Latest / Austin Signal / Water samples from Austin’s Colony exceed limits for heavy metals

Transcript

Water samples from Austin’s Colony exceed limits for heavy metals · Austin Signal

• 0:08
  A new study from UT Austin found
• 0:10
  several water samples collected from
• 0:12
  the Austin's Colony neighborhood in
• 0:14
  the far eastern part of the city
• 0:15
  exceeded regulatory guidelines
• 0:17
  for lead and other heavy metals.
• 0:19
  For decades, residents in the area
• 0:20
  have been at odds with its water
• 0:22
  provider, a for-profit company,
• 0:24
  we're going to have an update, and
• 0:26
  the Austin Independent School
• 0:27
  District Board voted in favor of
• 0:29
  more than $200 million in cuts
• 0:31
  to next year's school budget.
• 0:32
  We'll break down the latest numbers
• 0:34
  coming up on today's show.
• 0:36
  The Austin Signal is a production
• 0:38
  of KUT News, hosted by
• 0:40
  Jerry Quijano.
• 0:41
  The Austin Asian-American Film Fest
• 0:43
  is gearing up for its 18th
• 0:45
  iteration, what they've learned and
• 0:47
  how they're honoring the work that's
• 0:48
  been done before them, plus
• 0:50
  stories about pizza.
• 0:53
  Need I say more?
• 0:54
  That is coming up next, right here
• 0:56
  on Austin Signal.
• 1:07
  Howdy out there, you are listening
• 1:09
  to Austin's Signal.
• 1:11
  I'm your host, Jerry Kiechanel.
• 1:13
  Thank you for listening to
• 1:14
  community-powered public radio.
• 1:16
  This is KUT News.
• 1:18
  It is Monday, June 22nd.
• 1:22
  A new study from UT Austin found
• 1:24
  several water samples in the
• 1:26
  Austin's Colony neighborhood on the
• 1:28
  east side exceeded regulatory
• 1:29
  limits for lead and other heavy
• 1:31
  metals.
• 1:32
  KUT's Katie McAfee has the
• 1:34
  story.
• 1:35
  Researchers gathered 100 samples
• 1:37
  from different homes in the
• 1:38
  neighborhood between April 2024 and
• 1:40
  October 2025.
• 1:42
  They also examined samples directly
• 1:44
  from groundwater aquifers that the
• 1:45
  neighborhood's water utility draws
• 1:47
  from.
• 1:48
  UT research coordinator, David
• 1:50
  Bauman-Pinson, says what they found
• 1:52
  was enlightening.
• 1:53
  You won't find any problems or
• 1:55
  any issues when you're testing at
• 1:57
  the source, right?
• 1:59
  But then when we test at the
• 2:00
  household is when we start seeing
• 2:02
  these issues.
• 2:03
  Three samples of clear,
• 2:05
  untreated water exceeded regulatory
• 2:07
  limits for lead, and several samples
• 2:09
  of discolored water, a common
• 2:11
  headache for people in the
• 2:12
  neighborhood, had even higher
• 2:14
  concentrations of various heavy
• 2:15
  metals.
• 2:16
  Bamenpenson says water samples from
• 2:18
  households with water softeners or
• 2:20
  reverse osmosis systems fared
• 2:21
  better.
• 2:22
  Many of them did not exceed state or
• 2:24
  federal regulations.
• 2:26
  But not everyone has access to those
• 2:27
  systems, which can cost between $500
• 2:29
  and $3,000.
• 2:31
  Austin's colony resident Bianca
• 2:33
  Guerrero works part-time while
• 2:35
  raising three kids.
• 2:36
  She says she hasn't been able to
• 2:37
  afford a water filtration system and
• 2:39
  is worried because her family has
• 2:41
  used discolored water to shower,
• 2:43
  brush their teeth, and cook since
• 2:44
  they moved to the neighborhood in
• 2:46
  2013.
• 2:47
  My initial reaction was
• 2:50
  anger, you know, because I've been
• 2:52
  living here, I've been
• 2:54
  showering with this, I'm been
• 2:56
  boiling pasta or
• 2:58
  cooking with this.
• 2:59
  Guerrero says she's been concerned
• 3:01
  about her neighborhood's water
• 3:02
  quality for years.
