Out in SA - Spring 2016 by Chava Communications

SPRING 2016

SPRING 2016 SAN ANTONIO’S LGBTQ MAGAZINE

Kings Anchovy Wayne D. Beers & Michael Bobo Are Ready to Rule

HAPPY TRAILS LGBT Retreats, Armadillo Teardrop Campers & A Hill Country Honeymoon

DEEP IN VOGUE Strike a Pose with the Multitasking House of Kenzo

SAN ANTONIO’S LGBTQ MAGAZINE

Rebel with a Cause DINING, DRINKING AND DANCING WITH VEGAN CRUSADER REBECCA ‘REBEL MARIPOSA’ LOPEZ

AT NEW HEIGHTS DENTAL WE FOCUS ON PREVENTION, REHABILITATION, RELAXATION AND SEDATION DENTISTRY TO PROMOTE A HEALTHY MOUTH, BODY AND MIND.

BRACES STARTING AT $3500

COMPLETE IMPLANT WITH TOOTH FOR $2000.

SPRING 2016 // COLUMNS | 3

7700 BROADWAY, STE 102 | SA, TX 78209

INFO@NEWHEIGHTSDENTAL.COM | NEWHEIGHTSDENTAL.COM

210.828.5300

I t a l y, P u g l i a

Let the elegance of Dorian, designed and handcrafted in Italy, overwhelm you. Sit back and enjoy the allure of Dorianâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s endless modularity, capable of seducing any space.

4 | COLUMNS // SPRING 2016

AUSTIN

2236 Wset Braker

512.451.1233

(just east of The Domain and Burnet Road next to Culverâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s)

SAN ANTONIO

18603 Blanco Road

210.545.4366

(just north of 1604 in The Vineyard next to Whole Foods Market)

www.CopenhagenLiving.com

contemporary furniture & accessories

SPRING 2016 // COLUMNS | 5

Everyone deserves the chance to be a parent.

We’re here to help that happen.

WWW.ADVANCEDFERTILITYCENTER.ORG/LGBT-PARENTHOOD 18707 HARDY OAK BLVD., SUITE 500 SATX 78258 | 210.616.0680 6 | COLUMNS // SPRING 2016

BUTTERFLY REBELLION 20 Vegan chef Rebecca “Rebel Mariposa” Lopez comes into her own at La Botánica DEEP IN VOGUE 24 San Antonio troupe House of Kenzo strikes a fierce pose DOUBLE TROUBLE 46 Getting cozy with Kings Anchovy Wayne D. Beers and Michael Bobo ON THE STRIP & BEYOND 72 Surveying the Alamo City’s LGBT nightlife options

Kings Anchovy Michael Bobo and Wayne D. Beers photographed by Marc Arevalo

SPRING 2016 // COLUMNS | 7

SCULPT Your Body with

Hollywood’s Body Sculpting Choice.

- Check out Lance Bass’ SculpSureTM pics on Instagram - Kyle Richards, star of Housewives of Beverly Hills, tells all in People

• Destroys 24% of unwanted fat in just 1 comfortable 25 minute treatment • No pain, No surgery, No downtime

Find out if SculpSure is right for you. Call Us! TM

210-227-3051

sculptaway.com Proven shortcuts to your ideal body. Evening & Saturday hours available. 9991 W IH 10 @ The Colonnade III

8 | COLUMNS // SPRING 2016

CONTENTS

16 #SAFAMOUS THE LGBTQA COMMUNITY COMES OUT IN SUPPORT OF WORTHY CAUSES

SUPERMODEL CITIZEN LATINA BOMBSHELL PATRICIA VELASQUEZ WANTS YOU (TO COME OUT)!

TEJAS TESORO GREGG BARRIOS ON HIS CREATIVE PARTNERSHIP WITH JAMES FRANCO

HOT GLUE & DUCT TAPE CORNYATION MAINSTAY JOHN MCBURNEY TALKS CONCEPTS, CAMP AND COSTUMES

SPINNING IN A NEW DIRECTION FITNESS INSTRUCTOR WESLEY SALAZAR TAKES US ON A JOYRIDE

BOSS QUEEN COMEDIC SHOWGIRL TENCHA LA JEFA IS READY FOR HER CLOSEUP

WORTH WAITING FOR ANTICIPATING THE 2020 ARRIVAL OF CANOPY ON THE RIVER WALK

On the Cover SPRING 2016 SAN ANTONIO’S LGBTQ MAGAZINE

Kings Anchovy Wayne D. Beers & Michael Bobo Are Ready to Rule

HAPPY TRAILS LGBT Retreats, Armadillo Teardrop Campers & a Hill Country Honeymoon

DEEP IN VOGUE Strike a Pose with the Multitasking House of Kenzo

86 A VIEW OF REALITY FROM A CHARTREUSE COUCH GENE ELDER CHATS WITH SHOCKING GRAY CO-FOUNDER MICHELLE FRIESENHAHN

Rebecca “Rebel Mariposa” Lopez photographed by Josh Huskin at La Botánica. Art direction by Rick Fisher.

Rebel with a Cause DINING, DRINKING AND DANCING WITH VEGAN CRUSADER REBECCA ‘REBEL MARIPOSA’ LOPEZ

SPRING 2016 // CONTENTS | 9

2016 PARTIES WITH A PURPOSE April 7th | Zoolectric

Zoomers is the young professionals’ organization at the San Antonio Zoo dedicated to expanding conservation and awareness of the Zoo and its mission.

Party like animals when we light up the Zoo at night to celebrate our members at our annual membership drive! This is the only Zoomers event where we open our gates to those interested in joining. Reservations must be made in advance by visiting sazoo.org/support/Zoomers. Space is limited. August 4th | Casino Safari Give back to your San Antonio Zoo where your bets really matter! Complimentary admission for Zoomers. Compete at casino games while enjoying the beer & wine bar, themed food and entertainment, all to raise money for our Zoo. October 6th | Croctoberfest Beer, beer and more beer… and crocodiles! An intimate look at some of the Zoo’s most treasured animals as we celebrate this fall festival in style with German food, libations, and entertainment. Members only.

SAZOO.ORG/SUPPORT/ZOOMERS | FACEBOOK/SAZOOMERS | SAZOOMERS@SAZOO.ORG

10 | COLUMNS // SPRING 2016

CONTRIBUTORS

MARCO AQUINO is a freelance arts writer and Out In SA blogger.

MARC AREVALO is an award-winning fashion and fine art photographer.

RUDY ARISPE is a former staff writer for the San Antonio Light and San Antonio Express-News.

MARISELA BARRERA is a stage director, writer and mother who grew up on Crockett Street in Alamo, Texas.

RON BECHTOL is an architect and the Texas editor for the Fearless Critic restaurant guides.

CHRIS CONDE is a gay rapper who contributes to Out In SA’s social media channels.

MURPHI COOK is a freelance writer and one half of the multimedia puppet troupe Miniature Curiosa.

GENE ELDER is the leading “Clip and File Queen” for the HAPPY Foundation Archives.

SARAH FISCH is the media manager for Luminaria and founder of Go Fisch New Media.

SARAH FLOOD-BAUMANN is the interim art director for the San Antonio Current.

CHRISTINE GARZA is a native of San Antonio’s West Side and a lover of words and all things Mexican.

ANEL FLORES is a writer, community activist and the author of Empanada: A Lesbiana Story en Probaditas.

FAITH G. HARPER is president of the Texas Association for LGBT Issues in Counseling.

ERIKA RENEE LAND is a writer and performer who advocates for art therapy via her original play PTSD and Me.

JULIÁN P. LEDEZMA is a photographer specializing in bridal and special events with an LGBT emphasis.

KIKO MARTÍNEZ is a CineSnob with Obsessive Movie Compulsive Disorder and is not seeking treatment.

BONNY OSTERHAGE is a freelance journalist who spends her days copywriting for H-E-B.

MIKEY ROX is an LGBT journalist whose work has appeared in 100-plus publications across the globe.

LAUREN SALGUERO is the creative director at Tiny Roar Creative and founder of Paper Trail SA.

SAM SANCHEZ is an Out In SA news writer and the founder of QSanAntonio.com.

Editor-in-Chief Bryan Rindfuss Publisher Michael Wagner Associate Publisher Lara Fischer Marketing & Events Cassandra Yardeni Art and Production John Mata & Tina Corbeil Account Executives Chelsea Bourque, Carlos Aguirre, Sarah Estrada, Sharalee Roberts-Mays, Alexa Perez, Joe Rodriquez, Loren Reyes, Elizabeth Raup

Account Manager Zachary Yurcheshen Production Interns Joseph Drake, Carley Carmack Angelica Torres, Rene Martinez General Inquiries Bryan@outinsa.com Advertising & Marketing Inquiries Lara@outinsa.com

Distribution distribution@outinsa.com Offices 915 Dallas St., San Antonio, Texas 78215 (210) 227-0044 Euclid Media Group Chief Executive Officer: Andrew Zelman Chief Operating Officers: Chris Keating, Michael Wagner Human Resources Director: Lisa Beilstein Digital Operations Coordinator: Jaime Monzon Senior Marketing and Events Director: Cassandra Yardeni

SPRING 2016 // CONTENTS | 11

SHERIFF EYES SECOND TERM

Susan Pamerleau Ready for Four More Years SAM SANCHEZ Susan Pamerleau has the distinction of being the first woman to ever be elected sheriff of Bexar County. After four years on the job, the sheriff, a Republican, says sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ready for another term. In November, sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll face off against either Javier Salazar or Andy Garcia, depending on who wins the Democratic primary runoff. Pamerleau retired from the United States Air Force after 32 years of service, having achieved the rank of major general and commanding the Air Force Personnel Center at the Pentagon. Upon retirement, she moved to San Antonio and took a job at USAA as senior vice president for military affairs. 12 | UP FRONT // SPRING 2016

In 2010, Pamerleau ran unsuccessfully for Bexar County Precinct 4 Commissioner against incumbent Tommy Adkisson, who prevailed with 54 percent of the vote. Two years later, she ran for Bexar County Sheriff and ousted Democrat Amadeo Ortiz, scoring 52 percent of the vote. After the election, Pamerleau told the San Antonio Express-News she knew some Democrats had crossed party lines to help her win. Sheriff Pamerleau recently invited Out In SA to her office for an election-season chat.

So we worked closely with the employee assistance program, and to their credit, they worked with us and hired two more psychologists who have worked extensively with individuals in law enforcement. Law enforcement is the most stressful of all occupations ... We have put more vigor into our employee recruitment selection process. We’ve established our core values: integrity, service, excellence, courage and commitment. If the public can’t have confidence that Bexar County Sheriff’s deputies will do the right thing, then we can’t do our job.

When you first ran for sheriff and even now, your political opponents criticized you for not having law enforcement experience. However, you had a very accomplished career in the Air Force. What in your past experience has helped you in your current job as sheriff? Forty percent of all the county’s employees work for the sheriff, and 40 percent of the operational budget for the county comes to the sheriff’s office. We’re talking about almost 2,000 employees, an operational budget just under $150 million, plus an additional $46 million in capital projects. The job is not just about operations, and not just about law enforcement; it’s not just about jail operations, it’s being the CEO of a very large company ... I relate to that; it’s what I’ve been doing all of the senior part of my work life, leading very large organizations and managing very large budgets. This is what convinced me to run for sheriff, and keeps me convinced that this is the kind of experience one needs ... Also, in February of 2014, I earned my Texas peace officer’s license through the Alamo Area Council of Governments’ law enforcement academy. I also earned my jailer’s license, so I’m dual-qualified in our primary businesses: law enforcement and detention.

Some in the community feel your office has not been completely transparent regarding information provided to the public in some recent high-profile cases. What is your reaction to these charges? I don’t think there’s an administration in the sheriff’s office that has been as transparent as we have been. When something bad or embarrassing happens, we’re the ones who provide the release to the media. We don’t hide it. It’s sort of like fish, you know, after three days it doesn’t smell any better ... We have a responsibility to the public to be open with them. But we’re also in the law enforcement business. To release information when we’re in the process of doing an investigation could jeopardize that investigation. We’re not the only ones who have that responsibility; the district attorney has it as well.

A couple of your political opponents have said morale is low in the Sheriff’s Department. How do you answer that criticism? It depends on who you talk to. [The office used to be] the goodold boys, fraternalism; it was who you knew — not what you knew or how well you performed ... We’ve held people accountable, and if somebody has low morale because they’re being held accountable, that’s what happens. I think it’s reasonable to expect people to do their jobs ... We had some issues with mandatory overtime. The first two months I was in office there were 15,000 to 16,000 hours of mandatory overtime and 52 vacancies. Not only were they backfilling sworn deputies who weren’t showing up for work, they were also backfilling civilians. They also hadn’t even identified the difference between critical and non-critical positions. There have been incidents of Sheriff’s Department officers getting in trouble (domestic violence, driving under the influence, smuggling drugs into jail, credit card fraud). What can be done to more carefully screen prospective employees to make sure you get the best candidates? Let me put this in context. If you go out and get a DWI, it’s not splashed across the headlines of the newspaper for the next two days. That’s not an excuse, but it’s the reality ... When I divide 14 [the number of employees who got into trouble in 2015] into 1,898, the number of Sheriff’s Department employees, that is less than three-quarters of one percent of the entire organization. I’d match that against any large organization in this community ... However, one is too many. The county had an employee assistance program, but it didn’t meet the needs of people in law enforcement.

Presently, the San Antonio Police Department conducts LGBT sensitivity training for cadets at the police academy. Do you think such training would benefit the Bexar County Sheriff Department’s recruits? The Texas Basic Peace Officer course and Basic County Corrections course curricula both include instruction on multiculturalism and human relations, which help deputies identify forms and targets of prejudice. Gender and sexual orientation are included as points of discussion in the learning objectives, including role-play. We also supplement this with communications and problem-solving sections of the curriculum, which assists deputies in communicating sensitivity and compassion with diverse groups ... In addition, our training for the Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003 addresses the use of proper terminology. Not only does this ensure needs of individuals are met, but also emphasizes being respectful of all people. Would you consider appointing a liaison from the Sheriff’s Department to the LGBT community? Yes, we’re glad to designate liaisons to the LGBT community — one for Detention and one for Law Enforcement, so that those designated have the appropriate professional expertise to respond to questions or concerns related to different functional and operational areas. Would you be willing to meet with community leaders to discuss possible concerns with the conditions under which LGBT prisoners are held in detention? Absolutely! In fact, we have met with members of the San Antonio Gender Association (SAGA) in the past, addressing their concerns, and have benefitted from those conversations by improving our procedures. We already have plans underway to meet with SAGA again to assure our policies are current and our staff are educated on concerns across our community. SPRING 2016 // UP FRONT | 13

BRYAN RINDFUSS

SUCCESS STORY

Former Children’s Shelter Resident Overcomes Great Odds MARCO AQUINO Three years ago, when Blue Hess decided he would volunteer at The Children’s Shelter, he never imagined he’d become one of the nationally accredited nonprofit’s most vocal advocates — speaking regularly to local media and working with the community to help spread the word about its many services. Since its founding in 1901, The Children’s Shelter has provided emergency shelter and residential treatment for children throughout Bexar County who have been abused, neglected or abandoned by their families. It also provides temporary foster care for children who’ve been removed from their home and facilitates the adoption process. As a former resident at The Children’s Shelter, Hess also serves as an encouraging voice to the hundreds of children who pass through its doors annually, many of whom have been silenced by the fear and trauma of abuse.

14 | UP FRONT // SPRING 2016

BRYAN RINDFUSS

At the age of 6, Hess and his two brothers and sister were removed from their biological family and sent to live at The Children’s Shelter. Within six months, Hess and his siblings would be separated and placed in foster care. His time in foster care was not always easy. “I tried to keep count of how many families I was a part of — I want to say seven or eight families,” Hess told Out In SA. “It would be anything from a divorced mom to a married mom and dad. Some of the families had biological children of their own, or it would just be me. Some of the families I have very good memories of, but I have about three of the foster families where I have very bad memories.” There was one family in particular, Hess claims, would leave him outside all day long in the hot sun while their biological children played indoors. He retaliated by flooding their home with a water hose and was eventually removed from the home and placed into respite care. When he was 11, Hess was placed with the family that eventually adopted him. He remembers it as a difficult process, as both of his newly adoptive parents were in their late 30s and had no biological children of their own. His own age was also a factor. “We all had to learn to be a family,” Hess said. “My mom had to learn to not be upset when I would do things — I already had my own set of morals and what I thought was right. In her mind, she wanted to teach me everything she knew, which is what a parent should do, but normally you do that with a baby, and I had already seen a bunch of things. It’s been good, and it’s been hard, but I love it.” At 16, Hess came out to his adoptive parents, who were supportive — even upset he hadn’t come out sooner. “They knew I was gay before I even did,” he said. Today, at age 20, his family and social life resemble those of many other 20-year-olds. Hess is now in his second year at the University of Texas at San Antonio and is working toward a degree in human resource management. He holds a part-time job at H-E-B, where he plans to continue his career. Recently, he reconnected with siblings after finding them through social media, but their contact has been limited. Hess says he’s not ready to be in contact with his biological parents at the moment. “When I was younger, my biological dad was the one who did all of the abuse, so I don’t see a future where I can see or talk to him because that’s how bad it was. If I’m not mistaken, I’m pretty sure he’s in jail. With my biological mother, it was more neglect — you know, alcoholism and drug abuse. I don’t really want to have a relationship with her, but I would hope that she’s better.” As he thinks back on a journey that spans most of his youth, Hess finds fond memories of his short time at The Children’s Shelter. He remembers many of the staff’s faces, playing video games and having fun with them. Most of all, he remembers feeling safe. “They make sure that every kid that goes in there is safe,” he said. “They make sure that every staff member is having fun and making the kids laugh, and that the kids don’t have to worry about who is going to put food on the table or whether someone is going to hurt them. The misconception is that kids who go there are upset and they don’t have a lot of clothes or food.” For Hess, as he remembers it, his time at The Children’s Shelter was a period of relief. “I’ll always remember the fact that they donate a blanket and a pillow to each of the children after they leave,” he said. “I still have that blanket ... It’s beautiful to me and I hold onto it. I can still remember being 6 and getting into a vehicle and leaving The Children’s Shelter.”

Today, Hess says he still suffers from severe anxiety, and it’s one of the reasons he advocates so strongly for mental health services. “… I wish I had proper mental health [care] provided. I feel I could have been better now,” he said. He believes The Children’s Shelter’s recently opened Harvey E. Najim Hope Center provides one of the nonprofit’s most valuable services. The Hope Center, a trauma-focused, outpatient mental health clinic offers specialized care by licensed mental health professionals to children and families who have experienced abuse and helps them transition into a better future. “It’s going to be helpful for the kids there in terms of being able to help them grow [and] learn about the trauma that they’ve experienced and ... accept it and move on — versus not knowing about it, and harboring it and pushing it down like I did,” Hess said. “Unfortunately, I didn’t come out unscathed, but I’m trying to do good for myself.”

How to Help BECOME A FOSTER OR ADOPTIVE PARENT The Children’s Shelter is always in need of temporary and permanent homes for children who have been abused or abandoned. Married couples and single individuals, both gay and straight, are welcomed and supported by the shelter. Support is provided throughout the entire adoption process and post-adoption services are available to both children and their adoptive families. DONATIONS The Children’s Shelter accepts cash, check and credit card donations. It also accepts in-kind donations such as clothes, diapers and children’s books. Contact The Children’s Shelter for specific needs. THE CHILDREN SHELTER’S THRIFT BOUTIQUE The Thrift Boutique at 1407 South St. Mary’s Street accepts donations of gently used clothing and home accessories, with proceeds directly supporting The Children’s Shelter. THE CHILDREN’S SHELTER 2939 W. Woodlawn Ave., (210) 212-2500 chshel.org

Blue Hess with his adoptive mother on adoption day

SPRING 2016 // UP FRONT | 15

#SAFAMOUS

#PROJECT EQUALITY SATX BLOCK PARTY

WOMAN’S DAY MARCH & RALLY

LGBTQ COMMUNITY EASTER EGG HUNT

16 | #SAFAMOUS // SPRING 2016

ESENTS R P IO N O T N A F SAN O B U L C IS N N E T

C I S S A L C S I N N E T Y T I C O M ALA LGBT TENNIS TERNATIONAL FIRST EVER IN NIS CENTER MCFARLIN TEN

NIO @ D IN SAN ANTO EL H BE TO T TOURNAMEN

Y 1, 2016 A M 9 2 IL R P A

The Alamo City Tennis Classic is the first ever international LGBT tennis tournament to be held in San Antonio. The tournament is part of the GLTA World Tour and is hosting players from all over the country and world! The main purpose of this tournament is to raise money for two local charities: Spay and Neuter Assistance Program (SNAP) and Thrive Youth. All levels of play from beginner to advanced are welcomed.

Registration

$100 for single event, $10 ea. additional event

for more information, email the Tournament Director, Kyle Gordon, at

actcdirector@tennisclubof sanantonio.com

Registration Includes: • CCE Sports Network will be live streaming • Draw Party, 04/28 @ Aloft Hotel, 6:30-9 PM matches • Events offered are Men’s/Women’s singles/ • Player Party, 04/29 @ McFarlin Tennis doubles & Mixed Doubles Center, 6-9 PM (Sponsored by Out in SA)

• Player Banquet, 04/30 @ Radius Center, 7:30 PM, w/ raffle items & silent auction. Catered by Four Sisters Catering

• Lunches provided to players daily

Find our event on Facebook by searching for Alamo City Tennis Classic. or Visit www.glta.net to sign up for the Alamo City Tennis Classic.

