December 2021 by Austin Woman Magazine

Happy Holidays! Why shop Roger Beasley Mazda? • One of the largest Mazda dealers in the country. • Locally-owned with 3 convenient locations. • Offering the same great prices as always. • Trade-in values remain extremely high. • It’s a great time to shop Mazda.

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The 2021 Mazda CX-3, CX-5, CX-9, Mazda6, Mazda3 Sedan & Hatchback and the CX-30 (built after September 2020) have all been named a 2021 IIHS Top Safety Pick+.

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organic-decoration recycling free of charge throughout Most likely, recycling is not at the top of your mind Austin and San Antonio. From Dec. 26 through Jan. during the holiday season. But it should be. During 31, TDS will accept unflocked (free of artificial snow) this time of year, waste generation peaks. Bubble wrap, trees, holly, pumpkins and other ornament-free living ribbons and other décor create towering reminders of decorations at its Christmas-tree collection sites. TDS holidays past in landfills throughout the country. will provide curbside pickup for certain neighborhoods According to the Environmental Protection Agency, as well. So before you throw out your tree this year, 23 million extra tons of waste are created between remember TDS is here to lend a hand. Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day. That’s close to the When dropping off your compostables at the collecsame amount of food waste the United States produces in an entire year. It’s time to make a change. As 80% of tion sites, be sure your items are free of lights, ornamentation, metal and other non-living components, or a holiday waste can actually be recycled, let’s learn how cleaning fee will be charged. Also, when bringing loads we can protect the planet this Christmas. for drop-off, make sure the material is tied It’s refreshing to see organiand secured, per Texas law. zations and municipalities taking What happens after items are dropped steps to help our environment, GIVE MOTHER off at TDS’ collection sites? Once sorted, especially during the holiday season. NATURE A GIFT. your holiday items will be repurposed into Wreaths Across America Austin is nutrient-rich mulch and compost through focused on making its event a truly TDS’ composting division. The finished products will green endeavor. then be available for purchase at Garden-Ville stores The National Wreaths Across America Day ceremony throughout Central Texas. is dedicated to honoring veterans and fallen soldiers In addition to recycling with TDS, think about ways by placing wreaths on their graves. After the event, the to reduce your carbon footprint and waste production at wreath shipping boxes and balsam-fir wreaths are sent home. When wrapping holiday gifts, use recycled paper, to Texas Disposal Systems’ facility to be recycled and save and reuse holiday bows and try making your own composted. packing materials. This year, give Mother Nature a gift. Instead of Fun facts: If we all reused just two feet of ribbon, throwing out your recyclable holiday decorations, turn the miles of ribbon saved would be enough to wrap to Texas Disposal Systems. TDS is one of the largest a bow around the entire planet. And if every family independently owned waste-collection, processing and wrapped three presents in recycled or reused materials, disposal companies in the nation and has been at the enough material would be saved to cover 45,000 footforefront of recycling and composting education for ball fields! more than 40 years, teaching Central Texans how they There are many ways to do your part this holiday can better help the environment. For the past decade, season. Don’t be a Grinch. Get recycling. TDS has done its part by offering Christmas-tree and

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What Texas Disposal Systems Will Accept:

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8 plastic 8 bubble wrap 8 ornaments 8 holiday lights

For more information and a list of Christmas tree collection sites, visit texasdisposal.com/christmas-tree-recycling

Distribution Hall is an event space and production studio located in the heart of East Austin.

FEATURE

I EXYST BY DARBY KENDALL PHOTOS BY ROMINA OLSON

FEATURE

OWNING YOUR STORY BY STACEY INGRAM KALEH

AUSTINWOMANMAGAZINE.COM ATXWOMAN.COM | 7| 7

CONTENTS | DECEMBER

24 28

FROM THE DESK OF Dr. Sheila Newsom

STAFF PICKS What does self-love look like to you?

COUNT US IN Let’s Talk About Sex

GIVE BACK Local stars dance to support kids seeking justice.

COVER WOMAN CALLBACK Nina Berenato

ON THE MONEY Finding Joy

SEE HER WORK Ceramist Alejandra Almuelle

A CHAT WITH Kathy Kuras

HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE

DINNER WITH Pastry Chef Krystal Craig

I AM AUSTIN WOMAN Nikki DaVaughn

ATX WOMEN TO WATCH

8 | AUSTIN WOMAN | DECEMBER 2021

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CONTRIBUTORS This month, we asked our contributors: What’s one of the best gifts you’ve ever gotten?

A PUBLICATION OF AW MEDIA INC.

VOLUME 20, ISSUE 4

SLOANE WICK DAWN WESTON

Writer, “Be Who You Are, Not Who You’re Supposed to Be,” Pg. 18

Publisher

• She’s a firm advocate of real Christmas trees. • She loves the cold weather.

JAIME ALBERS

Art Director

• She makes the best peppermint hot cocoa. “A friend gave me a bag full of little trinkets that reminded her of me. It was super sappy, but I

CY WHITE

Managing Editor

loved it!”

DARBY KENDALL

Copy Editor

DARBY KENDALL Writer “I Exyst,” Pg. 46

PARKE BALLANTINE

Director of Events and Branding Strategy

• There’s a fairy garden on her car’s dashboard. • Her favorite comfort food is queso. • She raised monarchs this past fall.

ANNE COX

“One of my favorite gifts is the Singer sewing

Production Coordinator

machine my grandma gave me for my 18th birthday. It was just an extra of hers and it’s from

DONNA MITCHELL

the ’90s, but it works like a powerhouse.”

Advertising Sales Executive CONTRIBUTORS

Editorial: Brianna Caleri, Nikki DaVaughn, Jenny Hoff, Stacey Ingram Kaleh, Darby Kendall, Fiza Kuzhiyil, Cy White, Sloane Wick Art: Alejandra Almuelle, Nina Berenato, Center of Child Protection, Krystal Craig, Nikki DaVaughn, Jay Galvan, Angie Hejl, Lily Hutchinson, Romina Olson, Dallas Riley, Jessica Wetterer

CY WHITE Writer, “A Year of Growth,” Pg. 28 • She has two tattoos she designed herself. • Vovo, the guitarist from Korean punk band No Brain, is her friend. • Her favorite movie of all time is The Last Dragon. “It’s always music with me. One Christmas, my

INTERNS

dad told me to close my eyes; then I heard the

Monica Godinez, Fiza Kuzhiyil, Emily Manning, Sloane Wick

opening piano to the Jackson 5’s ‘ABC’ coming from the stereo system and lost my mind!”

AW MEDIA INC.

FIZA KUZHIYIL

MELINDA GARVEY

KIP GARVEY

Writer, “Our Essence as Humans,” Pg. 32

Co-founder/Co-owner

CEO/Co-owner

• She’s moved over a dozen times.

SAMANTHA STEVENS

Co-founder

ASHLEY GOOLSBY

CFO

• She lived in the snowiest U.S. city. • She’s a UT student. (Hook ’em!) “The most memorable gift I’ve ever received is a

record player! It’s such a thoughtful gift because I never would have bought one for myself, but now that I have it, I love it.”

To offer feedback, email feedback@awmediainc.com. For submission information, visit atxwoman.com/jobs. No part of the magazine may be reprinted or duplicated without permission. Visit us online at atxwoman.com. Email us at info@awmediainc.com. 512.328.2421 | 7401 West Slaughter Lane, Austin, TX 78739

ATXWOMAN.COM | 11

Anniversary THANK YOU TO CO-PRESENTING

PROGRAM PRESENTERS

12 | AUSTIN WOMAN | DECEMBER 2021

Photos by Corey Mendez Photography

Community Grant Winner: Cool Little Ones

Austin Pow Wow Dancers

Community Grant Runner-Up: Florecita

Cover Woman Panel

Coalition Building Panel

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SILVER

ATXWOMAN.COM | 13

FROM THE EDITOR

When I say the words “body positivity,” I can already see dozens of pairs of eyes roll toward the heavens, followed by exasperated sighs of annoyance. And I get it, dear reader. There’s probably a huge contingent of the population who believe they’ve heard it all: “I’ve gained weight.” “I’ve got another gray hair.” “I’ll never get rid of these wrinkles!” Especially during the last couple years this world has had? Who could possibly fault anyone for gaining a few quarantine pounds or earning a few new wrinkles from the stress? The thing is, there are people out there who have been struggling with accepting the bodies they’ve been given since childhood. For so many, a journey to body acceptance, and yes, positivity, has been a life filled with huge personal battles and small victories to get to a point of loving the skin EDITOR’S PICK: VIDEOS they’re in. This issue is for ABOUT BODY POSITIVITY them and for you. For the womxn* who have had to struggle with accepting that their bodies might be different than what people expect, femme-identified intersex woman and advocate Alicia Weigel, our cover woman, wants you to know you are beautiful. Hot, even! BJORK, ALL IS FULL OF LOVE There’s nothing wrong with you, and she has fought to make sure Austin acknowledges and respects you. For those womxn who have been incarcerated in one way or another, the women of Truth Be Told, a rehabilitation program for the female-identified incarcerated population, stand by your side. They implore you to tell your story, reclaim your autonomy and your mental freedom. For those who know the bodies they were born woth aren’t the bodies they belong in, Dr. Sheila Newsom, a published author and Army veteran who lived the first 60+ years of her life as Gary Newsom before she owned her real body, urges you to be who you are, not who you’re “supposed” to be. Body positivity includes sex positivity, feeling secure in your body, sexuality and learning healthy ways JANET JACKSON, to express that. Don’t take it from me. The facts in our Women in Numbers point to the sex- and GOT TIL ITS GONE body-positivity movements and women behind them. In fact, our I Am Austin Woman feature, Nikki DaVaughn, founder of Fat Bottom Cabaret, refuses to settle for the inane beauty standards society has set, giving big-bodied Black and Brown women a stage to express their sensuality on their own terms. This issue is a gift for every womxn who’s ever felt they don’t belong. Believe the womxn in this issue and the Austin Woman staff when we say you are beautiful. You’re freakin’ hot! Own it. Proclaim it, you sexy queen! We’re all rooting for you!

JANELLE MONAE, PYNK

CY WHITE EDITOR *noun, plural wom·xn [wim-in]. a woman (used, especially in intersectional feminism, as an alternative spelling to avoid the suggestion of sexism perceived in the sequences m-a-n and m-e-n, and to be inclusive of trans and nonbinary women) Publication of Austin Woman would not be possible without the support of our monthly advertisers and sponsors, who believe in the impact we are making in the Austin community. The following businesses have stepped up their support of our efforts beyond traditional advertising and we are proud to recognize them as our partners. The team at Austin Woman is grateful for these businesses that have shown their commitment to the advancement of women in Austin and hopes you, as readers, recognize their efforts and support these businesses and all our regular advertisers.

