Fort Worth Weekly // March 15-21, 2023

Fort Worth musician Brandi Waller-Pace created the Fort Worth African American Roots Music Festival to celebrate the Black difference in early American music.

BY EDWARD BROWN

METROPOLIS

A former employee of right-wing Patriot Mobile claims her boss impregnated her then begged for an abortion.

BY JESSICA WALLER

BUCK U

Frogs make the Big Dance two years in a row, an achievement.

BY BUCK D. ELLIOTT

STAGE

As Jacques Marquis celebrates his 10th year at The Cliburn, his peers celebrate him.

BY EDWARD BROWN

SCREEN

Repeat: Not winning an Oscar — or looking like Margot Robbie or Colin Farrell — does not mean you’re a failure.

BY ERIN RATIGAN

Family First?

The ultra-right-wing Patriot Mobile operation may have approved pressuring an employee impregnated by her boss to have an abortion.

By Jessica Waller

Mudbuggin’ Out

Our former Gulf Coaster lists three prime local spots for all your crawfish cravings.

By Cody Neathery

CRT (Cool Roots Tunes)

Saturday’s third annual African American Roots Music Festival aims to highlight Blacks’ contributions to early American musics.

By Edward Brown

Marching into the Madness

TCU hopes to fare better than last year when they were also in the middle of the bracket.

By Buck D. Elliott

STAFF Anthony Mariani,

Lee Newquist,

Bob Niehoff, General Manager

Ryan Burger, Art Director

Jim Erickson, Circulation Director Edward Brown, Staff

Smith,

Bovee,

Christina Berger, E.R. Bills, Jason Brimmer, Buck D. Elliott, Juan R. Govea, Patrick Higgins, Laurie James, Kristian Lin, Vishal Malhotra, Cody Neathery, Wyatt Newquist, Madison Simmons, Teri Webster, Ken Wheatcroft-Pardue, Cole Williams

EDITORIAL BOARD

Anthony Mariani, Edward Brown, Emmy Smith

Cover photo by Wyatt Newquist

Shut Out

METROPOLIS

single mom. She worked for years in the service industry and, because she loves children, at day cares. She has no criminal record and says she has “never even got a ticket.”

In 2020, a woman whose children Cunningham was caring for directed her to Patriot Mobile, where she interviewed with Trost, who hired her immediately despite her lack of experience.

and was “just blown away” by them.

BY JESSICA WALLER

Kara Cunningham says that, “ironically,” she “just didn’t want to get him fired.”

The 34-year-old mother of two is talking about Everett Trost. The man she claims impregnated her last winter served as her direct supervisor at Patriot Mobile, the multimillion-dollar Grapevine cell phone company and PAC (political action committee) aligned with far-right causes. Patriot Mobile asserted its power in the last elections, leveraging more than $2 million in donations to propel dozens of hyper-conservative candidates into office across North Texas. Trost is still listed as the company’s CTO (Chief Technology Officer).

The pro-life and “family-first” company supported Trost when he allegedly asked Cunningham to terminate her pregnancy. She refused, and the next day, she was fired.

When she walked into work the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, she says she was greeted by the head of Human Resources. Richard Savage allegedly asked Cunningham to sign a legal agreement preventing her from talking about the pregnancy. Also included were three months of health insurance and $14,000. Cunningham signed it.

After some research, she realized she signed the contract under duress from her higher-ups at Patriot Mobile, rendering the document legally compromised.

Cunningham said she was “in a state of shock” at how quickly everyone at Patriot Mobile “turned their backs” on her seemingly overnight.

She said she had been close friends with many co-workers in several departments.

“Finding out that I was pregnant and [Trost] was blocking me out, as well as all my friends, in, like, 24 hours’ time made me sort of just go out of my mind at the time,” Cunningham said, “and, really, still to this day, it’s a been a struggle to not give in to depression for the sake of my kids.”

She feels the trauma is a “nightmarish blur” that did not truly register until the alleged father stopped returning her calls.

Trost, Savage, and Patriot Mobile CEO Glenn Story did not return my requests for comment.

Cunningham was 32 when Trost, 53, began allegedly grooming her.

Cunningham grew up in an impoverished family and had to begin work directly out of high school to support her two children as a

“He didn’t even run it by anyone else,” Cunningham said. “It’s like he just looked at me, heard my story, and said, ‘You’re hired.’ ”

She was elated to be hired so easily to a job that would allow her enough financial security to support her family on her own.

Rodney Banks, Patriot Mobile’s former director of customer service for three years before he was fired after speaking out against instances of racism at the office, said Cunningham was “hands-down, one of the most hardworking employees at Patriot Mobile during the three years I worked there. She was the only employee I knew to get Employee of the Month two months in a row. [Cunningham] would come in and work 12-hour shifts sometimes, just to make sure everything was perfect in her department.”

Trost is a “monster,” said Banks, who believes Cunningham might not be the only female employee at Patriot Mobile groomed by the CTO.

About a young Black woman Trost allegedly groomed before Cunningham, Banks claims Trost “would leave money under [her] keyboard for nude pictures” of the young woman who wishes to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation.

Asked if she knew this young woman, Cunningham said, “I heard people talking about it, especially the pics, but every time I asked [Trost] about her, he would just get mad and deny it, all angry because the girl was Black and everyone knows how racist he is.”

Two of Cunningham’s family members, who wish to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation from Patriot Mobile, where other family members still work, claim Trost denied the affairs by saying he would never sleep with a Black woman.

One of the family members, an elder, claims to know Trost well through a mutual friend.

Texts between Cunningham and Trost that she shared with me show the Patriot Mobile executive lavishing her with compliments before trying to persuade her to resign. One of the texts reads, “Just tell them you need a job with less stress,” along with examples of resignation letters she could use to sacrifice her job for his.