SPRING 2016 // COLUMNS | 17

s ' t a h W r u Yo a d n e Ag SA’s n I t Ou icks P g n Spri

4.7-4.17 Secrets of a Soccer Mom

4.13 • Barry Manilow

When Barry Manilow married his longtime partner and business All’s fair in love and soccer, and manager Garry Kief in 2014, the sometimes even mama’s got to step small, unofficial ceremony at the off the sidelines. In Kathleen Clark’s couple’s Palm Springs home was Secrets of a Soccer Mom, three reportedly the antithesis of the reluctant mothers rage against their high-glitz Vegas lounge act the sons in a rapidly unraveling soccer “Copacabana” singer has headlined game where confessions fly as fast for years now. “We just went ‘Tap, as the ball. Weaving the pleasant tap, tap’ on a glass and ‘I just predictability of a Lifetime movie wanted to tell you all that Garry and with a laugh-out-loud script, the I got married,’” Manilow told The annual game encourages a bout Desert Sun in December. No official of unexpected soul-searching documents were filed and news of as the women question their the wedding was first leaked to the motherhood, independence and National Enquirer by unnamed sources whether they should let their a year after the fact, but Manilow, boys win. The “sympathetic who does not discuss Kief or any other and compelling comedy” aspect of his personal life onstage, told ultimately serves up a the Sun he was ultimately glad the news heaping helping of girl power got out. “I don’t know who gave that as it kicks mommy blog information to the Enquirer, but, you can culture to the curb. Marisela just say I was thrilled about the reaction Barrera directs the AtticRep to it” he said of the overwhelming production starring Anna support he received from “Fanilows” in 4.15 • Adore Delano De Luna, Georgette response to the news. “In my life, I never Competing on the seventh season of American Lockwood and Margaret would have imagined that nobody was Idol, Daniel Noriega made it into the top 16 but Tonra. $18-$28, 8pm upset about it. They went beyond not not without a few insults from Simon Cowell, who Thu-Sat, 2:30pm Sun, upset. Everybody was just so happy for reportedly called the California native “useless” April 7-17, Tobin Center me.” The 72-year-old singer-songwriter, and even described one of his performances as for the Performing who went from writing commercial jingles “grotesque.” Five years later, Noriega re-entered the Arts, 100 Auditorium and playing piano behind Bette Midler in reality competition arena reinvented as Adore Delano Circle, (210) 223-8624, New York’s famed Continental Baths to on RuPaul’s Drag Race. Since sashaying away from tobincenter.org. a platinum-selling artist many times over season six as second runner-up, Delano has emerged — Murphi Cook on the strength of such singles as “I Write as the best-selling Drag Race alum based on the the Songs” and “Mandy,” is currently on Billboard-charting debut album Till Death Do Us Party. his “One Last Time” tour — reportedly While the current Battle of the Seasons tour (featuring his final go-round filling arenas worldwide Delano alongside Sharon Needles, Ginger Minj, Alaska — news that certainly upsets the average Thunderfuck, Courtney Act and a dozen other queens) Fanilow more than any belated wedding only comes as close as Austin (June 23 at the Paramount announcement ever would. $19.75-$169.75, Theatre), Delano is set to hold court at the Aztec hot on the 7:30pm Wed, April 13, AT&T Center, One heels of her sophomore effort #Afterparty. $18-$20, 10pm AT&T Center Pkwy., (210) 444-5000, Fri, April 15, Aztec Theatre, 104 N. St. Mary’s St., (210) ticketmaster.com. — Jeremy Martin 812-4355, theaztectheatre.com. — Marco Aquino

18 | AGENDA // SPRING 2016

4.29-5.01 Alamo City Tennis Classic Hosted by the Tennis Club of San Antonio (TCSA) and benefiting Spay and Neuter Assistance Program (SNAP) and Thrive Youth Center, the inaugural Alamo City Tennis Classic (ACTC) is one of the first international LGBT sports competitions of its kind in San Antonio. “We plan to give back to the community, and the main reason we will host tournaments is so that we can support local charities,” club president Kyle Gordon told Out In SA last year. Since its establishment nearly a year ago, TCSA has grown into one of the largest LGBT tennis organizations in the Lone Star State. In addition to the tournament (which will be streamed live courtesy of Florida-based CCE Sports Network), ACTC includes a Draw Party (April 28 at Aloft Hotel), a Player Party hosted by Out In SA (April 29 at McFarlin) and a Player Banquet (April 30 at Radius Center). $100 registration for one event, plus $10 for each additional event (online registration closes April 15), April 29May 1, McFarlin Tennis Center, 1503 San Pedro Ave., (210) 860-5311, 4.22 • Bon Qui Qui tennisclubofsanantonio. Former Oakland Raiders cheerleader com. — MA and MADtv alum Anjelah Johnson is known for her stand-up comedy routine based in a nail salon (not to mention a series of Taco Cabana ads), but her biggest break may be opening for ex-King Burger cashier Bon Qui Qui on the “Gold Plated Dreams” Tour. The very attitude that made Ms. QQ such a nightmare as a fast-food employee on MADtv translates to instant icon status in novelty hip-hop, and the best joke about should-be hit singles “No Boyfren” and “I’ma Cut You” is that they’re probably catchier and cleverer than anything Iggy Azalea’s got left. That Bon Qui Qui is, in fact, Johnson in an outrageous weave and oversized hoop earrings elevates the joke to performance art Andy Kaufman could get down to. $35, 8pm Fri, April 22, The Majestic Theatre, 224 E. Houston St., (210) 226-3333, majesticempire.com. — JM

6.12 • Jane Lynch “I am gay. No one can ever know this.” Interviewed for the web series It Got Better, comedic actress extraordinaire Jane Lynch (Glee, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Party Down) recalls writing these words in her journal at the age of 14, then immediately ripping the page out and stuffing it in a trash can four blocks away from her house. Lynch’s 2011 memoir Happy Accidents chronicles her decades-long journey from a mortified teenager 5.31-6.5 to an A-list actress who, as Slate puts it, “excels at portraying ... The Wizard of Oz full-throttle, sexed-up, hyper-conWhen the Naval Investigative fident female wack jobs” — such Service researched as her breakout role in Christohomosexuality in the 1980s, pher Guest’s 2000 comedy Best in it ironically launched a realShow, where she played Christy life search for a legendary Cummings, publisher of American gal named Dorothy — in Bitch, a magazine focusing on hopes she’d rat out all her gay “the issues of lesbian pure-bred friends in the military. Little dog owners.” But for definitive did the investigators know, proof that “it gets better,” it’s they should’ve been searching hard to beat the immediate highs down the Yellow Brick Road, of Lynch’s touring See Jane Sing, where motley misfits the which showcases our favorite Scarecrow, Cowardly Lion children’s choir antagonist as a and Tin Man joined forces as cabaret act with a subversive proud “Friends of Dorothy.” streak. Accompanied onstage Still in rotation today (often by the Tony Guerrero Quintet, under FOD), the euphemism’s Glee vocal arranger Tim Davis roots can be traced to L. Frank and The Office’s Kate Flannery, Baum’s 1909 novel The Road Lynch delivers an evening The to Oz, in which Dorothy Gale New York Times describes as responds to a comment about “free-form goofiness” with her “queer friends” with, “The a “sly, sexual subtext.” It queerness doesn’t matter, so long doesn’t get much better than as they’re friends.” First adapted that. $35-$75, 8pm Sun, for the stage in 1902, The Wizard June 12, Charline McCombs of Oz found an extravagant new Empire Theatre, 226 life via Andrew Lloyd Webber and N. St. Mary’s St., Tim Rice’s collaboration, which (210) 226-3333, lands at The Majestic courtesy of majesticempire. Broadway in San Antonio. Closely com. — JM following the Technicolor gem that turned Judy Garland into a gingham-clad gay icon, the duo’s 2011 redux adds a sprinkling of original songs to the film’s Oscarwinning score and stars rescued Cairn terriers Nigel and Loki in the beloved role of Toto. $30-$115, 7:30pm Tue-Thu, 8pm Fri, 2pm & 8pm Sat, 2pm & 7:30pm Sun, May 31-June 5, The Majestic Theatre, 224 E. Houston St., (210) 2263333, majesticempire.com. — MC SPRING 2016 // AGENDA | 19

Rebecca “Rebel Mariposa” Lopez photographed by Josh Huskin at La Botánica

20 | FOOD // SPRING 2016

”

VEGAN FARE, COCKTAILS AND COMMUNITY AT LA BOTÁNICA RON BECHTOL Recent random statistic: About six percent of the American public defines itself as vegan. Just guessing here, but that number is likely lower in San Antonio — which makes the local band of dedicated brethren and sistren small indeed. But the key word is not “small,” it’s “dedicated.” Unlike diet-du-jour types who briefly espouse, oh let’s pick out of a hat, a gluten-free lifestyle, vegans tend to be focused, committed, almost religious about their ethical/eating choices. Nothing with eyes (or a heartbeat) about sums it up. As does this bumpersticker slogan: “Tomatoes — the new red meat.” Rebecca Lopez doesn’t call herself the high priestess of San Antonio vegans, but she might as well. La Botánica (2911 North St. Mary’s), her restaurant/bar/gathering place is a hub of vegan eating and drinking and the covered outdoor patio serves as a kind of community forum where all are welcome — the committed, the curious, the random flexitarian. And their dogs, as the bowls scattered about testify. At first glance, it seems that Lopez didn’t grow up any weirder than many in San Antonio, but there were out-of-themainstream intimations in retrospect: Her grandmother was a curandera who made beer in a bathtub during Prohibition; her mother was a performance artist and a theater nut who hung out a lot at Jump-Start ... “I grew up in political, community spaces,” Lopez says, “so this place naturally evolved from that. I wouldn’t have been that enthusiastic to do just a restaurant alone.” The veganism was less inherited, more willful. It began at the University of Texas at Austin, to which Lopez transferred after starting out at UTSA. “It was a mainly political statement, a reaction against violence, the people who worked in the industry, and the disconnect [between the killing and us]. “We used to ask permission of the animal [to slaughter it],” she says. “I decided I didn’t want to eat [the animal’s] anxiety.” About the same time (2004, to be exact), Lopez was DJing in Austin, along with contributing to On the Fringe, a show of news “others weren’t talking about.” She decided she needed an appropriate record-spinning handle and, as she had been reading Zapatista Subcomandante Marcos’ book Conversations with Durito, in which, as she recalls, there are images of “rebellions being like butterflies — they come in different colors,” the name “Rebel Mariposa” was born. And stuck. Though it presents some problems in conventional journalistic terms (Rebel? Ms. Mariposa?), we will refer to her by this moniker from here on out. Let’s say RM. Then, at age 40, her mother came out as a lesbian. She and her new partner moved to San Diego, and RM decided to follow. The move was transformative in many ways. “I was surrounded by people with a more fluid sexuality there, so I explored that

along with food. It was way easier to evolve in California; I had more friends there who were vegan,” she says. (She also says she’s now dating a woman.) It was from a combination of politically motivated activity and growing vegan awareness that Rebel Eats was born. From the rebeleats.org website: “Rebel Eats is a plant-based food catering, educational and events collective with a social awareness doing radical things with and around food.” It wasn’t long before SA friends urged her to bring it (and herself) back home. A friend (and now business partner) from her UTSA days, Danny Consante (aka Danny Delgado), found the place on the St. Mary’s Strip that La Botánica now occupies. “I said no at first,” says RM. But then she set about assembling a team to create a Kickstarter campaign (they exceeded the $10,000 goal by $5,000), to develop a logo, to put together a menu ... “Some was thought out, some was being in the right place at the right time.” Arabella Daniels, a cook from Louisiana, helped create the menu. “I couldn’t have done it without her. She wasn’t vegan but switched gears,” says RM. Pick a gear, any gear, at today’s La Botánica. Trans to gay to straight: “‘We all feel safe here’ — when I hear that, I know I have accomplished what I set out to do,” she says — and it doesn’t take long for the drop-in observer to know that the claim of inclusivity is true. La Botánica’s Gay Thursdays might be dominated by a lesbian crowd (The L Word was showing on a large, floppy screen one such night), but men are more than welcome. One Sunday brunch hosted a stylish straight couple in black, an extended family with small children occupying a picnic table, and a tatted female duo with a kid, sporting a stylish shave cut dyed fluorescent lime, in tow. Some single guys hung out at the bar. And one recent night, RM danced with her father, long since remarried — and clearly at ease with the way things have turned out, under a provisional proscenium designed by local artist David Zamora Casas. Events, for that matter, are as wide-ranging as the clientele. Conjunto to punk to jazz, says RM — and there’s even a summer “residency” by locally revered accordionist Eva Ybarra. It all adds up to the feel of an old-school ice house. “I want to bring back some of that barrio culture — to keep it alive and evolving for future generations,” RM claims. Of course food matters, too, but even the kitchen doesn’t escape politics and entrenched gender culture. “I know what it’s like to be a woman of color in this industry dominated by men. The kitchen may be traditionally a woman’s space, but when

SPRING 2016 // FOOD | 21

ARLENE MEJORADO La Botánica’s jackfruit BBQ sandwich with grilled elote, chili watermelon salad and rosemary lemonade

professionalized it becomes a man’s world. I want to take the space back,” she declares. It’s about both respect and survival. Yet, says RM, “I don’t survive because of a vegan clientele but because of good food. Some may even go out and have a burger the next day.” Credit to her for not trying to simulate a beef patty with texturized vegetable protein. But it’s a little hard to get away from carnivorous terms no matter how pure one might want to be. At brunch, La Botánica offers a trio of “barbacoa” tacos that sub sturdy jackfruit for the more conventional stuffing. Less greasy and toothier than the namesake, some might find them more appealing, for that matter. One of RM’s oldest recipes, the tacos are good, but they could also use a little more going on — at least for this eater. Same with the accompanying black beans; they obviously don’t have any truck with salt pork, but might not be unhappy with some serious roasted garlic. Empanadas are a natural for a place like La Botánica; they don’t require meat or dairy to work — and the enchipotlada version with potato, sweet potato, carrots and chayote (there’s also a black bean and a corn maque choux) does work well, especially with some side sauce added to the equation. That same maque choux, a Cajun concoction with bell peppers, onion and corn, is essential to the Swamp Thang, a kind of po’boy variant with refried red beans and avocado. The flavors are fine, but I personally miss something a little sturdier to sink my teeth into — maybe a slab of sautéed chayote or grilled zucchini for texture. But “I’m still having fun 22 | FOOD // SPRING 2016

with it,” says RM, and we look forward to what might evolve — especially as vegan is the ultimate seasonal cuisine by definition. The bar, for its part, is having a lot of fun being vegan right now. (Admittedly, bacon-infused bourbon is hardly a must on anyone’s back bar.) That menu was put together by RM, head bartender Monica Moreno and Andrea Vince, another owner. Signature cocktails, all gently priced at $5.50, include a lightly smoky and extremely refreshing Mezcalarita with fresh orange juice and house sour mix and La Morena based on house-made pineapple tepache, elderflower liqueur, gin, orange juice and more. Unique to La Botánica is a group of “street-styled” drinks called Bolis served in virgen-emblazoned veladora vessels — be sure to try the complex and rewarding No Manches with cucumber, lime, mint, St. Germain, Ordoki (an apple liqueur) and chamoy; it will stay with you. And for a simpler yet still sophisticated super-shot, you are directed to the Gin-Gin with “hand-shucked” tamarind. But community events and food and drink evolution aren’t the only things on RM’s mind these days. “I want Rebel Eats to become a traveling food/talk show with a focus on food justice. There are a lot of people doing great things around that, and I want to get the word out, I want to cross the U.S., do a video blog ....” Ellipses, those pesky three dots implying something missing or more to come, are actually justified in RM’s case. There’s likely way more to come.

DEEP IN VOGUE

o e s Hou BY

24 | ARTS + CULTURE // SPRING 2016

SAR

CH FIS

nt e m e v o M y r a n i l p i c is d i t ul M ’s o z n e K f

// P

TO HO

H YNE WA

O LT

I meet House of Kenzo (HOK) on the University of the Incarnate Word Sky Bridge, a phobia-tweaking pedestrian catwalk over the zooming traffic on Highway 281. It’s a sunny afternoon, and House of Kenzo are mid-photo shoot. They are beautiful, self-assured, gender-flouting, working their rainbow fashion gear into wind-whipped battle flags visible for a half-mile. Motorists on the freeway honk as they pass. The photographer, Wayne Holtz, is tall, calm and elegant, and exudes focus and patience, while HOK artists flatten themselves against the chain-link enclosure with the skyline in the background, or pose propped up or crouching, hands expressive, limbs outstretched then locking, ready to spring. Bobby, Tony, Breezy, Gemel, Roxy and Wayne are psychonauts in the rapidly evolving movement of contemporary vogueing, which is only one pillar of their house. They are all dancers, designers, musicians, choreographers and multimedia artists. All are young. None are white. They are digital natives whose Instagram accounts are fucked-up and glorious — sly portraiture, subversive fashion and messages of love, work and defiance. Where did you first encounter vogue? Maybe via Madonna’s 1990 mega-hit single and video, in which she appropriates black, brown and queer bodies in strike-a-pose fierceness. Or perhaps from Paris Is Burning (also released in 1990), the documentary by Jennie Livingston that chronicles the traditions and factions of house balls in Harlem, a ritual of underground LGBT black excellence that dates back to the 1930s. If you’re the age of the HOK collective, though, maybe you first caught vogue as a digital movement, via shared YouTube videos and Instagram shout-outs, and you absorbed the cultural legacy in this context. HOK self-describes as “a multidisciplinary art collective with foundations in dance,” whose mission is “organizing dance classes, workshops, competitive vogue balls, lectures, conceptual performances and dance parties that sustain the ever-growing creative community.” Also: “The House of Kenzo is a family of excellence with stock in peace, love, unity, respect, presence, integrity and professionalism.” HOK is not just a dance troupe — it’s an ethos. I reconnoiter with them at some shaded picnic tables once the photo shoot is over. They talk in tandem, punctuate their anecdotes with dips and duck-walking. My interview notes catch their enthusiasm and are infected with rapid-fire non-sequiturs, exclamation points and the word “girl.” And while they’re conceptually broad-ranging and socially open, they’re wary of conventional identity politics and don’t categorize themselves or each other based on sexual practice or gender norms. They notify me: “We’re all sisters.” Roxy and Breezy, the biologically female representatives of HOK, have been taken for trans women, which is fine by them. “We’re trans-cendent,” Bobby declares.

Proudly and purely San Antonio, House of Kenzo has no problem with the Alamo City’s status as a “city on the rise.” They’re rising, too — infiltrating New York Fashion Week with their NYC-based founding father Karma, who strode the runway and performed at a Fader after party. They invaded Art Basel in Miami, where they were photographed by veteran party paparazzo Mark “The Cobrasnake” Hunter. They’ve collaborated with local queer musicians Alyson Alonzo and Chris Conde (aka “Ghetto Prom”) in their buzzy, witty video for “Get It.” They’ve dropped a dizzying single called “Conscious Cunt.” And, at the time of this writing, HOK was gearing up for a featured showcase at South by Southwest. You’re putting San Antonio on the map, I say. No, they reply. San Antonio is the map. The source — the wormhole, the launch pad, the hometown, the hashtag. Oh, the HOK hashtags. They signify encouragement, loyalty, love; they fight fear and flaunt “cunt” with regularity. Frequently used: #smartvogue, #fearlesslove, #fearlessrage, #cuntceptual, #spurs and #woke. House of Kenzo “mobs deep,” as they say. The group interview turns up not only their philosophy, aesthetic and banter, but frequent enthusiastic references to other vogue houses, fashion designers, choreographers, DJs, drag artists and filmmakers here and everywhere — a networked community of international cunthood, online and, increasingly, IRL. They plan to travel to Japan next summer to participate in underground arts culture there, and to pay homage to their namesake: fashion designer Kenzo Takada. This summer, they’ll travel to Chicago to collaborate with Deeply Rooted Dance Theater. SPRING 2016 // ARTS + CULTURE | 25

Money is a challenge. They’re getting paid better and better for their art gigs, but, as Wayne points out on Instagram, “day hustle is mandatory.” Teaching dance, tending bar, rolling out the hours speaking to randos in a call center. But they want to build a house — an actual house — with a project space atelier. They’d love to have a van, à la the Scooby Doo crew. God knows they’re working. (And they’re mindful of low-income parameters for other artists too. For Breezy’s class at the now-defunct Uptown Studio, Hip Heels Hop, she charged attendees only $7.) Another of HOK’s catchphrases: “We are not gone let you be stupid forever.” Central to their art practice is constant selfimprovement, whether in challenging norms, sit-ups, proper hydration or healthy eating. Nutrition is part of the equation. One term is “health goth,” with plant life as a metaphor for personal growth.

Bobby IG handle: @BOBBYBEARZ Comes from a rigorous background training in cheerleading and gymnastics. He remarked that since there was no gymnastics in high school, he switched to cross-country. Authoritative, commanding, insists he “reads people, but in a positive way.” He dances with force, and with quick-hitting grace notes.

They’ve chopped performers for such offenses as being late, not being full-out, insufficient input and not being conceptual. They admonish their followers: Get woke, stay woke. Question everything. Meditate. Realize your own agency. Smoothies. Stretching. Finally, I ask the members of House of Kenzo to describe each other. Here is what they said (with some tweaks by me). Note the Instagram handles. That’s where they tell their own stories. This is only a primer. Get to know them.

Breezy IG handle: @Artistic_Kunt Transferred out of Juilliard to recover from the all-too-common body-abuse culture of classical dance. At one point, this club athlete weighed less than 100 pounds. “Expressive AF,” she reclaimed a body she describes as “African-American essential.” Her promo flyers for her classes are genius. Any photograph of her is a good photograph. Gemel IG handle: @mystikpapi Trained and seasoned as a house musician, engineer and DJ, but has taken on dance, not as an adjunct practice, but with physical exuberance. “I became better in both,” he says. “I know what a dancer needs.”

Tony IG handle: @tonepadron Wayne He speaks with his body, performance ideas constantly manifesting. IG handle: @HAUSofHOLTZ Tickling and fart noises all day. Fuckin’ twisted glamour. Willowy, Doing, fixing, thinking. A very gifted freelance photographer and effortless. His video experiments are hilarious and haunting. founder of his own house/atelier: Haus of Holtz. He was, I am told, the glue in HOK’s recent chaotic New York adventure. By way of Roxy demonstrating his deep empathy, his comrades tell me a story of IG handle: @RNBWSTRCHLD vogueing in a subway car. A young child confined to a wheelchair Left-brained, deadline-oriented, a natural checker-upper, responded to their movement, waving her arms and smiling. Her almost motherly. A fluid, verbal thought leader, she speaks in mother was astonished, and told them she rarely expressed herself manifestos. Nothing if not cuntceptual. Philosophical, assertive, in this joyous way. This hit Wayne hard. “She is the movement,” sexy and abstract. he said.

26 | ARTS + CULTURE // SPRING 2016

R I A F S T R A A T S E I F 6 1 0 2

Cover image by Amanda Armistead | Kingwood, TX.

100+ Regional and National Artists offering ceramics, drawings, fiber art, art clothing, glass, furniture, jewelry, paintings, photograhy, sculpture, and other media! Live Music Los Texmanics, Bekah Kelso & The Fellas, West Kings Highway, Mitch Webb & The Swindles, Deer Vibes, Sisters Morales, Seth Walker, and more! Young Artists Garden Hands-on activities for kids and teens! Fiesta Food La Gloria, Kona Grill, Roasted kernels, and more!

OFFICIAL SPONSORS:

YOUNG ARTISTS GARDEN:

PREMIER SPONSORS:

SUSTAINING SPONSORS: Janet & Bruce Flohr | Linbeck Macy’s | Therese McDevitt The Arch & Stella Rowan Foundation Page Saunders Texas Commission on the Arts Walton Signage Corporation

ADMISSION: Adults $10 | 2-day pass: $16 Student with valid ID: $8 Children 5-12: $5, under 5: FREE! Advance tickets available online at swschool.org/fiestaartsfair or the Fiesta Store. All proceeds benefit the School’s art education programs.

SPRING 2016 // ARTS + CULTURE | 27

SUPERMODEL CITIZEN 10/015

2361

Red White and Bloom oil on canvas 36 x 48” 4,875.

Debra Benditz 512-588-2606

10/015

KIKO MARTÍNEZ

www.DebraBenditz.com inspired@debrabenditz.com

Don’t try putting a label on Patricia Velásquez. An actress, producer, author, parent, entrepreneur, activist and supermodel, Velásquez, 45, isn’t interested in being just one thing — unless that one thing is a happy person. She found happiness early last year when she released her memoir Straight Walk. In the book, Velásquez, who has modeled for top fashion houses around the world, including Chanel, Gucci, Versace and Dolce & Gabbana, came out as a lesbian. The revelation has empowered her to speak out on LGBT issues and inspire others to make a stand and reveal their sexuality. Along with the release of her memoir in 2015, Velásquez also starred in her first LGBT film, Liz in September, late last year. During an interview with Out In SA, Velásquez, who was born in Maracaibo, Venezuela, talked about why she feels so strongly about inspiring people in the LGBT community to come out and how sexuality is only one part of someone’s individualism. She also spoke on LGBT films as a niche market and how society has become more accepting of same-sex relationships over the last 15 years.

2352

unleashed oil on canvas 48 x 30” 5,200.

