The last time we spoke to local designer Agosto Cuellar, he was between two milestones. First, he was selling off the final remnants of Jive Refried — the wildly creative Southtown vintage emporium he ran from 1999 to 2o11 — as part of a 20th anniversary exhibition at Clamp Light Artist Studios & Gallery. Second,…
Kiki with Akasha: San Antonio dancer Antonio Padron dishes about his turn on HBO’s ‘Legendary’
Jennie Livingston’s cult documentary Paris Is Burning and — like it or not — the music video for Madonna’s derivative anthem “Vogue” will forever pop up in conversations about ballroom culture. But as famed critic Guy Trebay pointed out in a 2000 Village Voice story dubbed “Legends of the Ball,” those two 1990 works are…
San Antonio Florist David Garcia’s No. 9 Shop Joins the Jigsaw Game
Originally published in the San Antonio Current. Googling the words “puzzle” and “pandemic” these days returns headlines such as “People are Curbing Their Stay-at-Home Anxiety the Analog Way: With Puzzles” from CNN. Meanwhile the Wall Street Journal posted “Coronavirus Means Everyone Wants Jigsaw Puzzles. Good Luck Buying One.” An odd example of collective consciousness in…
San Antonio’s Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence Preach Camp for a Cause
Originally published in the San Antonio Current. Musical-theater icons Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein are either laughing or rolling in their graves over their unwitting role in the bizarre origin story of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence — a troupe of gender-blending “nuns” that emerged in 1970s-era San Francisco after donning habits procured from an…
Drag Queens, Dancers, Musicians and Aerial Artists on Tap for Emerald Ball Fundraiser
Originally published in the San Antonio Current. If you keep up with the slideshows we post on our website, you’ve undoubtedly come across the work of Julián P. Ledezma, a tireless photographer who closely follows San Antonio’s wide-ranging drag scene. Beyond the many late nights he spends shooting entertainers and partyers on the Main Avenue…
Fiesta Cornyation Returns with King Anchovy LIV Mindy Miller Hill
Originally published in the San Antonio Current. Since its unlikely birth at the Arneson River Theatre during A Night in Old San Antonio back in 1951 — when the first-ever King Anchovy ruled over the “Court of the Cracked Salad Bowl” — Cornyation has proven itself as many things: a riotous revue custom-crafted for woke…
Fan Favorite Drag Queens Headed to San Antonio for ‘Hater’s Roast Shady Tour’
The Detroit-based production company known simply as Murray & Peter Present is behind the campy holiday revue A Drag Queen Christmas and the allegedly forthcoming Ultimate Drag Idol — a “gender-inclusive” RuPaul’s Drag Race alternative promising a $100,000 grand prize. Unleashed on the Aztec last year with a cast of 10 Drag Race contestants, the…
Stars and Garters Burlesque Ready to ‘Shimmy and Shake’ in New Show
Burlesque starlets to team with retro jazz act Ruby Alexander and the Bonafide Playboys. Originally published in the San Antonio Current. A provocative pioneer of the Alamo City’s burlesque revival, the all-female troupe Stars and Garters is in the midst of celebrating a full decade of “putting the bare in Bexar county.” Having scored top…
Yara Sofia to Judge San Antonio’s ‘Drag Me to Fame’ Competition
Originally published in the San Antonio Current. With an origin story not unlike that of fellow Puerto Rican drag star Jessica Wild (who performs in San Antonio on March 6), Yara Sofia rose through the ranks of San Juan’s LGBT nightlife scene, perfecting her craft in famed clubs like Krash and eventually landing on RuPaul’s…
Erotic Performers, Naughty Nuns and More at La Santa Luna’s ‘Art of Fetish & Fashion’ Event
Originally published in the San Antonio Current. Championing a provocative aesthetic that sways from ethereal and romantic to dark and slightly macabre, La Santa Luna has evolved from a specialty boutique into a self-described “fashion collective” driven by creative director/designer/“head mother” Erica Reyna with support and inspiration from photographers, makeup artists, models, muses and brand…