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IDENTIFYING FEATURES, Tucson Cine Mexico
TUCSON ARTS, CULTURE, AND DESERT LIVING / MARCH 2020 / ISSUE NO. 116
LOS LOBOS, Tucson Cine Mexico
A Conversation with Viviana García Besné, Tucson Cine Mexico
TÍO YIM, Tucson Cine Mexico
ESTO NO ES BERLÍN, Tucson Cine Mexico.
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fromtheeditor Z
Local Treasures An Introduction by Gregory McNamee WHEN VISITORS come calling, as they seem to do this time of year, where do you take them? For many Tucsonans, the list is short: The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, of course. Mount Lemmon if the road is clear. Maybe Nogales, if everyone’s passports are in order. Nowadays, if the visitors are hiply minded, you might take them downtown to watch college students lurch along the sidewalks and grab some good eats, maybe catch a ride on the streetcar. Okay, that’s one weekend. But what if, as the proverb has it, those guests stay until they begin to resemble unrefrigerated fish? In that instance, you’ll want to do some deeper digging. At this time of year, you might favor the evanescent—the mono no aware that Jamie Manser mentions in her review of Katie Haverly’s new album. I think of the waterfalls that come tumbling down the mountains at this time of year, for example, at places like Seven Falls, in Sabino Canyon, or Chiba Falls, over in the central Rincons. For that matter, I enjoy hauling my guests out to the Rincon Valley, one of the few places in Tucson where you can get a feel for the cowtown that it once was. For sure, if your guests have any taste at all, you’ll want to take them to hear local music, a topic that our columnist Jim Lipson has been unveiling for us for many years now. If your guests are in reasonably good shape, you might follow longtime Tucsonan (though temporarily exiled in California) Tom Zoellner’s winding path up Wasson Peak, a place whose name, as he reveals, carries a rich history that all too few Tucsonans know about. You’ll want to visit some of our historic neighborhoods, including Sugar Hill, an African American enclave that activist and writer Sadie Shaw profiles in our pages.
When my guests are outdoors-inclined, I take them walking, with a favored venue being Madera Canyon, that bird-rich portal into the Santa Rita Mountains. Closer to home, though less vigorous, is the permanent spring that gives Agua Caliente Park its name. Colossal Cave is a wonderful place to take anyone who’s not uncomfortable wandering about in the depths of the earth. I’m a fan, too, of the Sweetwater Wetlands, a local treasure not well known beyond the birding community, and that you’ll find profiled later in this issue. So, too, with Gates Pass, where you won’t have to walk far at all to see one of the grandest sunsets of your life. Though it’s not in the least unexpected, San Xavier is a must, especially now that the restoration work championed by the late, great Bunny Fontana is so well along. (We’ll hear more about Bunny in April, when we turn to local heroes.) Less well known is a spot that I consider a must-see: El Tiradito Shrine, the only sacred place in the country, as it’s said, that’s consecrated to a sinner. There are numerous variants of the story that explains El Tiradito, but the one that I favor is as a warning to local kids to stay off the railroad tracks, something those downtown college students might want to heed. Get your guests to El Tiradito, then waltz them into El Minuto for a cheese crisp or the Coronet—the former Cushing Street Bar, for oldtimers— for a bracing beverage. Read on for tips for day four and beyond—and enjoy! n
March 2020|ZOCALOMAGAZINE.com 7
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neighborhoods Z
Jack Anderson Jr., better known as O.G. Jacki Blu, on the left.
Otis Shaw, Sr.
Sugar Hill A Historic Black Neighborhood by Sadie Shaw
SUGAR HILL is Tucson’s other historic Black neighborhood after the betterknown Dunbar. My grandparents, Otis and Essie Shaw, moved to Tucson with their children in the 1950s and were steered to the neighborhood under the city’s discriminatory redline policy, which designated the parcel of land between Stone Avenue, Grant Road, First Avenue, and Lee Street as “suitable” for Black homebuyers. In the 1940s and early ’50s, Black families from the South and Midwest began migrating west. Some were headed to California but broke down in Tucson. Some were members of the military who worked—but couldn’t live—at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. Others were simply hoping to escape racism at home, only to discover similar conditions in Tucson. Despite these obstacles, the neighbors were optimistic and determined. Together they helped shape a thriving, tight-knit Black community. Before Mansfield Park was established, thick desert peppered the neighborhood, providing refuge for the boys who were let loose to play in the recesses of undeveloped land. One of those boys was Bobby Morrison, who grew up to earn a doctorate with a specialty in developing programs for children and teenagers. He spoke of the days when kids were allowed to play unsupervised in the desert for hours, building forts and tunnels and racing soapbox derby cars. Often he and his friends would collect soda bottles to trade
in for three cents each to spend the day at the Fox Theatre. As children, they had the autonomy to walk to school and downtown at their leisure. Back then, he says, growing up in Sugar Hill was truly like living in paradise. What was and still is great about Sugar Hill is the neighborhood’s ability to organize its people power. In the early 1960s, neighbors came together and petitioned the city to build a pool, a park, and a recreation center in the neighborhood. The fruit of the labor of people like Terry Wayne Dixon, Hank Raymond, Mrs. Lillian Ross, and others led to Mansfield Park and the Donna R. Liggins Center, which has served the community for over fifty years. However, according to longtime Sugar Hill resident Jack Anderson Jr., a musician better known as O.G. Jacki Blu, it was a battle getting the city to bring any of its resources into the Black community. He remembers political happenings occurring around Sugar Hill and Fourth Avenue “before the hippies came in and took over.” There was the House of Uhuru run by Preston Davis, the spot where Tucson’s Black youth were able to receive a political perspective that countered their colonized school curriculum. Other groups active in Tucson at the time included the NAACP, the Black Panther Party, the Republic of New Afrika, and the Black Student Union. Collaboration between these various groups gave birth to the Black People’s Community Organization,
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Historic & Unusual Homes TIM HAGYARD (520) 241-3123 • tim@timhagyard.com • timhagyard.com
photo: David Olsen
outdoors Z
Gates Pass
Where the Sun Sets over Tucson by Gregory McNamee
LYING BETWEEN two peaks in the Tucson Mountains to the west of town, Gates Pass, as locals well know, is the most reliable venue around to yield views of the sunset that come up to the one on the Arizona flag. On stormy days, you’ll find crepuscular light to rival anything the gods can shower down anywhere on the planet, and when a winter or a monsoon storm is breaking up, it serves up cloudscapes without peer. There’s all that, and then there’s the location of the pass at the center of a network of hiking trails that fan out up and over the 4,000-odd-foot-tall Tucson Mountains and down into the eastern Avra Valley, stretching down from Tucson Mountain Park into Saguaro National Park. Though not especially difficult, those trails are long, and no matter what time of year you’ll want to take plenty of water, since there are no good sources out on the path.
Gates Pass was named for a local fellow who, way back in the 1870s and 1880s, tried his hand at several trades—gambling in the Congress Hall downtown, for one, and operating a mine in the Avra Valley. When the Pima County Board of Supervisors refused to build a road across the Tucson Mountains for which he’d petitioned, Gates paid to have the thing blasted out himself, saving himself a half-dozen miles or so of ore-hauling pain. He got his revenge by running for the Board himself, holding a seat for a few years before being appointed superintendent of the Yuma Territorial Prison and moving west. The road Thomas Gates built, costing him $1,000, wound through the mountains and down to the city. It was called Gates Pass Road until the early 1960s, when the county heard a petition by a merchants association to extend the name of Speedway Boulevard to the west. Anklam Road, named after a local
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neighborhoods Z Sugar Hill
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which printed a newspaper documenting the people’s grievances with Tucson’s police and court system. Jacki Blu laments that these days, “young folks don’t know the difference between capitalism and socialism.” Another neighbor, Mrs. Beatrice Humphrey, moved to Tucson in 1972 with her husband Warren from Cleveland, Ohio. She was not used to the rural landscape and couldn’t believe she left their life in Cleveland for a neighborhood with no sidewalks or streetlamps. She and other equally driven women were responsible for the installation of the sidewalks and streetlamps on the northern edge of Sugar Hill, which is now a part of El Cortez Neighborhood. Mrs. Humphrey’s gracious elegance and natural style made her one of the most sought-after saleswoman at the El Con Mall department store Levy’s, in the bridal, designer fashions, and custom drapery departments. She was even requested by clientele from Mexico, even though she did not speak Spanish. The Humphrey family eventually became close friends with the famed artist Ted DeGrazia, who would often invite them over to his private residence in the Foothills. Tucson is in danger of losing the distinct cultural assets of its historic neighborhoods. If the City of Tucson continues to put the expansion of the University of Arizona and its developers over the people, neighborhoods like Sugar Hill will only be visible as abstract cultural data collected for archival purposes. But the people of Sugar Hill are proud and determined. Every year hundreds of current and former residents meet at Mansfield Park for the Day After Thanksgiving (DAT) Sugar Hill Family Reunion event, proving that though some have left the neighborhood, that same people power is easily galvanized at neighborhood events. The next generation of community champions are ready to take the helm, and a group of neighbors are organizing and calling others to action to help establish the Sugar Hill Community Land Trust. We want to transform the vacant lots and empty homes in the neighborhood to serve the needs of the people while preserving the history and culture of the area. It’s just like O.G. Jacki Blu sings in his song “Party at the Bro”: “We gotta hold on before it’s all gone. / Look around, turn around, then there’s none.”
