While scouting a location for a runway show, fashion designer Charles Smith II paid a visit to his alma mater, Lincoln High School in South Dallas. After talking to the staff, it became clear to him that the problems he encountered during his time there — such as “14-year-olds paying bills” and…
This week is big for those who kick major ass. First presidential debate aside, Dallas (and surrounding cities) gets to host NPR’s Ophira Eisenberg, the United States’ gymnastic champions (Simone Biles and Gabby Douglas, OMG!), the great human of New York, Brandon Stanton, and the one, the only, Big Tex…
Polacon could be the latest addition to the list of great festivals and conventions to call Denton home, except that one of the biggest days of the convention — the world’s first celebrating instant film photography — will take place in Deep Ellum and Fair Park. It’s entirely free to…
Do This! Sebastian Mansicalco and Dane Cook will headline the Oddball Comedy & Curiosity Festival coming to Gexa Pavilion (3839 S. Fitzhugh Ave.) at 5:15 p.m. Friday. But what’s cooler is that Jermaine Fowler of Flight of the Conchords, Ali Wong and Separation Anxiety host Iliza Shlesinger are also on…
Mark Kaplan didn’t name his photography business Naked Lens Photography for nothing. Under that brand he’s photographed Dallas’ sexiest events, including Texas Queerlesque Festival, Exxxotica Expo Dallas and Dallas Suscon. He’s even played key roles in producing some, such as the No Pants Subway Ride, Disturbathon and the “Day of Debauchery and…
Chester Rushing is walking through the doors right as the little green men with ray guns begin to disintegrate the U.S. House of Representatives on the TV. It’s just past noon and the star from Netflix’s Stranger Things doesn’t draw much attention away from the meat-filled hoagies that people are…
Thursday afternoon, Real Housewives of Dallas cast member Marie Reyes tweeted a police report from 2008 that says Real Housewife LeeAnne Locken threatened her ex-boyfriend with a knife and hit him in the face with sandpaper. “LeeAnne Locken has a documented history of violence with knives — so I’m staying away…
The annual Dallas pride parade, which took place last Sunday, holds special significance for Lula Villa-Brown, a queer and non-binary identifying advocate for people who exist outside the mainstream, including queer and trans people, people of color and immigrants. When Villa-Brown went to the parade with her mother as a child, it…
Southern musicals seem to have found a home in Dallas. One year ago, The Dallas Theater Center presented the world premiere of Moonshine: That Hee Haw Musical. The Dallas Opera produced its first ever musical, Show Boat — a collaboration with Dallas Black Dance Theater — in May. Now DTC will…
Waco is the next New York City! You heard it here first. Who needs bright lights and busy streets and high fashion when you could have college students and being in the place where HGTV’s Fixer Upper is filmed and … What else is in Waco? Apparently the people who…
It’s hard to watch White Girl without experiencing a creeping sense of anxiety. Loosely based on the adolescent life of writer/director Elizabeth Wood, the film follows Leah (Morgan Saylor), a college student who parties all night and snorts prodigious amounts of cocaine. She and her roommate, Katie (India Menuez), live…
The techniques of verbatim theater go back decades, to at least the 1950s, when young German theater troupes would reenact complicated court cases word for word onstage. Even earlier, in the United States, the WPA paid for a form of this performance with its Living Newspapers, in which theater artists…
Mira Nair’s Queen of Katwe is a true-life tale transformed into an inspirational fable. That’s not novel for the movies, but in this director’s hands, the results are mostly enchanting. The film follows Phiona Mutesi (Madina Nalwanga), an impoverished Ugandan girl who became a chess champion at the age of…
In this age of billion-dollar, candy-colored, fully digital child-distraction movie-making, the new chatty-animal adventure comedy Storks wouldn’t have to be good in any way to be wildly profitable. It often is good, though, hilariously so, its too-familiar misfits-become-a-family storyline enlivened by flights of lavish comic invention. Its set pieces, especially…
America might not be ready for Fleabag, the new Amazon/BBC series from British writer and creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge. Think about all the guff Girls received for “forcing” viewers along on a ride with myopic 20-somethings. Waller-Bridge has gone even further than Girls creator Lena Dunham, speaking directly to the camera…
Pasolini’s Salò meets red Solo cups in Goat, Andrew Neel’s deep, dank dive into the depravities of frat pledging that operates as its own kind of hazing ritual. Points are made and lessons imparted with all the subtlety and finesse of a Greek paddle to the head. Based on Brad…
Look, if you’re not stirred by the sight of Denzel Washington, clad in head-to-toe black, riding a black stallion over dunes and bluffs and right up to the saloon of some two-bit frontier town — well, then maybe the movies just aren’t for you. Washington, of course, strides right into…
Dear Stoner: Why are all you potheads so gung-ho about the benefits of smoking weed? I smoke it from time to time, but I don’t tell my friends to light up a joint instead of visiting the doctor. It’s pot, not magic beans. Grinding Gary Dear Gary: Magic buds, maybe…
In 1971, Charles Connor approached his three children for business advice. Connor was a partner in Markham and Brown Company, which built levees, and he had decided to sell his ownership in the business. “He said, ‘I need to reinvest the money. Do you want a car wash or a…
Byron Neal paced the floor of the Nasher Sculpture Center Monday night like a man possessed, dripping sweat and spitting rap lyrics into a microphone. Neal, known as Lord Byron, slithered and darted through the crowd and accidentally wrapped the microphone cord around people’s feet, but he didn’t seem to…
Dallas was more than 1,500 miles away from New York Fashion Week, which took place Sept. 8-15, but North Texas creatives certainly made their presences known. Binzario Couture, a Dallas fashion house specializing in bridal gowns and formal wear, debuted its Spring/Summer 2017 “Daydream” collection at The Fitzgerald Ballroom. The 20-piece…
Contemporary poets will breathe life into the work of writers we may have forgotten at Deep Vellum Books this Sunday. Other People’s Poetry (OPP) is a new reading series created by author and teacher Joe Milazzo, who is on a mission to bring poets who’ve fallen out of the oral…