• 3:03
  She's called representatives from
• 3:04
  the city, county, and the Public
• 3:06
  Utility Commission, but hasn't seen
• 3:08
  meaningful change.
• 3:09
  She hopes this study will be the
• 3:10
  turning point.
• 3:11
  I'm Katie McAfee in Austin.
• 3:19
  Over the past several weeks a lot of
• 3:20
  numbers have been thrown around and
• 3:22
  talked about when it comes to Austin
• 3:23
  ISD's school budget for the 2026-27
• 3:27
  school year.
• 3:29
  The latest number being talked about
• 3:30
  is the $205 million
• 3:32
  budget reduction that has allowed
• 3:34
  librarians to stay on campus
• 3:36
  this upcoming school year, here to
• 3:38
  talk more about that and what's to
• 3:40
  come is Greta Diaz-Gonzalez-Vasquez,
• 3:42
  she is KUT's education reporter,
• 3:44
  welcome back to the show, great
• 3:45
  time.
• 3:45
  Hi Jerry!
• 3:46
  So, if I remember correctly, we were
• 3:48
  talking about a number somewhere in,
• 3:50
  like, a $180 million
• 3:52
  ballpark. Where did this $205
• 3:54
  million number come from?
• 3:55
  Yes, you're right. We were talking
• 3:57
  about one hundred and eighty one
• 3:59
  million dollars, but the budget
• 4:00
  deficit that was back in May, then
• 4:02
  that number went up to one hundred
• 4:04
  and eighty five million.
• 4:05
  And then the number came up to
• 4:07
  two hundred and five because
• 4:09
  million dollars because the budget
• 4:10
  deficit from the twenty twenty five,
• 4:12
  twenty twenty six school year also
• 4:14
  went up. It had been approved at
• 4:16
  19 million and then it went up to
• 4:18
  ninety five million by June.
• 4:20
  So that means the district would
• 4:22
  have to dip into its savings account
• 4:24
  or what they called fund balance
• 4:26
  to make up for the 2025-2026,
• 4:28
  which affects the 2026-2027.
• 4:31
  A district normally aims to having
• 4:33
  20% of its expenses in
• 4:35
  its fund balance or in its
• 4:37
  savings.
• 4:39
  And this year when the
• 4:41
  budget was proposed at early
• 4:43
  June, that was
• 4:45
  10% for next year for
• 4:47
  the 20 26-20 27.
• 4:49
  So trustees as the district, you
• 4:51
  know what? We need to have more
• 4:52
  money in that savings account.
• 4:54
  Let's bring it up.
• 4:55
  And district officials went looking
• 4:57
  for extra $20 million to
• 4:59
  cut from the operation costs
• 5:01
  so they could have more in the
• 5:03
  fund balance, which is now 13%
• 5:05
  or will be 13%.
• 5:07
  Okay, well, tell us about, let's
• 5:09
  talk about some of these budget
• 5:10
  reductions.
• 5:11
  Where should we start?
• 5:13
  Yeah. So the budget reduction,
• 5:15
  it's really bringing down the
• 5:17
  district's operational cost.
• 5:19
  So how much the district spends
• 5:20
  every year.
• 5:22
  In May, the district had
• 5:24
  projected spending $1 billion,
• 5:26
  $31 million
• 5:30
  in their
• 5:32
  operational costs.
• 5:34
  They brought it down.
• 5:36
  For AISD, 87%
• 5:38
  of its operational costs are
• 5:40
  payroll. They're humans.
• 5:41
  It's paying people.
• 5:42
  So those cuts, of course,
• 5:44
  affected or will be affecting
• 5:46
  teachers,
• 5:48
  central office staff, things we have
• 5:50
  already spoken about here
• 5:51
  quite a bit.
• 5:54
  Uh, so after this vote was approved
• 5:56
  last week, um, are things now
• 5:58
  pretty much set in stone?
• 5:59
  I- this feels like a process that's
• 6:01
  been playing out and playing out,
• 6:02
  and playing out. Where are we now in
• 6:03
  that process?
• 6:04
  Yeah, for the most part things are
• 6:06
  set in stone.
