Arts Alive San Antonio

While the name, Pabst Brewing Company, makes you think of beer, the venerable beer maker has other interests and goals, too, including supporting the arts across the United States. The company moved its headquarters to San Antonio in 2020 and it’s making its presence known through several initiatives – a new gallery in Southtown (1112 S. St. Mary’s) and a large mural project.

One could say, they found the perfect city for that. Thanks to a number of efforts, but especially thanks to the involvement of the San Antonio Street Art Initiative, the broader downtown area already has quite a few murals painted on all sorts of buildings, including a concentration of vivid images on St. Mary’s Street. Pabst has now partnered with SASAI to enrich this mural treasure trove with nine brand new murals, so new, in fact, that some of them are being completed at the time of this writing.

You can see them all – plus, of course, some older ones, and two installations – if you take part in the Mural Connection Tour this Saturday, April 24. It’s a walking, self-guided tour, that starts at 1 p.m., at the San Antonio Museum of Art where you can see Gary Sweeney’s characteristic letter-based mural creation and scan the official event mural map QR code, featuring details and the map for the mural-seeing trip.  Participants are also encouraged to have a bite to eat before tackling the 2-mile track that ends at the Pabst Blue Ribbon Studios in Southtown. A stop at Hopscotch’s Lounge is also included.

“Murals have always been part of our cultural brand since 2013,” said Pabst’s Moima Chowoe, who oversees arts projects for the company.

Artists involved include: Los Otros; Angela Fox, Connie Chapa and Jenkins2D;  Manola & Maria Ramirez; Essential Collective (an installation); James Supa and Albert Gonzales; and Ricardo Oviedo aka Trout..

To close the event, Pabst will host an artists’ reception at the new gallery (address above), from 5 – 8 p.m., where additional artwork will be displayed.

This event also supports SASAI’s Phase III initiative to create “The Largest Outdoor Gallery in Texas.”

To participate, respond to www.SanAntonioStreetArt.org.

Murals are only a part of public art in San Antonio, where innovative sculptures and installations can be found in many locations. The latest addition to the River Walk is another “Bloom” sculpture conceived by artist Leticia Huerta and fabricated by Wanderlust Ironworks. These are pretty much what the name implies, giant metal flowers designed to resemble native wildflowers, yellow columbine and lantana. More “Blooms” will sprout soon in other places around town.

Staying with the visual arts, there’s news from the McNay Art Museum as well: a new Tobin Collection of Theater Arts exhibition, “Is it Real? Staging Nature” which focuses on stage design that mimics the natural world. “The artworks celebrate designers, costumers and set-painters – artists in their own right, who transport audiences into caves, through forests, and to worlds beyond the imagination,” said R. Scott Blackshire, curator of the collection of theater arts.  Monarch butterflies and animal marionettes mingle with design for opera backdrops and a fairytale musical forest from Broadway, notes the press release. Sounds like fun! (McNay Art Museum, 6000 N. New Braunfels, www.mcnayart.org)

The always innovative SOLI Chamber Ensemble has a special treat for music lovers this weekend. Devoted to contemporary art music by living composers, SOLI will present “Stories from the Voices Within,” featuring two world premieres and appearances by two guest artists, San Antonio’s current poet laureate, Andrea “Vocab” Sanderson, and flamenco artist Tamara Adira. One of the premieres will be composer Aaron Jay Kernis’ “Elegy for those we lost,” which was released on YouTube to commemorate the people who died of COVID-19. Originally written for solo piano, the piece has been arranged for violin and piano for the upcoming concert, featuring Carolyn True at the piano and violinist Ertan Torgul.

The other world premiere will be San Antonio-native Darian Donovan Thomas’ ((HERE)), a piece that includes electronics, singing, rapping and narration, and dancing. Sanderson collaborated with the composer on the commission. Several musical styles will be part of the presentation, including contemporary art music, hip-hop and flamenco. Another promising offering! (San Antonio Botanical Garden, 555 Funston, April 24 & 26 at 7:30 p.m. $15-$25; to purchase www.solichamberensemble.com; for info 210-393-6103)

San Antonio jazz pro, Doc Watkins, is teaming up with Classical Music Institute Orchestra for Doc Watkins with Strings,  April 23 at the Tobin Center. The program will include music by Gershwin, Debussy, Nat King Cole, Watkins, and more. (Tobin Center, 100 Auditorium Circle; $39.50 – $59.50; www.tickets@tobincenter.org)

More at the Tobin: “’Till Death Do Us Part – Late Nite Catechism 3” is a hilarious “class” featuring a witty nun teaching lessons on the sacrament of marriage and the last rites. Classroom participation is a must.  (April 24, 8 p.m.; tickets at tickets@tobincenter.org). Also at he Tobin: Evil Dead II with live commentary from Bruce Campbell, a Streaming Watch Party, April 24, 8 p.m.; tickets start at $25.

Poetry Month is still with us. Words for Birds is a huge two-part online reading event with sessions on both Saturday and Sunday, April 24 & 25. The event is a celebration and cry for protection of our winged relatives and nature in general. Some 20 poets will participate, about equally split between the two days. Marisol Cortez will serve as MC Saturday, and Jim Lavilla-Havelin will assume that duty on Sunday. To see the names of poets and find out how to attend go to https://deceleration.news/2021/04/05/w4b.

Wyrdd Writers – a group of women poets – will present its own reading/performing event Saturday at 10 a.m., via Zoom. To attend, join Zoom meeting ID 826 0677 6403 (passcode 444203). No specific theme in this one. A few poets will take part in both this and the Words for Birds programs. The event will be MC’ed by Lisha Garcia. Taken altogether, Poetry Month events present a unique opportunity to hear a lot of contemporary poetry, from San Antonio talented writers.

Also part of Poetry Month, is Noche Azul, at the Esperanza Peace and Justice Center. “Azul” in that title is Azul Barrientos, a great singer, whose concert “Agua y Poesia” will be live streamed Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m. on Facebook and YouTube. Eight poets and writers will also take part, reading literary pieces connected to water. (For info call 210-228-0201 or email esperanza@esperanzacenter.org.

There are so few female comedians that we are happy to report that a successful one, Whitney Cummings, will be at the local Laugh Out Loud Comedy Club Friday & Saturday. Not only is she a funny woman herself, she also writes funny dialogue for other performers. Cummings co-wrote the scripts for the “2 Broke Girls” show on CBS. She also starred in the NBC series called “Whitney.” (LOL Comedy Club, Friday, April 23 at 7:30 & 9:45 p.m.; April 24 at 7 & 9:30 p.m.; $50-$200 per table, seating two, four or six people; to purchase go to www.improvtx.com/sanantonio)

We also would like to remind you that there are only three remaining performances of “Antigone” produced by the Classic Theater of San Antonio and performed at the Botanical Garden, outdoors.It’s a delightful production. (For tickets go to www.classictheatre.org; You have to bring your own chairs.)