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Culture

Albuquerque Metro Green Party screens ‘The Occupation of the American Mind’ in support of Palestine

Addison Fulton | October 28

On Oct. 5, the Albuquerque Metro Green Party hosted a free screening of the film “The Occupation of the American Mind,” which depicts the history of violence in Palestine and the United States’ role as an ally to Israel. The screening took place at the Special Collections Public Library downtown. Michal Mudd, treasurer of the New Mexico Green Party, said that the inspiration for the event came out of frustration with a lack of political candidate attention on the issue of Israel and Palestine. “To me, the outrage (is) that our major parties aren't paying attention to this,” Mudd said. “People are dying. Real people are dying.”

Culture

Duke City Repertory Theatre keeps Shakespeare relevant

Addison Fulton and Elijah Ritch | October 28

Starting on Oct. 14, Duke City Repertory Theatre presented a production of “King Lear” as a part of its “Bard Crawl” series. A wildly unconventional take on the works of William Shakespeare, “Bard Crawl” is exactly what it sounds like: a play performed in several different bars throughout Albuquerque. It has been held in the spring since 2017, with a two-year hiatus during the pandemic. Due to the success of the prior shows, Duke City Rep was able to put on a fall “Bard Crawl” for the first time this year. It has historically been a comedy, making this the first time that the company has performed a Shakespearean tragedy.

Culture

Wool of bat and cuddle of dog

Addison Fulton | October 28

On Saturday, Oct. 26, the Bernalillo Community Museum hosted the Tricks and Treats Fall Adoption Fair. The event featured adoptable dogs and cats from three agencies: Sandoval County Animal Services, Rio Rancho Animal Resource Center, and Cross My Paws Animal Rescue. This marks the first year this event has been held. The museum hopes to make it a regular occurrence, according to Bernalillo County Museum employee Nikoma Henkels. “Events like this bring people together,” Henkels said. “They connect people who have resources with people who need resources. They connect pet adopters with adoptable pets.”

Culture

‘Cuddle a Canine’ returns to Zimmerman Library

Maria Fernandez | October 28

Students may have noticed there were a few more furry faces on Smith Plaza last week. On Thursday, Oct. 24, Zimmerman Library’s “Cuddle a Canine” event returned for the fall semester, bringing therapy dogs from the Southwest Canine Corps of Volunteers to help students at the University of New Mexico relieve stress. Held twice a year during the fall and spring semester midterms, “Cuddle a Canine” is Zimmerman Library’s way to help ease some of the tension around the UNM community that can build up at this point in the semester, according to Tomás González, one of the event coordinators.

Culture

A spirited night at Painted Lady Bed & Brew

Addison Fulton | October 14

Painted Lady Bed & Brew in Albuquerque hosted a “Ghosts of Old Town Albuquerque” talk on Thursday, Oct. 10 as a part of its ongoing “Brews and Boos” event series. Cody Polston — an author, paranormal investigator and ghost tour guide — gave a talk to Painted Lady’s patrons on the various ghosts and ghost stories surrounding Old Town Albuquerque. The talk featured and retold several iconic ghost stories from Old Town. One ghost featured was that of Milton Yarberry, New Mexico’s first constable, who was hanged for murder. He haunts the area near where he was hanged, which is now the parking lot behind La Hacienda.

Culture

Who’s the fattest bear of them all?

Rodney Prunty | October 14

Fat Bear Week, an event held every year in Alaska’s Katmai National Park and Preserve to decide who the cutest and fattest bear is before they go into hibernation, kicked off its voting on Oct. 2. The event is a single-elimination tournament where the highest-voted bear gets to advance to the next round, according to Fat Bear Week’s website. This year, 12 bears competed against each other to be crowned the winner of Fat Bear Week. Notable matchups included 128 Grazer vs. 909Jr. on Oct. 4. Grazer, a mama bear and fan favorite, dominated this race with 73,018 votes, compared to 909Jr.’s 16,688. Grazer rode her dominant performance all the way to the championship, as she earned herself a spot.

