D Magazine • December 21 2020

The Surreal Experience of Watching the Dallas Mavericks Without Fans

It has been nine months since Mark Cuban checked his phone and we watched his jaw go slack, learning in front of the world that the NBA season would be stopped immediately. On Thursday, basketball returned to the American Airlines Center, a preseason game between the Mavericks and the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Music from Migos, Gucci Mane, and Drake soundtracked pregame shooting routines. Members of the media buried themselves in the glow of laptops. It appeared all very routine — except it wasn’

D Magazine • June 16 2020

A Conversation With Mavericks CEO Cynt Marshall About Racism and Protests

As protests over the numerous deaths of Black residents at the hands of police continue across the country, Dallas Mavericks CEO Cynt Marshall knows that her organization cannot remain silent. Last week, the team held its first Courageous Conversations event to spark a dialogue about systemic racism and discrimination. It included staff members and community leaders, like the heads of the police department and the school district. These discussions are important to Marshall, not only because of

D Magazine • February 19 2020

The Dallas Mavericks Posterize Local Artists

This season, the Dallas Mavericks decided to try something off the court. Twenty local artists got a chance to illustrate a home game through the team’s Posterized series. Clay Stinnett imagined a grizzly bear in Elvis garb fighting a horse and a cowboy. (Mavs vs. Grizzlies, Feb. 5.) Skyler Thiot drew a basketball hoop standing tall over the Dallas skyline. (Mavs vs. Kings, Feb. 12.) Mariell Guzman infused Dallas’ landmarks with bright colors, imagining an upside down Brooklyn in black and white

D Magazine • December 3 2019

A Dispatch From TxDOT's First Meeting on I-345's Feasibility Study

The Texas Department of Transportation’s first public meeting on a feasibility study for the future of I-345 featured placards, a brief presentation, and a state senator—but little information on the project itself. The first of three such meetings, held in the gym of the St. Philip’s School and Community Center in South Dallas, attracted about 200 people. State officials say these are to solicit public comment about the future of the roadway.

TxDOT staffers asked attendees to place a red stick

D Magazine • September 27 2019

A Dallas Artist Has Locked Himself In a Cell For Three Weeks. He Wants Your Attention

David-Jeremiah’s “The Lookout” ends this week, and a closing reception is scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 28, from noon to 5 p.m. The event is at Plant, at 2611 Cesar Chavez Blvd. Unit 8

Cesar Chavez Boulevard takes on another life once you exit downtown’s neon spectacle. This long-neglected stretch between the Cedars and South Dallas is marked by crumbling streets and train tracks that lead to nowhere. And for the past three weeks, across the street from a salmon-pink motel called the Wayside, i

D Magazine • August 19 2019

DART's Cotton Belt Line Comes Into View, to the Chagrin of North Dallas Residents

I rely on DART. Having not owned a car in a decade—a personal point of pride, especially in this city—its services are my primary method of getting around town. While I have learned to enjoy the benefits that DART provides (and there are benefits) I understand why many people shy away from, or outright dismiss, Dallas’ sole provider of public transit services.

The system can be daunting and confusing. If you are trying to get from Point A to Point B with one or more transfers, you need to time

D Magazine • May 6 2019

Disappointing Nights for McBee and Ablon Put North Dallas Up for Grabs

As poll numbers began to come in shortly after 7 p.m., Lynn McBee excused herself from a conversation with supporters at her reserved election night soiree, held at The Network Bar in Trinity Groves, and headed back to a private room to see the results herself.

For McBee, and eight others vying to be Dallas’ next mayor, Saturday was the culmination of months of campaigning, fundraising, and forum appearances. The night would ultimately end in disappointment for McBee and Mike Ablon, another Nor

D Magazine • April 25 2019

Meet the Candidates Running for the Open City Council Seat in District 9

In the weeks after Councilman Mark Clayton announced he would not seek another term to represent the neighborhoods surrounding White Rock Lake, five candidates declared their intention to succeed him.

Paul Sims, the presumed frontrunner and park board member, quickly dropped out. Remaining is Paula Blackmon, a former strategist for mayors Tom Leppert and Mike Rawlings. There is Sarah Lamb, the relative newcomer to town who became known for her opposition to TxDOT’s plan for the intersection kno

D Magazine • April 10 2019

Thank You, Dirk.