Debra Benditz 512-588-2606

Patricia Velásquez on her Warm Welcome to the Family

www.DebraBenditz.com inspired@debrabenditz.com

237 W e s t Tr a v i s S t r e e t , S u i t e 10 3

512- 5 8 8 - 2 6 0 6 10/015

Inspired@DebraBenditz.com

You released your memoir last year, Straight Walk, where you first came out as a lesbian. Did you hope this revelation would be inspirational for other people in the LGBT community and help them decide whether or not they should come out? If I were to leave an inspirational message, it would be for people to live their truth. In order to do that, I had to be as open and as honest as I could be when I was writing those pages. I didn’t realize how strong [the book] was until it was done and out there. I was a little bit concerned, but at the same time I felt there was a need to inspire people. As I started receiving feedback, I saw that most people loved the book. We published it in Spanish and I saw how I was affecting the lives of so many people. If I feel like I’m going to www.DebraBenditz.com affect the life of just one person, then that’s what keeps me going. inspired@debrabenditz.com 2851

Blooming Pomegranate oil on canvas 48 x 48” 8,200.

Debra Benditz 512-588-2606

Do you feel like you have a responsibility to those in the LGBT community to be a spokesperson for LGBT issues? Yeah, I do, but it was completely unintentional. I have a foundation called the Wayúu Tayá Foundation that helps indigenous communities. I’ve dedicated myself to that cause since 2002. Somebody wrote an article for Amnesty International that said of all the contributions that I’ve done, the biggest contribution I’ve done for humanity is coming out in [Straight Walk]. I realize now how people, especially in the Hispanic world, are looking at me. Yeah, I have a responsibility. I welcome it. If I have to be an example then bring it on.

28 | ARTS + CULTURE // SPRING 2016 10/015

2391

Forever Radiant oil on canvas

LEKA SINGH

Coming out is a very personal decision for a lot of people. Do you feel comfortable giving that kind of advice to someone who is still on the fence about it? Do you think it’s possible to encourage someone to make a decision they might not be ready for yet? I think it’s definitely a personal decision. No one should push anyone to say anything. I think sexuality is only one thing within ourselves. We are many things. I am a mother. I am an actress. I am a philanthropist. I am a writer. I am gay. No one should be pressured to do anything, but what I can tell you is that when you make the decision to live your life freely in your sexuality, no one can tell you who you’re supposed to be anymore. It might take a while depending on your circumstances, but my recommendation would be to please come out. It’s the only way we’re going to affect change. Be who you want to be, but don’t do it because you want to make a statement. Everyone has the right to be happy. When you live in the closet, you are not happy. Until last year, you lived in that closet. Were you unhappy? I wasn’t happy. I am one more example of what people go through when you can’t come out. I couldn’t because my fans were all guys and because I was a symbol of femininity. When I did come out, I realized femininity doesn’t have anything to do with sexuality. I got in touch with my femininity much more than I ever had before. The people I thought might feel betrayed have been my biggest supporters. When you live in the closet, you’re not being free and honest with yourself. Did you think if you came out, your career would be affected negatively? Yes, it was the reason why I didn’t come out for so many years. I thought it was going to hurt my career. I thought I wouldn’t get the same kind of work. I have to tell you, it hasn’t changed one bit. I have been so incredibly supported by the LGBT community. I’ve felt alone all these years, but all of a sudden I don’t feel alone

anymore. It was like they told me, “Welcome to the family. Let’s celebrate!” Although more and more films with LGBT themes come out every year, they’re still considered a niche market. Do you think mainstream audiences are starting to embrace them more than they have in the past? I think it has definitely gotten better, but I think there is a lot more to do. What has to happen is our films in the LGBT community have to be done in a way where they are universal. My latest film, Liz in September, is a universal film. It could’ve been a story about two boys or two girls or a boy and a girl. It didn’t really matter. So far, many [LGBT films] haven’t really been done that way. But I can understand why that has happened. It’s not a criticism. When you see a film like [Carol] with Cate Blanchett or The Kids Are All Right, you can see how they can cross over [to the mainstream]. I think the more we start treating those films as wonderful films that talk about our day-to-day life, then they will be welcomed even more. A Pew Research poll taken last year shows 55 percent of Americans support same-sex marriage today compared to only 35 percent in 2001. Attitudes have changed quite a bit in the last 15 years. How do we continue that forward progress? What do you tell people who are still on the other end of the spectrum who refuse to accept it? There’s absolutely nothing wrong with being gay. People can disagree with us, but do it respectfully. That’s what I would ask for from them. It’s hard for me to comprehend that beliefs [today] are so strong that there shouldn’t be gay relationships. I cannot understand it. It’s something so matter-of-fact to me, but it’s something I deal with every day, especially in Hispanic countries where religion is so ingrained. I cannot really tell someone how to think or how to feel. I can only show by example. This is what happens when you become a parent. I can show by example that I am a normal, successful human being and that I am happy.

SPRING 2016 // ARTS + CULTURE | 29

CUTTING HIS OWN PATH

Artist Chris Sauter Talks Curators, Coming Out and Playing with Stereotypes DAN R. GODDARD Chris Sauter’s big break came in 1999 when an Artpace curator told him to “go for it.” The San Antonio-born artist raised on his grandparents’ ranch outside Boerne proposed to cut pieces out of the gallery’s drywall and transform them into his childhood family dining room. Viewers had to walk through the oval circle in the wall where he cut out the top of the dining table. Holes in the walls had the shapes of chair legs, a china hutch and other furniture parts. “Graft” premiered a signature style for Sauter, who transforms architectural space into intimate sculpture. That Artpace curator, by the way, was Okwui Enwezor, a Nigerian-born art historian, now director of the Haus der Kunst museum in Munich, Germany, and the first African director of the Venice Biennale, the 56th edition held last fall. Sauter, who earned his BA in 1993 from the University of the Incarnate Word and his MFA in 1996 at the University of Texas at San Antonio, emerged as an artist at just the right time to benefit from the worldwide impact of Artpace. Since his Artpace residency, Sauter has gone on to create many memorable installations by cutting pieces out of drywall, including recreating his childhood bedroom at Blue Star Contemporary Art Museum in 2007 using some of his original furniture, spanning the microscopic to the cosmic by juxtaposing a microscope and a telescope in 2010’s “The Whole World” at Fort Worth Contemporary Arts, and examining the relationship between science and religion in a four-part pilgrimage in 2013 and 2014, encompassing “Doubt” at the Southwest School of Art. “My dad actually wanted to be an artist, though he worked at Kelly [Air Force Base], so I always had a supportive family,” Sauter told Out In SA from his office at the Southwest School of Art. “On the ranch, I had a lot of freedom and exposure to nature. I learned perspective drawing in elementary school and had good teachers in middle school and high school. I didn’t really plan to be an artist but I’m glad how it worked out. The great thing about Artpace was that they didn’t say ‘no.’ They said ‘Let’s see how we can make this work’ and it really helped launch me as an artist.” But growing up gay in Boerne wasn’t easy. Sauter has called it both “wonderful and horrible.” He recalls being taunted in the halls during high school, and the experience still gives him insecurities. “There were just a handful of people in high school who caused me problems, but it definitely affected my confidence and how I interact with people,” Sauter said. “I have trouble calling people on the phone, and dealing with certain social situations. But I have slowly sloughed off those problems, although I did not come out until I was 30.” 30 | ARTS + CULTURE // SPRING 2016

Chris Sauter’s Life Is Perfect, Loud Speaker Series installed in Berlin in 2015

Currently serving as the interim director of the painting and drawing department at the Southwest School of Art, he’s helped celebrate Artpace’s 21st year by cutting out drywall cakes for his Window Works installation “Biography Construction Site (Cakes),” on view through April 24. Sauter also serves as the co-chair of Contemporary Art Month (CAM) and recently found himself in the middle of a conflict with the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center, which rejected CAM 2016 because a proposed all-female exhibit did not include any Latinas. CAM decided to cancel the show altogether, substituting a panel discussion about the issues of “diversity and inclusion in contemporary art.” Sauter said he was disappointed by the Guadalupe’s decision and defended CAM’s policy of giving guest curators “free rein” in selecting artists. “CAM is committed to bringing in outside curators to meet and work with San Antonio artists,” Sauter said. “Sometimes meeting the right curator is crucial for an artist to build their career.” Because of a curator he met during his Blue Star-sponsored Berlin Residency last year, Sauter is included in an exhibit touring Europe, “Passion: Fan Behavior and Art,” which opens April 4 at Budapest’s Múzeum Ludwig amid stops in Berlin, Istanbul and Prague. His music video for local indie rock band Buttercup’s “Anti-Antarctica” is in the “Passion” show along with a loudspeaker made from collaged posters he collected on the streets of Berlin. He’s also editing video documentation from “Plato’s Drums,” a Buttercup collaboration created for Luminaria and inspired by the Greek philosopher’s allegory of a cave concerning shackled men whose only perception of the outside world is through shadows cast on the walls.

Sauter’s The Known Universe at Blue Star Contemporary Art Museum in 2007

SPRING 2016 // ARTS + CULTURE | 31

MILITARY 20% OFF EVERY DAY with valid I.D. CHECK-IN ON FOR 20% OFF FOLLOW US FOR THE LATEST ON CLASSES, EVENTS, SPECIALS AND MORE

MEGAPLEXSA.COM

ASK ABOUT

RENTING

OUR PRIVATE CONFERENCE ROOM FOR EVENTS.

9405 IH-35 @ THOUSAND OAKS• 657-9999 | 11827 HWY 281 N @ NAKOMA • 404-0011 | OPEN DAILY 7AM - 2AM

ALAN CUMMING A NIGHT OF STAND UP

APRIL 12

SINGS SAPPY SONGS

JUNE 24

For Tickets:

.com 800. 745.3000 Theatre Box Office

32 | ARTS + CULTURE // SPRING 2016

JUNE 26

BRYAN RINDFUSS

Sauter photographed in his East Side studio for Out In SA

Last fall, he installed a large-scale public artwork, Airport Seating (Somewhere Between Here and There), spelled out in giant concrete letters designed for sitting at Houston’s Hobby Airport. “Airports, too, are in-between places,” Sauter said in his artist’s statement. “They are the edges of one’s destination, neither here nor there. Rather they serve as conduits between two locations and are rarely an actual end point. Airport Seating (Somewhere Between Here and There) is about waiting and travel, a monument to transition.” Among San Antonio’s more high-profile artists, Sauter had one of the city’s most-noted gay unions on June 6, 2007, when he and partner Rick Frederick, actor and designer, invited more than 300 guests to a “promise ceremony.” They were among the first gay couples in Bexar County to make their marriage legal on June 26, 2015, following the historic Supreme Court decision. Sauter said it was essentially a case of attraction at first sight when he met Frederick at Art Chicago in 2003. “We just immediately hit it off and danced at the after party,” Sauter said. “Our first official date was actually in Paris. He was directing a play in Chicago by a French playwright and I had a show in Paris, so we managed to meet there. We took a boat ride on the Seine at sunset and were engaged a year later. He was originally from Detroit and we spent about a year and a half going back and forth before I convinced him to move to San Antonio.” Sauter says he kept a fairly low profile within the San Antonio gay community until he became involved designing sets and costumes for Cornyation about 10 years ago. For this year’s edition he’s working on a bit about the “little cheerleaders” who appeared at Donald Trump rallies. “I grew up in the Hill Country and I’m proud to be a Texan, whatever that means,” Sauter said. “I’ve never tried to leave. I’ve always tried to find a balance between the traditional and the new, and a lot of my work involves messing with stereotypes. For example, what is an artist supposed to look like? Now when I’m at a show out of town, I put on my jeans, boots and cowboy hat. A gay artist isn’t supposed to look like a cowboy, but I’ve always been attracted to the look. Now that I’ve come out, I don’t have to avoid other people’s preconceptions because I’ve learned to play with the stereotype.” SPRING 2016 // ARTS + CULTURE | 33

QUEEN OF RASQUACHIC

Remembering Pilar Correa Davis (1948-2016) DAWN BROOKS BAAMONDE On any given early morning from the late ’90s through the early millennium, my phone would ring and it would be Pilar: “Girl, I just found you something. Meet me at The Shop, but not now. I still got two more markets to do. See you later.”

Huebner Oaks (210) 462-1705 11745 W. Interstate Hwy 10, Suite 400

34 | ARTS + CULTURE // SPRING 2016

I could hardly wait till the end of the day. By three o’clock I was pulling into the parking lot of Pilar Correa Davis’ The Shop. Pilar was a force of nature I was lucky to call a good friend. Her vintage store was on Blanco Road and then Hildebrand. There was always a shop full of people when I arrived: the socialite from Alamo Heights, the art maven, a fashionista looking for her weekend outfit, a junker from the South Side, a cowboy from the Hill Country — all there to get their special item from Pilar, or just to check in and see what treasures she had scored that week. As I inspected the Enid Collins purse or piece of paste jewelry in the display case, someone would point and ask about the Mexican pitchers on the makeshift shelves against the wall. “Those aren’t for sale,” Pilar would say. I didn’t care about those Mexican pitchers, or the primitive bowls, silver bracelets, painted skirts and torn petticoats ... but others did.

Soon everyone would be gone, and Pilar would pull out a one-of-a-kind ’50s rhinestone necklace or a bejeweled vintage sweater I would wear while riding my 1957 Vespa. She knew my style and tastes, and she would always unveil the items she found for me like a special gift. We would ooh and aah for a couple of moments. I would tell her how perfect it was; she would giggle, loving every moment of the satisfaction of a job well done. I didn’t mind the prices. It didn’t matter, because she always presented me with some kind of vintage rarity that was perfect in every way, like it was meant just for me. She would tell me about the old man or lady on the South Side, but never their names or exactly where she found these cool pieces. It was a secret, a mystery. Then she would close the shop and we would go have margaritas or a bite to eat at Liberty. We would talk about how times were changing and hope the designers and builders of the new San Antonio would get it right. As the years went by, the sparkly things began to mean less to me and I started to focus on the more primitive and simple items. That hand-painted Mexican skirt or torn petticoat was my go-to daily dress. One day, Pilar said, “Oh, diva, you are becoming so rasquachic”! Artist and actor Peter Gonzalez Falcon, who took over Pilar’s RetroMex on Hildebrand and rebranded it MexiMoxi, says the rasquachic movement began in the early ’80s. “We loved worn and tattered objects that were constructed with the creativity, faith or bare necessity derived from material poverty, but crafted from a richer spiritual abundance and love,” he said. “Pilar,” he added, “was foremost in this movement that is more in evidence today than ever.” Goodwill Industries impresario and San Antonio’s Prince of Fashion, Agosto Cuellar, credits Pilar with teaching him virtually everything about his craft. “Pilar was my college,” Cuellar said. “She had the insight to stay in San Antonio, to celebrate San Antonio, and all that it had to offer — found art, unusual artifacts, recycled clothing, odd objects. She taught me how to find them, bring them to the people, and inspire the people to want them and ultimately love them because they were — and are — beautiful, and that made them rich.” San Antonio bon vivant and raconteur Garrett Mormando recalled meeting Pilar during a new and exciting time in his life. “The scene in San Antonio during the late 1980s was scintillating. Through the nexus of the legendary Bonham Exchange, I came into contact with a broad spectrum of society and culture. My first contact with a particular aesthetic presented itself through the gay community, which was heavily Mexican American.” Mormando invoked Franco Mondini-Ruiz’s fabled soirees on Geneseo, Karlos with a K’s extravaganzas at the aptly dubbed Le Mirage, and David Zamora-Casas’ avant-garde home-gallery space, the Anti Oppression Church of Hardcore Folk Art. “It was a dazzling and spellbinding thing to just behold, much less step into. It was the heady heyday of rasquachismo. And always three figures on the tips of everyone’s tongues who could even pronounce that term — a sort of Godfather trinity consisting of Carlos Gonzales, Danny Lozano and Pilar Correa.”

Pilar in turn credited Anna Thurmond and Preston Brown of Anna Banana’s Junk ‘N’ Funk, an early ’70s vintage store in San Antonio, as pioneers of the rag movement and her mentors. Their daughter, Robin Brown, brought rasquachic into the present with the Hill Country clothing and lifestyle brand Magnolia Pearl, which she runs with husband John Gray. “Robin and I loved Pilar very much, and credit her for being major influences on our art and lifestyle today,” Gray said.

Pilar Correa Davis photographed by Rick Kroninger for an article about phobias

Pilar was so much more than just a junk dealer or a picker. She found the best stuff. She knew her clients. She knew their style even if they were still working it out. It was a gift from God. My husband Dave Baamonde said, “It was just stuff, and you can’t take stuff with you when you die. But it wasn’t just about the stuff with Pilar. A realtor can just help you buy a house, or they can find you a home. Pilar knew how to find the stuff that made my house a home. The stuff that just had my name written all over it.” Pilar knew how to give the perfect gift. She loved giving it to you and she glowed when she knew that you loved it. She did it for many people. It was her way of contributing, recycling, connecting, loving. She said “I love you” by calling me at 6 a.m. from God knows where, and then holding my treasure in the back of the store until I arrived. She inspired me to look at things differently. She inspired me to take my gift-giving and friendshipgiving to a new level. After Pilar lost her husband Bill in 2001, she would talk to me about their spiritual connection and how she longed to be with him again one day. Well, today they are together at long last, and once again she gave (and received) the perfect gift. I live in New Orleans now and recently ran into some friends who were on their way to San Antonio. I told them they needed to go see the new Hotel Emma at the Pearl. I said, “Oh, you gotta go … it’s so rasquachic!” The look on their curious faces excited me because I knew I would get to talk about my departed friend Pilar, and a global art and design movement that she and a few others inspired all those days and nights ago in a sleepy little town in South Texas by a river called San Antonio. SPRING 2016 // ARTS + CULTURE | 35

IL TROVATORE Thursday, March 31 & Saturday, April 2, 2016, 8:00 p.m. Sebastian Lang-Lessing, conductor Symphony Mastersingers — John Silantien, director Julianna Di Giacomo, soprano | Dolora Zajick, mezzo-soprano Issachah Savage, tenor | Lester Lynch, baritone | Peixin Chen, bass

Concert performance co-sponsored by

(210) 223-8624 | sasymphony.org

FIESTA POPS April 15-17, 2016

MOZART CONCERTO FOR FLUTE AND HARP

SAINT-SAËNS PIANO CONCERTO

May 6 & 7, 2016 April 29 & 30, 2016 All performances at the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts

From weight loss programs to hormone replacement therapies, we have solutions for patients going through many of the trials that our bodies put us through.

• Weight loss • Hormone replacement thereapy -transgender healthcare • Family medicine and psychiatry - accepting new patients • Anti-aging treatments

For complete list of services, visit nursepractitionerassociates.com 311 W. laurel St. San Antonio, TX 78212 • 210-610-2826 36 | ARTS + CULTURE // SPRING 2016

A photographic representation of Wu Tsang and boychild’s performance You Sad Legend

FOUND IN TRANSLATION

Wu Tsang & boychild’s Captivating Collaborations SARAH FISCH Though Wu Tsang and Tosh are hard at work on their Artpace residency project, they agree to spare me half an hour. The Los Angeles-based couple have received a dizzying number of intriguing deliveries, Artpace staffers tell me. In addition to their International Artist-In-Residence exhibition (on view through May 15), Wu and Tosh are readying a performance for the following week, a chapter of the ongoing text and movement project Moved by the Motion entitled You Sad Legend.

PS1, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago and MOMA Warsaw. In person, Tosh inhabits a restless and lanky body selfterritorialized with tattoos, including a prominent one across her throat reading “Bliss,” the name of a film character she and Wu continue to develop as a gender-fluid superhero. Tosh as boychild shares an ongoing saga of frame-by-frame performance with over 46,000 Instagram followers; her compositions, costuming, elegant bald head and symmetrical face in otherworldly makeup are captivating.

Wu Tsang is a filmmaker, performer and visual artist who annotates queer and trans experience, particularly as it intersects with communities of color. Her work has been exhibited in the 2012 Whitney Biennial, the New Museum Triennial, London’s Tate Modern and Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. Notably, her documentary WILDNESS won the Grand Jury Award for Outstanding Documentary Feature Film at Outfest in 2012, and centers on a redoubtable LA Latinx gay bar whose premises are overtaken on Tuesday nights by a cohort of younger, more deliberately political trans art performers, illustrating a kind of queer genealogy of nightlife practice. She’s patient and polite and writerly; she considers her answers.

A guiding spirit of Wu Tsang’s is Qiu Jin (1875-1907), a legendary Chinese feminist revolutionary, writer and martial artist. Qiu Jin’s surviving body of written work is marked by ferocious political mission; calling for an end to the depredations of the Qing dynasty, for an equitable new chapter in Chinese history, for the rights of women and, poignantly, expressing her gut-level longing for an often-absent love — her intimate friend Wu Zhiying (18681934), herself a noted calligrapher. In 1904, Qiu Jin unbound her feet, adopted male dress, and sent to Wu Zhiying a love poem wrapped in the bridal gown from her earlier marriage to a man. Three years later, Qiu Jin was beheaded for treason after leading an anti-government insurgency.

Tosh is known on Instagram and sometimes in performance as boychild (@boychild). Her performance art has alighted at MoMA

“[Qiu Jin] had this very kind of gay/trans lifestyle. Her friendship with Wu Zhiying is [that of] a calligrapher and a poet, SPRING 2016 // ARTS + CULTURE | 37

through translation, or mistranslation. There are Chinese poetry experts, and translations into different languages, and queer theory interpretations, but in the end, it becomes a calling forth of the language that you need.” I have no idea what to expect from this performance. They seem fine with this. On the evening of March 2, a hushed crowd sits in chairs and on the floor in Artpace Studio C. The audience rings a tarp-like stage on the gallery floor the size of a solitary jail cell, upon which containers of powders and fluids sit alongside scattered flowers. Wu Tsang mounts a step into a spare, upright armature — a dress of swords, long brass-colored blades and a coil of red rope lights, poised behind a microphone. She reads Qiu Jin’s poetry in a gentle, resonant voice and boychild enacts it, swinging her torso low to the ground or bending it backwards in bouts of concentrated breath. She smears white gobs of pigment across her upturned face, dusts herself with earth, crouches, pivots, extends, sweeps her ponytail through a puddle of viscous black ink, making calligraphy with it on the tarp’s white page.