When Cunningham became pregnant in November 2022, she could no longer hide the affair, and the elder Cunningham saw Trost’s “incredibly manipulative texts” to Cunningham

Cunningham’s other family member remembers overhearing a phone call between Cunningham and Trost after the pregnancy could no longer be hidden. Cunningham, this other family member said, was “on speakerphone with [Trost] right after she found out about being pregnant, and we were all within earshot, because at that point, she was done hiding it and wanted everyone to know what a coward he is. She wanted us to hear how crazy he was acting when she told him about the baby. He was out hunting at the time. I remember being scared because he kept wailing and sobbing, saying he was going to kill himself if she didn’t get an abortion. He honestly sounded like a wounded animal himself. It was a bit concerning, considering he was sitting there holding a gun.”

When hired by Trost to work directly under him in the Fulfillment department, Cunningham quickly developed a relationship with him. She often put in long days, and many times, it was just the two of them after hours. After about a year, she began to get noticed as a true team player. “I was a workaholic,” she said.

Trost, Cunningham alleges, groomed her slowly. He started by engaging her in personal conversation while she was trying to focus on work. He also took her out to lunch multiple times and raised her pay by $2 every couple of months. In 2022, when Cunningham claims Trost was increasing his attention on her, her pay shot up from $20 to $26 an hour. Cunningham said it felt wrong but kept believing Trost’s promises to leave his significant other to be with her for good, saying, “He just kept telling me he needed a little more time to break it to [her]. I feel like such an idiot that I kept believing him.”

The September 2022 day when she and Trost first had sex started with lunch. When ordering at the local Applebee’s, she mentioned that the long workday made her crave a drink. Trost allegedly convinced her to return with him to the rental house that Patriot Mobile paid for near the office and have some of the expensive whiskey he kept there.

“After we started drinking,” Cunningham said, “he just kept getting closer until he kissed me, and after that, everything just took off very quickly.”

Not long after their lunch, Cunningham said Trost moved her to Sales to be closer to him in the office and increased her pay by $6 per hour. Cunningham became pregnant that November.

When Cunningham arrived at work on the Monday after Thanksgiving 2022, she says she was told by Patriot Mobile’s then-new head of Human Resources, former Grapevine police officer Savage, that he had received “a call” that weekend. Cunningham replied that she had received “a lot of phone calls” that weekend, at

which point Savage allegedly called her into his office and insisted she tell him about her relationship with Trost.

Cunningham recalls breaking down and telling Savage everything, including that she might be pregnant. She took a pregnancy test at work that day and showed the results to Savage and Trost.

“When I told [Trost] about the baby, he was crying at work and begging me to get an abortion,” Cunningham said. “I was trying to be strong and not cry myself being as hormonal as I was at the time, and then he starts crying when it’s me who is the one that’s pregnant. It was unbelievable.”

I asked Savage to comment on the situation, but I never heard back from him.

Cunningham says Trost has refused to speak with her since she left the office that day five months ago. “He won’t even answer my calls about whether I should give the baby up for adoption. I don’t know what to do. I know I can’t afford another baby, but I couldn’t bring myself to get an abortion. He said he’d pay for it, but I’d have to go do it alone, and in the end, I just couldn’t.”

Cunningham is now in her second trimester. She cannot find employment and has no health insurance or support system. She said she has “no friends now” since all of them work for Patriot Mobile and the higher-ups have “told everyone there they’ll get fired if they talk to me.”

Cunningham and her children now live at her grandmother’s house in Keller.

Patriot Mobile is still thriving, despite multiple tax evasions, or cases of “franchise forfeiture,” as it’s called on the pertinent legal documents. The company was also able to secure a sizable 2021 loan as part of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). Forgiven by a bank that doesn’t exist (First Financial of Irving), the $367,000 was sent to the Christian Nationalists by the federal government at the same time they were spending more than $2 million on installing right-wingers into local elected office. The federal payroll endeavor was intended to save businesses from going under, not float political contributions.

One way Patriot Mobile may have been able to dodge pesky federal guidelines is by never registering an EIN (Employee Identification Number) with the IRS. Without an EIN, employers, the IRS says, cannot pay their employees at all, entirely negating the need for a PPP loan. Also, without an EIN, employers can avoid paying state taxes and reporting all monies coming into and going out of company coffers.

The federal government might not be a match for Patriot Mobile, but four former employees, including Banks, recently filed complaints with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Their grievances range from incidents of severe racism to sexual exploitation. Banks said he was “floored” by the culture of white supremacy at Patriot Mobile.

Cunningham said she still mostly blames herself for what happened. Until our interview, she had never heard of grooming. l

A former Black employee at right-wing Patriot Mobile claims the white superior who impregnated her begged her to terminate her pregnancy.

Cunningham: “I know I can’t afford another baby, but I couldn’t bring myself to get an abortion.”

Courtesy Facebook

March 12–July 9, 2023

THE UNFINISHED PROJECT OF LIBERATION

Seven Black contemporary artists explore ideas of emancipation from 160 years ago to today.

Emancipation: The Unfinished Project of Liberation is organized by the Amon Carter Museum of American Art and Williams College Museum of Art. The exhibition is co-curated by Maggie Adler, Curator of Paintings, Sculpture, and Works on Paper at the Carter, and Maurita Poole, Executive Director of Newcomb Art Museum, Tulane University.

John Quincy Adams Ward (1830-1910), The Freedman (detail), 1863, bronze, Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas, 2000.15

METROPOLIS

Holding Judges Accountable

The former court reporter, campaign manager, and recent director for State Sen. Drew Springer is not only the boss. She’s the founder. Lundy was inspired to launch her Flower Mound nonprofit by the numerous first-hand accounts of judicial misconduct she fielded over the past several years and her own experience being allegedly targeted by a Parker County judge. Lundy asked to conceal the names from her personal story to not disrupt her formal complaint against the judge now under investigation by the State Commission on Judicial Conduct (SCJC).

Early last year and while she was working on a different campaign, the candidate asked Lundy to attend a family court hearing in Parker County because a father involved alleged misconduct on the part of the presiding judge. Lundy said she was asked to go to be able to help her candidate with future complaints from constituents.

BY EDWARD BROWN

After a lengthy career working for the Texas courts and legislature, Jennifer Lundy recently made an announcement on social media.

