2020 July Oak Cliff

BACK TO YOUR BEST

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CONTENTS

UP FRONT

10 Inclusive ink Tattooing is women’s work.

14 Curbside coffee Cultivar has no plans to reopen its cafes.

FEATURES

16 Fierce Females An all-state wrestler, a real-estate maven, a barbershop babe and a prison-reform organizer.

23 Only in Oak Cliff Tension was high during Black Lives Matters protesting.

32 The really big screen Could drive-in theaters make a comeback?

TABLE OF CONTENTS PHOTO BY DANNY FULGENCIO

How one man reclaimed his life from pain with the help of Emilia Bourland, The Concierge Therapist.

By master clinician, educator, author, and mobile Occupational Therapist Emilia Bourland, OTR, ECHM

Have you ever gone into the doctor complaining of shoulder pain? If you have, then you probably know how hard it can be to get anyone to really listen. Tell me if this story sounds familiar…

Jim was in his early forties. He’d had shoulder pain since an injury in high school. He’d seen the doctor, been told to rest, ice it, and take pain killers as needed. He’d been to physical therapy a couple of times, but he was always so busy it was hard to take half the day off for an appointment. Until recently, he’d been able to deal with the nagging little pain. He was still going to the gym, rough-housing with his kids, and playing the occasional pick-up game. But then, the pain got worse. He wasn’t just missing out on sports and play time. He was having trouble sleeping. He was uncomfortable working at the computer for too long. He worried he might need surgery.

Jim went back to the doctor, was told again to ice and “let it rest” and that he was just “getting older.” He felt totally brushed off. He was frustrated, worried, and beginning to feel like no one cared (his wife definitely seemed sick of hearing about it!). That’s when a friend suggested he talk to me.

See, I’m a mobile occupational therapist. That means it’s my job to help people do what they need and want to do- no matter what the underlying problem is. It also means that I work with clients in the place (or places) where the problem is occurring. It’s more than just incredibly convenient! It’s also much more effective than treating someone in a clinic.

And the best part for Jim? It just so happens that treating shoulder pain and injury is one of my specialties. If Jim sounds at all like someone YOU know… Here are three methods I used with Jim to FINALLY solve his shoulder problem.

If Jim’s story sounds familiar, here are your NEXT STEPS:

OPTION 1 Get a free PDF with PRACTICAL, ACTIONABLE tips on dealing with shoulder, arm, and hand pain. HINT: If you don’t have much time, this report is GEARED TOWARDS busy people! How to get it?

• Call (or TEXT 24/7) 469-998-1245

• Hate talking on the phone? I hear you. Download your free report today. theconciergetherapist.com/no-time-for-pain. No human interaction required!

OPTION 2 BOOK YOUR FREE VISIT NOW*All initial visits are virtual during COVID-19. I care about you and your family’s safety!

• Call or TEXT 469-998-1245 to schedule now, OR go online to TheConciergeTherapist.com/free-virtual-visit.

1

SLEEPING POSITION. If you’re going to heal, you have to sleep. If you’re going to sleep, you’ve got to be comfortable. So, I trained Jim in ways to modify his sleeping position to prevent further injury, and get a good night’s rest.

TASK AND ENVIRONMENT ADAPTATION. No, I’m not talking Darwin. The way you move is affected by the things you are doing and the place you are doing them. If your body, your task, and your environment are not a good fit, the result is pain and injury. I worked with Jim to analyze his movement and performance during tasks. I also looked deeply at his environment to see what worked well and what was causing problems. Making small adjustments to both helped him to prevent further injury and promote healthy movement.

2

IMPORTANT: There is NO COST or obligation to purchase anything. You DO NOT need insurance approval or a doctor’s referral.

3

THERAPEUTIC EXERCISE. You knew this one. Your environment and your activities have to be addressed to promote long-term healing and prevent new injury, but we can’t ignore your body! When we’re talking about your shoulder, muscle weakness and imbalance is a major source of pain.

After an in-depth assessment of Jim’s shoulder muscles, joints (yes, joints with an “S”!) and connective tissues, I gave him a customized exercise program to bring balance back to his shoulder. (What should you know about therapeutic exercise for the shoulder? Send me an e-mail at emilia.bourland@aipctherapy.com for BONUS TIPS on what a therapist should NEVER DO with your shoulder, or ask a specific question about YOU.)

See, Jim needed more than run-of-the-mill exercise in a clinic to make his pain go away. He needed comprehensive problem solving and a customized plan based around HIM, HIS NEEDS, and HIS LIFE. The fact that he got all of that, WITHOUT EVER having to set foot in a waiting room..? Talk about the cherry on top!

“I was in pain, but no one seemed to care.”

Cocktails at Desert Racer

The times are changing, and Oak Cliff resident and restaurateur Nick Badovinus is charging right ahead. Badovinus opened Desert Racer on Lower Greenville in December but shut down in March due to the coronavirus. Now he has turned it into a pop-up outdoor restaurant called Vantina, featuring Baja-style food on the patio.

BANDWAGON

THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS AT DALLAS is joining the Sooner Athletic Conference. The university created an athletics program in January and will begin competing in basketball, crosscountry and track next year. The school hired former Dallas Mavericks player Josh Howard as coach of the men’s basketball team. Former Plano Senior High School coach Rodney Belcher will helm the women’s team. Coach Kenneth Royal, formerly at Roosevelt and Madison high schools in Dallas, will coach the cross-country and track teams.

