Anthony Dean-Harris

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 Satur...

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...

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 Parr loca...

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...

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 d...

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 ...

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. - ...