PechaKucha 12 Preview: Southwest School of Art, Coates Chapel

PechaKucha night in San Antonio has migrated throughout the city, seeing eleven waves of presenters, no two alike. Though diverse in age, gender, occupation, and background, every speaker to have undertaken the challenge of a PechaKucha talk, presenting 20 slides for 20 seconds each, has shared one common trait: passion.

In August of 2012, at the seventh PechaKucha night to take San Antonio, Texas Public Radio’s Nathan Cone pulled back the curtain on some of history’s most iconic movie scenes. The Rivard Report’s own Monika Maeckle imparted a deeper understanding of the monarch butterfly, a “familiar and miraculous little beast,” at PechaKucha 6.

The wildly animated and decisively engaging storyteller Miss Anastasia exhorted the audience of PechaKucha 10 to read aloud to children, while Edwin Blanton suggested at PechaKucha 8 that each of us can affect large change through a series of little changes.

During PechaKucha 8, Ansen Seale illuminated an accurate but different way to record reality through the lens of a camera. Jennifer Ling Datchuk revealed the fragile beauty and tragedy of familiar domestic settings through porcelain at PechaKucha 11.

The twelfth PechaKucha night in San Antonio will take place on Tuesday, Nov. 19, at the historic Coates Chapel of the Southwest School of Art. Happy hour will begin at 6:30 p.m., with presentations starting at 7:30 p.m. A donation of $5 is all it takes to get in on the fun.

PechaKuchas have occurred throughout the city. [If map fails to load below, please refresh browser window.]

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Read on for a sneak peek at the eight presenters of PechaKucha 12. Descriptions provided by speakers and event organizers.

Margaret Craig, Printmaker

Margaret Craig received a degree in Biology Secondary Education, a BS in Art and an MA in Painting from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She later received an MFA in Printmaking from the University of Texas at San Antonio.

She invented Tar Gel Pressless Etching and has demonstrated that and other techniques at SCG and MAPC conferences. She is often involved in trade portfolios and exhibits locally and nationally; including participating in the China Sanbao International Printmaking Exhibition and Symposium And the SGCI traveling members print exhibition.

Currently she is chair of printmaking at the Southwest School of Art in San Antonio, TX. Her original Biology degree has been a major influence in the visual and ecological context of her work, and her shop promotes a less toxic approach to printmaking.

Nan Cuba, Author

Nan Cuba received her MFA from the Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College. She has taught English and Creative Writing at several universities and high schools. She is founder and executive director emeritus of Gemini Ink, a nonprofit literary center, and is currently an associate professor of English at Our Lady of the Lake University.

Cuba is the author of the novel Body and Bread and coeditor of the anthology Art at Our Doorstep: San Antonio Writers & Artists. She was twice the runner-up for the Dobie Paisano Fellowship and received a Fundación Valparaiso Residency Grant in Mojácar, Spain. As an investigative journalist, she reported on causes of extraordinary violence in publications such as LIFE, Third Coast, and D Magazine. Her stories, poems, essays, and reviews have appeared in anthologies such as Of Risk, Courage, and Women; Inheritance of Light; and New Growth 2; and in journals, such as Quarterly West, Columbia: A Magazine of Poetry & Prose, the Harvard Review, storySouth, andConnotation Press.

Tracy Edwards, Doula

Tracy Edwards is a birth and postpartum doula with over 22 years and 425 births worth of experience. She was certified in 1997 with the Association of Labor Assistants and Childbirth Educators and has also trained with Doulas of North America. She is a previous La Leche League leader and the mother of nine biological children. In her spare time she attends midwifery school and goes on cruises. She lives in rural Bexar County with her husband of 28 years, her children, 6 chickens, 2 dogs, 2 cats, 2 guinea pigs and a hedgehog named Shakira.

Richard Farias, Activist

Richard Farias is the Director of Student Activities at San Antonio College, where he previously served as English faculty. At SAC, he was the advisor for GALA – the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and ally student organization on campus – from 2008 to 2013. He has chaired Hispanic Heritage month and in 2010 founded Coming Out Week as an institutionally recognized cultural celebration at SAC.

Since coming out in 2004, Richard has been driven to improve the visibility, recognition, and equality of the LGBT community. He serves as the board chairman for Pride Center San Antonio, a startup LGBT community center that will provide connections to social services, health resources, and community education. He also serves as a board member for Equality Texas, a statewide advocacy organization.

Carlos Montoya, Bike Mechanic

Carlos Montoya is a native of the Southside of San Antonio, known to some as “a man who eats only obscure fruits and grilled meats.” ?Having been a guitar player since the age of 17, his interest in the electric guitar moved him from assisting with sound and lighting at the Esperanza Peace and Justice Center, to working as a guitar technician.

Meanwhile, as a long-time cyclist, his inclination toward self-sufficiency and problem-solving led from repairing guitars, to working as an evidence-based bicycle mechanic for the past 14 years.?He’s a non-competitive cyclist who prefers riding in the oppressive heat of summer.

Wes Harvey, Artist

Wesley Harvey is originally from Van Buren, Indiana, “the popcorn capital of the world.” He received his BFA in Ceramics in 2002 from Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana and then received his MFA in Ceramics in 2007 from Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas. Wesley has exhibited his artwork nationally and internationally. His artwork can be found in various publications including 500 Contemporary Ceramic Sculptures and The Essential Guide to Mold Making & Slip Casting and also in the permanent collections of the Art & Artifact Collection at the Kinsey Institute for Research on Sex, Gender, and Reproduction and the Shanghai Museum of Arts & Crafts, as well as collections in Italy and throughout the United States. He currently lives and works full-time as both an artist and educator in San Antonio, TX. He teaches all levels of ceramics at the University of the Incarnate Word.

Erik Sanden + Ryan Parker, Musician + Illustrator

Erik Sanden was born morbidly pale with webbed toes and enormous hands. As a child he loved to lie and made up some huge whoppers. Now he channels sweeping exaggerations into original songs. He has been singing “Moon River” over and over for the past month.

Ryan Parker has been doodling stupid pictures from an undisclosed location somewhere in the United States for a number of years now, all while subsisting solely on a diet of coconut water and peanut butter and bacon sandwiches… Occasionally he’s been asked to travel distant planets in search of vast riches but lately he’s been on a quest to find the perfect word that says “I’m sorry” and “Fuck you” at the same time.

JJ Lopez, DJ

JJ Lopez is an all-vinyl, radio Disc Jockey based in San Antonio, TX. He has been playing records in nightclubs professionally for over seventeen years. Considered by many in the South Texas area to be one of the last, old-school vinyl DJ’s, JJ maintains a traditional approach to spinning records by demonstrating a classic 1970s DJ technique.

His selections range from popular soul and funk standards to obscure, Chicano Soul 45s. JJ is a producer for KRTU, 91.7fm and spins at Tucker’s Kozy Korner every first and third Friday of the month as host of all-vinyl dance party The Soul Spot.

Miriam Sitz is a freelance writer in San Antonio. A graduate of Trinity University, she blogs on Miriam210.com. Follow her on Twitter at @miriamsitz and click here for more stories from Miriam Sitz on the Rivard Report.