At the LC, it’s one of our favorite pastimes to be on the lookout for projects, events, and art that build community through creative expression. Believe it or not, there’s no shortage of that in this town! But enter Javier Jara’s unique project Our Rhythms, Our Voices. Performing in Dell Hall on September 8 with Austin Unconducted, we just had to dig deeper to see how this singer-songwriter & composer is celebrating Latin American immigrants by turning their stories into song.
Javier Jara + "Our Rhythms, Our Voices"
Long Center: Welcome to Mid-Week Intermission!
We usually ask people for a song to go with their interview — does anything come to mind?
Javier Jara: Any song or one of my songs? El Necio by Silvio Rodriguez, because it talks about resilience in times of hardship. It touches upon how people keep up with their principals and ideals in spite of overwhelming adversity and general apathy.
If I’m thinking about one of my songs, I would say Alicia, because the song talks about how people sacrifice themselves to help other people. People put their lives on the line for love — love of their family and their community.
LC: First, could you tell us a little about yourself and how you came to be creating and composing in Austin?
Javier: I’ve been singing my whole life, playing the guitar since I was 15, and always playing music that went beyond trivial issues. I studied music at Southwestern University and got my master’s degree from University of Texas in Music and Human Learning. I collaborated with many musicians in Austin with different backgrounds including jazz, folk, Latin American, world, and classical music. I honed my skills in many different styles of Latin American music and produced concerts of music from different Latin American regions including Brazil, Argentina, Peru, Venezuela, the Caribbean, Mexico, and the Andes.
Austin has been a fantastic place to have a career in music. City organizations and nonprofits like the Cultural Arts Division, the ESB-MACC, Texas Humanities, and the Institute for Diversity and Civic Life have all been very supportive and helpful in developing my career. The musicians are amazing in this city as well.
LC: “12 Latin American immigrant stories turned into 12 songs” — this is the premise of your project and upcoming performance with Austin Unconducted. Can you tell us more about the project and who’s involved?
Javier: We noticed the media coverage of Latin American immigrants did not always show the great diversity of cultures and stories existent in Latin Americans living in the United States. I wanted to use my own skills and love of Latin music to show just how incredible the music and stories are from different regions in Latin America.
I became friends with a truly gifted lyricist, poet, and musician from Mexico, Yahir Durán, who listened to all the interviews and wrote the lyrics. Then, I composed the music mostly using a rhythm from the person’s homeland for guitar, voice, violins, percussion, and double bass.
Some of the musicians who played with this ensemble were members of the orchestra, Austin Unconducted. They invited me to be a guest composer and translated three of the songs to be played with the orchestra last spring. That orchestra has some of the finest string players in Austin, Texas, and as the title indicates, they don’t have a conductor. We wanted to present the entire project with the orchestra, so we decided to collaborate again. I co-arranged the songs for orchestra with different members of Austin Unconducted.
Alejandro Moreno-Alanis is a fantastic local photographer, originally from Mexico, who took all the portraits of the people we interviewed.
LC: How does one even embark on a project like this? What was it like to gather these stories and then turn them into a shared musical experience?
Javier: We really wanted to shine a positive light on the Latin American immigrant population in the United States, and we wanted to shift the narrative to people’s individual stories and the various reasons people leave their homelands. We also wanted to interview people with diverse experiences and professions from different regions in Latin America, while making sure to present as many different styles of Latin music as possible.
While we aimed to mostly use rhythms from the person’s homeland, sometimes the people we interviewed requested that their story be set to a different rhythm or style of music, so we changed it. It was a really powerful experience to gather all of the stories, then collaborate with local musicians, and hear the audience’s own stories and experiences after we toured the project.
LC: Now that you’re on the other side of this composing journey, what has it meant for you to go through the process and share these stories in an unexpected way?
Javier: You’re never on the other side of talking about these issues. It’s like you’re on a mountain, and there’s another one to climb. When we traveled with this concert, people have really connected with the music and lyrics. Some people have shared their stories. Others have cried. It has been a very powerful concert in terms of connecting with the audience.
