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Risolana 30 for 30
Culture

Risolana encourages community-focused art

Addison Key | July 2

An evolution of screenprinting, called Risographs, mixes a specific amount of four colors to create the artist's desired color. The risograph printer uses premixed ink and lays one color at a time. The process allows for vibrant and fluorescent effects as well as unique mistakes.  Risolana – a community risograph studio in the South Valley – aims to educate on this process. In an effort to introduce risograph printing to the community, Risolana holds 30 Under 30 events on the 30th of every month; participants sign up, bring in any art work and create 30 risograph prints for $30, co-founder Karl Orozco said.

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Culture

OPINION: “Fourth Wing” is the book of the summer

Elizabeth Secor | July 2

I have been in a massive book slump for the past month and a half, leaving me searching for my next read to finish out the summer. After several hours of scrolling through BookTok, the same book, “Fourth Wing” by Rebecca Yarros, came up again and again. After devouring this book, I can confidently say anyone looking for their next summer read should look no further. “Fourth Wing,” a fantasy novel, follows twenty year-old Violet Sorrengail as she is forced by her mother, the commanding general, to enter a war college for dragon riders instead of her lifelong plan of entering the scribe quadrant.

Ocean gate
Culture

EDITORIAL: Ocean Gate, a slap in the face

Maddie Pukite | June 29

The media and public’s response to the Titan submersible tragedy – as well as the ongoing romanticization and obsession with the Titanic – forces a harsh light on our priorities: our fixation with the rich and the apathy toward the classism and violence that affects immigrants and people of color. This past week, an OceanGate submersible lost contact and all passengers died. OceanGate is a privately owned company that provides tours to see the Titanic shipwreck. The tours start at $250,000 a person. Multiple millionaires were present on the ship, according to the New York Times. More and more people from the Mediterranean region have sought migration as an alternative to unsafe living conditions caused by Western-influenced wars and corrupt governments.

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Culture

Snell’s gallery combines Queer experience and empowering spirituality

Detroit Kallunki | June 27

Sam Snell – UNM alumni and artist – held the opening night reception of his first solo exhibition titled “Magical Thinking” on June 24. Snell’s idea of “Magical Thinking” is to merge Queer and spiritual identities to help people apply a spiritual lens to their life experiences. The exhibition is also the first solo show hosted by Tori Wilson, owner of Garagedoor Gallery and fellow artist. She immediately connected with Snell’s work and said she was excited to have the opportunity to share it with other members of the community. “When he contacted me to have this solo show here, it was an immediate yes,” Wilson said,  “because that means that I get to be surrounded by his art for a whole month.” 

gem thrift store
Culture

Green Earth Matters: eco conscious thrifting

Addison Key | June 25

“Green Earth Matters” was the original name of a newsletter Tara Ravishankar hoped to write – before there was an internet – about recycling resources in her local community. Now it is the name of her thrift shop, G.E.M. Ravishankar had always dreamt of opening a thrift store. She opened G.E.M. on Halloween of 2019 after a friend bought a house just north of 12th Street and Candelaria. She said she is primarily interested in keeping stuff out of landfills and creating a space for the community to donate the things they don’t want anymore.

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Culture

NM museum's Relaxed Night

Addison Key | June 25

The New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science holds Relaxed Nights – sensory-friendly experiences for the public. Anthony Fiorillo, the executive director for the New Mexico Museum of Natural History, said the museum strives to make programming accessible to everyone and that Relaxed Nights are important to have. The Relaxed Nights stopped while the museum was closed due to the pandemic, but as the museum opens back up, they have decided to reintroduce them during their busiest months in March, June and July. The museum will also hold a Relaxed Night for veterans in November. 

comic con
Culture

Duke City Comic Con returns

Danielle Knox | June 22

  The Duke City Comic Con brought together fans to celebrate comics, video games, anime, movies and TV shows, June 16 - 18 at the Albuquerque Convention Center. In attendance were actors from popular media, including Jackson Rathbone from the “The Twilight Saga” and voice actor Alejandro Saab from “Genshin Impact” – a popular video game franchise. Jared Rotegas, a Con attendee, said that he is interested in both the social and material aspects of the Con. “(I want) to show my cosplay off and meet other people,” Rotegas said. “I’m also here to browse. I spent a little over a hundred bucks yesterday.”

Queer prom
Culture

Meow Wolf’s Queer and accessible prom

Addison Key | June 22

  A Queer prom was hosted by Meow Wolf and the Human Rights Alliance of Santa Fe on June 14. The HRA works to educate and engage the Santa Fe community in Queer and LGBTQ issues. The prom was held in honor of Shontez ‘Taz’ Denise Morris – a former Meow Wolf employee and member of the HRA. HRA is an organization first created to advocate for the civil rights legislation in the 1990’s and currently provides a scholarship and hosts pride festivities, according to the Santa Fe HRA website. Mark Westberg, a committee member for the HRA, worked with Meow Wolf to organize the prom. The event was focused on creating an environment that Taz would enjoy. The committee’s members' roles include community outreach with an emphasis on Queer youth, Westberg said.

plant bus
Culture

Viva La Plant opens in the heart of old town

Milan Ortiz-Ruiz | June 19

  Viva La Plant Shop officially opened their doors Thursday, May 11. Their new brick-and-mortar store is located inside of New Nuevo – a shared space centered in the Plaza of Old Town. Matt Vinson and Iris Valenzuela-Vinson, partners and owners of Viva La Plant Shop, began displaying their passion for plants with pop-up bus shops amid the pandemic in Memphis, Tennessee. Last summer they brought their business to Albuquerque. “We were able to adapt quickly when we moved, and we essentially almost had a community here already when we started, so it was a very easy transition for us and we felt like we were able to start quickly and make connections quickly,” Vinson said.