pioneer family, also figured into the consideration, which turned into quite a squabble. Eventually a compromise was reached, with Gates Pass Road beginning at Camino del Oeste and running west from there, and West Speedway Boulevard running east. There have been other changes over the years. Visitors once parked on the very lip of the ledge underneath Bushmaster Peak, requiring a sharp turn just at the point where traffic climbed the hill, a maneuver that led to plenty of ugly accidents. In the 1970s, UA architecture students competed to draw up an alternative plan. The winning one involved building a small paved parking lot away from oncoming traffic in a little bowl below the mountain crest, as it is today. Not far away lay another bit of architectural history, one that Christopher Domin and Kathryn McGuire describe as a futuristic block that sat in the hills below Gates Pass before being unceremoniously demolished, its foundation now “hidden by rubble and desert sand.” In their book Powerhouse: The Life and Work of Judith Chaffee (Princeton Architectural Press), they tell the story of that house and its builder, a woman in a profession dominated by ego-ridden men. Those who were around in her day—she died in 1998—remember Judith Chaffee for her gravel voice, hardened by years of smoking and drinking, and her fierce temper. But she was also a brilliant architect, and the destruction of that house remains a matter of controversy 22 years after the fact. It was bureaucracy and NIMBYism that brought the thing down: although Chaffee’s design produced a contemporary masterpiece of construction, the neighbors hated the thing, and the county denied the owners permission to run a water line out to the place. They had to abandon the house as a result, and it became a squat and an undeniable eyesore. It certainly didn’t have to turn out that way. Say a word of appreciation for Judith Chaffee, then, as you drive out to the pass. Park, take a hike, snap a sunset, then head down the hill into Avra Valley. But watch out—though that part of the road drops only a couple of hundred feet in elevation, it does so very suddenly, and there’s no guardrail to protect the incautious driver from tumbling down the saguaro-studded hill. That happens all the time, so much so that that 1.5-mile-long stretch down the hill and onto the flats sees three times as many accidents as any other road in Pima County. ¡Cuidado! n
For more information about the Sugar Hill Oral History Project, from which this article grows, see https://soundcloud.com/sugarhillneighborhood. n
March 2020|ZOCALOMAGAZINE.com 13
Z outdoors
Wasson Peak The Crown of the Tucson Mountains by Tom Zoellner
T
he highest spot in the Tucson Mountains—that lowish grouping of volcanic hills on the city’s west side—is named Wasson Peak. It bears the name of the founding editor of the Tucson Citizen. The paper is gone, but the igneous cone named for John Wasson still anchors the end of the chain. I set out to climb it on a winter morning. It isn’t a particularly hard scramble; anybody in shape can do it in about three hours. One conventional path to the top lies at King Canyon trailhead, not far from the western headquarters of Saguaro National Monument. The trail climbs a series of natural ledges on the washbottom, and the rising sun makes pink smears on the canyon walls as I trudge over sand made wet by rain the previous day. Then comes an ascent out of the drainage and up on a ridge that affords a view of Kitt Peak and Baboquivari to the southwest, the truly spectacular uplifts of southern Arizona that crouch 14 ZOCALOMAGAZINE.com|March 2020
hidden from most of the city, blocked by the wall of the unimaginatively named Tucson Mountains. This seven-mile ridge got its first complete survey by Wasson himself, who ran the Citizen as a sidelight to his real work, which was the federal surveyor general for Arizona Territory. He was a farmer’s son from Ohio who, like so many men of his generation, chased dreams of gold into California and Nevada and didn’t find anything worth assaying. But he did make some valuable friends in the mineral fields, including an ambitious Republican politician named A.P.K. Safford. At the age of 36, he drifted to the outpost of Tucson, which was then “a somber place whose colors favored the hues of the barren earth,” according to historian Don Schellie. It was a town of rectangular adobe dwellings with cactus-ribbed roofs, dominated by a ring of freight companies and powerful local men whose
outdoors Z
photo: AZCat
A view from Wasson Peak. patronage ruled the local pecking order: Zeckendorf, Ochoa, Hayden, Tully, Fish. The big money in Tucson lay in shipping goods to the U.S. Army, which was fighting a long war against various indigenous groups. Wasson forged a crucial friendship with Richard McCormick, a former aide to Abraham Lincoln who had taken a job as territorial governor and rode west shortly after Lincoln signed the Arizona Organic Act, which split New Mexico Territory into two parts. McCormick had been a journalist in New York and knew something about the power of words to influence politics. He was sick of the harassment he was receiving from Arizona’s first newspaper, the Arizonian, founded in Tubac in 1859. In the pugnaciously incestuous way of 19th-century press rivalries, McCormick had once owned a piece of the Arizonian, but he had quarreled bitterly with his business partner, Pierson Dooner, who used the
paper as an instrument to attack the former governor, then campaigning for a seat as the territorial delegate. McCormick convinced his new friend Wasson to found a new paper, the Arizona Citizen, to push back against the mud slung by the Arizonian. From October 1870 to April 1871, the city enjoyed a flame war as entertaining as a modern social media brawl as the editors traded insults. Wasson was called “the slime and filth of the earth,” a man living far above his abilities and “clothed, for an hour, from the spoils of official prostitution.” Dooner went after Wasson on economic grounds, too, claiming that his coverage of an unfavorable geologic report on Arizona’s mining potential would slow down the flow of capital and equipment. Wasson had indeed been cautious in his own somewhat pessimistic surveying report on mineral development. “It would presently be very large
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outdoors Z
photo: Tom Zoellner
but for the distances from cheap transportation, and notably because of the From the copper hole, it’s only about a half-mile more to the summit, and persistent hostility of the Indians in nearly every mining district,” he wrote. the path curves up its topmost slopes to reveal a plateau of jagged rock about Dooner gleefully ran a letter from the U.S. Marshal Milton B. Duffield, calling the square footage of a two-car garage. The city’s retail and housing quadrants Wasson a “gray-headed vagabond, reprobate and cowardly villain.” Though not stretch out far away to the east and the south, a yawning size and scale that constitutionally suited for invective poetry—backroom influence-peddling was might have astounded Wasson, used as he was to the 3,500 people who lived more his style—Wasson obligingly returned fire. He called Dooner a “malicious here in the 1870s. Today’s population of the metropolitan area is 935,000— booby,” an “obscure and despised being,” and a “galoot.” At one point, he roughly the size of New York City in the 1870s. triumphantly declared of his patron’s enemy, “He is publically gangrened.” On the descent from the peak, I can see the silvery rectangles of the McCormick won the election of 1871 and made sure that the Citizen Clearwater Project, the recharge basins into which water from the Colorado received an abundance of government printing contracts for legal notices, as River is ferried to Tucson via the Central Arizona Project canals and then well as favored status as the must-read of Tucson’s small ownership class. The fed into these basins to replenish the groundwater that gives the sunbelt Arizonian foundered, then went out of business. metropolis its life. These basins are about forty acres each and hold pools of Wasson settled into middle-class life. Unlike most Anglo men of his age, water about eight feet deep. Also down there somewhere, hidden from sight, he did not marry a younger Mexican woman from a prominent family. Instead, is Old Tucson, a film set built in 1939 for the movie Arizona. Though the fauxhe wed an eastern schoolteacher, said to be one of only two Anglo women in Victorian storefronts and plank wooden sidewalks bear little resemblance to town. “One more editor gone” sighed William Berry of the Yuma Sentinel, a the Mexican-dominated freighting town and upstart territorial capital that corpulent and genial man who wrote despairingly of his own barren love life. Wasson had known, the mini-theme park is a celebration of his era, even if Wasson became a trustee of the local Presbyterian church, and later, thanks to picturesque and false. his growing reputation as a Republican Party fixer, accepted an appointment Just as friendships had helped Wasson establish his modest fortune when from President Ulysses S. Grant to be the federal surveyor general of the state. he arrived here as a disappointed gold seeker, his personal connections Thanks to his continuing friendship with McCormick, also helped secure the legacy of his name. One of his and then Governor Safford, he also became known as a deputies in the surveyor general’s office was a British gatekeeper to the powerful. If you wanted a favor from the emigrant named George Roskruge, who would later serve state, or perhaps a piece of federal generosity, it helped to as the Pima County surveyor and chief engineer for the go see Wasson first. city of Tucson. The hand-drawn map of the county that The climb up to the peak named for Wasson winds he produced in 1893 was, in many respects, a defining through folds and knobs of the Tucson range before it document, affixing names on mountains, creeks, roads, comes to a junction with the Sweetwater Trail and opens and arroyos that would stand up to later challenges. He up an aperture of the northwest sections of the town the bestowed the name Mount Lemmon, for example, on the frontier editor had helped grow during its first era of Anglo peak that the Tohono O’odham had called Babad Do’ag, settlement, back when the historic bellicosity between or Frog Mountain. The highest peak in the Tucson range the largely agrarian Tohono O’odham and their horsetook the name of the man who had given Roskruge one of dependent rivals, the Inde, known to the Americans as the his first jobs. Wasson had left town for Pomona, California, Apaches, was at a height. by that point, but he lived to see the honor. A bit further up the trail is a fenced-off mineshaft, a The newspaper that Wasson founded is gone. reminder of the swarms of mineral hunters who came into After passing through a series of owners, it switched to the lightly defended outposts of what had been the Republic afternoon circulation in fell into the hands of the Gannett of Mexico in search of the silver and gold that gave the sere corporation in 1976, which shuttered it in 2009 amid Wasson Peak. land its first comprehensible wealth to the Americans. declining circulation and revenues. A website with its Wasson had first come west for this reason. This mineshaft, however, appears name closed on January 31, 2014, though some of its staff have gone on to to have been an extension of the Gould Mine complex to the southwest. Its publish a successor, The Tucson Sentinel. owners filed 19 claims in the region between 1906 to 1911, but by then, the Compared to the eternal geology of the mountains that surround Tucson, big treasure was copper, the indispensable element in wiring and electricity. the newspaper might well as been as tissue paper in the wind. Yet in their From here, the view of a false summit starts to give way to the rounded knob of own way, the Tucson newspapers—both the Citizen and the rival Arizona Daily Wasson Peak, the northernmost and highest mound in the chain. Star—put their imprints on these peaks just as indelibly as thousands of years Despite his bilious rhetoric aimed at McCormick’s Democratic rivals, of water and wind. One of the Citizen’s later owners, another Republican Party Wasson also had a magnanimous streak. When he finally met a rival editor faceconsigliere named Frank Hitchcock, used the paper to campaign successfully to-face, he surprised those who expected to see a brawl. Instead of “having for a road up to the top of Mount Lemmon. He also made sure that the a few square knockdowns like honest men would, they bowed, shook hands, copper mines in the Tucson Mountains wouldn’t spread further by lobbying laughed at our disappointment and went off like two thieves to take a drink,” his friend Herbert Hoover to set aside 25,000 acres for the western division wrote an observer. of Saguaro National Monument, in which Wasson Peak now stands protected Prescott took the Arizona capital away from Tucson in 1877, and with the from encroaching gravel pits and subdivision roads. The Citizen had also loss of a large part of his powerful connections, Wasson took the signal to get campaigned for the continuing maintenance of the county’s Tucson Mountain out of the newspaper business entirely. He sold the paper to Indian agent John Park, established to the south of the monument. Clum, who had just helped bring the Apache leader Geronimo into reservation It would not be an exaggeration to say that words in a newspaper, perhaps life and had championed a much more liberal approach to indigenous relations some of the most forgettable routine discourse created in any average city, than the hardliner Wasson. Clum sensed a brighter future in the canal boomtown had been responsible for keeping these mountains mostly intact in the era of Florence and moved the press there, renaming the paper the Arizona Citizen. of reckless settlement in which they would have been most threatened. The Later he moved it back to Tucson and then dragged his old printing press to papers go yellow and the people who wrote them pass away. But the imprint of Tombstone, where he started the Tombstone Epitaph. their words is left on the rocks. n March 2020|ZOCALOMAGAZINE.com 17