LC: I know a lot of us at the LC are really looking forward to the event on September 8. What would you like people to feel as they walk away from this performance?
Javier: I would like people to have great compassion and empathy for people regardless of their country of origin. I would like people to appreciate the various cultures and experiences of people from Latin America.
LC: Any other projects you’d like to shoutout to our readers? How can they follow your work after Our Rhythms, Our Voices is over?
Javier: I recently was accepted into the Touring Roster program with the Texas Commission on the Arts. I hope to take the Our Rhythms, Our Voices project to other cities in Texas. It would have to be at a smaller scale (like a string quartet rather than a full orchestra) than what we are doing at the Long Center, but I think these people that we interviewed are very impressive, and we would really like to share their storeis with as many people as possible. We have both a website and an Instagram where we will post any updates.
Thanks, Javier!
The Long Center is super honored to have Javier, Austin Unconducted, and the Our Rhythms, Our Voices project in the house on September 8. Enjoy this teaser and we’ll see you there!
Picture this: it’s a warm but not-too-hot Saturday in Austin. You can feel the kiss of sunshine on your forearms, the whisper of wind passing your ear, and you look up to see the skyline is practically sparkling. From every direction you hear full belly laughs, from kids and adults, layered with the hottest tracks of the summer. Sounds nice, huh? We think so, too, but there’s a pretty important detail we left out. Ready? There are bubbles EVERYWHERE! That’s right, y’all…
BubblePalooza is back, baby!
Mark your calendars now, because September 7 isn’t a day you’ll want to miss! The cherry on top of our 2nd annual Teresa Lozano Long Community Day will be ATX’s favorite all ages event, BubblePalooza. We can’t wait to re-inflate the fun for everyone!
While Austin’s best arts & community orgs put on a show inside, the whole H-E-B Terrace and Lawn will be dedicated to all things bubbles.
Experienced Austinites already know and love BubblePalooza, but for the new folks, here’s the rundown. BubblePalooza is exactly what it sounds like—an all-out fun fest of everything bubbles. And as creative pros, our team takes the concept of “the bubble” to a whole new level. And we’re not talking about just the soapy kind.
Here are some things you can expect at BubblePalooza:
Here’s a taste of you can expect at BubblePalooza:
- Bubbly bar for the grown ups
- One of the LC’s favorite DJs, Lavender Thug
- Bubbles as art (we area performing arts center after all!)
- Everything that can be bubble-shaped will be bubble-shaped! Think balloons, bubblegum, a bubble igloo, and the like.
Other than that, our lips are sealed. You’ll just have to come see for yourself!
Most importantly, BubblePalooza is a time for all of Austin to come together and just 👏 have 👏 fun 👏. Whether you are a kid, you have a kid, or you’re more of a kid at heart, BubblePalooza is chock full of fun for everyone.
In case you’re new here, let us just say that the Long Center takes our job as a community hub pretty seriously. We prioritize free (and fun) events like The Drop-In, Community Day, and Santa on the Terrace because we know when Austin comes together, we’re all the better for it.
But ya know, free isn’t actually free, y’all. And while we think the arts are absolutely essential, we realize not every Austinite has access to awesome arts programming every day. Which is why we lean on partners like H-E-B to help make events like BubblePalooza accessible to all.
The Long Center takes our job as a community hub pretty seriously. We prioritize free (and fun) events like The Drop-In, Community Day, and Santa on the Terrace because we know when Austin comes together, we’re all the better for it.
“H-E-B and the Long Center value the arts as an integral part of cultivating a vibrant community, celebrating our rich diversity, preserving our history, and shaping our future. We are thrilled about the return of BubblePalooza and look forward to welcoming the community back to the H-E-B Terrace for this beloved event.”
-Heidi Anderson, H-E-B Director of Public Affairs
Let’s hear it for teamwork! When H-E-B says they care about “helping here,” they’re not messing around.
