma and Minnesota. He spent many childhood summers with family in Oak Cliff.

He now lives in the neighborhood and works as a middle-school history teacher. And he also owns Go Know Media, which comes up with a list, “Millennials to Watch,” for The Dallas Weekly newspaper.

The Oak Cliff project continues to hold his interest because he says he finds the history and culture so fascinating.

“I wanted to show other people what I see about Oak Cliff,” he says. “It’s a place that has a lot of strong family values, a lot of culture.”

Keep up with Johnson’s ongoing work at ejohnsonivphoto.com

“I wanted to show other people what I see about Oak Cliff.”

Abuela oral histories

Victoria Ferrell-Ortiz started out interviewing her grandmother as a way to record her family’s history.

“One of the first things she said was that she’s a ‘cementera,’ ” a person from the Trinity Portland Cement company towns, says Ferrell-Ortiz.

A 24-year-old Townview Law Magnet and University of North Texas graduate, Ferrell-Ortiz was born in West Dallas and grew up in Oak Cliff, but she never knew about Cemento Grande, also known as Cement City, until that moment.

She realized she was onto a larger story than just her own family history.

Ferrell-Ortiz, along with some friends and her husband, Mesach Ortiz, wound up researching Cemento Grande’s history with the help of the Dallas Mexican American Historical League. It led them to interview six former Cement City residents.

One was Manuel Ortega, who worked at the plant and told them he started a worker’s union with the late Pete Cadena, whose granddaughter Elsa Cadena they also interviewed.

Ortega told them about the racism he experienced riding public transportation, and he recalled the time that toxic particles rained down on the Mexican part of town and killed all the fish in the pond. In the early days, most workers wore bandanas over their faces, and later they upgraded to dust masks.

The more the crew learned about the history of environmental racism in West Dallas, the more they realized the importance of this story.

They named their documentary “Wela,” a variation of “Abuela,” the Spanish word for “grandmother.”

Ferrell-Ortiz found out that she has family members buried at the Camposanto Cemetery. Along with the Eagle Ford School, the hard-to-reach cemetery is one of two Cemento Grande remnants. The plant closed around 1959, and the towns were demolished.

She plans to finish the documentary and show it in West Dallas Schools.

“So that kids can realize that West Dallas has an important history in the City of Dallas,” says Ferrell-Ortiz, who is working on certification to become a middle-school history teacher. “I want them to have a lot of pride in where they’re from.”

Cement from West Dallas was used to build the Houston Street Viaduct and much of early Dallas’ infrastructure.

Ferrell-Ortiz’s “wela,” 87-year-old Lupe Barrera Chapa, moved to West Dallas from Mexico at age 15 and met her husband in Cemento Grande.

As development takes over West Dallas, Ferrell-Ortiz points out that immigrants are the ones building all this shiny new stuff, again.

“There is so much construction going on now that we complain about, but where would we be without those things?” she says. “I wouldn’t be here without Cemento Grande.”

Keep up with the project by following “Wela Documentary” on Facebook or @weladocumentary on Instagram.

“So that kids can realize that West Dallas has an important history in the City of Dallas.”

A fictional true story

“Telefóto,” as the movie’s tagline states, is a different kind of ghost story.

The movie was filmed in Oak Cliff. It’s set here, and its cast is composed of Oak Cliff neighbors.

The feature-length film is about a family of artists, played by real-life Oak Cliff artists Opalina and Carlos Salas and their daughter, Paloma, who are being priced out of their neighborhood.

“It’s about working-class artists reckoning with the gentrification of their neighborhood,” filmmaker Richard Bailey says. “The landmarks and the heritage are falling away. When history disappears and you don’t find a future for yourself, then where you are in the present, it’s like a ghost world.”

Bailey’s grandparents lived in Oak Cliff, and he worked at Red Bird Cinemas in the 1980s. He attended a Word Space event in 2015, where he met the Salas family and other artists in Oak Cliff, and he had the idea for this film.

They shot it over three months in the summer of 2016.

The movie cost about $4,000 to shoot, plus another $2,000 for post production. Bailey, who owns a film production company called Tropic Pictures, financed it himself. The cast and crew agreed to “deferred pay,” which means Bailey has agreed to pay them from any of the film’s future earnings. He thinks he owes them about $17,000.

Bailey says he focused on artists because he found inspiration in the artwork created in our neighborhood.

