Walking into the George R. Brown Convention Center for the Navratri festival, I am whisked away by the South Asian culture – the vibrant colors, the smell of Indian food, the garba music, and conversations in my native tongue.
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Pass The Naan
My wife, D’Arcy, had her birthday dinner at Bombay Sweets Restaurant in the Little India District of Houston in 2010. While driving down Hillcroft Avenue, we noticed new toppers adorning the neighborhood street signs proclaiming, “Mahatma Gandhi District,” complete with a small engraving of the revered Indian leader. “Wait—when did that get there? Is this […]
Welcome to Guandi’s Temple
Texas Guandi Temple is a site for the practice of millennia-old religious traditions and celebrations, but it is also a testament to the sacrifice, survival, and heroism of earthly people who chose Houston as their home. Visiting the Texas Guandi Temple is a step through the looking glass, a journey into a mystical world that […]
Voices Breaking Boundaries
In a world full of customs offices and immigration departments, where borders and national identities play powerful roles, thousands of individuals experience similar crises and conflicts, and joys and frustrations, no matter where they live around the globe. Although the commonality of these experiences often goes unrecognized by politicians and policy-makers, the Houston-based non-profit organization […]
Asia Society Texas Center
From some perspectives, Asia Society Texas’s building of understated scale and even-tempered disposition, designed by world-renowned Japanese architect Yoshio Taniguchi, calmly melds into a tree-lined residential neighborhood within Houston’s Museum District. Contrastingly, the modernist facade features walls of glass bisected by an infinity water garden terrace where steam vapors rise capriciously from its roofline.
North America Taiwanese Women’s Association
Not content with the status quo and lacking an organization to represent them, a small group of thirty Taiwanese women from the United States and Canada formed what became the North America Taiwanese Women’s Association (NATWA) in March of 1988. A non-profit run primarily by volunteers, NATWA created a nongovernmental organization to address major issues […]
Summer Digital Issue – Letter from the Editor
Letter from the Editor By Debbie Z. Harwell, Managing Editor A child of the sixties, I believed at the time that activism centered around the power of the people who employed the in-your-face tactics we saw on the news or the protests we participated in on our college campuses. The civil rights and women’s rights […]
The Hayes Family of Third Ward: African American Agency during the Great Migration
In 1899 Edward Wilbur Hayes left his home, Big Sandy in Upshur County, Texas, to attend Wiley College, walking sixty-two miles to Marshall, the location of the Methodist Episcopal school and Historical Black College/University, founded in 1873. His parents, former slaves and sharecroppers Peter and Caroline Hays, barely made enough money to feed their large […]
Marching for Pride: The History of the Houston Pride Parade
Perhaps a parade seems rather insignificant, but that is not the case and never was for the Houston Pride Parade. It represents a beacon of hope—a light in a dark place. It is a visual representation of the Houston LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender) community’s existence and a reminder that no member of the […]
Fragas: A Hundred Years in the East End
The decedents of Felix A. Fraga and Angela Zamarron became business owners, judges, and elected officials, all well known in the East End and the larger Houston area. Growing up, I had heard bits and pieces of our family’s history, but some of the stories seemed to be hearsay. It became my mission to paint […]