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Please bear with us while we update information on current events and past programs.

October is National Arts and Humanities Month

See Americans For the Arts for more information.

Chuy Benitez Exhibit Held Over

"Chico's" 2003
"Chico's" 2003

The popular photo exhibit, Pasatiempos de la Frontera: Images from the El Paso/Juarez Borderlands, has been held over at the Texas Folklife Gallery through October. The exhibit, a series of images conveying the vitality of life in this Texas border town, has attracted viewers from Europe as well as Texas and several other states. Benitez, an El Paso native, has just earned his graduate degree from the University of Houston. The series was inspired by his experiences attending undergraduate school at Notre Dame, in South Bend, Ind., where he often found himself trying to describe life in the desert town.

"Pasatiempos de La Frontera was my first full-scale documentary project," Benitez says. "It is a portrait of the El Paso and Juarez borderlands as I have come to know and appreciate them. Each of these landmarks and landscapes hold memories from my past and the past of so many other El Pasoans and Juarenses, but there is also a cultural vibrance that resides in each place and person photographed."

The exhibit may be viewed weekdays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. or by appointment at the Texas Folklife Gallery, 1317 S. Congress Ave., Austin. Call 512-441-9255 for more details.

Davis Family Project Mart Tx

by Paula Gerstenblatt-Davis
June 2008

I married into the Davis family in 1980. My husband Tom has spun countless tales of his childhood in Mart, Texas. Born in 1938, he grew up in segregation, and although the injustice of racism was palpable, his stories descibed strength, pride and a love of family and community. Over the years I could picture the dust rise from the dirt roads as he and his buddies wandered across the countryside, hear their squeals of delight as they swam in creeks to escape the oppressive summer heat, the excitement of high school football games at home and the bus trips to neighboring schools, the taste of the food grown in their garden and even found myself believing the tall tales of elders, colorful characters in their own right. When the family began family reunions, I visited Mart for the first time. Read more...

Accordion Kings, Big Squeeze Draws Giant Houston Crowd

Texas Folklife's 19th annual Accordion Kings concert, held June 7 at Miller Outdoor Theatre in Houston, was a smashing success, with 6,000 accordion fans in attendance to cheer on our Big Squeeze contest finalists and the featured bands: La Tropa F, Step Rideau & the Zydeco Outlaws and the Knights of Dixie Orchestra. They were particularly thrilled that a hometown boy, Houston's John Ramirez, 16, won the Big Squeeze Grand Prize of $500 and a day of recording time at Houston's historic SugarHill Studios. Runners-up were Heriberto Rodriguez, 15, of Edcouch, and Brian Gallegos, 22, of Devine. They each won $250; Texas Folklife also paid expenses for them to attend the finals. Read more...