“I tried my best to make the film match the vivid colors I was seeing in Oak Cliff-generated art and match the complexity of the messages as well,” he says. “This whole situation isn’t just about artists having to go live someplace else. A whole aesthetic is falling away.”

The film also features music from Oak Cliff-based Yells at Eels and Sarah Ruth.

“Telefóto” is not a documentary, but it does tell true stories about our neighborhood, Bailey says.

“It’s an interesting hybrid in that sense,” he says. “One could make five distinct feature-length films about Oak Cliff and never get the whole tapestry.”

“Telefóto” premiered at the Dallas Video Fest last year, and Bailey hopes the film will be picked up by a distributor. Follow Tropic Pictures on Facebook for more details.

“One could make five distinct featurelength films about Oak Cliff and never get the whole tapestry.”

We Get North Oak Cliff.

Gwendolyn and Ian Lukas walk two blocks from their Sunset Hill home to Lida Hooe Elementary, where their mother, Gretchen, attended school as a child. She and her husband, Mike, considered other schools but have fallen in love with Lida Hooe, which they call “home.”

CHOOSING TO STAY HOME

This mother’s children attend her childhood school, but that wasn’t a given

By KERI MITCHELL

Photo By DANNY FULGENCIO

Mike Lukas is one of the “bench boys” at Lida Hooe Elementary. The group of fathers convenes after school to keep an eye on students while they work out their pent up energy on the playground.

Lukas, a self-described “older dad” at 52, finds himself mostly in the company of grandfathers on the bench. It’s not the only way he stands out from other Lida Hooe parents.

“I’m the white guy,” he says.

This isn’t a distinction he thinks much about now, but when his daughter, Gwendolyn, started at Lida Hooe three years ago, it was a factor in the family’s decision. Lukas and his wife, Gretchen, live in the house in which Gretchen grew up. She attended Lida Hooe, too, which was then, as it is now, a predominantly Hispanic school. Her nickname was “La Güera Loca” — the crazy white girl.

One major change from her childhood was that parents could now choose where to send their children to school.

“It was almost harder, instead of just, you go where you go,” Gretchen says.

As the Lukases asked around, Rosemont Elementary kept coming up as a great option. Gretchen looked into it, then compared it to Lida Hooe, and “couldn’t find any real difference” in terms of student-teacher ratios and other such academic measures. She asked a Lida Hooe staffer why so many families transferred to Rosemont and was told, “It’s just where the white people are sending all their kids.”

Only 14 percent of Rosemont students are white; like Lida Hooe, the elementary school is predominantly Hispanic (81 percent). But Rosemont’s longstanding reputation as a strong public school has

attracted both more white and more middle- to upper-class families than other Oak Cliff schools, despite those schools’ often competitive academic ratings.

The staffer’s matter-of-fact comment was an eye-opener for Gretchen. “Then I had to honestly face that part about myself,” she says.

They chose the school two blocks away and never found any reason to look elsewhere until the beginning of this school year, when their son, Ian, started pre-K. Last year he attended John H. Reagan Elementary because it offered a half-day program for 3-year-olds and Lida Hooe didn’t.

Reagan has a “creative, colorful, wonderful feel,” reflective of the Bishop Arts District in which it sits, Gretchen says, and Ian had the same great experience there as Gwendolyn’s at Lida Hooe. Would they move Gwen there or move Ian to his home school?

“Again, we looked at the schools and looked at the numbers, and they were pretty equal,” Gretchen says. But their daughter balked at the idea of changing schools. She told her parents she didn’t want to leave her friends. “And Gwen had been thriving at Lida Hooe,” Gretchen says.

They decided to stay put.

These days, they’re not “the white family” at Lida Hooe.

“We’re just another family,” Mike says. “Everyone there, from top to bottom, treats everyone there with equal love and compassion. That’s what we noticed right off the bat.”

How do they know they made the right choice?

“All I know is they’re reading, they’re writing. My second-grade daughter is reading at an 11th grade

LIDA HOOE ELEMENTARY by the numbers

420

Current enrollment at Lida Hooe Elementary

261

Seats at Lida Hooe that remain open, according to its campus capacity of 681

83

Students zoned to Lida Hooe who transfer to other DISD schools, with nearly half choosing either Rosemont (22) or Winnetka (19)

87.6

Percentage of Lida Hooe’s students who live in poverty

12

Non-Hispanic white students enrolled at Lida Hooe, two of them being the Lukas children

33

Followers of the @lidahooeelementary Instagram account since it launched at the beginning of this school year

Sources: Dallas ISD My Data Portal & Demographics Department

This school-year-long series attempts to help Oak Cliff parents take a deeper look into their neighborhood schools. Each month, we highlight a Dallas ISD family in Oak Cliff, probing all of the questions, hesitations and soul-searching that revolve around school decisions.