“I’m happy to share that I’m starting a new position as executive director at Texans for Judicial Accountability!” she wrote.

“I went to two of the hearings,” Lundy said. “Right before the actual trial began, the judge called the [candidate] I was working for and said if I came back to court that [the judge] would make sure that I do not work in that county again. That certainly upset me.”

The father, who was seeking reunification with his son, sent Lundy evidence of retaliation by judges, similar to Lundy’s experience.

continued on page 8

As instances of judicial misconduct here and across the state reach alarming rates, a new nonprofit works to restore public faith in Texas’ judiciary.

Courtesy Facebook

SATURDAY

“The father asked if I would get involved,” she said. “I thought about it for a while. I knew it was going to take all of my time, but we have to make changes. That is what got me involved.”

Among the accountability group’s sixpart mission statement are calls for judges to be open, professional, and transparent in their dealings.

Judges “should not be swayed by partisan interests, public clamor, or fear of criticism,” part of the mission statement reads at TexansforJudicialAccountability.org, and should not “engage in behavior that is ha-

rassing, abusive, prejudiced, or biased.”

Lundy said the group’s long-term goal is to pass legislation that allows scofflaw judges to be easily reprimanded, removed from office, or sued if found to be in violation of ethics guidelines or criminal laws. The group’s proposals include the complete removal of judges from the investigatory process as a means of negating potential bias, the publication of all complaints filed with the SCJC, the placement of cameras in all Texas courtrooms, and the removal of judicial immunity for judges found guilty of misconduct.

The formation of Texans for Judicial Accountability comes as the Weekly is reporting on unprecedented levels of accusations of judicial misconduct. Those violations of ethics guidelines and state laws often go un-

ART Break!

derreported or not reported on at all by daily papers across the state and online outlets. Last year saw around 1,700 complaints filed on a total judiciary of 3,700 judges, which is a pretty damning ratio.

Based on our reporting, judicial misconduct encompasses a wide range of actions, including arbitrary arrests, retaliatory rulings, assignments of unqualified judges, and falsified government documents, among others. SCJC does not disclose which judges are under investigation, but confidential sources have provided me with copies of filed complaints against Tarrant County judges David Evans and George Gallagher and visiting retired judge Daryl Coffey.

Those sources said the very legitimacy of Texas’ judiciary is at stake. Outrage over family court dealings has led to public out-

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cry to boycott family court as a means of bankrupting a system viewed as corrupt and beholden to wealthy parents who can afford lawyers who donate heavily in judicial elections.

Lundy is aware of the enormity of her mission, but her years of networking with Texas legislators and faith that former defendants and parents across the state will join her give her hope.

As sweeping as her proposals are, Lundy is quick to note she is not out to bring down judges.

“There are a lot of good judges,” she said. “It is my goal to shine a light on the unscrupulous judges. They need to be removed, and people need to be able to sue them and press charges on them. There are a lot of things that have been pushed under the covers. They are in an elected position, but they are not any better than any of us.”

Lundy said her board includes an active Texas judge and that many judges have privately told her that her reforms are much needed.

“I’ve been talking to judges because I wanted to see how they felt,” she said. “I have several on our side. One, when he heard what we were doing, got very excited. The commission on judicial conduct will put out public reprimands if you are a judge and you go to someone’s fundraiser, but they will keep it private if you are caught drinking and driving. That’s not right.”

Based on the SCJC’s website, the commission — which, based on its 2022 annual report, has 13 full-time staffers — received more than 6,000 complaints over the past four years and substantiated fewer than 5% of the allegations. Even then, many reprimands were handled in private, meaning the public was never told which judge committed the offense or what punishment was meted out.

The entire judicial system has insulated itself from accountability, she said.

“Every complaint needs to be made public,” she said. “Every conviction needs to be made public along with the consequences.”

Lundy believes the greatest potential pushback from judges may come from her proposal that they publish a finding of facts and conclusion of law for every ruling made during a case, meaning judges need to cite the law and violation for defendants to understand what they are guilty of and why.

Family court judges are notorious for making rulings that routinely sever parental rights without so much as an explanation.

“It is necessary, if they are making rulings, that they need to say why,” she said.

Lundy said judicial misconduct is not a partisan issue and that she will seek political support from Democrats and Republicans. She hopes to work with state legislators to propose comprehensive reforms during the 2025 legislative session. Until then, she is soliciting support from across the state.

“If you want to help, contact me and donate,” she said.

Her email is Info@TexansforJudicialAccountability.org.

“We need to get the word out,” Lundy continued. “Self-governance has always failed. It is used to protect a system that is far past the need for reform.” l

SCREEN

Circle of Sadness

Feel bad after watching the Oscars? Same.

BY ERIN RATIGAN

Awards season fills me with dread. It’s not really a “hot take” to point out that watching beautiful people in incredibly expensive clothes hobnob and cheer for their rich and beautiful friends feels alienating, but when you’re a young person who compares herself to others due to low self-esteem, watching the Oscars can leave you feeling pretty empty and unaccomplished.

Yes, I’m aware that sounds melodramatic. “It’s just a party for the rich,” you might say. “Why take it so seriously?”

Remember, feeling bad about yourself isn’t a conscious decision. You don’t wake up one day determined to feel ugly and poor or to question your significance. It’s usually an extension of your mental health. People with chronic anxiety and depression often judge themselves harshly, and usually that coincides with comparing themselves to others, a habit that’s incredibly tough to break.

Cue: the Academy Awards, that magical time of year when we have the privilege of ogling attractive people –– many of whom permeate our popular consciousness during the other 364 days anyway. Actors are granted a level of extreme influence and social capital by nature of their success at entertaining us. They distract us from our everyday lives, and, in exchange, they’re given fame and prestige (along with the harassment, rejection, and criticism that we decide to ignore for a night).

While many people enjoy watching the Oscars for a glimpse into the world of some of the least-relatable people in America, others resent the occasion. Award show viewership has declined in recent years, leading to some attempts from organizers to spice things up, like switching out the traditional red carpet for a Champagne-colored one this year.

