Mental Health Break

7 cultural activities Austin families can do right from home

Mr. Will is offering live music every day on his Facebook Live channel.

Mr. Will Austin, TX Kid's Music/Facebook

A few weeks ago, Austinites were making our spring break or SXSW plans, and now most of us are homebound. Toilet paper and beans are all sold out. Kids are home indefinitely while many of us are shifting to a work-from-home situation, and we’re all worried about our health or the health of loved ones, our financial situations, and just how to navigate this new normal.

There are so many superheroes in this situation, from H-E-B employees to health care professionals, but here we’re sharing the work of artists, educators, creators, and other teachers who are here to help you through your day at home.

For amateur cooks
What did you get at the store? Whether it’s not something you normally pick up or you were the one who bought all the beans, Paula Forbes is here to help you and the rest of the family get cooking. The Austin-based writer and author of The Austin Cookbook is waiving the subscription fee for her newsletter The Stained Page News (yes, a newsletter about cookbooks!) and offering the content, including recipes using pantry ingredients, for free during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I decided to make it free because I think the world of cookbooks is one of the few things that is more or less the same as it was before, and I thought people could use something nice,” Forbes says. “I also … didn’t really know what else to do. I hope it helps somebody!”

For artists old and young
Whether you have kids at home or not, few things are more centering than sitting down to draw — even if you think you’re not great at it. Children’s book author and illustrator (best known for the Pigeon book series) offers Lunch Doodles with Mo Willems! in partnership with the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts every weekday at 12 pm CT.

If you’re on Instagram, check out Wendy MacNaughton (@wendymac), illustrator of Samin Noosrat’s New York Times bestselling cookbook Salt Fat Acid Heat, on Instagram Live, weekdays at 12 pm CT as she broadcasts a draw-along.

A dash of culture
Museums are closed and literary events cancelled, but technology can help you tune in and quell your cultural cravings. If architecture is your thing, head over to the Austin History Center’s, Fehr and Granger: Austin Modernists, an online exhibit chronicling the work of architecture firm Fehr & Granger in Austin from 1946 to 1966. The exhibit includes galleries of the pair’s residential and commercial work. View all of the center's online exhibits here.

San Antonio writer Xelena Gonzȧlez (@xfactor.live) polls followers and offers “Lotería Remedios,” a collection of affirmations and healing remedies from her book of the same name, inspired by the popular game La Lotería in her Instagram stories. Though she’s a children’s book author and plans to offer online content for kids too, Gonzȧlez says she wanted to broaden her approach in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. “There’s not a lot of things for us — for adults and parents — and there are a lot of artists out of work, too," she explains. "I wanted to share that art form for various ages, and also since there’s a game attached to it — the Lotería game —it’s also just something fun to do.”

The sound of music
If you have kids, enjoy a morning serenade from local bluegrass musician Mr. Will. He’ll be on Facebook Live each day at 10 am CT with interactive concerts, often with a different instrument each day.

Last Saturday’s Living Room Dance Party with DJ Mel on Facebook Live started slowly, but has now reached a million people all over the world. A longtime fixture at UT football and basketball games, and active in the local nonprofit community, DJ Mel, or Mel Cavaricci, suddenly found himself with a Saturday night off. At the beginning of the year, he had resolved to work towards connecting people through music and he was already doing virtual dance parties for friends.

On March 14, with his SXSW plans cancelled, he took to Facebook live to create a dance party for the public. He stayed online as the number of viewers grew and comments and heart and balloon emojis flooded in. What started as something shared among friends grew to delight a wider audience and DJ Mel will be on Facebook Live with the Living Room Dance Party each Saturday night for the foreseeable future.

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Red Light

San Antonio leads Texas on ending horse-drawn carriage rides by 2030

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Horses will no longer pull carriages on the streets of downtown San Antonio.

San Antonio has pulled off something that the rest of Texas has yet to do, but it didn't come without some contentious conversations. City Council has unanimously voted (with one abstention) to phase out the use of horse-drawn carriages over the next five years. That means by January 1, 2030, there will be none on the streets at all; instead, there will be electric carriages.

These plans have been in the making since 2022 — if not always at the same level of intensity — when District 2 Councilmember Jalen McKee-Rodriguez and District 3 Councilmember Phyllis Viagran wrote up some concerns about the horses' wellbeing. A special session at the end of October 2024 hinted to San Antonians that the end for this practice was neigh — sorry, nigh — and the final vote was made on December 12. In addition to accepting the plan, it extended its timeframe by two years.

The initial proposal included worries about the horses' exposure to traffic and pollution, as well how their presence might exacerbate those issues for the environment at large by slowing traffic. It also raised concerns about the effects of standing or walking on hard surfaces for too long, or spending time in extreme weather.

At the December 12 meeting, San Antonians gave impassioned speeches about animal welfare — both to call attention to the need for better conditions and to defend the reputations and jobs of current horse drivers — but it wasn't the first time the council heard from the public about the issue.

In a prior city survey, 50,476 respondents weighed in. Of those respondents, 51.98 percent said they liked the idea to "Transition horse-drawn carriages to electric carriages and pedicabs and ban horse drawn carriages completely." There were alternative solutions listed, but respondents were less drawn to them.

A cultural divide emerged in the data and continued in the December meeting: some people avoided the carriages because they worried about the treatment of the horses, while others enjoyed them because of their historical echoes and living legacy. Many speakers in favor of the plan used this to form their argument, raising questions about history versus progress.

More tangible objections to the plan hinged on the businesses — specifically five companies — and jobs that would be lost, which was the main factor behind extending the adjustment period.

Discussions about the particulars of the electric vehicles are still to come, as confirmed in the discussion near the end of the meeting. Councilmember Jalen McKee-Rodriguez addressed concerns about what would happen to the horses, mentioning the Brady Hunter Foundation as a future partner in finding them rescue homes.

Some council members also brought up rhetorical questions about animal exploitation by groups like Sea World, the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo, military and police forces, and even various groups in the Fiesta parade, although these did not come with a formal motion to pick the issues up.

This decision could have a ripple effect on other Texas cities. Dallas has recently considered a similar ban, but it appears to have stalled; Austin's attempts at a ban have been unsuccessful, but according to the Austin-American Statesman, only one operator is permitted to bring horses downtown. She declines to do so because the long hours are unfair to her and the horses. Houston does have horse-drawn carriages, and there seems to be little conversation about banning them.

Cities like Chicago and Salt Lake City have led the charge in the United States with some of the most prominent successful bans. Other cities around the world with bans include Brussels and Guadalajara, which both switched to electric models. Bans that have been around for years, like Guadalajara's and Prague's, still aren't out of the woods — people are still pushing back on the decision, so it sounds like San Antonio still has much work cut out for it.

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