If you’re considering your neighborhood school but have questions and doubts you want to explore, please contact editor Keri Mitchell at 214.292.0487 or kmitchell@advocatemag.com.

level, and my pre-K son is already starting to read,” Mike says. “They’re doing incredibly well.”

Listen to Gretchen and Mike Lukas talk about how they approach ethnic differences and what they love about Lida Hooe in our new podcast, The Uninformed Parent, available at oakcliff.advocatemag.com/podcast

DELICIOUS

DID YOU KNOW: El Ranchito recently opened a second location, at 3517 S. Cooper St. in Arlington.

Fajitas with a side of Elvis

El Ranchito is an Oak Cliff staple

Story by RACHEL STONE I Photos by KATHY TRAN

It’s 2018, and that marks El Ranchito’s 35th year in Oak Cliff.

Laura Sanchez opened the Tex-Mex restaurant on Jefferson Boulevard in 1983, and it remains a standout amid a sea of competition.

There are two mariachi troupes that perform there; they alternate on weeknights, and both perform on weekends.

El Ranchito is among the few restaurants in the Dallas area that serves cabrito, young goat, every day. It can be ordered “a parillada,” on a tabletop grill, with rice, beans, guacamole and pico de gallo,

EL RANCHITO

Ambiance: Tex-Mex party time

Price range: $10-$41

Hours: 10 a.m.-10 p.m. SundayThursday and 10 a.m.-11:30 p.m.

Friday and Saturday elranchito-dallas.com

for $41. Or it can be cooked in salsa and served as three tacos for $22.

Family-style parilladas, which also can be ordered with fajitas, sausage, ribs and shrimp, are a big draw at El Ranchito.

So is the entertainment.

Every January, the restaurant celebrates Elvis Presley’s birthday (Jan. 8, 1935) with Elvis impersonator shows. Manager Juan Sanchez, who is known to impersonate the King himself, started putting on the shows in the early 2000s.

The shows are every Wednesday in January — El Ranchito also commemorates the King’s 1977 death every August and reservations are required.

El Ranchito gave several Elvis impersonators their start. Victor Treviño Jr., for example, performed as Elvis for the first time at El Ranchito years ago and now tours the world as an impersonator, specializing in young Elvis and the “ ‘68 Comeback Special.”

Left: Cabrito a parillada. Above: Mango margarita, lime margarita and a michelada.

SIMPLE

Paul Mata Jr., a 2017 Sunset High School drum major, posts up outside the school.

Mata joined the Prairie View A&M University band this past fall.

THIS IS US

A year in the life of Oak Cliff

They tore down old things. They built new stuff. Oak Cliff is changing every day. But one thing that hasn’t changed yet: We are all in this together. Advocate photo editor Danny Fulgencio spends his days, and some nights, documenting our neighborhood. These are a few of the Oak Cliff places and faces he came across in 2017.

PHOTOS BY DANNY FULGENCIO

A crowd gathered for Heritage Oak Cliff’s preservation town hall at Arts Mission Oak Cliff in June. The neighborhood was in an uproar after El Corazon de Tejas restaurant was demolished to make way for a CVS store.

Two Day of the Dead revelers take a break from the festivities at La Maroches Bakery on West Davis in November.

oakcliff.advocatemag.com

Performers from Texas Burlesque Peep Show greet guests in the lobby during the 1980s themed New Year’s Eve party in 2016 at the Texas Theatre.

Cheerleaders are silhouetted in the afternoon sky during the annual Adamson vs. Sunset pep rally in the Bishop Arts District in September. Go Oak Cliff began throwing annual pep rallies for the intraneighborhood football rivalry in 2012.

A Mardi Gras dancer twirls down West Davis during the annual Oak Cliff Mardi Gras parade in February. The parade draws thousands of people to the neighborhood and is one of the biggest events in Oak Cliff.

Flirtation abounds at Bastille on Bishop. The annual July event in Bishop Arts celebrates “all things French.”

Children await the cutting of a birthday cake at La Rondalla, a nonprofit music school for elementary-high school students. Oak Cliff native Edie Brickell had played a benefit concert with the New Bohemians at the Kessler Theater in April to raise $17,000 for the school.

