Chris Becker

“My target audience for this work is Black people,” says Francis, 39, who grew up Alief. “That’s not to say my only audience is Black people. If you are open, you can figuratively see yourself in a person who looks nothing like you but has characteristics
that mirror some of your own.”

Cover story for the February 2017 issue of Acoustic Guitar. My profile of guitarist Eric Johnson.

". . . with a head of gray hair pulled back with a bandana, Modine exudes the confidence of a man unafraid to show his feelings — and willing to stand tall in the face of adversity, including mankind’s propensity for violence, something that was very much on his mind when he received the script for Full Metal Jacket."

“Black is not a monolith,” says 34-year-old multidisciplinary artist and curator Brian Ellison regarding “Nuanced Black,” an eclectic group show of Black Houston artists on view through March 28 at Community Artists’ Collective. “People categorize Black artists into a certain type of box,” he continues. “But it’s a very vast palette.”

My latest for Houston CityBook, where I speak to Houston Symphony Principal Tubist Dave Kirk about the upcoming Texas premiere of Wynton Marsalis's "Concerto for Tubist and Orchestra." As Kirk says, “There’s more notes in this piece than I will play in the entire 2021-22 symphony season."

ON VIEW THROUGH May 26 at Hooks-Epstein Galleries is an exhibit of new works by Houston artist Marcos Hernandez Chávez. The show’s title, "El baile de los que sobran," translates to “The dance of those left over,” the “left overs” being people who struggle, celebrate and live their lives “at the end of the American experience."

A behind-the-scenes look at Meta-Four, Houston's premier poetry slam competition team.

Looking at Houston artist Michael Bise’s graphite drawings — meticulous, finely detailed portraits of his ancestors, both living and gone, as well as of Bise himself — is a lot like looking at your own a family album, where every picture tells a story, be it poignant, oblique or frightening, or all three adjectives at once.

“I’M INTERESTED IN the things left behind,” explains found-object and performance-based installation artist Viktor Givens . . . Using the eye of an artist, Givens has meticulously filled the space with objects he has recovered over the years from vacant and abandoned African American residential estates.

My interview with Houston duo Twin Lovers . . .

My profile of Oceans of Slumber lead singer Cammie Gilbert.

WHILE THE HOUSTON art scene continues its cautious return to pre-pandemic normalcy, with a dance that feels two steps forward and one step back, it’s clear the months of masking and self-imposed quarantining has for some artists been incredibly productive.

For David McGee, who cherishes a quiet night at home, alone, with good film and a fine cigar for company, the past two years has allowed for some much-needed interior work — though not without some unexpected, serious stress. “On top of the pandemic,” says McGee, “I had to deal with my mother having cancer, a person who had never been sick

"ART IS LIKE love,” says Houston artist Wayne Bell. “When you fall in love with people, you lose yourself in them. But you can also find yourself.” For 36-year-old Bell, whose dramatic, abstract oil paintings, where gradations of rich, otherworldly colors give the viewer the sense they have stepped into an alternate universe, the path to self-discovery has been anything but straightforward. But art, and the impetus to “create and destroy and start over,” has been with him since childhood,...

A short essay for Houston CityBook where I opine from the perspective of a writer on the life-giving legacy of David Bowie.

My interview with singer songwriter Colin Hay.