We’re not lining our pockets here. This is how we pay our rent.

— JONATHAN MEADOWS, OWNER OF CULTIVAR COFFEE, on page 14.

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EDITORIAL

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ABOUT THE COVER

The Advocate’s 2020 Fierce

Females were photographed at the Fabrication Yard in West Dallas.

(Photography by Danny Fulgencio)

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SOLD IN NORTH CLIFF AT 2740 CATHERINE ST 842 SQ FT 2/2/2

UNDER CONTRACT AT 2505 WEDGLEA DR #206 667 SQ FT 1/1/1 COVERED RESERVED PARKING SPACE

FOR SALE IN WYNNEWOOD NORTH 1811 SHELMIRE DR 2303 SQFT 3/2/2 OFFERED AT $435,000

SOLD IN HIGHLAND OAKS AT 1504 RUSSELL GLEN DR 2150 SQ FT 4/4/2

UNDER CONTRACT IN CLUB OAKS 4635 DOVE CREEK WAY 2175 SQFT 3/2/2

COMING AND GOING

[–] CEVICHE OYSTER BAR closed its West Davis location after about a year and a half in business there, but the same menu is available at the Reyes family’s other restaurant, La Palapa del Sabor at 118 W. Jefferson Blvd. It’s in the location of Raul Reyes’ bygone restaurant, the upscale Mesa, which closed in August after eight years in business.

[+] A Miami-based gourmet donut shop opened its first location outside of Florida in Bishop Arts recently. THE SALTY DONUT, at 414 W. Davis, is open for takeout and delivery. Most of their donuts start with 24-hour brioche dough and come in flavors such as horchata,

#PICTUREPERFECT

A PIECE OF THE PAST

Nothing major going on at Bishop Avenue and Seventh Street in 1989. This photo shows what is now Bishop Street Market on the right, the old Hattie’s on the left, and the building where Eno’s is now in the middle of the block. Photo courtesy of the Texas Historical Commission.

V Market founder Christina Bluford found a way to bring plant-based businesses together. Check out this

photo

by Kathy Tran @OakCliffAdvocate on Instagram.

Advice from your future self

DALLAS COUNTY COMMISSIONER

ELBA GARCIA was born and raised in Mexico City. She received her education there and had her doctorate in dental surgery recertified after immigrating to the United States. Dr. Garcia owns a dental practice on Jefferson Boulevard and is married to LULAC National President Domingo Garcia. Advice for younger self: “Work hard. Study hard, and get your education. Your education is the key to your success – you will go nowhere without it. Most important, there will be people that you encounter that will tell you that you can’t succeed, that you are too small and not strong enough to be a dentist, that as an immigrant, you could never get elected to the City Council, that you’ll never be able to beat a 16-year incumbent and be elected County Commissioner. Don’t listen to them. Never let anyone tell you that you can’t achieve whatever goal you set for yourself. Never let anyone stand between you and your dreams.”

Beautifully-designed East Kessler Park modern

A NEW TATTOO

BY RACHEL STONE | PHOTOGRAPHY BY DANNY FULGENCIO

Walking into a traditional tattoo shop might feel normal for tough guys and biker chicks. Not so much for everyone who wants ink.

Avril Spencer has many tattoos, and she doesn’t regret any of them, but she has turned right around at the door of a shop before. “There have been times when I didn’t get a tattoo because I went to a place and they made me feel uncomfortable,” she says. “One said, ‘Yeah, we can tattoo you right here right now,’ and they pointed to a chair that was facing the entire waiting room, and I wanted the tattoo on my breast.”

More tattoo shops, particularly in cities like New York, are beginning to cater to women and those of non-binary gender, coming across more like a high-end salon.

Tattooing moved beyond shipyards and biker culture decades ago, and now it’s firmly in feminine territory. More women had tattoos than men in a 2012 Harris Poll of 2,016 people in the United States. That poll also found that one in five adults has a tattoo in this country. Who would guess that it’s higher in Oak Cliff, eight years later?

But even in the year 2020, identifying as a feminist tattoo artist remains so controversial in that industry that Pegasus Tattoo Studios owner Stephanie Adelina really doesn’t want to talk about it.

A Dallas native and arts magnet grad, Adelina traveled to India and Australia after high school to learn her trade. She moved her business from the Deep Ellum area to Oak Cliff earlier this year with two other female tattoo artists, Betty Rodriguez and Morgan Wright, on board. Along with aesthetician Amy Thornhill, they took residence in Sunset Art Studios.

Pegasus is a “feminist tattoo and aesthetics collective” that is body positive and LGBTQ friendly. A few weeks after they set up shop and held a grandopening party, the coronavirus pandemic hit. So far, only Rodriguez has returned to work.

The studio is on the sunny second story of a midcentury office building, filled with plants and shabby chic furniture and smelling like the candle section of a Waxahachie antique store. Unlike traditional tattoo shops, it’s not open at night.

“We don’t do that,” Adelina says. “We just have normal retail hours. A lot of our clients are people with kids who live in the neighborhood.”

The new digs puts them at the center of a grassroots arts movement that grew out of Oil and Cotton (see page 26).

Sunset Art Studios started at a dining room table in Oak Cliff in 2016. Rachel Rushing and Emily Riggert met at Oil and Cotton, where Rushing was one of the first teachers, and Riggert was the first intern.