I used to enjoy watching the Awards, even looking forward to it every year. It was a fun time to celebrate the films that my friends and I loved seeing in theaters. Perhaps part of my change of perspective came from the pandemic. I can count on four fingers how many times I’ve been in a movie theater in the last year. Since all the films I want to see also premiere on streaming services, my relationship to filmgoing is different. It’s easier to watch movies at home, so the communal experience is gone.

I also think the shift to streaming has changed our relationships to celebrities. Streaming from home makes your connection to the characters (and, by extension,

the people behind them) feel more personal. They’re on your turf now. The woman on the massive screen in a theater is a character because we suspended our disbelief the moment we bought our tickets. At home, reality rules, and illusions break more easily Cate Blanchett or Ana de Armas is now an actor on your TV, just like when we see her on the Oscars and late-night interviews.

Instagram and TikTok have cut our sense of detachment even further. We can click on actors’ Stories and feel as though we’re personally connecting with them when, really, we’re not. We aren’t as free from the influence and curated image of “celebrity” as we were before Instagram and smart TVs, so the self-deprecating can more easily juxtapose our achievements with that standard.

Like many people, I started paying closer attention to my mental health around 2020 and examining my self-talk. I recently noticed certain things make me judge myself particularly harshly. One pain point is dissatisfaction with my achievements. I graduated college with honors, have multiple degrees, and received numerous journalism awards and scholarships, and, at the time, I was proud of every accomplishment. But that was then. What now?

This mindset isn’t unique. Emphasis on accomplishments is a centerpiece of the American ideal. We are supposed to be individualists who make something of ourselves and put productivity and success above pesky luxuries like emotional fulfillment or, you know, sleep and health, but our perception of success is constantly evolving. We meet one challenge and then it loses its value as we establish new standards for ourselves. So, while I have had achievements in life, so what? What have I achieved this year? This month? This week?

Instead of finding awards season inspiring, it reminds me that I don’t have a life plan. I wake up the next day saddened at the thought that I probably won’t ever be able to afford the earrings Jessica Chastain wore Sunday night — that financial security is hard enough to obtain without adding glamor into the equation (no matter how much I’d enjoy that). I watched Michelle Yeoh win her first Academy Award at 60 years old, but then I remembered she’s the exception even in Hollywood. Even the most talented people aren’t always recognized, and many aren’t invited to the Oscars at all.

After watching this year’s ceremony, I understand why I felt relieved when it was canceled in 2020. Because I’ve realized, for people who struggle to feel good about themselves, the subliminal messaging hurts long after the TV is turned off. l

Art by Erin Ratigan

BUCK U

Three to Tango

TCU basketball is awarded a familiar seed with a more optimistic road toward tournament survival.

BY BUCK D. ELLIOTT

Jamie Dixon and TCU basketball have accomplished a feat no other Frog hoopers have replicated in 60 years by qualifying for the NCAA tournament in consecutive years. In fact, this is only the 10th TCU men’s squad — and third under Dixon — to qualify for the Big Dance and the fifth in the modern era (the period since the tournament first awarded seeds in 1978). Much of this roster played in purple last season and likely still suffer deep stings to their hippocampus from their first-round stomping of Seton Hall before a second-round heartbreak at the paws of the first-seed Arizona Wildcats in overtime in the Midwest Region. That group was seeded ninth, but Dixon has experience with the sixth seed, which the Frogs are this season, and they aren’t sweet.

In 2018, fans and players alike were levitating with excitement after hearing their names called on Selection Sunday for the first time in 20 years. That sixth-seed squad was tasked with facing the winner of a play-in between Arizona State and Syracuse, which led to a five-point Orange W, thanks to the New Yorkers’ superior size and defense. The ’23 Frogs will need to shun a re -

peat as they face the winner of a Wednesday night tip between the Sun Devils — again — and the Nevada Wolfpack.

The past two weeks have been a whirlwind in Frog hoopland as the final week of regulation play featured the season’s first win over Texas as well as a loss to last-place Oklahoma. The Big 12 tournament proved a confidence builder, courtesy of a 13-point victory over Kansas State, before a six-point loss to Texas, who advanced to win the tournament title over the Jayhawks. During this process, center Eddie Lampkin never played but took to social media with allegations against Coach Dixon and his staff before announcing this week he would enter the transfer portal. The Frogs have proved they can beat high-caliber opponents without the big man’s presence, but his size, rebounding, and court energy will surely be missed from an X’s-and-O’s standpoint, even though his strain on team chemistry may not.

It’s a fool’s game to project future opponents through the tournament, as someone predicting a perfect bracket is about as likely as being struck by lightning while being drowned in lava from the eruption of the Tanaga volcano in Alaska, but I’m a fool, so here goes: The Frogs are most likely to meet Arizona State, who advance from a more competitive conference than the Wolfpack, compounded by Nevada’s three-game skid to conclude their season. The Devils and Frogs share three common opponents — SMU, Cal, and Utah — and swept all three but ASU by greater margins against all but the Utes. The Wolfpack share only one common opponent with TCU and don’t seem as dangerous, losing by nine in a high-scoring affair with Kansas State, whom the Frogs beat in two of their three matchups this season. The most concerning factor with the Horned Frogs’ placement is enduring a bench who squeaked into the tourney and has already settled in with an early game. That makes whoever comes out of the 11thseed play-in game exponentially more dangerous than they might be otherwise. Better than in ’18, neither Nevada nor ASU are basketball blue bloods with consistent tournament pedigree like Syracuse.

An improvement over last year’s ninth-seeded Frogs is that their second-round opponent is not the favorite in the bracket. The West Regional (played in Denver, Sacramento, Albany, and Las Vegas) is anchored by Kansas (whom TCU beat on

the road this year), who are playing on the Vegas side and are on a presumptive collision with fourth-seed UConn. The opposite side is anchored by two-seed UCLA, but the Frogs are hoping for a round-of-32 matchup with third-seed Gonzaga. Despite dissolving their football program around the time of Pearl Harbor, the Bulldogs are basketball powerhouses — when you don’t have football, what else is there, right? — but are a more beatable opponent than last year’s Wildcats. The Bulldogs fell during both their Big-12 matchups early in the season, throttled by nearly 20 points against Texas and losing a close one to Baylor.