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Culture

Albuquerque woman turns 106

Kelsa Mendoza | June 19

  With a 50% chance of living past 106, according to a 2018 study from the journal Science it is an opportunity to meet an individual who has lived over a century. Catherine Kunz – born in 1917 – was able to celebrate her 106th birthday on June 15, 2023. The community at her assisted living facility gathered on her special day to give her birthday wishes and share cake. On it, her age was written in white frosting calligraphy. Sara Mendoza – the daughter of a resident at the living facility – brought the cake for Kunz. “I ordered the cake through Albertson’s and they had to call me to make sure they were really writing 106, and that it wasn’t some sort of typo,” Mendoza said.

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Culture

BioPark Garden guests get groovy

BillyJack Davidson | June 13

  The 32 acres of the Albuquerque BioPark Botanical Gardens displays plants from the American Southwest and around the world. Beyond plants, they also host events. This event was the starting point of a series of Garden Music events that will continue on throughout the summer, located at the BioPark, Zoo and Botanical Gardens on various dates. Later this summer, the BioPark will also have the Garden Sound of Music hosted by the Albuquerque Department of Arts and Culture.

The flower show
Culture

Raychael Stine combines dogs and abstraction

Addison Key | June 11

  Raychael Stine – an associate professor of painting and drawing at The University of New Mexico – has spent most of her life exclusively painting dogs. This past week, Stine was chosen to participate with 50 other artists in a show titled “The Flower Show,”  hosted at La Louver – an art gallery in Los Angeles. The show will feature artists that incorporate flower imagery within their work. Stine’s two paintings being showcased are titled, “Middle Lover 3” and “Ophelia 3.” Her work plays with light, color and space while incorporating what she calls her “secret dogs,” which are portraits that serve as the basis of her painting that she then makes abstract.

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Culture

Festival Flamenco brings global artists to Albuquerque

Maddie Pukite | June 9

Festival Flamenco comes to Albuquerque on June 9 and will run for nine days with performances and workshops throughout the city. Marisol Encinias, the festival’s  executive director, said the goal for this year's selection of artists was to challenge expectations while having performances that complement one another. The festival has brought in 12 international dance companies along with one New Mexico company. The  importance of the art form in New Mexico established the demand to hold the festival here, Encinias said. 

Betsy James
Culture

UNM professor publishes homegrown nonfiction novel

Kelsa Mendoza | June 6

After writing primarily fiction novels and children’s books, Betsy James – University of New Mexico professor, author, and illustrator – released her nonfiction book, “Breathing Stone: Living Small in a Southwest Village” on May 30, 2023.  “This book is kind of a departure for me because I’ve always written fiction,” James said. “My departure to nonfiction started from a very writerly practice … Sometimes I say ‘I write like ducks quack.’ Writing is very second nature to me.” 

LGBTQ resource center
Culture

LGBTQ Resource Center focuses Pride on campus

Addison Key | June 5

 As Pride month commences, The LGBTQ Resource Center at the University of New Mexico serves as a home for many students, Frankie Flores said. Flores serves as the center’s director, as well as a mentor and advocate for students. “My mission with this field – with the work that I do – is to make sure that our students, from admission to graduation, feel honored, affirmed and welcomed on this campus, which can be everything from helping them get food from the local food pantry to suicide deescalation,” Flores said.

Addison Portman feature
Culture

Portman & LOBOmotorsports race to the finish line

Addison Key | May 14

For incoming mechanical engineering majors, your senior year will require a commitment to a design project. Addison Portman recently guided one of this year's projects to the finish line. Around 35 students spend three semesters building a Formula-1 or Indycar style racecar that will compete in the Formula Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) international engineering design competition, according to the LOBOmotorsports website.

Johnson center feature
Culture

Staff at Johnson Center emphasizes community

Addison Key | May 14

Johnson Center Aquatics at the University of New Mexico is available to all incoming freshmen free of charge, according to Marcus Blackwell — the 62-year-old lifeguard and instructor at Johnson Center. However, there are some classes and resources that require an extra fee. “I teach group fitness and I try to get them to have fun and have a social interaction. When I left the last day of my step class, a girl came up and said, ‘It's too sad. This isn't even like a class. It's like a bunch of friends just getting together to work out,’” Blackwell said. 

AAPI Resource Center feature
Culture

AAPIRC empowers and supports students

Maddie Pukite | May 14

The University of New Mexico has several resource centers on campus to support new and current students, one of which is the Asian American Pacific Islander Resource Center. Farah Nousheen, the Student Success Specialist at AAPIRC, recently gave a speech at the center’s second annual convocation with the message, “The next Buddha will be a sangha.” Sangha means “community” in Sanskrit. “That's really the main takeaway for me from this year (at the center), that we must do this in community,” Nousheen said.

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