14 | AUSTIN WOMAN | DECEMBER 2021

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Can’t get enough of this issue? Check us out at atxwoman.com.

Latino Art WKND: Monica Maldonado drew from her childhood as the daughter of an immigrant mother, and in collaboration with _OFCOLOR organized Latino Art WKND.

Gina Chavez: After an incredible ACL Fest performance, Gina Chavez continues to raise the banner for LGBTQIA2+ rights with the remix of her Latin Grammy-nominated “She Persisted.”

Courtney Shields: In September, Courtney Shields, founder of beauty brand Desert Island Beauty Status, launched her brand, giving consumers a brand they can turn to truly love their skin.

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WIN THIS! Rainbow Body Neysa King’s Rainbow Body is an enthralling work of poetry which tells the story of selfdiscovery through sex, drugs and sugar on Miami Beach. This 12-poem collection explores the idea that God is everywhere, even (and maybe especially) in the vices we are taught to avoid. King’s poetry weaves together sunning language and imagery, set in the backdrop of the sexual energy and neon lights of Miami Beach. The poems in this collection offer an honest and awe-inspiring glimpse into the love, heartbreak, mistakes, doubt and selfacceptance that make up a life. Each poem is skillfully written to show us how to discover divinity in unexpected places. Says Annabel Harz of Reedsy, Rainbow Body is an “absolute joy,” and a “masterpiece of contemporary poetry.” For this month’s Win This, one of our Instagram followers will get a copy of King’s Rainbow Body. Enter to win by following us on Instagram @austinwoman. We’ll announce the winner at the end of the month.

16 | AUSTIN WOMAN | DECEMBER 2021

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Latino Art WKND photo by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., Gina Chavez photo by Cy White, Courtney Shields photo courtesy of Courtney Shields.

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Barbie Doll Baseball Maybe it was her waist, smaller than her head. Or her head, smaller than her breasts. Her unrecognizable pattern of girl. Maybe just the sun on the grass. I cannot say why we popped off her head, and resolved it was better as a ball tossed underhand. Her blond hair a blond streamer drew a smile in the air, then a frown. Her body the bat we held by two legs spluttered the air with each swing, the polypropylene squeaking like a stiff hinge. Then the thwack of contact with breasts hard as wood and a head like hollow dough. Mostly, it didn’t work. She wasn’t shaped to be revised. Hips kept buckling in our backswings, her bungled face galumphing through the bur clover.

Neysa King

ATXWOMAN.COM | 17

FROM THE DESK OF

BE WHO YOU ARE, NOT WHO YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO BE

Dr. Sheila Newsom is free in her own body, and you can be too. BY SLOANE WICK

From an outside perspective, Dr. Sheila Newsom’s life looked perfect. She sat on the porch of her and her wife’s villa, a mug filled with coffee in her hand and watched the waves crash. At 63 years old, her life appeared to be ripped out of the happily ever after of a Hallmark movie or a serene travel destination commercial. She had served in the Army, become a successful physician and raised a beautiful family. By every external marker, she and the life she had built were nearly flawless. That’s when the voice first spoke to her. Before this moment, Sheila was Gary, but the voice’s message was clear. “Sheila, you’re a woman and always have been, and there’s work to do.” So Sheila did the work. She worked to overcome body dysmorphia, criticisms from loved ones, suicidal thoughts, alcoholism and countless other obstacles to finally feel free in her own body, and in 2018 she came out as transgender. Now she offers advice to other women looking to find their own freedom.

HONOR YOUR INNER VOICE AND SENSE OF INTEGRITY. I don’t think you can do much of anything in the world without honoring your inner voice. Trying to do anything simply to please someone else always falls apart. I think that you are primarily responsible for your own integrity, and that includes the body and mind. We give so much of ourselves away in so many ways. It is hard to realize what is really going on in those exchanges. The central point is this: nurture a tenacity to develop your own sense of integrity.

GIVE YOURSELF AND OTHER WOMEN FREEDOM. To be fully comfortable in your own body is difficult. It is a really treacherous place to be for many of us these days. There are all sorts of issues and inertia within society that compel us to look and feel and think in a certain way based on images. Images have great power. I say again: Images have great power. That’s one thing that I would suggest; we’ve got to start giving women, young women especially, this freedom to be who and what they are, whatever that may look like from the outside. The interior image, that is the foundation of the outside and it is sacred.

BE WHO YOU ARE, NOT WHO YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO BE. Most of us aren’t going to be 5 foot 10 inches and weigh 130 pounds and have a perfect complexion and figure, and yet that’s what we were assigned. The main thing is just be who you are, that authentic self, and be good with it. That’s the best thing that you can do for your own soul and also for the soul of the world.

FIND A (REASONABLE) IMAGE GOAL. I would say that the images are the most important thing. Finding an image of what you want to be and look like, I think, is vital. The reason is because the images carry a valence. They carry a charge, and they go way deep. And they stay with [you]. So what we see on TV, what we watch at the movies, what we see and all sorts of publications is really important.

I’ve suggested to most everybody that I work with to have a vision board. So I think that is probably the best advice that I can give you. Find images of exactly what it is that you want to be. Put it on your vision board, do affirmations around it and spend time with that each day. And you grow into that.

18 | AUSTIN WOMAN | DECEMBER 2021

Photo by Jay Galvan.

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ATXWOMAN.COM | 19

STAFF PICKS

WHAT DOES SELF-LOVE LOOK LIKE TO YOU?

The Austin Woman staff share their journey to full acceptance of self.

DIRECTOR OF EVENTS AND BRANDING STRATEGY

My self-love journey has been a life-long pursuit. Many earlylife adverse experiences had seeded in my heart an internal shame, a feeling that somehow the challenges and pain I felt were a reflection of who I was, and not the people and circumstances surrounding me. When I was 19, I began to learn more about the social and historical disparities and traumas that had shaped me and my life. Learning this larger story allowed me to see my unique manifestation in this world as bold, beautiful and full of love. It’s an ongoing practice in seeking knowledge that allows me to know what is mine and to leave the rest. Once I was able to cut out others’ projected pain, I was able to embrace and love myself more and more unconditionally.

CY WHITE MANAGING EDITOR

Self-love begins and ends with music for me. Much like most women, I’m still on the journey to find the perfect way to really love the “self.” However, I find immense peace and calm in my spirit from music. And yoga. Yeah, I know. But it helps to physically stretch me beyond my limits and get myself truly centered. In fact, when the world weighs too much, the breathing that is yoga’s foundation lifts the burden off me like you wouldn’t believe. A good 30 minutes of yoga, breathing meditation and the sounds of Blue Six’s Aquarian Angel…The feeling of absolute calm and clarity is divine.

20 | AUSTIN WOMAN | DECEMBER 2021

ANNE COX PRODUCTION COORDINATOR

I’m definitely still in the process of my self-love journey. As a queer woman there were definitely times where I felt I needed to hide certain parts of myself or my personality, but I have made a ton of progress in accepting and celebrating those parts of myself now. I would say the most important thing I’ve learned over the years is that you need to surround yourself with people who not only love the person you are, but also help you become the person you want to be. Unless I’m three glasses of wine in and decide I want to be the kind of person that can do a cartwheel…No one should encourage me to do that.

DAWN WESTON PUBLISHER

I’m turning 40 this month, and while reflecting on this question, I have realized that self-love looks a lot different to me now than it used to. I’m at a place where I need 30 to 60 minutes a day to do something just for me. That could be a run, treating myself to a glass of my favorite wine in the backyard or enjoying coffee and breakfast at one of many local favorite spots. Self-love is a journey and about making sure that you’re checking in with yourself and allowing yourself the grace that you need to grow no matter what stage of life you are in.

All photos courtesy of respective staff member.

PARKE BALLANTINE

HONORING THE PRESIDENCY OF LY N D O N B . J O H N S O N

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ATXWOMAN.COM | 21

COUNT US IN

LET’S TALK ABOUT SEX

SEX IS STILL A TABOO SUBJECT, BUT WOMEN HAVE ALWAYS LEAD REAL CONVERSATIONS THAT CENTER POSITIVITY AND EDUCATION. BY CY WHITE ILLUSTRATIONS BY JESSICA WETTERER

1990s Though many attribute sex-positive ideology to Dr. Wilhelm Reich in the 1920s, it’s widely accepted that the term “sex positive” became a more common phrasing in the 1990s. World-renowned sex educator Goody Howard says the term is “a more culturally responsive framework and respects human variance as it applies to gender and orientation in ways that ‘free love’ did not.”

1994 In June 1994, a collective of Black women coined the term “reproductive justice.” The collective, who named themselves the Women of African Descent for Reproductive Justice, published a statement in the Washington Post that generated 800+ signatures, launching a movement that “combines reproductive rights and social justice.”

2017 In 2017, Black-Latinx licensed social worker and sexuality educator Melissa Pintor Carnagey founded Sex Positive Families. Based in Austin, Carnagey started Sex Positive Families because she wants children and teens to have a “holistic, comprehensive, and shame-free sexuality education so they can live informed, empowered and safer lives.”

70% In a study that explored whether self-pleasure aided women in dealing with period pain, conducted by adult toy brand Womanizer and period cup brand Lunette, 70% of women reported that masturbation impacted the intensity of their period pains, including issues with cramps, bloating, pain in the abdomen and lower back and breast pain.

22 | AUSTIN WOMAN | DECEMBER 2021

2019 In 2019, Austin ISD unanimously approved the Human Sexuality & Responsibility curriculum for elementary through high school students. Though controversial, the curriculum, which was developed from National Sexuality Education Standards, is age-appropriate and follows “the most current and scientifically accurate information” and “will focus on relationships, puberty, anatomy, reproduction and STDs, but the curriculum also includes lessons on ‘gender identity’ and ‘sexual orientation.’”