The Big 12 is proving itself once more to be the deepest basketball conference in the country. Besides crowning consecutive champions in Baylor and Kansas, seven of the 10 squads were selected on Sunday. Defending-champion Kansas is a first-seed, Texas a second, and Baylor and Kansas State were both picked as third seeds. Iowa State — the only conference member to sweep the

Frogs this season — are also a sixth seed, and West Virginia rounds out the group with a ninth-seed selection. Eight Big 10 and SEC schools, respectively, were selected for the tournament, but each of those conferences contains 14 teams. The greatest proportion of a conference selected belongs to the Big 12. And Texas, as a state, is leading the rest of the nation with seven selections: Houston (1), Texas (2), Baylor (3), TCU (6), Texas A&M (7), Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (16), and Texas Southern (16). Both of the 16-seeds have Tuesday- and Wednesday-night play-in games to advance to the round of 64.

Essential Frog viewing begins Wednesday night when both of TCU’s potential opponents tip at 8:10 p.m. on truTV. Whoever wins (probably ASU) will advance to Denver against Dixon and company for the late game on Friday night following Gonzaga v. Grand Canyon, where Coach Dixon will at least try to match his best tournament finish as the Frogs’ head coach. l

The Horned Frogs hope to make it at least to a round-of-32 matchup, where last year’s squad lost in overtime against first-seed Arizona.

Courtesy TCU Athletics

STAGE

10 Key Years

ence each. Estes said Marquis has cultivated a familial work environment, and those bonds continue outside of the workplace.

It’s not just the employees who benefit from that support network. Hsu said Cliburn staff always exceed expectations when managing the careers of past medalists.

“I will say the artist-manager relationship is a special one,” he said. “Coming from the artist’s perspective, you have to feel like your manager and management company believe in you and believe in your story and the message that you are trying to convey. You have to trust that they have your best interest at heart and that they want what is best for you as well. I have been blessed to work with [artistic director] Sandra Doan, [Estes, and Marquis]. They have been so great and have been helping me build the career that I want to have and the career that I want to live.”

BY EDWARD BROWN

When Carla Thompson attended a music competitions conference in early 2012, she did so as the board chairperson of a competition that had lost its longtime president two years earlier. Still, she was hopeful for the future of Van Cliburn International Piano Competition and the prospect of new leadership.

During the meetings for competition organizers, Thompson met Jacques Marquis, the director of a performing arts group (Montreal’s Jeunesses Musicales), and found many of the qualities that her organization needed for a new director.

“When I came in as board chair, I was determined to take [my] job out of the executive office,” she said, referring to her dual role as board chairperson and decision-maker for the nonprofit. “The face of the Cliburn needs to be a paid professional CEO. That was my first mission.”

Marquis impressed Thompson in several ways. The charismatic nonprofit director headed finance committees and filled leadership roles within the music competition federation.

“Throughout lunch, I figured out he had a piano degree and a degree in business administration,” Thompson recalled. “We’ve never had those credentials” in a Cliburn director.

She also found the French Canadian to be highly personable and gregarious.

“He was a kick in the pants,” she said with a laugh, referring to Marquis’ penchant then and now for spontaneous jokes and laughter. “I enjoyed that part of him and knew in my mind [we needed someone like him] as we sought younger supporters. He was a breath of fresh air, and there wasn’t anything he was afraid to tackle.”

That summer, Thompson invited Marquis to visit Fort Worth and learn more about The Cliburn.

What resulted from that trip was transformative, both for Marquis and The Cliburn organization, which grew considerably in prestige and reach in the years after. This month marks the 10-year anniversary of the CEO’s hiring, and since he’s so humble, we thought it best to celebrate him through others rather than force him to brag about himself. Thompson recalled many good times during Marquis’ first stay in Fort Worth.

“We laughed about the heat for months,” she remembered. “He said, ‘Well, let’s give it a try.’ That’s how he came on as a consultant. We knew we needed some extra help” heading into the 2013 Van Cliburn International Competition.

The 14th international competition was particularly emotional for the Cliburn team. In early 2013, Van Cliburn died at 78. The man who captured the world’s attention in 1958 when he beat two Soviets to

claim the top prize at the first International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition did not directly lead his namesake organization, but his consummate presence at Cliburn piano competitions and advocacy for the contests made him something of a benevolent patriarch for the nonprofit.

“Losing [Cliburn] was a total blow,” Thompson said. “We didn’t know what effect it would have on the organization. There is so much sentimentality and love for him. I think everyone just dug their heels in and did everything in spite of that.”

Managing the complexities of a musical competition that requires housing and transporting dozens of competitors as well as directing concerts at multiple venues and international press coverage is incredibly grueling work, Thompson said, but Marquis stepped into the role seamlessly.

Under his leadership, The Cliburn has expanded its community outreach programs while growing the reach and prominence of its famed international piano competition. When Marquis was hired as president and CEO of The Cliburn in early 2013, the piano competition garnered half a million views that year. The most recent contest that saw 18-year-old Korean Yunchan Lim win gold brought 40 million online views across 177 countries. While streaming has grown as a medium for viewing live performances over that same time period, said Maggie Estes, The Cliburn’s communications director, the nonprofit has invested considerably in technology and streaming platform subscriptions to optimize its online presence.

Cliburn medalist Daniel Hsu said he began watching Cliburn contests as a young kid. The quality of the performers has steadily increased over the years while the event has grown in prestige, he said.

“Since 2017 [when I competed], it is clear that every competition every year gets bigger and bigger,” the bronze medalist said.

While high turnover is not uncommon at local nonprofits, the core team at The Cliburn averages well over a decade of experi-

The Cliburn’s programming has expanded a lot since Marquis took over. Eight years ago, he launched the Cliburn International Junior Piano Competition and Festival that welcomes 13- to 17-year-old pianists to North Texas every four years. The performing arts organization that was previously known for Bass Performance Hall concerts and piano competitions now presents community concerts throughout the year that feature past competitors. The Cliburn Sessions are another of Marquis’ projects that present genre-bending ensembles in venues like Tulips FTW and The Post at River East.

