7.19.21



In the Explosive Houston Market, These Six Districts Are the Hottest 'Hoods Now

Evan W. Black

PRICES ARE UP all over town, and new listing continue to fly off the market in record time. The city's top realtors tell us these six neighborhoods are the hottest of the hot right now.

Interior Dialogue: Star Designer Benjamin Johnson, aka 'Biscuits Australia,' Took Our Crazy Quiz

Jeff Gremillion

BENJAMIN JOHNSON IS a top-tier interior designer and creative director of his own eponymous design studio. And, with more that 112,000 Instagram followers, he's one of Houston's most effective and beloved designers on social media. One of his highest profile new projects meets the public this week, when his two-year collab with Thompson Custom Homes and Robert Dame Designs is toasted at a showhouse event on Wednesday. But before he pulled out the Champagne, he answered our 20 questions.

Part Artist and Part Forensic Scientist, Lartigue Is an Avant-Garde ‘Angel’ of Death and Decay

Daniel Renfrow

"QUEER AND TRANS archaeology lives within the deteriorations of history," reads part of a poem included in a recent performance by Houston-reared trans artist-activist Angel Lartigue. Her work, which she calls "bacteriomancy," often involves using bacteria and fungi — including some gleaned from the occasional human cadaver — to explore ideas rooted in forensic anthropology, biotechnology, race and gender identity.

David Ansell, Bennie Flores Ansell, Thuy Tran and James Tiebout

THE ROTHKO CHAPEL held its Inspirit fundraiser — a celebration of the power of art and activism — at the industrial-chic Astorian. The evening featured cocktails, hors d’oeuvres, and an onstage conversation with actor Cheech Marin, one of the world’s foremost collectors of Chicano art; 2023 Art League of Houston Texas Artist of the Year Vincent Valdez; and legendary civil rights advocate Dolores Huerta, who co-founded the United Farm Workers of America with César Chávez. (She’s 93, by the way!)

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Art + Entertainment

Cheech Marin reflecting outside of The Cheech (photo by David Fouts)

WHEN YOU TALK to Los Angeles-born actor Cheech Marin, regardless of how serious the subject, you can’t help but smile. His pop-culture presence is infused with an astute awareness of politics and history, and a “can do, make do, find a way to move ahead” spirit he connects to the word “Chicano,” a derogatory term that came to signify resilience, creative thinking, and social consciousness. “My dad, who died at age 93, always described himself as a Chicano, because it described him,” says Marin.

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Art + Entertainment