They started with a small budget, a sweet deal on rent and a killer website, thanks to a tech-savvy spouse. The nonprofit provides free studio space for artists who identify as part of marginalized groups and offers free community arts programming as a way to “reduce geographic and social barriers of seeing and engaging with art.”

“A lot of our clients are people with kids who live in the neighborhood.”

Left to right: Emily Riggert, Stephanie Adelina, Betty Rodriguez, Morgan Wright, Rachel Rushing and Amy Thornhill

In other words, they bring art to the people. Just as the coronavirus hit, they were set to begin a project with Building Community Workshop that would’ve included 15 art “engagements” Downtown, starting with printing posters on their press.

“Our space is all about community engagement and using engagement as a medium,” Riggert says. That presents challenges in the era of social distancing.

Big Thought had been scheduled to begin using one of their spaces for art programs, and that was canceled. But Sunset’s artist in residence, Constance White, has continued working there by herself.

“We’ve been trying to think about what does social practice look like in a time of social distancing,” Riggert says. The studio also won a $5,000 coronavirus-relief grant from TACA, the Arts Community Alliance, to get them over the hump.

And they won a $533 grant from Heritage Oak Cliff and have plans to raise another $1,500 to build a socially distanced community garden.

They’re planning an outdoor art show on the Balboa triangle, the green space outside of the studio in Elmwood. Artists will paint two sides of a board to be displayed on the triangle, where people can view and buy them with no contact.

Sunset Art Studios also received a $4,000 grant from the Moody Foundation in March.

Artists are starting to use their studio spaces there again, and the printing press is again available for rent, with thorough sterilization between users. They’ve recently been printing literature and posters for anti-racism protests.

“One thing Dallas lacks is funding for local, emerging artists,” says Elmwood-based artist Iris Bechtol, in a North Texas Giving Day promo. “Sunset fills a gap.”

Just like a feminist tattoo collective fills a space in the tattoo industry. It’s a place to endure a tattoo or hair removal in a comforting, nonjudgmental space.

“Some places promote themselves that way, but they don’t really feel that way,” tattoo client Avril Spencer says. “I didn’t get anything negative with Stephanie. It was very private, and she was open to anything I wanted.”

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“We’ve been trying to think about what does social practice look like in a time of social distancing.”

Pegasus Tattoo Studios, a “feminist tattoo and aesthetics collective” now shares space with other members of the art nonprofit Sunset Stuido.

OUR NEIGHBORHOOD

Cultivar offers only curbside takeout for the forseeable future, and the coffee shop and roaster has pivoted to bottling coffee and tea.

CUSTOM BOTTLED COFFEE

CULTIVAR STANDS ITS GROUND WITH CURBSIDE ONLY, HIGHER WAGES

JONATHAN MEADOWS knows you think his coffee is expensive.

“We’re not over here lining our pockets,” says Meadows, who started Cultivar coffee in 2009. “This is how we pay our rent.”

A small latte costs $5 at Cultivar because it’s made with high quality ingredients by a well-trained barista who earns a living wage.

“Nobody at our company is making less than $15 an hour,” Meadows says.

Paying a living wage is so important to the company that Cultivar dismantled its customer loyalty program and decided to spend that money on employees instead.

“We were giving away $60,000 in product every year, but our own staff was having a hard time paying rent, or they were taking on other jobs,” Meadows says.

Paying higher wages was among the company’s top concerns before the coronavirus hit. After mid-March, Cultivar lost about 90% of its income and had to furlough most employees.

The location at Jefferson Tower, which opened in 2016, was closed entirely for almost three months. The coffee roaster’s original location in East Dallas offered only curbside takeout.

Now the Oak Cliff location has reopened, but both places offer only curbside takeout, and that’s how it’s going to be for the foreseeable future, Meadows says.

“The numbers keep climbing, and it didn’t make sense to put our employees at risk,” he says.

Plenty of loyal customers say they appreciate having a coffee shop where they know workers are taking safety precautions. Others complain that Cultivar won’t open its inside areas.

“We miss having people in the spaces, but we’re really just having to ask those hard questions every day,” he says. “I don’t want to see anyone get sick within our company, and we’ve been fortunate to not have any illness.”

Cultivar also lost some big wholesale clients, such as Alamo Drafthouse, which has yet to reopen. But the company picked up a new one: Central Market. Their roasts are now available at the Central Market on Lovers Lane.

Cultivar also pivoted to bottling. What’s different is that coffee drinkers can customize their orders. Say you want an oak milk, decaf, half-sweet latte every morning. Cultivar can bottle a week’s worth.

“For the baristas, they don’t have to change anything they do. They’re just putting the order into a different serving container,” Meadows says. “There’s been a learning curve for everyone, but it’s helped keep the staff busy.”

Call a day in advance to place custom orders.

Both Cultivar locations also offer their entire menus of sandwiches, salads and espresso drinks for curbside takeout.

313 W. Jefferson Blvd., 972.982.0719, Cultivarcoffee.com

Cultivar’s bottled drinks are made to order and last up to seven days.

Four resilient, persistent and innovative women who are taking charge.

