Cover Story
Initiative provides free haircuts for homeless youth
Young adults experiencing housing insecurity have the chance to rediscover their confidence, thanks to a new initiative. Through a purpose-driven campaign called A Cut Above, salons across the nation are offering free hair services to homeless or housing-insecure young adults. The initiative was spearheaded by the StandUp for Kids (SUFK) youth homeless nonprofit and new…
Advocates create the landmark BLAC gallery
In late March, on a beautiful spring night in Downtown Tucson at Pennington and Scott, a huge crowd of art lovers gathered. Why? A new gallery has opened, The Blue Lotus Artists’ Collective (BLAC). And it’s a big deal, likely the first gallery in Tucson dedicated to Black artists. Most of the Downtown galleries have…
Healthful Flowers provides health over high
Sparked by the need for calmer, healthier choices without the high, Healthful Flowers founders, Travis Freeman and Taylor Reed, opened their CBD hemp-focused dispensary, as an alternative to THC cannabis. Health over high is their motto. “Taylor and I have been best friends since high school,” Travis Freeman said, “and we came up with the…
Tucson Salvage: Peter Parker, a barber’s pole and jingle-jangle beauty
White dude enters a black barbershop in Tucson. The five middle-aged gents inside begin calling me Peter Parker, and it is droll and amiable. A “Spider-Man” discourse ensues and the comedy soars. DC’s, as it’s called, shares walls of a white-owned gun store on the northside and a Mexican-owned beauty salon to the south, on…
Needles and Knots is a sewers’ sanctuary
On the northwest corner of Campbell Avenue and Fort Lowell Boulevard sits an inconspicuous mid-century modern building that houses something unexpected: sewing machines, irons and spacious worktables. Overseeing the room is a dress form replete with a ready-for-action, hot, red silk slip dress. Cut on the bias, this baby is form fitting. One thing is…
The Patch Boys’ campaign supports diaper bank
The Patch Boys of Tucson’s owner David and Caroline Scott siad they believe exceptional service and character set their company apart from others. “We are unlike most other drywall companies,” David said. “We show up on time. We work clean and we clean up after ourselves. You don’t even know we were there.” The Patch…
TVHS forges new trail with outdoor program
For the first time this school year, English teacher Otto Ross looked out at the newly excavated path outside of Tanque Verde High School and saw an established trail. It’s a project his Outdoor Adventure Class has worked on every week, researching trail designs and clearing debris from their chosen route. “They know every inch…
Habitat Tucson opens construction hub
With the dramatic increase in housing prices, organizations are stepping up to create solutions for Southern Arizona. Habitat for Humanity Tucson recently showcased its new CHUCK Center, a project CEO Charlie Buchanan called a comparable answer to the growing problem. “This is a crisis we haven’t experienced in generations,” Buchanan said. “It’s not a low-income…
City Week: Weekly Picks
“La Procesion De Viernes Santo” y “La Misa Al Amanecer” (Good Friday Procession and Easter Sunrise Service) on Sentinel Peak (“A” Mountain) Los Dorados Orphan League leads its 56th annual Good Friday procession bearing a giant cross to the top of “A” Mountain. Several hundred people follow along their path each year, often accompanied by…
Rory Scovel finds every last laugh
Rory Scovel’s April 14 show at 191 Toole is part of what he’s calling “The Last Tour,” But it’s by no means certain that he won’t be back. After all, his 2016 Netflix special, “Rory Scovel Tries Standup for the First Time,” was far from the first time he’d done standup. Scovel’s characteristic whimsy is…
Aroma of change fills the new Cork Tucson
Change is being served at a long-time Tucson staple. As of March 27, what used to be Jonathan’s Cork on Tanque Verde Road is now The Cork Tucson. That’s when former owner and chef Jonathan Landeen and his wife and partner, Colette, officially passed the cleaver to new owners, chef Glenn and Sally Murphy. Although…
Albums are necessary evil for Michigan rockers
There’s an argument that, in the streaming era, there’s no reason to make an album, that music is now a track-by-track playlist world in which only the most dedicated fans will listen to an 11-song package. So why did singer Leigh Kakaty and Pop Evil just make and release their seventh album, “Skeletons?” “The real…
