Dallas Lit Hop 2023

  • Roxy and Judy Gordon (beer pitcher photo: https://www.roxygordonfirstcoyoteboy.com / book photo: Laney Yarber)

7/8: ArtSpeak @ MFA Gallery in the 75208

Brian K. Scott has worked as an artist freelancing and collaborating all of his life. In 1993 Brian graduated from the University of North Texas with a B.F.A in Printmaking with a minor in film. Brian has been an active artist in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex for over two decades, in addition to showing in art galleries in New York City, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Little Rock, Chicago, and the entire state of Texas. In the past, Brian K. Scott has had extended affiliations with several Dallas art galleries such as Ro2 Art, Gray Matters Gallery, and 500X Gallery. He was a founding and principal artist with the Holton and Associates from 1993-99. He has collaborated with Brian Jones since 1990 in the art group Chuck & George. Currently, Brian is the Technical Facilities Manager for the School of Arts and Performance at the University of Texas Dallas, where he’s responsible for running the new 6,000 square foot SP/N Gallery. He is also founder and a principal artist of the Art Services Collective, and co-founder of the Oak Cliff Studio Tour. Brian Scott is represented by Ro2 Art in Dallas. Read more!

Brian Keith Jones earned his BFA in Painting from The University of North Texas in 1998. After completing his degree, he established a studio in the Oak Cliff neighborhood of Dallas, where he has lived and worked for over 20 years, co-founding the annual Oak Cliff Visual SpeedBump Art Tour. Jones is also widely known for his role in the acclaimed Dallas art duo Chuck & George. The wild, yet symbiotic collaboration of Brian K. Jones and Brian K. Scott influences, and is influenced by each artist’s individual work, serving as a constant source of inspiration. They both own and operate Art Services Collective which offers many art related services such as murals and trompe l’oeil for the private and design community. As well as creating his individual art for the galleries, Brian K Jones has created many privately commissioned works. ​​Read more!

Charles Hancock is one half of infamous “low-tech” print masters, Texas-born The Amazing Hancock Brothers who look to shock as much as inform. Their bold, unabashed style combines screen printing, woodcuts, and acrylic into mixed-use pieces that resemble part Circus Freak posters, part insane patterns, and all crazy, in-your-face attitude. Brothers Charles and John often chuck all sense of propriety out the window, then rip down the curtains, screen clowns or skulls or grotesque portraits on them, and then chuck that out the window, too. As members of Dirty Printmakers of America, they are able to use their ferocious, fearless talent to push the awareness and accessibility of printmaking to the huddled masses, democratizing art and technique. Read more!

Buddy Mohmed: “I started the band ‘American Bedouin’ to more fully express myself as an artist. I have been lucky to have some great musicians record my music. I came up with the name because I am a born, raised, trained, American musician, from a family of immigrants, so I was also listening and learning music from other cultures – specifically Arabic, but also ‘Gypsy’, Greek, Latin, African, etc., so I use the Arabic word ‘Bedouin’ to describe my style as ‘nomadic’, i.e., ‘All Over the Map’. American Bedouin has played music festivals and theater. We were ‘Off Broadway’ accompanying a one-man show ‘Down a Long Road’. I personally relocated to Montreal Ca and created the bass-player Clown role for the Cirque du Soleil show ‘Corteo’, and toured with the show for 2 years.” (courtesy Dallas Voyage Magazine.) Read More!

Dana Sudborough is a vibraphonist, composer, photographer, union organizer, father and nature lover. He will be performing as half of the American Bedouin duo with Buddy Mohmed. Read more!

7/22 ArtSpeak @ Bathhouse Cultural Center
You know, next to White Rock Lake

Rosemary Meza-DesPlas: “ I was born and raised in Garland, Texas; a manufacturing-based suburb of Dallas. My parents’ heritage is rooted south of the US border: my mother was born in Allende located in Coahuila, Mexico. My father, born in Santa Maria, Texas, grew up in Tampico situated within Tamaulipas, Mexico. The tenacity of my eight aunts in the face of personal tragedies and adversities was an early inspiration; their narratives contributed to my embrace of feminist ideology.” Rosemary Meza-DesPlas currently lives in Farmington, New Mexico. The cornerstone of her artwork is the female experience within a patriarchal society. She is a 2022 recipient of the prestigious Ford, Mellon Foundations Latinix Artist Fellowship and numerous other awards. Her work is exhibited internationally. She is also a spoken word artist, often incorporating her performance art into her exhibitions. Read more.

Sara Cardona uses the analog process of cut-and-paste to create collages in the tradition of early twentieth century assemblage and in a nod to the editing process of film. These collages then become the foundation for large scale sculptures in paper and metal, which are inspired by the idea of distributive, human networks of capital and consumption. As an artist who grew up in a family involved in the film and theater industry, her work is informed by the intersection of artifice, spectacle, photography and scenic construction.

Cardona was born in Mexico City and currently lives and works in Dallas, TX. She studied at the Kansas City Art Institute, received her BA from UT Austin, her MFA from Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia, PA, and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Skowhegan, ME. She received the 2020 Nasher Artist Grant through the Nasher Sculpture Center, as well as the Dallas Museum of Art Kimbrough Award in 1994, and has participated in residencies such as the Research Residency at the Amon Carter Museum and the C3 Visiting Artist at the Dallas Museum of Art. Cardona’s work has been exhibited at spaces such as Kirk Hopper Gallery, Erin Cluley Gallery, The Arlington Museum of Art, The San Antonio Museum of Art, and the Nasher Sculpture Center, and has been featured in publications such as the Dallas Observer, San Antonio Mag, Patron, Glasstire, and the Dallas Morning News.  Read More.