Kids participate in a painting demonstration at the Tyler/Davis block party in October.

WILLIAM R. WILSON

6440 N. Central Expressway, Suite 505 Dallas, TX 75206 • 214-871-2201 wrw@woolleywilson.com

Call me for a free consultation about Wills & Probate, Family Law, Civil Litigation, and Business or Commercial matters. There are many ways to avoid or resolve a dispute without costly litigation. I can also help with Adoptions, Child Custody, Child Support or other Family or Probate matters.

DAN “THE COMPUTER GUY”

stykidan@sbcglobal.net

Don’t panic! Let a seasoned pro be the interface between you & that pesky windows computer. Hardware & software installation, troubleshooting, training, $60/hour — one hour minimum.

ADVOCATE ORNAMENT

Home decor

Own the Advocate Foundation’s limitededition, numbered, and hand-painted ornament; perfect gift for the new home owner or long time resident.

email: foundation@ advocatemag.com or call 214.292.0486

NONPROFITS

DON’T DO GREY BOXES FOR OC IN 2018

Exxon Mobil Corp. gave $50,000 in December to Oak Cliffbased Promise House, which supports homeless, runaway and at-risk youth in North Texas. Promise House has helped some 75,000 kids and families since it opened in 1984.

Stevens Park Elementary School has a new outdoor classroom thanks to adjacent neighborhood associations and Heritage Oak Cliff Stevens Park Estates and Stevens Park Village donated the outdoor classroom, a plaza with flower beds and four picnic tables, with grants they received from Heritage Oak Cliff earlier this year.

Free pet spay and neuter services are available to anyone in Oak Cliff or South Dallas via Let’s Fix This, a privately funded campaign dedicated to ending dog bites and attacks in southern Dallas. Make an appointment and pay a $20 refundable deposit by calling 972.472.3500 or visiting spayneuternet.org.

Foundation 45, a support network for artists and musicians struggling with addiction or mental illness, now offers a weekly group meeting in Oak Cliff. The meetings are led by licensed professional counselors at the Common Desk, 633 W. Davis, every Thursday at 7 p.m.

PEOPLE

Heritage Oak Cliff awarded its Ruth Chenoweth preservation award to Dallas Landmark Commission member Michael Amonett and architect Alicia Quintans, two Oak Cliff residents who “have worked tirelessly in recent years to help identify and protect historic buildings in Oak Cliff.” The nonprofit gave a new prize, the “neighborhood champion award,” was given to park board member Barbara Barbee who works “to build stronger, healthier, safer, more inclusive and beautiful neighborhoods.”

Exxon Mobil Corp. Chairman and CEO Darren W. Woods, right, and his wife, Kathy, center, presented a check to Promise House CEO Ashley Lind.

Attorney at Law

Computer Repair

BIZ BUZZ

ROCK SHOP

WHAT’S UP WITH NEIGHBORHOOD BUSINESSES

Harkensback, a new Bishop Arts District shop from local creatives, opened recently in the Bishop Arts District. The shop took the space on Bishop Avenue at West Seventh previously occupied by Simply Austin Furniture store. Julie McCullough , a fashion designer who heads up Folksie and The Pin Show, opened the shop with partners Mike Arreaga and Marisa Dukowitz. It’s “inspired by the grandeur of West Texas, the tranquility of Tulum, Mexico and the iconoclastic style of Stevie Nicks” and offers jewelry and apparel by local designers as well as a stones and crystals bar.

CHEESE EXPORTERS

Dallas Grilled Cheese Co. is expanding to a 2,500-squarefoot space in Mockingbird Station, on Central Expressway at Mockingbird Lane. They’re taking the space formerly occupied by Smashburger . The restaurant was a runaway hit when it opened in the Bishop Arts District in January 2015.

BOOKS IN PERIL

The Oak Cliff location of Lucky Dog Books could close if it doesn’t come up with some cash to fund back rent, taxes and other costs. “We have run into a lot of ups and downs in getting the bookstore to this point, and we cannot wait any longer to ask for help to raise the money necessary to get caught up on the obligations that all of our own funds have not been able to meet,” owner John Tilton writes on Go Fund Me. “These include mostly back rent and property taxes. And an amount for working capital going forward to let more readers know about the wonders of this bookstore and to act as a contingency fund for the unexpected.” In addition to the fundraising campaign, Lucky Dog Books is holding a “staying or going sale ” at all of its locations, the proceeds of which will go toward keeping the Oak Cliff store open. They’re offering 30 percent off all merchandise “until our situation in Oak Cliff is resolved one way or the other.”