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GIVE BACK

SHAKE IT UP

Local stars walk the walk and dance the dance to support kids seeking justice. BY BRIANNA CALERI

Jenny Mason is a dance coach now. Well, technically she’s an interior designer

Rianna Alberty Boyd with dance partner Tristan Reimann

Photos courtesy of Rianna Alberty Boyd.

who plays in the band The Mrs, and she doesn’t teach anyone steps, but she’s bouncing around from studio to studio to make sure it’s all going smoothly. She’s like a more appealing Velma Von Tussle, and instead of harassing young Tracy Turnblad, she’s raising money for Austin’s Center for Child Protection. It’s almost time for the Center’s 15th annual fundraising gala, Dancing with the Stars presented by Mercedes-Benz of Austin. Mason danced as a competitor six years ago, leading her to co-chair for the last four, and even to join the Center’s community board. This year, she is joined by real estate developer Julie Jumonville, who is sharing responsibility for production tasks including event planning, visiting dance lessons, running committee meetings, selling sponsorships and gathering items for the live auction. The event gathers local cross-industry superstars with an interest in philanthropy, and pairs them with a professional dance coach for a night of ballroom extravagance. It is, ostensibly, a competition, just like its namesake TV show. The winner of the night is the dancer who brings in the most votes from both the audience and judges. Even for one night, it’s hard work for the dancers, who have practiced multiple times a week for months. As if dancing in front of everyone you can muster up isn’t energy-consuming enough, there’s plenty of room to go above and beyond. Immersive tech strategist and competitor Amber Allen is coordinating Grease-themed costumes for all her guests, adding an upcharge to each creation to go to the Center. She’s also considering running marketing campaigns for the Center, which she’ll build after she has her dance moves committed to muscle memory. The Center triages services for children who have allegedly been abused or witnessed a violent crime. All the necessary teams are close by—providing forensic, therapeutic, medical and support services in one approachable place—to minimize the trauma involved in investigating and prosecuting crimes against the vulnerable group. One child, Allen recalls, held one end of a long string while his mother held another in the other room, for emotional support. It’s these little touches, from experience with kids to the Center’s creative thinking, that make it more than just another stop on a logistical nightmare. “Actually getting to see the space and see how warm it was, it chokes me up,” says Allen. “They have everything there. They have the doctors, the police, all the lawyers for the kids; so they don’t have to go to a sterile place.” It’s a topic that can get tearful very quickly, so a friendly dance competition is a great way to cut through and celebrate wins. Lawton Cummings, competitor and partner at the investing group Notley—a self-described “band of relentless changemakers”—is grateful to enter the event through close connections. Some like-minded friends invited her to join in their work with the Center, and her interest grew deeper from there. Cummings loves the model of encouraging more attendees through familiar faces, because it’s already worked on her.

Rianna Alberty Boyd

24 | AUSTIN WOMAN | DECEMBER 2021

2020 Winners Julie Jumonville and Travis Herman

AUSTINWOMANMAGAZINE.COM | 25

“” I am much more engaged when I’m doing multiple things, and I’m meeting so many people through each thing that I do.

Celebrity Dancers (l to r): Melissa Cason, Lesa Rossick, Heidi Marquez Smith and Sandy Bayne

Photos courtesy of the Center for Child Protection.

“I am much more engaged when I’m doing multiple things, and I’m meeting so many people through each thing that I do,” says Cummings of balancing her time with work and other philanthropic endeavors. “There’s always connections that I make that I wouldn’t have made had I not also been swimming in that other lane.” Another competitor, mortgage lender Rianna Alberty Boyd, brings those connections into her family. Her two 12-year-olds, TikTok dance fanaticals (and what 12-year-old isn’t?), are helping their mom work on her costume and dance steps. Alberty Boyd’s dance partner, Tristan Reimann, even taught the kids choreography for her recent wedding. The family organizes their charitable efforts through the Alberty Foundation, which she hopes will teach her children that hard work makes a difference, and can be fun too. “I think if the girls just see me and Justin helping and supporting other people, that is passed down to them, and they understand the importance that they get to do the same as they grow up,” says Alberty Boyd. “Even if I get out there and I forget my steps, it’s still worth it. It’s about all of us coming together for a really great cause.” This year, the event sold out faster than it ever has. Producing it is a year-long process, but its popularity as one of the biggest galas in Austin is a testament to all that necessary work. The Center’s needs change with every new case, so flexible cash funding is crucial to keep it running at the same high level of care. While it’s hard to understand the depth of help many children who pass through will need, an intimidating-turned-affirming fundraising experience is a great place to start. “I was terrified last year when I walked into Go Dance for my first lesson,” says Jumonville. “It is hard to explain, but it truly was one of the absolute best experiences of my life, and the professional dancers we work with are so patient and kind. It was incredible to conquer my fear and win, but isn’t that what these kids do on a daily basis?”

Glen and Kelly Brynteson & CB and Betsy Hudson 26 | AUSTIN WOMAN | DECEMBER 2021

(l to r): Andra Liemandt and Jenny Mason

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COVER WOMAN CALLBACK

A YEAR OF GROWTH

Since Nina Berenato graced the Austin Woman cover in June 2019, she’s embraced new opportunities while staying true to her mission. BY CY WHITE

Berenato isn’t shy, possessing an honesty that isn’t exactly commonplace among the Hollywood elite. In fact, she’s as far away from Hollywood as you can get, yet her creations continue to capture the attention of some of the most powerful women in entertainment. Her most recent job again made headlines: providing Angelina Jolie with an eye-catching chin cuff she wore on one of her first red carpet appearances in almost a decade, for the premier of another Marvel Cinematic Universe blockbuster, Eternals. “I didn’t even know it was going to go on Angelina,” Berenato reveals. “I get a message from her stylist, Jason Bolden, who’s a very famous stylist. He’s got Alicia Keys, Gabrielle Union. He’s never worked with me before, but I’ve been emailing him for 10 years,” she says with a laugh. “Rachel, who works in the store with me, says, ‘Hey, you got this order from somebody, and they need it tomorrow.’ I say, ‘Who is it?’ and she says, ‘Jason Bolden.’” Her eyes light up, the memory still sending tremors of excitement through her. “They wanted all the face pieces, the chin cuff, and I thought it’s for one of his regular clients. Of course I would have no idea he’s working with Angelina Jolie because she hasn’t been out. So I’m scrolling through Instagram the next day, and I see a picture of Angelina Jolie and her kids. I zoom in and I’m like…” The sound that comes out of her mouth, what sounds like she’s choked on her own gasp, accompanies an animated flourish of her hands. “Then the next day my website starts going, ‘Ring, ring.’” Not bad for a self-proclaimed nerd who has a deep adoration for Greek and Roman mythology. Her connection to the goddesses reigning on Mount Olympus famously informs the art she adorns equally powerful women in music and film with. Embracing change. Leaning into the challenges of the world’s ever-shifting landscape. Berenato is seemingly made of this: tenacity and the guile to move wherever a new opportunity presents itself. Even when the idea isn’t her own.

28 | AUSTIN WOMAN | DECEMBER 2021

“” The one thing we did differently was making it into an activity you would do with someone that you love, like a bestie set, or a mommy and mini set or creating an intention with it and then cutting the bracelet off when you accomplish it. [That’s] what really drove people to the bracelets.

Photos by Dallas Riley and Lily Hutchinson.

The Zoom window opens. A young woman, surprisingly young, graces the screen. Nina

“The Forever Bracelet came from a customer who came into the store and asked if we could weld a bracelet straight on her. So it’s definitely not us inventing the wheel. The one thing we did differently was making it into an activity you would do with someone that you love, like a bestie set, or a mommy and mini set or creating an intention with it and then cutting the bracelet off when you accomplish it. [That’s] what really drove people to the bracelets.” Berenato’s is one of the few businesses that managed to flourish amid the craziness that enveloped the world for the past two years. When utter chaos reigned and uncertainty wrapped its claws around local small businesses, she didn’t panic. She made a list. “I came up with a way of contacting stylists directly, because usually I would work with a rep. I went on Instagram and basically got all of these stylists’ emails myself, built this big spreadsheet, started contacting them directly and saying, ‘Hey, here’s all of my line. I have samples here. I’ll send it to you in the mail.’ That kind of opened up this whole new system of communicating with stylists that we’d never done before.” Opportunities continued to present themselves. However, when the option to expand her Austin-based jewelry store to Houston (home of some of her most notable clients) arose, she hesitated. “That’s always scared me,” she admits, “because I was like, ‘I don’t know if I’m gonna like it. I just love being at the store. I’m afraid I’m not going to be able to bring the juju that we have here to somewhere else, and it might just mess everything up.’ My therapist helped me. She was like, ‘That is totally rooted in fear. You create your own path. You can still be at the store in Austin every single day making jewelry and have a Houston location.’ Being able to utilize that location as a way to make the same type of impact for women in Houston and just continue to spread that, that is what got me really excited.” In the couple years since she graced the Austin Woman cover, Nina Berenato has launched a couple new collections, started plans on opening a pop-up shop in Houston and, yes, made headlines for more of her creations gracing the visage of powerful women in entertainment. She welcomes each new opportunity with grace and immense enthusiasm. And she’s never lost sight of her mission, of her desire to uplift local women-led businesses. “We tried to make sure we were connecting with our community of makers even more,” she says. “Last year we did the Making it Together Auction where we basically had one item [each] from about 150 female makers. We still did our Holibabes Holiday Market in person with some small tweaks, and we were really able to crush it for some awesome local women. So just keeping our mission in the forefront and being a little bit creative on how we can get around some of these roadblocks I think was really the key.” Nina Berenato: creative, entrepreneur, a woman for her community. The same woman who didn’t want her name on her business, so instead named it after Psyche, her favorite Greek goddess. Her new collection, named after Pandora, considers the other side of the legend. “There was also hope locked in [Pandora's] box,” she says. “This whole collection is keyholes, and it’s the idea that we are the box. We have all the hope inside of us, and we just have to let it out.” Visit atxwoman.com to read the interview in its entirety.

AUSTINWOMANMAGAZINE.COM | 29

ON THE MONEY

FINDING JOY AT EVERY STAGE OF YOUR FINANCIAL LIFE

WHY FINANCIAL POSITIVITY MATTERS. BY JENNY HOFF

Financial success is a worthwhile goal. But much like reaching your “goal weight” or buying that “dream house,” there is only so much happiness reaching those milestones can bring. Chade-Meng Tan, early Google engineer and author of Joy on Demand and Search Inside Yourself, aims to help create universal happiness through teaching the simple steps to finding joy in every moment of your financial journey and life. Happiness research has shown that your finances play a big role in your overall contentment—but only when you aren’t struggling to survive . “If you are no longer poor, you are in a different ballgame,” says Tan. “Once you are no longer poor, you should change your game and look for happiness in other places.” That doesn’t mean you have to give up on your financial goals; it just means rather than focusing so much on the money in your future, you start focusing on the richness of your present. EASING INTO

JOY

“A mind at ease is a joyful mind,” says Tan. When we worry, we’re thinking of the future. When we regret, we are thinking of the past. When we are at ease, we are living in the present. To start focusing on the present, Tan suggests a breathing exercise. Concentrate on inhaling for three seconds and exhaling for three seconds. You have accomplished six seconds of ease, thinking of nothing but your breath. Start there and work your way up, training your mind to seek ease instead of entertainment and stress.