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water Z
Sweetwater Wetlands by Gregory McNamee
IT WAS DAWN on a February morning, one of those rare moments in our part of the world where the sunrise is shrouded in fog owing to an overnight rain and just the right combination of temperature (cold but not freezing) and elevation (a bottomland near the Santa Cruz). I was alone, with no one in sight, no one within hearing range save for the muffled distant thunder of traffic on the interstate. Then I heard it: a rattling through the bulrushes and cattails, meaningfully and vigorously made. It was too early for the birds to be up and about, I thought, and too cold for snakes. Rather than leave me guessing, the author of the sound finally hopped out onto the trail: an aggrieved-looking raccoon, who glared at me, or so it seemed, for being on his turf, huffed up as if looking for a brawl, and then turned and skulked off into a neighboring dry pond. That’s the Sweetwater Wetlands for you, a series of recharge ponds girded by reeds and rushes and encircled by stands of cottonwoods and willows, classic riparian trees in the Sonoran Desert. The place is small overall, certainly as compared to the Gilbert Water Ranch and the Glendale Recharge Ponds up Phoenix way, but the half-dozen ponds that make up the reserve are full of animal life. There are birds, of course: teals, wigeons, mallards, and other ducks, coots and gallinules and herons and other waterfowl, towhees that do their smaller share of rattling in the brush, and plenty of predators, including kestrels, hawks, and peregrine falcons, that swoop in to sample the local offerings. I’m particularly fond of blackbirds, and the wetlands are your best venue in town for seeing the red-winged and yellow-headed varieties. But that’s just the beginning of it. Where there’s water in the desert, there’s life. Native frogs ring the ponds, chirruping and croaking in a morning song as the sun climbs. The ducks wouldn’t be so fond of the place if the ponds weren’t full of mosquitofish, and battalions of lizards scamper about in the trees and
on the trails. Dragonflies, damselflies, diving beetles, and waterbugs flit across the surface, while a couple of turtle species hang out with the ducks. There are even water scorpions among the reeds, which aren’t real scorpions but all the same would make your day very unpleasant if you were, say, a cricket. Coyotes, bobcats, rabbits, squirrels, and plentiful bats complete the menagerie, to say nothing of those raccoons. The Sweetwater Wetlands make a splendid example of what the land bordering the Santa Cruz looked like back in the day before the water stopped flowing, turned aside to feed farm fields and cities and towns along its course. It’s also a fine testimonial to what can happen when recharged water—that is, sewage that has been treated—is returned to the ecosystem, which responds by bringing long-hidden ghosts back to life. Finally, the wetlands are one of the city’s better-kept secrets—not at all hard to get to, but not heavily visited even so except by bird watcers. It doesn’t take long to make a circuit of the ponds; even lingering and poking about, you can do the whole course in less than an hour. That’s about the time it took me to get around the wetlands and back to the entrance on that cold February morning, at any rate, just in time for a small army of wildlifephotography students to descend on the place, cameras at the ready. I let them pass, then started across the small bridge that spans the first pond. A rattling sound came from nearby, and there was that raccoon again. I waved. He glared. To get to the Sweetwater Wetlands, drive west on Prince Road across I–10 until it ends. Go right on Business Center Drive about a quarter mile, then turn right on Commerce Drive. Go about 500 feet to Benan Venture Drive, then follow it about 750 feet to Sweetwater Drive. Turn left and park in the signed dirt lot about 500 feet down the road. The park opens at sunrise. n March 2020|ZOCALOMAGAZINE.com 21
Clementine & Clove
makers Z
—and Traveling Tucsonan Rae Towne by Meredith O’Neil
photo: Meredith O’Neil
GLIDING THROUGH the jungle of the Mekong Delta, Rae Towne ducked at everything and never learning.” underneath the leaning leaves as she passed houseboats and floating markets. After her recent trip to Asia, a new shape appeared in her jewelry, somewhat The sun glinted through the branches. That day, she and her partner, Robert akin to a horseshoe. “I feel like it’s almost not a conscious thing, but when I Bayze, would visit a coconut farm, watch people make rice paper, and sip snake came back, I had this new idea for this shape. And I feel like now in retrospect, wine, a whole coiled snake still floating in the dark alcohol. I see it and it reminds me of some of the Thai jewelry I saw. There was one “It’s kind of one of these things,” Towne says. “When am I ever going to do store in Vietnam that had a lot of old traditional Vietnamese jewelry, it’s all this again? The whole trip, you don’t want to say no to anything because you silversmith stuff. It was really beautiful to see that and inspiring.” want to have that experience.” Although she initially started Laurel Evening Market to sell her jewelry, Over six weeks in Asia, Towne and Bayze traveled from Thailand to Vietnam Towne has since incorporated vintage clothing into her business, which she and Japan, where they visited an elephant sanctuary, got tattooed by a retired named Clementine & Clove. monk, released sky lanterns to float above the waters of Hoi An, and walked the “I would go 3 or 4 times a week and do a circuit of thrift stores,” she says. entire length of the Fushimi Shrine’s red gates. “It’s really thrilling to go treasure hunting, and when you find that piece, even Originally from the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, if it’s just one – you’ve spent all day digging, and you Rae Towne moved around a lot as a kid. By the time find just the one, it’s totally worth it.” she reached her early 20s, restlessness in her bones, The vintage selection at Clementine & Clove is she decided to leave Northern California for Seattle a mix of styles and sizes. When Towne is treasure with only $600. It would set her on a trajectory of hunting, she’s buying with a clear mission. constant motion. “Fashion is not designed for every body type. Along the way, her uncle invited her to come work There are some things that are super on-trend, but for him and stay on family land in Benson. She came only one specific kind of person can wear it. I don’t to Tucson to sell his handcrafted furniture at the Gem feel like it should be that way. My stuff is all sizes. I Show, and she found herself drawn to the city. try really hard to make sure that every single person “The social aspect was something that I was can walk up to my booth and can find something that searching for, this certain type of community,” will fit them. I don’t think that that’s as available to Towne says. “I think I had this idea in my head of people as it should be in fashion.” being surrounded by other creative people and other Together with Daryn McCluskey, owner of Batea weirdos like myself—weirdos in a good way. I didn’t Boutique, Towne has now put together a Tucson think it existed. And then I moved here, and it was pop-up market called RAD Market, named after the everything that I always wanted. This is the first place Railroad Arts District. that I do feel like I’ll want to stay forever. I’ve never “I love this platform for artists,” Towne says. “I felt that way about anywhere.” love the concept of pop-up shops, that people can The Gem Show wasn’t her first market experience. just walk through this little market and shop all this Towne had started a pop-up market in Oakland handmade and vintage stuff. There’s something so called the Laurel Evening Market, a curated openspecial about being face-to-face with the person that air collective of local vendors. The Laurel Evening made the product you’re buying, when you actually Market was one of the ways she marketed her own get to ask questions about it and talk to the person craft—jewelry. that created it.” Necklaces by Rae Towne. Towne hand-cuts and shapes silver, copper, and During the last RAD Market, Towne was greeting, brass into modern symbols that are deeply influenced by history and nature. hugging, and talking with people who came by the Clementine & Clove booth. “People have always adorned themselves,” she says. “People wear wedding She was rarely behind her table, instead walking around it to interact with rings, they wear certain ceremonial jewelry. It exists in every culture. We live in people passing by, and she seemed to know everyone. the land of a lot of native American silversmithing here in the Southwest, and “I always knew that I needed that kind of connection to a place,” Towne there’s such a distinct style for each community. It’s the same with Vietnam, says. “I needed that deeper connection with my community. I hadn’t found Thailand, even Japan. There are shapes and things that are representative of it until I came here. And it feels totally effortless. I feel like I skipped all the that culture. And I’m fascinated by it.” awkwardness of being new in a city and not having friends and getting your The shapes Towne uses resemble moons or gingko leaves, some incorporate bearings. I feel like I skipped that step, and it felt like I was always supposed stones and crystals, others have a fringe of hammered silver, and all of it was to be here.” self-taught. Through research and plenty of trial and error, Towne continues to Tucson is now home for Towne. She plans to buy a house here, even while define her jewelry. She currently makes earrings and necklaces but has plans knowing that she’ll always be in motion, always look to challenge herself. “I to make rings and bracelets, too. Her new studio space means she can branch constantly have to be seeking what’s next,” she says, “and what else is possible.” out to silversmithing and soldering. She has a whole notebook of designs she has drawn up that she wants to experiment with. Find Rae Towne at Instagram @clementine_clove, www.facebook.com/ “I feel like I have to constantly be bad at things to get good,” Towne says. clementineandclove, or https://clementineclove.com. n “Messing up is fun—and frustrating. There’s no such thing as just being good March 2020|ZOCALOMAGAZINE.com 23
DeGrazia’s Saguaro Harvest showcases works on display for the first time!
Gallery in the Sun MUSEUM
Museum opens daily from 10:00am-4:00pm. 1-520-299-9191 • 1-800-545-2185 6300 N. Swan Rd. Tucson, AZ 85718 www.degrazia.org
24 ZOCALOMAGAZINE.com|March 2020
03•12
The Modernist Gardens of Roberto Burle Marx with Dr. Lauri Johnson, Director of the UA School of Landscape Architecture & Planning
03•18 Concerts in the Gardens: JJJazz
03•26
Roberto Burle Marx Modernist Landscape Architecture and Its Connection to the Natural World with Jason Isenberg, Owner/Principal Landscape Designer at REALM Environments
04•02
UArizona Science CafĂŠ, The Biosphere 2 Rainforest, a Magnifying Glass for Ecosystem Responses to Environmental Changes, with Dr. Joost van Haren, Assistant Research Professor, Biosphere 2
04•08 Concerts in the Gardens: Duo Villalobos
04•09 Women’s Voices in Brazilian Poetry with Dr. Katia de Costa Bezerra, Professor of Spanish and Portuguese, UA Colleges of Letters, Arts & Science
05•07 UArizona Science CafÊ, The Ecology of Water Harvesting with Dr. Vanessa Buzzard, Senior Research Specialist, School of Natural Resources & the Environment
05•14
Burle Marx in Context: Brazilian Art in the Twentieth Century with Kristopher Driggers, Assistant Curator of Latin American Art, Tucson Museum of Art
*Limit 1 per person. Offer not valid for special events. Cannot be combined with other offers or discounts.