Marquis told me in 2014 that the Cliburn Sessions were created with both the artist and audience in mind (“Cliburn, Now in Session,” Oct. 2014). “What I’ve learned the last 20 years is that these artists want to share their love of the music, to do something beyond large concerts, where there is little audience interaction. Today, for instance, conductors regularly speak with audiences, so things have changed.”

Hsu’s Cliburn Sessions debut two years ago at The Post was memorable for several reasons, he said.

“It was so much fun,” he said. “Typically, I would just speak once, maybe right after the intermission or a big work. At The Post, I was able to sort of paint the story from beginning to end. I was able to speak briefly and quickly before every piece and walk [concertgoers] through the journey. For that program, I had a redemption-styled theme. We were coming out of COVID. Everybody was struggling with what we had to face with that pandemic.”

Thompson said her continuing volunteer work with the Cliburn is inspired by her love of helping young musicians as much as by her love for the music.

Marquis is “very involved with the competitors,” she said. “He is also heavily involved with their career management. All through these 10 years, he has found performance opportunities for much more than just the finalists. We tell [the competitors], ‘Don’t leave. Stay. If you stay around, you’ll be asked to fill in for a concert.’ There are more and more opportunities.”

For concert pianists at the beginning of their careers, she added, it is the little things like an unexpected opportunity that matter. l

Under the leadership of Jacques Marquis, The Cliburn has transformed into an international institution that dutifully serves our community.

The jovial nature of some of The Cliburn’s work is clear as Jacques Marquis (center) and Carla Thompson pose with a cowboy hat-donning Thomas Yu, winner of the 2016 Cliburn Amateur Competition.

Courtesy The Cliburn

Bronze medalist Daniel Hsu said that Jacques Marquis and his team allow competitors to develop their careers in unique ways.

Courtesy The Cliburn

Spring break is here, and so is St. Patrick’s Day. What a time to be alive! Along with last week’s ADW column and this week’s Night & Day section, both available on FWWeekly.com, here are more ways to celebrate with eats and drinks. Mostly drinks.

1.) Fort Worth’s newest brewery is actually a cidery that is “not afraid to experiment with crazy ingredient combinations.” Atheneum Cider (12500 N Saginaw Blvd, Ste 106, 817-4760931) has been slow-rolling its opening with daily flight specials, trivia nights, and the like. With a few open nights under its belt, Atheneum is ready to officially start the party for St. Patrick’s Day at 7pm Friday. For updates, visit Facebook.com/AtheneumCider.

2.) Bedford Ice House (817-864-9898) and BoomerJack’s Grill-Bedford (817-267-0267) are combining forces for one big St. Patrick’s Day Tailgate Party 4pm-1:30am Fri between 2250 and 2300 Airport Fwy. Featuring drink specials like $5 Irish bomb shots and $4 green teas, Guinness, and Jameson, the tailgate also has live music: Ashmore (10pm-2am), Michael Lee (7pm-10pm), Justin Ross (4pm-7pm), and a DJ 8pm-1am. Cover is $10.

3.) Herf’s Denton County Taphouse (2655 W University, Ste 1031, Denton, 214-578-3578), a family-owned craft beer establishment that serves locally brewed ales, beers, and ciders, has a lot going on this week. Besides the St. Patrick’s Day Party that starts at noon on Friday with shot specials all day and beer specials from Hope & Sting Brewing and 3 Nations Brewing, teachers off for spring break can enjoy $5 pours all week by showing a school ID. For other fun happenings, visit Facebook.com/ HerfDentonTaphouse.

4.) While it will be open on Friday — being Irish and all — the main event at Hooligan’s Pub (310 E Abram St, Ste 150, Arlington, 817274-1232) is the St. Paddy’s Irish Whiskey Tasting 5pm-8pm Sat. Enjoy 1.25-ounce pours of Busker, Tullamore D.E.W., Proper Twelve, and Teeling Whiskey, a corned beef sandwich with sauerkraut and pickles, and then a 5-oz pour of Guinness to end the evening. Tickets are $49.99 on Eventbrite.com.

5.) Family-owned and -operated since 1993, Niki’s Italian Bistro & Lounge (5249 Davis Blvd, NRH, 817-788-9444) is also getting in on the Irish fun. Frisco-based multigenerational cover group The Neighbors Band will bust out classic rock tunes from the ’50s to today from 7:30pm to 11pm Fri. No cover.

6.) Denton’s Oak Street Drafthouse (308 E Oak St, 940-4335-0404) is also waiting until Saturday for their Irish shenanigans. Starting at noon, Oak Street is closing down the street and hosting its annual St. Patrick’s Day Block Party with on-the-street seating and free entertainment all day. Hear the Guinness Bagpipers at 3pm, followed by U2 tribute band Joshua Tree 5pm-8pm. As for drink specials, there’s a bit of everything. Lucky Leprechaun Cocktails and Irish Dublin Drops are $8, Guinness is $6, green beer drafts are $5, and at the $4 mark, you have your choice of Jameson or Shamrock Slammer shots.

7.) My favorite grilled cheese sandwich in the world (i.e., North Texas) has historically been served to me late at night at the now-defunct Green Room in Deep Ellum. Before the pandemic, owner Christian Baird opened a restaurant/venue in Burleson called Oscar’s Bar & Grill. It closed, then Green Room closed, and both facts made me very sad and non-cheesy. However, Oscar’s Bar & Grill (1581 SW

Wilshire, Ste 101, Burleson, OscarsBurleson. com) is making a comeback just in time for St. Paddy’s Day! Join Baird at the Opening Celebration 7pm Fri, featuring live acoustic music by Landon & Alexis Mitchell with Gary Lindsey. Welcome back!