30 | AUSTIN WOMAN | DECEMBER 2021

FINDING

JOY IN SMALL THINGS

Tan also suggests looking for the “slices of joy” in everyday life. “For instance, if I take a sip of water, I may not think about it,” he says. “But maybe I learn to pay attention and feel the water quench my thirst and feel grateful for that moment. That is one small way you can start looking for slices of joy throughout the day.” While you could put your energy towards stressing over rising home prices in Austin or getting gifts for the holiday season, it’s healthier to instead focus your thoughts on appreciating the moments you are gifted throughout the day. Getting home safely, hugging your loved ones after a long day, noticing the absence of any physical pain or ailment, appreciating the food on your table are all slices of joy. By noticing them and focusing on them, you are training your brain to incline toward joy. Eventually, it will flow naturally. BEING

Joyful FOR OTHERS

One of the biggest causes of financial stress, once we feel secure in our survival, is comparing ourselves to others. Tan says cultivating a sense of happiness for others’ happiness will open a world that feels much more abundant. An exercise he recommends is to close your eyes, imagine someone you love and say to yourself, “I wish for this person to be happy.” It will likely bring an automatic smile to your face. “To be on the giving end of that kind of thought is intrinsically rewarding,” says Meng-Tan. Living in a state of anxiety will not improve your quality of life. Rather, keeping your goals in mind while focusing on what you have now will help you appreciate the present as you work toward your future.

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SEE HER WORK

OUR ESSENCE AS HUMANS

Ceramist Alejandra Almuelle conceives of the body as neither positive nor negative; it’s everything. BY FIZA KUZHIYIL

just found the formula for the perfect potion. In true artist form, she runs to find a sculpture to show exactly how she feels about every question I ask her. “Let me show you something,” she says as she leads me to her studio, “because this is freaking interesting.” She’s as giddy as a kid during show and tell. Austin-based artist Alejandra Almuelle creates collections of ceramics, each with different interpretations of the human body. In her studio, large ceramic sculptures sit on desk tops, while smaller ceramics clutter her windowsill and various shelves. On every possible surface, she displays art. Born and raised in Peru, a country with an abundance of clay, Almuelle comes from a place where people use ceramics as their main medium of artistic expression. She even spent time in the Sacred Valley of Cuzco, a hub for ceramics. Drawing from these roots, Almuelle knew she wanted to study ceramics when she moved to the U.S. in 1988.

Seven

32 | AUSTIN WOMAN | DECEMBER 2021

“” The beauty of the slab is you can push and pull, push and pull, push and pull— play from the inside and outside at the same time.

Photos courtesy of Alejandra Almuelle.

Alejandra Almuelle moves through her home like a mad scientist who

Molding slabs of clay into human forms feels almost intuitive to her. Especially when creating hollow heads, a consistent figure in most of her sculptures, she says the slabs allow for easy manipulation. “For the heads, you can work from the inside and the outside. So it’s not a solid piece of clay that you are [forming] from the outside,” Almuelle says. “The beauty of the slab is you can push and pull, push and pull, push and pull—play from the inside and outside at the same time.” It typically takes her three months to finish a collection, but they sit on her table for weeks after so she can fix little things. She tweaks her pieces as she goes, so from beginning to end, the process of creating a collection takes around five months. After their creation, installing the pieces in a gallery can be its own challenge. As she created her Being series during the pandemic, she hung her sculptures on a wall, but one porcelain sculpture in particular didn’t sit right with her. She couldn’t pinpoint exactly what felt wrong, but she got the idea to flip the sculpture upside down. When she returned to the studio the next day, seeing the piece upside down, she realized it looked like a tarot card of an upside-down man—a card she interprets as a sign to step away from society. Indeed, Almuelle used this quarantine period of the pandemic to step away from social obligations and find peace in working at the studio without feeling like she would miss out on other social obligations. “Most of the time, [when] I’m working at the studio, somebody has an opening, somebody has a party, something else is happening constantly, so I always feel like if I decided to be in the studio, I am missing life,” Almuelle says. “When I was working on that piece, nobody was doing anything, and I was not missing anything. I was feeling like, ‘Oh my god, I can just be there fully.’” As local galleries start up again, Almuelle debuts new pieces, including those in her series The Body Is A Place, which showcases the human body through her style of ceramics. Still, she explains her creating art about the human body isn’t an act of “body positivity.” Rather, she doesn’t interpret the body as either positive or negative.

Being

Locus 1

AUSTINWOMANMAGAZINE.COM | 33

Locus 7

Aqua

“” Seven

“So ‘positive’ or ‘not positive,’ I wouldn’t call it that. I will call it a reality,” Almuelle says. “A very political and social and spiritual reality. A tangible reality, basically, of what is the spirit, of what are politics and values.” Though she doesn’t assign inherent positivity or negativity to the human body, Almuelle says society often politicizes the body. Through The Body Is a Place, she hopes to convey that a body doesn’t just serve as a tangible vessel for a person—it carries culture and imagination. “By logic, [your body] belongs to you,” Almuelle says. “There’s a lot of social, political and religious constructs that define your body for you...and [the body] is not just the tangible part of the self; it’s everything. It carries the seed of the culture, and it carries the imagination of the soul.” For Almuelle, art is more than a job. Her work is her teacher—teaching Almuelle about herself by pointing out consistencies in her work. Reflecting on her time in the studio, she realizes the time she spends sculpting clay and the art she creates reflect part of who she is. After all, an artist’s work is uniquely theirs, so they can look at their art to learn what makes them unique. “I’ve learned things that, later on, I read in books, just by being in the studio,” Almuelle says. “If we pay attention to how we move through the world, we are our own teachers through the work that we make, through the work that we do, because we have spent hours and hours doing something. It’s more than making and leaving. It’s more. It carries our essence as humans.”

34 | AUSTIN WOMAN | DECEMBER 2021

If we pay attention to how we move through the world, we are our own teachers through the work that we make, through the work that we do, because we have spent hours and hours doing something.

Being

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A CHAT WITH

CREATING PATHWAYS

Kathy Kuras uses her love of football to break barriers for the generations of young girls behind her. BY FIZA KUZHIYIL

boys in her neighborhood, just for fun. When the boys got old enough to play in the little leagues, suddenly she didn’t have a place in football anymore. Told that girls don’t play football, Kuras set aside the thought for decades. Until she met Sami Grisafe. A USA World Champion quarterback and two-time world champion MVP, Grisafe introduced Kuras to the world of women’s tackle football. Entranced by their powerful gameplay, Kuras set out on a six-year journey to document the world of women’s tackle football in her first feature documentary film, Open Field. Open Field premiered at the Austin Film Festival in 2020 and continues to captivate viewers at various festivals across the country. To commemorate her work, the Women’s Football Alliance honored her with the 2021 Breaking Barriers Award. Kuras spoke with Austin Woman about her award, the significance of her film and her role as the first female CEO of YMCA Austin.

for more women, more people of color, members of the LGBTQIA+ community, whoever it is, who haven’t maybe seen themselves in that role. It hasn’t been because people haven’t had the talent or experience. It’s just been similar to the kind of the story around women’s football, as people haven’t always seen that. What’s important is visibility and creating pathways for others in terms of their leadership journey so that we can begin to see some more equitable representation in leadership roles.

AW: What is the central message of this film, and what theme are you trying to convey through it? KK: The central message is that just because you don’t see other people doing something doesn’t mean that you can’t do it. The key subject of the film, Sami Grisafe, she started [playing] when she was 10 years old, and there was no one around there like another young girl playing football at the time. Most people don’t know that there are over 60 women’s football teams in the United States. There’s one here in Austin, the Austin Outlaws. There’s been three World Championships where we’ve had a Team USA representing our country going to compete against other countries. If football was in the Olympics, they would be gold medalists, and very few people know about it. Even without necessarily seeing that growing up, we’re seeing a lot of it in the media. These young girls and these women are doing it.

AW: How has creating this film affected your role at the YMCA? KK: Storytelling is really important. Not so much in a promotional way, but more so that people can hear that there’s a lot of good happening in the world. Oftentimes, if we sort of scroll through most of the news, you might be led to believe that everything is death and dying and doom and all of that, but there are really good things happening in the community every single day. The lesson from filmmaking and storytelling, and work in a nonprofit organization and a community organization like the Y, is it’s just really important to share [good news] with folks so that we can really inspire hope for our future.

AW: You mentioned that media surrounding women in sports can sometimes commodify them. How did you go about framing this story so you wouldn’t do that? KK: We wanted to show more than tell, meaning we wanted to show women playing this game. There’s a lot of action sequences, a lot of really up-close camera shots during games, because we wanted to really show that women are doing this. This isn’t a question of if they can do it. It’s happening. Football is a really tough sport, and there are women out there that actually like it for that reason. They like putting on pads and tackling and hitting, all of that, and being able to show that and sort of normalize it.

AW: What do you think can be done better in the Austin community to increase accessibility for women in sports? KK: The Austin region is in a really sort of critical place in its history with all of this rapid growth that’s happening, and there’s an opportunity for us to ask a few questions: How might we grow in a way that is more equitable? If we were to have that be a focus and an important value for us, how might we grow in a way that really values equity? Can we achieve equitable growth where everyone can sort of be a part of this growth as it goes forward? That’s going to mean more collaboration, in conversation around housing, around compensation, around racial equality and equity, around childhood education and care, around how we’re caring for all of our natural resources and the environment.

AW: What does serving as the first female CEO of YMCA Austin mean to you? KK: What’s important is that I’m not the last. Anytime there’s a first, there’s a responsibility in being the first to make sure that we’re creating pathways 36 | AUSTIN WOMAN | DECEMBER 2021

Photo courtesy of The YMCA of Austin.

Like many young girls, Kathy Kuras grew up playing tackle football with the

ATX

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WOMAN to WATCH

KENNON L. WOOTEN,

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aving grown up in Austin, Kennon feels right at home at her Austin-based law firm, Scott Douglass & McConnico. She is a civil litigator who advocates vigorously for clients while keeping professionalism paramount in her practice. Before entering private practice, Kennon worked for the Supreme Court of Texas. Throughout her legal career, she has strived to increase access to justice in Texas. She serves on the Texas Access to Justice Commission and does pro bono work for people who cannot afford lawyers. Kennon is also a published author, a frequent speaker at Continuing Legal Education events, a passionate volunteer and a leader in the legal community. She approaches every aspect of life with a mindset that was ingrained into her as a varsity rower for UT Austin: We are stronger together than we are apart. In professional and personal endeavors, she is determined to unite and empower people around her. scottdoug.com/attorneys/kennon-l-wooten

3838| AUSTIN WOMAN | DECEMBER 2021 | SPECIAL PROMOTION | ATXWOMAN.COM

ATX

WOMAN to WATCH

PHILLIS RAND, Photo by Michael Samaripa Photography.