Concerts in the Gardens: SaravĂĄ!
Concerts in the Gardens: Nossa Bossa Nova
Offer expires 01 ｼ 31 ｼ 2021
03•11
04•01
Bring this coupon on your next visit to the Gardens and recieve $2 off the price of admission*
03•05
UArizona Science CafĂŠ, The New Deforestation Threat: Amazonian Rainforests and the Global Environment with Dr. Scott Saleska, Professor, Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
$2 off your next visit!
A B ZILIAN MUSIC, NDS PE AND CTU SERIES
EXP Ă‡ĂƒO
F E EVENTS* • THURSDAY EVENINGS • 6-7PM
*The above events are free. However standard admission rates apply for entry into the Gardens For more information visit us at TucsonBotanical.org
business Z
SCALE UP
Saving the Environment + Saving Energy = Saving Money
by Jennifer Powers
MIKE PEEL was happy to return to Tucson after spending several years in California, where he attended Claremont McKenna College and received a BA in government. He went on to earn a master’s in educational leadership at NAU. Recently promoted to the position of Statewide Sustainability Director for Local First Arizona, Mike joined the nonprofit organization in 2017 to advance its mission of strengthening communities and local economies through the creation of programs that benefit local business and entrepreneurs. The combination of his educational background and deep passion for Tucson made him a perfect fit with LFA. In 2018, Peel founded SCALE UP (Sustainable Communities Accessing Lending and Expertise Upon Performance), an LFA pilot program focused on energy and cost savings, public-private partnerships, and leveraging financial incentives. The program began by using the Architecture 2030 District model for existing buildings and infrastructure operations, which calls for 50 percent reductions in energy use, water consumption, and transportation emissions by the year 2030. Tucson’s district consists of the University of Arizona, West University, downtown, and Menlo Park, representing a total of 23,931,300 square feet of building space. Architecture 2030 was founded in 2002, based on achieving a dramatic reduction in the energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of the built environment, and advancing the development of sustainable, resilient, equitable, and carbonneutral buildings and communities. The 2030 District Network has over 470 million square feet of commercial real estate whose owners have committed to reducing resource use to meet the goals established by the Architecture 2030 Challenge for Planning. The Tucson 2030 District is one of more than a thousand organizations that have joined the Network. Arizona was ranked 19 on the 2019 State Energy Efficiency Scorecard by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy. Ranking in the top 20 is not bad, but given that Arizona ranked 12 on the list in 2013, we are falling behind. Therefore, the opportunity for LFA to partner with the Tucson 2030 District was timely. Together, they sought and received support from twenty partnering organizations, including the State of Arizona, Tucson Electric Power, Pima Association of Governments, Southwest Gas, Tucson Water, City of
Tucson Environmental and General Services, and City of Tucson Department of Transportation in the design and implementation of the pilot program. The SCALE UP goals were both environmental and financial. By making the built environment more carbon-neutral and water-efficient, the businesses would see an increase in their bottom line from saved energy costs. Another goal was to be comprehensive so participants were not forced to go outside of the program to secure solutions. Workshops covering all issues related to energy efficiency curated by participating partners were developed, along with financial incentives to encourage business owners to complete their planned efficiency upgrades. “There were eleven local businesses that took part in the pilot program,” says Mike. “One of the businesses was unable to participate throughout the whole program but had their building go through the assessment process. Small locally owned businesses were used throughout the program to perform retrofits, including Ecoblue and Technicians For Sustainability.” The pilot program outperformed expectations. SCALE UP 2.0 debuted with a focus on fleet electrification, fleet efficiency, and electric vehicle rebates that are available to business owners, while keeping energy assessments as a requirement of the program. It has also announced the creation of the “first local and general conservation oriented Revolving Loan Funds” with it partners at Community Investment Corporation (CIC), which they plan to grow from a $50,000 to a $100,000 low-interest lending portfolio. LFA and partners of the Southern Arizona Green Business Alliance will present the new business sustainability programs on the 50th anniversary of Earth Day at a Roadshow event at Hotel Congress, featuring SCALE UP and the Southern Arizona Green Business Leaders Certification. Sustainability businesses and businesses that highlight sustainable components within their enterprises will be on hand for this all-ages event on Wednesday, April 22, from 4:00 pm. to 7:00 pm. Small locally owned and operated businesses will want to check it out to see how these programs can work for them. For more information on this event and the programs offered by LFA, contact Mike Peel at (520) 975-0145. n
March 2020|ZOCALOMAGAZINE.com 29
Z art galleries & exhibits ETHERTON GALLERY presents Go Figure: Jack Balas, Titus Castanza, Holly Roberts, Robert Wilson with Benjamin M Johnson. With time, politics, personal history, and always an eye on the worlds they exist in, three artists use the figure to narrate their own ongoing stories. Looking further, their stories turn out to be ours, addressing universal themes that acknowledge the questioning, wry, often uncomfortable, compartmentalized, sum of ourselves. Go Figure opens with an artist reception 7-10 pm, Sat. March 17 at Etherton Gallery, 135 S. 6th Ave in downtown Tucson. More information at (520) 624-7370 or EthertonGallery.com
march ABSOLUTELY ART GALLERY
& GIFTS Hours: Mon-Sat 10am-5pm, Sun 11am-3pm. 16701 N. Oracle Rd Suite 145, Catalina, AZ. 520-818-1242. AbsolutelyArtGallery.com
ARIZONA
HISTORY MUSEUM Current exhibits include: Permanent Exhibits include: History Lab, Mining Hall, and Treasures of the Arizona History Museum. Hours: Mon & Fri 9am-6pm; Tues-Thurs 9am4pm; Sat & Sun 11am-4pm. 949 E. 2nd Street. 520-6285774. ArizonaHistoricalSociety.org
Titus Castanza, Ensemble, 2020, collage with original drawings, paintings (charcoal, pastel, conte, graphite, pen and ink, acrylic paint), 44 3/4” x 54 3/4,” Courtesy Etherton Gallery
ARIZONA STATE MUSEUM
A History of Walls: The Borders We Build opens March 5. Pahko’ora / Pahko’ola: Mayo and Yaqui Masks from the James S. Griffith Collection is on view through January 23, 2021. Long term exhibitions include Woven Through Time; The Pottery Project; Paths of Life; Saving an American Treasure: An Unparalleled Collection of Anthropological Photographs. Hours: Mon-Sat 10am-5pm. 520-6216302. 1013 E. University Blvd. StateMuseum.Arizona.Edu
CACTUS WREN GALLERY
Spring Art Festival is March 22 from 9am to 2pm. Gallery hours: Everyday from 9am to 4pm. 2740 S. Kinney Rd. 520-437-9103. CactusWrenArtisans.net
CENTER FOR CREATIVE PHOTOGRAPHY Holly Roberts, Young Woman Watching, n.d., 20 x 16,” Courtesy Etherton Gallery
Ansel Adams: Signature Style is on view until June 20. The Qualities of LIGHT: The Story of a Pioneering New York City Photography Gallery is on view through May 9. David Hume Kennerly: Witness to History is on view through March 11 in the UA Old Main Building. Hours: Tue-Fri 9am-4pm; Sat 1-4pm. 1030 N. Olive Rd. 520-621-7968. CreativePhotography.org
CONTRERAS GALLERY
Arizona Scenes is on view March 7 through 28 with a reception March 7 from 6pm to 9pm. Hours: Tues-Sat 10am-3:30pm. 110 E. 6th St. 520-398-6557. ContrerasHouseFineArt.com
DAVIS DOMINGUEZ GALLERY Of the Flesh is on view March 3 through April 25. Hours: Tues-Fri 11am5pm; Sat 11am-4pm. 154 E. 6th St. 520-629-9759. DavisDominguez.com
DEGRAZIA Benjamin M Johnson, Lock, 2017, oil on canvas, 12 x 12,” Courtesy Etherton Gallery
30 ZOCALOMAGAZINE.com|March 2020
GALLERY
IN
THE
SUN
DeGrazia’s Circus and DeGrazia’s Saguaro Harvest on view through September 2. Abstract Paintings of Ted DeGrazia is on view through May 27. In the Little Gallery, Julie Rose, Mixed Media is on display through March 6 and Lynn Waltke & Muriel Timmins, Mixed Media is on view March 8 to March 20. Hours: Daily 10am-4pm. 6300 N. Swan Rd. 520-299-9191. DeGrazia.org
art galleries & exhibits Z
DESERT ARTISANS GALLERY Pop-Up Show
MINI TIME MACHINE Shaping Arizona Statehood:
TUCSON DESERT ART MUSEUM Canyons of
is March 7 from 10am to 2pm. Hours: Mon-Sat 10am5pm; Sun 10am-1:30pm. 6536 E. Tanque Verde Rd. 520722-4412. DesertArtisansGallery.com
The George Stuart Historical Figures of the Movement West is on view through April 15. On Point: Sculptures on the Tips of Lead is on view through April 15. Paintings on Clayboard and Coins: Lee Beach and Bryanna Marie is on view through April 26. Behold the Big Top: Jean LeRoy’s Circus Parade is on view through May 10. Miniature Silver: The Helen Goodman Luria Collection continues through May 21. Tues-Sat 9am-4pm and Sun 12-4pm. 4455 E. Camp Lowell Dr. 520-881-0606. TheMiniTimeMachine.org
the Southwest: Art Show & Sale is on view through March 27. Ongoing exhibitions include: Desert Hollywood and Sacred Walls: Native American Muralism. Hours: WedsSun 10am-4pm. 7000 E Tanque Verde Rd. 520-2023888. TucsonDArt.org
ETHERTON GALLERY
Land Re-Form: Michael Berman, Mark Klett, Frank Gohlke and Mike Mulno is on view through March 14. Opening March 17 with a reception on March 21 from 7pm to 10pm, Go Figure: Jack Balas, Titus Castanza, Holly Roberts, Robert Wilson with Benjamin M Johnson on view through May 31. Hours: Tues-Sat 11am-5pm or by appointment. 135 S. 6th Ave. 520-624-7370. EthertonGallery.com
