Drawing the Forgotten

Alumnus depicts faces of day laborers and immigrants.

Adrian Aguirre (’09 M.F.A.) likes to draw people whose stories are untold.

He found Alcalá, who was the de facto leader of the Denton day labor gathering place, full of charisma and stories — everybody liked to talk to him. At an immigrant center, he ran into Gisele, who put up a strong persona to protect herself. And then there was a guy from Tijuana who was so happy with his portrait that he showed the drawing, which Aguirre gave to him, to his girlfriend. Aguirre — who grew up in Juarez, Mexico, and went to school in El Paso — is getting attention for his work, with features in Western Art & Architecture and being named one of the “12 New Mexico Artists to Know Now” by Southwest Contemporary. Aguirre would eventually like to see his work exhibited at museums. But he’s often satisfed with the work itself.

“Sometimes you get on a roll,” he says. “You kind of lose yourself. You’re focused on painting. It’s not necessarily relaxing, but it’s a good experience.”

Read more about Aguirre’s interactions with his subjects. northtexan.unt.edu/drawing-the-forgotten

Changing Minds

Her honesty has resulted in deep connections with her audiences, such as when she talked to her fans at her frst two headlining shows in New York City and Los Angeles.

“Even though some of them were anxious or maybe shy, like all of them were so polite and kind and sweet, and I’ve even had other people who work at venues come and tell me,‘Your fans are especiallyvery nice,’” she says.“So what I’m learning is that the type of music you put out really does attract the type of fan that you want.”

Learn more: northtexan.unt.edu/ deep-connections

Growing up Nigerian American, Mercedes Ezeji (’19) would often visit Nigeria. When she came back home, she received a lot of questions from her peers about her travels.

Ezeji decided she wanted people to know more about the world — and she honed her skills with a degree from the Mayborn School of Journalism. She now is an engagement manager at PBS and a production assistant on the “On Our Minds” podcast that recently won the Edward R. Murrow Award. “On Our Minds” is a student-led and produced podcast about the mental health challenges that young people face today.

Ezeji plans on expanding her position as a producer and working on documentaries that highlight underrepresented communities. She hopes that, through her work, she can dispel cultural myths while making content that people can enjoy and learn from — which is the reason she got into journalism.

“I would love to break a lot of people outside the box. I think people are just ignorant about a lot of things because they are not exposed to much. I want to change that.”

Learn more: northtexan.unt.edu/ changing-minds

The Essence of Music

Teacher Annie Ray starts orchestra for students with intellectual disabilities.

Music has been a part of Annie Ray’s (’17) life since she took up the piano at age 3 and the harp at age 5. Her mother, Stacy King Lehman (’85), a pianist, guided her through her journey. Ray met her husband — Irving Ray (’12 M.M., ’17 D.M.A.), a euphonium player for the prestigious U.S. Army Band Pershing’s Own — at one of her performances.

To Ray, music was a way to create relationships and bring everyone together. Now as a teacher, she’s making sure others get the same experience. She began an orchestra for students with intellectual disabilities at the suburban Virginian school district where she works, which was featured in The Washington Post, and she gave the TEDx talk “The Sounds of Success” earlier this year.

The orchestra has not only brought joy to the students, but it’s changed Ray’s perspective on how she sees music.

“We always say music is the universal language and it is in a way, but musicking — or the act of making music — is the true unifer,” she says. “It’s easy to get caught up in perfection versus the music side of it. It taught me the essence of music. It gave me freedom.”

From Print to Screen

Alum’s novels about Bass Reeves turned into TV show.

Learn more about how Ray formed the orchestra. northtexan.unt.edu/essence-music

In the late 2000s, Sidney Thompson (’15 Ph.D.) was living in south Alabama, working a variety of jobs — although he really wanted to make a living as a writer. Then he learned about Bass Reeves, the former enslaved man-turned-lawman who captured 3,000 criminals around Oklahoma and Arkansas and inspired the character of the “Lone Ranger.”

Thompson found the perfect subject for a novel. UNT was the ideal place for him to work on the manuscript since Denton was near where Reeves lived. After Thompson spent a dozen years writing three novels about Reeves — Follow the Angels, Follow the Doves; Hell on the Border; and the upcoming The Forsaken and the Dead they now will be adapted into a spinof series of the drama Yellowstone starring David Oyelowo (Selma). Thompson took courses in 1800s literature to absorb the language of the time and classes in African American history to inform the slavery narrative. He also learned about weapons used during this time and the history of the Wild West.

“Being older, I’m just glad I had a plan and everything led me in this direction,” he says. “It’s crazy luck, hard work and planning, but it took a lot of patience that I never used to have. Sometimes life requires you to have the skills to be patient.”

Read more about Thompson’s education at UNT. northtexan.unt.edu/print-screen