Reena Steps Up
New Mexico House speaker’s longtime chief of staff is poised to take his seat representing Santa Fe
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OPINION 5
7 DAYS, CLAYTOONZ AND THIS MODERN WORLD 6
SET FOR SUCCESS 8
Initial work begins on $12 million Southside tennis complex that will offer free lessons and tutoring for students
PETROLEUM PR BLITZ 9
Oil and gas money papers New Mexico with industry messages
COVER STORY 10
REENA STEPS UP New Mexico House speaker’s longtime chief of staff is poised to take his seat representing Santa Fe
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COVER, SEPT. 7:
THE INTERFACE, SEPT. 14:
“FORCE OF NATURE”
CHALLENGE FOR ALL
[Thanks] @votergirl and @SantaFeReporter for tackling climate change and the startup landscape. The #ClimateCrisis is everyone’s & every organization’s crisis What changing are you making?
ALEXANDRA MERLINO
NOD TO THE ICONS
Your reference to National Lampoon’s hilariously iconic cover from the early ‘70s was not lost on me. I did not read the paper. Would you now squirt the cat, hard?
SCOTT SHUKERSANTA FE
GO AHEAD
I read your paper, but go ahead and squirt him!
DON HILL
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HEAVY PETTING, SEPT. 21:
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ONLINE, SEPT. 13: “QUALIFICATION CONUNDRUM”
DON’T LET IT IN
I (Heart) SFR but disappointed in the “both sides”-ing from this headline. Block/Wilbur are partisan hacks not journalists—full stop. @norasack did the right thing. Sometimes when media tries too hard for a “both sides” it lets in the crazy. Plz stop giving these people one iota of space.
JAKE MCCOOK
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BIG DOGS DESERVE LOVE
I wonder if Jack Hagerman would have found Madeline’s behavior so adorable if she’d been a shepherd, pit bull, Rottweiler or any of the other larger breeds or mixed-breeds that already get a bad rap? I’ve rescued at least 30 dogs in my lifetime—two or three of which were over 50 pounds and could also be considered “the worst.” But, with the very first one, I learned that folks are far less tolerant of badly behaving big dogs. Yes, like Madeline, every dog deserves a loving home and committed person to care for them; each one also deserves someone who’s willing to work with them to alleviate or mitigate any fear aggression to ensure that he/ she isn’t confiscated or euthanized.
C.E. ATKINSON
SANTA FE
NEWS, AUG. 31:
“LET THERE BE LESS LIGHT”
SHOW ME THE MONEY
Good article by @SantaFeReporter. I have my doubts, however, concerning the city’s claims about energy savings from the conversion. I’ve put in an IPRA request; more than three months later, still no evidence they are even tracking it.
MICHAEL JACOBS
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“AN OBITUARY FOR THE WORST DOG EVER”
NASA VAPORIZES ITS OWN ASSET TO TEST WHETER WE CAN AVOID ARMAGEDDON
Jerry Bruckheimer and his band of merry men responsible for the 1998 classic thank the feds for sparing Ben Affleck.
NANCY PELOSI COMES TO ABQ, SAYS GOVERNMENT’S “TREMENDOUS MISTAKE” CAUSED HERMITS PEAK/CALF CANYON FIRE
Well, shit, Madam Speaker, Northern New Mexico is grateful for this stunning revelation.
BALLOON FIESTA STARTS THIS WEEKEND
Find more hot air, along with a hot Friday night date when the guberna torial candidates debate on TV for the first of two planned faceoffs.
SUSPECTED ARSONIST LIT 16 FIRES IN SANTA FE LAST WEEKEND, NO ARREST YET
What’s the matter? Couldn’t get all the way to 17?
GOV. LUJAN GRISHAM ANNOUNCES NEW CYBERTHREAT COMMITTEE
And they’re gonna be all like, “Hurry, Johnny Laserpunch! If we don’t stop the hackers from jacking into the mainframe, our rollerblading skills will mean nothing!”
LOCAL PROSECUTORS, PUBLIC DEFENDERS GET $300K FOR RECRUITMENT, RETENTION
Never mind what it says about our system that defense lawyers had to join the DA’s Office to get anyone’s attention.
ITALY ELECTS ITS FIRST WOMAN PREMIERE
What’s that, you say?
Giorgia Meloni is pretty much a fascist? No wor ries; that’s always gone well for Italy.
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CARTEL ECONOMICS?
Retail prices will come down too as the cartels undercut the high state taxes. This has hap pened everywhere it’s been legalized.
JOHN PUERNER VIA FACEBOOKONLINE, AUG. 26:
VOTER FAQ”
VOTE YES #1 FOR BETTER ED
New Mexico may be the Land of Enchantment, but we could be doing far more to make our state the land of opportunity. For decades, policymakers, business leaders, educators and advocates for economic and social justice have struggled, largely in vain, to position New Mexico as a great place to do business and cre ate living wage jobs. State and local taxpayers have invested hundreds of millions into market ing campaigns, tax breaks, capital improvement grants and other development incentives tar geted at industry. Why then, after so much effort and expense, do we still rank dead last on so many indicators of economic and social well- being? The answer is simple—short-term business enticements are no substitute for the long- term investments in our children’s educa tion that we should have been making all along. Targeted tax breaks make a difference at the margin—when a firm is trying to decide between New Mexico and Colorado; but they don’t help at all if New Mexico’s limited work force and poor educational outcomes mean we never make the final cut.
But the tide may be turning in our favor. The last decade has seen a steady ramping up of ourstate’s investment in early childhood edu cation. A massive body of research shows that investments in the early years pay the greatest dividends. Children who receive high quality
services such as child care and NM-PreK enter school ready to learn and studies show that those early educational advantages trans late into better jobs and higher incomes in adulthood.
With Constitutional Amendment #1 on the ballot in November, we have the opportunity to reconfirm our commitment to our state’s young est residents and their families by increasing access to high quality programs and further professionalizing the early childhood workforce.
Investments in young children pay dividends well into the future. However, Constitutional Amendment #1 will have short-term benefits too. Additional revenue for early childhood will enable the state to increase access to afford able child care, a critical support for working families that will increase the size and produc tivity of our workforce.
Constitutional Amendment #1 proposes taking a very small percentage of New Mexico’s Permanent School Fund—currently sitting at $26 billion—and investing it into early child hood education. The Permanent Fund receives revenue from royalties paid by oil and gas producers, thus the additional $150 million the amendment would generate for early childhood would not increase taxes paid by New Mexico families and would not come out of other programs. All it takes is for New Mexicans to come together and invest our own money back into our economy and back into our state. I’ll be voting yes on Constitutional Amendment #1 in November because it is a common sense, lowcost way to support a critical component of our economy and because I’m ready to see New Mexico be the land of opportunity.
KELLY O’DONNELL ALBUQUERQUERead more about New Mexico’s general election at sfreporter.com/elections
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if
Set for Success
BY ANDY LYMAN andylyman@sfreporter.com
MurphyJensen and his older broth er Luke made a name for them selves in the 1990s, both as French Open doubles champions and for their rockstar-level personalities off the tennis court. Despite the skills the younger Jensen learned on the court, it took years before he learned to better cope with the slice serves of the real world.
“I knew how to hit tennis balls, but I didn’t know how to live life on life’s terms,” Jensen tells SFR.
But, he adds, tennis did teach him how to handle wins, losses and other “setbacks.”
During a recent fundraiser near Pecos for a youth tennis and tutoring program based in Santa Fe, the Jensen brothers visited from out of state to pitch the importance of tennis as a sport that translates to building life skills and to encourage scholarship donations.
This week, crews began grading the land for the $12 million First Serve and Forked Lightning Racquet Club complex north of Rodeo Road near the Genoveva Chavez Community Center—bringing the vision of a wealthy couple and a former fashion designer who share a passion for tennis one step closer to reality.
Scott and Kimberly Sheffield, who own the Forked Lightning Ranch about 30 miles southeast of Santa Fe, funded the construc tion. The couple says they were inspired to underwrite the building of the planned 12-court complex, which will include an ac ademic building and offer free tennis les sons and tutoring to school-aged kids, after Kimberly met a coach with First Serve, a decades-old program. The complex will also house the members-only Forked Lightning Racquet Club. First Serve, a nonprofit found ed by Eleanor Brenner, has been offering free after-school tennis lessons and tutoring in Santa Fe for nearly 20 years.
Brenner calls the latest progress toward the facility “fabulous.”
“We are so excited,” Brenner tells SFR. “We’ve been waiting for seven months and we are thrilled.”
Brenner worked for years as a fashion de signer and, through her travels with her late husband, she found solace in tennis, never going anywhere without rackets. She says First Serve uses tennis to entice students to bolster their academic education, but also teaches students they’re not going to win ev ery match, even off the court.
“In the beginning, some of our students, when they lose, are so frustrated,” Brenner says. “They want to throw a racket or what ever they want to do. But they learn that you cannot play tennis if you’re going to do that and you will never be a champion if you do that.”
Jensen cites a Rudyard Kipling excerpt in scribed at Wimbledon’s Centre Court about viewing “triumph and disaster” as similar “imposters” in explaining how tennis can be a
guide for how to deal with life’s setbacks.
“What happens when tragedy strikes? You’re in a car accident, you can’t use your right arm and play tennis anymore, or what ever,” Jensen says. “Those are the life skills I’m talking about.”
Chris Slakey, a teacher at Santa Fe’s Milagro Middle School, has worked with First Serve for 18 years in various capacities, but recently took a job as the organization’s pro gram director. He says many of the students who sign up aren’t struggling to keep up with school work, but that they all benefit from ex tra study time or test preparation.
“Most of the kids sign up because they want the tennis and they could benefit from the academic help, but tennis is sort of the lure in,” Slakey says.
Humza Mahmood, 16, is proof that tennis is an effective bait for kids.
Mahmood tells SFR he had played football and basketball, but later found an interest in tennis, which led him to First Serve. Besides help with school, Mahmood says he’s learning interpersonal skills such as the importance of eye contact and handshakes. He’s most excited to have a centralized and profession al-grade facility to hone his tennis skills.
“I’m really excited for the indoor courts and outdoor facility in general,” Mahmood tells SFR. “Because it would be like our own place, you know, home courts.”
The recent fundraiser at the Forked Lightning Ranch was part of First Serve’s ongoing fundraising for scholarships, Kimberly Sheffield says. The Sheffields are paying for the brick, mortar and indoor courts, in part thanks to oil and gas—at least “indirectly,” Scott specifies. He grew up in the oil industry, even attending high school in Tehran, Iran. He tells SFR he retired about six years ago from Pioneer Natural Resources, a giant oil company he founded in 1997, but was asked to come back in 2019. Now, Kim says there will be “nagging at some point” from her, encouraging Scott to retire a second time.
Kimberly initially cut a $5,000 check on the spot after seeing a group of First Serve students in action, which caught Brenner’s attention and led to the three planning the massive complex.
Brenner tells SFR that depending on what type of winter Santa Fe is in for, the facility should be completed in about a year and a half.
Kimberly and Scott Sheffield (left), who are fully funding the First Serve and Forked Lightning Racquet Club complex, stand alongside First Serve founder Eleanor Brennan at a recent scholarship fundraiser. ANDY LYMANInitial work begins on $12 million Southside tennis complex that will offer free lessons and tutoring for students
A Petroleum PR Blitz in New Mexico
BY JERRY REDFERN @capitalandmain ANSON STEVENS-BOLLENOil and gas money papers the state with industry messages
Inthe past seven months, oil and gas companies have dramatically stepped up their outreach and public relations spending at some of New Mexico’s bestknown, best-loved events. The industry also picked up an additional public relations bump from the not unexpected news that oil and gas revenues will add an additional $2.5 billion to next year’s state government bud get. This record breaking funding comes on the heels of last year’s record breaking bud get, both of them courtesy of record breaking oil and gas production and prices.
All of this money sloshing around the state raises the positive public profile of the petro leum industry. Meanwhile, the public sees little of its state Legislature—but that doesn’t mean it’s not busy.
After work at their day jobs and on week ends, legislators are defining and refining the measures—many dealing directly or indirect ly with the oil and gas industry—that they plan to bring before the next legislative session. And when the state’s volunteer Legislature eventually returns to session in January, it will have to contend with an industry that spent the previous 11 months burnishing its image in ways that unpaid, part-time public servants simply can’t.
“That PR piece has always been a center of the work of extractive industries,” says Rep. Angelica Rubio, D-Las Cruces. She grew up in the Permian Basin, home to the largest oil and gas play on the planet, and she remem bers how companies paid for scholarships and sports fields at her high school. “It’s kind of like, ‘OK, while we’re poisoning your water, we’re gonna go ahead and pay for this football field,’” she says.
The scope and tone of the current PR blitz covers the gamut from—literally—hot air to cold cash.
Early in the year, ExxonMobil became the prime sponsor of the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, one of the state’s signature tourist draws. The company also ponied up to be a corporate backer of New Mexico United soccer team. (ExxonMobil’s subsidiary XTO was already a sponsor.) The deal is likely smaller than its sponsorship
agreements with the NBA and WNBA, but it brings ExxonMobil name recognition in the stadium and company-branded soccer train ing camps for kids around the state.
Not everyone is happy with the deal. A United fan club began a campaign to get the team to dump ExxonMobil as a sponsor. The company didn’t respond to calls about its sponsorships, and NM United wouldn’t say how much the company paid for its high vis ibility patronage, but ExxonMobil does want to highlight its “renewable efforts,” according to United’s Chief Business Officer Ron Patel, “as that becomes more mainstream.”
In the spring, Chevron became the top sponsor of the New Mexico State Fair, anoth er of the state’s biggest draws, to the tune of $250,000 a year for the next three years. By comparison, a single Chevron lobbyist spent over $1 million on political donations around the state since 2020.
This summer, Chevron, Oxy and ConocoPhillips donated hundreds of thou sands of dollars to relief funds in the af termath of the Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon wildfire—the largest in state history. While the fire started as a prescribed burn inten tionally ignited by the US Forest Service, the federal government’s own study concluded that fossil fuel-driven climate change made it historically catastrophic.
The local promotional and governmen tal windfalls burnish the reputation of an industry whose global image took a beating over the same period. World gas and other fuel prices spiked following the Russian in vasion of Ukraine, and have remained ele vated even as some underlying supply issues ease and individual energy companies post quarterly profits larger than New Mexico’s annual budget.