IRONWOOD GALLERY
International Exhibit of Nature in Art is on view through March 29. Vanishing Circles is on view April 4 to July 26 with an opening reception April 4. Hours: Mon-Sun 10am-4pm. 2021 N. Kinney Rd. 520-883-3024. DesertMuseum.org
JEWISH HISTORY MUSEUM
Asylum / Asilo is currently on view in the Allen and Marianne Langer Contemporary Human Rights Gallery through May 31. Hours: Fri 12-3pm; Sat & Sun 1-5pm. 564 S. Stone Ave. 520-670-9073. JewishHistoryMuseum.org
JOSEPH GROSS GALLERY
African for the First Time: Papay Soloman is on view through March 11. Annual Bachelor of Fine Arts Exhibition is on view March 19 through April 2 with a reception March 21 from 4pm to 6pm. Master of Fine Arts Thesis Exhibition is on view April 11 through May 15 with a reception April 16 from 5pm to 6:30pm. Hours: Mon-Fri 8am-4pm. 1031 N. Olive Rd. 520-626-4215. CFA.arizona.edu/galleries
LIONEL ROMBACH GALLERY Expected Value: Ben Hoste is on view March 3 to 12. Annual Bachelor of Fine Arts Exhibition is on view March 19 to April 2 with a reception March 21 from 4pm to 6pm. Hours: MonFri 8am-4pm. 1031 N. Olive Rd. 520-624-4215. CFA. arizona.edu/galleries
LOUIS CARLOS BERNAL GALLERY
Arte Contemporaneo de Oaxaca is on view through March 13. Annual Student Juried Art Exhibit is on view April 13 to May 8. A reception and award ceremony will be held April 16 from 3pm to 5pm. Hours: Mon-Thurs 10am-5pm and Fri 10am-3pm. Pima Community College West Campus, 2202 West Anklam Rd. 520-206-6986. www.Pima.Edu/CFA
MARK SUBLETTE MEDICINE MAN GALLERY Ed Mell – New Works is on view through March 13. Josh Elliott – Desert Array opens March 20 with a reception from 5pm to 7pm and closes April 10. Hours: Mon-Sat 10am-5pm and Sun 1pm-4pm. 6872 E. Sunrise Dr. Suite 130. 520-722-7798. MedicineManGallery.com
MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART On view through May 3: Amir H. Fallah: Scatter My Ashes on Foreign Lands; Diane Shpungin: Bright Light / Darkest Shadow; and Gary Setzer: The Unique Title of This Museum Exhibition Differentiates it From Other Exhibitions Produced by the Artist While it Simultaneously Hints at the Substance of the Artwork it Contains. Hours: Weds-Sun 12-5pm. 265 S. Church Ave. 520-624-5019. MOCA-Tucson.org
PHILABAUM GLASS GALLERY & STUDIO
TUCSON MUSEUM OF ART Southwest Rising: Contemporary Art and the Legacy of Elaine Horwitch is on view through June 21. Dwayne Manuel: Landslice is on view through June 30. Oazacan Folk Art from the Shepard Barbash and Vicki Ragan Collection and The Place Where Clouds Are Formed are on view through August 9. Avoiding the collapse into a series of majorisms is on view through September 6. I’m Every Woman: Representations of Women on Paper is on view through September 6. Ongoing exhibits include Ralph Gibson: Photographs; Art of the American West; Latin American Folk Art; J. Knox Corbett House, and the La Casa Cordova. Hours: Tues-Sun 10am-5pm. 140 N. Main Ave. 520-6242333. TucsonMuseumofArt.org
Richard Parrish: Tapestries in Glass is on view through the spring. Hours: Tues-Sat 10am-5pm. 711 S. 6th Ave. 520884-7404. PhilabaumGlass.com
TUCSON PASTEL SOCIETY
PORTER HALL GALLERY
UA MUSEUM OF ART Our Stories: High School
Kyle Johnston: Expression of Color and Shape is on view through June 6. The Tropics: Paintings from the Flat File of Manabu Saito is on display through May 31. Hours: Daily 8:30am-4:30pm. 2150 N. Alvernon Way. 520-326-9686. TucsonBotanical.org
RAICES TALLER 222 GALLERY
Viviendo Verde is on view March 7 to April 18. Hours: Fri & Sat 1-5pm and by appointment. 218 E. 6thStreet. 520-8815335. RaicesTaller222.com
SOUTHERN ARIZONA WATERCOLOR GUILD Fiesta Sonora is on view March 3 to April 5 with a reception March 12 from 5pm to 7pm. Experimental is on view April 7 to May 3 with a reception April 16 from 5pm to 7pm. Hours: Tues-Sun 11am-4pm. Williams Centre 5420 East Broadway Blvd #240. 520-299-7294. SouthernAZWatercolorGuild.com
TOHONO CHUL PARK
On the Desert / The Discovery and Invention of Color continues through April 15 in the Main Gallery and Desert Duet: Erinn Kennedy and Todd Ros is on view through March 15 in the Entry Gallery. Paul Anders-Stout and Nicholas Bernard will be on display through April 15 in the Welcome Gallery. Hours: Daily 9am-5pm. 7366 N. Paseo del Norte. 520742-6455. TohonoChulPark.org
Winter Charity Show is on view until March 5 at St. Philips Episcopal Church, 4440 N. Campbell Ave. TucsonPastelSociety.org
Artists is on view through April 26. Other TARGET/S and Hobby Craft: Artwork from the Arizona State Prison Complex are on view through March 29. American Art Gallery: 1925 to 1945 is on view through May. Contemporary Art Gallery and Modern Art Gallery are on view through June. Ongoing exhibitions include The Altarpiece From Ciudad Rodrigo. Hours: Tues-Fri 9am4pm; Sat 9am-5pm; Sun 12-5pm. 1031 N. Olive Rd. 520621-7567. ArtMuseum.Arizona.Edu
UA POETRY CENTER
Birds of Longing: Exile and Memory is on display through April 18. Hours: Mon & Thurs 9am-8pm; Tues, Weds, Fri 9am-5pm. 1508 E. Helen St. 520-626-3765. Poetry.Arizona.Edu
WILDE MEYER GALLERY
Eclectic Arts – A Group Show is on view March 20 from 5pm to 7pm. Hours: Mon-Fri 10am-5:30pm; Thurs 10am-7pm; Sat 10am-6pm; Sun 12-5pm. 2890 E. Skyline Dr. Suite 170. 520-615-5222. WildeMeyer.com
WOMANKRAFT ART GALLERY
Getting Into Shapes is on view through March 30. Drawing Down the Muse is on view April 6 through May 4 with receptions April 6 and May 25 from 7pm to 9pm. Hours: Weds-Sat 1-5pm. 388 S. Stone Ave. 520-629-9976. WomanKraft.org
March 2020|ZOCALOMAGAZINE.com 31
Photo: Josh Harrison/Reflect Imaging
Z performances
32 ZOCALOMAGAZINE.com|March 2020
performances Z t
HAWKINSDANCE: PLEIADES DANCE CONCERT IN THE PARK An evening of contemporary dance under the stars, Hawkinsdance presents Pleiades Dance Concert in the Park on March 14, 2020 at 6:30pm, at the DeMeester Outdoor Performance Center in Reid Park. This event is FREE and open to the public. The concert will feature artists who represent the forefront of contemporary dance today, both regionally and as part of the national landscape. In addition to choreography by Artistic Director Shelly Hawkins and the Hawkinsdance company dancers, Hawkinsdance has commissioned Charlotte Adams to set a show-stopping duet which will premiere at the event. Adams was an integral part of the Tucson dance community as one of the founding members of 10th Street Danceworks, and is now returning to the desert after her tenure at the University of Iowa Department of Dance. The show will also feature a curated selection of dances by artists from across the country who have submitted their work to an open call. More information at www.hawkinsdance.org.
ARIZONA FRIENDS OF CHAMBER MUSIC Tucson Winter Chamber Music Festival, March 1 to 8. Narek Arutyunian, clarinet & Steven Beck, piano, March 22. See website for locations. 520-577-3769. www.ArizonaChamberMusic.org
ARIZONA OPERA
Riders of the Purple Sage, March 7 & 8. Ariadne Auf Naxos, April 11 & 12. Tucson Music Hall, 260 S. Church Ave. 520-293-4336. www.AZOpera.org
ARIZONA REPERTORY THEATRE
The Two Gentlemen of Verona, March 18 to 29, Marroney Theatre. University of Arizona. 520-621-1162. www.Theatre.Arizona.edu
ARIZONA THEATRE COMPANY The Legend of Georgia McBride, March 7 through 28. Temple of Music and Art, 330 S. Scott Ave. 520-884-8210. www.ArizonaTheatre.org
THE GASLIGHT THEATRE
Showdown in Tucson, through March 29. 7010 E. Broadway Blvd. 520886-9428. www.TheGaslightTheatre.com
HAWKINSDANCE
Pleiades, Dance Concert in the Park, March 14 at the DeMeester Outdoor Performance Center, Reid Park. Kinship, April 17 to 19 at the Berger Performing Arts Center. 520-254-6890. www.Hawkinsdance.org
INVISIBLE THEATRE
CIVIC ORCHESTRA OF TUCSON
A Few of Our Favorite B’s, March 14 & 15. See website for locations. 520-730-3371. www.COTMusic.org
FOX TUCSON One Night of Queen, March 3; BANF Mountain Film Festival, March 5 to 7; Buddy – The Buddy Holly Story, March 8; Altan, March 14; The Music of Cream: Disraeli Gears & Clapton Classics, March 15; Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, March 20; NPC Natural Outlaw, March 21; Smile! – Candid Camera and Host Peter Funt, Live on Stage, March 22; The Tap Pack, March 23; An Evening with Amy Grant, March 25; Atlanta Rhythm Section with Firefall, March 28; Bollywood Boulevard, March 29. Fox Theatre, 17 W. Congress St. 520-5473040. www.FoxTucson.com
The Aliens, March 26 to April 12. City High School Center for Collaborative Learning, 37 E. Pennington. 520-468-6111. www.SomethingSomethingTheatre.com
SOUTHERN ARIZONA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRATchaikovsky and a Live Painter, March
Justin Berkman, March 6 & 7; Matt Sadler, March 13 & 14; Steve Gillespie, March 20 & 21; B.T., March 27 & 28. 2900 E. Broadway. 520-32-Funny. www.LaffsTucson.com
LIVE THEATRE WORKSHOP
PIMA COMMUNITY COLLEGE
24 to 29. Jersey Boys, April 24 to 26. Centennial Hall, 1020 E. University Blvd. 520-903-2929. www.BroadwayinTucson.com
SOMETHING SOMETHING THEATRE
LAFFS COMEDY CAFFE Jade Esteban Estrada,
BORDERLANDS THEATER
BROADWAY IN TUCSON A Bronx Tale, March
Ada and The Engine, March 26 to April 12. Letter’s End, May 15 to 31. 738 N. 5th Ave. 520-448-3300. www. ScoundrelandScamp.org
SOUTHERN ARIZONA PERFORMING ARTS COMPANY 1776, April 24 & 25 at George
Tucson Music Hall, 260 S. Church Ave. 520-901-3194. www.BalletTucson.org Barrio Stories Nogales, April 24 & 25. Morley Ave in Downtown Nogales. 520-276-9598. BorderlandsTheater.org
SCOUNDREL AND SCAMP THEATRE
The Arizona Premiere of From Brooklyn to Broadway, March 14 to 15. Berger Performing Arts Center, 1200 W. Speedway Blvd. 520882-9721. www.InvisibleTheatre.com
Main Stage: Radiant Vermin through March 28. Family Theatre: Mona Lisa on the Loose through March 8. 5317 E. Speedway Blvd. 520-327-4242. www.LiveTheatreWorkshop.org
BALLET TUCSON Spring Concert, March 13 to 15.
