News and Events

Architects of Sound: Women of El Paso Punk | Presented by Tara Martin López
Tuesday, March 7, 2023 | 2:00 pm | Brazos Hall Lobby

Join Dr. Tara Martin López as she discusses how women in El Paso, Texas led and sustained the city's punk music scene during the borderlands movement in West Texas. From the late 1970s through the early 1990s, El Paso provided unique opportunities for fierce sonic expression and innovation, especially for the Chicanas who dominated the city's musical culture. These women, who are often unheralded in public memory, actively challenged the nativist politics and economic shifts of the decade through their music.

For more information, visit our Architects of Sound event page.

Understanding the Southern Prison Culture | Film Screening and Discussion/Q&A with Director Jaquial Durham
Thursday, January 26, 2023 | 5:00 pm | Flowers Hall 230

Southern Prison Culture Event FlyerJoin Dr. Dwonna Goldstone, directory of the African American Studies Minor, for a screening the documentary "Southern Prison Culture" which uncovers the very real inhumane conditions within the walls of South Carolina's prison institutions. Filmmaker Jaquail Durham will show his film, and there will be a Q&A with him afterwards.

Free Pizza and Drinks provided.

Putting Freddy Fender in the Country Music Hall of Fame | Veronique Medrano
Thursday, November 3, 2022 | 3:30 PM | Brazos Hall

Recording artist and archivist Veronique Medrano speaks on her campaign to get Freddy Fender in the Country Music Hall of Fame. Fender, born Baldemar Huerta in San Benito, Texas, was among the first tejano artists to reach the top of the country charts in the 1970s. Medrano's campaign is about much more than just getting him his due, however, as it also promotes an overdue conversation on the long and significant Mexican American presence in and influence on the genre of country music.

Preserving East Austin's Blues and Jazz History | Harold McMillan
Tuesday, November 15, 2022 | 5:00 PM | Taylor Murphy Hall 101

On November 15th at 5:00 pm in TMH 101, musician, advocate, and archivist Harold McMillan will discuss his decades-long work in preserving the blues and jazz history of East Austin. Through DiverseArts, the East Austin Creative Coalition, and the venue Kenny Dorham's Backyard, McMillan engages in what he calls "active cultural preservation"—celebrating traditional African American expressive culture by strategically developing programmatic and organizational structures intent on keeping these forms alive in contemporary practice.

For questions or more information contact Dr. Jason Mellard.

Bevis M. Griffin
Texas Black Rock Maverick
 Tuesday, November 29, 2022 | 5:00 PM | Taylor Murphy Hall 201

Musician Bevis M. Griffin will be in conversation with journalist Kahron Spearman about his career in Texas Music. From Los Angeles by way of Wichita Falls, Griffin entered the Austin music scene in the 1970s as a charismatic frontman during the glam rock era that preceded punk. With his band Banzai Kik, Griffin then took the New York scene of the 80s by storm, both musically and as an advocate in the Black Rock Coalition alongside members of Living Colour and writer Greg Tate. He then returned to Austin, where he has remained a fixture of the music and creative scenes. Conversant Kahron Spearman is a chronicler of the East Austin scene whose work has appeared in the Austin Chronicle and Texas Highways and as host of Discovery with Kahron Spearman on KAZI.

More information and registration to follow.

Oral Histories, Community Storytelling, and the Legacy of DJ Screw
Lance Scott Walker and DaLyah Jones
 Thursday, October 6, 2022 | 3:30 PM | Flowers Hall 341

Writers Lance Scott Walker and DaYlah Jones in conversation about amplifying voices of local history in Houston and East Texas, including Walker's new biography of DJ Screw.

Voice Lessons | Alice Embree
Monday, March 28, 2022 | 6:30 PM | Taylor Murphy Hall 101

Alice Embree, a lifelong activist and leading Texan in the student, antiwar, and feminist movements of the 60s and 70s, discusses her new memoir.