And then there’s the constant global drumbeat of climate catastrophes, from heat waves to floods to drought to hurricanes. All the while, industry money puts pressure on the state’s unpaid, part-time legislators, who once again will be proposing and debating bills to further supervise and regulate these same companies.
“These are miniscule amounts of mon ey for the companies to do their unlimited amounts of public relations here in the state,” says Sen. Jeff Steinborn, D-Las Cruces. And it’s public messaging that the Legislature will have to address anew when it finally starts its own deliberations.
“This is a leadership moment where there are real-world negative consequences of us not investing in a professional legislature,” Steinborn says.
Companies and industries are able to hire and fund full-time lobbyists who essentially end up competing with the state’s part-time, unpaid Legislature, and “It really, really gives deference to paid interest groups and lobby ists who have an outsized voice and muscle in setting the table on what gets worked on,” he says.
And the year-round oil industry publici ty also worries legislators, not because they think the companies shouldn’t be allowed to advertise but because the structure of the Legislature itself makes part of any legislative session a game of catch-up.
“What they’re doing is really attract ing the media in ways that we just can’t,” says state Sen. Antoinette Sedillo López, D-Albuquerque. “I don’t have a publicist. I’m not a publicist,” she says. “I don’t do press releases.”
In Sedillo López’s four sessions at the Legislature, she has proposed a half-dozen
bills to regulate aspects of the oil and gas in dustry, from banning fracking to limiting how produced water can be used, to a constitu tional “Green Amendment” that would give New Mexicans the right to a clean environ ment. They all died, while prompting the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association to launch an online campaign against her.
For part-time, unpaid legislators, New Mexico’s political schedule amplifies the pub licity problem as it switches between oneand two-month sessions every other year. No one thinks that’s enough time to properly de bate important legislation—including ques tions about how to fix the Legislature itself. In fact, Rubio says, “It seems like we’re only in session really once every two years, because the 30-day session is usually awash with the budget.”
Following this past January’s 30-day ses sion, Rubio teamed up with other represen tatives to figure out a new way forward. They pooled discretionary funds to pay for a study on legislators’ thoughts on how to reform state government, and that led to a proposed constitutional amendment to provide sala ries to legislators, allowing them to literally pay attention to the state’s business. “And that will be introduced in January,” Rubio says.
“It’s a really huge institutional problem we have that’s in crucial need of reform,” Steinborn says, adding that ime and money will allow New Mexico’s politicians to better debate legislation “and not give that defer ence to the paid guns.”
This story was published by journalism nonprofit Capital & Main, which reports on economic, environmental and social issues in the West. capitalandmain.com
28-OCTOBER
Reena Steps Up
New Mexico House speaker’s longtime chief of staff is poised to take his seat representing Santa Fe
tious and often controversial legislation. Her time as a policy advocate and lobbyist, combined with nearly a decade sitting at what she calls her “perch” next to Egolf, means Szczepanski has seen more be hind-the-scenes action than some of her soon-to-be colleagues who have served for years. But this is her first run for office, and Szczepanski’s encyclopedic knowledge of policy belies an outward hesitancy to be the center of attention. Those who have worked with Szczepanski tell SFR she’s more than primed for the job as a state rep resentative because of her extensive expe rience and her level-headed demeanor.
BY ANDY LYMAN andylyman@sfreporter.comNew Mexico House Speaker Brian Egolf had a bombshell to drop. The clock was running out on the 2022 legislative session when he leaned into the microphone and said: “This is the last time I will speak to you from this rostrum at the conclusion of a regular legislative session.”
Few knew in advance the Santa Fe Democrat had planned to give up the gavel, but among those who did was the woman seated next to him as he made his surprise announcement—his only chief of staff during a five-year speakership and one of the most influential, yet rarely pub licly credited, people associated with him. Egolf thanked his wife and kids for their support, then continued.
“I have to thank someone I have of ten referred to as my co-speaker, Reena Szczepanski,” Egolf said as he led the chamber in a standing ovation for Szczepanski.
Szczepanski’s face was hidden behind a mask, but most who have had even the shortest interaction with her could prob ably feel her trademark humble smile anyway.
The next day Szczepanski (pronouned “suh-PAN-skee”) announced she was run ning for the seat her boss of nearly a decade had held since 2009: District 47, which is entirely within Santa Fe County. Now, after running unopposed in the primary election following her only opponent’s dis qualification from the ballot, Szczepanski is not facing a challenger in the November general election.
Szczepanski, 46, will be the most expe rienced freshman lawmaker Santa Fe has seen in recent memory. The daughter of Indian immigrants, she has years’ worth of hands-on experience about how to suc cessfully and strategically push for ambi
“I am someone who wants everyone else to shine,” Szczepanski tells SFR during a recent interview in the House gallery. “It makes me happy; that is very fulfilling for me.”
As a first-term representative, she’s un likely to be assigned committee leadership roles, and, while she is taking over Egolf’s district, wielding the gavel would not come for years, if at all.
Szczepanski plans to introduce a mod est, albeit realistic, slate of bills during her first session. She seems most excited about a proposal that would hopefully loop art ists and other creative types in with indus tries that are more traditionally viewed as important contributors to the state’s econ omy. But she also has plans to work with fellow Democrats on touchy issues such as gun control and abortion.
Szczepanski’s past gigs include six years as state director for the Drug Policy Alliance, where she was instrumental in legalizing medical cannabis—more than a decade before full adult-use legal ization. Her next stop was Emerge New Mexico—a group that promotes and trains Democratic women to run for office— where she took a job as director in 2010.
Szczepanski hadn’t considered running for office, even after Egolf quietly told her about his plans not to seek reelection. But, she says, she started thinking about the ad vice she’s given to countless women over the years.
“I have asked hundreds of women to run,” Szczepanski tells SFR. “I have en couraged, I have cheerleaded, I’ve told them they could do it, I’ve had those late night conversations where I’m like, ‘I be lieve in you.’ And then I thought, ‘Am I not taking my own advice?’”
Szczepanski’s personality and profes sionalism aren’t likely to draw much en mity, based on interviews SFR conducted for this story, though her progressive issue profile and her association with Egolf are near certain to rankle Republicans and even conservative Democrats. Republican
House leaders have repeatedly accused Egolf of bending the rules and putting his thumb on the scales in favor of his own party and caucus. But for this story, House Republican leaders refused to offer up any one from their office for an interview about Szczepanski.
“Shoulder-to-shoulder”
The 2014 elections marked the first time since the 1950s that Republicans took con trol of the House. At that time Egolf was gearing up for his fourth term and his first as minority leader. He says he spent the weeks after the election that year strat egizing on how to navigate the new role. In his search for a chief of staff who could help “reinvent” the minority office, he kept hearing from close friends about a young Szczepanski.
Egolf says when he finally called Szczepanski to set up a meeting, she at first thought he was looking for a campaign do nation. When she agreed to meet, it was be cause of her affinity for politeness.
“She came to the meeting, the way she tells the story, ready to let me down easy,” Egolf says, adding that he took a back seat during the conversation and let Szczepanski grill him.
She accepted the job. And since 2017, when Democrats took back control of the House after a single term with a Republican majority, Szczepanski could usually be seen sitting stage left of Egolf when the House was in session.
The seasoned politician and prominent Santa Fe attorney tells SFR that his praise of Szczepanski back in February was gen uine. In fact, Egolf says, it was always his intention to position Szczepanski as his equal when he brought her on as chief of staff.
“I made it clear that I was going to see her as my complete, shoulder-to-shoulder partner, equal in everything that we did,” Egolf says.
Egolf says Szczepanski found her stride almost immediately and began putting to gether an “action plan” for how to both take back the House and to “communicate our message from the position of the minority.”
“She suggested a goal, from the very be ginning, that we put in every effort to make the House of Representatives be a majori ty-woman chamber,” Egolf says.
Szczepanski’s plan seemed to work because women outnumber the men in the Democratic House caucus by 10. The House as a whole is also majority women.
During her time in the House minority office, Szczepanski established herself as a person in the know—not just about how the Legislature operates, but also the often-dry
policy details spelled out in the stacks of papers shuffling around the Capitol.
Marsha Garcia, a communications con sultant who advises nonprofit groups across New Mexico that work on reproductive justice issues, worked with Szczepanski in the House minority office. Garcia tells SFR she was always impressed, not only with Szczepanski’s ability to stay cool under pressure, but also that Szczepanski never seemed stumped, no matter the issue.
“It just always kind of felt like Reena was a person that held all of the informa tion,” Garcia says. “[She] knew who was on first and what was on second.”
Garcia marveled at Szczepanski’s abil ity to balance interpersonal relationships with institutional and policy knowledge. She recalls a situation in 2016—the second year of the Republican controlled term— when the GOP and then-Gov. Susana Martinez relentlessly pushed to restrict driver’s licenses to those who could show “proof of authorized legal presence in the
Know Reena
Name: Reena Szczepanski
Age: 46
Born: Decatur, Georgia
Past and Future:
• Bachelor’s degree from Brown University in human biology and community health–1997
• New Mexico director of Drug Policy Alliance, 2004-2010
• Director of Emerge New Mexico, 2010-2014
• New Mexico House Minority Chief of Staff, 2015-2017
• Speaker of the House chief of staff, 2018-2022
• Running unopposed for House District 47 seat, November 2022
United States.”
With a House gallery full of immigrants and advocates watching the floor debate, Democrats could only play defense and try to run the debate clock with the hope they might flip a handful of Republicans on the issue.
They didn’t, though the law has since been relaxed to allow the option of a driv er’s license that does not require proof of legal residency, (said license does not meet federal Real ID requirements).
Garcia, through tears, tells SFR that while advocates pushing against the bill were downtrodden after hours of sharp ly-worded debates, Szczepanski took a moment to gather Democratic House members to commiserate with the ad vocates. Garcia, also a daughter of immi grants, says it was one of the many times Szczepanski showed she is a “master at her craft.”
“It was just really one of those moments of seeing her selflessness come out, be cause while we were all crushed, the first thing she thought of was our people, was our community,” Garcia says.
The outward appearance of peren nial rancor in the Legislature often cre ates perceptions of screaming matches between political leaders behind closed doors. Whether those interactions are based in reality, news releases filled with political rhetoric from Republicans and Democrats paint a picture of a cutthroat atmosphere. However, former Republican House leader Nate Gentry tells SFR that Szczepanski “was always the consummate professional.”
The Albuquerque attorney who served as a leader in both the House majority and minority before he decided to not seek re election in 2018, describes Szczepanski as “funny” and “always pleasant to work with.”
“I never saw her lose her cool,” Gentry says. “I wish I could say the same of both Brian [Egolf] and me. She was always super level-headed and just a nice person.”
Thrust into a role
To say House District 47 is safe for Democrats would be an understatement. Since taking office in 2009, Egolf has vir tually never been seriously challenged. And now, Szczepanski will essentially walk into office. The district includes the state Capitol and mountain foothills, but it also juts out to include chunks of Santa Fe County toward Glorieta and almost to Lamy.
By New Mexico standards, and partic
Reena Szczepanski poses with her old boss and soon-to-be former Speaker of the House Brian Egolf on the day Szczepanski filed her candidacy paperwork to fill the seat he’s vacating. COURTESYReena Steps Up
ularly those of Santa Feans, Szczepanski could be viewed as an outsider, despite her and her husband calling Northern New Mexico home for more than 20 years. During an interview at the Roundhouse, she politely and gracefully moves past the critique. She says she first encountered professional mentors who encouraged her when she moved to New Mexico.
“All I can say is the people of this state have been so good to me, really,” Szczepanski says. “So, all the ways that I can think of to give back, I will. Because, growing up, I didn’t have a lot of mentors. I didn’t have a lot of mentors in college, cer tainly not in grade school or high school.”
Born and raised in Decatur, Georgia, to Malyali parents, Szczepanski moved to New Mexico with her now husband Michael just after they both graduated from Brown University where she got a bachelor’s degree in human biology and community health.
Szczepanski says she and Michael, who shares her last name, were “college sweethearts” at Brown. The two moved to New Mexico after Michael found a job here and Szczepanski started work at a medical clinic in Taos, the town where the two would marry in 2001. It was that medical office where Szczepanski says she first got that professional encouragement.
From there, she found work at a state-run hepatitis program, which spurred her in the direction of harm prevention advocacy. She says that interest made her a perfect fit for the Drug Policy Alliance. Much of Szczepanski’s advocacy for legal ized medical cannabis is memori alized for posterity in former state Sen. Dede Feldman’s book Inside
the New Mexico Senate: Boots, Suits, and Citizens. Feldman noted how instrumental the Drug Policy Alliance, with Szczepanski at the helm, was in bringing personal sto ries from deathly ill patients who used cannabis as one of their final options for comfort. Feldman’s book showcases the struggles Szczepanski and lawmakers faced in trying to change Reagan-era views on cannabis, but, Feldman wrote, the real win ners were the medical cannabis patients.
“The gratification of the dark-haired woman, who had shepherded her flock of patients and spearheaded four sperate bills through the process over the years, was
nothing compared to the rush of relief that the advocates felt upon the bill’s tortured passage the previous month,” she wrote.
Szczepanski says during that time she was thrust into a role of pushing for policy changes while balancing the lives and dig nity of people who often struggled to not only leave the house, but endure the of ten drawn-out legislative process with the dark cloud of their own mortalities always in the room.
“I just felt like I had to get everything right,” Szczepanski tells SFR. “And I had to be at my best all the time, because the pa tients I was working with, I didn’t know if
they would be around one more session.”
Working on medical cannabis and sy ringe exchange programs taught her the importance of stoicism in the face of politi cal adversity, she says.
In 2005, with the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 still a a fresh memo ry for many, Szczepanski caught a rhet oric-filled floor debate about whether to allow in-state tuition to undocumented immigrants who also graduated high school in New Mexico. She says some lawmakers’ comparisons of the gallery full of young immigrants to Osama bin Laden shook her.
“I just remember walking out of the building and calling my mentor who had recruited me into this job and just crying, ‘I can’t do this job. These people hate me and you know what? I don’t think I like them either,’” Szczepanski recalls.
The bill passed, granting the students lower tuition.
When asked about the driv er’s license bill anecdote from Garcia, Szczepanski says the is sue hit close to home because of her parents’ experience immi grating from Kerala, India to the US in the mid 1970s. At the time the US was experiencing a nurs ing shortage, which Szczepanski says was the “very specific twist of fate” that helped her parents start a new life. Her father, who served in the Indian Air Force, would go on to be a “big truck” mechanic and her mother, who was pregnant with Szczepanski on the flight to the US, would go on to work as a nurse.