march
Chorale & College Singers – Spring Concert, March 10; Wind Ensemble - Around the World in 88 Minutes, March 12; As You Like It, April 16 to 26. See website for locations. PCC West Campus, 2202 W. Anklam Rd. 520-206-6986. www.Pima.Edu/CFA
ODYSSEY STORYTELLING SERIES Sweet Sixteen, March 5. Kale and Other Reversals of Fortune, April 2. Savage, May 7. Doors at 6:30pm, show at 7pm. The Sea of Glass Center for the Arts, 330 E. 7th St. 520730-4112. www.OdysseyStorytelling.com
RIALTO THEATRE Tucson’s Got Talent at 6pm and Moving Pictures – A Tribute to Rush at 8pm on March 7. 318 E. Congress St. 520-740-1000. www.RialtoTheatre.com
ROGUE THEATRE The Beauty Queen of Leenane, through March 15. Twelfth Night, April 23 to May 10. 300 E. University Blvd. 520-551-2053. www.RogueTheatre.org
DeMeester Performance Center, Reid Park. 520-2610915. www.SAPACTucson.org
14, 7:30pm at SaddleBrooke DesertView Performing Arts Center and March 15, 3pm at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church. 520-308-6226. www.SASOMusic.org
TUCSON REGIONAL BALLET
The Tortoise and the Jackrabbit & La Bayadere Act III, April 18 & 19. Leo Rich Theatre, 260 S. Church Ave. 520-886-1222. TucsonRegionalBallet.org
TUCSON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Barber Violin Concerto, March 13; American Soundtrack with Peter Bernstein, March 21; Bravo! An Admission Free Concert, March 27; Strings in Space, March 28; Lauren Roth in Recital, March 28. See website for locations. 520882-8585. www.TucsonSymphony.org
UA PRESENTS Itzhak Perlman with Rohan De Silva, March 1; Ingrid Jensen, March 3; NIYAZ: The Fourth Light Project, March 5; Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, March 18; The Underwater Bubble Show, March 22; A Bronx Tale, March 24 to 29 (presented by Broadway in Tucson). See website for locations. 520-621-3364. www.UAPresents.org
UNSCREWED THEATER Family friendly shows every Friday and Saturday night at 7:30pm. 3244 E. Speedway Blvd. 520-289-8076. www.UnscrewedTheater.org
March 2020|ZOCALOMAGAZINE.com 33
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Spring Cleaning!
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march Spring Plant Sale at Native Seed Search, Friday, March 20 to Sunday, March 22. Pictured: Zuni Tomatillos.
THURS 5 THROUGH SUN 29 ASIAN LANTERN FESTIVAL Reid Park Zoo is partnering with Tianyu Arts & Culture Inc., UA Global, and the Tucson Chinese Cultural Center to bring more than 400 colorful, interactive, customized lanterns to Southern Arizona. Enjoy Asian inspired activities, crafts and food, live entertainment, and a brand new interactive lighted floor in Expedition Tanzania. $18 for adults, $16 for children (2-14), children 1 year old or younger are free. Members receive $2 off admission. 6pm to 9pm. 3400 Zoo Court. 520-791-3204. www.ReidParkZoo.org
FRI 6 TO SUN 8 FORT LOWELL FLEA MARKET
Browse kitchenware, vintage items, and antiques with proceeds benefitting the neighborhood association and San Pedro Chapel National Historic Site. 9am to 3pm. San Pedro Chapel, 5230 E Fort Lowell Rd.
SAT 7 & SUN 8 SOUTHEAST ARIZONA WINE GROWERS FESTIVAL Eighteen Arizona Wineries, food vendors, arts and crafts vendors and live music both days. Family friendly and well behaved dogs are welcome. Tickets: $20-$45, includes a souvenir wine glass. 11am to 5pm. Free parking. Kief-Joshua Vineyards-Elgin, 370 Elgin Rd. Elgin, AZ. 520-455-5582. www.KJ-Vineyards.com
SUN 8 MERCADO DISTRICT FLEA MARKET Vintage, Antiques, and Thrifted Treasure vendors pop up on site along the Avenida del Convento. 8am-2pm. Free. 100 & 267 S. Avenida del Convento 520-461-1107. Mercadodistrict.com/events
WEDS 11
FRI 13 TO SUN 15
INTRO TO FOREST BATHING
The healing Japanese practice of forest bathing or shinrin-yoku, involves deeply attuning your senses to your surroundings on a forest walk so as to experience a health-restoring sense of well-being. Led by Dr. Lee Ann Woolery. $55 for adults. 9am to noon. Yume Japanese Gardens of Tucson, 2130 N. Alvernon Way. 520-272-3200. www. YumeGardens.org
SPRING ARTISANS MARKET Over 100 local
WEDS 11 TO FRI 13
SAT 14 & SUN 15
VETERANS STAND DOWN
All veterans (including National Guard and Reservists) are invited to attend this free event, where VA staff and volunteers will provide hot meals, clothing, haircuts, first aid treatment, and health screenings to homeless and at-risk veterans, and referrals for housing solutions, health care, substance use treatment, job search and resume writing help, disability claims, legal matters, pet vaccinations, mental health counseling, and more. On Wednesday from 9am to 2pm is the Veteran Resource Fair and beginning at 9am, homeless veterans (no transitional) may check into the hotel for two nights. On Thursday from 11am to 3pm. is the Veteran Career Fair, which will open to the general public after noon. The Grand Luxe Hotel, 1365 W. Grant Rd. 520-878-7184.
FRI 13 FUTURE
INNOVATORS
NIGHT
Explore 50 hands-on science activities and interactive demonstrations alongside the brightest young minds in Southern Arizona. 5:30pm to 8pm. Free and open to the public. Tucson Convention Center Exhibit Halls, 260 S. Church Ave. www.SARSEF.org
artists and artisans with crafts, original artwork, pottery, glass goods, jewelry, textiles, and gift items. Local food vendors and live entertainment throughout the weekend. Market is open from 10am to 5pm daily. Admission to the museum galleries are free for the duration of the market. Tucson Museum of Art, 140 N. Main Avenue. TucsonMuseumofArt.org
FESTIVAL OF BOOKS An annual celebration of literacy on the University of Arizona Mall. Workshops, panel discussions, kids programming area, exhibitor booths, food vendors, and special access to the Flandrau Science Center, UAZ Insect Collection and more. Free admission. Parking available on campus. See website for list of presenting authors and events. 9:30am to 5:30pm. 520-621-0302. www.TucsonFestivalofBooks.org
SUN 15 ST. PATRICK’S DAY PARADE
Enjoy Celtic tradition with live music, dancers, a children’s game area, food and vendors. Festivities begin at 10 a.m., parade begins at 11am, ends at 5pm. Free to the public. Armory Park, 220 S. 5th Ave. www.TucsonStPatricksDay.com
FRI 20 TO SUN 22 SPRING PLANT SALE Three-day, outdoor plant sale featuring tomatoes, peppers, and other warm season vegetables and herbs as well as desert landscape plants. 10am to 5pm. each day. Native Seed Search, 3061 N. Campbell Ave. www.NativeSeeds.org
March 2020|ZOCALOMAGAZINE.com 37
LEARN
BLACKSMITHING BLADESMITHING METALLURGY WELDING CASTING
DMC
Enrolling now!
YOUR TUCSON COMMUNITY METAL ARTS SCHOOL All skill levels welcome
desertmetalcraft.org
Moonlite Creations Gallery & Studio 101 W. 6th Street
at the Steinfeld Warehouse
Open Wed ~ Sun 12 to 6pm and during Art Walks, 6-9pm
The gallery features local artisans and craftsman whose unique work is in various mediums; Art, Jewelry, Ceramics, Photography, Woodwork, Textile, Glass and so much more! 38 ZOCALOMAGAZINE.com|March 2020
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Cyclovia returns to downtown and South Tucson, Sunday, March 29, 9am-3pm.
SAT 21 SUSTAINABLE
LANDSCAPES
EXPO
Increase your knowledge on efficient water usage and sustainable landscaping in the Southern Arizona desert at this family friendly event. Hands on activities such as making your own musical instrument, food trucks, and a free raffle with an opportunity to take home a tree. Bring a donation for the Food Bank and receive an extra raffle ticket. 10am to 2pm. University of Arizona Cooperative Extension, 4210 N. Campbell Ave. www.Cals.Arizona. Edu/Pima/Smartscape
SAT 21 & SUN 22 WA:K POW WOW
Tucson’s largest gathering of Native American dancing, singing, arts, crafts, and food. Dance contests with contestants from around the nation competing in team dancing, hoop dance, drum contests, owl dance, chicken dance, inter-tribal dances, and much more. Gates open at 10am both days. $7 adults, $5 children, kids 6 and under are free. $3 parking. Behind San Xavier Mission del Bac Church, 1950 W. San Xavier Rd.
