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There's Just Something Magical about the Second Saturday of October

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Every year in San Antonio, on the Second Saturday of October, ArtPace holds an event called Chalk It Up. It usually closes off downtown Houston Street to have artists and families drawn on the ground, laying claim to the city they navigate, pulling us together in creation. The weather is usually pleasant. People are always in a good mood. It has over the years become one of my favorite things of the year. Even when I miss attending the event, I end up in some other adventure or some other business that turns out to be worth it all. Chalk It Up is just one of the ways that day just seems magical here. Perhaps the art walk that night is particularly crisp. Maybe someone has a really good lunch somewhere in the sunshine where a breeze blows in and a moment of calm defines how that whole day went. I've been Baptist for far too long for me to ever feel a connection to Halloween, try as I might now and then. But I've taken a fall holiday on of my own, for I celebrate the Second Satu…
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Oh, right, did I mention I led a street mural project last month?

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Back in August, I acted as art director on a piece, painting the words of San Antonio poet laureate Andrea "Vocab" Sanderson around three sides of Travis Park. For some odd reason, I didn't post about that here considering this place is meant to be an official website of my work. I felt the need to post it now, despite the words "Jubilant and Exuberant" have already been entirely worn away by traffic on Pecan St., because I have already begun preparation for another art commission for an event I've loved for years, so I feel the need to keep things up to date for that, I suppose.This is the odd things about all of this, this period of transition I'm in. I'm working as an artist, still thinking of myself as a writer, but all the while knowing it's all part of the same idea. I'm manifesting things into the world, and how is always a more interesting question than what. Whether it's making things possible or helping someone else make things…
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Well, I guess I'm an artist now...

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While I think of myself primarily as a writer, my existence always tends to be on the fringe of things, the San Antonio art scene being one of them. After so much lingering, eventually I would have to consider myself an artist at some point, that or be thrown into it. My friend, Justin Parr, has always been particularly good at that and I have loved collaborating with him over the years on assorted projects. Recently, Centro San Antonio commissioned us to make a mural downtown similar to the hand painted signs we've made in the past. Justin felt that the ball should be left in my court for what the words should be and I immediately knew where to go with this, despite knowing that I would be saying inspirational words about the immensity of our current situation for a tourism board of the city. I think it worked out nicely.Also, I got to be on the news.
Instructions for Use for Adapting to Our State of Constant Change (2020)text by Anthony Dean-Harris, design by Justin Parrlocated D…
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How a Decade of Momentum Built and Gave Out

I've often said that I have always done what I've done because of sheer momentum. Sure, I try to move cautiously in life. I once said while in the middle of a particularly altered state of mind, sitting on the rocky shore of a lake, certain that a part of my consciousness could travel through time, that if I could make it here to this place to tell the story, surely it must have all worked out in the end. I forgot that I was still living in the story that I was yet to tell. I forgot that the telling of the story is an element of the story. I forgot that the telling of the story, like all other elements in life, takes up the currency of time.

At a certain point, I realized that I had locked myself into writing about jazz music. I knew long ago that I was lazy, but also that I could find a way to reframe things well. It's a habit common of writers, those of us who have a way of using communication, a thing nearly all of humankind is able to do, and find a way to make such a c…
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The Line-Up for 13 March 2020 and evölve for 14 March 2020

The Line-Up is an hour of modern jazz music that airs Friday nights at 9pm CST on 91.7 FM KRTU San Antonio. evölve is two hours of modern jazz music that airs Saturday afternoons from 3-5pm CST on 91.7 FM KRTU San Antonio. The Line-Up for 13 March 2020 Your browser does not support the audio element.
Ted Poor - To Rome
Teebs - LSP feat. Austin Peralta
Peter Hum - Crises and Reckonings
Idle Hands - Over the Fence
Jeremy Pelt - I've Just Seen Her
Jimmy Greene - Good Morning, Heartache
Apple Juice Kid - Bitches
Kurt Elling and Danilo Perez - Esperanto
Nina Simone - Liberian Calypso
Elsa Nilsson - Hindsight
Shabaka and the Ancestors - Go My Heart, Go to Heaven
Nujabes - Tsurugi No Mai
Bobby Previte / Jamie Saft / Nels Cline - The Extreme Present
Dan Weiss Trio + 1 - Jamerson
evölve for 7 March 2020 Your browser does not support the audio element. Your browser does not support the audio element.
Michael Wolff - Mil…
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The Line-Up for 6 March 2020 and evölve for 7 March 2020

The Line-Up is an hour of modern jazz music that airs Friday nights at 9pm CST on 91.7 FM KRTU San Antonio. evölve is two hours of modern jazz music that airs Saturday afternoons from 3-5pm CST on 91.7 FM KRTU San Antonio. The Line-Up for 6 March 2020 Your browser does not support the audio element.
Gregory Porter - If Love Is Overrated
Space Ghost - Porco
Elsa Nilsson - Worth the Risk/Maria
Antoine Berjeaut & Makaya McCraven - The New Untitled (Potomac Avenue)
Liberty Ellman - Rubber Flowers
Hiatus Kaiyote - Nakamarra Bendaur's Double Rainbow Mix Remix)
Jimmy Greene - Always There
Tim Berne's Snakeoil - Surface Noise
Broken Shadows - Civilization Day
Blacks' Myths - Northern Confederate
Teebs - _for phil
Kamasi Washington - Show Us the Way
evölve for 7 March 2020 Your browser does not support the audio element. Your browser does not support the audio element.
Michael Wolff - Chill
Space Ghost - S…
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The Line-Up for 21 February 2020 and evölve for 22 February 2020

The Line-Up for 21 February 2020 Your browser does not support the audio element.
Jeremy Pelt - I've Just Seen Her
dela - Get Busy
Pablo Held - Seizing
Matt Mayhall - The Fanatics
Marquis Hill - To You I Promise
Teebs - View Point
Tim Berne's Snakeoil - Surface Noise
Four Tet - As Serious As Your Life
Chicago Underground Quartet - Orgasm
Gil Scott-Heron & Makaya McCraven - New York is Killing Me
Krauangbin & Leon Bridges - C-Side
Teebs - While You Doooo
Kamasi Washington - Cherokee
evölve for 22 February 2020 Your browser does not support the audio element. Your browser does not support the audio element.
Christian McBride - Sister Rosa
BADBADNOTGOOD - Salmonella
Vincent Herring / Bobby Watson / Gary Bartz - Folklore
Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis - Teru
MF DOOM - Camphor
Lafayette Harris, Jr. - Please Send Me Someone to Love
Eric Alexander - Lonely Woman
The Stuyvesants - Roosevelt…
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