Life & Arts

"The Long Center has always, of course, been known as a performing arts center," says Gallery 701 curator Philip Rogers. "And they began to think ... that they wanted to introduce the visual arts." Rogers came on board and, after some recommended renovations to make the space more visual-art-friendly, began putting up art shows.

"One of the things that was stressed to me by the Long Center and by the funding entity was that they wanted to have it as much a community space as possible," Rogers says. "So each show has all been artists from the Austin area, and that will always be the case."

"I used to always talk to my mom about wanting to do something in the park -- something creative, something that would bring the community together," says NOOK Turner about the origins of Jump On It. Twenty years ago, when Turner was still a teenager, he was given the opportunity to create the summer concert series when he answered a citywide call for ideas on using Rosewood Park.

"As a woman and feminist, I'm constantly learning about feminism... and it was so surprising to find out, in my naive Sarah Marie brain, that this is not a new idea, women's equality," says actor Sarah Marie Curry. "It's not just the past fifty to one hundred years. And to find out that this woman had made a declaration of women's rights back during the French Revolution... to me is humbling and powerful and also sad."

A new series at the George Washington Carver Museum and Cultural Center will use food to create connections with the history showcased in the museum and the contributions of African and African-Americans to food around the world.

Austin chef and writer Angela Shelf Medearis kicks off the “Eat Your Way Through History: Lunch and Learn” events Monday with an African, Caribbean and Texan menu. She’s hoping people from all over Austin will come to learn some history and about each other.

"We threw a party ... where we had our friends come, dressed as fake wrestlers, and sort of wrestle in my living room," says director and co-founder Chris Monica, describing the humble origins of Party World Rasslin'. "It was really fun, and so we decided we'd do it again in a few months with like more planning."

From there, Monica and his friends moved onto a homemade backyard wrestling ring. "It was really dangerous and really fun," he says. "Afterwards, we were like 'That was a great thing we did. Let's be sure to never do that again."

But friends and friends-of-friends demanded more, and Party World Rasslin' was born. The backyard bouts continued, with crowds getting bigger and bigger. "For the first year, every show we had was doubling in attendance," Monica notes.

"We're all about walking the tightrope where it might go horribly wrong," says the Institution Theater's Asaf Ronen. "And I think people kind of appreciate that about what we do."

SXSW CEO and co-founder Roland Swenson says moving the festival out of Texas would not be a solution to protest Senate Bill 4, the state's new "sanctuary cities" law.

"Austin is our home and an integral part of who we are," Swenson said in response to a call from two U.S. senators for the festival to move. "We stand by the City of Austin in their challenge against SB4 and will continue to speak out against it, and all discriminatory legislation."

"Typically, if people know séances, they think of a magic show or spook show. They think of kind of a theatrical setting," says Albert Lucio, describing what Austin Séance is not. "We wanted to recreate an authentic séance." 

Scheherazade, the new show from Generic Ensemble Company, was inspired in part by 1001 Arabian Nights, in part by the current political climate, and in part by the lives of its ensemble members.

Originally conceived by Generic Ensemble Company artistic director kt shorb, the idea was immediately met with approval. "A couple of us were just like 'Yep. We're gonna take that idea and run with it,'" says ensemble member Laura J. Khalil. "And so we've been working together on the idea probably since around this time last year."