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ustin native Phillis Ahlena Rand is founder and CEO of Texas Winter Park, the first Black-owned theme park in U.S. history. She also founded party rental company The Train Quest LLC in 2009. She has hosted parties and events in collaboration with the likes of Alamo Drafthouse, 20th Century Fox and the PGA. The list goes on. She learned her craft by hosting events for others for years, but her passion and dream of opening an amusement park for families in her home state stems from childhood. Born an intersex woman, Rand is a proud supporter of the LGBTQIA+ community. “Family is family is my philosophy,” says Rand. Her Family Winter Theme Park Inc. will launch at Old Settlers Park in Round Rock Dec. 2-4. texaswinterpark.com

ATXWOMAN.COM | SPECIAL PROMOTION | 39 AUSTINWOMANMAGAZINE.COM | 39

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40 | AUSTIN WOMAN | DECEMBER 2021

I EXYST Intersex advocate Alicia Weigel wants us to celebrate our differences. BY DARBY KENDALL PHOTOS BY ROMINA OLSON STYLED BY PARKE WITH INSPIRATION FROM ESTILO AND JEWELRY BY LO SHOT ON LOCATION AT MATTIE’S AT GREEN PASTURE’S AND AT MURALS ON BARTON SPRINGS ROAD

A cornerstone of the body positivity movement is encouraging conversations about social justice, equality, gender and race as they relate to our social constructs of beauty. Looking beyond the basic idea of self-love, this is a movement created by and for marginalized peoples seeking acceptance and respect, not in spite of their physical differences, but because of them. These conversations can be uncomfortable for some, given the taboo nature of discussing our bodies and their physicality, but not for our cover woman. Alicia Weigel is not afraid to talk about her body. “We’re all born with bodies. We need to remove that layer of shame,” Weigel says. “The U.S. was founded under this puritanical culture where we are made to believe that we need to feel shame about those bodies, certain people way more than others…The faster we acknowledge that we’re all born with bodies, so why should we feel this inherent shame for having them, the better things are going to be for anyone who has ever had an issue with self-esteem.” As an intersex advocate, Weigel is no stranger to discussing her anatomy, including in rooms full of strangers trying to legislate those like herself. Intersex people, as defined by the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, are those “born with sex characteristics (including genitals, gonads and chromosome patterns) that do not fit typical binary notions of male or female bodies. Intersex is an umbrella term used to describe a wide range of natural bodily variations.” Representing the “I” in LGBTQIA+, intersex people occupy a unique space in the moniker, given the varying nature of human development and the natural world itself. Presenting outwardly as femme, Weigel was born with XY chromosomes and internalized testes. Her body doesn’t respond to the androgen hormones that testicles make (commonly known as male sex hormones), so while in the womb, she developed a vagina, but not the other internal sex organs common to females. Scientists refer to this as “complete androgen insensitivity,” and had Weigel been able to keep her testes, her body would have converted the hormones it produced into estrogen, naturally regulating itself. However, she was sterilized at a young age, a procedure done to many intersex children before they are able to decide for themselves, so now Weigel has to take artificial hormones to quite literally survive. “By trying to fix me, they broke me, essentially,” Weigel explains. “You are isolated by this label that you are given. Because that label is seen as a pathology, it’s seen as a negative medical trait. That immediately puts them in the mode of trying to fix you, when what you really realize is there was nothing wrong with you in the first place.”

Growing up with the label of complete androgen insensitivity to explain away her differences from her peers, Weigel never even heard the word intersex until she was 27 years old. She stumbled upon an article about Belgian model Hanne Gaby Odiele, who came out as intersex in 2017, and everything clicked into place. “When I read her story, everything sounded just like my experience: the surgeries, when you’re a kid having to take hormones, having your parents and doctors tell you to never tell anyone because you won’t find love, because people will make fun of you. It all sounded exactly like my story. I went home that night and I googled the word intersex, and I was like, ‘Holy shit, I am intersex,’” Weigel remembers. “That’s when I found out that I was part of a community and that there was actually nothing wrong with me. It took more than a quarter of a century for me to access that information and community and find out that there were other people like me.” A year prior to her freeing revelation, Weigel moved to Austin, marking her first time stepping foot not just in the city, but in the state of Texas. She made the move from California to help Wendy Davis found Deeds Not Words, an organization that promotes gender equity, right on the brink of the 2016 presidential election. Though Weigel grew up in the suburbs of Philadelphia and spent time post-grad living all over the globe—she lived on three continents and in six cities over the course of five years—she quickly found a home in Austin.

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“” This is the first place where I have made relationships and built a community authentically as myself. People know the real me, not the facade that I kept up for so much of my life. I think because of that Austin very much feels like home.

“This is the first place where I have made relationships and built a community authentically as myself,” Weigel says. “People know the real me, not the facade that I kept up for so much of my life. I think because of that Austin very much feels like home.” Though Weigel enjoys living in a city where she can be her authentic self, simply existing in Texas as someone who doesn’t easily fit into the gender binary comes with its own set of challenges. As one of the few intersex activists living in Texas, Weigel spends plenty of time at the Capitol, fighting for the rights of intersex youth around the state. She explains that whenever legislators write and pass bills that target the rights of transgender youth, intersex folks are also affected by these limitations but often overlooked in the discussion. In October, Gov. Greg Abbott signed House Bill 25, a law that requires student athletes in K-12 school sports to play on the team that corresponds with the sex listed on their birth certificate, regardless of their gender identity. When Weigel argued against the bill’s passage because, among other things, intersex youths also may not be allowed on their preferred team by these standards, she was informed of a possible loophole, but she describes why even that approach is innately flawed. “One, they don’t put intersex on birth certificates. No matter what, they put either male or female, even if you’re born intersex. Two, they’re saying that it’s okay for people who are born in between genders at birth, but not for people who find out later,” Weigel states. “There are so many implications. Every time you see the trans community targeted at the legislature, which keeps happening over and over and over again, there’s literal language written into the bills to ensure harm on intersex communities too. “Everything that they’re doing is trying to rob us of our autonomy. If body positivity is anything, it’s owning your autonomy over your own body…It’s really hard to have body positivity when your own government is stripping you of basic agency over your own body.” As part of her efforts to combat inequality in her new home state, Weigel works as a human rights commissioner for The City of Austin. In the appointed role, she defends the rights of Austin’s citizens via drafting and enforcing nondiscrimination ordinances. This is her way to give back to the minority groups that have fought for her and other intersex folks in solidarity. “Because some of my greatest allies have been people from the Black community or the trans community who are lifting intersex voices up, being able to do the same for them means a lot 42 | AUSTIN WOMAN | DECEMBER 2021

for me. It’s all so linked; all of our oppression is integrated, intricately tied to one another,” Weigel says. “Being in the community of other like-minded activists who envision a better world and have devoted their lives to making that a reality is really inspiring and moving. I feel very privileged to be able to lead this life.” Never one to look past her privilege, Weigel knows that as someone who is both white and female-presenting, she’s had a relatively smooth path in life compared to many, particularly within the intersex community. “When I’m out in society, I don’t have a visible target on my back. I definitely acknowledge that, and it keeps me safe in a lot of ways. “A lot of intersex people have intersecting identities. There are a lot of Black intersex people; there are a lot of nonbinary intersex people; there are a lot of fat intersex people,” she continues. “Not all intersex people look like me. A lot of intersex people are multiply-marginalized people that face oppression from a variety of angles. I want to very clearly acknowledge that and that my body positivity looks a lot different than a lot of other people’s.” An essential part of Weigel’s body positivity journey has been reclaiming her sexuality. Weigel is all too familiar with society’s need to desexualize the intersex population. (“The fact that we were always called hermaphrodites and made to believe that we’re freaks in the butt of jokes,” Weigel explains.) So embracing her sexuality and feeling desirable is needed pleasure for her, “be it through dancing or posting ass shots on Instagram.” She describes that throughout her time in the intersex community, she has felt more welcome and more comfortable in her body, alongside a realization that she puts succinctly: “Intersex people are fucking hot. “I’m not even joking,” she elaborates, “because I found out that I was intersex through hearing about a model. It’s not even just femme-presenting people; it’s any intersex person. We often have really great skin because our hormones function differently; we often have good cheekbones because of our biology. We end up coming out really beautiful in a lot of ways. We don’t age the same way, and a lot of it’s because of hormonal differences… We’re made to believe that we’re freaks but we’re fucking beautiful.”

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LOCATION: MATTIE’S AT GREEN PASTURE’S Mattie’s is nestled under the majestic live oaks at Green Pastures. Originally a beautiful South Austin farmhouse in the Bouldin Creek Neighborhood, home to Martha “Mattie” Faulk and her husband, Henry Faulk, it was eventually opened as a restaurant in 1946 by Mattie’s daughter Mary. Visit the property to enjoy the beautiful garden patio, thoughtfully sourced, rustic farm-fresh American fare and cocktails served with a generous side of Texas hospitality. This house has hosted some real characters over the last century, young and old, formal and informal—friends and family are always welcome. 811 W. Live Oak St., mattiesaustin.com

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Another aspect of Weigel’s journey to selfacceptance is harnessing her unique traits into something that makes her stronger. One such trait is a perceived weakness that Weigel turned into a strength: her diagnosis of bipolar disorder. “Even thinking about it as a disorder is a disservice to other bipolar people…With my bipolar, just like my being intersex, with these things that make you different, we’re taught to believe that’s what makes us a freak, or that’s what our problem is,” she says. “Oftentimes, I guarantee you if you look at it through a different lens, that can be the thing that makes you the most beautiful and most special.” Reaching this place of comfort and joy with her identity has been a journey for Weigel. As a child she was regularly in and out of doctors’ offices for surgery and observation, leading her to often “feel like a lab rat.” This early robbing of her bodily autonomy led Weigel to disassociate from her body, but growing up she found she could reconnect with herself again through physical activity like team sports. Now Weigel actively uses yoga, running and dance as ways to feel comfortable in her own physical form. “For me, these aren’t just ways to be healthy or stay fit. They’re literally how I reconnect with myself and feel what they call ‘physiological embodiment,’ which is the opposite of dissociation. It’s literally bringing myself back into my body,” she says. “Another way that I’ve reclaimed my body, too, is through my tattoos, because a lot of the decisions about what my body would look like or what happened to me were taken away from me as a kid. A way that I’ve reclaimed my power is literally through owning my own skin, through getting ink put on my skin. That’s been my decision, what I want, what I find beautiful.” Weigel then points out three tattoos she relates to her intersex identity: the first is a tattoo stating “I exyst,” a nod to her XY chromosomes; the second, an orchid flower on her shoulder as they are a symbol of the intersex movement due to their unique reproductive anatomy; the third lays on the scar from the surgery where her testes were removed—the Tropic of Capricorn. She explains, “On some of my happiest days, I’ve literally passed road signs saying ‘You are now crossing the Tropic of Capricorn.’”

