In Austin, a city with an abundance of drag shows, one monthly showcase offers a unique platform — and launch pad — for emerging talent. “You get to see future legends get their start, and other people just flourish and find their niche.” That’s how “Big Tits, Bigger Dreams,” or BTBD, was described by co-host […]
Tag: Austin
Posted inCulture
Our Independent Newsroom Was Built on a Ferocious, Delusional Sense of Hope. Help Us Keep It Going.
When I moved back to Austin to start The Barbed Wire, I was an investigative reporter by trade, and I’d written a book, but I had never managed a team, never created an editorial calendar, never even been a full-time editor. The joke we tell is that I Dick Cheney’d myself into this position — […]
Posted inSports
‘It’s Top Tier.’ With $260 Million in Funding, Professional Volleyball Is Booming in Texas — and Fans Are Watching.
On a Wednesday night in February at the H-E-B Center in Cedar Park, purple foam fingers swayed in the air during LOVB Austin’s third home game of the season. As the inaugural-season champions, the pressure was on for Austin to beat LOVB Atlanta. After a long rally, University of Texas alum Madisen Skinner scored a […]
Posted inBig & Bright
At Least 15 LGBTQ+ Businesses Have Quietly Disappeared in Texas
EXCLUSIVE San Antonio’s Turner Hall was constructed more than a century ago as a gathering space to improve its community. Now home to a gay bar called the Bonham Exchange, the storied building survived the Civil War, both World Wars, the 1921 flood, and the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Today, like many queer spaces, it’s facing an […]
Posted inCulture
Musician Carter St. Hogan Honed His Trans Identity in Texas Honky-Tonks Before Fighting ICE in Minneapolis
Artist Carter St. Hogan starts all of his performances with an unexpected bit: asking the audience to choose between two mustaches. “I’m a trans person who still cannot grow a mustache. It’s not in me. I don’t have the genetics,” Hogan explained during an unofficial SXSW showcase last week at the White Horse, a historic […]
Posted inCulture
From ‘Kung Flu’ to the Matcha Craze, Asian American Business Owners Say It’s Been a Whiplash Six Years Since Covid
Walk into Hannah Foy’s specialty coffee shop LauLau in Central Austin, and there’s a good chance her father is washing dishes in the kitchen. Her mother — whom the cafe is named after — is usually at the register taking orders for their signature Mala Latte with Sichuan peppercorn or Black Sesame Hot Chocolate. The […]
Posted inNews
Austin Is Banding Together After Sixth Street Bar Shooting. Here’s How You Can Help.
Our friends and partners at City Cast Austin have been covering the shooting that occurred at Austin’s Buford’s Backyard Beer Garden on Sunday, March 1. This piece was originally published in articles by City Cast Austin, written by Newsletter Editor Kelsey Bradshaw and Executive Producer Eva Ruth Moravec. For more updates, listen to their podcast […]
Posted inImmigration
‘Something’s Different’: LGBTQ+ Texans Are Organizing in Defense of Immigrants
It’s hard to ignore Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents when they come crashing into your neighborhood. It’s become the topic of conversation in Austin’s North Loop, Reilly, a 42-year-old transgender resident, told The Barbed Wire one February evening from a graffiti-covered picnic table in the grass behind Epoch, the neighborhood’s beloved 24-hour coffee shop. “I […]
Posted inCulture
Austin’s Infamously Terrible for Dating. Is It Really That Bad? We Investigated.
Amaya Savoy-Easton, a single 26-year-old social media coordinator, is clear on what she wants. Her near-term goals include visiting 30 countries before she turns 30, investing in a rental property in San Marcos, and getting an LLC for her freelance business. So when she asked a would-be suitor what he wanted out of life, and […]
Posted inCulture
PBS Was a ‘Cultural Life Vest’ for Kids Like Me Before the Internet. The Fight to Keep Public Media Alive Feels Personal.
It was the ‘80s, and I was a kid who had trouble sleeping. In the wee small hours of the morning, there was one station that remained on the air: PBS. Watching on my black-and-white TV with a screen no bigger than a deck of cards, I remember wondering who the hell “Doctor Who” was. […]