Interviews by RACHEL STONE |

Photography by DANNY FULGENCIO

BRITTANY WHITE

Found her calling postincarceration

rittany White appeared on live national television on March 29 to talk about mass incarceration and COVID-19. It was White’s first time on MSNBC, but she’s been training for this her whole life, having spoken in church since childhood and competed in oratory competitions. “We don’t want to see mass deaths with mass incarceration,” she said, before launching into solutions to greater systemic problems and calling for “bold, decisive and swift action” to stem viral spread through the nation’s prisons and jails. White worked her way up from volunteer to national manager for Live Free, a nonprofit with the goal of ending mass incarceration in the United States. She joined that cause after serving five years in an Alabama prison for drug trafficking. “We have a caricature of who criminals are in this country, and we use that to deny the formerly incarcerated of very basic human rights like housing, a job with a livable wage and healthcare,” she says. She noticed that advocacy around the formerly incarcerated focused on men, and women were often left out of the conversation. She found her calling in advocating for current and former prisoners. “What appears to have broken you can actually just be a pathway to your destiny,” she says. Originally from Dayton, Ohio, her family moved to Dallas in 1997, and she graduated from Townview High School. After college, she started working at Verizon Wireless in the Buckhead neighborhood of Atlanta, and in 2009, she was arrested on a marijuana trafficking charge in Alabama. Her parents, who both have master’s degrees, encouraged her to take a plea deal, but she went to trial and lost. Upon her release in 2014, she

returned to Dallas and started working as a volunteer organizer. She’s a member of Concord Church, and she says she’s “your favorite playlist deejay. I’m taller than most of the men I meet in Dallas. I was raised around a lot of boys, and I exemplify who you can be if you have a lot of faith, and you continue to persevere.” She wants everyone to know that she’s the best spades player you’ll ever know. And she’s currently working on a campaign to require health inspections at county jails in 10 jurisdictions around the country. After home and work, her “third place” in the neighborhood is her parents’ house: They are my most trusted advisors. I’m their youngest child and only daughter, so I experience a lot of love and spoiling there. My family is also super close knit, so it’s where we convene as a larger family as well.

The challenges of her career: The most challenging thing in my career is when my personal network is affected by the issues I am working on. My work includes focusing on reducing and eliminating mass incarceration and dignified solutions to gun violence. When people I know and love are incarcerated, shot and killed, it is extremely disheartening.

Misconceptions about her job: People mischaracterize the work I do as a community organizer as “activism.” Activism is about amplifying one’s own voice in a public way to trigger change. Community organizing entails building collective power to change the way decisions get made about our lives. It is heavily focused on building collective power and collective interest to accomplish dignity for all.

What she looks for in employees: Resilience and self-motivation. This industry is heavily reliant on being able to do very hard systemic work that can involve working day-to-day in experience that reminds you of personal trauma. There is so much work to do that one has to have the motivation to pace and manage themselves and their intended impact.

Her favorite image of Oak Cliff is the skyline view from her home: Or, the view from on top of Prayer Mountain descending across Joe Pool Lake. Her proudest career accomplishment so far: I am proud of my trajectory from volunteer to national manager. I had an opportunity to talk to six presidential candidates about their criminal justice platforms during the course of this current election, along with other formerly incarcerated people from across the country. Not bad for a girl from Dayton, Ohio.

Besides work, what she’s most proud of: One reason I experienced incarceration is that character was not as important to me as success. I had to experience a number of life-altering situations that caused me to develop and revere character in the valley of life. Now I am an active architect in building out my character as a strong, resilient, unapologetic black woman. That itself is a beautiful thing.

How she would like to be remembered: As someone who stayed authentic and gave all the glory in her life to the Most High.

“I am an active architect in building out my character as a strong, resilient, unapologetic black woman.”

AMANDA LAKE

manda Lake grew up with six siblings in an 800-square-foot house in West Dallas. She became a hairstylist and opened her own salon and a westernwear store in the Bishop Arts District in the late ’80s. She learned to deal with city code and planning cases as a business owner and soon began taking on cases for other people to make extra money. Soon she was handling planning cases full time, and then she bought properties and became a commercial landlord. Now she is married to Jim Lake Jr. and has joined his business, Jim Lake Cos., as vice president of operatons and partner. She is a co-founder of Mammogram Poster Girls Inc., a neighborhood nonprofit that funds mammograms for people who otherwise couldn’t afford one. She also supports The

Well, an Oak Cliff nonprofit that provides mental-health services. She serves on the Dallas Area Rapid Transit board of directors.

Career accomplishments she’s proud of: Chairman of the board of the Oak Cliff Chamber of Commerce and being a property owner of the Bishop Arts District. Misconceptions about her profession: As an urban redeveloper, the misconception is that we tear down buildings, but the truth is we repurpose them.

What she looks for in employees: Honesty, integrity and a good work ethic.

What she’s proud of besides work: My family and being able to be active in their lives. My gardens.

The best advice she’s ever received: Don’t underestimate people.

The best gift she’s received: My children and my beautiful granddaughter, Aubrey.

A strong leader is… Someone who listens.

Advice she would give to her younger self: Go to college and get a degree. Focus on

yourself and your goals.

Advice she would give to someone who wants to go into commercial real estate: Surround yourself with positive people with knowledge in that field. Learn from experience.

How she would like to be remembered: As someone who gives back to the community and as someone who was involved on boards and commissions, where impacting decisions are made.

On gender discrimination: It has been key to my success because others underestimate me.

How she achieves work/life balance: Having a great staff is crucial in balancing the work/life load.