Wu Tsang’s 2016 photogravure Self Inscription, commissioned by Artpace

and the poet is also a swordfighter revolutionary, whose life is preserved and remembered mainly because Wu Zhiying became her biographer and wrote the story of her life.” In her feature film Duilian (which premiered in Hong Kong in March), Wu Tsang portrays Wu Zhiying while Tosh portrays Qiu Jin. “I’ve been calling it a lesbian kung-fu film, and it’s not quite that,” Wu notes, “but it’s winking at it, as though it were a genre.” While “You Sad Legend” takes inspiration and text from this couple’s story, I gather it is less literal, fully present in the moment, and pared down. “[‘You Sad Legend’] takes a form that Tosh and I have been developing,” Wu explains. “I play this figure of a voice, and she takes the figure of a mover, and we have a back-and-forth between language and body language.” “[The back-and-forth] usually starts from text or some form of content,” Tosh says, “and the form comes from this necessity to communicate with each other, and each of us having two ways to communicate through different mediums. It’s all translation, actually. Language gives people a platform to come into [the live performance], and then we get to blossom into a moment ... [whereas] the film will have its confinement.” She pauses. “Everything has its confinement.” Wu adds, “I’ve been thinking about language lately as something that escapes. Neither of us speaks Chinese. I’m Chinese-American, and Tosh is Filipino-American. We have various connections to our Asian ethnicities, but the Chinese classical poetry has to come 38 | ARTS + CULTURE // SPRING 2016

Only once does boychild turn, and Wu meets her gaze. It’s for just a few seconds, but the moment between them embraces everybody. At the press preview on March 17, neither Wu or Tosh is present, having both left for their movie premiere in Hong Kong. In Studio C, the tarp stands in for boychild’s performance. The dress of swords presides over it. There’s a feeling of aftermath; the calligraphy remains, the puddle of fake blood, the withering flowers. But photographs have been installed — three are banner-like on the wall farthest from the entrance and look like grave rubbings. English text accompanies Chinese characters. The English reads: “THE LUSCIOUS LAND OF GOD IS SINKING,” “RAGE AKA FUCKIN ANGRY” and “I IMAGINE THE BREEZE IS YOUR CARESS.” To the right, a trio of images act as a collaged portrait; the top photo depicts a carving of Qiu Jin’s face, proportioned believably over a live woman’s nude torso as two elements of the same body, half-historical, half-“live.” The hands clutch a sword between her thighs, pointing upwards, reminding us of Qiu Jin’s swordsmanship and showing us what “lesbian kung fu” might be. Lower, a photo of a stone brazier, below where the feet would be. On the ground, there’s an offering; a real grapefruit. In a portrait photo to the wall on the right if you’re facing the windows on the other side, Wu and boychild are in costume as the mythic couple. The image is filtered and cloudy, and looks like it could be a hundred years old. The heroes gaze at the camera in triumph. Wu Zhiying resurrected Qiu Jin, according to tradition, after her lover’s execution. It was she who erected a memorial, wrote the story of her life and ensured her continuance. In their performance and exhibition, Wu Tsang and boychild achieve much the same, resurrecting those artists’ revolutionary partnership in their own.

BITE R E S TA U R A N T

Brunch

Done

Right

SPRING 2016 // ARTS + CULTURE | 39

1012 S. PRESA | 210.532.2551 | BITERESTAURANTSA.COM

CHELSEA JUAREZ

MAKING US HEARD A Lesbian Writer Finds Her Nicho ANEL I. FLORES Like most kids, I used to daydream about what my life would look like in the future. I imagined myself driving a baby-blue pickup, a woman sitting beside me, down a long dirt road, listening to music and holding hands. The home I daydreamed about looked like the one I lived in, decorated in images of the Virgen de Guadalupe, with songs of Selena and Juan Gabriel blaring on boom boxes every Saturday morning, painted mint green and yellow, with the smell of tortillas and menudo soaked in our clothes. But in school and out loud, my future looked like a little white house with two windows, one on either side of a red door, a cartoon tree growing apples on the left, a perfectly straight sidewalk with tiny pink flowers growing along its edge, bright green grass being tended to by a Ken doll husband and two kids playing on a swing set in back. Out loud, my life was exactly how it was supposed to look in the books and magazines I read. Out loud, I was the wife and mother from my books, the one who cooked dinner and wore pastel-colored dresses. But in my daydreams, I was a woman, dressed up like a husband, going hunting, leading a cumbia dance at my cousin’s wedding, drinking beer and stirring cocktails in pretty glasses for my wife. Out loud and in public, I was made to believe my future looked 40 | ARTS + CULTURE // SPRING 2016

like a traditional storybook — until my creative writing teacher, Carol Mengden, put Sandra Cisneros’ novel, The House on Mango Street, in my hands. It was 1993. I was 17 and a regular in detention for my bad habits and traviesa ways. Truth was, I was a closeted lesbian at an all-girls Catholic school, a closeted Chicana and a closeted baby butch, trying every which way to break free from the traditional schoolbooks I had grown tired of. When I first read about Cisneros’ main character, Esperanza, I immediately fell in love with her because she had a home like mine, hair like mine, a Spanish name like mine, and a dream to break free, just like mine. She brought out the Chicana in me. After reading The House on Mango Street, I started writing like crazy. I started writing the story I was not allowed to speak out loud. This non-traditional, non-British, non-canonical book gave me permission to write as a “Tejanita Chicana” who wanted to grow up to be different than the traditional images presented in books. One of the first short stories I wrote was La Última Canción (The Last Song), about two teen girlfriends caught kissing by their parents and then verbally abused and kicked out of their homes. The story was about all the things I was scared to say out loud — in fear it would happen to me if my Mexican-American Catholic parents were to find out I was a lesbian. I was afraid of being disowned by my family. I was afraid of my friends scorning me. I was afraid of what the Church would do to me. I was afraid of the future. Much like today, heroic stories of LGBTQ people in the community — especially in books and media — were nowhere in sight. Therefore, coming out as a lesbian meant accepting the only narrative I knew existed, a dangerous one filled with ridicule. Death seemed like a better alternative for me, and even though I

CHELSEA JUAREZ

attempted, luckily I never succeeded. Instead, I wrote myself to life in my own narrative with the help of new friends and allies. When I wrote from a lesbian perspective, I was able to be free. Further, in sharing that first story with my teacher and receiving positive recognition, I was accepted for the first time. The following year, my teacher passed away. I was in college at the time. In many ways, my parents communicated to me that I was no longer welcome at home. I knew the only way to overcome this devastation was to keep reading and writing. I saw an advertisement for a Naomi Nye reading at the original Madhatters Tea House on Avenue B and decided to attend. After she read, the crowd shuffled out. I walked up to Nye and said, “I’m a writer. My teacher died. I need your help.” Her face softened and she tore a strip of paper from a notebook and put it in my hand. “Call me. Come over to my house, have tea and we can read your poetry,” she said. At the age of 19, I was reading my lesbian Tejana Chicana love stories at Central Library with Nye. In a search for more lesbiana writing to study, I found there was nothing at school, in bookstores, libraries, y menos at home. I wanted to be the person to write these books, in hopes that I could be the Cisneros of my community one day, and save lives by writing our stories. When I came out publically in college, San Antonio lesbian community leaders Debbie Myers, Nickie Valdez and Graciela Sanchez reached out to me. It was during this time of my writing career that I would gain the most authentic experience from other women writers. Graciela, Gloria Ramirez and the mujeres of the Esperanza Peace and Justice Center opened up the women-of-color writer world to San Antonio by hosting workshops led by lesbian authors Sharon Bridgforth, Cherríe Moraga, Gloria E. Anzaldúa, Marga Gomez, Lourdes Pérez and others. Bridgforth showed me how to write from my body, Moraga told me of the power of theater, Gomez taught me the importance of humor in trauma and Perez sang a lesson of resistance and power in poetry. Anzaldúa gave me permission to unleash my “wild tongue.” Collectively, their work taught lessons of lifting up queer women of

Sharon Bridgforth photographed by Nia Witherspoon

color to learn from one another, and the power of women helping women in hopes of a stronger future for all. In 2001, award-winning lesbian author Carla Trujillo read from What Night Brings in San Antonio. Like I did in ’95 with Nye, I waited until everyone shuffled out and asked Trujillo for guidance. A couple of days later, Trujillo called: “I read your manuscript,” she said, “and sent it to Sandra Cisneros to consider you for our Macondo Writers’ Workshop. Sandra is going to call you.” Was this really happening to me? The following summer, at the age of 26, I

Naomi Shihab Nye photographed by Josh Huskin

was sitting at the writing table with the woman whose work shaped me. At the same table sat Trujillo, San Antonio scholar and ally Dr. Arturo Madrid, lesbian author Leslie Larson and gay author Alex Espinoza. We were all socially engaged writers, cultivating literary activism by writing books to tell the stories left out of literature, left off the bookshelves and erased from history. I had come full circle, with Cisneros beside me. I dedicated my life to the craft of telling stories because she, along with many other fierce writers, had the courage to challenge mainstream book publishing for the sake of saving lives and preserving stories. After reading my manuscript, Cisneros asked, “Who have you read?” I answered, “Gloria Anzaldúa, Jeanette Winterson, Rita Mae Brown, June Jordan, Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, Carmen Tafolla ...” Before I could finish, she stopped me and helped me realize how lucky I was to have the privilege to read such great authors. She reminded me that they were all writing in a time of urgency, when stories by women of color were being left out of the canon, education and history. She challenged me to write and produce work better than my teachers. She challenged me to do my best work and I accepted. She was right about the urgency of my mentors. But I also believed queer writers of color were still writing in a time of urgency. Just last year in Granbury, Texas, the community fought to pull two gay-themed children’s books from the public library. Last summer, a playhouse deemed my first book, Empanada, “too gay” for its audience. Even with so many amazing writers, journalists and activists working together, homophobia is still thriving. And I am afraid. But I will not stop writing and telling our stories. I will continue to open doors to other writers and activists seeking guidance. I will continue to connect and work in community. And I will continue to write books that tell the tale of the people who have been shunned from family or kept off the bookshelves, in hopes that you will see yourself in the pages one day — in hopes that you will write the next book that will save lives. Adelante, Anel I. Flores

SPRING 2016 // ARTS + CULTURE | 41

TEJAS TESORO

Gregg Barrios on the Power of Music, Poetry and James Franco JAMES COURTNEY Journalist, activist, teacher, poet, critic, filmmaker and playwright Gregg Barrios, who hails from Victoria, Texas, but now calls San Antonio home, is a Texas treasure. Actually, Barrios is more than that: He’s a treasure of American arts and letters, a captivating performer, a consummate educator and artistic provocateur, and a powerful role model for others struggling, as he always has, against discrimination based on sexual orientation and race. Barrios, who recently spoke at length to Out In SA, said that his lifelong trafficking in the printed word began when, at age 16, he was approached by librarians in his hometown. He remembers: “[They] cornered me and told me that our local newspaper [The Victoria Advocate] was working on a little pull-out arts section and they were looking for writers.” Despite his tender years, the librarians gave Barrios’ name to the paper’s editor and he began contributing book reviews. “This was special, not just because I was so young,” Barrios explained, “but because usually, when you saw a Hispanic name in the paper there, it was because they got married, died, or got arrested, not because it was in the bylines.” At 18, Barrios joined the Air Force, but kept writing. As a journalist, his work has appeared in many of the nation’s top 42 | ARTS + CULTURE // SPRING 2016

publications, including (but not limited to) the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The Texas Observer, Texas Monthly, Film Quarterly, San Francisco Chronicle, and Andy Warhol’s Interview. He currently serves on the board of directors of the National Book Critics Circle. As a poet, he has four books of poetry to his credit, with a collection due out this fall. As a playwright, he’s seen great success, particularly with Rancho Pancho, a play that poignantly and humorously deals with the real-life secret love affair between Tennessee Williams and Pancho Rodriguez, who inspired the character of Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire. His latest play I-DJ, which premiered at The Overtime’s Gregg Barrios Theater in 2012 to local acclaim, was performed at New York City’s FRIGID Festival in 2014. The play, which was released in book form in November 2015, tells two tales. First of all, it is the story of a gay, Latino DJ named Amado Guerrero Paz (aka Warren Peace) struggling with identity issues and diving headfirst into the club scene and the music that fuels it. Secondly, the play functions as a causal historical document that celebrates two important institutions: The Odyssey nightclub in Los Angeles and Santa Monica-based A&M Records, home to Janet Jackson, The Carpenters, Styx, Supertramp, Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass, and many more. It’s a mind-blowing, postmodern melding of ’70s Chicano politics and AIDS-era club culture, inspired in vibrant flashes by Hamlet, A Chorus Line, and what Barrios calls “the dance culture of the plague years.” The work is like a glitter bomb, singing tauntingly at the canon. “Music can inspire so deeply. It certainly does that for me. In terms of I-DJ, music is a friend and a motivator to the main character Amado. The songs both inspire and are a commentary on the exposition,” Barrios said of music’s role in his process. Speaking to the larger context of I-DJ, Barrios noted that “It is especially important that [the main character] is both Latino

Franco and Barrios photographed by Val Lauren

and gay. Even though all of these progressive movements were happening, many times both Latinos and gays felt excluded from the mainstream and excluded from these movements. In I-DJ, Amado creates his own identity when he changes his name to Warren Peace and that is very liberating. For the audience, I think it is a very redemptive moment, a moment of epiphany.” In recent years, Barrios has formed an unlikely creative and professional relationship with James Franco (yes, that James Franco). In 2012, when Barrios interviewed Franco for the Los Angeles Review of Books, in relation to Franco’s first chapbook of poetry, Barrios found the young superstar actor to be “quite a Renaissance man.” After forming a bond, the two began a working correspondence over a project concerning Franco’s experimental short film work and a book that is still in the works. Now, Franco’s latest book of poetry, Straight James / Gay James, bears a cover designed by Barrios and a nod in the acknowledgments section (which also hails Lana Del Rey) to “his continued support.” Barrios explained that Franco’s true talents are probably obscured by the magnitude of his celebrity and that “a lot of people overlook the fact that James is doing some great stuff that no other actor of his stature is doing ... [Franco is] teaching and working on poetry and experimental films, encouraging young people, giving back to the community and getting people to read poetry. The guy is really a positive force in the world.” Visit outinsa.com for an extended version of this story. Catch Barrios and company as they present a scene from I-DJ, followed by a panel discussion, at the San Antonio Book Festival on Saturday, April 2 (11:15 a.m.) in the Festival Room of Central Library (600 E. Soledad St., saplf.org/festival). SPRING 2016 // ARTS + CULTURE | 43

44 | ARTS + CULTURE // SPRING 2016

THROUGH LAUGHTER & TEARS

Previewing San Antonio Book Festival’s Gay Author Panels TOM PAYTON The San Antonio Book Festival was launched several years ago in the spirit of the Austin-based Texas Book Festival, a nationally recognized event which attracts hundreds of authors and hundreds of thousands of attendees annually. Sponsored by the San Antonio Public Library Foundation, our book festival, held in the spring on the eve of Fiesta, has quickly grown and garnered national attention. During its evolution, organizers have embraced the goal of diversifying the festival to parallel the exciting complexities a growing urban center like San Antonio has to offer. We’re in for a treat this year: On Saturday, April 2, at Central Library, the Southwest School of Art and on surrounding streets, the festival is bringing San Antonio not one but four gay authors — all of whom are major new national voices. One sign of a growing, vibrant LGBT community is the presence of major cultural figures from a national stage — such as authors, artists and musicians. Booking agents and publicists have preconceptions about the potential audience in different markets. Recognizing that the San Antonio LGBT community is growing in numbers and cultural complexity, national publishers are now placing our city on the LGBT cultural map, and sending in their authors. Our job: to show up and support this level of LGBT visibility in the city. Both LGBT panels this year (each pairing two authors) capture the classic themes of leaving (ahem, running away from) home and the pressure and pull to return — but this time as adult, not child, facing the challenge of conflicted families, especially opinionated mothers. As writer Thomas Wolfe proclaimed, “You can’t go home again,” he also reminded us: “I need to see a thing a thousand times before I see it once.” Maybe that goes for home, and family. Laughing with Myself: Comedic Memoirs 12:15 p.m. Saturday, April 2, Coates Chapel, Southwest School of Art, 300 Augusta St., saplf.org/festival Jamie Brickhouse, author of Dangerous When Wet: A Memoir of Booze, Sex, and My Mother A laughter-to-tears-and-back-again memoir about this native Texan’s long struggle with alcohol, his complicated relationship with Mama Jean and his sexuality. Brickhouse’s mother, a Texan Elizabeth Taylor with the split personality of Auntie Mame and Mama Rose, was always camera-ready and flamboyantly

outspoken. But Mama Jean haunted him his whole life, no matter how far away he went or how deeply in booze he swam. Brickhouse’s journey takes him from Texas to a high-profile career in New York accompanied by a near-fatal descent into a life of drinking. His mother ushers him into rehab and the result is an unforgettable story of a unique relationship between mother and son. David Crabb, author of Bad Kid: A Memoir Filled with the late ’80s and early ’90s pop culture, this refreshingly honest and funny coming-of-age memoir tells a resonant story about growing up gay and goth in San Antonio. As a teen, Crabb somehow convinced himself that every guy preferred French-braiding his girlfriend’s hair to making out, and that the funny feelings he got watching Silver Spoons and Growing Pains had nothing to do with Ricky Schroder or Kirk Cameron. But discovering George Michael’s “Faith” confirmed for Crabb what every bully already knew: He was gay. Surviving high school would require impossible feats of denial. His outlandish friends (not to mention The Smiths, Pet Shop Boys and Joy Division) ultimately saved him on his journey through adolescence and struggle to understand his true self. Burying the Past: Why Two Gay Men Returned Home 4 p.m. Saturday, April 2, Central Library Auditorium, 600 Soledad St., saplf.org/festival George Hodgman, author of Bettyville When George Hodgman leaves Manhattan for his hometown of Paris, Missouri, he becomes an unlikely caretaker for his aging mother, Betty, a woman of sharp wit and strong will. Will he lure her into assisted living or will hell freeze over first? Betty, who speaks her mind, but cannot quite reveal her heart, has never really accepted the fact that her son is gay. As these two unforgettable characters try to bring their different worlds together, Hodgman reveals the challenges of Betty’s life alongside his own search for self-respect. Bob Morris, author of Bobby Wonderful: An Imperfect Son Buries His Parents New York-based author Bob Morris was always the entertainer in his family, but not always a perfect son. As his parents approach the end of their lives, he begins to see his relationship with them in a whole new light and it changes his way of thinking. How does an adult child with flaws and limitations do his best for his ailing parents while still carrying on and enjoying his own life? And when their final days on Earth come, how can he give them the best possible end? This is a poignant, brutally honest and darkly comic look into struggling with death and one family’s search for the silver lining. Bobby Wonderful is a little book, but it is one that captures a big and universal experience.

SPRING 2016 // ARTS + CULTURE | 45

BY RUDY ARISPE PHOTOS BY MARC AREVALO

Kings Anchovy Wayne D. Beers and Michael Bobo Rule Cornyation’s 51st Court

46 | FIESTA // SPRING 2016

Michael Bobo and his husband Wayne D. Beers — the dynamic duo of W.D. Deli — have been preparing for their crowning moment for years, so to speak. So when the lights go down, the music starts thumping, the curtains go up and an odd assortment of outrageous drag queens, city celebs and other bizarre, costumed characters parade across the stage of the Empire Theatre, parodying politicos and mocking newsmakers, Bobo and Beers will be having a ball — and a vodka or three — as they preside over Fiesta Cornyation as dual Kings Anchovy of the Court of Our Mad, Mad, Mad World. “We’ve been making our own crowns for years and wearing them to Fiesta events,” Bobo said in between a late-afternoon break from the regular lunch crowd that descends upon the popular eatery. “We’ve also been involved with Cornyation for a long time, designing costumes and acting in skits in the late ’80s.” Over the past few years, Bobo has parlayed his good taste in house music into a gig as Cornyation’s unofficial DJ, who gets the party started by providing pounding mixes that get audiences grooving in their sometimes hard-to-come-by seats. (Hint: Buy your tickets early.) Given their longtime, active association with Cornyation, it seems fitting that board members would ask the couple to reign over the fun and frivolity set over the course of three nights of early evening and late-night debauchery and bawdy performances. “We’re so excited. I’m looking forward to the camaraderie with others, who all volunteer their time — and the decadence,” Beers said with a smirk. The deli owner, who is also quite the artist, sketched the designs for the crowns they will wear atop their royal noggins for various Fiesta parties. “They’ll be big and jeweled and Cornyation-themed, of course,” Bobo added. Ray Chavez, coordinator/director, said for years he had thought about asking the two to represent Cornyation. “I like to see what our young people are doing for the growth of our city, and Wayne and Michael have contributed not just to Cornyation, but to the growth of our community through their restaurant,” he said. “They are both well-liked and know so many people. They will help broaden the exposure and appeal of Cornyation.” While you’re partying your asses off, know that you’re doing so for an important cause. Fiesta Cornyation, which celebrated its 50th anniversary last year, is a nonprofit that raises funds to assist people in San Antonio living with HIV/AIDS. It also supports the Robert Rehm Scholarship,

Beers and Bobo giving royal realness in their backyard

manager and a really good staff,” Beers which grants college scholarships to San said. “They’ll pick up whatever slack there Antonio students majoring in theater arts. may be.” To date, the nonprofit has distributed more If you’re friends with them on Facebook, than $2 million to various charities. you will have surmised through their social Thus, the Kings Anchovy have thrown media musings — pictures of pampered themselves into the throes of fundraising, pooch Putsy or the comical, behind-theas is their royal duty, by hosting several kitchen door antics of running a restaurant fundraisers. One is planned for April 4 at El (like an employee who conveniently forgets Mirador restaurant; others are in the works. to show up for his shift after a suspected By the way, don’t expect Bobo and night of drinking) — that the two are Beers to greet you at the counter of happily wed. They officially tied the knot their Broadway deli during the week of four years ago in the Big Apple. Cornyation. Knowing that an exhausting In reality, however, they have been schedule of never-ending Fiesta functions awaits them, they don’t plan to work much. together 31 years. Their love story takes To make things easy, they’ve us back to Bobo’s native booked a room at the Arkansas, where he was Sheraton Gunter hotel for a FIESTA CORNYATION waiting tables and doing quick walk across the street $15-$40 display for a department to the Empire. However, 7:30pm & 10pm, April 19-21 store until friends fans of the soups, salads Charline McCombs Empire Theatre encouraged him to relocate and sandwiches served at 226 N. St. Mary’s St. to San Antonio, which he W.D. Deli need not fret. (210) 226-3333 did in 1982. He earned a “We have a great fiestacornyation.org SPRING 2015 // FIESTA | 47

master’s degree in education from Trinity University and then taught English and special education for 10 years at Sam Houston High School. “Some of my former students come visit me at the deli,” he said. Beers, meanwhile, was living in Oklahoma, but moved here in ’79 to attend St. Mary’s University, where he received his biology degree. While in dental school at the University of Texas Health Science Center, he realized that poking and prodding into patients’ oral cavities wasn’t for him after all. “I didn’t like it,” he said. Fast forward to 1984. The two were out on the town separately, when the bold Bobo spotted and pursued

the tall, handsome and dark-haired Beers, four years his junior. “He chased me around the bar,” Beers recalled. “I went up to him and said, ‘Let me buy you a beer.’ I was a cougar at 27,” Bobo said with a laugh. “I was nervous,” Beers blushed. And so began three decades of neverending romance. As for their business partnership, Beers was working at Cappy’s, but longed to open his own restaurant. He began driving around looking for locations and found a choice spot on McCullough Avenue near the round-about in Olmos Park. In 1990, the two opened the doors to W.D. Deli, whose

permanent locale is now on Broadway near Mahncke Park. “The menu is mine,” Beers said. “A lot of recipes are the same as my mom made them.” So we wonder what it’s like operating a bustling business, our interest having been piqued by some of the colorful teasers posted on Facebook. “It’s like throwing a party every day,” Bobo said. “You never know who’s going to show up and how it’s going to turn out.” Ah, well, if throwing a party is the norm for Bobo and Beers, they’ve had years of practice to prepare for the real thing, as the amiable and fun-loving Kings Anchovy rule over one of the biggest bashes of Fiesta.

Royalty Meter WAYNE D. BEERS

Q&A with Kings Anchovy

MICHAEL BOBO

PRINCESS DIANA OR PRINCESS GRACE? Princess Grace, I think, if I can’t say “both.” They both had such style, such poise.

Princess Grace! Come on — she was a movie star and a Princess.