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“” I think being part of the intersex movement gives me a sense of community, and I feel like part of something bigger than myself, with people [who] are fighting for a better world. That feels really meaningful.

Though it took Weigel over 25 years to find her intersex identity and make peace with her body, she’s now making up for lost time by serving as a strong voice for her community and her rights. Looking to the future, she says she hopes intersex visibility will only grow, allowing more people to come out and feel comfortable in their identity. “Even the people who do find out [they’re intersex] earlier, because it’s so stigmatized, they’re not coming out,” she says. “That’s why I’ve tried so hard to be visible, because now that trans folks are so visible, they’re becoming normalized as part of society. But until intersex visibility reaches that point, we won’t have intersex people coming out in the same way. Because at this point, ‘I’ basically still stands for ‘invisible’ in the LGBTQIA+ moniker.” Along with her constant activism in politics, Weigel works to get the word out on intersex rights through multiple forms of media. Last month she was featured on an episode of Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness titled “How Can We Put The ‘I’ In LQBTQIA+?” She’s also working on a feature in an upcoming documentary on the subject, as a part of her unyielding effort to stand up for her community.

“When you’re intersex, you’re usually growing up completely alone; 99% of the time you’re growing up and you know no one like you. It’s a very isolating experience,” Weigel states. “I think being part of the intersex movement gives me a sense of community, and I feel like part of something bigger than myself, with people [who] are fighting for a better world. That feels really meaningful.” The body positivity movement goes hand-in-hand with her work, as it shares her effort to destigmatize bodies and accept our differences. Weigel understands the importance of embracing every aspect of yourself; she knows and loves herself, and now she hopes to spread that confidence to others. “Maybe one day my existence can help other people understand that nothing in life is as binary or black and white as they believe it to be and that the gray areas are really cool and beautiful. We don’t need to be so afraid of them,” Weigel says. “People fear what they don’t know and understand, and they like things that fit into neat little boxes and categories because it makes it easier for people to process, but honestly, the coolest shit in life exists on the border, on the boundary or in that messy area. I think being on the frontier is a cool place to be.”

Around the U.S. there are femme-identified intersex advocates who use their platforms to educate and be a voice for the voiceless. Alicia Weigel shares some of the women who have inspired her as fellow advocates and fighters for justice. Tatenda Ngwaru is a Black intersex activist based in Boston. An immigrant from Zimbabwe, Ngwaru founded True Identity, the first intersex organization in Zimbabwe, and is the subject of the documentary She’s Not a Boy. Find out more about Ngwaru on her website and personal blog tatendangwaru.com. Kimberly M. Zieselman is a lawyer, author, mother and advocate for intersex youth. Her first memoir, XOXY, was published in 2020. She also serves as the executive director of interACT: Advocates for Intersex Youth and has been quoted and published in USA Today, The New York Times and by the U.N. Human Rights Office. You can find out more about Zieselman and her memoir at xoxykz.com. Jahni Leggett is an indigenous trans intersex educator (using both she/her/hers and they/them/theirs pronouns) and HRC Foundation Youth Ambassador based in Olympia, Washington. They also work with interACT, advocating for intersex youth and against sex-assigning surgeries on intersex children and babies. In October, they were part of a White House roundtable about Intersex Awareness Day, the first of such roundtables at the White House.

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SEEDS OF COMMUNITY MURAL SERIES BY COLOR SQUAD Color Squad is a collective of teen artists that design and implement public art that addresses a need in the community. 1203 Barton Springs Road creativeaction.org/ programs/teen-programs/ color-squad

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OWNING

YOUR

STORY

Local nonprofit Truth Be Told helps the growing number of incarcerated women build a foundation of self-worth and accountability. BY STACEY INGRAM PHOTOS COURTESY OF ANGIE HEJL

When you think about the Texas prison system population, women may not be the first inhabitants that come to mind. However, women make up the fastest growing segment of the incarcerated population across the nation. Many programs that serve people who are incarcerated were designed for men. Some have made adaptations to those programs for women. But Truth Be Told, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in Austin, takes a different approach. They serve incarcerated women in Texas with programs designed specifically for them by other women. With a vision to break the cycle of incarceration and restore integrity to all women involved in and affected by the justice system, Truth Be Told leads with heart. The organization provides transformational trauma healing for women behind and beyond bars. They embrace values including community, authenticity, respect, empathy and strength to offer tools for community-building, selfcare and emotional well-being, creativity and effective communication. Female volunteers who have experienced literal and/or metaphorical “prisons” in their own lives enter correctional facilities to serve and grow alongside incarcerated individuals, preparing them for life after prison and providing them with a judgement-free network of trusted partners. Truth Be Told’s programs, which they offer in-person and virtually, work for Texas women—approximately 86% of their program graduates remain free three years after incarceration, which is the benchmark for success in breaking the cycle of re-incarceration. Yet the need for 48 | AUSTIN WOMAN | DECEMBER 2021

the work Truth Be Told does is ever-growing. In fact, over the past two decades, there’s been a 700% increase in the number of incarcerated women nationwide. According to The Sentencing Project, in 2019, the number of incarcerated women was up to 222,455. As of last year, more than 70% of Texas women in Truth Be Told identified as mothers. The organization’s resources also show that about 70% of children with incarcerated parents will end up incarcerated themselves at some point during their lives. So, incarcerating one woman could mean incarcerating a family more often than not, with far-reaching implications for her entire family network. With more women to serve and an increasingly challenging cycle to break, the nonprofit is stepping up to lay the groundwork for systemic change in our community. Interim Executive Director Heather Emerson says a key to helping women heal from trauma is having witnesses to their story. “We create safe spaces for women to write their own story, to tell their own story and not let a label or society or whatever noise is coming externally affect their experience.” Emerson understands from firsthand experience the unique challenges incarcerated and previously incarcerated women face when aiming to re-enter society and make valuable, positive contributions. After being incarcerated for one year, she spent 15 years rebuilding her life. She now has dual degrees from The University of Texas, a master’s degree from Harvard University and cofounded local sustainable meal delivery service Prep to Your Door, a plant-based service that prioritizes planet over profit. After serving on the Truth Be Told board of directors, she stepped down and then up into the interim leadership role to devote her time and talents to helping other women succeed and create positive change as she has. Emerson explains the complex and often painful labor of getting to the root of a systemic issue. “Between 75 to 95% of all incarcerated humans experienced some sort of sexual, emotional or physical abuse as a child. I personally haven’t met a single one who hasn’t experienced that as a child. That’s anecdotal. But it’s very common,” she says. “What we’re doing here is breaking generational trauma. So when you ask the question, ‘What are some of the things you’re trying to overcome?’ I can speak from personal experience that, as a child, when you have the burden of sorting through what you didn’t deserve, you’re not emotionally equipped to process that. So you go into fight-or-flight, you go into survival, you don’t make rational decisions because of this trauma. And the cycle just continues and continues.”

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Sandra Roller

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Several of the programs Truth Be Told offers center around the question, “What do you think got you here?” They encourage women to go deep—beyond the act that resulted in a conviction and back to their childhood, relationships and the trauma and environmental factors that led them to make certain decisions. Working through this question helps strengthen inmates’ self-understanding, personal responsibility and the impact of their choices. “Whenever we hear the stories of these women, what I think is so powerful is that in storytelling we shift from blame and victimhood to resilience and accountability,” Emerson remarks. “You can rewire your brain and tell your story differently, and how we understand and tell the story of our past affects our future. So the challenge is, how do you hear a story of abuse of a child and still guide and empower that human to embrace it and use it as empowerment for a different future for themselves, their children, their loved ones and for their community? You hold space and you acknowledge and you say, ‘How can I help?’” She emphasizes the power of story and that sometimes people just need to be heard to understand how the narrative they tell themselves makes a difference. While Emerson is passionate about the long-term benefits of owning your story, she also acknowledges that it’s a challenging learning process. One of the methods Truth Be Told has designed to help women navigate the process includes the “Talk to Me” trust circle, where women are invited to hold hands while sharing deeply personal insights. It’s just one example of the gender-responsive programming that Emerson says takes into account how it can be more intuitive for many women to be open to emotion and vulnerability and to be heart-led in this kind of space. The trust circle format breaks down barriers. “One of the hurdles we’re up against is really understanding what led to someone’s being in prison” she says. “What we find is that people can trace back their actions, decisions and environment years before they ever were incarcerated. And they realize that years before they were in a different kind of prison.

They were in a cycle of self-destruction. So that’s the ‘Aha!’ moment and the accountability piece, and then the next person says, ‘I see you, ’cause me too.’ It’s really powerful and gut-wrenching and brings on a mix of heartache and joy in the same moment. The heartache is, ‘I can’t believe you lived through that,’ and the joy is, ‘You don’t have to live through that anymore.’” Emerson holds back a tear as she describes these complex epiphanies. When asked what Truth Be Told hopes women will take away from the experience in their programs, Emerson states, “We want the women to have different relationships in their lives, starting with their relationship with themselves.” The organization has many offerings to ensure that these new relationships are sustainable, both during and beyond life in prison. There are a number of support systems in place for graduates of the Truth Be Told programs, from weekly check-in calls to a dedicated staff person available to answer calls and provide direct support around the clock. In addition to self-expression skills, programs also inspire inmates to take initiative and exemplify leadership by creating a healthy, vulnerable and authentic community where each participant can serve as both mentee and mentor. Sandra Roller, a former Truth Be Told program participant and current mentor, considers this trusted network to be a key takeaway and lasting benefit of her experience in the program. “I now have this unconditional, non-judgmental support system,” says Roller. “If I have a bad day, I know who to call, email or reach out to.” Roller discovered Truth Be Told when a flyer for one of their classes was posted on a bulletin board in the facility where she was incarcerated. “At first, I signed up just to do anything to get out of the cell,” she explains. She now describes her experience as “lifechanging.” “I had to ask myself, ‘Do I really wanna know who I am? Do I really wanna dig up some dirt?’” Prompted with those questions, Roller dove deep into the self-reflection she describes as a “journey.” “At first I was nervous sharing personal things with people I didn’t know,” Roller says. “Each class we would have three to five minutes to dump write and then were either asked to share what we wrote, or sometimes we were asked to throw it away.” Throughout the program,