“There’s a lot of situations where I’m like, ‘But for the grace of God, there go I,’” she tells SFR. “Especially with immigra
All I can say is the people of this state have been so good to me, really. So, all the ways that I can think of to give back, I will.
Reena SzczepanskiSzczepanski, at left, with her younger sister, Sheila Ciminera, in the mid- 1980s. Szczepanski moved to New Mexico right after college.
tion, because the reality is, if immigration policy had just been a little bit different, if we hadn’t had a nursing shortage in the ‘70s, my parents would not have been able to immigrate here, or maybe they would have immigrated under different circumstances.”
Now, Szczepanski is slated to become the first Indian-American woman to be elected to the state House.
Out from behind the rostrum Szczepanski walks SFR around the Roundhouse and points out some of her fa vorite spots to take a breath and get some clarity. In plain sight, at the end of one of the hallways of committee rooms, is a gi ant window that not only adds much need ed natural light, but also offers a view of Paseo de Peralta, a road that loops down town Santa Fe. Szczepanski says she’s “always been fond of” the nook adorned with plants, away from anything besides a couple of offices, partly because of the quietness. The area is also near the office she vacated after Democrats took back the House.
Just weeks ago, Szczepanski officially left her paid job as chief of staff in antici pation of her new unpaid gig as an elected official. She, along with all state lawmak ers, will receive a paltry per diem, but also like many of her soon-to-be colleagues will have to take a day job. For Szczepanski, it will be a with Civic Resolve, a newly formed national organization that aims to encour age civic engagement.
Szczepanski says he doesn’t plan to go overboard with introducing legislation next year, which could be a result of her realizing, after years of watching sessions from her perch, that freshman lawmakers tend to be overzealous in their attempts and usually come up short.
She says she plans to work on a “gun vi olence prevention” bill, and she lights up when discussing a proposal to bolster the state’s “creative economy.”
“I started thinking about this because obviously the arts and creative people are huge for Santa Fe, but it’s also one of the things that makes New Mexico so special and so unique,” Szczepanski says.
It’s still too early to start examining any legislation in earnest, namely because the general election is still weeks away. But, Szczepanski says the goal is to create a new “creative industries” division of the state’s Economic Development department.
Regardless of what bills she files, House Majority Leader Javier Martínez, D-Albuquerque, says Szczepanski’s new district can look forward to a representa tive who brings extensive knowledge and compassion to the proverbial table. He says
she has worked on nearly every major issue Egolf has taken on: decriminalizing abor tion, tapping state funds to pay for early childhood education, massive budget over hauls to include a transition to renewable energy, major tax reform and, of course, legalizing adut-use cannabis.
“She’s been behind some of the biggest policy wins the state has seen in the last 20 years,” Martínez tells SFR.
House members must elect their new speaker when the session begins in January—a position that seems ripe for Martínez. He tells SFR that if that’s what his colleagues want, he’s ready for it.
“If my caucus decides that I would be a good speaker on their behalf, I welcome the challenge and the opportunity,” Martínez says.
But Martínez says he wants everyone, including those who Szczepanski will represent, to remember who she is and what she’s done.
“I just hope her constituents realize that they’re voting for not just any old representative,” he says. “They’re voting for a heavy hitter. I know that when the book is written on our generation’s leadership, she’s gonna be smack in the middle of it.”
Egolf, ever the contrarian, points out a flaw in his longtime aide.
“This is the most controversial thing about Reena: She hates tater tots,” he says.
Others who spoke with SFR confirm that Szczepanski is a French fry connois seur, but could not confirm that she dis likes the clearly superior version of fried potatoes.
When asked in person about the claim, Szczepanski dodges the question.
“Who told you that? Probably the speaker,” Szczepanski speculates. “It infu riates him.”
When SFR asks Szczepanski if she has her long-term sights on the speaker’s gavel,
she leaves that to speculation as well, only saying she’s focused on turning out voters in her district and raising her two sons.
“Oh gosh, I don’t know,” Szczepanski says at the notion of leading the House pro ceedings. “As the working mom, I’m like, ‘One day at a time.’”
When does voting begin?
Mailed ballots will first be sent to voters who request them on Oct. 11, which is the same day that voters can first cast ballots in person at the county clerk’s office, 100 Catron St. (8 am - 5 pm Mon - Fri, and 10 am6 pm, Nov. 5).
Santa Fe County voters may also visit any alternate voting locations beginning Oct. 22, (noon-8 pm, Tues-Fri and 10 am-6 pm, Sat) at the Santa Fe Rodeo Grounds, Pojoaque Satellite Office, Abedon Lopez Community Center, Christian Life Church, Southside Library, Max Coll Community Center in Eldorado and Town of Edgewood Administrative Office.
Election day is Tuesday, Nov. 9. Polls are open that day from 7 am to 7 pm.
More at sfreporter.com/elections
SFREPORTER.COM • SEPTEMBER 28-OCTOBER
SFREPORTER.COM SEPTEMBER 28-OCTOBER
I just hope her constituents realize that they’re voting for not just any old representative . They’re voting for a heavy hitter.
Javier Martínez, House Majority LeaderPHOTO BY ADAN SERNA, COURTESY Szczepanski on opening day of the 2018 legislative session. Later that year, a record number of women would be elected to the state House of Representatives.
Santa
Transmitting for the first time since 2019, SFI’s InterPlanetary Festival is broadcasting October 22nd and 23rd from SITE Santa Fe. SFI researchers and InterPlanetary intellectuals will explore deep questions in complexity science alongside classic science fiction film screenings, book signings, musical performances, lectures, family fun activities, and bespoke beverages from Second Street Brewery. Due to the more intimate setting, seating is limited to 350 per event, available on a first-come, first serve basis, but all content will be streamed, and exterior activities are open to all.
SPEAKERS & PANELISTS
TREGILLIS
MUSICAL ACTS CHAGALL
Oct 22 and 23rd at SITE SANTA
SCREENINGS
THE FORBIN PROJECT
MATTER DANCE PARTY with DJ ASTROFREQ and bar by ALTAR
PANELS
ALMAZAN TED CHIANG TRISTAN DUKE ASHTON
GLEICK KYLE HARPER TRAVIS HOLMES CHRIS
NINA LANZA CAITLIN MCSHEA
ORIT PELEG CAROLYN PORCO DARIO
SCHARF PETER SWIRSKI BRENDAN TRACEY
TEAM ALEX
If Santa Fe galleries are correct, folks in the art buying game have a real hankering for landscapes. But who among us hasn’t grown tired now and then of the puffy cloud/blue sky/red mesa showings that seemingly inundate the genre? Who among us hasn’t longed for more? Enter David T Alexander, a Canadian painter with a knack for transforming the everyday into abstracted pieces of wondrous strangeness. Known for water reflection imagery (a technique that is basically what it sounds like), Alexander takes familiar elements of land scape and turns them on their heads, crafting swirling and bizarre colorscapes that simultaneously incorporate abstraction, surrealism and contemporary flair. You can get lost in one of these bad boys, and we suggest you do so at Evoke Contemporary this week. (ADV)
David T. Alexander: Infinite to Infinitesimal Opening: 5-7 pm Friday, Sept. 30. Free. Evoke Contemporary 550 S Guadalupe St., (505) 995-9902
A ROSE BY ANY OTHER NAME
Gotta hand it to Smoke the Moon gallery—they’re trying out some very cool things over there on Canyon Road. And not to stick it too much to the artsiest street in town, but it’s not exactly known for taking risks. Of course, Los Ange les-based artist Stephanie Rose Guerrero is not a risk per se, more like a bold statement. At the upcoming permanence of forgetting exhibit at Smoke the Moon (Guerrero’s first in the state), the artist presents a dreamy pastel vision of reality, one that’s better than what is and represents what might be if we could only grasp it. Time moves slowly with utopia visualized across naturalistic elements merging into scenes of tech and animal life. To borrow a phrase from the gallery itself, think of it like magic realism...where we could be if we just figured out a shared means of escaping the humdrum real world. Oof. Chills. (ADV)
Stephanie Rose Guerrero: the permanence of forgetting: Noon-4 pm Thurs-Sun; through Oct. 23. Free. Smoke the Moon 616 1/2 Canyon Road, smokethemoon.com
MUSIC TUE/4
SUZANNE—YOU’RE ALL THAT I’VE WANTED OF A GIRL
It was almost vexing to learn singer-songwriter Suzanne Vega is headed to Santa Fe’s notably small St. Francis Auditorium. See, Vega’s what we call a legend, even if that word gets thrown around a lot; a veritable master of her craft and the kind of musician from whom everyone knows a song or two, even if they don’t realize it consciously. Still, as a capper to one of the most varied and badass musical summers our town has had in ages, it’s a pretty nice one. Vega’s one of the songwriters who helped contempo-folk find its footing during the resurgence of the 1980s and 1990s, a deeply emotive singer with one of the most gorgeous voices in the biz and a powerhouse lyricist with more than 30 years under her belt. Think of her like a storyteller who makes it easy to connect. Go. Feel something. Do it. (ADV)
Suzanne Vega: 7:30 pm Tuesday, Oct. 4. $30 St. Francis Auditorium, 107 W Palace Ave., (505) 476-5072
Ten Comics Enter, One Comic—Actually, They’ll Probably All Live in the End
Now-monthly standup showdown pits regional comics against one another in good-natured joke-off
Local comedian and, as of not so long ago, comedy event producer Esther Coker tells SFR she’d describe the burgeoning comedy scene in the area as “booming,” and we’re inclined to agree. A million years ago, there was a comedy club here—then, in the dark times, we were lucky if we’d get a handful of standups in town per year. Now, though, with Coker and so many others leading the way (shoutout to stalwart troupe Wayward Comedy and the CloudTop Comedy Festival from earlier this month), you can get your jokes in on the reg all over.
The big thing currently residing on Coker’s plate would be her now-monthly event, Santa Fe’s Standup Comedy Contest , a gathering of the minds and mics that pits comics from in and around Santa Fe and Albuquerque against each other. The rules are simple: 10 comics enter and the audi ence picks their top three favorites, with cash prizes going to the winners.
“The others, of course, get trucker hats and merchandise and free drinks and fans and glory and an invisible puppy,” Coker tells SFR. “Plus they get the greatest thing of all: bragging rights until the next contest.”
Coker says the shows that have been
going down on the Reunity Resources farm have been well-attended. Santa Feans are ready to laugh, it would seem.
“It’s a friendly competition, and I have to say that my ultimate goal, my one-to-fiveyear plan, is to have a yearly competition between Albuquerque and Santa Fe com ics,” Coker tells SFR, adding that she’d like to transform her No Bull Comedy produc tion company—and the contest itself—into nonprofit ventures.
“It’s a great way to en courage standup comedians to involve their audience, and to learn how to craft better sets, write more and practice more in the hopes of better fostering better comedy.”
Cochiti Pueblo-based standup Korey Herrera hosts the whole shindig, and giv en that the warmer evenings are waning, it could be the last outdoor event for awhile.
Coker says to stay tuned for future venue announcements. (Alex De Vore)
SANTA FE’S STANDUP COMEDY CONTEST:
6 pm Thursday, Sept. 29. $5
Reunity Resources, 1829 San Ysidro Crossing (505) 393-1196
COURTESY SMOKE THE MOON GEORGE HOLZ ART COMEDYTHE CALENDAR
CLEMENTINA AND GENIOSOS, MANITOS Y MONOS
Want to see your event listed here?
We’d love to hear from you. Send notices via email to calendar@sfreporter.com.
Make sure you include all the pertinent details such as location, time, price and so forth. It helps us out greatly.
Submission doesn’t guarantee inclusion.
ONGOING
ART
ALISON HIXON
Susan Eddings Pérez Galley
717 Canyon Road (505) 477-4ART
New surrealist works from Hixon.
10 am-5 pm, free
ARRIVALS & DEPARTURES
LewAllen Galleries 1613 Paseo de Peralta (505) 988-3250
Rural landscapes, still lifes and images of the human figure.
10 am–6 pm, free
BRUTALLY SENSITIVE
NO LAND
54 1/2 E. San Francisco St., Ste. 7 (216) 973-3367
Large-scale digital art from Ranran Fan.
Noon-4 pm, Sat, free
CAMILLE HOFFMAN: MOTHERLANDS form & concept
435 S Guadalupe St. (505) 780-8312
Hoffman transforms the space into an immersive landscape using medical records and vinyl.
10 am-5 pm, Tues-Sat, free
CIPX: CRITICAL INDIGENOUS PHOTOGRAPHIC EXCHANGE
Foto Forum Santa Fe
1714 Paseo de Peralta (505) 470-2582
Tintypes from photographer Will Wilson, whom, we understand, has been known to pop by Foto Forum and snap new shots of visiting gallery-goers. Maybe this is your week, huh?
Noon-5 pm, Thurs-Fri, free
Kouri + Corrao Gallery 3213 Calle Marie (505) 820-1888
Belen-based artist Paula Castillo’s statues represent the intersections of New Mexico’s identity.
By appointment, Mon-Fri; Noon-5 pm, Tues-Sat, free
DEBBIE LONG
5. Gallery 2351 Fox Road, Ste. 700 (505) 257-8417
Glass works from Taos. Noon-5 pm, Thurs-Sat, free
HAVANA PRINTMAKERS
Artes de Cuba
1700 A Lena St. (505) 303-3138
Dispatches from Cuba’s vibrant contemporary art scene.
10 am-4 pm, Tues-Sat, free
INTERNAL LOGIC photo-eye Gallery
1300 Rufina Circle, Ste. A3, (505) 988-5152 x202
Photomontage by Maggie Taylor.
10 am-5:30 pm, Mon-Sat, free
JACKS MCNAMARA: ANCESTRAL IMAGINATION form & concept
435 S Guadalupe St. (505) 780-8312
New paintings on wood.
10 am-5 pm, Tues-Sat, free
JOHNNIE WINONA ROSS: BEAN CREEK SEEPS
Charlotte Jackson Fine Art 554 S Guadalupe St. (505) 989-8688
New paintings from Ross.
10 am-5 pm Tues-Sat, free
JULIE ENGLAND: NEW TERRAIN Strata Gallery
418 Cerrillos Road, Ste. 1C, (505) 780-5403
England has an eye for color and topography.
