New Mexico Sun


Arts & Culture: La Materia gives us the life of a guitar

In the book The Spirit of Flamenco: From Spain to New Mexico author Nicolasa Chavez sheds light on the story of flamenco and its worldwide appeal.


Veritas International University: Unique backgrounds bring classical Christian higher education to New Mexico

It sounds like a bad joke gone wrong: What does a former professional baseball player, a post-punk musician, a jujitsu master, the protestant reformation, and Sodom and Gomorrah have in common?


Arts & Culture: 7 Women Artists Tell Unfolding Stories

Artist and teacher, Julia Lambright, knows a thing or two about stories. As a Russian-emigree to the US, Lambright’s story began in an orphanage in Moscow, then continued through schooling in the US.


Arts & Culture: Liturgia delivers a feast at the Festival Flamenco de Albuquerque

A solo cello. A candle-lined sanctuary. Light peering through stained glass windows. Four singers walk down an aisle, singing a meditative, harmonic song of praise.


Arts & Culture: Time machines of the printed page

Time machines exist. They’re called books. Books transmit the thoughts and cultures from the past and bring them to the present.


Arts & Culture: Georgia O’Keeffe in Canyon, Texas

When you think of the state most associated with Georgia O’Keeffe, you probably think of New Mexico. Fitting: She lived in New Mexico for forty years.


Arts & Culture: 516 ARTS and Poeh Cultural Center partner for Soundings: An Exhibition in Five Parts

When people from out of town ask me about the first arts-dedicated space they should visit in Albuquerque, I immediately recommend 516 ARTS.


Arts & Culture: Self Portrait—Thaïs Ferrandis Coy

On August 24, 1821, Spain and Mexico signed the Treaty of Córdoba, giving Mexico a large mass of land, including a significant part of what is now the western portion of United States of America.


Arts & Culture: Brooklyn Rider’s Brilliance

I first heard of the seminal string quartet Brooklyn Rider on NPR’s All Things Considered. If my memory serves me correctly, it was around 2010.


Arts & Culture: A beautiful fusion—Chacon/Nakatani/Santistevan Trio

Experimental, improvisatory music is not for the faint of heart.


Arts & Culture: Arthur Sze’s Poetry Reading Honors a Lifetime of Articulate Compassion

Pulitzer-nominated poet, translator, and educator, Arthur Sze, is a National Treasure.


Arts & Culture: Experiments in Cinema marks 20 years of visual alchemy

I don’t know what it is about experimental film that attracts me. Maybe it’s the poetic nature of the medium, a nonlinear methodology of expression.


Arts & Culture: Susan DeLeo’s exploratory journey of ‘Island’

Watching Susan DeLeo’s short film Island is like bathing. Bathing not in the sense of taking a bath, but in the sense of Forest Bathing, Shinrin-yoku in Japanese culture.


Arts & Culture: Top 11 Western Novels

Recently I was asked by a young film student in Albuquerque about my favorite Western novels and movies. Though picking the ‘best’ is subjective, here’s my personal take on 11 timeless novels (why stick with 10?).


Arts & Culture: AMP Concerts Delivers Irish Music in the Land of Enchantment

It’s tough to determine when Irish immigrants first began to populate New Mexico. Irish soldiers fought for Mexico during the Mexican-American War between the years 1846-1848, with some staying in the region.


Arts & Culture: The Lark Ascending - Pro Musica Rises to the Occasion

The Latin word sublimis is taken from the prefix sub, ‘up to,’ and the suffix, limus, ‘oblique.’ The word means high up, great. In English the word is sublime.


Arts & Culture: Bach’s Birthday in Santa Fe—Organist, David Solem

Since a kid in Jr. High, J.S. Bach has loomed large in my world. It may be hearing his music in church had something to do with it.


Arts & Culture: Henry Blond, An English Artist in the Rockies

Walking into Exhibit 208 a few months back, I was struck by marvelously rendered black and white portraits, paintings that conjured historical photographs but executed in a contemporary style.


Arts & Culture: Inscription - Raven Chacon reveals his first orchestral work with Tucson Symphony Orchestra

Walking into the Linda Ronstadt Music Hall in Tucson, Arizona, my mind goes back to when I was a child growing up in “Old Pueblo,” Tucson’s nickname.


Arts & Culture: ‘Ghost’ by Dan Socha at Exhibit 208

Contrary to what some websites declare, artist and printmaker Dan Socha is residing on planet earth. Or, as artist and curator Kim Arthun tells me, “Dan is very much still alive.” At 82, his work is as strong as ever.