"In 1973, Darrell K Royal faced challenges landing top African-American high school football players, so he enlisted a team of recruiters. Led by Ken Dabbs, they set out to convince the state’s top running back, Tyler’s Earl Campbell, that The University of Texas was where he needed to be. In an excerpt from journalist Asher Price’s forthcoming book, Earl Campbell: Yards After Contact, Royal, Dabbs, and their crew show Earl—and his mother, Ann—that the Longhorns would give him the best chance to succeed, on the field and off."

Read more from The Alcalde: https://alcalde.texasexes.org/2019/07/the-tyler-rose-the-story-of-uts-recruitment-of-earl-campbell/

Andy Summers, guitarist of the rock band The Police, discusses his photography, his thoughtful approach to creating art, and how his music career has complemented his image-making. His new book with prominent French photographer and critic Gilles Mora—A Certain Strangeness—is out now.

Joining us from his home studio in Los Angeles, musician and photographer Andy Summers talks about the artistic rigor he applies not only to his career as a Grammy-winning musician, but also to his life as an internationally-exhibited photographer. Summers details his early artistic influences, life on tour with The Police, and his collaborations with Gilles Mora and Ralph Gibson. He delves into how he applies the principles of jazz improvisation to photography, and reveals the stories behind a few of his most famous photographs. His latest collection of photographs, A Certain Strangeness, accompanies an exhibition at the Pavillon Populaire in Montpellier, France.

Virginia Cumberbatch, Leslie Blair, and Doyin Oyeniyi discuss the story of integrating the University of Texas at Austin, the ongoing struggle for inclusion and equity on campus, Austin’s chronic problems with racial and economic inequality, and upholding the city’s progressive reputation.

Following a Texas Book Festival panel “Making History: The Civil Rights Movement in Texas,” we invited three of the panelists for a longer discussion on diversity and inclusion in Austin—both on and off campus. Virginia Cumberbatch, Director of Community Engagement and Social Equity, and Leslie Blair, Executive Director of Communications, both share their perspectives as staff members at UT Austin’s Division of Diversity and Community Engagement and also as coauthors of the book AS WE SAW IT: The Story of Integration at the University of Texas at Austin. Also contributing to our discussion is UT Austin alumnus and Texas Monthly reporter Doyin Oyeniyi, who co-created the web series Austin While Black, a project that documents the stories of Black Austinites. (www.austinwhileblack.com)

In the first half of our conversation, we cover some of the remarkable stories from AS WE SAW IT, including the legacy of women in the civil rights movement at the university and the integration of UT Austin’s athletics program. In the second half of our conversation, we address the university’s ongoing efforts to foster inclusion and combat bias, including the recent removal of confederate statues. Our guests also evaluate Austin’s reputation as a progressive city and discuss how both institutions and individuals can work toward dismantling institutional racism.

Further reading:

“How I Navigate the Overwhelming Whiteness of Austin” by Doyin Oyeniyi for Thrillist

https://www.thrillist.com/travel/nation/living-in-austin-texas-white-people-whiteness

“Removing Confederate Monuments Won’t Erase History, But Could Correct It” by Doyin Oyeniyi for Texas Monthly

https://www.texasmonthly.com/the-daily-post/removing-confederate-monuments-wont-erase-history-correct/

“The Battle Against Affirmative Action Continues After Fisher v. UT Austin” by Doyin Oyeniyi for Texas Monthly

https://www.texasmonthly.com/the-daily-post/battle-affirmative-action-continues-fisher-v-ut-austin/

“Outlier: The Case of Austin’s Declining African-American Population” by Dr. Eric Tang, Assistant Professor and Faculty fellow IUPRA and Division of Diversity and Community Engagement, and Dr. Chunhui Ren, Postdoctoral Fellow

https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/iupra/_files/pdf/Austin%20AA%20pop%20policy%20brief_FINAL.pdf

Brooklyn-based artist Nina Katchadourian exhibited a mid-career survey of her work at the Blanton Museum of art, titled "Nina Katchadourian: Curiouser." The exhibition and accompanying book reveals the artist’s humor, ingenuity, and ability to unearth the creative potential that “lurks within the mundane,” to use her words. The diverse range of art it highlights includes Mended Spiderwebs, a series of photographs documenting the artist’s attempts to weave red string into dilapidated spiderwebs, and Under Pressure, a recent video that Katchadourian took of herself lip-synching to David Bowie and Freddie Mercury’s duet using her mobile phone in the cramped quarters of an airplane lavatory. We learn about art projects she has made with the assistance not only of arachnids and rock stars, but also United Nations translators, birdcall experts, librarians, sports announcers, parking lot attendants, an accent elimination coach, and even her own parents.

Where there is water, there is life. In this casual conversation, we cover the process of researching must-swim spots across Texas, the history of these significant sites, and the importance of being good stewards to our natural swimming holes. We also cover top 5 lists, key etiquette, and the best playlists for a good summer road trip.

What made Austin the city we know today? Eddie Wilson saw the Texas capital transform from a sleepy college town into a global purveyor of music culture, all while booking and housing seminal bands of the 1970s, serving Southern cuisine, and shilling a record-breaking amount of Lone Star beer. Hear stories about Jerry Garcia, Frank Zappa, Van Morrison, and so many more 'Keep Austin Weird' moments that helped define Austin's lifestyle, cutlure, and identity. We are joined in this conversation by Jason Mellard, the Assistant Director of the Center for Texas Music History at Texas State University–San Marcos and author of Progressive Country: How the 1970s Transformed the Texan in Popular Culture.

In this fascinating discussion, we explore the significance of a massive, conceptually complex piece of rock art that was painted by hunter gatherers within a week to two week period between 400 BC and 400 AD. We cover the graphic vocabulary that depicts the creation of time and the birth of the sun, how certain revelations came to the research team, and the importance of preserving these endangered murals. As the oldest known artistic expression in North America that portrays core concepts later reinterpreted by the Aztecs, the White Shaman mural is an important work, key to understanding ourselves and where we came from.

From a base camp darkroom in Vietnam to street photography in San Francisco to the political stage, this interview with Bob McNeely traces his life as a photographer and offers honest insight into Hillary’s personality and career, wrestling with both the promise of her capabilities and the problems of her political history. Hear how McNeely’s access ended abruptly in 1998 amidst scandal and how Hillary’s Senate race in 2000 foreshadowed her ability to be resilient and move on with her life.

A Pure Solar World explores how Sun Ra was a master of jazz composition, a pioneer in electronic music, a major African American poet, and an expansively free-thinking teacher. Author Paul Youngquist talks to us about the philosophy behind Sun Ra's space music, how audiences first responded to his music and his message, and why his work deserves more attention.

Mando Rayo and Jarod Neece drove over 7,000 miles sampling tacos in 10 major Texas taco hubs to build a community of taco lovers. The culmination of their journey is the new indispensable guide, The Tacos of Texas. We talked to them about their road trip and the process of enlisting community leaders, knowledgeable locals, and abuelitas to delve deeper than Yelp reviews and capture authentic taco culture.