How she relaxes: Cooking, decorating my home, gardening.

The biggest problem our community faces: Homelessness.

How she would spend $1 million on the community: I would help those with mental illness.

Used being underestimated to her advantage

DESTINY MILES

Is a two-time state wrestling champion

imball High School wrestling coach Devon

Forsten has taken a female athlete to the state tournament every year since he started the girls’ program in 2000. That’s 20 all-state female wrestlers in 20 years. But only one has won first place. That’s Destiny Miles. Miles, who graduated from Kimball High School this year, is the first female wrestler in Dallas Independent School District history to win two state championships. Forsten had seen Miles run track at T.W. Browne Middle School, and when she got to Kimball, he noticed her horsing around with boys in the hallways. She made it to the state tournament all four years of her high school career. Miles grew up with six siblings in a household where money was scarce, and she says she even shoplifted groceries to keep herself and her siblings fed. Wrestling requires extreme discipline with diet and workouts, plus the mental toughness of a soldier, Forsten says. Miles won a wrestling scholarship to Schreiner University in Kerrville, where she plans to major in criminal justice. When she’s not training or going to school, she works at Family Dollar.

Misconceptions about wrestling: People don’t understand that it’s a hard sport. You can’t go in thinking, “I can fight; you can’t lick me.” It’s a hard sport. You have to think, and you have to have technique. The best advice she’s received: No matter how hard the sport gets, don’t quit. Sports got hard, and I wanted to quit, but I didn’t quit. If I didn’t keep going, I wouldn’t be here today. It helped me with a lot of opportunities.

Advice for her younger self: From me to me? Stop eating the junk food. That is a lot of losing weight that you’re going to have to do! I had to weigh 148 point zero [to make her weight class]. There’s no such thing as 148 point one. My freshman through junior years, I had to work out a lot because of all the food I was eating. My senior year, I didn’t do that because I changed my diet. I was always under weight or at weight, and I didn’t have to work out so hard to lose weight.

Advice she would give a younger wrestler: My younger sister wants to be a wrestler, so I told her I would help her. All I told her is, “Don’t get cocky.” Don’t let everybody call you Hollywood. Don’t let that stuff get to you. Do it for fun, and do it for you. On balancing athletics with schoolwork: I was doing too much. My day started always at 4 o’clock, and it ended at 7 or 9 p.m. I had to get rid of my second sport [track], and I had to leave my job, but I told them the situation, and they said I could come back. Track practice started at 6 a.m. … and I had wrestling practice after school. Then I would work some days, and I had homework. I was going to the washateria every three days because I had school clothes and work clothes and track clothes and wrestling clothes. I had two

lockers I had to get to. I had a lot of rushing, so something had to go.

How she relaxes: I’m an inside person. I’m not like, “Let’s go out and hang out with friends.” If the day is completely free, all I do is lay in front of my laptop and watch movies the whole day. That’s my free time. I love all movies. I’ll watch any genre. What worries her: My biggest worry is getting hurt in college. Where I’m from, a lot of people don’t make it out, and my biggest fear is being able to make it out and then something bad happens, and I’m struggling and things get worse and worse. Let’s say I do break a bone, and my scholarship goes away. I just don’t want to fail myself and end up as a used-to-be or a “what happened?” I want to be able to still have my opportunity.

LIEGEA LOPEZ

Makes back-to-school accessible

ishop Barbers gave away 250 backpacks filled with school supplies and at least as many haircuts during its second backto-school celebration in 2019. Liegea Lopez, who co-owns the shop with her husband, Marcus Santillan, came up with the idea because she was raised by a single mom. “My mom worked at Salvation Army on Harry Hines,” she says. “I just always saw her struggle all the time, and back-to-school was always a struggle.” Lopez grew up in the Oak Lawn area and went to North Dallas High School, Rusk Middle School and Maple Lawn Elementary, where she first met her husband. They were married five years ago and have seven kids from previous relationships. Santillan bought Bishop Barbers after a tragedy. The previous owner was murdered in 2014 at the hands of an employee he had just fired. “There wasn’t life at the barber shop after the killing,” Lopez says. “We started to do community events, collecting blankets and beanies for the homeless, doing toy drives and asking the community to help with the back-toschool events.”

Lopez’s father was a barber, and she spent many Saturdays sweeping up hair as a kid. “My dad was murdered when I was 9,” she says. “Him being murdered always gave me motivation. I never took it as a negative thing. It was more of a positive thing.” Once she and her husband got together, after many years of friendship, they were practically inseparable. His business needed help, so she quit her job in a medical office to take on marketing and administrative duties. Before the coronavirus pandemic, they had just opened a second shop, Bishop Barber Babes, a couple of blocks away. They plan to give away 350 filled backpacks this year. On her unusual name (she goes by Gea): My grandmother gave me an Egyptian name because she loved ancient Egyptian art and history. That’s why I have a cousin named Cleopatra. We call her Cleo. Her favorite neighborhood hangout: I like to go to Ceviche [Oyster Bar] for a shrimp cocktail and a cucumber margarita.

What they’ve accomplished through their shop: I’ve been able to utilize this barbershop and give back so much than I ever did before. Just being able to give back and help out has made me appreciate life so much. And whatever crazy idea I have, my husband always backs me up. I say, “OK we’re going to do free haircuts for officers,” and he just does it. He never questions it, even though he’s the one who has to do all the work.