10 am-5 pm, Tues-Sat, free
JUN KANEKO: SOLO EXHIBITION
Gerald Peters Contemporary 1011 Paseo de Peralta (505) 954-5700
Check out key pieces of Kaneko’s lesser-known study— muted tones, copper surface effects and geometric compositions.
10 am-5 pm, Mon-Fri, free
KAREN YANK
Turner Carroll Gallery 725 Canyon Road (505) 986-9800
Sculptural works. 10 am–6 pm, Sat-Thurs; 10 am-7 pm, Fri, free
LIEN TRUONG: FROM THE EARTH RISE RADIANT BEINGS
Turner Carroll Gallery 725 Canyon Road (505) 986-9800
Bold explorations of color.
10 am–6 pm, Sat-Thurs; 10 am-7 pm, Fri, free
MAGNUM OPUS
LewAllen Galleries
1613 Paseo de Peralta (505) 988-3250
Skip Steinworth builds upon his notably lucid approach to still lifes.
10 am-6 pm, free
MARK POMILIO: APPLIED ABSTRACTIONS
LewAllen Galleries 1613 Paseo de Peralta, (505) 988-3250
Mark Pomilio’s references forces and geometries of the world.
10 am–6 pm, Mon-Fri; 10 am-5pm, Sat free
MILAGRO PAINTERS PAINTED STORIES SHOW
Abiquiú Inn 21120 Hwy. 84, Abiquiú (505) 685-4378
Award-winning New Mexico Plein Air Painters.
7 am-9 pm daily, free
MORTAL HIGHWAYS
El Zaguán 545 Canyon Road, (505) 982-0016
Photography of New Mexico’s highway roadside memorials. You’ve seen ‘em before, now learn more about the how and why of the things.
9 am-5 pm, Mon-Fri, free
PAINTING DEADLINES
7 Arts Gallery 125 Lincoln Ave. (505) 437-1107
Oil sketches by Deborah Allison.
11 am-5 pm daily, free
SELF-DETERMINED: A CONTEMPORARY SURVEY OF NATIVE AND INDIGENOUS ARTISTS
Center For Contemporary Arts 1050 Old Pecos Trail (505) 216-0672
Thirteen Native artists engage environmental themes. This one has names like Chaz John, Erica Lord and Ian Kuali’i—all of whom deserve a place on anyone’s list.
11 am-5 pm, Fri-Sun $10
SNAKE/WOMAN
FOMA Gallery
333 Montezuma Ave., Ste. B (210) 288-4740
A photographic collaboration featuring indigenous snakes rescued for safe relocation.
11 am-2 pm, free
“UNTITLED (FIGURE 135)” from Linda Stojak’s As of Now at LewAllen Galleries. LEWALLEN GALLERIESWe’d love to hear from you. Send notices via email to calendar@sfreporter.com.
Make sure you include all the pertinent details such as location, time, price and so forth. It helps us out greatly.
Submission doesn’t guarantee inclusion.
WORKING WITH KIN form & concept
435 S Guadalupe St. (505) 780-8312
New work from Heidi Brandow Jamison Chas Banks, Eliza Naranjo Morse and more. 10 am-5 pm, Tues-Sat, free
WED/28
ART
ARTS JAM WEDNESDAYS
Alas de Agua Art Collective 1520 Center Drive, Ste. 2 alasdeagua.com Make art with the collective. 5-7 pm, free
ASCENSION: BALLOON
FIESTA SALON AT BLUE RAIN
GALLERY
Blue Rain Gallery 544 S Guadalupe St., (505) 954-9902
YOUTH CHESS CLUB
Santa Fe Public Library Main Branch 145 Washington Ave. (505) 955-6780
Play chess, kids. Do it. 5:30-8 pm, free
MUSIC
DON CURRY Cowgirl 319 S Guadalupe St. (505) 982-2565 Rock covers and originals. 4-6 pm, free
GARY BLACKCHILD AND THE GHOST TRAIN El Rey Court
1862 Cerrillos Road (505) 982-1931
Folk, roots and Americana. 8 pm, $10
SON DE AQUI, SON DE ACA
Hecho Gallery
129 W Palace Ave (505) 455-6882
Vicente Telles curates this show, bringing together artists from all over the Southwest.
10 am-5 pm, Wed-Mon, free
STILL LIVES
Gerald Peters Gallery 1011 Paseo de Peralta (505) 954-5700
Digital prints. 10 am-5 pm, Tues-Sat, free
TACK ROOM
Gerald Peters Gallery 1011 Paseo de Peralta (505) 954-5700
Art as equine equipment. 10 am-5 pm, Tues-Sat, free
THE CHANGING WEST
Victory Contemporary 124 W Palace Ave. (505) 983-8589
Painter Terry Gardner displays the West in its crossroads. 10 am-5 pm, daily
THE LYRICAL AND CONCEPTUAL DANCE
Nüart Gallery 670 Canyon Road (505) 988-3888
Surrealism and color studies by painters John Tarahteeff and Willy Bo Richardson.
All Day, free
THE PICTURE POSTCARD
No Name Cinema 2013 Pinon St. nonamecinema.org 20th century photo postcards.
On view during events or by appointment, free
THERE ARE NO ENDINGS
Chiaroscuro Contemporary Art 558 Canyon Road (505) 992-0711
Recent work from Duane Slick (Meskwaki/Ho-Chunk Nations).
10 am-5 pm, Tues-Sat
TRANSITIONS
Peyton Wright Gallery 237 E Palace Ave. (505) 989-9888
Donald Roy Thompson focuses on the relationship of colors.
9 am-5 pm daily, free
Blue Rain artists celebrate International Balloon Fiesta. All Day, free
BOOKS/LECTURES
BLACK-ON-WHITE OR WHITE-ON BLACK
Museum of Indian Arts & Culture 710 Camino Lejo (505) 476-1269
Diana Sherman discusses Chacoan, Mimbres, Hopi and Rio Grande vessels. 3 pm, free with admission
COFFEE AND CONVERSATION
35 Degree North 60 E San Francisco St. A fresh cup of coffee with historian Christian Saiia.
Noon-2 pm, free
DANCE
ENTREFLAMENCO
El Flamenco Cabaret 135 W Palace Ave. Flamenco and dinner. 6:15 pm, $25-$45
EVENTS
GEEKS WHO DRINK
Second Street Brewery (Railyard) 1607 Paseo de Peralta (505) 989-3278
Pub quiz.
7 pm, free
GOVERNOR'S MANSION
TOUR
New Mexico Governor's Mansion One Mansion Drive (301) 318-0940
Explore New Mexico's Governor's Mansion.
Noon-3 pm, free
HOTLINE B(L)INGO
Desert Dogs Brewery and Cidery 112 W San Francisco St. Ste. 307 (505) 983-0134
It's bingo time.
7 pm, $2
WAYWARD COMEDY OPEN
MIC
Chile Line Brewery 204 N Guadalupe St. (505) 982-8474
Weekly open mic with the local comedy crew.
5:30-8 pm, free
HALF-BROKE HORSES TWOSTEPPING NIGHT Tumbleroot Brewery & Distillery 2791 Agua Fría St. (505) 303-3808
Honky-tonk and Americana. 7 pm, free
KARAOKE NIGHT Boxcar 530 S Guadalupe St. (505) 988-7222 Classic karaoke. 10 pm, free
WISDRUM
About the Music 2350 Fox Road facebook.com/atmsantafe Chris Berry and friends.
6:30 pm, $12-$25
THEATER
JULESWORKS FOLLIES END OF MONTHLY SHOWCASE Online, bit.ly/3xVh8xB Variety show.
5 pm, free
WORKSHOPS
BEGINNING FABRIC WITH LISA Wise Fool New Mexico 1131 Siler Road Ste. B (505) 992-2588
Fundamentals of aerial fabrics.
5:30-7 pm, $28-$132
CNC PLASMA CUTTER BADGE
MAKE Santa Fe 2879 All Trades Road (505) 819-3502
Take your metalwork to the next level. 2-6 pm, $90
CNC SHAPER ORIGIN— HANDHELD ROUTER TRAINING
MAKE Santa Fe 2879 All Trades Road (505) 819-3502
Learn to operate the Shaper Origin, a handheld routing tool. 3-7 pm, $85
HULA HOOPING MOVEMENT AND EXPLORATION WITH ALISHIYA
Wise Fool New Mexico 1131 Siler Road Ste. B (505) 992-2588
The name says it all. 5:30-7 pm, $22-$108
ON PAGE 19
Want to see your event listed here?
OPENING SOON! OCTOBER 5 - 23 AT THE LAB THEATER
T ONY NOM IN ATION AND HELPM ANN A WARD THE CHILDREN
by Lucy Kirkwood Directed by Robert BenedettiWith Brent Black, Leslie Dillen, and Lynn Goodwin
With a Tony Nomination for Best Play and Australia’s Helpmann Best Play Award, this 2017 play about the heroic response of three retired scientists to a Fukashima-like disaster was called one of the greatest theatrical works since 2000 by London’s The Guardian.
Thursdays to Saturdays at 7:30 pm, Sundays at 2 pm
INDIVIDUAL TICKETS $30 / $15 PREVIEWS & STUDENTS www.nmactorslab.com
Big news for flamenco master Antonio Granjero, director of the nonprofit Santa Fe dance company EntreFlamenco, who announced last week he has been nominated for a Bessie Award—also known as the NY Dance & Performance Awards—which are given to those who present their performance work in New York City. The nod comes from Granjero’s work on a production of Ni Bien Ni Mal, Todo lo Contrario from April at the Joyce Theater, and just goes to show that Santa Fe has some seriously world class stuff going on. It’s hardly shocking, though, to learn of the nomination. Granjero has been dancing since he was 6 years old, and has trained with maestros and maestras like Fernando Belmonte, Paco del Rio and Carmen Cortes, among others—and he pays it forward to this day. Given his whole teaching/ performing/nomination thing, it seemed a great time to check in about the award, the dance and the company. You can also catch Granjero performing numerous times this week at EntreFlamenco shows (6:15 pm Wednesday, Sept. 28-Sunday, Oct. 2. $25-$45. El Flamenco Cabaret, 135 W Palace Ave., (505) 209-1302)
This interview has been edited for space and clarity. (Alex De Vore)
Obviously it’s not about the awards when it comes to making art, but how does a nomination like this feel? Does it fire you up, or do you not much think about it?
It is an honor to be nominated for this award. One feels recognized for their work and contributions, and even more when the panelists that form this organization are professional artists themselves that are part of the dance world of all disciplines. That other recognized dancers, without your request, look at your work and consider that your contributions are deserving of such a huge recognition is truly incredible. I didn’t ever think of this happening. Flamenco has been very present in Santa
Fe for many years now thanks to the legendary figure of María Benítez. She paved the way for us, it is necessary for us to work with the same professionalism, enthusiasm, excellence and dedication that she always demonstrated.
Those who love flamenco are so passionate about it, but those who’ve never experienced the art form have told me they’re daunted. How might you go about luring in newcomers, or what might you say to someone on the fence?
I would invite them to experience the raw emotion of the art form. Flamenco is multidisciplinary. Not only is it a dance form, it is a song form that expresses with the vocals—a musical form of expression with the orchestration of guitar, percussive elements of the cajon (flamenco percussive box), the palmas (the hand clapping) and is a very intense journey of the combination of these forms of expression. Flamenco is an art form that is vivid and alive, it is constantly evolving. You never stop learning and evolving. It is full of passion. One is capable of forgetting about everything when you dance. I grew up listening to flamenco music, seeing flamenco; it’s part of my culture and my upbringing since childhood to the present.
Did you always want to lead your own company, and would you consider yourself an experimenter? In other words, do you have a running list of ideas in your head, or are you creating through feel—or both?
I always had the intuition that I would end up with my own company, but when you are 20 to 30 years old, you are not prepared for such a task. You do not know the motive of many directive concepts, performing dance is one thing and directing is totally distinct from dancing. Becoming a director can only be learned from many, many years of working as a dancer with multiple companies and different artists. Not all dancers serve to work as directors or choreographers. In my case, I was appointed as a rehearsal master within many companies in Spain at a young age and I did it very well, or at least that was what I was told.
In flamenco, both [ideas and feel] are normal. In duets or in group choreography, both styles are completely choreographed from beginning to end. In solo choreography there is a percentage of the set choreography and another part that is improvisation, of sensations at that very moment. You let your emotions take over, your body follows along with your mind and your soul. When you find yourself in this moment, you are in ecstasy.
with EntreFlamenco Director Antonio Granjero MORGAN SMITHWe’d love to hear from you. Send notices via email to calendar@sfreporter.com.
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THU/29
BOOKS/LECTURES
BENEDICTE VALENTINER
Acequia Madre House 614 Acequia Madre globalsantafe.org
Former General Manager of the Blair House speaks with Ambassador Vicki Huddleston.
5 pm, $15-$25
CONTEMPORARY EX-VOTOS: DEVOTION BEYOND MEDIUM (OPENING)
New Mexico Museum of Art 107 W Palace Ave. (505) 476-5072
Emmanuel Ortega curates this exhibition on aspects of ex-votos, a type of retablo.
5:30 pm, free
THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN LATE SPANISH COLONIAL NEW MEXICO: THE BISHOPS OF DURANGO AND THE SECULARIZATION OF THE MISSIONS
EVENTS
GEEKS WHO DRINK Social Kitchen + Bar 725 Cerrillos Road (505) 982-5952
Teams take on other teams in a to-the-death trivia cage match.
7 pm, free
SANTA FE'S STAND UP COMEDY CONTEST
Santa Fe Community Farm 1829 San Ysidro Crossing (505) 983-3033
Ten performers do their best five minutes in this contest judged by you, the audience. (See SFR Picks, page 15)
6 pm, free
SKY RAILWAY: SUNSET SERENADE
Sky Railway 410 S Guadalupe St. (844) 743-3759
Sunset views, drinks and music.
6:05 pm pm, $99
YARDMASTERS
Railyard Park Community Room 701 Callejon St. (505) 316-3596
Yardmasters assist with the specialized horticultural care in the Railyard Park.
10 am-12 pm, free
MUSIC
BOB MAUS
Cava Lounge @Eldoradro Hotel & Spa 309 W San Francisco St. (505) 988-4455
Here comes blues and soul.
7 pm, free
HIGH DESERT TRIO Altar Spirits 545 Camino de la Familia (505) 916-8596
Acoustic Americana with notes of bluegrass.
