Sunny Sone
Selena’s Life and Legacy in Corpus Christi
Tejano history and women’s history professor Cynthia E. Orozco spoke to the Observer about Selena’s life as a new series streams on Netflix.
Few people have left as indelible a mark on Texas—and the world—as musician Selena Quintanilla. Cynthia E. Orozco, a professor of history at Eastern New Mexico University, knows this intimately. Orozco has written about Selena for the Texas State Historical … Read More
The Flâneur of Downtown Dallas
Zac Crain has spent four years getting to know the nooks and crannies of the Big D, which he documents in his new book, A Pedestrian’s Recent History of Dallas.
Within Texas circles, Dallas gets a bad rap. It is, some say, not as weird as Austin, as sophisticated as Houston, as beautiful as San Antonio, as historic as El Paso. A TV show with its namesake is an ode … Read More
How to Die in Texas
The funeral industry has long been characterized by shady practices. In Texas, the bereaved are starting to look for new options.
In 2017, in a tiny cemetery called St. Mary’s in a tiny Texas town called Frydek, Eric Keyes prepared to bury his mother. She’d died two days earlier, at 2:30 p.m. on a Monday. It wasn’t a surprise—Keyes’ parents had … Read More
Musician Anjimile on Leaving Texas, Getting Sober, and Blowing Up
The Richardson-born singer-songwriter released his debut album in September.
Anjimile Chithambo knows what it takes to heal. Over the last few years, the 27-year-old Richardson-raised musician has reckoned with addiction, spirituality, and his gender identity—and made it to the other side. Those journeys, and their conclusions, are laid bare … Read More
Resistance Through Billboard Art
Musician Toshi Reagon created an image on display in Houston calling for civic engagement through art.
Toshi Reagon doesn’t stop. The Brooklyn-based musician hosts music festivals, collaborates with dance companies, writes operas—her last project was an opera based on Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower, co-written with her mom—and performs. Reagon’s most recent project is … Read More
Poet Alok Vaid-Menon on Protest Art and Immigrant Detention
“So often the way that racism operates is through patriotism. ... I actually think there’s a way to be proud of this country in terms of inclusivity and intersectionality.”
Alok Vaid-Menon has always liked to surprise people with poetry. As a high school student in College Station, they printed out poems and distributed them through classrooms and hallways. In college, they would jump up on cafeteria tables to deliver … Read More
The Protests Against Police Brutality in Texas, in Photos
Demonstrations against police brutality took place in cities large and small across Texas this weekend.
The Protests Against Police Brutality in Texas, in Photos Demonstrations against police brutality took place in cities large and small across Texas this weekend. June 1, 2020 A wave of protests swept across Texas cities this weekend to oppose police … Read More
What’s a Bookstore for?
Saturday is Independent Bookstore Day. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, booksellers were facing razor-thin margins, an uncertain future, and the threat of Amazon.
The people who work in bookstores are, by and large, very brilliant. My co-workers at BookPeople, a large independent bookstore in Austin, were no exception. I started on Halloween in 2016 and worked my last shift on December 24, 2019. … Read More
Mapping the Number of COVID-19 Cases in Texas per Doctor
Many counties with limited medical resources—including no primary care physicians—now have COVID-19 cases.
Only a month after the first COVID-19 death occurred in rural Matagorda County, reported cases had already spread to 198 counties as of April 21. And cases are rising quickly in rural areas with limited medical resources: in East Texas, … Read More