What scares her: I don’t think anything could get scarier than COVID-19. We closed down for six weeks, without much of a savings. Every day you get up, and you just have to have faith in God that you’re going to make it.

Misconceptions of her business: That it’s easy. It’s open to close, seven days a week. Before the whole COVID-19, my husband and I hadn’t taken a Saturday off for four years. We close at 9 p.m. We don’t get to take off on a Friday or Saturday. As a business owner, the minute you’re not there is when something happens. You just have to be there because anything can go wrong.

The best advice she’s received: Pick your battles. My husband tells me that all the time.

Her greatest influence: My mom. She was a single mom with two jobs trying to provide for her kids. She got up every day and worked hard for my sister and me.

A strong leader is … Someone who can put their personal political views aside and still help other human beings. Have empathy towards other human beings and help them any way you possibly can. How would you like to be remembered? Being a strong person. Defending others when they don’t have the energy to fight back. Trying to find ways to help other people.

Her biggest worries: I worry about my kids’ future. It’s a scary time right now, and my kids are really worried about it. Nothing’s changing. Nothing’s improving. We keep going backwards.

How she would spend $1 million on the community: A really good friend of mine, Sylvia Collins, says that we need a senior citizens center in Oak Cliff, and I think we do need one. And we have moms that need clothes, groceries, babysitting. We could have seniors volunteer to help with childcare. A lot of moms need help like that. Growing up, my mom needed help like that.

“Just being able to give back and help out has made me appreciate life so much.”

AFTER SEVERAL NIGHTS of protests in June that resulted in broken windows at Downtown and Uptown businesses, the Dallas Police Department issued a 7 p.m. curfew June 2. The curfew did not include Oak Cliff, and that brought hundreds of protesters across the bridge from Downtown to Lake Cliff Park. The protest remained peaceful, if loud. Dallas Police Sgt. Ira Carter (pictured) worked to keep things calm. A lone officer in a squad car inched toward the protest, exited, took a knee and then encouraged and cautioned protesters.

Story by RACHEL STONE | Photography by DANNY FULGENCIO

PHOTOS OF OUR NEIGHBORHOOD

THE NEW SCHOOL

ST. CECILIA’S PRINCIPAL IS AN OAK CLIFFER FROM WAY BACK

Story by RACHEL STONE | Photography by DANNY FULGENCIO

Principal Lydia Torrez, right, and Assistant Principal Estella Valdez are taking St. Cecilia Catholic School into the post-COVID era.

LYDIA TORREZ thought St. Cecilia Catholic School was so big.

She remembers, as a third-grader, getting lost in the school until an older kid helped her find her classroom.

At the end of this past school year, Torrez left an 18-year stint at Bishop Dunne Catholic School, where she was director of development. She returned to St. Cecilia as principal.

This isn’t her first time back.

Torrez and her brothers attended the school in the late 1960s, when their mom was school secretary.

After teaching at Mark Twain Elementary out of college, Torrez returned to St. Cecilia for 15 years, as a teacher, assistant principal and principal. Her three sons attended the school during those years. Four of the school’s current teachers are St. Cecilia alumni. Of those, two were Torrez’s students, and one was a classmate.

“My whole life has been spent in service to this community,” she says.

Now she is planning to take the school into a post-COVID future, and she does it with joy in her heart. Torrez is the type of person to wax romantic about the first day of school. The new shoes, the nerves, the smell of pencils and crayons.

While St. Cecilia is expected to return to in-person school in August, the first day could look different, with face coverings, social distancing, instruction on safe hygiene and a hybrid of in-person and online school.

Torrez had planned to take two weeks off between jobs, but her last day at Bishop Dunne was April 10.

By then, St. Cecilia was operating fully

online under the leadership of interim principal Estela Valdez. Torrez took the principal’s chair April 13.

“Our faculty didn’t have a spring break,” Valdez says. “We worked every day, all day.”

St. Cecilia has about 140 students in pre-K through eighth grade. While middle school students already had online learning, staff had to build from the ground up to teach pre-K and elementary students online.

Teachers sent emails to parents every day outlining the curriculum, and they met by video with each of their students one-on-one at least once a day, on top of group instruction. They also had individual calls with parents once a week.

the parents. This strengthened the whole community.”

They’re planning to offer in-person school, but they also want to continue providing online-only education for families who don’t want to take the risk amid the coronavirus pandemic.

“It’s pushing us as educators,” Torrez says. “As terrible and painful as it is, it has produced some positive outcomes in terms of pushing us into the 21st century.”

Amid all this transition, St. Cecilia is also undergoing renovations this summer, starting with recabling the entire building to increase bandwidth. They’re doing roof repairs, removing old ceiling tiles, updating electrical work and painting all the classrooms in calming pastel colors.

“This is a hard time for the students. They understand what’s going on in the world, and it’s scary,” Torrez says.

The school begins the day in prayer, and they try to include mindfulness in everything they do.

“I’m looking to make school fun. Learning has to be alive,” Torrez says. “It has to be hands on and real world.”

The elephant in the room here is St. Cecilia’s place amid allegations of sex abuse in the Catholic Church. St. Cecilia Church was the site of a May 2019 police raid that came a few months after the Catholic Diocese released a list of priests who were “credibly accused” of sex abuse.

