Visit San Antonio, the public-private nonprofit that markets the City of San Antonio to tourists and business visitors, has added an LGBTQ page touting the city’s appeal to queer tourists. The new web page was added in the past few days. An announcement on Facebook by Mayor Ron Nirenberg explains the page was a collaboration…
Arts & Culture
Record Number of Participants to Take Part in Pride Bigger Than Texas Parade
With 179 entries, the 2019 Pride Bigger Than Texas will be the biggest Pride parade ever held in San Antonio. Parade organizers released the of list of participants with the proviso that even at this late date they were still receiving requests for entries. The parade steps off on Saturday, June 29 at 9 p.m.…
Rainbow Crosswalk Inspires City to Approve Crosswalk Program for Other Neighborhoods
The City of San Antonio announced on June 20 that the City Council authorized the creation of a Community Crosswalk Program that will allow decorative elements at crosswalks across the city. The rainbow crosswalk that was installed last year at the corner of Evergreen and North Main served as the inspiration for “artistic” crosswalks 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…
Documentary About Hap Veltman and San Antonio Country to Premier at Bonham Exchange
A new documentary about Arthur “Hap” Veltman and the San Antonio Country nightclub will have its premier on June 23 at the Bonham Exchange. The film by Noi Mahoney is titled Hap Veltman’s San Antonio Country. One promotional announcement on Facebook described the feature as “the story of the extraordinary life of Hap Veltman and…
Short Film About San Antonio’s Pointless Sisters to Premier at Outfest Los Angeles
A short film abut a drag troupe founded in San Antonio 34 years ago by mainly Latino men will receive its premier on July 21 at Outfest in Los Angeles. The Pointless Sisters (which is also the name of the film) were originally started to raise money and awareness in the fight against HIV/AIDS. “We…
Chuck Squire’s Original Play About an Aging Drag Queen to Premier at Jump-Start
Originally published in the San Antonio Current. Chuck Squier’s latest original work, Gaylord’s Last Happy Hour at the Gilded Cage, premieres at Jump-Start Performance Co. this weekend. Squier originally created Gaylord Kaiser — “an aging drag queen with all that entails” — as part of Jump-Start’s 8×8 performance series, in which participants stage eight-minute performances…
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…
San Antonio Opera Impressario Mark Richter has Died
Mark Richter, the founding artistic director of the Alamo City Opera, died on April 28 at the age of 51. Over the course of his career, Richter produced over 100 operatic productions in San Antonio. During his life he led the Pocket Opera, the Lyric Opera of San Antonio, the Opera Piccola and the Alamo…
Gene Elder, San Antonio Artist, Writer and Activist, is Dead at 69
San Antonio artist Gene Elder who had a long career as an artist, writer, activist and most recently as the archivist at the Happy Foundation, died on April 28 at the age of 69 after a months-long battle with cancer. Elder revealed his cancer diagnosis to his friends in an email last September and kept…