7:30-9:30 pm, free
JACK WHITE Lensic Performing Arts Center 211 W San Francisco St. (505) 988-1234
THE PETER ERSKINE QUARTET
SITE Santa Fe
1606 Paseo de Peralta (505) 989-1199
Giants of the jazz world.
7 pm, $30-$35
THEATER
BEDTIME STORIES: WE <3 NEW MEXICO
Meow Wolf 1352 Rufina Circle (505) 395-6369
A neo-burlesque variety show. 8 pm, $27
WORKSHOPS
ACRO BALANCE WITH COLLEEN AND JO
Wise Fool New Mexico
1131 Siler Road Ste. B (505) 992-2588
Also known as acroyoga.
5:30-7 pm, $22-$108
MIXED AERIALS WITH LISA Wise Fool New Mexico 1131 Siler Road Ste. B (505) 992-2588
Aerial fabrics class.
5:30-7 pm, $28-$132
PRESENCE TRAINING/ DRAMATIC MAGIC WITH KATE
Wise Fool New Mexico 1131 Siler Road Ste. B (505) 992-2588
Explore the performance process.
7:15-8:45 pm, $22-$108
FRI/30
ART OPENINGS
DAVID T. ALEXANDER: INFINITE TO INFINITESIMAL (OPENING)
Evoke Contemporary 550 S. Guadalupe St. (505) 995-9902
Thursday, October
GRIMAUD,
featuring Victor Gonçalves, Tal Mashiach, & James Shipp
New Mexico Museum of Art 107 W Palace Ave. (505) 476-5072
Former state historian Rick Hendricks drops knowledge. Noon, $10 (free for members)
THE WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE
Santa Fe Public Library Southside 6599 Jaguar Drive (505) 955-2820
NASA Solar System Ambassador Len Dudda speaks about the Webb Telescope in-person and online.
6 pm, free
DANCE
ENTREFLAMENCO
El Flamenco Cabaret 135 W Palace Ave.
Flamenco action. (See 3 Questions, page 18)
6:15 pm, $25-$45
LA EMI FALL SERIES
The Lodge at Santa Fe 750 N St. Francis Drive (505) 992-5800
Flamenco with La Emi.
7:30 pm, $25-$55
The show sold out, but you might find tix online. 8:30 pm, free
LUCY BARNA Cowgirl 319 S Guadalupe St. (505) 982-2565
Singer-songwriter. 4-6 pm, free
MITO DE SOTO
Jean Cocteau Cinema 418 Montezuma Ave. (505) 466-5528
Classical, jazz and flamenco.
7 pm, $20-$50
OPEN MIC WITH STEPHEN
Mine Shaft Tavern 2846 Hwy. 14, Madrid (505) 473-0743
Show your stuff.
7 pm, free
ROBERT WILSON The Dragon Room 406 Old Santa Fe Trail (505) 983-7712
Local singer.
5:30 pm, free
Waterscapes and so much more. (See SFR Picks, page 15) 5-7 pm, free
DAVID CARLEY: WINDOWS OF PERCEPTION (OPENING)
Prism Arts & Other Fine Things 418 Cerrillos Road (248) 763-9642
Carley uses the concept of multi-dimensional vantages to explore how one event can be perceived in different ways.
5-7 pm, free
EARTH’S OTHER (OPENING) CURRENTS 826 826 Canyon Road currentsnewmedia.org
Six artists use analog and digital mechanisms to create new ways of seeing the world. It’s from the people at CURRENTS, too, so you can pretty much bet it’ll be good.
5 pm, free
FIRE + RENEWAL (OPENING) Susan Eddings Pérez Galley 717 Canyon Road (505) 477-4ART Ceramics and photography.
5 pm, free
Grimaud Anat Cohen is presented through the generosity of Jane and Stephen Hochberg ANAT COHEN QUARTETINHO featuring Vitor Gonçalves, Tal Mashiach, & James Shipp Lensic Performing Arts CenterWant to see your event listed here?
We’d love to hear from you. Send notices via email to calendar@sfreporter.com.
Make sure you include all the pertinent details such as location, time, price and so forth. It helps us out greatly.
Submission doesn’t guarantee inclusion.
DANCE
ENTREFLAMENCO
El Flamenco Cabaret 135 W Palace Ave.
Flamenco! (See 3 Qs, page 18)
6:15 pm, $25-$45
LA EMI FALL SERIES
The Lodge at Santa Fe 750 N St. Francis Drive (505) 992-5800
Flamenco with a local master.
7:30 pm, $25-$55
EVENTS
EXCLUSIVE LOOK: LLOYD KIVA NEW FASHION
El Flamenco Cabaret 135 W Palace Ave.
Amber Dawn Bear Robe presides over this look at fashion pieces by Lloyd Kiva New.
4-5 pm, $25-$150
INTERNATIONAL FOLK ART MARKET OPEN HOUSE
WAYWARD COMEDY SHOWCASE
Roots and Leaves Santa Fe Casa de Kava 301 N Guadalupe St. (720) 804-9379
The local crew struts its yuks. 5:30-8 pm, free
FILM
MORGAN BARNARD: LIVE EXPANDED CINEMA PERFORMANCE & WORKS FOR SINGLE CHANNEL VIDEO
No Name Cinema 2013 Pinon St., nonamecinema.org Filmmaker and performer Barnard explores light as subject matter. Audiences are requested to bring objects that either emit light or allow light to pass through. Masks are required, but the popcorn is free, as is admission.
7 pm, free
TGIF: THOMAS LUKE FLORESMANSI
First Presbyterian Church 208 Grant Ave. (505) 982-8544
Tenor Thomas Luke FloresMansi.
5:15 pm, free
THEATER
THE MOUNTAINTOP
The Lodge at Santa Fe 750 N St. Francis Drive (505) 992-5800
Martin Luther King, Jr, engages in conversation with a hotel maid the night before his historic assassination.
7:30 pm, $30-$75
WORKSHOPS
CIRCUS PLAY FOR ADULTS
JIM VOGEL: HAPPENSTANCE (OPENING)
Blue Rain Gallery 544 S Guadalupe St., (505) 954-9902
New paintings with nods to New Mexican folklore.
5-7 pm, free
LINDA STOJAK: AS OF NOW (OPENING)
LewAllen Galleries 1613 Paseo de Peralta (505) 988-3250
New character paintings. 5-7 pm, free
STEPHANIE ROSE GUERRERO: THE PERMANENCE OF FORGETTING (OPENING) Smoke the Moon
616 1/2 Canyon Road
Mixed-media works from the Los Angeles-based artist. (See SFR Picks, page 15)
12 pm, free
WILD PIGMENT PROJECT (OPENING) form & concept
435 S Guadalupe St. (505) 780-8312
Curator Tilke Elkins brings more than 20 artists together for pieces created with foraged natural pigments.
5-7 pm, free
620 Cerrillos Road (505) 992-7600
Tour IFAM’s new-ish digs. 4-6 pm, free
MAKE SANTA FE TOUR MAKE Santa Fe 2879 All Trades Road (505) 819-3502
The makerspace As your Qs. 6 pm, free
SANTA FE HISPANIC
CHAMBER OF COMMERCE: 40 UNDER FORTY Santa Fe Community Convention Center 201 W Marcy St. (505) 955-6590
Recognizing young professionals from the area.
5:30 pm, $50
SKY RAILWAY: SANTA FE SCENIC
Sky Railway 410 S Guadalupe St. (844) 743-3759
It’s beautiful here—learn that on a freaking train.
1:15 pm, $99
SKY RAILWAY: SUNSET SERENADE
Sky Railway 410 S Guadalupe St. (844) 743-3759
Sunset views and maybe some cocktails and music. 6:05 pm, $99
MUSIC
BILL PALMER
Mine Shaft Tavern 2846 Hwy. 14, Madrid (505) 473-0743
Singer-songwriter with kind of a Townes Van Zandt sorta thing.
3 pm, free
BOB MAUS
Cava Lounge @Eldoradro Hotel & Spa 309 W San Francisco St. (505) 988-4455
Here comes blues and soul.
7 pm, free
MAPACHE
Tumbleroot Brewery & Distillery 2791 Agua Fría St. (505) 303-3808
Solo acoustic and cosmic folk.
7:30 pm, free
ROBERT FOX TRIO Club Legato 125 E Palace Ave. Jazz, jazz and more jazz. We hear there’s a jazz jam after the main show, too.
6-9 pm, free
SILVER SKY BLUE SBAND
Mine Shaft Tavern 2846 Hwy. 14, Madrid (505) 473-0743
We’re betting it’s a blues band. 8 pm, free
WITH KRISTEN & CARY Wise Fool New Mexico 1131 Siler Road Ste. B (505) 992-2588
Try out alllll the circus techniques.
5:30-7 pm, $28-$132
SAT/1
ART
JACKS MCNAMARA: ANCESTRAL IMAGINATION
ARTIST TALK form & concept 435 S Guadalupe St. (505) 780-8312
McNamara talks about the process that went into their new body painted wood. 2:30 pm, free
LINDSAY PAYTON: PRETERNATURAL (OPENING)
Eye on the Mountain Art Gallery 222 Delgado St. (928) 308-0319
New local paintings and illustrations from the creepy creator.
11 am-5 pm Mon-Sat; Noon-5 pm Sun, free
SANTA FE ARTISTS MARKET
In the West Casitas, north of the water tower 1612 Alcaldesa St.
Weekly outdoor art market. 9 am-2 pm, free
DANCE
ENTREFLAMENCO
El Flamenco Cabaret 135 W Palace Ave Flamenco!
6:15 pm, $25-$45
LA EMI FALL SERIES
The Lodge at Santa Fe 750 N St. Francis Drive (505) 992-5800 Flamenco with La Emi. 7:30 pm, $25-$55
EVENTS
50TH ANNUAL HARVEST FESTIVAL
El Rancho de las Golondrinas 334 Los Pinos Road, (505) 471-2261
Celebrate the harvest, y’all!
10 am-4 pm, $6-$8
INSTITUTE OF AMERICAN INDIAN ARTS FALL POWWOW Institute of American Indian Arts 83 Avan Nu Po Road (505) 424-2300
Dancing, art, food and more.
11 am-5 pm, free
KEEP SANTA FE BEAUTIFUL’S
19TH ANNUAL WINE TASTING FUNDRAISER
Santa Fe Community Convention Center
201 W Marcy St. keepsantafebeautiful.org
A wine and food fundraiser. $75-$125
MEET AN OWL, HAWK OR TURKEY VULTURE
Plants of the Southwest 3095 Agua Fría St. (505) 498-8888
The Santa Fe Raptor Center brings birds you can meet.
11 am-1 pm, free
MOUNTAIN AND VALLEY WOOL FESTIVAL
Santa Fe County Fairgrounds 3229 Rodeo Road (505) 471-4711
Day one of the 39th annual iteration of the event.
9 am-5 pm, free
NORTHERN NEW MEXICO ADOPTION EXTRAVAGANZA
Santa Fe Place Mall 4250 Cerrillos Road fandfnm.org
Adopt a pet. Do it now!
11 am-3 pm, free
OKTOBERFIESTA
El Rancho de las Golondrinas 334 Los Pinos Road, (505) 471-2261
The Santa Fe Brewing Co. and ArtWalk Santa Fe join forces to raise a few bucks for local nonprofits.
1 pm, $10
SANTA FE WOMAN’S CLUB FLEA MARKET
Santa Fe Woman’s Club 1616 Old Pecos Trail (505) 983-9455
House stuff, clothes, books, jewelry and more. Cash/check only.
8 am-4 pm, free
SKY RAILWAY: LORE OF THE LAND
Sky Railway 410 S Guadalupe St. (844) 743-3759
Learn about the history of the area.
11:30 am, $119
WALK TO END ALZHEIMER’S Bicentennial/Alto Park 1121 Alto St. (505) 365-0678
Take a walk and raise money for Alzheimer’s. 9:30 am, free (but donations are suggested)
FILM
BIG READ SCREENING: URBAN REZ
Santa Fe Public Library Main Branch 145 Washington Ave. (505) 955-6781
The Santa Fe Public Library screens the 2013 documentary about the Urban Relocation Program as part of the NEA’s Big Read series.
8 pm, free
FOOD
VIETNAMESE STREET FOOD COOKING CLASS
Open Kitchen 227 Don Gaspar Ave. (202) 285-9840
Hue Chan Karels digs into the diversity and vibrancy of Vietnamese street food. 10 am-1 pm, $115
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MUSIC
BLUES REVUE
Ski Santa Fe 1477 NM-475 (505) 982-4429
Bluuuuuuuuuues, man. 3 pm, free
JJ AND THE HOOLIGANS
Mine Shaft Tavern 2846 Hwy. 14, Madrid (505) 473-0743
Rock, blues, Americana. 3 pm, free
KING ROPES
Mine Shaft Tavern 2846 Hwy. 14, Madrid (505) 473-0743
Country meets garage-psych. 7 pm, free
LARRY HAMILTON
530 S Guadalupe St. (505) 988-7222
Country two-step. 10 pm, $5
ROBERT FOX TRIO
Club Legato
125 E Palace Ave. Jazz, jazz and more jazz. 6-9 pm, free
SANGRE DE CRISTO CHORALE
St. Bede's Episcopal Church 1601 St. Francis Drive (505) 982-1133
Flutist Bonnie Schmader. 4 pm, $25
SAVE THE UGLY MUSIC FESTIVAL
CHOMP Food Hall
505 Cerrillos Road (505) 772-0946
A music fest and fundraiser that’s all about sustainable living through music.
2-10 pm, free
STANLIE KEE & STEP IN Cowgirl
319 S Guadalupe St. (505) 982-2565
Blues, baby. The kinda blues you feel way down in your bones. 1 pm, free
THE STRANGE Cowgirl
319 S Guadalupe St. (505) 982-2565
Desert rock with the long-rocking rockers who are also pretty nice dudes. That’s not nuthin’.
8 pm, free
VANILLA POP
Tumbleroot Brewery & Distillery 2791 Agua Fría St. (505) 303-3808
The legendary tongue-in-cheek/ avant-garde artists do things to your favorite songs you almost won’t believe. OK, you’ll believe.
8 pm, $10
THEATER
THE MOUNTAINTOP
The Lodge at Santa Fe
750 N St. Francis Drive (505) 992-5800
Martin Luther King, Jr, engages in conversation with a hotel maid the night before his historic assassination.