ACE OF FACE

Two childhood friends who grew up in Oak Cliff recently launched a line of shaving products. Evan Palmer and Julian Palafox grew up together in Kessler Park. Palafox became a barber who mastered the craft of straightedge shaving, and Palmer moved to California and learned business. Now they’ve established Kessler Shaving Co., a line of three shaving products: A pre-shave oil, a shave gel and a post-shave balm.

BISHOP DUNNE CATHOLIC SCHOOL

Contact: Charleen Doan at 214.339.6561 ext. 4020 or admission@bdcs.org

A co-educational, college preparatory school serving students in grades 6-12. We provide a strong faith and valuebased education with high academic standards, encouraging all students to achieve their full potential. Our curriculum emphasizes individualized attention, and is constantly at the forefront of technology integration through the use of laptops, ebooks, and our Online Education Program. Additionally, we provide a full range of extracurricular activities ranging from athletics, to the arts, to clubs and service organizations.

• Technology Enhanced Classrooms

• Reading/Writing Workshop Model

• STEM Lab, Art, Music & Library Time

• Spanish, PE and Recess Daily

• Low Student-to-Teacher Ratio

• Innovative Partnerships

• After School Care & Enrichment Programs

By BRENT MCDOUGAL

It is dark

WORSHIP

BAPTIST

CLIFF TEMPLE BAPTIST CHURCH / 125 Sunset Ave. / 214.942.8601

Serving Oak Cliff since 1898 / CliffTemple.org / English and Spanish

9 am Contemporary Worship / 10 am Sunday School / 11 am Traditional

ROYAL LANE BAPTIST CHURCH / 6707 Royal Lane / 214.361.2809

Christian Education 9:45 a.m. / Worship Service 10:55 a.m.

Pastor - Rev. Dr. Michael L. Gregg / www.royallane.org

DISCIPLES OF CHRIST

EAST DALLAS CHRISTIAN CHURCH / 629 N. Peak Street / 214.824.8185

Sunday School 9:30 am / Worship 8:30 am - Chapel

10:50 am - Sanctuary / Rev. Deborah Morgan-Stokes / edcc.org

EPISCOPAL

ST. AUGUSTINE’S /1302 W. Kiest Blvd / staugustinesoakcliff.org

A diverse, liturgical church with deep roots in Oak Cliff and in the ancient faith / Holy Eucharist with Hymns Sunday 10:15 am

METHODIST

GRACE UMC / Diverse, Inclusive, Missional Sunday School for all ages, 9:30 am / Worship, 10:50 am 4105 Junius St. / 214.824.2533 / graceumcdallas.org

NON-DENOMINATIONAL

KESSLER COMMUNITY CHURCH / 2100 Leander Dr. at Hampton Rd.

“Your Hometown Church Near the Heart of the City.” 10:30 am Contemporary Service / kesslercommunitychurch.com

I’d never experienced total darkness before the night that 15 of us, three adults and 12 youth, stayed in a cave. We entered Alabama’s Desoto Caverns in the daylight with headlamps and sleeping bags. After viewing stalactites, stalagmites and strange insects, our guide prepped us for the night ahead. It’s going to be dark, he said. Really dark.

I’ll never forget, however, just how eerily dark it was when we extinguished the last light. You could put your hand an inch from your face and see nothing. Someone whispered, “O my God it is dark.”

It wasn’t profanity; it was a prayer. What a long night that was with no light.

When the sun descended in the ancient world, it was completely dark. The ambient light of bedside lamps and cell phones makes it hard to imagine nightfall in the world of Jesus, where people couldn’t see anything at all.

Into that world Isaiah the prophet announced that the people walking in darkness had seen a great light (Isaiah 9:2-7). The Hebrew word for darkness means more than the absence of light. It means, “O my God, it is dark.” A heavy cloud of gloom, a deep obscurity, had fallen on the people. They felt oppressed and lost.

America feels like that to many people right now. Gloom, argument and disruption create fear for the future. It feels like we’re groping in the dark, waiting for daylight.

When the light dawned, Isaiah proclaimed, joy would give way to despair. The yoke of oppression would be broken, the heavy burden on people’s shoulders removed. Every war boot and bloodstained piece of clothing would be fuel for the fire.