8.) And now for the World’s Only St. Paddy’s Day Pickle Parade & Palooza. This 12th annual event is noon-9pm Fri and 7am-7pm Sat in Historic Downtown Mansfield. Festivities include beer keg races, pickle eating (and juice drinking) contests, fun runs and a 5 and 10K, live music, and an appearance by the Dancing Pickle Queens. Admission and parking are free, but bring some foldin’ money for the food and retail vendors. As of press time, Friday parking is still a mystery. However, on Saturday, a free shuttle runs from Legacy High School (1263 N Main St, Mansfield) to the festivities, which is your best bet. For a deep dive into the palooza-ness of it all, go to PickleParade.org.

By Jennifer Bovee

EATS & drinks

‘Crawfish Are Here’

Here are three local spots that do mudbugs in true N’awlins fashion.

BY CODY NEATHERY

Now that spring is here, we can emerge from the darkness of winter’s grip and watch the light of day linger longer. The young-hearted among us may find ourselves frolicking on patios as various scents of nature blossom and whiffs of outdoor cooking intermingle with the unfortunate accompaniment of G.D. allergies. Once March hits, we hit — appropriately between Fat Tuesday and St. Paddy’s Day — peak crawfish season, which goes through May before retreating until the following winter.

Last year, we offered our inaugural list of local crawfish joints where they cook ’em right so you don’t need to trek to the bay-

ou. This season, we scoured plenty of local spots to bring you, our hungry reader, another three spots worth diving into. As always, please check their social media for details about availability and pricing as both tend to fluctuate with seasonal supply and demand.

Bayou Cat (2505 E Arkansas Ln, Ste 131, Arlington, 817-274-4100)

For over a decade, Louisiana natives the Nguyens have brought a massive amount of Cajun, Creole, and Gulf Coast recipes — some traditional, others family — to the corner of a dated strip mall in South Arlington. Unable to locate the food they’d grown accustomed to across the East Texas border, Mr. Nguyen decided to bring his own touch to this suburb bracketed by two major cities plagued with corporate Louisiana rip-offs. Near the bottom of the boiled menu, one notch above pig’s feet, is where you’ll locate the crawfish option, anchored below other items such as shrimp, crab legs, and a Cajun egg.

The flavor of Acadia resonates well here. Bayou Cat doesn’t offer one item as a crutch. Rather, it’s a gauntlet of Big Easy cuisine. Overstuffed po’ boys, fried food baskets (yes, there’s a frog leg option), red beans and rice, and meat pies keep it leveled year-round, and Vietnamese-style boiled crawfish with seafood, mostly found along the Gulf Coast, make for a flavor profile you just can’t find anyplace else in North Texas. In fact, Bayou Cat might be the only joint around to offer New Orleans’ Big Shot soda and Elmer’s CheeWees curds.

Flying Fish (2913 Montgomery St, FW, 817-989-2277)

Owner Shannon Wynne (Flying Saucer, Rodeo Goat) modeled Flying Fish after East Texas fish camps and his affinity for that particular region, plus his conservation ef-

forts at Caddo Lake. Like Bayou Cat, Flying Fish tends to cover the entire spectrum of Cajun, Creole, and fried seafood, including “Every Wednesday All-U-Can-Eat fried catfish fillets,” but when crawfish season rolls around, the celebration is always welcomed.

Though it’s customary for a kitchen to season a catch after it’s pulled from the pots, you can 86 that notion and order without as the boil is flavorful enough. Crack open a cold bottle, order a cup of seafood gumbo, continued on page 19

A bayou breakfast awaits at Bourbon Street Bar & Grill.

Cody Neathery

and enjoy sucking, pinching, and pulling a few pounds of Flying Fish’s cray while gazing upon the antique gear and tackle and fading mounted fish.

The Cajun Market at Bourbon Street Bar & Grill (1833 Airport Fwy, Bedford, 817-527-5640)

When owner and Louisiana-savant Phil Tullis took to Facebook at the end of 2022 to announce the closure of The Cajun Market in Colleyville, I will unabashedly admit my Southern-fried heart hurt. His brick-andmortar was the one spot around the Fort that reminded me of the markets scattered in the small towns around Cajun country and the Gulf Coast, but I prematurely rushed to conclusions only to discover (through his long post, another one of them) that he would join forces with suburban newcomer Bourbon Street Bar & Grill to oversee their culinary operations. Not only would this keep him and his staff gainfully employed, it would also expand his footprint.

I worried how this joint venture would translate when it came to quality, and though I visited the new location only once

for this article, I noticed considerable differences. Recalling subtle teases of mild flavor with every meaty bite, I was a little let down by the lack of a full-bodied balance of spice and seasoning from last year, but this isn’t a doom-and-gloom situation that would keep

me from returning. Unfortunately, only corn was delivered with my bugs, and I had to request potatoes despite the menu’s assertion that both are served with every 3-pound order. Making matters worse, it seems that the corn and the

potato had missed the boil altogether, leaving me with a rather generic taste. This is unlike anything I experienced at the original location of the Market, but knowing Tullis and his eye for quality, I know next time will be better. l

Flying Fish’s dynamic duo is ready.

Bayou Cat serves ’em up fresh and Vietflavorful in Arlington.

Courtesy Yelp

MUSIC

Deep Roots Fort Worth musician

Brandi Waller-Pace created the Fort Worth African American Roots Music Festival to celebrate the Black difference in early American music.

BY EDWARD BROWN

University in 2002, she did not know that journey would lead to a career in scholarly research on and advocacy for the often-forgotten role of Black musicians in shaping American roots music.

“Looking back, I was always talking about activism,” she said.

Howard offered an opportunity for the composer and multi-instrumentalist to study and perform in a largely all-Black environment.

“There were so many seeds planted,” from that time, she said. “If I didn’t have that security, I would not have had the foundation to do what I do now. I think I would have questioned myself.”

Piecing together the history of Black contributions to early blues and American folk music required researching the past by working with museum scholars and documenting the oral and musical traditions of songs. Descriptions of those tunes and performance techniques, she found, had been passed down for generations from families who trace their lineage to formerly enslaved ancestors.