Culture

Balloon Fiesta celebrates the joy of flight

Izabella Kubiak-Reseigh | October 14

The Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta kicked off Oct. 5, filling the skies with vibrance as hundreds of hot air balloons took flight during the world’s largest ballooning event. The festival ran through Sunday, Oct. 13. Thousands of spectators gathered at Balloon Fiesta Park for the annual nine-day festival, which featured daily mass ascensions, “special shape” balloons and nighttime events. This year’s theme, “Embrace the Sky,” celebrated the joy of flight and community. Each morning during the Fiesta as dawn broke, the iconic sound of the balloonists’ burners filled the air. Some of the first balloons launched at 6 a.m., creating a panorama against the Sandia Mountains. Local families and tourists snapped photos, capturing the event's magic, which draws participants from around the globe.

Culture

Artist Karl Orozco: 'Signs of Life'

Isaac Suarez Flint | October 7

When grappling with loss during the height of the COVID-19 lockdown, artist Karl Orozco had nothing to say. “I knew that I could reflect that moment through absence and that would be more powerful than putting anything on a platform,” Orozco said. After moving to Albuquerque from New York City in summer 2020 to teach art at the Albuquerque Academy, Orozco found himself not only wrestling with his role as an artist during a global tragedy, but with being placed in a starkly different environment than where he had begun his professional career.

Culture

UNM hosts AI racial bias webinar with ‘Coded Bias’ director

Addison Fulton | October 7

On Oct. 2, the University of New Mexico hosted a webinar Q&A with filmmaker Shalini Kantayya, the creator of a 2020 documentary about the racial bias of artificial intelligence called “Coded Bias.” “Coded Bias” started with Kantayya’s attempt to empower herself. She intended to make a mirror that would superimpose inspiring images — such as a lion’s head, to channel strength — over her face. However, in trying to make the mirror, she realized that facial recognition technology wasn’t detecting or working on her face. It would, however, recognize an uncanny white mask as a face.

Culture

Albuquerque Film and Music Experience brings together filmmakers and musicians

Elijah Ritch | October 2

On Wednesday, Sept. 25, the 12th annual Albuquerque Film & Music Experience began across several venues in Nob Hill, including the Guild Cinema and the Historic Lobo Theater. According to the festival’s mission statement, AFMX brings together award-winning and up-and-coming filmmakers and musicians. The event ended on Sunday, Sept. 29. It provides “a platform for education, collaboration, discovery and the sharing of impactful stories,” its mission statement reads.

Culture

Full steam ahead: New Mexico Heritage Rail celebrates Railroad Days

Lily Alexander and Addison Fulton | September 30

On the weekend of Saturday, Sept. 28, the New Mexico Heritage Rail hosted the second annual Railroad Days event, showcasing a restored 80-year-old steam train. The star of the event — held at the Albuquerque Rail Yards and adjacent Wheels Museum — was the ATSF 2926. According to the New Mexico Heritage Rail website, the train was originally built in 1944 and retired in 1956. From there, it was left abandoned in Coronado Park for decades, according to Ed Burggraf, a volunteer with the restoration.

Culture

In the green: Meet a New Mexican green chile roaster

Addison Fulton and Elijah Ritch | September 23

In all of its varieties, chile is a staple of New Mexican culture and cuisine. Chile composes iconic dishes such as chile relleno and posole; ristras are strung up everywhere; and even the state’s official question, “Red or green?” references New Mexicans’ deep love for their peppers. Jhett Browne is a chile roaster and seller whose family has been in the chile business since 1962. Roasted green chile did not become popular until around the 1980s, though Browne’s family began roasting its chile in 1977.

Culture

Keeping traditional New Mexican Spanish alive

Maria Fernandez | September 23

You may have never seen this hidden jewel in New Mexico, but there’s a chance you’ve heard it: a dialect of Spanish native to the Land of Enchantment. Traditional New Mexican Spanish is a dialect developed nearly 400 years ago as medieval Spanish blended with Mexican Spanish and the languages of the Indigenous peoples of northern New Mexico, according to the Associated Press. This fusion of language formed a local parlance not found anywhere else in the world.