It’s almost impossible to imagine the Dallas Mavericks without Dirk Nowitzki. There were 21 seasons, 31,000-plus points, a league MVP, a Finals MVP, and a championship. About as significant a career as you can ask for. He may be the last superstar to play an entire career with a single team: 41.21.1. When he was drafted in 1998, Ron Kirk was mayor and Bill Clinton was president. The Mavericks billed their Tuesday night game against the Phoenix Suns, the final home game of the season, as a celebr

D Magazine • March 6 2019

Jim Schutze and William Jackson Harper—Chidi From The Good Place—Talk Race in Dallas

On Tuesday night, inside an Oak Cliff coffee shop packed shoulder-to-shoulder with people, the actor William Jackson Harper met the man who influenced the writing of his first play. Or, rather, the man who chronicled the version of Dallas that informed his play. Harper, who plays Chidi on NBC’s The Good Place, was born at Methodist Dallas Medical Center a mile north. He is a graduate of Garland’s Lakeview Centennial High School. Jim Schutze is the longtime columnist at the Dallas Observer and th

D Magazine • January 11 2019

Three Years After Leaving Uptown, the MAC Returns in the Cedars This Weekend

For two years, a former Ford dealership on South Ervay in the Cedars was home to one of the city’s most interesting gallery spaces. The un-renovated, red brick buildings and adjacent courtyard that comprised The MAC were a unique backdrop to a variety of exhibitions, artworks, and adventurous programming. However, they also presented countless problems and, as such, the space never quite felt like a gallery. Instead, it had the air of an ephemeral, DIY pop-up venue. Now, more than three years af

D Magazine • October 31 2018

The Texas Tribune Explores Housing Affordability in Dallas

As Dallas’ glossy skyline lit up the night a few miles away, a panel discussion earlier this week in Oak Cliff addressed the specter of the city’s growing housing crisis. The panel, which was organized by the Texas Tribune, explored many of the foundational reasons that the city is undergoing a housing crisis amid its gilded development spree—generational poverty, a lack of housing affordability, transportation, systemic racism.

Moderated by Brandon Formby, the panel, held at Jefferson Ave.’s M

D Magazine • October 10 2018

At NorthPark Center, Courtside: Photographs by Bill Bamberger Shows Humanity Through Hoops

It would be wrong to dismiss the photographs of Bill Bamberger as easily understood. On the surface, his pictures are nothing more than basketball hoops. While the locations and scenery changes, they’re just rims, 10 feet in the air, with a backboard. Yet, the exhibition Courtside: Photographs by Bill Bamberger, now on view at NorthPark Center, is much more. The pictures, and the physical location of the show, delve into our humanity and our relation to place.

Tucked into a little-trafficked fo

D Magazine • May 14 2018

In a Critical Part of Soluna, Array's Art Installations Offered More Than Intriguing Selfie Light

Last week, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra kicked off its annual Soluna festival, which runs for almost a month. The event cast off the confines of the downtown Arts District this year in an effort to engage more with the city. Over the weekend, Soluna’s biggest cross-appeal event, Array, took place at The Bomb Factory in Deep Ellum, pairing the symphony with legendary rapper Nas. In Canton Hall next door another element of the festival was on display. Installation artists filled the space with lu

D Magazine • April 2 2018

Everyone in Dallas Is Talking About Gentrification. Now What?

Dallas is changing. Cranes fill the skies like Spindletop derricks. New construction rises throughout the city in their wake. In neighborhoods, older housing vanishes under the treads of heavy machinery, replaced by multistory condominiums and flavorless Texas donuts. To many, this is what progress looks like. It’s the embodiment of a growing city on its way to establishing itself in the 21st century. Others, however, see it differently. They see a city moving haplessly forward without regard fo

D Magazine • November 17 2017

At the MAC, Citizens of the World Get Played In A Golf Game

If your pockets aren’t deep enough to land a tee time at the new Trinity Forest Golf Club, let another South Dallas location quell your desires. This weekend, in conjunction with Cedars Open Studios, the MAC opens its latest exhibition, A-Hole in One by El Paso-based artist Angel Cabrales. The interactive outdoor golf-inspired exhibition engages viewers both politically and socially as they knock out a quick nine.