The culmination of that research led to the inaugural Fort Worth African American Roots Music Festival (FWAAMFest) online in 2021. Waller-Pace has since hosted the events at Southside Preservation Hall on the Southside, including this year’s iteration on Saturday.

“What I’m able to do [with the festival] is a culmination of my life’s experience,” she said. “Sometimes, I learn about a song because we sat in a circle and someone said this

continued on page 21

When Brandi Waller-Pace left her hometown of Fort Worth to study jazz at Howard

Grammy-nominated multi-instrumentalist Hubby Jenkins performs Saturday as part of the third annual Fort Worth African American Roots Music Festival on the Southside.

Courtesy FWAAMFest

page 20

song is from this time. The old-time tunes I play are from the 1800s or from someone who wrote it last week.”

Saturday’s performances feature more than a dozen notable musicians and ensembles, including Grammy-nominated multi-instrumentalist Hubby Jenkins, singer-songwriter Justin Golden (famed for his renditions of fingerpicked Piedmont blues), and Southern Soul singer-songwriter Rissi Palmer. Waller-Pace said having an all-Black lineup performing roots music is an important step for reclaiming genres of music often appropriated by white-owned record labels throughout the 20th century.

Beyond performances, education is an important component of FWAAMFest, Waller-Pace said. After teaching elementa-

ry music education for 11 years in the Fort Worth school district, the music advocate left teaching early on during the pandemic to focus on her career and doctoral studies at UNT. Her time as a teacher revealed how public schools often fail to give an accurate and well-rounded account of culture and music history.

“The assumptions of the training were still Western European-centric,” she said. “We had students from the Middle East.

The tonalities [their culture used] were considered too complicated for kids. The music examples we used would alter their tonality to what Western ears would call less complicated. The baseline for what they taught kids was from dominant white culture.”

The oversimplified narrative used to teach music history in schools often relegated Black contributions solely to R&B, blues, and jazz. FWAAMFest is part of a broader effort by Black scholars and activ-

ists to remind Americans that Black culture shaped American roots music in powerful and beautiful ways, she said.

Waller-Pace still remembers seeing historic descriptions of American music that rarely portrayed the Black originators of folk music.

“I wasn’t at the core of what was considered valuable. I noticed in my classroom, a lot of times my students saw a banjo [played by white people]. It is an American instrument, but it has cousins in Africa. We are of African descent. The banjo story is very parallel.” l

Noon at Southside Preservation Hall, 1519 Lipscomb St, FW. $20-50. FWAAMFest.com.

The baseline for what they taught kids was from dominant white culture.

Fort Worth African American Roots Music Festival

HearSay

Broke String Burnett’s Doppelganger

Brandon “Broke String” Burnett has been writing songs since he was 15, but it wasn’t until his early 20s when he really found his sound. This was right around the time he married wife Jessica (née Williams), and in the years prior to their 2013 wedding, the couple wrote music together and, in 2012, formed a band.

As the Phantom Sensation, a folkpunk outfit with a yen for cinematic, noir-flavored storytelling, he and Jessica co-wrote two albums and an EP between them, and by the time they cut their second album, they had expanded to a full band. The Phantom Sensation’s sinister themes of betrayal, murder, and revenge led the Burnetts to dub their rootsy, country-influenced music “blackgrass,” which also became the title of that second full-length from 2016

But like all good stories, the Phantom Sensation’s came to an end. Jessica needed a break from performing to recenter herself, and, without her, Brandon did not want to continue the project. They played a few shows as the Burnett Duo, but eventually Jessica bowed out from the stage.

Brandon still kept writing songs due in part to Jessica’s encouragement. “She really pushed me to keep writing … but without her, my writing process is different. … When I kinda think of me and her singing, I wrote to that.”

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Luckily for him, he found a new collaborator in an old friend. He and multi-instrumentalist/producer Calan Rawl had been friends as kids during the MySpace era, bonding over a mutual affinity for Radiohead and playing together in a longgone band called the Yammers. Brandon approached his longtime friend with his new material, and the two began collaborating. What started as an acoustic solo project soon expanded into a much fuller vision, with Rawl filling out Brandon’s songs with instrumental heft, playing the keys and drums as well as tracking, mixing, and mastering it at his home studio in south Fort Worth. The two pared down 15 tracks to a dozen. Collected as a concept

album, Doppelganger is themed around what Rawl describes as an “emotional color wheel.”

Sonically, Doppelganger still carries the shadows and minor keys of Brandon’s Blackgrass era, but it also opens the curtains and lets some sunshine in. Brandon said that while he’s still into darker material, he has enjoyed expanding his songwriting palette to include brighter shades and simpler arrangements. And in that way, he and Rawl found themselves with a record that ambles into the realm of cosmic country

“I’m very existential,” Brandon said. “What I think makes an album ‘cosmic’ is the subject matter, like if it covers a Beatles-like idea of universal love but also shows the dark side of that, which I think is existential dread.”

He cites a gloomy Doppelganger track called “Shooting Star,” whose ominous waltz does suggest inevitable doom, yet three songs before that is “Stardust,” which sounds like two lovers staring into the endless wonder of the night sky, Rawl’s roomy production giving the song dreamy, contemplative moments.

Broke String Burnett performs live as a five-piece, with Brandon on guitar and vocals and Rawl on keys, rounded out by bassist Jacob Martinez, lead guitarist Henry Sepulveda III, and drummer JohnPaul Thomas, and onstage, they bring some serious fire. Yet Doppelganger also soars as a headphones album. Besides the spacey sonics of songs like “Stardust” and “Shooting Stars,” the title track, a moody instrumental in the middle of the record, sounds like a country song by way of OK Computer. But whether heard between your noggin or seen live, Broke String Burnett and his debut album make for a satisfying auditory trip. You can catch them at The Rustic (3656 Howell St, Dallas) on Sat, Mar 25, at 9pm. — Steve Steward

Though their live arrangements cook, Brandon “Broke String” Burnett (left) and Calan Rawl have crafted a stellar headphones album.

Johnny Govea

Album cover art by TOKEBI

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