DRAMA KING OR DAIRY QUEEN? Dairy Queen. How can you top the Blizzard?

Is a dairy queen a queen who is lactose intolerant? If so, drama king.

FAVORITE FIESTA EVENT (OTHER THAN CORNYATION)? Southwest School of Art’s Fiesta Arts Fair. We find terrific art and artists there. And they have margaritas.

The Battle of Flowers Parade. I love that whole day!

TURKEY LEG OR FUNNEL CAKE? Funnel cake. Turkey leg is barbaric. Funnel cake is real classy, y’all.

Funnel cake. Meat with bones? No!

MOST OUTRAGEOUS EXCUSE AN EMPLOYEE HAS GIVEN FOR MISSING WORK? “I was in jail.” (This one we’ve heard more than once.)

A person was having a partial hysterectomy, so she would be out one day and then a week later they were going to take out the rest.

MARGARITA BOOTH OR BEER BOOTH? Margarita booth, as long as it’s not wine-aritas.

Definitely margaritas, if made with tequila.

Introducing San Antonio’s LGBT Sports and Dive Bar

Catch your favorite MLB games!

1420 N. Main Ave. • (210)22-SPORT KnockoutSa.com

Your Spurs Playoff Headquarters

Watch the games on our 4 Big Screens and 17 Flat Screens

By the Slice or buy the Pie! vorites Classic Breakfast Fa ade em us Ho r and ou on en se as af tlo Mea

Open lunch, dinner and late night!

S FOOD NETWORK’ E QU & EW BURGERS, BR

Jazz Brunch Every Sunday from 11:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. live jazz by

Midtown Jazz Sound www.LuthersCafe.com

1503 N. Main Ave • (210)223-7727 Open Daily from 11:00 a.m. to Late Night!

www.TheStripSA.com 1400 Block of Main Ave.

SPRING 2015 // FIESTA | 49

John McBurney backstage at Cornyation in 1998

HOT GLUE DUCT

TAPE MARISELA BARRERA

50 | FIESTA // SPRING 2016

“I’m an old showgirl,” John McBurney says, as he shows me a faded photo of himself in partial drag backstage at Cornyation in 1998. McBurney is 61. “I am 6’ 4’’ and almost 300 pounds. I have to be very couture. Very avant-garde. I am not Caitlyn Jenner. And I never did want to look soft. I always knew that I was destined [to go] from the sidewalk to the catwalk.” There is a 25-year history of Cornyation memories placed before me across the dinner table McBurney shares with Michael Marmontello, his lover of 35 years — photos, programs, costume sketches. “He’s my lover. He is not my slave,” McBurney says of Marmontello. “Back then, we all used the term ‘lover,’ we never used ‘partner’ like now. Lover.” John sees me raise my eyebrows. I like the word: lover. “You have to give someone freedom,” McBurney explains. “You have to make your lover your best friend. This is how we looked when we first met,” McBurney says, showing me a photo of himself with Marmontello on an 18-wheeler. Hot. McBurney continues: “Now, with drag queens, it’s all about duct tape and glue guns. We didn’t have glue guns back then at Ponderosa ... back then, we would go to the drugstore to buy our makeup and

there was a little trio of white, brown and blue. The blue went on your eyelids, the brown was a contour, and the white was a highlighter. And then there was only pink lipstick, like for white girls. It was a whitegirl pharmacy. Y nostotros Mexicanos doing Lucha Villa.” Lucha Villa is a luscious Mexican singer and actress. McBurney code-shifts from English to Spanish, from jeans to drag queen, faster than I can drink a shot of tequila. And I can drink a shot of tequila pretty fast. “We had soul,” he says. “The drag queens were … [knocks on wood two times for emphasis] back then. We had the courage and the tenacity to be flamboyant and to be ourselves.” And new school is? “Injections,” Marmontello says. McBurney agrees. McBurney and Marmontello finish one another’s sentences like only lovers can. “You can get your hips pumped, lips plumped, your forehead done,” McBurney says. “Now people have professional makeup artists, even at Cornyation. And hairstylists that can make the wig look like it’s natural for during the day. New school is money. You can afford MAC [cosmetics]. Coming up with a concept is easy, the fundraising [for Cornyation] can be difficult.” CONTINUED ON PAGE 53

FRIENDLY EATS

76 TAPS

TILL

MIDNIGHT

7 DAYS A WEEK

CRAFT BREW

KID & DOGGIE

FRIENDLY

OVER 400 BOTTLE

ICE HOUSE

CAN CHOICES

943 South Alamo • 210.224.BEER (2337)

M O N - F R I 3 P - 1 2 A • S A T- S U N 1 1 A - 1 2 A

FRIENDLY GROWLERS AVAILABLE | NFL & SPURS ON THE HUGE @SLABCINEMA SPRING 2015 // FIESTA | 51

Home to seventeen world-class restaurants, fourteen totally unique shops, the best coffee in Texas, cocktails for every season and reason, the weekly Pearl farmers market, the San Antonio Campus of the Culinary Institute of America, and the unique luxury of Hotel Emma. All on the banks of the Museum Reach of the San Antonio River.

52 | FIESTA // SPRING 2016

Ten design teams participate in Cornyation each year. Each team is led by a designer who is responsible for raising funds for costume, set and prop expenses. McBurney explains: “It’s much easier to fundraise now. Back in the day, we would make crowns out of beer cans and trains out of trash bags. Now it looks like a Fiesta Texas [or] SeaWorld revue. Everyone has tap shoes and makeup and hairstylists.” So what does McBurney use to make costumes now? “Hot glue and duct tape,” he says. “Glue sticks have gone up in price. Duct tape, too. There’s duct tape in all shades: leopard, zebra, turquoise, stripes, polka dots.” Pointing to a photo of some amazing-looking flamingo costumes, I ask if they’re made out of duct tape. “Yes. Duct-tape flamingos, cardboard boxes and wire. I did those like backpacks. The wings were cardboard. These are baseball caps with duct-tape. Have you seen those young girls who make their prom dresses out of duct tape, with a matching suit for the guy? Fierce. Flawless.” Rasquache (employing recycled and found materials in new and creative ways) has served McBurney well. In 2007, he won the Artist Foundation of San Antonio’s Robert L.B. Tobin Award for Costume Design. “The funny thing is: I don’t sew,” McBurney says with a laugh. “I don’t have a sewing machine. When I won, of course, I was ecstatic. I asked, ‘Why did I win? I don’t even sew.’ And they said everyone else sent little bolero jackets, little evening gowns. They said even though you sew with duct tape, you sew with wire, you sew with glue sticks — your stuff is very very creative. You hold it together with your imagination.” McBurney is modest. He is a professional makeup artist with years of experience. “I can draw, but I draw like a third grader,” he claims. “I literally do stick people. But I can tell you: This is where the train’s gonna be; this is where the crown’s gonna be. Here’s your fur. These are ruffles. People like Robert Rehm, who used to do Cornyation with us, they would transform my ideas.” Rehm, who died in 2015 at the age of 61, was a big influence on McBurney’s design work. In 2006, Cornyation established the Robert Rehm Scholarship to support college students studying theater arts. “Robert talked me into doing Cornyation,” McBurney explains. “He was a master genius … and had a heart full of laughter. Always laughing.” “Craziness,” Marmontello says. “He was crazy-smart,” McBurney continues. “But the reason Mike and I really enjoy doing Cornyation is because it

McBurney and Marmontello at San Pedro Springs Park circa 1983

is a fundraiser for the San Antonio AIDS Foundation. It’s our way of sharing and helping our brothers and sisters who are affected by HIV.” John shows me a Cornyation photo of Lisa Suarez, a longtime Jump-Start Performance Company member, dressed as a Chicana Wonder Woman “Lasso Queen.” “Lisa Suarez was our Lasso Queen in 1998,” McBurney explains. “We made her a piñata horse, like for the Jefferson [High School] Mustangs. She stole the show. We were outside Beethoven Hall taking our panoramic picture when a trolley stopped. Out come these eight gorgeous Russian sailors in uniform. They took a picture with us.” The sailors look good, no denying. I marvel at how happy everyone is. “At Cornyation we’re known as The

Multiples,” Marmontello says. “Because of John’s background in makeup and design, he can make multiples of a look.” I see photos with multiple sheep (1997), multiple cheerleaders (2002) and multiple Octo-Mom babies (2009). The multiples first took shape in a 1991 spoof on “Fast Food Backyard Monsters.” “We were the Court of Fast Food Services,” McBurney says. “Giant roaches coming out of a cheeseburger. Kristen Nelson was my Queen that year ... This year we’re doing El Chapo Guzmán with Kate del Castillo and Sean Penn. Chapo was funding her tequila. So we’ll have Chapo come out from a tunnel or jail cell, then we’ll have multiple El Chapos dancing with the same shirt and giant joints. When she comes out, she’s going to dance to Peewee Herman’s ‘Tequila.’” SPRING 2015 // FIESTA | 53

RUDY ARISPE

Ray Chavez Recalls Cornyation Antics Through the Ages

Ray Chavez photographed by Juliรกn P. Ledezma at the Empire Theatre

54 | FIESTA // SPRING 2016

The house was packed and Cornyation was in full swing. The music was blaring, the stage lights glaring, and a group of actors and dancers were performing in another outlandish skit to thunderous roars, when, suddenly, a dancer took an unscripted nosedive into the tables and attendees below. “Fortunately, no one was hurt,” Ray Chavez recalled. On other occasions too numerous to count, Chavez had no choice but to push the originally planned first skit to the last of the lineup because some of the actors were still hauling down the highway, or designers were backstage frantically stitching their costumes only seconds before showtime. But somehow, someway, everything always falls into place despite the on- and off-stage madness, and Chavez, who has organized Cornyation for 33 years, can smile and breathe a sigh of relief. There’s not much time to relax, however. That was just the 7:30 evening show, and the next one starts at 10. “I like the energy and the success that happens when everyone comes together to create the ‘monster’ that Cornyation has become,” the spry, 77-year-old coordinator/director said. “I never imagined it would become such a big event, and to have the city support it, as well as all the people who come to the show, or those who don’t attend, but donate money just to keep it going, is amazing.” Chavez’s involvement with Cornyation began in 1961, when, shortly after leaving the Army, he and a friend auditioned for a play, No Time for Sergeants, at the San Antonio Little Theater (SALT). At the time, Cornyation was held at the Arneson River Theater as a fundraiser for SALT. That was until, as Chavez remembers, the San Antonio Conservation Society sent a letter to SALT, letting them know the show could not continue at the Arneson because it was “too modern.” Cornyation found a temporary home upstairs of La Fontana restaurant in La Villita, but because of the location, attendance dwindled and the show was abandoned. In 1982, however, Jerry Pollack, who was hired as the new director of SALT, approached Chavez and Bob Jolly

about bringing Cornyation back to life. After a failed attempt at jump-starting the event at the Arneson again, mainly because people no longer knew what it was, Chavez asked the late Hap Veltman, owner of the Bonham Exchange, about hosting Cornyation in the third-floor ballroom. “It was a huge success,” Chavez said. “It got so big that we had to relocate because we were exceeding the Fire Department’s occupancy safety regulations.” So Cornyation moved to Beethoven Hall, where it enjoyed success for a number of years until, as expected, it outgrew that space, too. (Its present venue is the Empire Theatre.) Tom McKenzie, Cornyation board president and a former King Anchovy, has known Chavez since 1988 and credits him, along with Bob Jolly, for reviving Cornyation after it fell into an abyss for several years.

“All the duchesses wore components of a salad, and the king was King Anchovy, so that stuck. It used to be more about the gowns. We ridiculed the Coronation of the Queen of the Order of the Alamo. We used trash bags, glitter, whatever we could find. Now there are more skits and we’re a satire of local and national news.” McKenzie, meanwhile, is proud of the fact that admission fees collected last year allowed the all-volunteer production to distribute $200,000 to a number of area charities. “It’s great that we’re able to donate money to BEAT AIDS or the San Antonio AIDS Foundation, for instance,” he said. “It enables these nonprofits to help people affected by HIV/AIDS. We also contribute to the Robert Rehm Scholarship for students majoring in theater arts in college. We provide students a stipend for four years if they

Ray is the heart and soul of Cornyation ... He’s the one who orchestrates it every year for free. It’s a huge commitment of time and energy, and it wouldn’t be here without him.

“Ray is the heart and soul of Cornyation,” McKenzie said. “He’s the one who orchestrates it every year for free. It’s a huge commitment of time and energy, and it wouldn’t be here without him.” Ever wonder how King Anchovy, who watches Cornyation unfold while perched atop his throne, got his name? Chavez explains it all has to do with the very first Cornyation, which began as a satire of the Coronation of the Queen of the Order of the Alamo and its elegant duchesses with their flashy, bejeweled gowns and pomp and circumstance. “The first [Cornyation] court was the Court of the Cracked Salad Bowl,” Chavez said.

maintain good grades.” Ironically, Chavez points out that while Cornyation is happening on Wednesday night during Fiesta, the Coronation is occurring simultaneously at the Majestic Theater. “What a coincidence that both theaters share a back wall,” he said. “There are more queens under one roof than anyone might imagine.” Finally, Chavez shared an interesting tidbit many Cornyation-goers might be surprised to know. “We’ve never had a dress rehearsal,” he said. “The first time it all happens is at 7:30 Tuesday. It adds to the hilarity and drama that Cornyation is all about.” SPRING 2015 // FIESTA | 55

Dress ALL ABOUT THAT

A History of Cornyation Fashion AMY L. STONE

For the last three years, I’ve been working on a book about the history of our most beloved Fiesta event, Cornyation. I’m pleased to report that the book will be published in March 2017 by Trinity University Press, and it will include more than 100 pictures of Cornyation over the years. Over the course of doing this project, I’ve learned a lot about fashion. Many San Antonians are familiar with the current version of the Cornyation show, the campy sketch comedy that pokes fun at anyone and everything. What few people understand is the centrality of the woman at the center of each skit — the duchess, empress or queen — to the history of the show. Cornyation began as a satire of the debutante pageantry of the Coronation of the Queen of the Order of the Alamo. The show started in 1951 as 56 | FIESTA // SPRING 2016

a fundraiser for the San Antonio Little Theatre (SALT), and was performed for over a decade at the Arneson River Theatre as part of a Night in Old San Antonio (NIOSA). In the 1950s, Cornyation performers used the design of their dresses to mock the seriousness and spectacle of the coronation and high society. Performers often wore costumes designed hastily out of everyday materials with a budget of less than $5. It was common for women to have long, amusing trains attached to their dresses that parodied the women in the real coronation. In the late 1950s, the show changed and began to use the dress design to critique local and national politics, which continued until the show became too racy and provocative and got kicked out of NIOSA in 1964. SALT performed the show one last time in 1965 in a local Italian restaurant before going on hiatus. When Ray Chavez and Bob Jolly revived the show in 1982 at the Bonham Exchange, the focus on dress design and costuming continued for almost two decades. Dress designers used increasingly large and elaborate costumes to portray current events. After the show moved to its current home, the Empire Theatre, it developed its hysterical sketchcomedy format. Although the woman at the center of each skit at times has an elaborate costume, the show has become far less focused on dress design.

SPRING 2015 // FIESTA | 57

R I A F S T R A A T S E I F 6 1 0 2

Cover image by Amanda Armistead | Kingwood, TX.

ADMISSION: Adults $10 | 2-day pass: $16 Student with valid ID: $8 Children 5-12: $5, under 5: FREE! Advance tickets available online at swschool.org/fiestaartsfair or the Fiesta Store. All 58 | FIESTA // SPRING 2016 proceeds benefit the School’s art education programs.

OFFICIAL SPONSORS:

YOUNG ARTISTS GARDEN:

PREMIER SPONSORS:

SUSTAINING SPONSORS: Janet & Bruce Flohr | Linbeck Macy’s | Therese McDevitt The Arch & Stella Rowan Foundation Page Saunders Texas Commission on the Arts Walton Signage Corporation

1: Aubrey Davenport as Duchess of the Turkey Trot, 1965. This costume demonstrates the trains that were common as a part of the costuming in the 1950s and 1960s . Courtesy of The Playhouse and the San Antonio Public Library Texana Collection. 2: Mary Byall as the Empress of the More-the-Marrier, 1963. This costume parodied the fecundity of the Kennedys. Byall was actually pregnant, which was scandalous at the time. Courtesy of Wayne Byall. 3: Gretchen Schoopman as the Empress of the â&#x20AC;&#x153;Song of No Way,â&#x20AC;? parodying the closure of The Majestic Theatre, 1987. This costume was designed by Robert Rehm. Photography by Reuben Njaa. 4: Ann Kinser as the Empress of Fiesta 100 and designer Curt Slangal, 1991. Courtesy of Curt Slangal. SPRING 2015 // FIESTA | 59

BETTER TOGETHER

AVAILABLE AT GO BABY GO AND GOBABYGOSHOP.COM 6104 BROADWAY ST. #C4, SAN ANTONIO, TX 78209 | 210-320-1404 60 | TRAVEL // SPRING 2016

10 LGBT Retreats Worth the Road Trip MIKEY ROX Whether you like roughing it in the woods or prefer the luxuries of a well-equipped cabin, these inclusive campgrounds, resorts and retreats have something for everyone. Let’s gear up the Winnie and git along, little doggies. Desert Oasis Campground Situated on a 120-acre ranch, the gay-owned and -operated Desert Oasis in sunny Arizona — located just seven miles outside historic Brisbee, well-known for its year-round temperate climate — caters to sun lovers and snowbirds of all persuasions. Set up shop in a mountain-view tent, RV or cabin, then kick up your feet in the Tombstone-style recreation center that includes a mini-gym, billiard table and electronic darts games. Hike more than three miles of trails, or take a dip in the hot tub under the Southwestern sky. 5311 W. Double Adobe Rd., McNeal, Arizona, (520) 979-6650, campatdo.com. Rainbow Ranch Open rain or shine year-round, Rainbow Ranch, nestled on Lake Limestone just outside Groesbeck, caters to gay and lesbian campers of all ages. Pull in an RV, pop a tent, or reserve a cabin to enjoy a rustic getaway that includes activities like off-pier fishing, volleyball on sand courts, canoeing, swimming, basketball, indoor games and a quintessential campfire — complete with your self-led sing-along and requisite s’mores. 1662 LCR 800, Groesbeck, Texas, (254) 729-8484, rainbowranch.net.

Rancho Cicada Retreat Nestled on 44 acres within the Sierra Foothills, this mostly male retreat along the Cosumnes River provides platform camping near the water’s edge, a swimming hole, gorge tubing, sunbathing, volleyball and fishing. When you’re all tuckered out, enjoy a homemade meal before slipping into a bubbling Jacuzzistyle tub.10001 Bell Rd, Plymouth, California, (209) 245 4841, ranchocicadaretreat.com. Roy’s Hideaway Campground Gay and lesbian anglers will delight at the abundance of fishing opportunities at Roy’s Hideaway — a private, members-only campground in rural Georgia — offering six lakes filled with a wide assortment of daily catch. Landlubbers can stay occupied at the pool and spa area, hiking several tree-covered trails that wind through the property, canoeing, kayaking, duck watching or enjoying a snack from the cafe. 268 Catfish Ln., Collins, Georgia, (912) 225-3900, royshideaway.com. Windover Women’s Resort Lady-loving ladies can find camaraderie and perhaps companionship at Windover, a private, members-only resort on the Pigeon River of Michigan’s farm country. Open to women aged 18 and older, this tent- and RV-friendly destination offers a pool, nature trails, clubhouse and scheduled events with other exciting activities nearby, including golf, boating and recreational water sports. 3596 Blakely Rd., Owendale, Michigan, (810) 300-5689, windoverwomensresort.com.

SPRING 2016 // TRAVEL | 61

Southern Comfort Campground If you prefer a more private, members-only (and age 18 and older) ambiance, check into the clothing-optional and aptly named Southern Comfort Campground in northwest Florida. Pick your preference of camp arrangement — tent, RV or cabin — before letting loose in the Southern Nights clubhouse, playing horseshoes or volleyball, visiting the beer garden or dressing up for one of the destination’s theme weekends. 50 SE 74th Ave., Cross City, Florida, (352) 498-0490, southerncomfortcampground.net. Stag Run Club at Overlook Farm Gunning to get dirty? Don your boots and overalls to this Indiana resort for a weekend of camping among farm animals, including horses, cows, chickens, ducks and other wildlife with which you can interact. Tents, log cabins, bunkhouses and suites are available on this private, all-male property where, after you’ve put in an honest day’s work (like gathering your own freshly laid eggs for breakfast), you can bask on the clothing-optional sun deck, dive into the heated pool, engage in games in the lodge or ride your own stallion if you brought one — of the two- or four-legged variety. 2150 Overlook

Dr., Mauckport, Indiana, (812) 732-8094, stagrunclub.com.

Magnetic Valley Retreat Considering that Carroll County, Arkansas, is one of the gayest places in the south-central United States (approximately onethird of its population is “family,” according to The New York Times), it’s no surprise that this exclusive, private men’s resort is a popular destination. Catering to gents 21 and older, Magnetic Valley facilitates a vibrant social scene that transitions to an intimate atmosphere with amenities like a heated pool, hot tub, dry sauna, outdoor showers, fire pit and the Carrie Nation Bar. 597 Magnetic Rd., Eureka Springs, Arkansas, (479) 363-1143, magneticvalleyretreat.com.