FRI 27 TO SUN 29 TUCSON HIP HOP FESTIVAL
Conway the Machine headlines the festival this year, alongside local artists and innovators on the up-and-up. See website for tickets and schedule. www.TucsonHipHopFestival.com
SAT 28 BLUES AND BREWS FESTIVAL
Enjoy food and craft beers while listening to the sounds of Mr. Sipp, Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears, Casey Hensley, Black
Cat Bones, The Coolers, Paul Green & Midnight Blue, and The Cholla Rhythm and Blues Band. Tickets: $22 online, $25 at the gate. VIP $100. 10am to 7pm. See website for tickets and schedule. DeMeester Outdoor Performance Center, 900 S. Randolph Way. www.AZBlues.org
SUN 29
march THURSDAYS SANTA CRUZ RIVER FARMERS MARKET Locally grown foods and goods with live music. 4pm to 7pm. Mercado San Agustin, 100 S. Avenida Del Convento. MercadoSanAgustin.com
FREE FIRST THURSDAYS
people together to walk, bike, socialize, and play in carfree, care-free streets. Scoot, bike, skate, walk or wheel along the route discovering new businesses and fun interactive opportunities along the way, from downtown to South Tucson. 9am to 3pm. CycloviaTucson.org
On the first Thursday of every month the museum is open late with free admission from 5pm to 8pm, featuring special performances, live music, lectures, cash bar, and food trucks. For more information see website. Tucson Museum of Art, 140 N. Main Avenue. 520-624-2333. TucsonMuseumofArt.org
ONGOING
SATURDAYS
MONDAYS
ORO VALLEY KIDS CONCERT SERIES
CYCLOVIA A Living Streets Alliance program, bringing
MEET ME AT MAYNARDS
Southern Arizona Roadrunners’ Monday evening, non-competitive, social 3-mile run/walk, that begins and ends downtown at Hotel Congress, rain/shine/holidays included! Free. Check in suggested from 5:15pm to 6pm. Closing ceremony at 7pm. Maynards Market, 400 N. Toole. 520-991-0733. MeetMeAtMaynards.com
TUESDAYS ROOFTOP YOGAHOUR
Stretch and sweat under the stars every Tuesday night on the rooftop of Playground. All levels welcome. Drink and food specials offered to attendees. $6. Bring your own mat. 7pm. Playground Bar & Lounge Rooftop, 278 E. Congress St. YogaOasis.com/Rooftop-Yoga
Every first Saturday kids can explore instruments and dance with their family. Oro Valley Council Chambers, 11000 N. La Canada Drive, Oro Valley. www.OroValleyAZ.gov
SUNDAYS 5 POINTS FARMERS MARKET Every Sunday at Cesar Chavez Park. 10am to 2pm. 756 S. Stone Ave.
RILLITO PARK FARMERS MARKET
Find veggies, citrus, fresh eggs, pasta, coffee, locally made soaps and a variety of goods at this open-air market. Open every Sunday from 9am to 1pm (Oct to Mar) and 8am to noon (Apr to Sep) at the Rillito Park Race Track, 4502 N. 1st Ave. HeirloomFM.org
March 2020|ZOCALOMAGAZINE.com 39
OPEN TUES - SAT 10AM-5PM
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40 ZOCALOMAGAZINE.com|March 2020
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IDENTIFYING FEATURES - Fernanda Valadez’s critically acclaimed and powerful debut feature Sin señas particulares/Identifying Features tells the story of Magdalena (Mercedes Hernandez), who sets out on a journey in search of her son, who disappeared en route to the U.S. border. Arizona Premiere ahead of U.S. Theatrical Release. April 4th, 9pm, Harkins Tucson Spectrum 18.
Cine Mexico A Jewel in Tucson’s Movie Crown by Vanessa DeCardenas ON APRIL 1–5, the Old Pueblo will once again host Tucson Cine Mexico, the longest-running festival of contemporary Mexican cinema in the United States. Established in 2004, Tucson Cine Mexico is the creation of Vicky Westover, director of the Hanson Film Institute, and Carlos Gutiérrez, founder and director of New York–based Cinema Tropical, a nonprofit media arts organization leading the presentation of Latin American cinema in the United States. Tucson Cine Mexico has become a fundamental platform for the screening of Mexican films in this country. Some of the films selected for screening at this year’s Tucson Cine Mexico have already won distinguished awards, and many of these films will be exclusively screened for Tucson Cine Mexico and will not be available to watch elsewhere locally. Inspired by a new wave of Mexican films and filmmakers, specifically Amores Perros by Alejandro González Iñárritu and Y Tu Mamá También by Alfonso Cuarón, Westover came up with the idea for this film festival while living in Baltimore, and working for the Baltimore Film Forum. “Those films made folks pay attention and contemporary Mexican cinema has continued to be exceptional for the past decade,” she says. “Beyond the well-known directors Alejandro González Iñárritu, Alfonso Cuarón, and Guillermo del Toro, there’s an
exciting generation of young filmmakers from different regions in the country who are drastically changing how Mexicans see and represent themselves on the big screen, and they are challenging traditional notions of Mexican culture and identity. The exciting wave heralded by films such as Amores Perros and Y Tu Mama Tambien has given way to a strong body of work making Mexico an international and exciting player in world cinema and those films should be more accessible.” After relocating to Tucson, Westover discovered that with its rich history and culture, Tucson would be the perfect location for a Mexican film festival. To date, Tucson Cine Mexico has hosted 45 filmmakers and industry professionals, including MacArthur Fellow director Natalia Almada, producer Martha Sosa (Amores Perros), producer Frida Torresblanco (Pan’s Labyrinth); and Producer, and writer and director Jonás Cuarón (Gravity). A few years ago Tucson Cine Mexico hosted beloved Mexican actor Jesús Ochoa, who attracted a line around the block for the screening of Aquí entre nos at the Fox Tucson Theater. This year, festival goers can look forward to a similarly strong slate of Mexican films, chronicling everything from endearing coming-of-age stories to poignant borderland experiences. Westover says, “This year’s program
March 2020|ZOCALOMAGAZINE.com 41
Valentine’s Candies For Your Hearing
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I WILL U GET YOED “WH LIG YOU K AT” CHEC MY HT UP ? YOU LIF ARE SO I E E IM PORTANT I LOV CARE YOU WILL YOU E U FOR YO E M E YOU AK IL Y M M SM I ARE INE H WILL SUNS PROTECT YOU
Of all the five senses, our hearing is perhaps the most precious. If we lose it, we lose contact with the people we love and the world around us. Even moderate hearing loss can have a serious impact on your quality of life.
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film Z
ESTO NO ES BERLÍN- Xabiani Ponce de León (left) and José Antonio Toledano (right) star as best friends in Esto no es Berlín/ This is Not Berlin, a compelling semi-autobiographical tale of two outcasts who find themselves at home at the Aztec, a legendary Mexico City nightclub. With impeccable art direction, a pulsing soundtrack, and a knock-out ensemble cast, the film offers a revealing portrait of Mexico City in the eighties - an era of deep political, social, and cultural change that shaped today’s Mexico. Arizona Premiere, April 3rd, 6pm, Harkins Tucson Spectrum 18.
LOS LOBOS - In Los Lobos/ The Wolves, writer/director Samuel Kishi tells the story of his childhood through the character of Max (Maximiliano Nájar Márquez), who is forced to become the man of the house at 8 years old when his mom moves him and his little brother from Mexico to Albuquerque, New Mexico. Arizona Premiere. April 4, 3pm Harkins Tucson Spectrum 18. features a mix of outstanding feature films and documentaries, including a coming of age drama, crime dramas, a comedy drama, two films by indigenous women filmmakers, and a talk about restoring Mexican popular movies. Nine filmmakers will be in attendance to present their films.” Tucson Cine Mexico presents This is Not Berlin, a Grand Jury Prize Nominee at the Sundance Film Festival in 2019 directed by Hari Sama. The film is an edgy semiautobiographical coming-of-age tale set in Mexico in 1986, as the country gets ready for the World Cup. This Is Not Berlin follows 17-year-old Carlos, an introverted kid who doesn’t fit in. Out Magazine called it “an urgent and refreshing queer take on the coming-of-age genre that doubles as an intoxicating snapshot of Mexico’s countercultural scene in the late 80s.” Tucson Cine Mexico also presents the drama Identifying Features in advance of its US theatrical release. Directed by first-time director Fernanda Valadez, the film is fresh from this year’s Sundance Film Festival where it was a double winner. Identifying Features collected the Audience Award and the
World Dramatic Jury Prize for Screenplay. The film tells the story of Magdalena, who sets out on a journey in search of her son, who disappeared en route to the US border. Tucson Cine Mexico is always free. Tickets will be available for reservation beginning in March online at tucsoncinemexico.org. With screenings all over town, audience members can expect to watch the films in a community setting with the opportunity to engage with filmmakers in post screening dialogue. All films will be screened in Spanish with English subtitles and post film Q&A will be conducted in Spanish and English.. For many, being able to watch a film in their native language of Spanish about contemporary Mexican culture is very important. For others, the opportunity to learn how Mexicans see themselves is very valuable. Vicky Westover describes Tucson Cine Mexico as “a jewel in Tucson’s movie season.” Tucsonans should feel proud to play host to one of the premier Latinx festivals in the country. n March 2020|ZOCALOMAGAZINE.com 43
UPCOMING EVENTS AT THE DIAMOND CENTER
Tickets available at the Rewards Center or online at etix.com
ROCKET
MAN FREE SHOW!
SATURDAY
APR. 11
FRIDAY
APR. 24
FRIDAY
18+ Show
JUNE 19
SAHUARITA An Enterprise of the Tohono O’odham Nation.
