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A Quick Look At Art&Seek’s Reporting

The cast of ‘In the Tall Grass’: Mieko Hicks, Michael Salimitari, Sheila D. Rose, LaMar Roheem Staton, Shannon Walker, Neil Rogers, Kyndra Mack. Photo: BR Photography

• If current trends continue, some two dozen transgender people will be murdered this year in the US. That may seem not exactly an epidemic. But the media status of trans celebrities like Laverne Cox or Caitlin Jenner may make trans people seem everywhere, but the number of Americans who identify as transgender is actually tiny – only .3 percent of the population. So that number is especially alarming. Art&Seek’s Jerome Weeks reports a British playwright has put the unsolved murder of a transgender woman in Dallas at the heart of his new play about the rising violence against such women.

Lam inside her home studio.  Materials and equipment line one side of the room; art takes up the rest of the space.
Photo: Hady Mawajdeh

• “Drips,” “Blobs,” and “Squishes.” Those are the names of the brightly colored, amorphous sculptures that have propelled Dallas artist Dan Lam into internet stardom. In this week’s Artist Spotlight, Art&Seek learns what inspired Lam’s transition from paint toward crafting extraterrestrial looking sculptures.

Maya Malan-Gonzalez, Ivan Jasso, Liz Magallanes and, David Zaldívar in Cara Mia Theatre’s ‘Deferred Action.’ Photo: Linda Blase

• President Trump’s recent decision to rescind DACA or Deferred Action for the children of undocumented immigrants has made a local stage drama incredibly timely. The play, called ‘Deferred Action,’ premiered last year in Dallas from Cara Mia Theatre and the Dallas Theater Center. Now, it’s going on tour – to Denton, Houston and Los Angeles. Art&Seek’s Jerome Week’s examines the similarities and talks with a couple of DREAMers working on the production.

A still from Beauty in the Bricks. Photo: Media Projects Inc.

• Dallasites Cynthia and Allen Mondell have been married for nearly 48 years. And for most of that time, they’ve made films together. A retrospective of their documentaries recently aired on KERA-TV’s  “Frame of Mind.” “The Big Screen” sat down with them to talk about their partnership.

• State of the Arts is Friday at the Kimbell Art Museum. As Jerome Weeks gets ready to host the conversation, he has been chatting with leaders of performing arts groups in Fort Worth. He’s finding they are experimenting with different spaces and new ways to reach audiences. Art&Seek’s editor Anne Bothwell sat down with him to talk about what he’s hearing.

What Else You’ve Got To Know

The controlling stake in Rolling Stone is up for sale by Jann Wenner’s company. Wenner, the magazine’s founding editor and publisher, is seen here in 2011.
Louis Lanzano/Bloomberg via Getty Images

• Harry Dean Stanton, A Supporting Actor Who Became A Star, Dies At 91 (NPR)
• ‘Rolling Stone’ Magazine Is Put Up For Sale (NPR Music)
• R.I.P. Boom 94.5 (D Magazine)
• Van Cliburn Winner Yekwon Sunwoo Returns to Texas (Arts+Culture)
• Polaroid Will Be At Dallas’ Instant Film Con, Polacon ’17 (Central Track)
• The 50 Best-Selling Music Artists Of All Time (Independent)

What We’re Reading

Toyota Music Factory

• The Toyota Music Factory Is a Promising Work in Progress (D Magazine)
• How a Plano Native Wound Up Producing a Film About the L.A. Riots (D Magazine)
• SEVEN: FIBERS at The Art Room, Fort Worth (Glasstire)
• Drug Cartel Violence Becomes More Shocking When Carried Out by Women at Undermain Theatre (Dallas Observer)
• Dolores Huerta: The Civil Rights Icon Who Showed Farmworkers ‘Sí Se Puede’ (NPR)
• Indie Bookstores Embrace the Side Hustle (CityLab)
• ‘From The Mundane To The Magnificent’: Photos From The Chicano Rights Movement (Code Switch)

What We’re Listening To

• Shamir Stands Up For The Struggling, Anxious ’90’s Kids’ (NPR Music)

• T.Y.E Premieres Video For New Single (D Magazine)

• Post Malone & 21 Savage Boast About Their ‘rockstar’ Lives on New Track (Billboard)

• Songs of the Week (Central Track)

Jonathan Tsay Photo: Teresa Berg Photography

• Between the Barlines (Theater Jones)

What We’re Looking At

Salima (Kristen Bond) and Sophie (Whitney LaTrice Coulter) work in Mama’s brothel in ‘Ruined.’ All photos: Rebecca Brooks

• Review: The Play’s Called ‘Ruined’ But It Brings Out The Best From Echo Theatre (Art&Seek)

COURTESY OF MODERN ART MUSEUM OF FORT WORTH Mind your manors: Keasler’s Blackthorne Manor, Terror on the Fox, Green Bay, WI (2016)

• Misty Keasler Gives Quite a Scare (D Magazine)

• Art Tooth Celebrates Anniversary with Documentary (End Of The River Productions)

Are you ready?? 3 DAYS TIL THE OPENING RECEPTION OF -ADRIFT- In the meantime here’s an #oddlysatisfying // #oddlydissatisfying vid of taking the tape off. Ps. If ya wanna pre-reserve any pieces the show technically opens tomorrow thanks @brothersisterdesign and @sarahandthings for helping make this beauty

A post shared by Hillary Dohoney (@honeydoart) on Sep 12, 2017 at 2:10pm PDT

• Six Essential Gallery Shows In DFW This Month (Culture Map)

• Spike Jonze Creates a Live Dance Film on The Tonight Show Set

• Our Los Angeles (Exploredinary)

Photo Of The Week

Artist Tom Sachs at @nashersculpturecenter by Exploredinary @tomsachs #tomsachs #tomsachsteaceremony #exploredinary #alwaysbeknolling #nasher #nashersculpturecenter #exploredinaryportraits

A post shared by Exploredinary (@exploredinary) on Sep 15, 2017 at 7:51am PDT