7:30 pm, $30-$75
WORKSHOP
METALSHOP/MIG WELDING BADGE
MAKE Santa Fe 2879 All Trades Road (505) 819-3502
Hands-on training with the tools you’ll need should you wanna get into metal working. 2-6 pm, $180
QUANTUM LANGUAGING SALON
Fruit Of The Earth Natural Health 909 Early St.
A space devoted to up-leveling our languaging habits.
3:30-4:30 pm, free
SUN/2
ART
ARTIST TALK: STEPHANIE ROSE GUERRERO: THE PERMANENCE OF FORGETTING
Smoke the Moon 616 1/2 Canyon Road
Los Angeles-based Chicana artist Guerrero discusses new mixed-media paintings. (See SFR Picks, page 15)
12 pm, free
BOOKS/LECTURES
ARGOS MACCALLUM BOOK LAUNCH AND POETRY READING AT TEATRO PARAGUAS
Teatro Paraguas 3205 Calle Marie, (505) 424-1601
Collected love poems. 5 pm, free
BIG READ GALLERY TALK AND TOUR
New Mexico Museum of Art 107 W Palace Ave. (505) 476-5063
Explore topics from the Tommy Orange novel, There, There 8 pm, free
DANCE
ENTREFLAMENCO
El Flamenco Cabaret 135 W Palace Ave. Flamenco.
6:15 pm, $25-$45
LA EMI FALL SERIES
The Lodge at Santa Fe 750 N St. Francis Drive (505) 992-5800
Flamenco with La Emi. 2 pm, $25-$55
EVENTS
50TH ANNUAL HARVEST FESTIVAL
El Rancho de las Golondrinas 334 Los Pinos Road (505) 471-2261
Pumpkin patch, arts and crafts, food trucks and more.
10 am-4 pm, $6-$8
MOUNTAIN AND VALLEY WOOL FESTIVAL
Santa Fe County Fairgrounds 3229 Rodeo Road (505) 471-4711
Formerly known as the Taos Wool Festival.
9 am-4 pm, free
POP-UP PLAYGROUND
Railyard Park 740 Cerrillos Road (505) 316-3596
Kids can build a playground.
11 am-3 pm, free
SAND PLAY SUNDAYS!
Santa Fe Children's Museum 1050 Old Pecos Trail (505) 989-8359
Play in the sand. 12-2 pm, free
MUSIC
DENISE MARIE AND MARCIEL
Mine Shaft Tavern 2846 Hwy. 14, Madrid (505) 473-0743
Singer-songwriter.
1 pm, free
GLORIETA PINES
Reunity Resources 1829 San Ysidro Crossing (505) 393-1196
Southwest-tinged folk tunes. 10 am-noon, $5
HÉLÈNE GRIMAUD
Lensic Performing Arts Center 211 W San Francisco St. (505) 988-1234
French pianist Hélène Grimaud. 4 pm, $35-$115
KHRUANGBIN WITH VIEUX FARKA TOURÉ
Santa Fe Opera 301 Opera Drive (505) 986-5900
Surfy jamz and Thai funk goodness.
7:30 pm, $48-$109
RYAN AND THE RESISTORS
Mine Shaft Tavern 2846 Hwy. 14, Madrid (505) 473-0743 Country. 3 pm, free
MON/3
DANCE
SANTA FE SWING
Odd Fellows Hall 1125 Cerrillos Road (505) 690-4165
$8 for the class and dance, $3 for just the open dance (which starts at 8 pm).
7 pm, $3-$8
MUSIC
ROADHOUSE KARMA
Mine Shaft Tavern 2846 Hwy. 14, Madrid (505) 473-0743
Americana 2 pm, free
TUE/4
DANCE
WORLD BALLET SERIES: SWAN LAKE
Lensic Performing Arts Center 211 W San Francisco St. (505) 988-1234
The classic ballet performed by a multi-national cast of 50 pros. That’s seriously so huge, and it’s seriously coming here.
7 pm, $41-$101
EVENTS
YARDMASTERS
Railyard Park Community Room 701 Callejon St. (505) 316-3596
Yardmasters assist with the specialized horticultural care in the Railyard Park. 10 am-12 pm, free
FOOD
FARMERS MARKET TOUR
Santa Fe Farmers Market Pavilion 1607 Paseo De Peralta
Join a Tour Host and Guide on a Tuesday morning stroll through the Santa Fe Farmers Market.
9 am, free
MUSIC
DEAR DOCTOR
Mine Shaft Tavern 2846 Hwy. 14, Madrid (505) 473-0743
Americana and folk. We’d make doctor jokes, but doctors are pretty cool.
2 pm, free
MUSEUMS
IAIA MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY
NATIVE ARTS 108 Cathedral Place (505) 983-8900
Athena LaTocha: Mesabi Redux. Matrilineal: Legacies of Our Mothers. Art of Indigenous Fashion.
10 am-4 pm, Wed-Sat, Mon 11 am-4 pm, Sun, $5-$10
MUSEUM OF ENCAUSTIC ART
18 County Road 55A (505) 424-6487
Global Warming is Real Juried Exhibition.
11 am-4 pm, Fri-Sun, $10 (18 and under free)
MUSEUM OF INDIAN ARTS AND CULTURE
706 Camino Lejo (505) 476-1200
Grounded in Clay: The Spirit of Pueblo Pottery. ReVOlution. Here, Now and Always. Painted Reflections.
10 am-5 pm, Tues-Sun, $3-$9
MUSEUM OF INTERNATIONAL FOLK ART 706 Camino Lejo (505) 476-1200
Dressing with Purpose: Belonging and Resistance in Scandinavia. Fashioning Identities. Yokai: Ghosts & Demons of Japan.
10 am-5 pm, Tues-Sun, $3-$12
NEW MEXICO HISTORY
MUSEUM 113 Lincoln Ave. (505) 476-5200
Setting the Standard. The First World War. WORDS on the Edge. The Palace Seen and Unseen.
10 am-5 pm, Tues-Sun, $7-$12, NM residents free 5-7 pm first Fri of the month
MARC AND PAULA: ROADSIDE DISTRACTIONS
La Fiesta Lounge 100 E San Francisco St. (505) 982-5511
A collection of Americana, blues and country.
7 pm, free
SUZANNE VEGA St. Francis Auditorium 107 W Palace Ave. (505) 476-5072
American singer-songwriter Suzanna Vega plays alternative folk-rock. (See SFR Picks, page 15)
7:30 pm, $30
WORKSHOPS
THE ART OF MEDITATION: DEVELOPING A JOYFUL PRACTICE
Zoetic Sanctuary 230 S St. Francis Drive (505) 292-5293
Trianing in meditation to hopefully attain a purer form of happiness and peace. 6-7:15 pm, free
Want to see your event listed here?
We’d love to hear from you. Send notices via email to calendar@sfreporter.com.
Make sure you include all the pertinent details such as location, time, price and so forth. It helps us out greatly.
Submission doesn’t guarantee inclusion.
EL RANCHO DE LAS
GOLONDRINAS 334 Los Pinos Road (505) 471-2261
Colonial living history ranch.
10 am-4 pm, Wed-Sun, $4-$6
MUSEUM OF SPANISH
COLONIAL ART
750 Camino Lejo (505) 982-2226
Pueblo-Spanish Revival Style: The Director’s Residence. Trails, Rails, and Highways.
1-4 pm, Wed-Fri, $5-$12
NEW MEXICO MUSEUM OF ART 107 W Palace Ave. (505) 476-5063
Selections from the 20th Century Collection. Western Eyes. Transgressions and
Amplifications: Mixed Media Photographs of the ’60s, ’70s.
10 am-5 pm, Tues-Sun, $7-12
POEH CULTURAL CENTER
78 Cities of Gold Road (505) 455-5041
Di Wae Powa: A Partnership With the Smithsonian. Nah Poeh Meng: The Continuous Path.
9 am-5 pm, Tues-Sun, $7-$10
WHEELWRIGHT MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN 704 Camino Lejo (505) 982-4636
Center for the Study of Southwestern Jewelry. Abeyta | To’Hajiilee K’é.
10 am-4 pm, Tues-Sat, $8
SFREPORTER.COM
SFREPORTER.COM
SEPTEMBER 28-OCTOBER
SEPTEMBER 28-OCTOBER
Telling New Mexico: Stories from Then and Now, New Mexico History Museum. In 1918, the state of New Mexico presented a 56-piece Tiffany silver service set to the battleship USS New Mexico. The set contains this humidor in the shape of a pueb lo-style building, as well as a number of plates, each of which has a different scene. NEW MEXICO OF CULTURAL AFFAIRS
Photo: Lisa Kantor
Sarah Grant Founder of NM Farmers’ Marketing Association
Rosa Maria Alcantar Rocio Produce, Chamita, NM
Keegan Crumpacker and Amy Fagan Crumpackers Bakery, Santa Fe, NM
Annie Krahl Annie’s Herb Farm, Española, NM
Photos: Adria Malcolm
Last month, SFR gave y’all our annu al Back to School Reading List for Grown-ups—now here’s something for the kids.
Emmy- and Pulitzer Prize-winning jour nalist Maria Hinojosa has adapted her mem oir, Once I Was You: A Memoir of Love and Hate in a Torn America, for young adults, and if I had my way, it’d be on every reading list around, whether you’re 8 or 80. Once I Was You: Finding My Voice and Passing the Mic (Simon & Schuster, Aug. 30) is the story of Hinojosa’s family’s life in Mexico, their im migration to the United States when she was a baby and the experiences through which she found her own identity and her path as a journalist.
But it’s also the story of how Hinojosa learned new vocabularies that ultimately allowed her to embody her own voice. In ad dition to becoming bilingual, Hinojosa built from the cultural vocabulary she was born into in Mexico, to those she encountered growing up as a young Latina in Chicago, to vocabularies of feminism, gender identity and political positionality she learned along the way.
“In many ways, I think that is the essence of the book,” Hinojosa tells SFR. “As a child,
I was trying to find these vocabularies—be cause of being bilingual, language was liter ally an issue. But then there was the larger context—a highly politicized environment I didn’t have the vocabulary to understand.”
She writes about seeing police beat protesters in Chicago during the 1968 Democratic National Convention, and seeing news of the killings of Martin Luther King, Jr., John F. Kennedy, Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Robert F. Kennedy on TV. At the time, though, she didn’t have the words to call them what they were: political assassinations.
“In my era, it was the civil rights battle,” Hinojosa says. “Now, it’s Black Lives Matter and Brown Lives Matter.”
The difference be tween her experience growing up and the experiences of kids today, she says, is that kids now have more access to evolving vocabularies largely thanks to the internet and social media. The important thing is that kids come to understand the context of those vocabularies, and the pow er they hold.
“As Latinos, Latinas, children of immi grants; Black kids—you in particular have to understand your role and responsibil
ity in the historical context of this place,” Hinojosa says. “You do have the vocabu lary—realize it.”
Adapting her memoir for a young au dience was deceptively difficult, Hinojosa adds. She “became a child,” describing the process as not so much writing, but talking and recording stories.
Hinjosa’s journey to owning her language and culture was fueled by a deep curiosity about—and sensitivity to—the socio-po litical injustices she saw around her grow ing up. Becoming a journalist forced her to confront questions about her own identity and how she presents it every day. A defin ing moment, she writes, was when, during an internship at NPR, she faced a choice: use the Americanized version of her name, or the Spanish pronunci ation? (You’ll have to read the book to find out!) Of course, owning your identi ty isn’t always easy.
In Once I Was You, Hinojosa describes an event Columbia and Barnard put on during her college orientation, a version of the 1970s TV show, The Dating Game. Students were heckling one young wom an, calling her a “dog,” and Hinojosa joined in—and immediately regretted it.
“Sometimes when you’re in the process of find ing your voice, you have to hear yourself say the wrong thing in order to realize it doesn’t sound right coming out of your mouth,” she writes.
And that doesn’t just stop when you grad uate from college, or get a job. For Hinojosa, it’s a continual process.
“I’m still learning, and I’m not afraid to excise words from my vocabulary,” she says. “Very early on, I rejected the term ‘Hispanic’ because it came to be under the Nixon, Ronald Reagan era of Republican desire to codify Latinos and Latinas, and it does not address our Indigenous or Afro roots.”
Hinojosa also recalls interviewing Jewish author Elie Wiesel, who survived the Holocaust and penned the 1956 classic Night.
“The first question I asked him is, ‘They want me to use the term ‘illegal immigrant’ in my reporting, and I don’t think it’s correct. What do you have to say?’”
Wiesel responded: “Never use the term ‘illegal.’ That’s how the Holocaust start ed—they declared the Jews to be an illegal people.”
She speaks of the Biden administration’s order that US immigration enforcement agencies stop using the term “illegal alien” as “a small, yet significant move because of the power of language and vocabulary.”
“We have to work back from the fact that people now use the term ‘illegal immigrant’ as if they were saying ‘The sky is blue,’” Hinojosa explains. “You may have commit ted a crime, but that does not make you an illegal human being.”
Language like that, she says, is a big part of the reason immigrants are treated as less than human.
“The real life consequences are all around us,” she says, “and I believe that with American kids, the next generation has gotta be smarter than this one.”
Reaching kids when they’re still open to shifting their vocabularies is key, Hinojosa says.
“They’re able to challenge their imposter syndrome and really own their power in their voice. That’s incredibly exciting because if they engage in democracy, then our democ racy is safe,” she concludes. “But if Latino and Latina kids disengage from democracy, goodbye democracy.”
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Maria Hinojosa liberates vocabularies with YA-friendly version of Once I Was You
VICTORY!
SAN JUAN COAL PLANT CLOSED
Congratulations to all the many people who contributed to this victory! Renewables will replace coal with cheaper, cleaner energy.
Our work is not finished. PNM has no plans to clean up the 250 acre contaminated site left behind for at least 25 years, harming future generations. Why should people 25 years from now be paying for this mess?
PNM's CEO, who makes upward of $9M per year, and PNM shareholders who profited from the energy sold should be held responsible for cleaning up their toxic plant.
Contact NMED at 866-428-6535 or email them at James.Kenney@state.nm.us to demand an immediate assessment & cleanup of the San Juan plant.
Learn more: newenergyeconomy.org/sjgs-closure.
The San Juan plant is closing after fifty years of operating twenty miles from my community. The plant did provide jobs for our community, and tax resources for our schools. But the plant is also responsible for negatively impacting our environment and the health of the earth. We, the affected people, have been living and farming with the environmental degradation and we are concerned about the coal ash and heavy metal contamination of our land and water. We are calling for a comprehensive assessment of the plant and requirement for full remediation. PNM cannot walk away without restoring the earth to health and balance.