We can’t wait to celebrate all things Long Center with you on September 7! The Long Center is always yours, but especially on Community Day 💜
At the Long Center, we’ve always got a new partnership or something cool we know you’ll want to check out! Find and follow us @longcenter on your social media platform of choice, and we’ll see you real soon.
If you’ve been in Austin for a minute — or you’ve gone to The Drop-In or Blues on the Green this summer — you’re probably familiar with husband and wife duo Riders Against the Storm. (And if you’re not familiar with Chaka and Qi Dada, check them out ASAP.) What you may not know is the depth and breadth of Chaka’s creative and advocacy activity, so in this Mid-Week Intermission we’re digging deeper to learn about his non-profit DAWA, their upcoming five-year anniversary, and what “giving to the givers” really means.
Meet Chaka and learn more about DAWA, Diversity Awareness & Wellness in Action
Long Center: Welcome to Mid-Week Intermission!
We usually ask people for a song to go with their interview — does anything come to mind?
Chaka: Everyday People — Arrested Development
LC: Some readers will know you from Riders Against the Storm, but can you tell us a little more about your background and what led you to create, advocate, and make music in Austin?
Chaka: I don’t disconnect music from advocacy. It’s my voice, and I use it to speak about things that are important to me, and those I care about. My journey in Austin music brought me into a lot of spaces that were completely ignorant to the lived experiences of BIPOC people in Austin. Yet, and still, they somehow talked as representative of ‘Austin music’ as a whole. This really disgusted me frequently. So, whenever I was in those spaces, I used my voice to inform about perspectives that were missing from their visions and decisions. A lot of times whatever I would say triggered people into fearing my presence, but there were always people in the room that listened, and I formed alliances with those people to create more opportunity.
LC: In addition to your creative work, what led you to form DAWA? Was it something you’d pondered for a long time or a specific event?
Chaka: I formed DAWA because there was a glaring need that most Austin music non-profits, and non-profits in general, were not addressing when it came to the struggles faced by BIPOC people. I tried going to a lot of these organizations with ideas (even joined a Board), but they weren’t ready to act in a responsive way to critical needs.
DAWA was created because I was frustrated, but not powerless to act. I just organized the resources that I had and started, with no intention of actually becoming a non-profit. The non-profit came about due to the communtiy response and feedback I received over time. It became something that I felt Austin really wanted, and I sought out a pathway to make it sustainable. We are still on that path today. Our 5 Year Anniversary is a celebration of our resilience and commitment to growing something vital for Austin’s BIPOC ‘community frontliners.’ We want DAWA to be a cultural institution that lasts well beyond my involvement or oversight.
LC: So that our readers know, DAWA’s full name is Diversity Awareness & Wellness in Action. Can you tell us more about DAWA’s mission and “giving to the givers?”
Chaka: Our theory of change is that when you give to those that play giving roles in our community, there is an amplifying effect that makes our entire community healthier and more vibrant. Those that care for and nurture us should be cared for. The givers need to receive. Unfortunately, their roles are not highly valued, so it’s harder and harder to be a teacher, social worker, creative, or healthcare provider in a city like Austin that is growing rapidly. Our mission is to celebrate, elevate, and empower their essential work through direct financial assistance and culturally relevant health-centered programming.
LC: From your perspective as a creative, how are art & storytelling powerful tools, alongside more typical ones, for investing in community health and well-being?
Chaka: Artists are storytellers. Unfortunately, for the most part, much of our cultural production does not benefit us. It is extracted and, generally, others profit from our brilliant visions and innovation. It doesn’t have to be like that. DAWA believes that investing economically in BIPOC community and culture holistically will build a more inclusive and beneficial space that has long-term impact.
I am an example of that. My gifts as a musician and visual artist birthed an entire organization, a physical space for community, and hundreds of jobs. My community’s investment in me had an amplifying effect that grew ideas like DAWA. It’s time for more investment. We are thankful for opportunities like the City of Austin’s Thrive Grant, which has given us a runway to build larger avenues to sustainability.
LC: You have a big five-year anniversary event for DAWA coming up at the Long Center in September (congrats!) — what does this milestone and opportunity for celebration mean to you and the DAWA community?