Twin Ponds Lodge It’s a bare-all free-for-all for naturists at Twin Ponds Lodge in Maine, a gated campground and resort for men age 18 and older. Strip down and hang out — literally — anywhere on the property, from the large heated pool and 14-man hot tub to the recreation hall outfitted with billiards, ping pong, and satellite TV. Day passes are also available if you prefer a shorter stint fishing or hiking, releasing toxins in the wood-fired sauna, scrubbing down in the communal shower room or catching rays in open sunning areas. Address provided with registration, Albion, Maine, (207) 437-2200, twinpondslodge.com. Lizard Landing Campground Primarily catering to the gay community, but also welcoming of allies, Lizard Landing offers 11.5 secluded acres of primitive tent sites, no-frills sleeping cabins and deluxe cabins featuring in-unit hygiene facilities. A heated saltwater pool (your skin will thank you), fishing, canoeing and kayaking are available for adventurers, plus access to a boat ramp if you bring along your vessel. 586 Lizard Lope Rd., Columbia, Alabama, (334) 696-2047, lizardlanding.com. 62 | TRAVEL // SPRING 2016

SPRING 2016 // TRAVEL| 63

BACK TO BASICS

Reconnect with Nature in an Armadillo Teardrop The weather outside is perfect, and Emily Pease is sitting in a fold-out chair in Guadalupe State Park with a water bottle in hand. Behind her is a brightly colored teardrop camper trailer she recently finished setting up. Emily is well aware of the benefits the great outdoors offers camping enthusiasts. For her, camping isn’t simply an occasional weekend outing; it’s a major part of her life. “It’s really one of the best things you can do for your soul and mind,” she says. In 2012, when Emily’s father Ron first built the family a teardrop camper, they were quick to recognize it as a possible business venture. “I just realized how awesome they were, how lightweight they were, and how more people really needed them in their lives,” Emily says. “There weren’t really any companies in Texas that were manufacturing them.” In March 2015, Ron founded Armadillo Camper Kits (armadillocamperkits.com) — a family business that’s been steadily growing ever since. Together, Emily and her parents build custom teardrop camper trailers and tent trailers. They also make them available as rentals, or customers can buy kits to build the campers themselves. The campers are meant to be lightweight and easy to assemble, features the family considers major selling points. Each model takes its name from a Texas town or theme. For example, there’s the Goliad Teardrop, the Bandera Teardrop and the Roadrunner Adventurer. Essentially, teardrop camper trailers are streamlined, art deco-style travel trailers that fit a full-size mattress inside and usually include a chuck-wagon kitchen in the outside rear. First introduced in the 1930s, teardrop campers were often featured in Mechanix Illustrated magazine. They could be seen hitting the roads up until the early 1960s, when manufacturers halted production. With the advent of the Internet in the 1990s, some of the original plans for teardrop campers became available for the world to rediscover. In the late 2000s, with gas prices on the rise, the need for compact and fuel-efficient vehicles sparked a resurgence. Today, teardrops are available for purchase from small workshops and custom builders around the country. During the course of our meeting, two curious individuals, lured by the attractive campers parked nearby, interrupt us. Emily is quick to point out all of the special features and details for the potential customers. This sort of thing happens all the time. She hopes to convince the masses as to why they should purchase a teardrop camper. Among the selling points: It helps bring people together, especially families. “When we stay home for the weekend, everyone is really engaged with their phones and computers and televisions, but when you go out to nature, and you’re with your family, you don’t have any of those things to fall back on,” she says. “So you’re kind of forced to interact with everyone and you get to know everyone more. We’ve really lost a lot of that human connection,

64 | TRAVEL // SPRING 2016

BRYAN RINDFUSS

MARCO AQUINO

BRYAN RINDFUSS

especially with our own families. When you have the opportunity to unplug your mind, you’re able to connect back on a conscious level to your own family members, and anyone else that you go out into nature with, including yourself.” Emily’s mission to spread awareness of nature and the great outdoors doesn’t end with her family business. She hopes to start a nonprofit called “Little Feet, Big Adventures” that will take kids (who otherwise wouldn’t get such experiences) on camping trips. She mentions LGBT kids, for example, who may not always be comfortable sharing those experiences with other kids. She cites the lesbian cycling and youth outreach program LezRideSA as a model for the sort of community involvement she’s interested in. Last year, she donated two free nights in one of the family’s rental campers to the winner of LezRideSA’s

Dance-A-Thon fundraiser. Emily also hopes to see millennials enjoying the outdoors more. “Eventually the national parks and state parks are going to be our responsibility, and if we’re not teaching people why nature is important, and how important it is, then it’s something we could lose control of entirely,” she says. For now, Emily has been learning everything she can from her father, who taught her about rentals, manufacturing and all the details involved in a family business. When her dad retires in the next few years she hopes to take over the business. “My ultimate goal is to help people get back to nature,” she says. “To help people heal themselves and to try to combat depression and anxiety in our society by teaching people to disconnect from technology every once in a while.”

SPRING 2016 // TRAVEL | 65

Photo Caption

Texas Wines, Wildflowers & Selfies with Cows CHRISTINE GARZA I was never the girl who spent her childhood dreaming of a wedding, let alone a honeymoon. So when my partner and I decided to take the plunge in late December, we wanted to keep things as simple and intimate as possible. We had a small-butsweet Sunday ceremony at the McNay, followed by dinner and lots of drinks at Rosario’s in Southtown and finally, a nightcap at The Brooklynite with some close friends and family. Knowing we already had a trip overseas planned for 2017, Christi and I decided to keep our honeymoon local and headed out into the Texas Hill Country for a day full of food, wine and selfies with cows. We headed out of San Antonio on I-10 armed with coffee and doughnuts from The Fairview, and a kick-ass road-trip playlist courtesy of Spotify. Cutting across Farm Road 1323, we drove up north toward Johnson City and took a detour around Willow City Loop, a 20-mile route with scenic views, ranch life and room for only one car each way. The best time to drive through is mid-to66 | TRAVEL // SPRING 2016

late March through April to see the wildflowers and bluebonnets in bloom. Although we traveled the loop in January, there was still plenty to take in. The drive through the loop took us about 45 minutes, including a few random stops to take pictures of creeks, riverbeds and local wildlife. As we exited the loop, we took Highway 16 toward Fredericksburg, where we were just in time for brunch at Sunset Grill, a relaxed place with great reviews on Yelp. Drawing heavily on a California aesthetic, the restaurant was airy and the staff was friendly. Christi enjoyed a traditional mimosa while I tried a grapefruit variety, and we picked off each other’s plates — a perfectly done smoked-salmon Benedict and a California omelet. After brunch, we were ready to down all the wine Fredericksburg had to offer. Our first stop was Das Peach Haus, a combination of a general store, wine tasting room and cooking school. Nestled in the middle of mile-high trees brought in from East Texas, Das Peach Haus is an ideal destination if you want to enjoy a variety of local wines, great conversation and a relaxing outdoor atmosphere. We posted up at the back bar with Bob, a retired marine from Houston, who walked us through the wide variety of wines and educated us on the various qualities of each without being pretentious or pushy. We opted for flights ($8 each), which offered six samples and good buzz. The flight turned out to be a better

Just

bang for the buck because Bob was very generous with his pours, especially considering an individual glass would have run us $9 each. We finished our flights and took a couple of full glasses — a dry red for me and a sweet white for her — outside near the pond, which overlooks a peach orchard containing 26 peach varieties. The area around the pond has picnic tables, Adirondack chairs, a chair swing and a dock. In other words, there are plenty of great seating areas for day-drinking. Though we didn’t want to leave Das Peach Haus, we did want to try a few of the other wineries around the area. We settled on Rancho Ponte for our next stop, but soon after walking in we very casually walked out. It’s a visually appealing place with a rustic feel to it, but the atmosphere seemed quiet and a bit snooty. Maybe Bob had spoiled us, or maybe it was an off-day for service, but we were looking for more of a laid-back place. Seating was limited, flights were $15 a pop and the selection was made up of mostly dry wines. We headed back to Main Street in Fredericksburg and stumbled upon Fiesta Winery, which we chose for its name, obviously. For 10 bucks a flight, you can choose from a long menu of locally sourced wines, and you get to keep the stemless glass. It wasn’t a bad deal, but the wines weren’t as full-bodied as some of the others we’d tried earlier in the day. Still, Fiesta Winery is a great place to people-watch as locals and tourists alike stroll the town’s main thoroughfare. There’s nothing you’ll want more after a long day of drinking than some pizza, so we walked a half block off Main Street to a place called Sozial Haus, a renovated carriage-house-turnedsports-bar, complete with good food, craft beer, plenty of large flat-screen TVs and really friendly older lesbians. There are both indoor and outdoor seating areas, and you can’t beat their pineapple and jalapeño pizza. With our bellies full and the sun setting behind us, we headed back down that long romantic stretch of I-10 toward San Antonio and called our honeymoon day-trip a success. In the same way that your wedding should be a reflection of who you are as a couple, so should your honeymoon. The only rules you have to follow are the ones you make yourselves. Save that extra wedding cash for a big honeymoon, or plan a trip for later and take yourselves on a honeymoon adventure in your own backyard. Christi and I started traveling together very soon after we met, and we knew that we had the rest of our lives to see more of the world. Our honeymoon was a quiet celebration of that promise, a time to reflect on everything we have planned for our life together, and a time to drink a whole lot of wine.

Marrie

Providing couples with the perfect officiant for every type of Wedding. 210-802-8097 | txweddingministers.com

Texas’ Small Wedding Specialists

Your Ceremony- Beautiful, Romantic, and Affordable. Small Wedding Packages starting at $499 $75 Sunday Civil Ceremonies

everlastingelopements.com • 210-860-5680 SPRING 2016 // TRAVEL | 67

Jason Wood Realtor USAF retired

PHOTOS BY JULIÁN P. LEDEZMA

Let us take the burden of searching for your new home so you can focus on more important things, like family. 210-632-4628 10999 IH-10 West, ste #175 San Antonio TX

Ask About Testosterone

r e p l a c e m e n t t h e r a p y. • 13 Million men in the United States suffer from low testosterone. • Only 3% of men discuss Low-T symptoms with their doctor. • Effects of Low-T are: - Increased fat accumulation - Lower sex drive or erectile dysfunction - Sleep problems - Linked to diabetes and heart disease - Impaired thinking and mobility - Smaller muscles and reduced strength

- Decreased self-confidence or motivation

14615 San Pedro Ave. Suite 100 Accepting Most Major Insurance

210-255-1977 MaleMedicalGroup.com

68 | HEALTH + BEAUTY // SPRING 2016

SPINNING IN A NEW DIRECTION

Wesley Salazar Gets the Wheels Turning BONNY OSTERHAGE The doors close, the lights go out, the music starts pumping and an assembled crowd start to move and sweat to the beat. No, it’s not Saturday night on the Main Strip. It’s just a typical indoor cycling class led by Wesley Salazar at JoyRide cycle studio. Thanks to his high-energy playlists and magnetic personality, Salazar’s classes frequently sell out, with people clamoring for spots on the wait list. To watch him in action, it’s hard to believe that this 32-year-old cyclist and marathon runner was ever a couch potato. But as a high school student at South San Antonio Independent School District, Salazar was overweight and under-motivated, eating at McDonald’s up to three times a week (sometimes twice a day). “Supersize” was a regular word in his vocabulary.

PHOTOS BY JULIÁN P. LEDEZMA

“I couldn’t run a quarter mile without stopping,” admits Salazar, who finally topped out at almost 200 pounds on his 5’9” frame. “I was in band, but other than that I was completely inactive.” After being accepted to Texas A&M, Salazar realized that going away to college would offer him the opportunity to reinvent himself. Over the course of the next few years, he got off the couch, came out of the closet and started the journey to get fit. It was an uphill ride at times but Salazar stuck with it, relying on determination and focus to change his body — and his life. And today, when he isn’t working with the landscape architecture firm Kudela & Weinheimer, Salazar is planting the seeds of inspiration in others who want to do the same. Putting the Wheels in Motion When he decided to take charge of his life and his health, Salazar hit the ground running — literally. He cut out his beloved Big Macs, started jogging around the block and dropped 60 pounds in just four months. As a result, he developed hypoglycemia and became lactose intolerant — a condition he still suffers from today. “I didn’t really know how to lose weight in a safe and healthy way,” he confesses. “I had been overweight for so long, I just didn’t think that being too skinny could be unhealthy.” After that rocky start, Salazar began to educate himself. He joined a gym in College Station, began weight training and added more protein, vegetables and healthy foods to his diet. By the time he graduated from A&M in 2006, Salazar weighed in at a healthier 150 pounds. Later that year, Salazar moved to Houston and spent the next few years building his career and his endurance. He began competing in races, starting with 5 and 10K runs

and moving up to half and full marathons. But after a few years he grew bored with running and started looking for more motivation. In 2010, he found it in the form of the MS 150, a bike ride from Houston to Austin that raises funds for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. Although he didn’t own a bike at the time (and hadn’t ridden one since he was a child), Salazar signed up. “It started because I was tired of running and I wanted a new challenge,” says Salazar, who will participate in his fifth MS 150 in April. “But over the years it became about so much more than that to me. It became about helping others.” As part of his training for the 150-mile, two-day event, Salazar began taking indoor cycle classes, which sent his life spinning in a new direction. He became certified to teach and started leading classes in gyms in and around Houston. When he and his partner, a food service director for Central Market, moved back to San Antonio in 2015, Salazar took his cycling skills to JoyRide, and started selling out classes in less than a year. Finding His Joy Spend just five minutes with Salazar and it’s clear why he has such a devoted following: He’s the real deal. There’s no ego here — just authenticity and a genuine desire to help people be the best versions of themselves. He puts his own spin on every class, tweaking the standard JoyRide drills and formats to keep it fresh and challenging. And then there’s those playlists. For this devoted Britney Spears fan, the music is as much a part of the class as the drills. And he never uses the same playlist twice. “People tell me they love my class for the music and that means a lot to me,” Salazar says. He spends hours combing

the Internet to find just the right beats and mixes designed to get people moving, and carefully crafts his playlists to complement the JoyRide choreography. “Music is a driving force in exercise,” he explains. “It motivates, inspires, and pushes you. Rather than background noise, it becomes an essential part of the workout.” Salazar expects 100 percent from his riders, but more importantly, he expects 110 percent from himself. In other words, this isn’t the guy to go to for a low-impact workout. “I can only push my riders as hard as I push myself,” he says. “I wouldn’t feel right telling them to sprint for 30 seconds on the bike if I couldn’t do it. I should be able

to do that and more.” This “all-in” attitude is a big part of Salazar’s success. He’s been where some of his riders are, and he understands how hard it can be to make major lifestyle changes. By giving his all every time he gets in the saddle, he hopes to make each and every rider feel like anything is possible. They look to him for inspiration, and that’s not something Salazar takes lightly. “It’s a performance,” he says with a grin. “People pay good money to be there and I want to make sure I am giving them the best workout they can get. I want to help them grow and change and feel good about themselves along the way,” he adds. “I want them to be glad they came.”

SPRING 2016 // HEALTH + BEAUTY | 69

•Easy Starting •Lightweight •Lasts a Long Time INDUSTRY’S BEST WARRANTY Starting @ Just

$149.99

Check Out Our Fiesta Medals!

5034 Rigsby • San Antonio (210) 648-0182 • www.jameslawnmower.com

effects of school social climate and homophobic bullying on lesbian, gay, bisexual and questioning youth and found that: LGBQ youth are more likely than heterosexual youth to report high levels of bullying and substance use. Students who are questioning their sexual orientation report more bullying, homophobic victimization, unexcused absences from school, drug use, feelings of depression and suicidal behaviors than either heterosexual or LGB students. Transgender youth are even more vulnerable to bullies who choose to target them. The political climate, at present, is not a safe one for young LGBT people, as the legitimacy of their identities is still up for public debate and their needs continue to be ignored by leadership. There are, as yet, no federal protections for LGBT students in schools, allowing states and school districts to interpret LGBT student rights as they see fit. We know these students are at a greater risk of negative educational outcomes, but how does an unsafe school climate impact an LGBT student’s ability to exercise and engage in healthy outdoor activities? In Texas, policies are being drafted and considered that would ban trans youth from playing sports based on their “gender identity.”

COMMUNITY THROUGH FITNESS The Inspiring Efforts of LezRideSA KATE SCULLY In the fall of 2014, a friend of mine’s son locked himself in his room and refused to get out of bed for several weeks. This good friend reached out to trusted family, to doctors, to her spiritual community and to members of the LGBT community for help, but nothing could get her 15-year-old son out of bed. The following year, this once straight-A student, honors AP scholar and concert pianist was expelled from school for truancy. It took him the entirety of 2015 to work up the will to tell his mother that his football teammates and coaches had ridiculed him, repeatedly called him “faggot” on the field and spread threatening rumors about him throughout the school. The shame associated with these experiences had consumed him to the point that he was afraid to return to his classes and he did not feel there was a trusted adult on his side. Today, counseling is part of his regular routine, he has completed his GED and he is working hard to get his life back on track toward personal success and happiness. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, this student’s experiences are not out of the norm for LGBT students in America at present. A CDC survey of more than 7,000 seventh- and eighth-grade students from a large Midwestern county examined the

In a 2014 National Institutes of Health study examining adolescent and young-adult hours per week of moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and team sports participation by sexual orientation, behavioral health scientists investigated contributions of gender nonconformity and low athletic self-esteem to possible sexual orientation differences in exercise. They found that LGBT youth are getting 1.21-2.62 hours per week less MVPA and are 46-76 percent less likely to participate in team sports than samegender heterosexuals. Gender nonconformity and athletic selfesteem accounted for well over half of this difference. We hear stories like that of my friend’s son every day, and we remember some of these experiences from our own childhoods. This collective memory is what fuels the mission of LezRideSA. While we do provide no-cost access to fitness classes for our San Antonio community, our larger mission is to support physical activity and build community through fun outdoor activities among LGBT youth by providing the first ever LezRideSA’s LezFund Fun Grant to local area LGBT youth organizations. LezRideSA is the premier funding source for LGBT San Antonio youth organizations, aiming to improve healthy behaviors through dance, sports, hiking, biking and other outdoor team-building activities while providing safe spaces for LGBT youth to thrive. During our first year of programming, LezRideSA successfully provided 25 community bike rides and 20 free exercise classes, serving more than 200 unique individuals from all across the city. Our mission is supported by a number of local community organizations, including The Health Collaborative, La Botánica, Texas Prosthetic Center and SA2020. We have been especially pleased to see the outpouring of ally support, especially from Lisa Gillespie and John Villalobos, who donated several hundred dollars to support this important mission throughout our first year of programming. Many thanks to our community members who shared cash donations and in-kind assistance and participated in our LezRide Pride-Ride in June and our Dance-A-Thon fundraiser in December. Visit lezridesa.com to apply for the LezRideSA’s LezFund Fun Grant or learn more about LezRide weekly rides, LezMove free exercise and the LezRide Pride event. SPRING 2016 // HEALTH + BEAUTY | 71

72 | NIGHTLIFE // SPRING 2016

BONHAM EXCHANGE Once home to a late-19th-century German athletic club, the Bonham is a multilevel dance complex attracting tourists and locals alike. A blended crowd of dance lovers energizes the entire place. If you’re gay, lesbian, straight, bi, transgender or simply unsure, you’ll find the freedom to be yourself as you dance or drink the night away. Drinks are decent and cheaper here than at most Downtown clubs. Head out to the back patio and grab some tacos to soak up that booze. Dress to dance or dress to impress: You never know who you might find cruising along the way. 411 Bonham St., (210) 2249219, bonhamexchange.com.

COWABUNGA A dive without a fancy bone in its body, Cowabunga is about as close to Downtown as one can get without overpaying for beer and cocktails. In keeping with its equally unfussy sister Cobalt Club, the vibe here is about as entertaining as you make it. While regulars and varied visitors gather around the small U-shaped bar for happy hour specials, bartenders make friendly conversation and might even lift your spirits with a complimentary shot. Bring cash for the jukebox: Cowabunga’s DJs are few and far between. 402 E. Travis St., (210) 226-1338, facebook.com/cowabungabardowntownsa. WAX CLUB LOUNGE A hidden gem for lovers of all things underground, Wax puts a retro spin on San Antonio nightlife via occasional live music and weekly DJs spinning new wave, post-punk and industrial beats. Likened by one reviewer to True Blood’s vampire den Fangtasia, the goth-inspired space gets patrons in motion on the small dance floor with budget brews and cherry vodka sours. To facilitate Sunday Funday shenanigans, Wax opens its doors early to welcome day drinkers of the LGBTQA persuasion. 2211 San Pedro Ave., (210) 379-4788, facebook.com/waxclublounge. THE PHANTOM ROOM Entering the Phantom Room, you might feel as if you’ve crashed a house party — or possibly a boozy séance. Amid religious decor, a diverse array of revelers pack the front dance floor while two adjoining spaces offer breathing room and a change of scenery. Hosting DJs, live music, karaoke and special events, the hip, LGBT-friendly venue gets the party started on Thursday nights and fuels the weekend with reasonably priced drinks. 2106 N. St. Mary’s St., twitter.com/thephantomroom.

SPRING 2016 // NIGHTLIFE | 73

HAPPY HOUR DAILY • 4-9PM GREAT DRAFT BEER SELECTION

KARAOKE

EVERY WED • 9PM-1AM

2015 SAN PEDRO • 210-733-3365 • 74 | NIGHTLIFE // SPRING 2016

SPRING 2016 // NIGHTLIFE | 75

Bring Your Own Bev, Use the House Pole ERIKA RENEE LAND Just six months old, Hott Dawg’z Lounge (826 San Pedro Ave.) has created an intimate atmosphere for lesbians who want a laidback home-away-from-home environment. The BYOB venue styles itself the “Ultimate Lounge for the Grown and Sexy” and hosts a mad panoply of events: book signings (including this author’s), “dress to impress” parties, poetry readings, and an intimate New Year’s Eve fling. Mr. Gay Texas for Life 2015, Valenteno Capri, has charmed the venue’s clientele along with Yue Capri, and the upcoming schedule will include karaoke and open-mic nights. Out In SA had the pleasure of sitting down with club owners Tracye’ Hall and Angela Barrett and their partner, whom we’ll call Semi Silent. Why the name Hott Dawg’z? Semi Silent: Well it was kind of my idea! I was excited about opening a club with my home girls, “my dogs,” and I just kept thinking: This is going to be a hot club. Tracye’ Hall (nodding her head with excitement): As she was walking out the door she turned around and said, “Hot dogs.” Then she came over and spelled it out: H-O-T-T D-A-W-G-Z. Angela Barrett: When we put it out there we had a lot of people say, “Like hot dogs? Y’all gonna sell hot dogs?” Then when we explain the concept they are all for it. What do you want people to think when they hear Hott Dawg’z? AB: If you are looking for a place to relax and talk to your friends, bring your own drinks and meet new people in a warm atmosphere, Hott Dawg’z is the place. TH: You can come be yourself. If you want to dance on the pole, on the table, sit and chill with the people you enjoy — come do it. AB: We want the lesbians that travel five hours away to stay in San Antonio for the party. Come have a good time in your own backyard, a place that is down the street from your home. SS: We picked certain colors and lighting for a reason. When people come in we want them to feel million-dollar comfort.

76 | NIGHTLIFE // SPRING 2016

JULIAN P. LEDEZMA

NEW DAWG’Z ON THE BLOCK

JULIAN P. LEDEZMA

BLUE BOX custom crafted cocktails

SPRING 2016 // NIGHTLIFE | 77

3 1 2 P e a r l P k w y, S a n A n t o n i o, T X 7 8 2 1 5 • ( 2 1 0 ) 2 2 7 - 2 5 8 3

B e h T t a y a d es u T r u o TIKI Y

e t i n y l rook

am) 2 m p y (5 a d s e u T ded. y u r l e c v n i e enu, raws t m S i a k l i l t bre ssic m a U l c d a n Enjoy ng Drinks a Flami

! U N E NEW M

Private Parties | Happy Hour | Reservations Welcome Ave | 210.444.0707 | www.thebrooklynitesa.com

78 | NIGHTLIFE // SPRING 2016 516 Brooklyn

Tencha la Jefa’s Alternative Approach to Drag BY DINO FOXX // PHOTOS BY JULIÁN P. LEDEZMA As I drove to meet Tencha la Jefa at her home on San Antonio’s West Side, Siri took me on an unanticipated ride through the neighborhood where I grew up. I drove past El Mercado H-E-B where my mom first trusted me to to run in by myself to grab an ingredient she was missing for dinner. Up next on the right was Danny the Barber’s shop, where I would wait in the queue for hours to get my hair cut while the old men from the barrio caught up on the week’s chisme. Siri even drove me by my old elementary school where I was first made to feel embarrassed for playing on the playground with the girls rather than on the soccer field with the boys. The unexpected tour called up the same emotions I felt when I saw Tencha la Jefa perform for the first time. I was at a fundraiser at Jump-Start Performance Company, back when they called the Blue Star Arts Complex home. Tencha took the stage some time after intermission and brought the house down with a high-energy combination of comedy, dance and a color-guard rifle routine unlike anything I — and judging by the roar from the seats — or the audience had seen before.