-Chili Yazzie, Shiprock NM
Un-Grotesque
and somehow meaningful in this way that is both apparent yet difficult to put into words. I’ve shown it to others since that first day, and they agree it’s hard to voice precisely why Stringer’s illustrations are so magnetic.
BY ALEX DE VORE alex@sfreporter.comHatsoff to local artist Ryan T Cook, who convinced me to check out works by Santa Fe artist Kate Stringer one recent afternoon at the Luna Center’s New Mexico Hard Cider Taproom (505 Cerrillos Road, (505) 2310632). I’ve loved Cook’s Fleischer-meetsBob-Camp style, and as we sipped coffees and chatted, he lit up like woah and almost breathlessly asked, “Dude! Have you seen this Kate Stringer stuff?”
As I had not, and as I take an artist like Cook’s recommendation seriously, we en tered the taproom, where Stringer’s illustra tions remain on the walls even now as you read this, alongside works by Cook himself and others. I instantly fell in love.
For the most part, Stringer illustrates women, but in a distorted and borderline grotesque fashion. Their foreheads jut out dramatically over strangely smooth faces and bizarre teeth; limbs fly akimbo forming strange positions; eyes hang low on the face beneath shiftless eyebrows, small and sad and out of place. Stringer achieves everything with graphite and a little black watercolor—her works feel like deconstructed and reconstructed pieces created in a centrifuge containing the likes of Mark Ryden and Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark illustrator Stephen Gammell, only they’re not quite like anything I’ve ever seen. Instead, they evoke the oddest combination of enticing and repulsive. Stringer’s works remind me of something I can’t put my finger on, and they dredge up a wild gamut of emotions: All at once, they’re creepy and distorted, but beautiful
I had questions for Cook: Why had I not heard this name before? Why, with all due respect, is this artist showing in a taproom instead of a gallery like form & concept or KEEP Contemporary?
“Right?” Cook said knowingly.
“You’re goddamned right,” I responded.
Only a few moments passed before I found Stringer on Instagram (@bestfriend milk, btw, but it’s a private account and you must request followship) and requested an interview. She got back to me shortly there after (quick, especially for an artist) and we set a time. Fab.
So, days later, here I am—walking down a driveway at the right address, wrong struc ture, and frantically messaging Stringer in
hopes she’ll come out and give a yell from the right direction. She does, thankfully, and soon we’re in her home studio, where nu merous pieces at various stages of comple tion take over Stringer’s drawing table and most other flat surfaces. A gorgeous black cat peeps out from the shadows behind a large cabinet with almost too many drawers, and sunlight filters in through a particularly shady tree outside in the way only early fall can muster.
Stringer, who practically apol ogizes for having a spacious downtown home, describes it like a lucky gem situation, and explains she has only lived in Santa Fe since 2019. She ar rived with a friend who’s no longer in town, but something kept her around; she has a partner here, also an artist, she works a day job for a cashmere company. Life is good.
“I just think I met the right people here, even though it took a minute for that to happen,” she says. “It took a minute to get into the com munity here—it’s a small town, and there was COVID on top of that. But I’ve made connec tions that have been meaning ful to me. It’s a good place to get a lot done.”
Part of finding that com munity was acceptance into local writer Bucket Siler’s annual ZineFest event in 2019. There, Stringer says, she found like-minded arts and words people, though the pandemic obviously halted everything
the following year. Stringer was back at ZineFest last May, though, as things started to feel more normal. Being around other art ists is her normal. In college at Baltimore’s Maryland Institute College of Art, she fo cused on ceramics, but started illustrating on those clay pieces. She dabbled in fiber arts and photography, too, but ultimately says jokingly that “I just figured it’s cheaper to draw on paper with pencil.”
Her current series and style came later, Stringer recalls, starting in 2017 or ’18 and further revealing itself over time. Now she knows exactly what she wants the work to say.
“I was trying to articulate anxiety with twisty fingers, clenched hands, and I just kind of kept going down that rabbit hole,” she ex plains. “It happened organically. I was trying to draw, and it wasn’t purposeful—but I feel like a lot of women and girls you see in femi nine art are always really clean and beautiful. I think I was trying to make gross girls who were beautiful in their grotesqueness.”
That’s exactly it—that familiarity I couldn’t place. Stringer has discovered a way to present the foundations of anxiety (and maybe depression) in a way you’d actually want to have on your walls. It’s subtle, but it’s there, and it feels so obvious once she iden tifies how it works. Much art is, to a degree, self-portraiture, and this feels like that, too.
“Not directly,” Stringer notes just before I take 2,000 photographs of her at work. “Maybe it’s the weird feelings you get, a reflection of myself, my experience in the world.”
I feel suddenly less alone for a moment, even as my own anxiety rears its head.
“I wouldn’t say that’s a drawing of me,” she continues, “but the images are all in me.”
Artist Kate Stringer makes the tough and ugly things beautiful “I was trying to articulate anxiety with twisty fingers, clenched hands, and I just kind of kept going down that rabbit hole,” says artist Kate Stringer, whose strange illustrations won our hearts. Kate Stringer’s “Gates,” one of many from her current series of incredible, beautiful, ugly illustrations. Learn more at blackgoospider.cargo.site. ALEX DE VOREDon’t Worry Darling Review
Dream a little dream
BY ALEX DE VORE alex@sfreporter.comFlorence Pugh (Midsommar) is too good an ac tor for Don’t Worry Darling, the newest entry from Booksmart director/actor Olivia Wilde and a rather toothless and tactless primer on gaslighting and femi nism-lite as doled out through bits and pieces of other and often better films.
In fact, Pugh is probably too good for all the drama that’s surrounded the film, from Wilde publicly claim ing actor Shia LaBeouf—who was originally attached through a role that ultimately went to singer Harry Styles—was fired from the film to allegedly make the set safer for Pugh, to rumors that Wilde herself was unprofessional during filming. With the caveats that safety for women in film is of paramount importance, and we absolutely need non-cis-hetero bros in the movies—not to mention how nobody wants a shit ty work environment—these things hang like a dark cloud over Wilde’s new opus, and it’s hard to discon nect from them while watching.
In Don’t Worry Darling, Pugh is the doting Alice, a young wife whose 1950- or 1960-something existence boils down to cleaning by day, serving her hardwork ing husband, Jack (Styles), by night and hanging out with the neighborhood gals for shopping and drinking and, for some reason, ballet class. Alice and Jack live in one of those Levittown kind of places run by some thing or other called the Victory Project. Everything seems too clean and too quote/unquote normal, but obviously there’s scary shit lying in wait just beneath
the surface. Jack and the other husbands go off to mysterious jobs each day they can’t discuss; the wives wait at home. It seems idyllic and all, but when anoth er neighborhood woman starts acting erratically and asking questions of the charismatic town leader Frank (Chris Pine), Alice starts to feel like something ain’t right. And so it goes.
All hail Pugh as the gaslit housefrau who repeat edly finds herself at odds with her environment and all the people in it. Something indeed is awry with the Victory Project, and Pugh soars through her dialogue with the salt and powerful nature of cinema’s greats. Against Styles’ stilted and timid delivery, however, things stall, and there’s only so much Pugh can do.
Widle herself joins the fracas as a neighbor, though her character is basically an expositional sounding board for other characters who ask her things like, “Oh, yeah, what happened with that again?” Comic Nick Kroll plays her husband, and is somehow even more pointless. Pugh and Pine sing, though, partic ularly in their all-too-brief scenes together. As a sort of Alex Jones/Joe Rogan type, Pine crafts quiet and subtle horrors that threaten to emerge but never quite do—making it all that much scarier; Pugh dominates
everyone around her, not that it’s a competition, but again, she’s too good for this thing.
Don’t Worry Darling lacks subtlety, exchanging the joy of discovery and post-screening conversation with tedious hand-holding and finger-wagging. If you have to straight up tell us a character sucks, maybe your writing wasn’t quite good enough? Find also what is hopefully homage and not thievery from films like The Matrix, The Truman Show and The Village; though it’s impossible to know if Wilde and writers Katie Silberman, Carey Van Dyke and Shane Van Dyke are familiar enough with the Fallout series of video games to know what narrative elements they’ve repeated al most wholesale.
The look of the world is fantastic and icky in its sickeningly cheerful brightness. It’s just that we delve only slightly into the broadest strokes of gender pol itics and feminism without any true message. Cool Busby Berkeley nods, though, no question.
DON’T WORRY DARLING Directed by WildeWith Pugh, Styles, Pine, Wilde and Kroll
Violet Crown, Regal, R, 122 min.
THE WOMAN KING
+ FASCINATING, LESSER-KNOWN HISTORY CLUTTERED; PG-13 RATING MINIMIZES INTENSITY
7“Yes!” someone in the theater said with particular oomph at the moment Viola Davis’ Nansica emerged from the shadows in the opening scene of The Woman King from director Gina Prince-Bythewood (Love & Basketball). And you know what? They weren’t wrong. From the instant Davis appears onscreen, it’s clear her character is a badass, and if recent interviews with the star of Fences and Suicide Squad are to be believed, the training to get there was no joke. Perhaps we’ve never seen Davis in this light before, but she’s so splendidly comfortable (and tough) in the new historical epic that we roll with it and straight up believe she’d chop some heads if the situation called for it.
The Woman King dramatizes the powerful cadre known as the Agojie, a real-life, woman-fronted force of elite warriors who operated in Dahomey (a region in what we know today as the African nation of Benin) during the 18th and 19th centuries, as well as the ficitonalized Nanisca (Davis), their leader. I’m ashamed to say I’d never heard of them until this film, but their imprint upon history and pop culture—Black Panther’s Dora Milaje, anyone?—is unmistakable. Here, however, Prince-Bythewood and, unexpectedly, actress Maria Bello, who garners story-by and produc er credits for her contributions, delve not only into the Agojie’s fierce fighting methodology, but the socio-po
litical goings-on of the African region at the time and the untenable conditions it fostered for women who didn’t wield swords.
Davis is unquestionably ferocious as the long-fighting Nanisca, too, but her inner-circle of fellow warriors seal the deal. Captain Marvel alumna Lashana Lynch, for example, cuts a satisfying swath of kick-assery that is tempered by her character’s humanity and humor—a surprising but dimensional addition that not only offers levity but a valuable les son: “It is better to laugh,” she advises when describ ing a particularly painful encounter in her youth.
Amen, sister. Dr. Strange’s Shelia Atim is similarly note worthy in her vulnerable portrayal of the one woman who might question Nanisca—and who does cool spear attacks and acrobatic takedowns and such.
Even so, the core of the story centers on the relationship between Nanisca and Nawi (Thuso Mbedu, Scandal!). The latter joins the Agojie after a non-starter arranged marriage attempt with an abusive landowner, and there’s something in the training montage about finding out who you really are. Mbedu represents some real interesting character development that winds up unfortunately lost in the shuffle. The Woman King features so many subplots and side characters, in fact, that one starts to lose the central thread. In quieter moments when John Boyega (Star Wars), who plays the Dahomey king, appears onscreen with Davis, or when the Agojie speak openly and plainly amongst each other, it soars. In adding so many smaller things to flesh out the world, its makers
confuse the narrative. Still, when’s the last time you saw a mainstream film wherein just about everyone onscreen was a Black woman. Almost never? Cool. Oh, wait, no; it’s that other thing: Bogus. (ADV) Violet Crown, Regal, R, 135 min.
CLERKS III
7
+ SMITH DOES WHAT HE WANTS; PER FECT FOR LONGTIME FANS NOT FOR N00BS EVEN AT ALL
When Kevin Smith’s original Clerks film came out in the year of our lord 1994, it felt like a monumental shift in storytelling, comedy, world-building—and the accessibility of filmmaking itself. Famously, Smith maxed out a bunch of credit cards to produce the movie and his gamble paid off; homeboy’s been making movies ever since, some of them great (like Mallrats), plus he’s dabbled in comic book writing, became a bigwig in the podcast-o-sphere and even did a run with the iconic Canadian television pro gram Degrassi: The Next Generation (we’re still kind of bummed he came between Caitlin Ryan and Joey Jeremiah, but old wounds heal hard).
Once again we join Dante (Brian O’Halloran) and Randall (Jeff Anderson), employees of the now-infa mous Quick Stop convenience store where the first film was set; they now own the joint. We’ll gloss over their tenure as fast food workers in Clerks II for space constraints (and because it was just kind of a bad movie). All seems well in the world of our heroes,
right up until Randall has a heart attack at work. He survives and decides the event was like a prompt for his making a movie based on his life. He then enlists his pals to make the film. Honestly, it’s a little bit meta and a whole lot of love letter to Smith’s own career. You’ll find nonstop callbacks and in-jokes for fans of Dogma and Clerks: The Animated Series; you’ll find cameos from Ben Affleck and Ethan Suplee and Fred Armisen and Sarah Michelle Gellar. Sadly, though, there is no Jason Lee (Mallrats’ Brodie Bruce, easily one of Smiths greatest creations and, honestly, a landmark performance from Lee), but there is some Rosario Dawson for some reason, and you’ll find plenty of the enduring “heroes” themselves, Jay and Silent Bob (Jason Mewes and Smith). Those dudes sure love weed.
Those who know these films and shows and Smith’s long-running gags will find plenty to enjoy, not least of which are satisfying Easter eggs and nods to jokes that have been around so long it’s almost absurd. Those who wish to enter the Smith fold at this point without almost encyclopedic prior knowledge will like ly find themaselves lost at best and confused at worst.
Even so, you’ve gotta hand it to the guy for doing whatever the hell he wants, however he wants. People will see Clerks III out of some strange combination of attachment, sure, but also because it makes us feel like we’ve been in on something bigger than ourselves for decades. This one’s for the fans. It’s only for the fans. And that’s OK. (ADV)
Violet Crown, Regal, R, 115 min.
