Volume 13 • Number 10
The Voice of the Catalina Foothills
May 17, 2023
www.tucsonlocalmedia.com
INSIDE PCC students showcase fashion designs at show By Laura Latzko
Senior Spotlight Class of 2023 Special section | Page 10 Capriotti's Sandwich Shop comes to Tucson | Page 6 Pusch Ridge junior drums his way to Carnegie program | Page 8
Tucson Weekly Staff
E
ach year, the Pima Community College fashion design department spotlights student-created outfits by hosting a runway show. This provides an opportunity for beginning-level to more advanced students to present pieces they have been working on for a semester or longer. This year, the fashion show is Friday, May 19, at the Leo Rich Theater in the Tucson Convention Center. It will also be livestreamed for audiences who are unable to attend. VIP tickets are available in a limited number and include a reception with light bites, a swag bag with items from sponsors, early access to the silent auction and photo booth and seating in the first two rows.
See FASHION Page 4
Kalistica Luevanos modeled her own design in Pima Fashion’s 2022 runway show. (Dan Quiñones/Contributor)
Tours share accessible farming practices in Vail BY VERONICA KUFFEL Tucson Weekly Staff
Summer is fun but beware these hazards | Page 13
This year’s fashion show is themed “A New Aesthetic, Presenting a Wardrobe that is Anything but Subtle.” Show director Savannah Franco said this year’s runway show allows the designers to highlight what makes them distinctive. “We wanted to showcase every student’s personality that they showcase within their garments,” Franco said. “Everyone’s style is different, and I think with today’s fashion industry, you don’t really need to necessarily be on trend. Anyone’s garment or wardrobe can be anything they want. That’s what we want to try to focus on. Some people’s style is more eclectic and more flashy than other people’s. There will be a nice variety on the runway.” Franco, who is also the social media specialist and lab assistant for the fashion depart-
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n one of his farm tours, Michael Ismail bent down to check on a rainbow cactus starting to bloom. He explained there weren’t many when he moved to the property, but after implementing his water basin system, native plants have popped up all around and created a desert oasis. He pointed to the string of small pits along the watershed, connecting down to the farm.
“By doing this all around the property, you essentially create this lens of water in the ground,” Ismail said. “It moves down the slope and ends up benefitting the ecosystem all the way down.” Ismail and his team at Thrive and Grow Farms host tours at their property in Vail to teach about regenerative farming. Neighboring Cienega Creek Preserve, this farm will soon be a demonstration of its new business model, where they develop land to prioritize a regenerative ecosystem and sell the final
Serving all of Tucson Specializing in the Foothills
product to farmers. Ismail calls their new model turnkey farming. Ismail is an agricultural entrepreneur, expert and educator with a focus on land conservation. He was raised in a homestead near Tucson, where his family turned a patch of desert into a thriving farm. “I grew up growing a lot of food and learning permaculture practices,” Ismail recalled. “My father taught me land develSee THRIVE Page 5