A priest at St. Cecilia, Edmundo Paredes, was accused of stealing as much as $80,000 from the church. Paredes also was accused of sexually abusing three male students of St. Cecilia School between 10 and 20 years ago. Paredes is thought to have fled the country following his retirement in the summer of 2018 and remains at large.

Find a full statement on that from Catholic Diocese of Dallas at oakcliff. advocatemag.com.

In the beginning, the faculty met every day to debrief on what was working and what wasn’t.

Considering all of that, plus learning new software and strategies for e-learning, fielding tech-support calls and tutoring, it went quite well.

“We found that we had less missing work from students because of the time we spent with parents,” Valdez says. “Everyone is closer now, the faculty and

Besides her connection to the school, Torrez has seen five generations of her family in the pews at St. Cecilia Catholic Church, from her grandparents to her grandchildren.

Torrez grew up in El Tivoli, where she lived a few blocks away from her grandparents and other extended family members.

“Oak Cliff is my community, and I have served it, and there is no greater place to live, in my book,” Torrez says.

“My whole life has been spent in service to this community.”

SCRAPPY AND FLOURISHING

HOW A SMALL BUSINESS MAKES ART HAPPEN

OIL AND COTTON sprang out of a pop-up shop during the first Better Block in 2010.

The idea for a store and gallery that offers classes in art and music to children and adults has kept Kayli House and Shannon Driscoll in business for a decade.

“It’s our tenth anniversary this year. We were going to have a big party in April,” House says. Instead, they went fully virtual overnight, became a processing center for project packets, wrote instructions for all of their lessons, amplified the calendar on their website and learned to live with Zoom.

“It feels like going back to day one,” Driscoll says. “And I mean that in a good way. We had to scrap to keep it going during all of this, and it awakened that spirit again.”

Story by RACHEL STONE | Photography by DANNY FULGENCIO

They ordered webcams on Wednesday before everything started closing on Friday, March 13. By Monday, they had everything in place to begin offering all of their spring break classes as planned.

That was crucial because spring break and summer classes account for most of their annual revenues. The first week, House and Driscoll worked with two other employees and House’s daughter, Katy Rose, pouring paint into to-go ramekins from BBBop and Oddfellows restaurants and packaging other art supplies.

Locals picked up their packets, but some were shipped to customers in Vermont, Maine and Washington state, adding shipping deadlines to the mix.

The school not only served clients in other states, but they also added classes for out-of-town teaching artists.

Oil and Cotton also picked up a contract with the Kessler School to teach art classes as part of their curriculum during the school’s closure.

While many of us are Zoom-ed out by now, online learning encouraged some people to sign up for classes who might not otherwise.

Jessica Brice of Lake Highlands started enrolling her 5-year-old son, Luka Bifano, at age 2, but she never found the time to sign up for the adult classes for herself. She’s already taken three since online classes were introduced.

“It’s so nice because my son can play in the same room, and I can put my earbuds in and follow along with the teacher,” she says. “I really hope they continue with them because we are still social distancing and not ready to go out yet.”

Oil and Cotton stayed online only for summer camps through June, but they plan to begin offering in-person camps at 50% capacity in July. Their summer camps normally start filling up during spring break, and they’re usually sold out by May. That hasn’t happened this year. By early June, all but one still had seats available.

Online learning hasn’t been so bad for Oil and Cotton except that it takes away their X factor.

“We do all the cleanup,” Driscoll says. “You can drop your kids off here, we keep them busy doing something creative, and we clean it all up. At home you can’t do that.”

Besides the big party for their 10th anniversary, Oil and Cotton was poised to purchase their own building somewhere in Oak Cliff this year.

“We were ready to invest in the longevity of this business, and buying a building is a big part of that,” Driscoll says.

The pandemic has paused those plans for now, but they intend to make them happen one day.

“This is a super exciting time from a creative standpoint,” House says. “We thrive in that situation of a creative challenge and working with what we have.”

Opposite page: Kylie House (left) and Shannon Driscoll started Oil and Cotton 10 years ago. The business teaches classes to adults and children in a multitude of art forms including, painting, printmaking and fabric dye.

“We thrive in a creative challenge and working with what we have.”

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UPHOLSTERY

To

By KELSEY CAPPS

Religious family shuns daughter’s sexuality

I’m intimately familiar with the sentiments behind actions such as President Trump’s attempt to legalize discrimination against trans people. My parents run a faith-based nonprofit, and my sister and her husband are missionaries overseas. I directed an award-winning ministry while attending a Baptist university. I also happen to be gay, and the head-on collision between my faith and my sexuality shattered my life.

When I came out, my mother told me that homosexuality was an evil spirit, able to be cast out if I but called on Jesus’ name. My father put a withered tree branch on the kitchen table and said that my soul would resemble it, chaff for the fire, if I continued on my path. One sister said I was selfish and then told her children that I was in love with my sin. The other sister told me through tears that she wished she could support me. I was exhausted and heartbroken when my mother pulled me aside to ask, “Do you repent?”

I can’t exaggerate the mental and emotional anguish that erupted when I refused; my family believed I was caught in the clutches of their spiritual enemy, a fate worse than death, and I lost the close relationships I had with every member of my immediate family.

Their fervent beliefs galvanized them into actions that they assumed on my behalf, praying, calling, beseeching me to come back to faith and back to God.