5+ PUGH IS A POWERHOUSE; OUTSTANDING SET DESIGN AND LIGHTING CLOBBERS YOU OVER THE HEAD WITH ITS OWN IDEAS
PSYCHICS
Rob Brezsny Week of September 28th
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Poet Susan Howe describes poetry as an “amorous search under the sign of love for a remembered time at the pitch-dark fringes of evening when we gathered together to bless and believe.” I’d like to use that lyrical assessment to describe your life in the coming days—or at least what I hope will be your life. In my astrological opinion, it’s a favorable time to intensify your quest for interesting adventures in intimacy; to seek out new ways to imagine and create togetherness; to collaborate with allies in creating brave excursions into synergy.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Social reformer Frederick Douglass (1817-1895) had a growlery. It was a one-room stone cabin where he escaped to think deep thoughts, work on his books, and literally growl. As a genius who escaped enslavement and spent the rest of his life fighting for the rights of his fellow Black people, he had lots of reasons to snarl, howl, and bellow as well as growl. The coming weeks would be an excellent time for you to find or create your own growlery, Taurus. The anger you feel will be especially likely to lead to constructive changes. The same is true about the deep thoughts you summon in your growlery: They will be extra potent in helping you reach wise practical decisions.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): “Conduct your blooming in the noise and whip of the whirlwind,” wrote Gemini poet Gwendolyn Brooks. I love that advice! The whirlwind is her metaphor for the chaos of everyday life. She was telling us that we shouldn’t wait to ripen ourselves until the daily rhythm is calm and smooth. Live wild and free right now! That’s always good advice, in my opinion, but it will be especially apropos for you in the coming weeks. Now is your time to “endorse the splendor splashes” and “sway in wicked grace,” as Brooks would say
CANCER (June 21-July 22): “Don’t look away,” advised novelist Henry Miller in a letter to his lover. “Look straight at everything. Look it all in the eye, good and bad.” While that advice is appealing, I don’t endorse it unconditionally. I’m a Cancerian, and I sometimes find value in gazing at things sideways, or catching reflections in mirrors, or even turning my attention away for a while. In my view, we Crabs have a special need to be self-protective and self-nurturing. And to accomplish that, we may need to be evasive and elusive. In my astrological opinion, the next two weeks will be one of these times. I urge you to gaze directly and engage point-blank only with what’s good for you.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Tips to get the most out of the next three weeks: 1. Play at least as hard as you work. 2. Give yourself permission to do anything that has integrity and is fueled by compassion. 3. Assume there is no limit to how much generous joie de vivre you can summon and express. 4. Fondle and nuzzle with eager partners as much as possible. And tell them EXACTLY where and how it feels good. 5. Be magnanimous in every gesture, no matter how large or small. 6. Even if you don’t regard yourself as a skillful singer, use singing to transform yourself out of any mood you don’t want to stay in.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): In the coming weeks, you should refrain from wrestling with problems that resist your solutions. Be discerning about how you use your superior analytical abilities. Devote yourself solely to manageable dilemmas that are truly responsive to your intelligent probing. PS: I feel sorry for people who aren’t receptive to your input, but you can’t force them to give up their ignorance or suffering. Go where you’re wanted. Take power where it’s offered. Meditate on the wisdom of Anaïs Nin: “You cannot save people. You can only love them.”
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh was born under the sign of Libra. He said, “The root-word ‘Buddha’ means to wake up, to know, to understand; and he or she who wakes up and under-
stands is called a Buddha.” So according to him, the spiritual teacher Siddhartha Gautama who lived in ancient India was just one of many Buddhas. And by my astrological reckoning, you will have a much higher chance than usual to be like one of these Buddhas yourself in the coming weeks. Waking up will be your specialty. You will have an extraordinary capacity to burst free of dreamy illusions and murky misapprehensions. I hope you take full advantage. Deeper understandings are nigh.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): I invite you to be the sexiest, most intriguing, most mysterious Scorpio you can be in the coming weeks. Here are ideas to get you started. 1. Sprinkle the phrase “in accordance with prophecy” into your conversations. 2. Find an image that symbolizes rebirth and revitalization arising out of disruption. Meditate on it daily until you actually experience rebirth and revitalization arising out of disruption. 3. Be kind and merciful to the young souls you know who are living their first lifetimes. 4. Collect deep, dark secrets from the interesting people you know. Employ this information to plan how you will avoid the trouble they endured.
5. Buy two deluxe squirt guns and two knives made of foam rubber. Use them to wage playful fights with those you love.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): There’s an ancient Greek saying, “I seek the truth, by which no one ever was truly harmed.” I regard that as a fine motto for you Sagittarians. When you are at your best and brightest, you are in quest of the truth. And while your quests may sometimes disturb the status quo, they often bring healthy transformations. The truths you discover may rattle routines and disturb habits, but they ultimately lead to greater clarity and authenticity. Now is an excellent time to emphasize this aspect of your nature.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Let’s imagine you are in your office or on the job or sitting at your kitchen table. With focused diligence, you’re working on solving a problem or improving a situation that involves a number of people. You think to yourself, “No one seems to be aware that I am quietly toiling here behind the scenes to make the magic happen.” A few days or a few weeks later, your efforts have been successful. The problem is resolved or the situation has improved. But then you hear the people involved say, “Wow, I wonder what happened? It’s like things got fixed all by themselves.” If a scenario like this happens, Capricorn, I urge you to speak up and tell everyone what actually transpired.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): To honor your entrance into the most expansive phase of your astrological cycle, I’m calling on the counsel of an intuitive guide named Nensi the Mercury Priestess. She offers the following advice. 1. Cultivate a mindset where you expect something unexpected to happen. 2. Fantasize about the possibility of a surprising blessing or unplanned-for miracle.
3. Imagine that a beguiling breakthrough will erupt into your rhythm. 4. Shed a few preconceptions about how your life story will unfold in the next two years. 5. Boost your trust in your deep self’s innate wisdom. 6. Open yourself more to receiving help and gifts.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Author Colin Wilson describes sex as “a craving for the mingling of consciousness, whose symbol is the mingling of bodies.
Every time partners slake their thirst in the strange waters of the other’s identity, they glimpse the immensity of their freedom.” I love this way of understanding the erotic urge, and recommend you try it out for a while.
You’re entering a phase when you will have extra power to refine and expand the way you experience blending and merging. If you’re fuzzy about the meaning of the words “synergy” and “symbiosis,” I suggest you look them up in the dictionary. They should be featured themes for you in the coming weeks.
Homework: What’s the best change you could make that would be fairly easy to accomplish?
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OVERWHELMED?
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CASEY’S TOP HAT CHIMNEY SWEEP
Thank you Santa Fe for voting us BEST of Santa Fe! Spring is the perfect time for cleaning your chimney. With this coupon save $20.00 on your Spring Chimney Cleaning during the month of September 2022. Call today: 989-5775
Present this for $20.00 off your fireplace or wood stove cleaning.
Retired legal investigator, SWF, accomplished animal/ environmental/social justice activist, very mentally/physically fit, seeks non-religious, pro-choice senior man with wit and zeal. Marcy, 8226 Menaul Blvd NE, #375, Albuquerque, NM 87110. Letter with phone number please. No email.
EVENT: “Ms. Adrienne is BACK” (PED Lic 333785)
LA MAMA Matriarch’s wearethefuture.club PRESENTS: “The Truth to the Youth” Project for a future online “The Santa Fe Teen y Familia Healing Arts Center’ by SONAR(tm).
WHO: Adrienne V Romero~MOM w/MBA Honors, publicly recognized Youth Rights Advocate, Co-Founder of Warehouse 21 & Founder of W21’s Concert Program
WHERE: THE RAILYARD COMMUNITY ROOM - Public Invited
WHEN: OCT 13, 2022 11:003:00 (1st come, 1st serve)
Mediate—Don’t Litigate!
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• Divorce, Parenting plan, Family
WHAT: FREE HELP understanding your child’s SpEd IEP &/or Post-Divorce Decree w/Custody Parenting Plan (also a NMWFS Claims APPEAL &/or Medical Treatment Plan).
WHY: To help YOU understand your legal rights HOW: By organizing a functional filing system
FIRST JUDICIAL DISTRICT COURT COUNTY OF SANTA FE STATE OF NEW MEXICO IN THE MATTER OF GUARDIANSHIP OF THE MINOR CARLOS RENE ROMERO RIVERA: MARIA G. ORTIZ , petitioner, vs. JUAN CARLOS ROMERO AND MARIA ESTHER RIVERA, respondents. CASE NO: D-101DM-2022- 00433 TO: JUAN CARLOS ROMERO AND MARIA ESTHER RIVERA PLEASE BE NOTIFIED and advised that above Petitioner/Plaintiff has filed a civil action against you in the above entitled Court and cause. The general object thereof being: to PETITION THE COURT TO ESTABLISH KINSHIP GUARDIANSHIP OF YOUR CHILD has been assigned to the Honorable SYLVIA LAMAR. The Petitioner is required to give notice to the RESPONDENTS
Submitted by: Ana Victoria Portillo
Petitioner, Pro Se
STATE OF NEW MEXICO
COUNTY OF SANTA FE
FIRST JUDICIAL DISTRICT COURT
IN THE MATTER OF A PETITION FOR CHANGE OF NAME OF TATIANA KYLA NORBECK Case No: D-101-CV-2022-01680
VERONICA TYLER SHOEMAKE Case No.: D-101-CV-2022-01788
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EMPLOYMENT
A Jewish Cemetery Gathering to Remember
A gathering to remember and honor the memory of deceased family and friends will be held on Sunday, October 2nd, at 1:30 PM. Rivera Memorial Gardens, 417 Rodeo Road, Santa Fe. All are welcome.
Santa Fe Community College
JUAN CARLOS ROMERO AND MARIA ESTHER RIVERA. PLEASE BE FURTHER NOTIFIED and advised that pursuant to the New Mexico Court Rule 1-005 NMRA, you [respondent] have thirty (30) days from the date of the last publication of this notice in which to respond to the Petition if you intend to contest. Failure to respond shall be treated as a default, and permit the granting of the relief requested.
NOTICE OF CHANGE OF NAME TAKE NOTICE that in accordance with the provisions of Sec. 40-8-1 through Sec. 40-8-3 NMSA 1978, et seq. The Petitioner Tatiana Kyla Norbeck will apply to the Honorable Matthew J. Wilson, District Judge of the First Judicial District at the Santa Fe Judicial Complex, 225 Montezuma Ave., in Santa Fe, New Mexico, at 10:45 a.m. on the 11th day of October, 2022 for an ORDER FOR CHANGE OF NAME from Tatitana Kyla Norbeck to Ti Kyla Alexander.
KATHLEEN VIGIL, District Court Clerk
By: Tamara Snee Deputy Court Clerk Submitted by: Tatiana Kyla Norbeck Petitioner, Pro Se
STATE OF NEW MEXICO
NOTICE OF CHANGE OF NAME TAKE NOTICE that in accordance with the provisions of Sec. 408-1 through Sec. 40-8-3 NMSA 1978, et seq. The Petitioner Veronica Tyler Shoemake will apply to the HonorableFrancis J. Mathew, District Judge of the First Judicial District, remotely via Google Meets in accordance with the Sixth Amended Notice, at 8:45 a.m. on the 21 day of October, 2022 for an ORDER FOR CHANGE OF NAME from Veronica Tyler Shoemake to Veronica Tyler LaRocca.
KATHLEEN VIGIL, District Court Clerk
By: Johnny Enriquez-Lujan Deputy Court Clerk Submitted by: Veronica Tyler Shoemake Petitioner, Pro Se
STATE OF NEW MEXICO COUNTY OF SANTA FE FIRST JUDICIAL DISTRICT COURT No. D-101-PB-2022-00174
IN THE MATTER OF THE ESTATE OF LISA GILL CLARK, Deceased NOTICE TO CREDITORS BY PUBLICATION
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KATHLEEN VIGIL Clerk of the District Court By: Deputy Respectfully submitted BY, Petitioner MARIA G. ORTIZ. THE REPORTER, September 6, 2022
STATE OF NEW MEXICO COUNTY OF SANTA FE FIRST JUDICIAL DISTRICT COURT IN THE MATTER OF A PETITION FOR CHANGE OF NAME OF ANA VICTORIA PORTILLO Case No.: D-101-CV-2022-01514
NOTICE FOR CHANGE OF NAME TAKE NOTICE that in accordance with the provisions of Sec. 40-8-1 through Sec. 40-8-3 NMSA 1978, et seq. The Petitioner Ana Victoria Portillo
FIRST JUDICIAL DISTRICT COURT
COUNTY OF SANTA FE
IN THE MATTER OF A PETITION FOR CHANGE OF NAME OF SHARON RENEE’ KIRKPATRICK
NOTICE OF CHANGE OF NAME TAKE NOTICE that in accordance with the provisions of Sec. 40-8-1 through Sec. 40-8-3 NMSA 1978, et seq., the Petitioner SHARON RENEE’ KIRKPATRICK will apply to the Honorable Matthew J. Wilson, District Judge of the First Judicial District at the Santa Fe Judicial Complex, 225 Montezuma Ave., in Santa Fe, New Mexico, at 10:30 a.m. on the 20th day of October, 2022 for an ORDER FOR CHANGE OF NAME from Sharon Renee’ Kirkpatrick to Sharon Renee’ Alexander.
NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that William J. Clark has been appointed Personal Representative of the Estate of the decedent. All persons having claims against the estate of the decedent are required to present their claims within four months after the date of the first publication of any published Notice to Creditors or 60 days after the date of mailing or other delivery of this notice, whichever is later, or the claims will be forever barred. Claims must be presented either to the undersigned counsel for the personal representative at the address listed below or filed with the First Judicial District Court, County of Santa Fe, New Mexico. Respectfully submitted by:
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Will apply to the Honorable Maria Snachez-Gagne, District Judge of the First Judicial District at the Santa Fe Judicial Complex, 225 Montezuma Ave., in Santa Fe, New Mexico, at 11:55 a.m. on the 5th day of October, 2022 for an ORDER FOR CHANGE OF NAME from Ana Victoria Portillo to Ave Padilla.
KATHLEEN VIGIL, District Court Clerk
By: Johnny Enriquez-Lujan
KATHLEEN VIGIL, District Court Clerk
By: Bernadette Hernandez Submitted by: Sharon Renee’ Kirkpatrick Petitioner, Pro Se
STATE OF NEW MEXICO COUNTY OF SANTA FE
FIRST JUDICIAL DISTRICT COURT IN THE MATTER OF A PETITION FOR CHANGE OF NAME OF
JAY GOODMAN & ASSOCIATES LAW FIRM, P.C. /s/
Thomas E. Dow, Esq.
Jay Goodman & Associates Law Firm, P.C.
Attorney for Personal Representative 2019 Galisteo St. #C3 Santa Fe, NM 87505
T: (505) 989-8117
E: tdow@jaygoodman.com
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