But wait: The light would take on flesh. That’s the Christmas story, for those

who believe. A child would be born. “In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

(John 1:4-5)

Still, there is much darkness.

Frederick Buechner wrote, “We can’t see light itself. We can see only what light lights up, like the little circle of night where the candle flickers — a sheen of mahogany, a wineglass, a face leaning toward us out of the shadows. When Jesus says that he is the Light of the

World, maybe something like that is part of what he is saying. He himself is beyond our seeing, but in the darkness where we stand, we see, thanks to him, something of the path that stretches out … even when we can hardly believe that it goes anywhere worth going or that we have what it takes to go there, something of whoever it is that every once in a while seems to lean toward us out of the shadows.”

Winter’s light feels different from that of the summer. It doesn’t comfort or warm us, but still it shines. We wait in winter’s light and remember: spring is coming.

Brent McDougal is pastor of Cliff Temple Baptist Church. The Worship section is a regular feature underwritten by Advocate Publishing and by the neighborhood business people and churches listed on these pages. For information about helping support the Worship section, call 214.560.4202.

But winter’s light is enough to keep us going

America feels like that to many people right now. Gloom, argument and disruption create fear for the future.

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you thinking about New Year’s resolutions? Did you know about half of the resolutions that are made are not kept? Here are some tips to successfully achieve your goal.

The other idolized Reagan

One low-income school in Oak Cliff bears the name of a Confederate leader

By RACHEL STONE

When the Dallas school board decided in March 1905 to name a new school in Oak Cliff, only one person came up.

“Victor H. Hexter at once suggested John H. Reagan building,” a newspaper reported at the time. “And the plan was met with such favor that there was no other nomination and the vote was unanimous.”

They also wrote a letter to Reagan’s widow to express their feelings of “veneration and of love.”

John H. Reagan, who represented Texas in both houses of U.S. Congress and spearheaded the Texas Railroad Commission, died on March 6, 1905 at age 86. Texas newspapers at the time of his death praised Reagan as a “patriot,” as “among the wisest men of his age,” and “the most eminent of Southern statesmen.”

Reagan, however, had been a pro-slavery secessionist and a Confederate government official.

He served in Texas’ second legislature in the 1840s, and he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1857. He resigned from the House in January 1861 to join the Confederacy.

Confederate president Jefferson Davis appointed Reagan to his cabinet, making him postmaster general. After the war ended, Davis and Reagan were captured together, in May 1865. Reagan spent 22 weeks in solitary confinement at Fort Warren in Boston Harbor.

While imprisoned, he wrote a letter to his fellow Texans imploring them to recognize the authority of the United States, to renounce secession and slavery and to extend the “elective franchise” to former slaves. If not, he warned, the U.S. would take military action against Texas, and black people would be given the right to vote.

He was the last Confederate government official to die.

Those trying to keep the fires burning

for the Confederacy 40 years after its demise used Reagan’s life and legacy as a symbol upon his death.

The Dallas chapter of the Daughters of the Confederacy published this tribute:

“John H. Reagan was the last link connecting the present with the historic past. When the stars and bars were flung to the breeze, his advice and counsel helped to stir the Confederacy in its struggle for its just rights. He endured the rigors of prison life with stoic fortitude for he had been called to suffer for his beloved South.”

After his release from prison, Reagan continued political work in Texas. The United States pardoned him, and he again served in the U.S. House of Representatives, from 1875-1887. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1887.

In 1890, Gov. Jim Hogg asked Reagan to head up the new Texas Railroad Commission, which was aimed at regulating commerce in the state.

He ran an unsuccessful bid for governor and wrote a book about his life titled “Memoirs,” which is in the Library of Congress. He also helped to found the Texas State Historical Association, and he was a supporter of Confederate veterans organizations.

Oak Cliff schools were terribly overcrowded at the time the Reagan school, originally called “the West End School,” was built. The new school could house about 700 students.

It was built for white students only at a cost of $10,000, plus $2,000 for furnishings.

The original building was demolished in 1981 and replaced with the current Reagan Elementary School.

That school, which sits amid the constant development and ever-increasing property values of the Bishop Arts District, achieves high marks on state performance exams even though about 96 percent of its students live in poverty.

Confederate president Jefferson Davis appointed Reagan to his cabinet, making him postmaster general. After the war ended, Davis and Reagan were captured together, in May 1865. Reagan spent 22 weeks in solitary confinement at Fort Warren in Boston Harbor.

John H. Reagan circa 1860

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