• 6:08
  One thing that happened during the
• 6:09
  board meeting, and it was a very
• 6:10
  last minute thing, was trustees
• 6:11
  asked the district to save
• 6:13
  librarians. So every school will
• 6:14
  have a librarian, but
• 6:16
  that means the district will have
• 6:18
  to go into its fund savings
• 6:20
  or into its savings account.
• 6:22
  And so in August, they will come
• 6:24
  back to the
• 6:26
  board with a proposal, an
• 6:28
  amendment proposal of this
• 6:30
  new budget.
• 6:32
  Also, the district.
• 6:34
  While finding those $20 million,
• 6:35
  they have to make extra cuts at
• 6:37
  central office.
• 6:38
  So they're expecting to make
• 6:40
  reductions worth 17 million
• 6:42
  at central offices.
• 6:43
  And we're still waiting to see how
• 6:45
  many positions that will affect.
• 6:47
  As of now, the district will,
• 6:49
  582 positions will be affected.
• 6:52
  196 of those are vacancies
• 6:54
  that will be completely eliminated,
• 6:56
  but the rest are humans that will be
• 6:58
  affected one way or another.
• 7:01
  AISD is also considering other money
• 7:03
  making measures, can you tell us
• 7:04
  more about that?
• 7:05
  Yeah, they are planning on selling
• 7:07
  or leasing properties that will make
• 7:09
  up $60 million.
• 7:11
  These are properties that were
• 7:13
  deemed surplus during the board
• 7:15
  meeting as well.
• 7:15
  And some of them, or most of them
• 7:17
  are the properties
• 7:19
  that came from closing schools
• 7:21
  next year or for next year.
• 7:23
  The problem with the sales is that
• 7:25
  it's a one-time thing.
• 7:26
  So if you sell a property, then you
• 7:28
  cannot make more money out of it.
• 7:30
  So there are 60 million, those 60
• 7:32
  million that the district will also
• 7:34
  have to make up for the 2027,
• 7:38
  2028 school year.
• 7:39
  So we'll see what happens then.
• 7:42
  Okay, we only have about 30 seconds
• 7:44
  left. This has been a changing
• 7:46
  process, even though the school year
• 7:47
  is over, a lot's still happening.
• 7:49
  What else stood out to you from last
• 7:51
  week's meeting and your recent
• 7:52
  reporting?
• 7:53
  I think it's worth hearing
• 7:54
  or reading what the voices
• 7:56
  of people affected by these cuts,
• 7:58
  either families or teachers,
• 8:01
  educators in general, but also
• 8:03
  during the meeting, the board
• 8:05
  approved to extend the
• 8:07
  superintendent's contract.
• 8:08
  So that's also in her story.
• 8:11
  Yeah.
• 8:11
  Okay, well we're going to have a
• 8:12
  link to that reporting in today's
• 8:14
  show notes, and you can always read
• 8:16
  more over at KUT.org.
• 8:18
  That is Greta Diaz-Gonzalez-Vasquez,
• 8:20
  KUT's education reporter.
• 8:22
  Greta, thank you.
• 8:23
  Thank you, Jerry.
• 8:29
  Today is the deadline for the City
• 8:31
  of Austin to submit a plan to
• 8:33
  the state on how it will remove art
• 8:35
  painted on city streets, including
• 8:37
  rainbow pride crosswalks.
• 8:39
  The Texas Department of
• 8:40
  Transportation directed the city to
• 8:42
  remove the art to comply with state
• 8:43
  and federal rules.
• 8:45
  The city faces withholding of
• 8:46
  federal transportation funds if it
• 8:48
  does not comply.
• 8:50
  Texas Parks and Wildlife Department
• 8:51
  says that more than, or some
• 8:54
  3 million Texans hunting and
• 8:56
  fishing license holders may be
• 8:57
  affected in a recent data breach.
• 8:59
  The department says Texas Cyber
• 9:01
  Command recently detected a breach
• 9:03
  involving a vendor that handles
• 9:04
  hunting and fishing license sales.
• 9:06
  Compromised data includes driver
• 9:08
  license numbers and contact
• 9:09
  information.
• 9:11
  And we're in for another hot day in
• 9:13
  the Austin area.
• 9:14
  National Weather Service is
• 9:15
  predicting a high near 95,
• 9:17
  but the high humidity could make it
• 9:18
  feel as hot as 110.
