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SAT | 08.01 TUE | 08.02
THEATER A KIDS PLAY ABOUT RACISM
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San Antonio’s Magik Theatre has joined a group of 37 children’s theater companies nationwide to co-produce a free virtual performance of A Kids Play About Racism. The musical play is based on Jelani Memory’s A Kids Book About Racism, one in a series of minimalist books that use word art and color to explain tough concepts to elementary school-age children. The work has been adapted for the stage by Khalia Davis, an award-winning director and artist in the Theatre for Young Audiences (TYA) community. The San Francisco Bay Area native-turned-New Yorker has led an entirely Black and BIPOC cast and creative team from across the United States in developing the project, using the TYA/USA network. In a press release, Davis described her eagerness to get involved in the project. “I jumped at the opportunity to adapt Jelani Memory’s book A Kids Book About Racism into a theatrical piece for young audiences simply because it meant we were recognizing the importance of including children in these diffi cult conversations,” she said. Let’s hope those conversations become easier to have in the days and months ahead. This national theater event will be available to stream online August 1-2, and can be accessed with a free account at Broadway on Demand. Free, August 1-2, The Magik Theatre, 420 S. Alamo St., (210) 227-2751, magiktheatre.org. — Trevor Flynn Twitter / akidsbookabout SUN | 08.02
SPECIAL EVENT BRICK PUBLIC MARKET
Brick at Blue Star’s weekly markets — a Southtown staple in the “before times” — have long been a great way to support local vendors and artisans. On August 2, the Blue Star venue will introduce a virtual version of its Sunday shopping event. The event, which Brick promises will be the “fi rst of many,” will feature goods from local artists and makers available for online purchase. Vendors including Dewy Organics, Oils.Earth and Que Viva Crafts, Frijola’s Tacos, Melanted Motifs will have wares available via a shop link posted on the day of the event. Thirsty
customers can also buy from a “curated selection of craft beer and wines.” According to Brick, purchases can be made for either pick up or delivery. Free, noon5p.m. Sunday, August 2, facebook.com/BrickatBlueStar.
— Kayla Padilla
MON |

Facebook / Dewy Organics 08.03
FILM SCARLET STREET
Outdoor movie institution Slab Cinema rounds out their partnership with Southtown’s The Good Kind restaurant and bar with a fi nal Noir Monday screening featuring Fritz Lang’s Scarlet Street. The 1945 fi lm follows a cashier and amateur painter who lets a woman believe that he is a wealthy and successful artist. She in turn is persuaded by her fi ancé to con the man out of his presumed riches, and when her mark discovers the plot, the situation turns grim. Tickets are reserved to ensure social distancing and can be purchased online. Food and drinks can be ordered in advance from the restaurant and bar for pick-up. The screening is pet friendly. $6-22, 8:30- 11:30 p.m., The Good Kind, 1127 S. St. Mary’s St., (210) 212-9373, slabcinema.com. — Deanna Wilson

ART ‘THE THINGS WE CARRY’
We all have our burdens to bear — sometimes physically and sometimes emotionally. Evoking the title of Texas-based author Tim O’Brien’s famous 1990 novel, Laredo artist Gil Rocha seeks to capture those things and feelings in his new exhibition “The Things We Carry.” “We all carry things, we carry things in pockets and bags, sometimes in baskets and boxes,” Rocha said in an online artist statement. “Most things we carry in our minds, but the ‘heaviest’ things we carry in our hearts.” “The Things We Carry” will be on view at Presa House by appointment August 7-29, as well as via a virtual tour on August 10. Individual works are available for sale on the gallery’s website. To mark the exhibition’s opening, Austin-based trio Easy Compadre will give a livestreamed performance on Facebook. Rocha was born and raised in Laredo and studied fi ne arts at the University of Texas at San Antonio in 1999. His work centers on the political and social confl icts around the U.S.-Mexico border. Many of his pieces pay homage to his Mexican-American identity and incorporate “Spanglish” phrases. The exhibition includes structure made of a variety of discarded everyday objects and portrays narratives of things we carry physically and within. Rocha said he was inspired by the evolution and people of Laredo, from the locals to the people from “El Otro Lado.” “New stores open, but many close, and traffi c fl uctuates, however, something remains: people carrying things,” Rocha said. “It gives me great pleasure to observe people and piece fi ctional stories about them based on how they dress and how they walk, especially how they carry their belongings.” Laredo has also faced drug-related violence that Rocha said emotionally scars people on both sides of the border. “Many of my current works conform to imaginary portraits based on border personas. As a result, it has left violence and death lingering in everyone’s mind,” he continued. “The feeling of tension and vulnerability is the precise impression I seek to capture in my work, and this is my way of coping with life on the border.” Free, on view by appointment August 7-29, Presa House Gallery, presahousegallery@gmail.com,
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presahouse.com. — Laura Morales