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she became less nervous, built meaningful relationships founded in trust and began to ditch the concept of “normal.” (“What is normal? Everyone is dysfunctional in some way.”) During her journey, Roller learned how to be more accountable for her actions. She also defined her reasons for wanting to be accountable—her children, coworkers and community. “For me, it’s about the impressions I leave with people. It’s about helping the next person and being kind.” After she was released, Roller found herself facing many challenges as she searched for a job. “I felt closed off from society. Background checks were a barrier,” she says. Then she connected with a Truth Be Told mentor who helped her find employment and get involved in the hospitality industry. She started serving weekend breakfasts in a hotel and after showing initiative, has since become a general manager. She walked out of prison and into her future with what she calls a “toolbox,” a supportive network of “sisters” and a desire to pay it forward by staying involved with the Truth Be Told Beyond Bars program and sharing her story to help others. Roller shares her personal mantra: “I strive to be better today than I was yesterday.” Beyond helping individuals like Sandra Roller secure a bright future, Emerson also hopes the work Truth Be Told does, including an upcoming influencer storytelling campaign, can help shift public perception of incarcerated women. “I think a lot of people have this mentality of ‘us’ versus ‘them,’ and that [incarcerated women] deserve it. But the reality is that when you hear these women’s stories you would say, ‘Oh, that could have been me.’” This month, the Truth Be Told influencers explore the topic of each of us being just one decision away from incarceration on social media. Through gender-responsive services, Truth Be Told addresses an important disparity in the prison system and gives women the skills to reclaim their lives, take ownership over their futures and, ultimately, to contribute to making Central Texas the place we love to call home. As a volunteer-driven organization, anyone can get involved to help advance the Truth Be Told mission. Sign up to volunteer as a facilitator and be trained to help lead programs or participate in the “Write to Me” program, an iteration of the “Talk to Me” program developed during the pandemic lockdowns, as a penpal. You can also donate online. When it comes to giving, every donation counts. “[The cost of ] a cup of coffee a month is still life-changing,” says Emerson. “We have people who have been giving small amounts on a recurring basis for a decade, and that adds up over time.” As they celebrate their 21st anniversary of service this year, the nonprofit aims to raise $100,000 to fuel an expansion in 2022 during their end-of-year fundraiser, running from Nov. 30 (Giving Tuesday) through Dec. 9. Get Involved: truth-be-told.org Donate: secure.givelively.org/donate/truth-be-told/ raising-100-000-in-10-days

Heather Emerson

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For: a he lpi ng ha nd

HOLIDAY

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54 | AUSTIN SPECIAL WOMAN ADVERTISING SECTION 2021 54 | | DECEMBER

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Photo courtesy of Texas Lifestyle and Travel Magazine

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Bucket List Charleston Adventures By: Marika Flatt

In September, Charleston was rated the #1 favorite U.S. city to visit by a Travel + Leisure survey, a title the city has claimed for 10 consecutive years. It was also rated as America’s favorite small city and even the best place to propose. It’s clear Charleston is a great town to indulge in all your senses all year long—from the holidays through summer and fall. Most people don’t realize it, but you can visit both historic downtown Charleston and also soak in the beach only 30 minutes away.

So Much to Sea

Wild Dunes Resort, part of the Destinations by Hyatt Collection, covers a large acreage on the barrier island of Isle of Palms including the northern tip, about a half hour from downtown Charleston. The property features two inns, rental and residential homes and condos, two golf courses, a tennis center (rated #3 in the world) and cruiser bike rentals, all part of the relaxed coastal vibe. Other amenities of Wild Dunes Resort are the pickleball course (a big trend!) and hiking and biking trails. Wild Dunes Resort encompasses the Residences at Sweetgrass, condo units that were built around 2007, 200 to 400 vacation rental homes, the Boardwalk Inn and Sweetgrass Inn. Both of the inns are the maximum five and a half stories that Isle of Palms will allow. The Lowe family purchased the land around 1990 and began developing it into the retreat that it is today. The Harbor golf course is known for being built into its natural surroundings with the highlight being the intercoastal section around holes 16 and 17. The other course, Links, is one of the original Tom Fazio designs, which makes it a prized play for any golfer. 58 | AUSTIN WOMAN | DECEMBER 2021

Sweetgrass Inn opened its doors on March 26, 2021, with 193 rooms. At this east coast resort, spring and summer are definitely high seasons. Guests enjoy the wide-open private beach (just across the boardwalk) in addition to the amenities mentioned above. Guests should make a point to book a spa service at the Sweetgrass Spa on the bottom floor. Highlights include a relaxing massage and the outdoor patio, which features cold and hot plunge pools. The Boardwalk Inn is a classic coastal-style boutique hotel where you can tuck yourself in quietly. As opposed to Sweetgrass Inn, which is more modern, with the interior styling of the Boardwalk Inn features bathroom barn doors and extended sliding-glass doors leading onto the patio, making it both trendy and action-filled.

Dining at the Dunes

Coastal Provisions is a laid-back cafe in the lobby of the Boardwalk Inn. The cafe features local purveyors and local ingredients, and the fish is sustainably sourced. The upscale menu features butterbean hummus for lunch, crab hush puppies served with a remoulade and marcona almonds with a honey drizzle, burrata salad, gnocchi and pistachio seared lamb. Your tummy will be full of so many Southern greats! Pair the hearty goodness with a bold cabernet wine and finish off with a sweet dessert. Coastal Provisions also offers breakfast, from a traditional choice of eggs, sausage and biscuit—with grits, of course—to a list of sweet options. Hudson‘s Market, located in the plaza, is open for breakfast (breakfast burritos and gourmet coffees) and any grocery needs you might have (wine, beer, crackers, desserts). Connecting both of the inns, the plaza is filled with shops, restaurants, including a woodfired pizza kitchen, and an art gallery that spotlights local artists. Laughing Gull, a poolside cafe, offers grub-hub food like woodfired pizzas, juicy burgers and fries paired with local draft beer. Perfect for enjoying lunch amid the beautiful weather the area is known for with a view of the waterscape.

Photo courtesy of Texas Lifestyle and Travel Magazine.

Holiday Happenings

Wild Dunes Resort has some very special holiday traditions. The day after Thanksgiving, there is a holiday festival and their famous golf cart parade, just outside the plaza. At Christmas, celebrate with Seaside Cinemas outdoors. You and your family can enjoy classic Christmas movies and refreshments and feel comfortable in your own outdoor “safety square.” Another Wild Dunes Resort tradition is Stories on the Stoop with Santa, when Santa goes to homes and reads a story on the porch.

Wild Dunes The culinary program offers the popular “dinner delivered” program where families can order meals if they’re staying at home.

Immersive Downtown

There is a great contrast between spending days near the beach and coming into historic Charleston. The Emeline hotel sits in the heart of the bustling city, but not very far from the water, near the famous City Market and dozens of restaurants and bars. The proximity to the water allows tourists to see the famous pineapple fountain and walk all the way down to The Battery, which is at the southern tip of the peninsula. Emeline is the muse for the residential feel of the hotel. She is the epitome of a Southern hostess and wants you to feel like you’re in her living room (not a lobby). When you walk in the door, you’ll be greeted by the signature scent and a welcome cocktail, typically a Planters Punch. Within the living room, you’ll find a functional record player with a full collection of vinyl. The hotel worked hard to source locally for everything from the light fixtures and the custom circular staircase near guest check-in, to the locally roasted Second State Coffee, featured at Clerks coffee shop. Built in the 1850s, the Charleston hotel still utilizes the original front door, which has been preserved. Near check-in, an open boutique called Keep sells local wares authentic to the Emeline, such as the locally crafted pottery soap dishes found in the guest bathrooms. The Emeline is part of a collection of hotels called Makeready, which also features the Adolphus in Dallas. They opened their doors in July 2020, right after the height of the pandemic. This dog-friendly property features 212 guest rooms. Of those, 128 are suites. Each suite includes a separate bedroom, large bathroom and large living space with a fold-out couch, a four-person table and kitchen bar with a small refrigerator.

Eating at Emeline

Emeline’s restaurant, Frannie & the Fox, is a hit with the locals! With a European atmosphere and boasts both indoor and outdoor sections (the outdoor courtyard features a large fireplace) and a vintage collection of furniture, guests are enticed to stay a while! Enjoy the Frannie breakfast sandwich, a nice warm biscuit filled with layered scrambled eggs, ham and cheese. The perfect way to start your day. Frannie & the Fox also offers a take-away menu in the evenings where you can pick up a dinner of meatballs, woodfired pizzas, rigatoni pasta and other comfort foods to enjoy in your suite.

Little Palms

Everything Emeline

On the opposite side of Frannie’s fireplace is a general outdoor courtyard, very common in Charleston. There are 15 rooms called Masonnettes on the first floor that open onto the courtyard. A popular option during the pandemic. Visitors can also rent a Mini Cooper to get around town. Make reservations at the front desk in advance for a set period of time. Use that time to venture outside the main part of the city so you can see things like the Angel oak tree or Magnolia Plantation.

Doing, Dining and Drinking

Citrus Club

GetYourGuide’s Historic Downtown Tour by horse-drawn carriage, departing from The Old South Carriage Company, just across a parking lot from The Emeline, is a popular tourist attraction. While riding around, you’ll learn things like: • Historic Charleston fills 98 square blocks, referred to as the low country. • There are 189 churches, earning it the title “the holiest city.” • It is the #4 U.S. city for drinking. • There have been five “great fires” (fires that destroyed 100 or more buildings). • The popular building style of the homes, referred to as “singles,” originated from the use of airflow in the hot Charleston summers. • Live oak trees abound around historic Charleston, with their route systems underneath the sidewalks and the roads. Be careful walking, or you’ll find yourself doing “the Charleston shuffle.”

The Citrus Club, so named for its citrus-inspired cocktails, is a lux rooftop bar on top of the Dewberry Hotel that offers 360-degree views of the city and is said to be the highest rooftop in Charleston. Enjoy a cocktail or glass of wine with a menu that features crab dip, edamame hummus and other appetizers. Little Palm, the bar on the second story of the Ryder Hotel, gives visitors a ’60s beach vibe. Next to the small pool, there’s a popular indoor space. Sit in an old-school diner booth and enjoy grilled shrimp or sweet corn hash. This is a very happening area to people watch and partake in a cocktail, draft beer or glass of vino. Charleston Harbor Fish House overlooks the historic Patriots Point Harbor, next to Naval & Maritime Museum. You’ll be able to see the USS Yorktown and USS Clamagore right outside the restaurant’s window. This is where you want to go for traditional Southern fare paired with a cold local beer. The perfect afternoon of waterfront relaxation. Marika Flatt, who organizes her own family reunion every year, is the travel editor of Texas Lifestyle Magazine and was named “Outstanding Austin Communicator” 2021 by Women Communicators of Austin. Flatt has been the voice of the “Weekend Trip Tips” on NPR’s Texas Standard for nearly five years and is a regular travel contributor to TV shows across the state.