Up to that moment, my experience with San Antonio drag had been all about beauty and poise. Even the comedic queens brought a level of polish to their look that was unlike Tencha. Tencha, on the other hand, matched the face and hair of an older tía who got up at 5 a.m. to make the tortillas with the body and dance style of a young prima who had just returned from a night of dancing at the clubs. Her wig was set with plastic rollers from the Dollar Store (a sight many Mexican kids in the barrio know well), and as she performed, parts of her wig would come off, causing the audience to erupt in laughter. Tencha would flash her signature smile, blacked-out teeth and all, grab the wayward handful of hair, put it right back in place and continue with her performance. She was familiar, unapologetically Mexican, and she reminded me of all the warm and comfortable places from my childhood. A performer who wasn’t afraid to make a fool of herself, Tencha was a queen after my own heart. Her work ethic and dance style are a throwback to the pageant circuit, so it’s no surprise that Tencha got her start 20 years ago as a backup dancer and choreographer in the International Imperial Court System, a grassroots networks that hosts charity ball fundraisers. Back then, choreographers couldn’t just pull up a video on YouTube to learn a new dance. Tencha, who was working closely with the drag queens in the system, was challenged to try drag for a fundraiser produced by her then boyfriend. “Back then I had a goatee. I didn’t know what I was going to do. It was just after Halloween when I went home and saw a picture of my sister, the one who just passed, and she was wearing rollers, had big boobs and a big butt,” Tencha said. “She went to work SPRING 2016 // NIGHTLIFE | 79

80 | NIGHTLIFE // SPRING 2016

17101 La Cantera Pkwy | San Antonio, TX 78256 | (210) 310-3733

and won first place in the costume contest, so I thought, ‘Hey! I can do that! I can put on a mint mask so I don’t have to shave, and I’ll just paint my eyes!’ So I really got the idea from her.” Tencha enlisted a very special part of the San Antonio Drag Herstory to paint her eyes for her first appearance as la Jefa. “The first person to paint me was Erica Andrews, because she lived across the street from me. I’d known Erica since we were kids in Laredo,” Tencha said. “I ended up doing a scene from Waiting to Exhale, and back then I didn’t know how to pad, so I literally just got a pillow and duct-taped it around me. By the time I was done it was down around my legs, so it was funny.” Andrews, who passed away in 2013, was part of a generation of queens who were dedicated to their practice and who respected their foremothers. Tencha is a product of this last generation before the tectonic shifts caused by technology and social media. “Some people aren’t gonna like this, but the younger kids forget what hard work is; they think they’re gonna get famous if they make a YouTube channel,” Tencha said. “They keep forgetting that people got to where they are because of hard work. We didn’t have cell phones and Facebook invites. It was about socializing with the right people.” By studying iconic drag performers like Tandi Andrews, Amanda Hall and Victoria West, Tencha has seen for herself what maximum creativity and discipline can do for a performer. “I’ll never forget dancing for Erica for the Miss Gay Texas USofA pageant at Rich’s in Houston,” Tencha recalled. “Back then it was about using props and telling a story. Erica won that title, and when we were backstage hugging each other, I told her that I was proud of her. That was my favorite moment with her. We were just us, two kids from Laredo — no one saw her like that, but I did.” Tencha recalls a time when Andrews swore she would never do drag. “I remember when Eddie (Erica’s given name) was really into this one guy, and he said in that moment that he would never do drag,” Tencha said. “I asked her if she remembered ever saying that and she did. And then I told her: And here you are!” Calling on beloved Mexican characters such as La India María and Doña Florinda from El Chavo del Ocho for inspiration, Tencha has brought her physical comedy and unique sense of humor to a new audience by becoming a Rey Lopez Entertainment Showgirl. “I feel lucky to be an RLE Showgirl because we get to meet all the RuPaul’s Drag Race girls and we bring in a totally different audience than the bar shows do,” Tencha said. “People watch it on TV, so we get a lot of straight people who are regulars, people who don’t usually go to the bars, and they get to see me!” Tencha has set her sights on the Drag Race crown and the

America’s Next Drag Superstar title. After two unsuccessful season auditions, Tencha has been working on a new glam look to help increase her chances when she auditions for season 10. Perhaps because she started later in life than many drag queens, Tencha has grown a thick skin and she has no time for those who underestimate her. “It’s gonna be hard because people see pretty girls, glamour girls and younger girls on the show, and in the beginning I think the girls aren’t going to get me,” Tencha said. “Once the challenges start I’m gonna be afraid, but I’m going to do my best and I think that I have the experience that I need to go to top three.” The quiet child in a house filled with seven brothers and sisters, Tencha used to escape into musicals on TV. She didn’t come out of her shell until she joined the high-school color guard and marching band. Now far from the boy who grew up in the projects of Laredo, afraid to speak because he feared he was too poor and people wouldn’t like him, Tencha is a true boss, a recognizable local celebrity who has commanded some of the largest stages in Texas. “I love how some people come up to me and call me Tía Tencha, or say I remind them of a prima or an ex-wife. That’s what I like about my character, everyone kind of relates in a certain way and it really feels good,” Tencha said. “I love doing what I do because I get to see smiling faces. Everybody has bad days, but if I can get your mind away from it for four or five minutes and just see you smile and forget about everything else and see you relax, I did my job.” In the next five to 10 years, Tencha hopes to travel the world with her boyfriend, visiting the amazing sites the RuPaul’s Drag Race girls get to see. And she hopes that her gay community in San Antonio and afar learns how to be happy for one another and stop tearing each other down. Her advice to up-and-coming drag performers is simple: “Don’t forget to be humble and don’t forget to be nice. You have to know how to play the game. If you want people to come to your shows, they have to like you. Just be happy for each other and help each other out. Just the other day they were making fun of a RuPaul girl who didn’t have lashes. We all forget lashes.”

SPRING 2016 // NIGHTLIFE | 81

It’s always a good time for Tong’s Thai! 1146 AUSTIN HIGHWAY SAN ANTONIO, TX 78209 | 210.829.7345 | TONGSTHAI.COM

WINE CHARCUTERIE BRUNCH WEEKLY EVENTS Web: NectarSA.com

82 | COLUMNS // SPRING 2016

@Nectarsat

Nectar Wine Bar and Ale House

Nectarwinebar

One-Week Stands and U-Hauling FAITH G. HARPER Unless you live directly in the center of your Dirt Devil, you’ve heard the joke: “What does a lesbian bring on a second date?” Say it with me, now: “A U-Haul.” My lady-lovin’ ladies may get the most crap for this behavior, but in reality, no one is really exempt. Doesn’t matter if you are epic queermo, arrow-straight het or any of the trillion points in between. No one is exempt from the urge to go all-in with a new relationship. It’s spring, innit? It’s the season of rebirth, warmer weather and a rediscovered joy of sexitimes. If you are of the mind for a little bodily grooming, you may even start shaving, trimming and waxing your winter coat. Come on, SA, let’s shake our mating plumage! But even though it’s called dating and not U-Hauling for a reason, we all fall into the oxytocin trap. You know, the love drug — our favorite neurochemical ever. It’s a chemical we produce automatically within our bodies; it’s released in all physical touch and especially in orgasms. It feels yummy and we like it. One of the things about it, though, is that it’s a brain-fuck version of rose-colored glasses. Oxytocin doesn’t just make us feel good, it makes us feel more likely to trust the person we are with. To think they are our forever soulmate of excellence and Sundaymorning pancakes. When really, let’s be honest, what we are really responding to is their expert tongue abilities. The other problem is that the response is short-term. So we go all-in and then we burn out fast. Because the oxytocin response wears off with time, and we are left with someone who is … um … an epically bad idea snoring right next to you, and you’re feeling the urge to chew off your own arm to escape. Or maybe you were going along all fine and dandy, then all of a sudden they ghosted your ass. Yeah, guess what? You were dating a fucking addict who took off for the next hit when you didn’t trigger the high anymore. What’s a ho to do?

First of all, you are grown and allowed to relationship however the fuck you want. You do you, okay? I’m not your momma. But if you are noticing this pattern in yourself, here are some things to consider doing differently. Space is the safest frontier. The oxytocin mind-cotton effect wears off with distance — just like Kilgrave’s hold on his victims in Jessica Jones. If you’re always together, then you’re always under the influence and don’t see anything clearly. Yes, you wanna be all up in NewBoo, but try spreading out your time and seeing what you notice about your feelings when you aren’t in a post-O phase. Don’t fucking move in together. Seriously don’t. If you are that enmeshed and the breakup happens, it gets way fucking harder to untangle. And they are going to take off with your Leon Bridges vinyl, and they don’t even like Leon Bridges! Don’t drag your peeps into it. If one-week stands are your pattern, don’t ask your friends to meet NewBoo for at least a month. If you have kids, FFS, wait six months. They aren’t feeling the oxytocin effect that you are and don’t want to go on the roller coaster ride. They don’t even want to try to remember NewBoo’s name. Trust Auntie Intimacy on this one. Talk about other fucking things when you are hanging out with your peeps either IRL or on social media. Rule of thumb: 25 percent of your time is NewBoo reporting, 75 percent anythingthe-fuck-else going on in your life. You do have one, remember? Don’t presume you grok this person. Your brain chemistry is a fucking liar that will tell you that you do. But you sure as hell better get to know them the old-fashioned way anyway. As in, who are they voting for in the election? They are voting, right? Do they appreciate the brilliance of Blossom Dearie, or do they still have a hidden stash of Nickleback CDs? Are they down for a last-minute road trip to Taos, or do they have to plan everything with the military precision of Patton? What are all the idiosyncrasies that define NewBoo? Don’t presume this person groks you. Make sure they get to know the authentic you. And if you get ghosted, remember that you didn’t know this person well enough for this to be a rejection of you-the-person. Swapping DNA is not the most effective means of communicating life goals. Did they know your favorite midnight snack is cheese puffs dipped in ranch dressing? Or that your imaginary friend growing up was a three-legged emu named Grunt? You know, all the adorable and strange-ass shit that your family and friends know about you and love you for? If you’ve only been together a week or three, they just don’t have the bead on you that you think they do. I posted on Facebook recently that marriage was “fighting over who is going to check the cat’s butthole.” And you know what, cupcakes? That really is what long-term partnership is all about. And I wouldn’t trade it for the world. But you have plenty of time to get to this place in your relationship. You want to be prepared to share your journey with the person they really are, not the person you think they are. I loves me some Dan/Joe, but I know he will never, not ever, willingly check the cat’s butthole for me. We all have our limits, and he and I know each other’s pretty damn well because we took our time to get to this point. Don’t just date. Court. Courtship is the appropriate term here … it’s the formal process of gaining the favor of another. Enjoy the fun stuff. Get to know this person with their clothes on. So dance your peacock feather dance, you dazzling thing. See them — then go home. To your house. Without them. And delete the U-Haul number from your phone.

Friend us on Facebook & Follow us on Twitter for food truck schedule. 609 S. Alamo Street | 210-227-2469 hours

CLOSED MONDAY | TUES - THUR: 5P - 12A FRI & SAT: 5P - 2A | SUN: 10A - 12A

FOOD & DRINKS SERVED FROM OPEN TO CLOSE

Puro #SATX Draft Brews INCLUDING LOCAL AND TEXAS CRAFT BEERS. SANGRIA, FANTASTIC WINE SELECTION AND MICHELADAS. DRAFT AND CAN SPECIALS EVERYDAY! 84 | COLUMNS // SPRING 2016

A VARIETY OF GOURMET EATS FROM #SATX FAVORITE ROLLING KITCHENS.

BRAVE NEW GIRL

Great Expectations: A Trans Dilemma POLLY ANNA ROCHA When I wake up, I take a few minutes before I get out of bed — psyching myself up to get ready, whether for work, running errands or just hanging out with friends. I need that moment of selfmotivation to get through my daily “leaving the house” routine, which is essentially a 25-step process requiring not only basic physical work but also a hefty amount of emotional work. I don’t like having to shave and pluck my face, or cover it up with color correctors, concealer and heavy foundation every day, but reality for a transgender woman still in the early stages of transition is this: I either take the extra time and effort to primp myself to minimize negative attention, or I accept the full force of it — the misgenderings, the harassment and the violence that comes with not passing for cisgender; in other words, for looking visibly trans. There is an expectation for trans women in our society to look and to act “traditionally feminine” at all times. And along with that, there is the expectation for trans women to transition in order to be more socially accepted as “real” women. Not my choice of words, as I’ve said time and time again that trans women are real women, but alas, so many folks need constant reminding. Unfortunately, having to pass for a cisgender woman has become the norm for trans women, and when we examine this norm, we can see that the rules for us today are as stringent as the rules of femininity have been for 100 years, and for trans women of color, the bar is set even higher. In other words, we as trans women have to fit ourselves into an archaic, rigid, cookie-cutter ideal of feminine gender expression or else we are perceived as illegitimate. And this feminine ideal isn’t easy to obtain, since the wants and needs of transitioning require heavy funding, which trans women often don’t have since finding steady work proves difficult for most of us. This is why so many trans women participate in various forms of sex work, because society at large would rather see us in a hypersexualized, decontextualized manner than allow us to peacefully find work elsewhere. Those of us who haven’t had the means to change things like our legal names and gender markers know how exhausting it can be to have to out ourselves any time we fill out an employment application, deposit money at a bank or get carded at a bar. Even after a trans woman achieves the ideal, gets everything changed and finds a steady job, they may still be scrutinized — picked apart by questions about surgeries and hormones and deadnames. They may still become the target of violence if their trans-ness is made apparent, and so frequently this is the case.

Polly Anna Rocha illustrated by Greg Stephan

We are damned if we do; we are damned if we can’t; and we are surely damned if we won’t. But we shouldn’t have to pass for others to respect our identity. We shouldn’t have to change our bodies and our behaviors and our legal forms to protect ourselves from violence, especially if, after all that, trans women are still assaulted and murdered at statistically high rates. We shouldn’t have to actively defend our womanhood from perpetual invalidation; we shouldn’t have to fight to exist authentically. Of course, transitioning may provide many trans women with a certain comfort, or a feeling of ease in body and mind. But transitioning should always be on our individual terms and not based on some ridiculous standard designed by cisgender, heteronormative folks who don’t live up to those expectations themselves. Some trans women don’t want to have surgery. Some don’t want to have laser hair removal. Some don’t want to wear makeup or change how they speak. Some trans women don’t want to transition altogether. And we as a society need to reassure every single person that the way they do gender is valid, regardless of how they hold up to ideals. That way, if and when a trans woman decides to transition, it is for her own sake and not for the contentment of others. So to all my friends who have ever waited on me, to every boss I’ve disappointed with my sporadic tardiness, to every professor whose lecture I interrupted despite opening and closing the door with care, I promise that I wasn’t late just because I wanted to look pretty. I was late because I wanted to look invisible. But I promise I am slowly finding my way to a place where I no longer feel that way. Because I deserve to be here. We all do. SPRING 2016 // COLUMNS | 85

Michelle Friesenhahn, Battle of the Yard Art

A VIEW OF REALITY FROM A CHARTREUSE COUCH

Gene Elder Interviews Michelle Friesenhahn Gene: Michelle, how nice to see you again. You are looking great as always. Thanks for joining me on the Chartreuse Couch, “My own private Alamo.” We have known each other for many years now. I even remember Shocking Gray. And this was before there were 50 shades. Who knew? I do want to talk about all the progress we have made in the GayBLT community. But first let’s talk about your business interests. What are you doing? Michelle: As usual, I have many irons in the fire. I am still involved with my first love: Wilby Creative (wilbycreative.com) ... After all these years, I still enjoy developing logos, websites, packaging and all sorts of print collateral for clients. I was doing a lot of editorial illustration until a couple of years ago, but with the demise of many print publications, I have shifted my focus back to graphic design. Gene: And fine art? Michelle: I am also doing fine art ... channeling my illustration energy into creating digital fine art and some oil painting. [I contributed] three pieces from my series There Goes the Neighborhood to R Gallery’s group show “Retro-Progressive” ... [They’re] tongue-incheek observations and commentaries on life in suburbia. 86 | COLUMNS // SPRING 2016

Gene: Well, that’s good to hear. I like political art, as you know. And how are you commenting on suburbia? Michelle: “The ’burbs are boring,” is the general cliché. But if you look beyond the homogenous environment, there are rich undertones of uniqueness, and a sardonic humor in the uniformity. By nature, suburban neighborhoods strive for conformity; in this effort there’s bound to be conflict and irony ... And that’s where I find what’s amusing. Gene: When we last spoke, you had some perfume ideas. Michelle: About 10 years ago, I started making perfume ... took some coursework in New York City and on the West Coast and built a lab into my house. It’s an expensive hobby. So to recoup my investment, I designed packaging, bottled it and now it’s a microbusiness. Kathleen Sommers carries several of my fragrances ... I have several perfumes that men wear. All my perfumes, with the possible exception of the florals, I think of as unisex. Gene: I don’t think men wear perfumes. We wear odors. Michelle: Real men wear perfume. Cologne is just a lessconcentrated form of perfume.

Gene: And what else? Michelle: In my spare time, I’ve been writing and illustrating a series of children’s picture books, based on a young girl squirrel ... When they’re ripe, I’m hoping I’ll be able to find a publisher. Gene: I adore children’s books. Well, back to Shocking Gray. That was a really great time in San Antonio for the gay community; enlighten those who don’t know about that. Michelle: Yes, there were some good-old days, but some difficult days as well. In the late ’80s and early ’90s, San Antonio didn’t have a large “out and proud” LGBT community as we do now. As a matter of fact, many, if not most, LGBT persons were living fairly closeted lives — at least with their families, or at work and/ or within the larger community ... “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was being tossed about in Washington as a way of dealing with “the gay problem” in the military ... Being a major military city, San Antonio routinely saw [military police] from the various bases combing the gay bars and dragging out patrons who had a military ID. Gene: Some observant commentator described “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” as the policy when someone farts in the elevator. Michelle: The AIDS epidemic was clearly taking its toll on our gay community. Many organizations and activist groups grew out of this period to address and deal with the many serious issues affecting the lesbian and gay community. Shocking Gray originated in this environment. Gene: I hope our young gay activists are taking notes. Michelle: At that time, there weren’t any existing demographics that showed the purchasing power of the gay community ... but it was obvious to anyone in the gay community that if you recognized, accepted and welcomed the gay community, you would engender a tremendous amount of support and loyalty. At the time, it was obvious to me and a few others, but to most business people it was a completely novel, targeted marketing model. [Along with a business partner], I came up with the idea of doing a catalog business that would sell merchandise by targeting the gay community on a national scale. Shocking Gray was born. Gene: One of the topics of discussion at that time was how much money the gay community had — and spent. What was our purchasing power? And of course no one really knew. It had not been explored or thought about. Michelle: We found additional partners to provide more needed capital — printing and mailing a couple of million catalogs each quarter [was] expensive. We had a fulfillment facility where we procured, warehoused and shipped a varied merchandise mix of products (cool art, clothing, books, travel accessories, gay kitsch, etc.), designed the catalog and had friendly telemarketers who took orders ... Remember this was before the Internet. We mailed out catalogs and received orders from all over the globe. We were noticed by the media in almost every major city in the country — and a couple in Europe too — and did interviews in major business publications ... I was personally quoted in The Wall Street Journal as an “expert” in vertical marketing. And we even received a request from the Library of Congress for copies of our catalog. We grew quickly. It was an exciting time. Gene: I have a Shocking Gray file at the HAPPY Foundation Archives. Which is why I know so much about everything. Michelle: I would like to see it sometime. The business was not without difficulties indigenous to a gay business during this time ... I had not really personally experienced overt discrimination until Shocking Gray. I recall having a meeting with a leasing agent for a warehouse ... [The leasing agent] said, “I know this is going to sound crazy, but the owners think y’all are going to have a bunch of gay people running around the warehouse.” All of us looked at the

Elder and Friesenhahn at an Out In the City mixer

agent, stood up and responded in an angry chorus: “We’re all gay here. No doubt we’ll be ‘running around’ in the warehouse.” Gene: Oh my God! That is the best quote yet. You should put that on T-shirts. That should be our own San Antonio battle cry like “Remember the Alamo.” Michelle: There were many instances of printers refusing to print our catalog. It was an eye-opener to realize there wasn’t a large printing company in Texas that was willing to print our catalog. I had been doing business with some of these companies for years. It’s difficult to say which fomented more disgust with some of the companies we approached: the fact that we were an openly gay company, or that our target audience was the gay community — probably both. Gene: Both. And basic homophobia. Printing gay catalogs meant you were queer too. I have to ask, were any of those printing companies run by gay people? Michelle: No ... but a couple of the print reps I worked with were gay ... but closeted at work. A printing company president’s son came out to him when he saw our catalog ... I heard via the print rep that it was a very unpleasant situation which may have contributed to the company president refusing to rectify the situation that developed that I’ll tell you about next. Gene: Oh good! Guilt creeps into the suburbs. Michelle: We had to go all over the country seeking a printer, and ended up in Kennebunkport, Maine. That should have been a huge red flag, but we were desperate to find a printer that had the capability to print the catalog quantity we needed. This is where some employee(s) in their in-house postal facility inserted slips of paper with hate-filled messages like “Die Faggot” and “Fuck You Lesbians” into freshly printed catalogs then mailed thousands of them up and down the East Coast. Our phones rang off the hook with upset customers. And the printer refused to take any responsibility whatsoever. Gene: Shocking! Michelle: We were not able to get a merchant agreement initially because we were a gay company ... This meant we couldn’t accept credit cards [which] was a big deal ... How do you have a national catalog business without the ability to accept credit cards? We sent our phone customers merchandise and trusted that they would send us checks — after they received merchandise. And they did — the gay community was loyal, trustworthy and supportive. We were the first company to show two women holding SPRING 2016 // COLUMNS | 87

MILITARY 20% OFF EVERY DAY with valid I.D. CHECK-IN ON FOR 20% OFF

MEGAPLEXSA.COM

ASK ABOUT

RENTING OUR PRIVATE CONFERENCE ROOM FOR EVENTS.

88 | COLUMNS // SPRING 2016

9405 IH-35 @ THOUSAND OAKS• 657-9999 | 11827 HWY 281 N @ NAKOMA • 404-0011 | OPEN DAILY 7AM - 2AM

hands, and two men and their kids ... all displaying Shocking Gray merchandise, of course. It felt good to show lesbians and gays in everyday settings — which was particularly shocking, even provocative to an ignorant straight community. My God, today, 25 years later, even the Campbell Soup Company is getting blowback for showing two fathers feeding soup to their child in an ad. In any case, a gay businessman in New York in the credit card business heard about our plight and helped facilitate us getting a merchant agreement. Gene: You know, this information is so important. I'm glad we can document this here and now. Michelle: We could not get group health insurance because we had so many employees with AIDS — at the time having AIDS pretty much guaranteed that you’d never find a job. We were even willing to pay high-risk pool rates ... but all the insurance companies refused to allow us to buy insurance from them. Gene: How long did Shocking Gray last? Michelle: I left the company about two years before it went under. There were many factors that led to its demise ... but fundamentally, the bottom line was: As “gay” became more mainstream and recognized as a legitimate consumer demographic, the need for a company like Shocking Gray became less apparent ... It was empowering to be an openly gay business seeking gay business. I was always surprised when people expressed astonishment (because of its concept, scale and scope) that Shocking Gray originated in San Antonio. People thought we must be out of New York or San Francisco. It was as if many folks thought that a cutting-edge gay business could have only existed in major urban areas. It was true then, as it is obvious now: We are everywhere. Shocking Gray was a wild ride.

