Culture
A Feminist Rewrite of Lot
Set in Hope, Texas, God Spare the Girls subverts the biblical story, in which a man escapes while women perish.
This story is from the May/June 2021 issue. The story of Lot, the famous one, is a story for men. In it, Lot is given a divine warning that his city, Sodom, and...Read More
‘Forget the Alamo’ Unravels a Texas History Made of Myths, or Rather, Lies
Three Texan authors build on a long tradition of dissent from patriotic accounts of Texas history in a new book on the racism baked into our story of the Alamo.
As a former student of Texas public schools, much of what I remember from Texas history class boils down to this: General López de Santa Anna, of Mexico, was e...Read More
The Next Trans Griot
Few publications covered Black trans communities. After the death of Monica Roberts, TransGriot’s founder, the people she empowered grieve and begin to chart a new era.
From the May/June 2021 issue On an overcast day in late october, Dee Dee Watters stood on the stage at the University of Houston’s Cullen Performance Hall. Sh...Read More
The Western’s Long Glorification of Oppression
A quintessentially American, and Texan, film genre, the Western has mistold Texas history since its beginnings.
From the May/June 2021 issue “It just so happens we be Texicans,” says Mrs. Jorgensen, an older woman wearing her blond hair in a tight bun, to rough-an...Read More
How the Alabama-Coushatta Use Fire to Save the Longleaf Pine
In an ecosystem that needs fire to flourish, the actions of the tribe could decide the future of the longleaf pine.
On a Wednesday in March, a cool, northerly breeze rustled through the pines. It was a good day for a fire. Gesse Bullock, a 16-year woodlands firefighter and bu...Read More
The Museum of Fine Arts Houston’s Botched COVID-19 Precautions
The Museum of Fine Arts Houston was one of the first major American art museums to reopen its doors to the public after a month long closure due to the pandemic. As the art world lavished praise on the institution for its bold plans, employees tell a very different story.
Last November, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, pulled off the nearly impossible: Despite a global pandemic, an economic recession, and even a hurricane scare,...Read More
‘On Juneteenth’ Refuses Easy Answers About the Importance of People of Color to Texas History
Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Annette Gordon-Reed offers a historical primer on the conditions that made Juneteenth a holiday and its importance to the nation.
This past summer, celebrating Juneteenth at home in Texas made me feel as though I was at the center of the world. I was used to spending the holiday, which cel...Read More
‘Leaving Isn’t the Hardest Thing’ Tours Dark Places That Are Hard to Call Home
In her debut book of essays, Austin writer Lauren Hough shares stories of growing up in a religious cult, only to escape and find its oppressive edicts visible in a society at large.
When Lauren Hough was 37, she sold her house, all the stuff in it, bought a Winnebago, and left Maryland, heading west with an iPod full of John Denver. Her deb...Read More
‘My Cousin Dies, Like a Deer, On the Side of the Road’
“The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) is asking for help from the public in the investigation of a fatal hit-and-run crash that resulted in the death o...Read More
Liz Lambert’s New Film Offers a Shallow Portrayal of a Changing Austin
‘Through the Plexi-Glass’ inadvertently portrays the Austin-based hotelier as insensitive and voyeuristic.
Liz Lambert’s new movie is a case study in why property developers shouldn’t make documentaries about gentrification. The Austin-based hotelier’s debut fi...Read More