Proof that you can go viral even without Kim Kardashian’s butt, an animatronic devil baby or a tiny hamster eating tiny burritos, the event series PechaKucha (Japanese for “chit chat”) began in Tokyo in 2003 and has since spread to 1,000 other cities all over the world. Devised by architects Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham as a platform for creatives to share and discuss their projects, it follows a simple premise: participants give PowerPoint
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Carmen Tafolla photographed by Josh Huskin
presentations comprised of 20 images, which are shown and explained for 20 seconds each — which rings in at total of six minutes and 40 seconds per presentation. (Klein and Dytham’s reasoning behind the time restriction is that “architects talk too much!”) Active since 2011, the local chapter spent its infancy at the Center for Architecture and then set off on a citywide excursion that’s included stops at the McNay, Texas A&M University, Blue Star Contemporary, Paper Tiger, the Guadalupe Theater and many points in between. Co-emceed by the amusingly odd couple of Emmy-winning News 4 anchor Randy Beamer and local artist/FL!GHT Gallery founder Justin Parr, the forthcoming 33rd edition assembles one of the most intriguing lineups in recent history. Hosted by the San Antonio Museum of Art, the evening of enlightening chit chat promises to shed light on the varied endeavors of
Michaele Thurgood Haynes, a cultural anthropologist, educator and curator whose work focuses on “community festivals involving pageantry and young women in over-the-top dresses”;
Annie Montgomery Labatt, a Virginia-based gallery director and professor currently working on the book
Art History 101…Without the Exams;
Franco Mondini-Ruiz, a “compulsive
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Franco Mondini-Ruiz photographed by Josh Huskin
artsessive” local celebrity whose many accomplishments include exhibiting at the Whitney Biennial, winning the American Academy’s Rome Prize and creating the bygone San Antonio emporium Botánica Infinito;
Michael Quintanilla, a decorated fashion journalist who identifies as both a “disco confessionist/glue gun expert” and “Mr. Fiesta”;
Carmen Tafolla, an award-winning Chicana author of 30-plus books — including the local favorite
The Holy Tortilla and the Pot of Beans — who has served as both Poet Laureate of San Antonio (2012-2014) and Texas (2015-2016); and the dynamic duo of 2019 Cornyation co-emcees
Jesse Mata, who has worked with the raunchy Fiesta favorite as a scriptwriter, skit designer and set builder for 17 years, and
Elaine Wolff, former editor-in-chief of the
Current and founding editor of
Out In SA. $
5 suggested donation, welcome reception with live music and light bites at 7pm, presentations at 8:15pm Tue, Apr. 2, San Antonio Museum of Art, 200 W. Jones Ave., (210) 978-8100, pechakucha.com/cities/san-antonio. Get our top picks for the best events in San Antonio every Thursday morning. Sign up for our Events Newsletter.