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DINNER WITH

TURN INDULGENT DRINKS INTO DESSERTS

Austin-born chocolatier and Executive Pastry Chef Krystal Craig brings you to Italy with a bite. BY SLOANE WICK

chocolatier and co-owner of Intero, an Italian restaurant focused on farm-to-table, sustainable practices. At only 21 years old, Craig co-founded her first dessert company, Arte y Chocolate, which centered on handcrafted artisan chocolates made with sustainably sourced ingredients. After years of creating delicious treats for a multitude of Austin establishments like the Four Seasons, Jeffrey’s and Hotel Van Zandt, she focused her skills and time on opening Intero with Executive Chef and Kitchen Director Ian Thurwachter. While Craig loves sweets and adores working with chocolates and desserts, she likes to strike a balance and believes moderation is key. This is what makes the Craig and Thurwachter duo so great: the combination of their knowledge of savory and sweet. Growing up in and around the local food scene along with an inspirational trip to Italy (not to mention her personal affinity for chocolate) were the foundation of Craig’s career and show themselves in her food, including her Espresso Panna Cotta with White Chocolate and Hazelnuts.

When you were younger, what foods made you feel the best? Mostly all the chocolate types (brownies, ice cream, chocolate bars), but a few savory side standouts were also broccoli, mashed potatoes. I’ve considerably expanded my palate as an adult, of course. What makes this dish special to you, or what is your fondest memory of this dish? When I was younger I didn’t appreciate panna cotta. My dad made it every once in a while and tried to show me how to make it, but I wasn’t into creamy desserts, outside of ice cream, for the longest time. A trip to Italy broadened that perspective, and I’ve come to absolutely love making and eating panna cotta. Making it now reminds me of those times in the kitchen as a kid, and the inspirational trip to Italy I was fortunate to take. If you’re a creative type, panna cotta is truly a perfect dessert vessel for highlighting any flavor or combinations of ideas you want. Is there a certain ingredient that makes your version of this dish different than other versions? Panna cotta is traditionally pretty simple. I do my best to honor that by executing the recipe well, while still striving to create an elevated flavor profile from layering familiar or seasonally inspired high-quality components with it. If you had to describe your dish as a feeling to someone who has never had it, what would you say? Ha, this is a funny one because it does have a little story. Even though the flavor combination of this recipe is as familiar sounding as they come, I actually had not paired them all together with one another until a friend of mine said he wasn’t into panna cotta. I knew how much he liked white chocolate mocha lattes, so I made him this version one year to try and change his mind. He loved it. From that, I’d probably describe it as your basic-sounding, not-so-basic-tasting dessert pleaser for anyone who enjoys a little coffee with their cream and chocolate, in that order. What else would you like to mention? If you can eat the foods that give you good memories, do so. Life is better that way! Even if panna cotta on its own isn’t special to you, use the recipe to make one with flavors that do provide a positive recollection. You can tweak this recipe to try your own versions of panna cotta. Even if the adjustment is as simple as adding cinnamon to the garnish topping mix, or adding something else on top entirely, or being more playful in omitting the espresso and adding a different flavor of tea, milk alternative, chocolate, etc. You can get creative with it!

62 | AUSTIN WOMAN | DECEMBER 2021

Photos courtesy of Krystal Craig.

Austin-born Krystal Craig is the executive pastry chef,

ESPRESSO PANNA COTTA WITH WHITE CHOCOLATE & HAZELNUTS *Serves 12-20 depending on preferred ramekin or jar size.

I love turning components of my favorite indulgent drinks into dessert form. Although this recipe is not as overly sweet as it may sound, think of it as a white chocolate latte with hazelnuts for the perfect post-dinner coffee course. It’s easy to prepare ahead of time, so you can assemble it quickly when ready to serve. Ingredients: Panna cotta base recipe: 1/2 cup espresso (*or sub coffee) 2 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon gelatin powder (*or 8 sheets gelatin and 2 cups ice water) 1 1/2 cups milk 6 1/2 cups cream 1 1/2 cups sugar 1/2 tablespoon vanilla White chocolate and hazelnut crumble topping recipe: 16 oz couverture-quality white chocolate of choice 8 oz hazelnuts, toasted

Cover with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for 4 hours or more before serving. *If desired, and if you have a mini kitchen torch, you can quickly and lightly torch over the top of the panna cotta base in the receptacles to prevent air bubbles for a smoother finished look, but you will be adding crumble toppings to cover. WHITE CHOCOLATE & HAZELNUT CRUMBLE TOPPING RECIPE 16 oz couverture-quality white chocolate of choice

Directions:

8 oz hazelnuts, toasted

Prep espresso and set aside. Bloom the gelatin.

Directions:

NOTE: For powdered gelatin: In a small bowl, add it to the cold milk and set aside to bloom.

Heat oven to 250 0. Prep silpat or parchment paper on a sheet pan.

For sheet gelatin: Add to a bowl of cold ice water to bloom for several minutes until completely soft. Once bloomed, remove gelatin from water and “ring out” excess water from gelatin and set aside.

Heat and melt down white chocolate in a bowl over a double boiler.

For powdered gelatin: Heat the cream, sugar and espresso in a pot on medium-low heat until the sugar is fully dissolved and hot to the touch, but not simmering. Stir constantly.

Bake for 8-12 minutes. It will start to look more vanilla colored. Remove from the oven, scrape up and move the chocolate around, then spread back out. Place back into the oven for another 8-12 minutes. Repeat one to two more times for a nice light to medium caramel color of your preference. Note: The chocolate will seem a bit dry and hard to move at times, but work it as best you can.

Once hot, add the milk and gelatin mixture. Stir until well combined and dissolved. Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla. For sheet gelatin: Combine the milk, cream, sugar and espresso in a pot on medium-low heat until the sugar is fully dissolved and hot to the touch, but not simmering. Stir constantly. Turn off heat and stir in the gelatin until fully dissolved, then stir in the vanilla. TO PORTION Pour the panna cotta base into a large measuring cup NOTE: Use a measuring cup with a spout to avoid messy portioning. Place jars or ramekins of your choice on a baking pan. Pour base mixture into them, dividing evenly, and leave enough space from the top for the crumble topping to be added later.

Once melted, remove from heat and spread the chocolate on the lined pan.

Once it is roasted to a caramel color, remove from heat and set to cool. After the white chocolate is completely cool, break it apart into smaller pieces by hand. Combine the toasted hazelnuts and white chocolate into a food processor to roughly blend together and break up to a medium texture crumble. NOTE: Watch to not over grind to avoid making a paste instead of a crumble. Alternately, place the mix into a good oldfashioned gallon storage bag and crush with a pot. TO SERVE Once the panna cotta is fully set and you’re ready to serve, pull it from the fridge and top each serving with a generous and even amount of the topping. Enjoy!

I AM AUSTIN WOMAN

YOU’RE WORTH IT!

Nikki DaVaughn, founder of Fat Bottom Cabaret, refuses to shrink herself for inane beauty standards in her home city.

W hen I was 4 years old, I walked up to a stranger at the washeteria that used to be on the corner of MLK and Chicon, introduced myself and asked the man for a ride home. Six months later, he proposed to my mom and began what would be a 42-year marriage. To say that East Austin is in my blood would be an understatement. I grew up in Austin when you could walk to school and along the way see the same neighbors on their porches, getting ready for work, working in their gardens or playing music in their front yards. East Austin was a crazy mix of people of color, hippies, struggling musicians and poor white folks. Everyday I walked home from school waving at large beautiful women laughing or talking, and oftentimes fussing. There was always music playing from someone’s house and familiar smells of whatever dinner was cooking. I remember buzzing from the energy and feeling simultaneously safe and strong. I felt an innate ownership of the city back then. I saw myself everywhere everyday. Fast forward to high school and college, and my love of people and the energy I got from them evolved to a love of performing and the shared energy with an audience. There was never a shortage of opportunity for me to entertain in this city, whether it was in church, school or random gigs. But over time I noticed the audience changed. I went from plays and musicals with diverse casts and scores to male-dominated cover bands in shitty frat bars. My neighborhood sounds started to be less gospel mixed with Motown and more indie rock mixed with construction and sirens. Little by little, I was starting to feel invisible. It was in 2008, while emceeing at yet another burlesque show where I was the only person of color and the only person of size, when I finally said, “Enough is enough,” and Fat Bottom Cabaret was born. It started with the idea that surely there were other fat women like me that loved performing; they just hadn’t found the right stage yet. I was determined to create that stage. By 2014, Fat Bottom was performing all over Texas, winning titles in burlesque festivals and selling out shows. That was around the time the gentrification of East Austin really became noticeable. My way to deal with the increasing disappearance of diversity in my neighborhood was to

64 | AUSTIN WOMAN | DECEMBER 2021

increase the visibility of the women I grew up seeing. Not just increasing visibility, but celebrating [them]. I was determined to celebrate the bodies that I grew up with, the body I was growing into: full, dark bodies that I was seeing fewer of in the world. I wanted to pay homage to those bodies by loving mine and encouraging others to do the same. Showing beautiful brown women of all sizes on stage was the perfect inspiration. By 2017, things started getting real. Our audience got bigger, as did our reach. The diversity we started seeing at our shows was the perfect catalyst to spread our message like wildfire. Our shows, social media and audience communication were all used to drive home the idea that every body is beautiful and worthy of not just visibility, but celebration. Whenever I had a mic in my hand, I made it a point to push this home. It was especially important to me the more whitewashed and gentrified the east side became. The necessity to celebrate specifically brown bodies in Austin felt crucial. The bigger the city was getting, the harder it was to stay seen. Our show started to feel like an act of rebellion. Rebellion against the cookiecutter sameness that society seemed hell-bent on creating. I wasn’t having it, not in my city. Not in a city that was once so full of life, diversity and that special crazy energy. I would put a hundred fat brown women onstage if I had to, and (let’s face it) I likely will! Fat Bottom Cabaret is barreling toward its 10th year, and I’m in awe of what we’ve accomplished. This crazy thing I started has definitely grown into something I couldn’t have imagined, largely thanks to this gang of fierce, confident Austin women that took a leap of faith. Visibility with intent isn’t always easy, especially when society is doing everything it can to erase you; but the brown women in Austin are a special breed. We rarely shrink ourselves and don’t give in easily. Fat Bottom is proof of that. Representation of big-bodied WOC in this city is a hill I will not only die on, but will dance, sing, strip, bump and grind on. There’s no room for bullshit beauty standards in a city like this. We’re too dynamic. So, for as long as I’m strutting around Austin with a mic in my hand, my message will be the same: Celebrate and love yourself at every version it comes in. Take up space, represent and raise hell. You’re worth it.

Photo courtesy of Nikki DaVaughn.

BY NIKKI DAVAUGHN

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