The course sprawls out on a portion of the MAC’s grassy courtyard. Participants “

D Magazine • September 21 2017

Reconsidering The Open Space At Lee Park

Part of an ongoing discussion as to what should replace the Robert E. Lee statue at the Oak Lawn park where it once stood, this column follows an inquiry into counter-monuments and their possibilities and a piece on the need for art-minded historical soul searching.

The statue of Robert E. Lee is gone and it’s not coming back. Recently, a week after the city council voted to have it removed, the City of Dallas took down the bronze equestrian statue of the Confederate general, and his accompanyi

D Magazine • August 11 2017

At the Confederate War Memorial, a Protest Devolves Into Shouting Match

Thursday evening, a group of roughly 40 people gathered in Pioneer Park Cemetery, steps away from the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center, where Dallas’ Confederate War Memorial ascends more than 60 feet in the air. The statues of Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, Albert Johnson, and Jefferson Davis dominate their surroundings; downtown tends to disappear behind the trees. The group, organized by Eric Ramsey and his In Solidarity Movement, was there to protest the existence of Confederate mon

D Magazine • June 2 2017

Let Artists Transform the Old Dawson State Jail

Leaving Downtown Dallas heading west on Commerce Street, beyond Dealey Plaza and on the other side of the inner loop, sits a banal, rectangular building at the foot of the Trinity River’s east levee. Were it not for its northern neighbor, the Lew Sterrett Justice Center across the street, the 10-story beige and brown brick building would dominate its surroundings. Now an afterthought, the Jesse R. Dawson State Jail sits empty, a hollow reminder of the nation’s love affair with incarceration.

Th

D Magazine • March 31 2017

Disconnected City: Ambitious Effort to Rethink Trinity and Downtown Appears Dead

This article is part of series on the Connected City Design Challenge, which sought proposals for rethinking the connection between downtown Dallas and the Trinity River. For more articles about the project, click here.

In 2013, the city of Dallas joined up with three of the municipality’s most well-known cheerleading organizations to link arms and create a vision on how to better link downtown to the Trinity River. They orchestrated a competition called The Connected City Design Challenge. It

D Magazine • March 14 2017

President Bush Melds Reverence With Impact of Policy Through Portraiture

People were quick to judge the paintings of former President George W. Bush. At the time the exhibition The Art of Leadership: A President’s Personal Diplomacy opened three years ago, the first public display of his work, many reviews centered more on the policies and decisions the president made while in office, forgoing discussion on the quality of his paintings. If the paintings were addressed, they were either a tertiary element of the critique or dismissed and mocked outright. Now, the Pres

D Magazine • January 21 2017

Dallas Women's March Attracts Thousands in Show of Solidarity

You’d have thought it was State Fair season—the DART trains on Saturday departing from Mockingbird Station grew sardine-packed with people as they zoomed closer to City Hall. At 10 a.m., thousands met at 1500 Marilla to walk in solidarity with 2.5 million others across the country in honor of women’s rights in the age of President Donald J. Trump.

It’s not clear how many attended the Dallas rally, but, for scale, it was possible to stand at an intersection for half an hour and not see the end o

D Magazine • April 8 2016

How a Chance Connection Helped Save Robert Irwin’s Dallas Sculpture

The sculpture was in such disrepair, even the sculptor gave the city permission to remove it. By 2013, artist Robert Irwin’s Portal Park Piece (Slice), a long dark metal wall that ran through Carpenter Park on the east side of downtown Dallas, essentially cutting it in two, had become scarred by years of neglect, graffiti, and half-hearted graffiti removal attempts. When a new vision for a redevelopment of the park didn’t include Irwin’s piece, Irwin himself granted the city permission to scrap

D Magazine • October 15 2015

The Return of the MAC and the Creation of a New Dallas Arts District

On Friday, the Arts District hosts Aurora, the biannual event that invites video, sound, performance, and light artists to illuminate downtown Dallas with their works. The result is a stunning visual and aural scene that encompasses the length of Flora Street and fills the otherwise empty corridor with people eager to engage in what is arguably the Arts District’s most successful event. But the downtown district isn’t the only setting for Aurora this year. A few miles away, in a neighborhood unt