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A Meta-Community for the Arts: Spring Branch’s Zócalo Artist-in-Residence Program Kicks Off with a Queer Perspective

Posted on December 6, 2019

A photo of Zócalo artists-in-residence Input Output.

By Aubrey F. Burghardt The Zócalo, or main square in central Mexico City, has long served as a gathering place. The plaza was once a well-known ritualistic mecca in the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan, and acted as a cultural hub of sorts, a safe haven for smaller communities within the larger population. In the Spring Branch neighborhood of Houston, Texas, another Zócalo exists—a luxury-living apartment complex that not only provides communal housing but a homestead of cultural and creative energy as…

All He Ever Needed Was the Music and the Mirror: Houston’s Otis Berry Tackles Toxic Masculinity through Dance

Posted on December 4, 2019

In 2019, Good Morning America found itself embroiled in a scandal after co-host Laura Spencer appeared to mock the United Kingdom’s Prince George for taking ballet classes. That stigma—the notion of what boys should or shouldn’t do—is all too familiar to Houston-based dancer Otis Berry, who works to extinguish it with every kick.…

Let It Snow: Netflix’s New Holiday Rom-Com is Pure Queer Christmas Magic

Posted on November 25, 2019

The nights are getting longer, and drinks are beginning to shift from pumpkin to peppermint. The temperature is dipping down into cold weather (and then up, and then down again, because Texas). That can only mean one thing—the season of cheesy Hallmark-esque holiday movies is now upon us. This year, everyone who is tired of the same rehashed heteronormative storylines has a reason to rejoice! Let It Snow, which debuted on Netflix earlier in November, has an absolutely adorable queer…

A Legal History of Queer Sexualities in the Holy Roman Empire: The Constitutio Criminalis Carolina

Posted on November 15, 2019

A photo of the Constitutio Criminalis Carolina.

The Holy Roman Empire can often be difficult to talk about in sweeping terms because of its decentralized nature. But in 1530, the Constitutio Criminalis Carolina (also known as the Lex Carolina), would mark the first body of German criminal law and attempt to unite the various principalities and kingdoms in the Empire. It also set the foundation for the prosecution of queer identity and life.…

The Bayou City Be All: Reflections on DiverseWorks’ Night of Performance Beyond the Binary

Posted on November 11, 2019

On October 20, DiverseWorks gave us, the city’s queer community, a generous gift—the “Bayou City Be All: A Night of Performance, Fashion, and Music Beyond the Gender Binary.” The two-part event, promoted as a community-driven project, commemorated the vibrant and unapologetic art, culture, and tunes stewarded and crafted by our own gender non-conforming, genderqueer, and non-binary makers.…

Cowboy Boogie: Houston Cinema Arts Festival Returns with Queer Yeehaw and More

Posted on November 8, 2019

A photo of Houston Cinema Arts Festival.

The annual Houston Cinema Arts Festival returns to screens this November 14–18, boasting a programming lineup teeming with films made by and about LGBTQ people. “We wanted every single side of the spectrum to be represented,” says Michael Robinson, Houston Cinema Arts Society marketing and communications manager. “Not just, ‘Oh okay, cool, we have the one queer film.’ It really was making sure [queer identity] was something that was represented in a lot of different avenues.”…

Pain and Glory: The Queer Magic of Filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar

Posted on November 5, 2019

It’s almost midnight. I’ve just walked out of the movie theater, but I haven’t quite returned to reality. There were only three of us at the screening, the last one of the film’s run at the River Oaks Theatre in Houston. This cinema, with its opulent 1940s interior, always has a profound effect on me. It’s in the way that it displaces me, more so releases me, while keeping my being intact. I can still respond to the blend of…

Señorita Cinema, World’s Only All-Latina Film Festival, Returns to Houston November 1-3

Posted on October 29, 2019

A photo of Stephanie Saint Sanchez, founder of Señorita Cinema.

As Señorita Cinema, the world’s only all-Latina film festival, gears up for its return to Houston this November 1–3, founder Stephanie Saint Sanchez promises attendees “can absolutely expect to see things that they haven’t before.” Launched in 2007, the biannual festival was born from Saint Sanchez’s lifelong love affair with filmmaking. She begged for a video camera for her 13th birthday and, after finally getting her hands on one, has been obsessed with creating film ever since. But as her career…

The Potentiality of Romantic Comedy: The Queer Asian Fantasy of ‘Saving Face’

Posted on October 24, 2019

I wish I could remember how I met her, the one and only queer Asian woman I’ve ever seriously dated. The one who, although our relationship wouldn’t last longer than a year, floats through my mind perhaps more often than proportionate to what we shared. I do remember the first time we interacted. It was outside at a mixed performance venue and bar at a time when I was just coming to terms with my queerness. I had just finished watching…

YA Author Addie Tsai on Bi-Racial Twinning, Bearing Witness to Trauma, and Queer Representation in H-Town

Posted on October 22, 2019

On a stiff hotel sofa in Waco, Texas, I took out my phone and braced myself to begin reading Dear Twin, author Addie Tsai’s first semi-autobiographical queer, young adult novel. It was October, and I was in Waco for a work event, when I realized I had down time to fill before I had to leave. Her book had been sitting in my inbox since September, and I had failed to start reading it sooner because, 1) I procrastinate, and…

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