Danielle Cunningham For artist, musician, graphic designer, webmaster, meditation teacher, Reiki healer and all-around beacon of creative/restorative light Danielle Cunningham, allyship comes as a result of two essential aspects of her character: her lived experience growing up as a self-described outcast and her new-age (for lack of a better catchall term) spiritual beliefs. Growing up…
Allies United: Jody Bailey Newman & Steve Newman
Jody Bailey Newman & Steve Newman “When Jesse Mata asked us to talk to Elaine [Wolff] and Ray [Chavez] about Cornyation 2014, I was sure they were going to ask Steve to be King Anchovy,” says Jody Bailey Newman — and they did. “But then there was one more question: ‘Will you be Queen Anchovy?’…
Public Library Slates Pride Month Events
The San Antonio Public Library announced a list of events it is sponsoring in observance of Pride Month. This is the seventh year the library has presented such a series. A statement on the library’s web site explains the aim of the June observance: “The diversity of San Antonio goes beyond ethnic and racial lines,…
Amy Stone Sheds Light on the Bizarre History of Cornyation
Originally published in the San Antonio Current. For many San Antonians, Fiesta is simply something that “happens” each year — a sprawling, expensive, messy celebration that lures tourists into downtown, dumps confetti all over the place and inspires folks to get dolled up in candy-colored garb to gawk at bedazzled “royalty” passing by on parade…
Fiesta Cornyation’s King Anchovy LII is Jeffrey James
The board of directors of Fiesta Cornyation, billed as “the raunchiest, cheapest event of Fiesta,” have announced this year’s King Anchovy LII will be Jeffrey James, the proprietor of James Lawnmower Sales and Service. James will preside over the Court of Insane Privilege during Cornyation performances slated for April 25 through 27 at the Charlene…
On the Chartreuse Couch: Gene Elder Interviews Ken Slavin
Gene: Ken, here you are at last. On the couch where you belong. Now, I want you to just lie down and make yourself comfortable and just say the first thing that comes to mind. What do you think of when I say, “Artists giving their art to fundraisers and musicians playing for free at…
Cornyation Raises $200,000 for Charities, Scholarships
The board of directors of Fiesta Cornyation announced today that for the second year in a row they raised a record-breaking $200,000 which they will distribute to local charities and college students on June 12. Celebrating its 50th anniversary, Fiesta Cornyation raises funds through ticket sales for six shows performed at the Charlene McCombs Empire…
Artist Chris Sauter Talks Curators, Coming Out and Playing with Stereotypes
Chris Sauter’s big break came in 1999 when an Artpace curator told him to “go for it.” The San Antonio-born artist raised on his grandparents’ ranch outside Boerne proposed to cut pieces out of the gallery’s drywall and transform them into his childhood family dining room. Viewers had to walk through the oval circle in…
All About That Dress: A History of Cornyation Fashion
For the last three years, I’ve been working on a book about the history of our most beloved Fiesta event, Cornyation. I’m pleased to report that the book will be published in March 2017 by Trinity University Press, and it will include more than 100 pictures of Cornyation over the years. Over the course of…
Hot Glue & Duct Tape: John McBurney’s Rasquache Aesthetic
“We had the courage and the tenacity to be flamboyant and to be ourselves.” “I’m an old showgirl,” John McBurney says, as he shows me a faded photo of himself in partial drag backstage at Cornyation in 1998. McBurney is 61. “I am 6’ 4’’ and almost 300 pounds. I have to be very couture.…