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Katie Haverly & The Aviary New Album Release, Matter by Jamie Manser
A heartrending 10-track album that is Haverly’s eighth release, dropping on April 4 with a show at Club Congress, Matter adroitly navigates rock, pop and folk genres, combining jazz sensibilities with poetically introspective lyrics. The gorgeous vocals and tight musicianship pull you in to listen closely, to mull the words, and deeply appreciate the profoundly personal stories she’s scribed. Anyone who has dealt with the angst of dysfunctional relationships due to untreated mental illness can definitely relate to this work of art, turning pain into beauty. “This album is entirely autobiographical,” Haverly says. “I went through a process with a therapist to finally understand, uncover and provide a name for the difficulties and challenges I experienced growing up. This record was the coping mechanism and the medicine that helped me move through this process. I am working hard to launch this out into the world in the hopes that my medicine may be someone else’s.” Those of us who identify with Haverly’s experiences can find catharsis within her songs. While the energy of many of the tunes brings to mind the Japanese concept of mono no aware, the appreciation and wistfulness of life’s impermanence, the album is also inspiring and motivating—especially the title track.
Matter, says Haverly, was inspired by a photographer whose work taking pictures of gravestones helped a family impacted by Native Canadian children being adopted by American families learn and get some closure. “I admire the gravestone photographer for their bravery in being themselves. This is a message I want to scream: Make whatever you feel drawn to, inspired by, closest to, make it count, matter. It is part of your gifts and purpose on this planet, and it is so important to not let anyone convince you differently. And I totally recognize, that for me in particular, overcoming the challenges and difficulties growing up was part of evolution as a soul, and created in me a strong sense of resilience that has made me who I am today. Music is the thing in my life that helps me process all that is confusing about being a human on this planet. All that we have to face on a daily basis, and the impending arc of our lives.” Katie Haverly & The Aviary feature: Ben Nisbet, electric guitar; Chris Pierce, bass; Tom Beech, drums; and Haverly: songwriter, piano, acoustic guitars, vocals and harmony vocals. The free show at Club Congress, 311 E. Congress St., is Saturday, April 4. It starts at 7:00 pm with openers Loki Moon and Mesquite. Learn more at Facebook.com/KatieHaverlyMusic. n March 2020|ZOCALOMAGAZINE.com 45
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Gabriel Pietrangelo On My Way Back Home by Dan Rylander
Music has a power to trigger deep emotion. Gabriel Pietrangelo’s new release wields that power. This Waterworks and Pietrangelo production, mixed by Jim Blackwood, contains seven songs—spare, quiet, and beautiful. There are no rockers here, but put the listening in, and you’ll be richly rewarded. The second cut, “Summer Rain” is an emotion-inducing gem, a promise of love and comfort to one in distress: I’ll hold you when you’re lying in your bed, I’ll soothe you when you’re seeing scarlet red, I’ll feed you when you’ve nowhere left to turn, I’ll love you like you’ve never known your worth. I played the cut repeatedly, tearing up every time. In a country blues ballad that would not be out of place on a Loretta Lynn album, Pietrangelo reflects on the ill-advised rescue of a paramour with some flaws, who will inevitably and sooner rather than later let the rescuer down. “He’s Got a Broken Wing,” the song tells us—and he does. Songs about the natural world, darkness, light, blessings, prayers, of cures and release, this album was composed between May through August 2019. Pietrangelo offers them to the world, saying “I hope that these songs can be a helper to those walking their own path to transformation and healing.” Play the album, look at the open sky, the mountains, and reflect on her message. Pietrangelo performs at Hotel Congress, 311 E. Congress St., at 7:30 pm on March 7 with Howe Gelb opening. Tickets are $12–$15. Details at GabriellePietrangelo.com. n March 2020|ZOCALOMAGAZINE.com 47
Z tunes
What’s Live Brian Flagg—The Real Deal by Jim Lipson
Open Daily Bar + Bottleshop at the MSA Annex 267 S. AVENIDA DEL CONVENTO
48 ZOCALOMAGAZINE.com|March 2020
Patriot, Warrior, Hero. Great words really, when free from all the political baggage so regularly assigned them. I believe I heard all of these words used within a span of 90 seconds by our current president as I stumbled across live coverage of his 2/19 Phoenix rally over KNST, 790 AM, our local right-wing radio mouthpiece, a Fox affiliate. It was so distasteful, using extremely aged World War II vets as props in this current chapter of the Ultimate Con. But then I began to think about those words, unencumbered by our politics of the day, and how they so well fit my friend Brian Flagg. Brian and I first became aware of each other at a 1983 action that was simply known as the Tucson Peace Camp. This was basically a campout just outside the gates of Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, which at the time held bragging rights to being the only place where soldiers were trained to operate the infamous cruise missile. The camp lasted for a couple of weeks, and I remember being struck by Brian’s good humor, dedication to the cause, and extreme sense of snark. While I did not see it at the time, his taking on the Casa Maria Soup Kitchen as a project for the Catholic Church Community Worker program makes such perfect sense. With a Mission Statement that reads, “Our goal is to practice daily the Works of Mercy and Works of Justice,” Brian took that a couple of steps further, offering how his real job was to comfort the afflicted while afflicting the comfortable. To me, that’s a real patriot. His energy and passion for social justice was also tempered and balanced by a dry sense of humor that never allowed his anger to get the better of him. On the basketball court, where we often competed in mostly friendly pickup games, he was no different, with a focused demeanor that could fool you with his smile. He also boasted a defensive prowess that was not just smothering, but quite irksome as well, a useful tool within the social justice world. (Brian would probably call this a gift.) He was indeed a warrior both on and off the court. Throughout the many years he has run the soup kitchen on a shoestring budget, he and his assemblage of volunteers, mostly characters from the neighborhood, have been responsible for preparing what must have been tens of thousands of free meals for the homeless, the jobless and the working poor in South Tucson, a place where the great MAGA economy has not quite trickled down to. That is what makes him a hero among us. For many years, Rich Hopkins, another big fan of Brian’s, has staged an annual Thanksgiving weekend event at Club Congress to benefit Casa Maria. This year the show has been moved to Wednesday, March 4, still at the Congress. This year’s show also has a theme: The Music of Linda Ronstadt. The lineup is an impressive combination of old school/new school. The former is represented by Nancy McCallion, Danny Krieger, and Pete Ronstadt, who will certainly lend an air of authenticity to the proceedings. The new school, if you will, is represented by Katie Haverly, Katherine Byrnes, Miss Olivia and the Interlopers, Birds and Arrows, and of course Lisa Novak and Rich Hopkins and Luminarios, playing host as well as music. Showtime is 7:00–10:00 pm, and tickets are only $5. Let’s pack the place for Brian.
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Tucson Hip Hop Festival, March 27 & 28, featuring Griselda Records artist Conway the Machine. Other stuff . . . March 10—Carnivaleros Trio, Tucson Hop Shop: Having whiffed on writing about three different Trio shows last month, this might be considered a bit of makeup call. But that should not matter, since the Carnivaleros, be it in Trio or full five/or six-piece format, still serves up some of the finest original desert noir available. With trusty Karl Hoffman on acoustic and electric bass, the trio is rounded out by the ever-versatile Billy Yates on guitars and Gary Mackender as principal barker on accordion and vocals. Showtime is 7:00–10:00 pm and outdoors in the lovely Hop Shop courtyard (3230 N. Dodge). No cover. March 10—Tinsley Ellis , 191 Toole: Since his Alligator Records debut 30 years ago, Southern blues-rock guitar wizard, vocalist, and songwriter Ellis has become a bona fide worldwide guitar hero. So says the Chicago Sun Times, and rest assured it’s not fake news. 7:30 pm showtime for this 21+ show. From $15. March 13–15—Marana Bluegrass Festival, Gladden Farms Community Park: Featuring 13 local and regional bands, this promises to be a great weekend of pickin’. Tickets are $20 per day on Saturday (9:00 am–5:00 pm) and Sunday (10am–4pm); $30 for both days. Friday, 3:00–6:00 pm, is free. March 14—Buddy Guy, Rialto Theatre: This cat is so iconic when it comes to Southside Chicago blues that there ain’t nothin’ on the Rialto website but a picture. Guy is one of the true greats on blues guitar. It should be a great night, too. From $58. March 17—Paul Thorn, 191 Toole: This is exactly the kind of show that works for this venue, provided they don’t throw any chairs down so people can move around. Thorn plays a nice mix of Americana, blues, and even a little bit of gospel. 7:00 pm showtime. $28. March 20—Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, Fox Theatre: The band, cofounded by singer Scotty Morris and drummer Kurt Sodergren, was at the forefront of the swing revival of the early 1990s, blending a vibrant fusion of the classic
American sounds of jazz, swing, and Dixieland. I’m not sure how this will work within the immovable seats inside the Fox, except there ought to be a lot of seat shakin’ goin’ down. From $27.50. March 21—Robert Earl Keen, Rialto Theatre: While the line he’s most associated with—“the road goes on forever, but the party never ends”— remains pretty damn catchy, a closer look reveals a true songwriter poet at work. “Pity not the weary traveler, he lives in his mind / He is a friend of wind and weather / from fire he is born.” This is what happens when you take a Texas kid raised on Willie Nelson and Cream and then expose him to the likes of Guy Clark and Townes Van Zandt. 8:00 pm showtime. From $34. March 21—TKMA Folk Festival Benefit with Wayback & Friends, Monterey Court: Friends for this seasonal event include Mitzi Cowell, Sabra Faulk, Peter McLaughlin, Don Armstrong, Liz Cerepena, Slim Edelman, and JC& Laney, among others. 6:30–10:00 pm, with a $10 suggested donation to support next month’s (free) annual Tucson Folk Festival. March 25—Tommy Castro and the Pain Killers, 191 Toole: One of the great touring blues roots bands will tear it up on guitar. 7:30 pm showtime. $23. March 26—Squirrel Nut Zippers, Rialto Theatre: In the original contract signed with Mammoth Records, this nuevo swing band was contractually obligated to do a 25th anniversary tour for their debut album The Inevitable, or so says their press. Expect the band to perform their entire debut album (originally released in 1995), along with a selection of so-called hits, nearmisses, and other way-out songs. Tickets begin at $49. March 27/28—Tucson Hip Hop Festival, 191 Toole: If you want to get a sense of the current state of this art, this is the place to be. Friday’s show is only $10, starting at 7:30 pm. Saturday’s festivities begin at 12:30 pm, run late, and cost $25. n March 2020|ZOCALOMAGAZINE.com 49
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