Michelle Friesenhahn, Where the Cat Lady Lives

Gene: Yes, I remember that. You know I answered phones at Shocking Gray for a time ... We should write a play based on this and other Texas tales. Michelle: That's right! I remember your handsome face grinning and flirting with phone customers. How could I forget customers calling and not wanting to place an order unless it was with you. Gene: Oh, how you go on! It was fun. I enjoyed being a part of that very liberating contribution to San Antonio and the world. Well, let’s dish Trinity University now. We both attended; I in art and you in music. It has taken Trinity a long time to come to terms

Michelle Friesenhahn, There Goes the Neighborhood

with their gay graduates. Michelle: Trinity University ... So they have come to terms with their gay graduates? I wasn’t aware that we were even visible as LGBT alumni. There are plenty of us around, though. I loved my student days at Trinity, but in the late ’70s, it was a pretty homophobic environment ... I recall a couple of nasty little witch hunts, rumors and innuendo coursing around campus ... I came out anyway several years after I graduated. Gene: If you were going to point to a time in San Antonio’s gay civil rights movement, what events do you think are important? Michelle: You have to know that our gay community in the ’80s was sort of separated by gender — gay men and lesbians. A few of my older friends used to refer to themselves as “womyn.” They considered themselves separate from all men, including gay men. Most lesbians I knew were not “separatists,” but there was an existing attitude that gay men were from a different planet — perhaps this was due in part to income inequality (this still exists!), differences in lifestyles, etc. Lesbians were largely invisible. When the AIDS epidemic hit the gay male population in San Antonio, many in the lesbian community woke up to the fact that our gay guy friends were dying in large numbers — some reached out to help. It was truly heartbreaking and shameful the way in which very sick men were treated by the general community because they had AIDS and particularly because they were gay. I think this coalescing of gay men and women was both politically beneficial and empowering. This tacit alignment became more organized, grew and eventually evolved into a more singular voice to address a host of issues affecting the entire LGBT community. That we’re stronger together is an understatement. Gene: Well, I never felt that separation in San Antonio. It was a topic that was discussed. Interesting that you bring that up. So where do you like to eat? What restaurants? Michelle: In no particular order: Nosh (shrimp salad, burrata); Silo (fried oysters); Tre Trattoria (gnocchi, salads, pizza); Thai House (stuffed angel wings, basil catfish); Adelante (best queso in the universe); Tribeca (Brussels sprouts, all their appetizers in a jar), Dos Laredos (menudo); Jim’s (onion rings). Gene: I let all my guests ask the last question. What’s yours? Michelle: I want to hear about your UFO experience(s). Will you tell me? Gene: Oh my God! I don’t believe you asked me that. I ran off to get on a spaceship back in 1975 with a group that was part of the Bo-Peep cult — which later turned into Heaven’s Gate. It is a strange tale. We will have to do this over wine in private. Thanks for joining me here on the sofa for gay global gossip. SPRING 2016 // COLUMNS | 89

PHOTOS BY BRYAN RINDFUSS

HOT ‘HOOD Dignowity Hill RON BECHTOL Blame it on Casey Jones. When he and his rattlers came to San Antonio around 1877, they hoptoaded the lofty plans of Dr. Anthony Michael Dignowity. Dr. Dignowity, a Czech immigrant who arrived in San Antonio in 1846, was both a physician and a visionary whose antislavery beliefs must have been somewhat out of synch with the antebellum South. Yet any political disagreements with the city’s movers and shakers, the Friedrichs and Elmendorfs among them, didn’t dissuade them from joining him in constructing large homes on what became known as Dignowity Hill, a prominent rise to the east some 80 feet above the historic city center — and why not? The breezes were salubrious, the views superlative, the one-block lots generous. The good doctor and his affluent neighbors could not have anticipated the arrival of the railroad a quarter of a century later, nor could they have foreseen the effects that arrival would have: cutting the neighborhood off from the city, the attraction of industry along the right of way, the change in demographic mix … by the first quarter of the 20th century, most of the hill’s early adapters had fled for the then-equivalent of the ’burbs, many grand homes, including Dignowity’s own Harmony House, had been demolished or turned into apartments, and a more diverse development, composed of Victorian, small-scale classic revival and bungalow-style homes had sprung up. Casey Jones, railroad slang for an engineer, had derailed (hoptoaded) the whole shebang. The indignity was only to be repeated in concrete with the construction of Interstate 37 in the mid-’50s. Despite public art efforts such as Bill FitzGibbons’ Light Channels project on Commerce and Houston streets, Dignowity Hill — and the entire East Side for that matter, remains divorced from Downtown in many ways. Recent coverage of the 90 | LIVING // SPRING 2016

neighborhood in The Rivard Report, which has done extensive reporting on this and other urban enclaves, notes that, at the time of this writing, there were 66 vacant buildings and 207 vacant lots — nearly a quarter of the total number of properties. A toothless city ordinance governing vacant structures requires the action of municipal courts which can impose only a modest fine of up to $500. And then there’s the crime rate: Depending on which statistics one chooses to use, it’s at least two times higher than that of the city as a whole. More than 40 percent of residents live below poverty-line standards. The green center of the city’s poorest historic district, Dignowity and Lockwood parks, serves as a homeless hangout.

And yet the down-at-heels ’hood is showing signs of difficultiesbe-damned resurrection. A drive through the area comprising the Dignowity Hill Neighborhood Plan and Eastside Reinvestment Plan, bounded loosely by Sherman, New Braunfels, East Commerce and I-37 (the historic district is somewhat smaller), shows numerous small residences either fully renovated or in the process of rehabilitation (a pair in the 400 block of Burleson, for example), some large, classical homes such as one in the 800 block of North Pine undergoing serious restoration, and several formerly vacant lots with signs of new, ground-up construction. (A real estate search yielded houses for sale ranging from $65,000 to $459,000.) A completed new project, the Cherry Street Modern development, had no trouble selling out its 12 units featuring “open floor plans, custom cabinetry, stained concrete floors and private, landscaped yards.” (Not everyone is thrilled with the compact, contemporary project, similar to others by the same developer in other parts of the city, but the approach seems appropriate here on the neighborhood’s grittier, industrial edge.) Hard against New Braunfels Street, the eastern boundary of Dignowity, artist and food maverick Ana Fernandez (she formerly ran the much-praised Institute of Chili food truck and now operates a popular raspa truck called Chimoy City Limits) deals with grit of another (but related) sort. “My corner [of Nolan] is a drop-off point for ‘a lot of activities,’” she says — and, yes, she means drugs and prostitution. Nevertheless, this San Antonio native, known in art circles for her portraits of “faces” of American houses and observation of neighborhood life, says she was drawn to the East Side from having driven through it often as a kid; fittingly, she was able to make a down payment on her current home — with yard for a dog and room to pursue her painting — with money she got from selling a painting of a house. “It’s lively, if a little dangerous, there are tons of people on the street … things vary from block to block,” she says. Her own block has been changing as houses become vacant and squatters move in. But the neighbors showed a recent boxing match for all to watch on a big screen on their porch, there’s a lady who wanders around feeding stray cats and dogs … “There are so many little things. I wouldn’t want to move. I like it as it is.” Space for an art studio and a very large dog was also important to local artist Kelly O’Connor (she’s best known for her collage

work) and her artist/welder husband Sam Giesey. Their twostory frame home down the street from Fernandez was acquired the way many in the ’hood have been: through diligent searching and patient waiting. “We knew we wanted a ‘real house’ that was central, where we could walk our son in a stroller … This was ideal,” she says. In many ways — as the structure, dating from 1910, had been almost totally remodeled by some folks who had bitten off more than they could chew. “We were able to choose colors and finishes and have them complete it for us,” she relates. The result is a house that would not look out of place in any of the city’s fancier historic districts. Sensitive to claims made by many who worry about old residents being pushed out of improving neighborhoods, O’Connor says “We don’t see ourselves as gentrifiers. We came here to live here and see ourselves doing so for a very long time.” By way of returning the favor to the East Side, she and Fernandez are collaborating on a Girl Zone summer art program for the Martinez Street Women’s Center on South Hackberry. So here’s what we suggest: Get yourself to the Hayes Street Bridge on Austin Street, rent a B-Cycle from the convenient station (720 North Cherry) and use the handsomely restored bridge, itself an engineering landmark, as your pedestrian/cycling portal into “Diggy Hill,” as the active neighborhood association sometimes

calls it. You won’t fail to miss the Alamo Beer Company operation as you cross the bridge. The brewery has been the source of some controversy over the disposition of City-owned properties at the bridge’s eastern terminus (an attorney friend familiar with the issue says “Bottom line: here is no more ‘on the ground’ dispute related to the bridge — that part is over … there are no plans for a park”), but many now credit the brewery with spurring additional growth — and you can plan to return here, or to the nearby Big Hops Growler Station, after your exploration. If you plan properly, you can also stop for lunch at Dignowity Meats on East Houston. And you can spend some time taking a trip through history at the Old San Antonio City Cemeteries, nine out of 31 of which are encompassed within the historic district. The grave stones and crypts there read like a who’s who of early San Antonio: Frost, Giles, Groos, Joske, Maverick, Menger, Steves … and names include some 300 African American Buffalo Soldiers. There’s even a Dignowity plot in which the Doctor and his wife Amanda are buried — destined, for the foreseeable future, to watch over the resurrection of their namesake neighborhood.

SPRING 2016 // LIVING | 91

WORTH WAITING FOR

Anticipating the Arrival of Canopy on the River Walk RON BECHTOL One of the countryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most pernicious design scourges is the mid-size hotel. These cookie-cutter insults to architecture line the interstates, popping up with special vengeance around outlet malls and intersections. They encircle cities such as San Antonio with all of the could-be-anywhere welcome of a speed trap. Red Roof Inn, Holiday Inn, Best Western â&#x20AC;Ś you know who you are. 92 | LIVING // SPRING 2016

There: I’ve been wanting to get that off my chest for a while. But my tiny tantrum does play into the announcement of yet another hotel for the Alamo City — this one Downtown and on the River Walk, no less. At a projected 197 rooms, the Canopy by Hilton will be smaller than recent, Grand Hyatt-scale additions to the revered waterway. And it will be anything but cookie-cutter. Many of you may know Chris Hill as last year’s King Anchovy — number 50 in a long line of distinguished bearers of the crown. But you may not know that, in addition to being the developer that brought The Esquire Tavern back to life, Hill is also an architect. Here, we might as well let the website for the residence/event venue that is The Gallagher Ranch say it: “Unique as a fusion of owner/ architect/designer/host and entrepreneur, Chris Hill maintains the tradition of respect for the environment and for those who came before him. As an accomplished architect, he has a rare ability to appreciate the historical, technical and aesthetic needs of the structures, as well as the vulnerable landscape that encircles them.” The sprawling ranch, built in the 19th century, converted to a dude ranch in the early 20th and restored by Hill in the late 20th (he would likely claim that the restoration is still going on), is a unique amalgam of rustic charm and urbane sophistication. These days, especially for larger and more commercial projects, Hill prefers to play the developer role, engaging other architects to do the design and production work. As the developer of Canopy, a new category of smaller-scale, boutique hotel by the venerable hospitality firm, Hill and business partner Patrick Shearer of Crockett Urban Ventures have engaged Lake|Flato Architects to design their new venture at the corner of East Commerce and North St. Mary’s, a site that has long awaited someone with both vision and wherewithal to reclaim it. Two buildings currently occupy this prime location. The older of the pair, most recently known as the Alamo Fish Market and Bakery (chef Francois Maeder of Crumpets once held forth here), dates from the Civil War era and will be retained, at least in part; the adjacent Sullivan Bank/MIC structure of 1950s vintage is to be demolished, to the consternation of some. When the Fish Market was done in the 1970s, “it was mashed together with the newer building … floor levels that didn’t align were adjusted, [at river level] the floor was about five feet up from the River Walk,” says Shearer. The bottom floor will be lowered to allow ADA access off of the river and a historic cistern will be retained, but, of the remaining landmark building, “there’s not enough structure there to hold up much.” At Commerce Street level, Hill and partners plan to recess the entry behind the existing, significantly scarred — and to be restored — limestone facade, creating a kind of colonnade. The sidewalk will also be widened all along that stretch of Commerce as part of a greater city effort. From the street, hotel guests will be conveyed up to the third-floor lobby, a kind of perch in the cypress trees lining the river. It’s the lobby’s “floating” terrace with its glass guard rail that, among other aspects, has some in the conservation community up in arms. They also claim that the project should have included residential units and that it needs a simpler design, one “that acknowledges the park-like” aspects of the River Walk. Less glass and less design, in other words — and likely fewer stories. Residential units were the development group’s first thought for the .13-acre site Hill purchased in 2013 for $2.15 million. But, he says, there simply wasn’t enough room for the on-site parking such a project demands. The project that was feasible is a valet-parked hotel topping out at 20 stories above street level plus two mechanical floors. Had those 22 total stories in any way

violated the river’s sunlight ordinance, there would have been cause for concern regarding the height, but “we passed without any variance,” reports Hill. As for uncompromising, contemporary design (the renderings released to the media do make some aspects look more prominent than they will likely be upon completion), we say bring it on — the river can take it. And in the bargain, this somnolent stretch of the waterway will see welcome activity, part of which will be accounted for by the long-in-coming opening to the river of The Esquire’s basement. Back at street level, unlike with the Drury Plaza Hotel that resulted from a conversion of the Alamo Bank Building and gives little to the street, there should be more desirable activity as well. Hill and company also own the historic Witte Building flanking the channel that, in the late 1920s, was cut to divert flood waters

Chris Hill behind the bar at The Esquire Tavern

from the river bend. That building will be restored by Douglas Architects, according to Shearer. Renderings show balconies on the two river faces. And Hill has been in contact with the Mexican family that owns the intervening properties. “They have engaged Overland Partners to do a nine-story combination residential/retail project that should likely happen simultaneously with the hotel,” he says. The hotel is scheduled for opening in 2020 according to Hill’s latest estimate. Get ready for a mess — and know that it will be worth it. Among other properties historically (and sentimentally) important owned by Hill is the venerable institution that is El Mirador and its adjacent “hacienda.” Building renovation plans were announced the week of my interview with Hill. Work should take place “in the next couple of months with a short closure in mid-March,” he says. During which time, staff will also be retrained, and menus will be “improved — slightly” to conform to a more chef-driven, “farm-to-taco” approach. Look for a reopening sometime in April. As for other new projects, there’s nothing currently in the works according to Shearer, but “we’re always looking.” We’ll be watching, secure in the knowledge that a mediocre Loopland hotel will not be among them. SPRING 2016 // LIVING | 93

#SAINFAMOUS #SAFAMOUS

LOTERÍA BRUNCH

YARA SOFIA

LEATHER & FETISH WEEKEND

94 | COLUMNS // #SAFAMOUS 2016

##SAINFAMOUS SAFAMOUS

GENDER FUCK

ALYSSA EDWARDS

EMERALD BALL

SPRING 2016 // #SAFAMOUS | 95

The Out In SA business directory includes Out In SA advertisers, current members of the LGBT Chamber of Commerce and local nonprofit advocacy groups. We encourage you to support businesses that support LGBTQ San Antonio.

The Director y Advertising & Promotions Apple Specialty Advertising applespecialty.com

Advocacy & Support Adapt of San Antonio facebook.com/adapt50 The Children’s Shelter childrensshelter.org DreamWeek San Antonio dreamweek.org Equality Texas equalitytexas.org Gay Pride San Antonio gaypridesa.org Gay Yellow Pages glyp.com

Architecture & Design BRAVI Design + Remodeling bravidesign.com Oscar Flores Design Studio ofdesignstudio.com

Arts & Entertainment Ballet San Antonio balletsanantonio.org City Base Cinema citybasecinema.com Culinaria culinariasa.org Fiesta Oyster Bake oysterbake.com Game On gotogameon.com

Hispanas Unidas (210) 434-2550

Luminaria luminariasa.org

Human Rights Campaign facebook.com/hrcsanantonio

The Majestic Theatre majesticempire.com

LULAC 22198 “Orgullo de San Antonio” lulac22198.org

San Antonio Symphony sasymphony.org

PFLAG pflag-sanantonio.org Pride Center San Antonio pridecentersa.org PRIDE San Antonio pridesanantonio.org Roy Maas Youth Alternatives rmya.org Royal, Sovereign and Imperial Court of the Alamo Empire alamoempire.org Second Chance Foundation secondchancefoundation.com

Scooter Power Tours scooterpowertours.com SeaWorld San Antonio seaworldparks.com

If you’re interested in listing your business, please contact us: advertising@outinsa.com. You can also add your business to our free online directory: directory.outinsa.com. Brian Purnell, Registered Representative at NYLIFE Securities LLC bpurnell.com International Bank of Commerce ibc.com Vantage Bank Texas vantagebank.com

Business & Office Accenture LLP accenture.com Adelaide Services LLC adelaideservicesllc.com Minuteman Press minutemansanantonio.com Time Warner Cable Business business.timewarnercable.com V.E.J. Consulting vejconsulting.com

Career & Education San Antonio Leadership Academy sa-leadership-academy.com San Antonio Public Library mysapl.org Southwest School of Art swschool.org

Church & Religion

Six Flags Fiesta Texas sixflags.com/fiestatexas

Dignity San Antonio dignitysanantonio.com

Spurs Sports & Entertainment nba.com /spurs

Metropolitan Community Church mccsa.org

Tobin Center for the Performing Arts tobincenter.org

River City Living Church livingchurchsa.org

Woodlawn Theatre woodlawntheatre.org

Unity Church of San Antonio unityofsa.org

Events & Weddings

MBP Photo Booth Co. mbpphotoboothco.com Statue of Design statueofdesign.com

Family Planning Institute for Women’s Health ifwh.org

Health & Fitness American Heart AssociationSan Antonio heart.org/sanantonio City of San Antonio Metro healthsanantonio.gov/health Dr. Paul Miller, DC alamopaininjury.com WellFIT Private Fitness wellfit-sa.com YMCA of Greater San Antonio ymcasatx.org

Health & Wellness BEAT AIDS beataids.org Cute Smiles 4 Kids cutesmiles4kidstx.com Dr. Jennifer Martino, Optometrist martinoeyecare.com Darrell E. Parsons, LCSW, MSW parsonsdmsw@hotmail.com San Antonio AIDS Foundation txsaaf.org Saturday Men’s Clinic sanantonio.gov/health

Home & Garden Big Grass biggrassliving.com Copenhagen copenhagenliving.com

Texas Competes texascompetes.org

Banking & Financial Services

Cake Art cakeartsa.com

Thirve Youth Center thriveyouthcenter.com

BB&T Banking bbt.com

Everlasting Elopements everlastingelopements.com

Dr. Rosie, Tupperware Consultant rosievaldez1.my.tupperware. com

We Are Alive wearealive.org

Emily Persyn, Financial Advisor emily.persyn@axa-advisors.com

Luis Vasquez Photography luis-vazquez.com

James Lawnmower jameslawnmower.com

96 | DIRECTORY // SPRING 2016

Kurt Youngblood Framing & Art kurtyoungblood.com

Lightning Jar Agency lightningjar.agency

The Friendly Spot thefriendlyspot.com

Custom Shop Guitars customshopguitars.com

Parklane Landscaping Corporation parklanelandscaping.com

Alamo Area Council of Governments aacog.com

Feast feastsa.com

Go Baby Go gobabygoshop.com

George’s Keep georgeskeep.com

Pops’ Shop (210) 320-0545

Haunt, St. Anthony Hotel thestanthonyhotel.com

Sugarplum Dreams sugarplumdreams.com

Heat Nightclub heats.com

The Pearl atpearl.com

La Presa Café (210) 532-3001

Sport & Social Groups

Insurance McLaughlin Farmers Insurance Group farmersagent.com/nmclaughlin

IT Forbrich Associates LLC forbrichassociates.com

Legal De la Riva & Associates Attorneys delarivalaw.com Garcia & Block, PLLC garciablock.com The Law Office of Rosa Maria Gonzalez rosie@rosiegonzalezattorney. com

Stonewall Democrats of San Antonio stonewallsanantonio.org U.S. Small Business Administration sba.gov/offices/district/tx/san-antonio

Real Estate The del Amo Group, LLC, Keller Williams Legacy kw.com/kw/agent/bdelamo Glenn Killey, Century 21 Northside myhomesanantonio.com Keller Williams Realty kw.com Kuper Sotheby’s International Realty john.barrera@sothebysrealty.com

The Nichols Law Firm, PLLC thenicholslawfirm.com

The MOSAIC on Broadway themosaiconbroadway.com

The Vethan Law Firm sanantoniobizlaw.com

Chad Nall, Suburban Spaces Real Estate Group chadnall.com

Maintenance & Pampering

Randy Rice, Keller Williams Legacy randyrealtor.com

18/8 Fine Men’s Salons eighteeneight.com

Randy Maley randymaley.com

Dermalily dermalily.com

Restaurants & Bars

Forever You Salon foreveryouetc.com Salon Forty 13 forty13.com

2015 Place 2015 San Pedro Ave. Alamo Street Eat Bar alamostreeteatbar.com

Salon Volt salon-volt.com

Bakery Lorraine bakerylorraine.com

Shag shagthesalon.com

Biga on the Banks biga.com

Marketing & Public Relations &

Bite Restaurant biterestaurantsa.com

Cilantro Creative cilantrocreative.com Git Branded gitbranded.com Ingeniously Designed by Jess facebook.com/idbyjess

Blue Box blueboxbar.com The Brooklynite thebrooklynitesa.com Chart House chart-house.com/locations/ san-antonio

Liberty Bar liberty-bar.com

Live Oak Singers liveoaksingers.org

Luce Ristorante e Enoteca lucesanantonio.com Luther’s Cafe lutherscafe.com

San Antonio Diablos Gay Flag Football League diablosfootball.com

The Pearl atpearl.com

San Antonio FC sanantoniofc.com

Piatti Italian Restaurant & Bar piatti.com/sanantonio

Texas Gay Rodeo Association tgra.org

TBA tbasatx.com

Travel

Tong’s Thai tongsthai.com

El Tropicano Riverwalk eltropicanohotel.com

Say.She.Ate facebook.com/saysheatetx

Hilton San Antonio Hill Country Hotel & Spa hiltonsanantoniohc.com

Sparky’s Pub sparkyspub.com Vista Centro, LLC vistacentrollc.com Viva Vegeria myvegeria.com URTH Juice Bar urthjuicebar.com

Retail & Service AEROTEK aerotek.com Adult Megaplex MegaplexSA.com

Hilton Palacio del Rio palaciodelrio.com Lightning Travel Cruise Planners lightning-travel.com Menger Hotel mengerhotel.com

Venues Market Square marketsquaresa.com Tobin Center for the Performing Arts tobincenter.or

Aly AM Paperie alyampaperie.com Clothesline Cleaners clotheslinesa.com SPRING 2016 // DIRECTORY | 97

FROM THE ARCHIVES

The Shocking Gray Years (1990-1995) GENE ELDER Long before LGBTQA was an acronym, there was Shocking Gray. Launched right here in the Alamo City circa 1990, this brave enterprise established itself as the nationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s premier gay and lesbian mail-order catalog by providing pre-Internet shoppers with niche apparel, accessories, books, art, decor and an array of gifts emblazoned with pink triangles and rainbow flags. To learn more about Shocking Grayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s wild ride, San Antonio-based co-founder Michelle Friesenhahn and her multi-media endeavors under the moniker Wilby Creative (wilbycreative.com), turn back a few pages and take a seat on the Chartreuse Couch. 98 | ARCHIVES // SPRING 2016

Ask About Testosterone

- Decreased self-confidence or motivation

14615 San Pedro Ave. Suite 100 Accepting Most Major Insurance

210-255-1977 MaleMedicalGroup.com

SPRING 2016

SAN ANTONIO’S LGBTQ MAGAZINE