8/5 Roxy and Judy Gordon Fest @ Top Ten Records on Jefferson Blvd–(where it’s at)

Roxy and Judy Gordon were publishers, writers, artists, thinkers, influencers of Dallas lit scene, 70s to 90s. Their works were internationally recognized by artists and critics, including Richard Brautigan, Leonard Cohen, Peter O’Brien and Townes Van Zandt. Rolling Stone  Magazine  included Gordon in a cover story for readers to keep their eyes on for the future of literary arts. Roxy was editor of the UT literary magazine in college at a time when numerous future distinguished writers were incubated. He was published by Scribner while he was barely out of college. He and Judy then joined the Vista Volunteers and relocated to the Assiniboine Sioux Reservation at Lodgepole, Montana. Roxy was eventually adopted by tribal leaders and given the name First Coyote Boy. The Gordons moved to California and did a lot of things, then Albuquerque, where they founded a magazine centered on Texas songwriters. They brought their dedicated activism on behalf of the American Indian Movement, and Wowapi Press imprint to Dallas in 1977. They subsequently published a number of writers, focusing on women writers of diverse backgrounds. A number of interdisciplinary artists and scholars could be found at their home any hour of the day. WordSpace founder, Robert Trammell, lived in a camper in their front yard for a spell–many artists found a temporary home with the Gordons. Their friends from around the world visited often and introduced a sophisticated network, exchange of ideas and collaborations to interact with Dallas artists. The Gordons were essential catalysts and building blocks for developing the Dallas literary scene. Roxy passed on to the other side in 1997. Judy recently followed. Their energy, altruistic intentions and open-hearted personalities will always be missed. Roxy’s work is currently being archived at the Bill Witliff Collection. Read more!

For this event, some of their friends and fans will present performances and tributes to this iconic art couple:

Performance artist Laney Yarber will reprise a staged tableau vivant that incorporates a music recording by Roxy. It was originally created at the Gordons west Texas ranch. The performance will include cameo appearance of Yarber’s son, Joe Flaten, and will be videotaped by the great filmmaker, Jonathan Caouette (Tarnation.) You heard right: Jonathan Caouette will be in the house! Yarbers first large-staged performance, Patty Duke Meets Patty Hearst was made possible by Murray Smithers at Delahunty Gallery. Other works have been funded by the NEA and City of Dallas Office of Arts and Culture. Her iconic avant garde performances include The Reveries of St. Theresa, Giving up the Farm, Dallas Travelogue, Pedestrian Dance and Dharma Broads I, II, and III (co-produced with kx Minzer.) She regularly collaborates in internet performances for artist and professor Lou Garza’s arts classes in Guadalajara.

Jeffrey Liles is an important writer whose subject matter crosses many topics. His many music articles can often be found in  Dallas Observer. He’s written on Roxy more than once. Liles has performed as an Island Records touring artist (Decadent Dub Team) and spoken word recording under the persona-inscription Cottonmouth, Texas. He is the talent buyer for The Kessler Theater and Longhorn Ballroom, drawing on past experiences at LA’s Roxy Theater and Dallas’s Theater Gallery, where he booked bands ranging from New Bohemians to Nirvana. He also booked a play by Roxy Gordon and Cherokee writer LeAnne Howe. Liles was a great friend of the Gordons and a regular visitor at their house on Oram Street.

Karen x Minzer worked for the Gordons’ graphic business when she moved to Dallas and started living at the Ambassador Hotel in the mid-70s (1900s.) One of her books is published by the Gordon’s Wowapi Press. She collaborated with the Gordons on a number of projects and literary events (good parties and garage-publishing projects.) Roxy wrote a song about her on one of his albums. You can read more on her on the WordSpace directors’ page.

Joseph Justin is a writer and music anthologist. His music-love most often focuses on blues, jazz, psychedelic and country music contributions of Texas music makers. Roxy and Judy would have been honored to have him in the house talking about them.

Joey Cloudy is a Beat writer and founding editor of a the early 21st century literary magazine, Death List Five. He was a co-host of Bill’s Open Mic and a favorite subject of Peter Orozco’s historic documentary film and recording project, PAO Productions. Cloudy’s published chapbooks include Howl, 108 Poems for Allen.

Carlos Salas is a Beat poet and co-founder of Poets on X+. He regularly performs at numerous venues. He regularly visited with Judy at WordSpace and Kessler Theater events during her later years,

Josh Weir is a Dallas poet and regular reader at Mad Swirl and Poets on X+.
He is a published author and spent hours talking with Judy at gallery openings.

Carol Gerhauser is a Dallas writer and intellectual. She is a professor of French languages and literature; former running buddy of the Gordons.

Oblong Cassidy and Space Horse is a music project with poet Brett Ardoin, featuring Scott Krakowski, Andrew Jenkins, and Les Bewley. 

8/22 MusicSpeak @ Lucky Dog Books
Down Garland Rd in E Dallas

Wanz Dover is a writer and happening electronic composer and DJ. “I make Electro as Blixaboy. Postpunk Bass/vocals in Black Dotz. I love Detroit,Berlin,sci-fi,comic books, Nick Cave, The Stooges, Afrobeat, & krautrock—to name a few. He’s provided stage music for a number of bands, including MC 900 Ft Jesus. Listen up!

Brandon Jemeyson is a musician and songwriter in the popular Dallas band, The Sutcliffes. Learn more!

Chris Merlick is a musician, visual and performance artist. He regular performs his Duchampaphone conceptual art. He’s played in numerous bands and is a member of Lithium Xmas. Um, Chris is this really you?

Clancy Manuel  is a musician, songwriter, and Happenings collaborator. She works in services and technical support for Fort Worth Modern Museum.

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