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.

Life as an artist can feel like a juggling act, requiring the ability to stretch and bend to the demands of making art while maintaining one’s physical and mental health. It’s a challenge Houston-born and -raised soprano Julia Fox knows well. A married mom to a three-year-old boy, the classical singer strives for a holistic approach to her career, and believes it’s best to let her work speak for itself.

A discussion with chef Adán Medrano about marketing his cookbook Truly Texas Mexican: A Native Heritage in Recipes to different segments of the Latino community.

This is a deep dive into the musical legacy of one of my favorite bands and Beth Hart's 2022 album, "A Tribute to Led Zeppelin."

“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.”

". . . 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."

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

IT’S A SUNNY Friday afternoon, and Houston artist Stephanie Gonzalez, 34, is taking a rare moment to sit still in her East Downtown warehouse studio (albeit while “painting some little flowers”) and talk about her upcoming show Earth Forms, which opens Friday, Oct. 14, at Dillon Kyle Architects.

Therapists at one Houston hospital are proving that music heals — and now even former skeptics are singing a new tune.

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."

When Houston multi-disciplinary artist Matt Manalo was asked to create a new work for The Periwinkle Foundation’s annual Making A Mark exhibit, which would include over 200 pieces of art and creative writing by child patients at Texas Children’s Cancer and Hematology Center, he had no idea how profoundly the experience would impact own practice.

A brief history of Magnificat Houses, Inc., a faith-based nonprofit that serves the needs of Houston's homeless community. My story begins with a look inside Magnificat's soup kitchen Loaves and Fishes.

IN OCTOBER 2021, just five weeks after the birth of her second child and her second C-section, artist Alexandra Nechita found herself standing precariously on a scaffolding at the corner of Hollywood and Highland, directing the creation of her first outdoor mural, a work she titled Set The Stage. Nechita envisioned the painting, with its images of a mother and child, a figure looking into a mirror and a pair of hands holding a dove of peace, as message to the locals and the world at large . . .

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.