Chaka: This is a cultural moment of victory for Austin that we are claiming. As we plant our ‘Giving To The Givers’ flag, we are stating that, ‘we are here, and we aren’t going anywhere.’ It’s time for the essential work of BIPOC community frontliners to be centered as a part of the vision for generations to come. It’s going to be a city-wide celebration that marks DAWA’s next phase.
LC: One more teaser for our readers about your anniversary event — what can folks expect from Laughter is Medicine with Tommy Davidson? Any special guests or other hints you can leave us with?
Chaka: Tommy Davidson is a king of comedy. A legend! It’s going to be so amazing to have him commemorate this momentous occasion. Expect to laugh HARD for an incredible cause with thousands of people! Our goal is to raise $100,000 to be distributed via the DAWA Fund in November. Look for special guest announcements soon!
Thanks, Chaka!
The Long Center is super pumped to have DAWA in the house for their five-year anniversary event on September 6. Check it out below and follow @dawaheals for updates!
If you attended The Drop-In this summer, chances are you ran across our friend, Pickles, and his humans Micah & Megan! Since they love the Austin arts scene (almost) as much as we do, we sat down with the whole pack to get the scoop on their story and why they love being LC Members.
We’re Megan Carew and Micah Weathers, the proud paw-rents of Pickles the Vizsla, and huge fans of the The Drop-In at the Long Center!
“I wasn’t born in Texas but I got here as soon as I could.”
Yes, it’s likely overused and maybe a little corny, but it’s the creed of Austin transplants like us. Our journey to the vibrant city of Austin occurred in phases. Megan moved to town for a job eight years ago from Wisconsin, with Micah joining from Colorado by way of California over three years ago. While the setting in which we met wasn’t that sensational (a workplace romance 😍), our falling in love was fueled by shared passions for music, travel adventure, craft alcohol, and good food.
These interests have taken us to several wonderful, exciting places across the country over the last few years, including Yosemite National Park and Big Bend Ranch State Park (Micah ran a trail ultra marathon there last January), the Florida Keys, Portland Maine, Ojai California, and Zion National park for Megan’s 40th.
We love to call this funky, spirited city home because it strikes such a great balance of nature, art, urban, rural, food and live music. We can often be found mixing it up in the foodie scene, paddle boarding, and hiking with our trusty sidekick who many of you have come to know and love, Pickles!
Pickles is a Hungarian Vizsla, which is kind of like a smaller, browner Weimaraner, or a Rhodesian Ridgeback with a tan nose and no ridge. We picked his breed because we wanted a sporty family dog who would fit into our active lifestyle. Pickles loves the off-leash hiking trails, where he logs many more miles than us as he crashes through the trees chasing birds. Another one of his favorites is Barkin’ Springs, where he spends hours trying to catch the little fish in the refreshing spring water.
He also loves playing soccer, and his favorite toys are a big pink fuzzy heart and a stuffed rubix cube. One of our favorite things about Pickles is when he gets sticky lips, which is so endearing but also so deranged-looking. Pickles is an enthusiastic, go anywhere, do anything guy, and we can’t imagine life without him!
One of our favorite summer activities The Drop-In at the Long Center, and this summer we finally became Members! Supporting nonprofits like the Long Center is our way of helping build community. To us, it’s personal because of our connection with music and performance, and we want as many people as possible to have their lives enriched by the arts. In a small way, we hope our gift helps pass the torch.
We believe The Drop-In is the absolute best thing about the Austin summer. The LC team does a fantastic job showcasing the variety of local talent – and we all know that’s just scratching the surface in this town. There’s something very special about The Drop-In – as the kids would say “immaculate vibes” – and as we sit in our blue Adirondack chairs, with original music flowing into our ears, looking at the backdrop of the Austin skyline, we can’t help but feel incredibly lucky to be a part of it all.
GET IN ON THE ACTION
The perks of being a Member don’t end when The Drop-In is over! Learn more about what our Membership program supports and how we say thanks 👇