Culture

Lobos y Lowriders: Cultura y comunidad on campus

Marcela Johnson | September 23

The second annual Lobos y Lowriders event on Sept. 18 was one of several events that kicked off Hispanic Heritage Month at the University of New Mexico, bringing New Mexican car culture and community to campus. Sponsored by the Chicana and Chicano studies department and the Student Activity Center, the Cornell Mall held twice as many vehicles as last year. Valerie Chavez, a CCS doctoral student, organized the event — which consisted of 12 cars — for the second time. “My main goal with throwing the event is to have as much representation of the lowrider community as possible,” Chavez said. “So the more people from the lowrider community I can get here, the better.”

Culture

REVIEW: The brilliance of the ‘Bless Me, Ultima’ film adaptation

Kelsa Mendoza | September 23

With an overwhelming amount of European witchcraft being depicted in both film and literature, “Bless Me, Ultima” is an arresting representation of curanderismo and Spanish folk magic in our very own New Mexico. Originally a novel published in 1972, Rudolfo Anaya’s “Bless Me, Ultima” is a coming-of-age story about cultural identity, faith and forgiveness. It would later be adapted into a movie in 2012, written and directed by Carl Franklin.

Culture

REVIEW: ‘Alligator Bites Never Heal’ sees Doechii in her element

Shin Thant Hlaing | September 16

Rapper Doechii sits poised against a regal green background, dressed in brown, white and lighter shades of green. Beaded cornrows flow past her shoulders with an albino alligator perched on her lap, an homage to her Florida roots. A line from the Doechii’s Spotify bio reads “Did you expect anything less?”

Culture

New Mexico museum highlights the meadow jumping mouse

Addison Fulton | September 16

On Wednesday, Sept. 11, the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science hosted a lecture on the New Mexico meadow jumping mouse. The talk, part of the Voices in Science series, was presented by Jason Malaney, the curator of biosciences at the museum. The New Mexico jumping mouse is a member of the Zapodidae family of rodents. Jumping mice have powerful back legs and long powerful tails, allowing them to perform a huge saltatorial — or jumping — motion. The jumping mouse can jump up to four meters laterally and two meters vertically, though its body is only centimeters large. As Malaney explained, that’s the equivalent of it jumping over the museum.

Culture

REVIEW: ‘Cemetery Boys’ is like a warm hug for the soul

Marcela Johnson | September 16

It’s almost fall, and you know what that means here in the desert Southwest: the weather drops a degree — or 20 — and then heats back up for a couple weeks. For those chilly times until the heat wave, I could not recommend the novel “Cemetery Boys” by Aiden Thomas more. “Cemetery Boys” follows Yadriel, a young brujo — a person who performs a closed practice of magic — as he works with his cousin and best friend Maritza to figure out the mystery of their cousin Miguel’s death, and help Julian Diaz — who recently became a ghost — before he goes maligno, or malignant.

Culture

OPINION: The VMAs and the state of pop music

Elijah Ritch | September 16

For decades, MTV was a massive cultural force, continuously pushing the needle in both the music industry and pop culture at large. Beginning in 1981, the channel introduced the then-novel idea of the music video to America. The rest is history. MTV’s status as a creator of taste and culture only increased with the inception of the MTV Video Music Awards, which have aired annually in the late summer since 1984. On Sept. 11, the VMAs celebrated its 40th anniversary. As could be expected, it repeatedly reiterated its vast legacy throughout the ceremony.

Culture

REVIEW: Guild Cinema features avant-garde jazz musician Sun Ra

Elijah Ritch | September 16

For three days starting on Sept. 10, the Guild Cinema in Nob Hill showed a double feature of films highlighting the avant-garde jazz musician Sun Ra. The double feature was composed of 1974 cult classic “Space Is the Place” and 1980 documentary “Sun Ra: A Joyful Noise.” The screenings were held in conjunction with the 18th annual New Mexico Jazz Festival, which puts on dozens of performances across New Mexico throughout September. Guild owner Keif Henley described the two films as a “natural fit for Jazz Fest.”