As I pieced myself back together, I was never more grateful for the separation of church and state, which allowed me to keep body and mind together even as my support systems vanished. My family doesn’t want me dead (at least not without salvation), but their fundamentalist beliefs, ratified as law, might inadvertently eradicate the problem whether

they expressly will it or not.

More than anger, an inconsolable grief takes hold when I am vilified and legislated against by my state and country. Queer people are faced with discrimination, attacks and stigma on a daily basis, often giving up the people and places closest to them in a Faustian trade for freedom. Proposals such as the “bathroom bill” exiled us from our own soil, reiterating in a screaming voice what a faint whisper has already been repeating: “You aren’t wanted here.” Not your person, not your love, not your life.

Brutality tests itself on the proving grounds of minority populations, waiting to see what the morality of the majority will tolerate. True believers, the ones who actually read the Bible and cling to its word, should never support such discrimination, because it is the antithesis of the very character of Christ.

One of the concerns that my parents voiced on that first night was their fear of social backlash, the cultural pain and suffering that comes with being gay. They didn’t want anyone to hurt me, or be unkind. It is this dissonance, the inability to reconcile that the well-intentioned might also be the perpetrators, that gives birth to cruel laws and inhuman faith.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June that the 1964 Civil Right Act applies to LGBTQ people. The ruling undid an executive order that President Trump had signed just days before, explicitly allowing discrimination based on gender identity.

Kelsey Capps is an Oak Cliff-based writer. The Worship section is underwritten by Advocate Publishing and the neighborhood businesses and churches listed here. For information about helping support the Worship section, call 214.560.4202.

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

GRACE TEMPLE BAPTIST Come to a Place of Grace!

Sunday Worship: English Service 9:30am / Spanish Service 11:00am 831 W. Tenth St. / 214.948.7587 / gracetempledallas.org

CATHOLIC

ST. CECILIA CATHOLIC PARISH StCeciliaDallas.org / 1809 W Davis St.

M-F masses at 8am in English and 5:30pm in Spanish

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

CHRIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH / ChristChurchDallas.org

Sunday School: 11:15am /Mass: 9am & 10am English, 12:30pm Español

Wednesday Mass: 6pm English, 8pm Español / 534 W. Tenth Street

METHODIST

KESSLER PARK UMC / 1215 Turner Ave./ 214.942.0098 I kpumc.org

10:30am Sunday School/11:00 Worship /All welcome regardless of reed, cr eed, color, culture, gender or sexual identity.

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

TRINITY CHURCH OAK CLIFF / Love God. Love Others. Make Disciples. Sundays 10:00 am / Worship & children’s Sunday School 1139 Turner Ave. / trinitychurchoakcliff.org

PRESBYTERIAN

PARK CITIES PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH/ 4124 Oak Lawn Ave

Sunday Worship 9:00 & 11:00 A.M.

To all this church opens wide her doors - pcpc.org

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

When the government backs discrimination, families suffer more

By RACHEL STONE

Movies outside

Oak Cliff had seven drive-in theaters

Drive-in movie theaters enjoyed a renaissance 17 years ago when Galaxy Drive-In opened about 35 miles south of here off Interstate 45.

Now some music promoters are trying to put professional musicians back to work during the coronavirus pandemic by putting on shows at the new school of drive-ins, including the Coyote in Fort Worth. And a return to drive-ins is one idea for how to engage the movie-going public in a post-coronavirus world.

Dallas’ first drive-in opened on Northwest Highway in 1941, and drivein theaters started closing everywhere in the 1970s. By 2000, most were gone. Dallas’ last drive-in, The Astro on Walton Walker Blvd., closed in 1998.

Dallas was home to 19 drive-ins during the mid-20th century, and seven of those were in Oak Cliff.

Chalk Hill Drive-In was the second one built in Dallas. It opened on July 4, 1941. It was identical to the Northwest Highway Drive-In, which opened two

demolished a year later.

Jefferson Drive-In was parallel to Chalk Hill, on West Jefferson at Cockrell Hill Road. It opened in 1945 and could accommodate 600 cars. It closed and reopened several times in the 1980s but closed for good in 1990.

Oak Cliff also had the Hi-Vue DriveIn, near where Beckley Avenue meets Interstate 35 at Overton. That one opened July 1, 1949 and was demolished about 30 years later.

South Loop Drive-In opened in March 1950 on East Ledbetter, not far from the Veterans Administration hospital, and closed in 1975. The Hampton Road Drive-In opened in May 1950 with a playground and “infant’s bottle warmers,” according to the Dallas Morning News. It was at 2833 S. Hampton Road, near

where the Hampton-Illinois Library is now. It was demolished in the late ’70s.

Maybe the swankiest of all Oak Cliff drive-ins was the Kiest Boulevard DriveIn. It was at 3100 E. Kiest, near the Cedar Crest Golf Course. It could hold 1,000 cars and had individual speakers for every car. It had a playground and picnic area, like many drive-ins, but it also had a swimming pool and bathhouses. It closed in 1982, was demolished and has never been redeveloped.

The last drive-in standing in Dallas was the Astro Drive-In at 3141 S. Walton Walker near West Kiest.

The Astro opened on Aug. 2, 1969 and was known as having the largest movie screen in the world. It was 140 feet high. It had an electrical fire in 1998 and was torn down in 1999.

“Chalk Hill Drive-in Theater, Highway 80, Dallas, Texas, 1973,” by Steve Fitch. Photo courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

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