• 9:22
  Stay cool out there.
• 9:23
  Keep it tuned in.
• 9:24
  To KUT, this is Austin
• 9:26
  Signal.
• 9:29
  This is Austin Signal, welcome back.
• 9:32
  This Wednesday, the Austin Asian
• 9:33
  American Film Festival kicks off at
• 9:35
  AFS Cinema, highlighting works
• 9:37
  by Asian diasporic and
• 9:39
  Asian American filmmakers.
• 9:42
  This will be the festival's 18th
• 9:43
  year. Joining us now is Hannah
• 9:45
  Huang, Executive Director
• 9:47
  of the festival, and Naya Aziz,
• 9:49
  the festival artistic director.
• 9:51
  Thank you all for being with us.
• 9:53
  Yeah, thanks for having us. Thanks for
• 9:54
  having.
• 9:55
  So the festival is in its 18th
• 9:57
  year. It's a fully formed adult now,
• 9:58
  it sounds like. Can you talk a
• 10:00
  little bit about how the festival
• 10:01
  has grown over the past 18 years
• 10:03
  and maybe how it's stayed true to
• 10:05
  itself at the same time?
• 10:07
  I don't know about fully grown.
• 10:09
  Are you really a fully grown adult?
• 10:10
  This is Hannah, by the way.
• 10:12
  That's literally what I was thinking
• 10:13
  too. I was like, hmm.
• 10:14
  Yeah, I mean, I was not
• 10:16
  that much older than 18 and
• 10:18
  probably like 20.
• 10:20
  I definitely was in 21, I would
• 10:22
  remember that.
• 10:23
  When I first went to my first
• 10:25
  film festival, Austin Asian American
• 10:26
  Film Festival,
• 10:29
  and at that time it was run
• 10:31
  by Masashi Nowano who
• 10:32
  then ended up going to CAMFest,
• 10:35
  Center for Asian American Medias.
• 10:37
  Film Festival and leading
• 10:38
  that for 11 years.
• 10:40
  So we have like Asian American
• 10:42
  Film Festival royalty essentially in
• 10:44
  our lineage and the
• 10:46
  festival the way it started was it
• 10:48
  was a student group at UT called
• 10:51
  Cinema Asia.
• 10:52
  It was just a group of students that
• 10:53
  had taken a Korean film class
• 10:55
  and Two
• 10:58
  years ago, we did a whole exhibit
• 10:59
  about our history Which actually
• 11:02
  spans more than 20 years if you go
• 11:03
  back to that Cinema Asia group
• 11:06
  And then they eventually started
• 11:07
  what was the Austin Asian Film
• 11:09
  Festival.
• 11:10
  And in 2007,
• 11:13
  when Masashi took over as our
• 11:15
  first executive director,
• 11:17
  I call it our invisible A era
• 11:19
  because we added the Austin, Asian
• 11:21
  American.
• 11:22
  And they had a logo that had an
• 11:24
  invisible A in it that was still
• 11:26
  around when I got involved in 2013.
• 11:29
  So yeah, I think, you know, the
• 11:30
  festival has grown but really, truly
• 11:32
  the.
• 11:33
  We're a grassroots film community
• 11:35
  that just wanted to watch some good
• 11:37
  Asian film and along the way,
• 11:39
  of course, you're gonna pick up our
• 11:41
  Asian American filmmakers and so
• 11:43
  we've really seen that footprint
• 11:44
  grow in our support and
• 11:46
  our championing of our
• 11:48
  filmmakers who are behind the
• 11:50
  camera.
• 11:50
  How about you, Nia?
• 11:52
  Yeah, so I joined Austin
• 11:54
  Asian in 2020.
• 11:56
  So it was obviously a very weird
• 11:58
  time.
• 11:59
  I had met the programming
• 12:01
  director through a friend.
• 12:03
  I had worked at South by Southwest
• 12:04
  at the time and she asked like,
• 12:06
  oh, like, you know, would you like
• 12:07
  to be a programmer?
• 12:08
  I think you'd be great. I'm like, I
• 12:09
  can't. Like I work at South By, like
• 12:11
  conflict of interest.
• 12:12
  And then, and then I lost my job
• 12:14
  because of COVID and I
• 12:16
  like texted her and I was like, hey,
• 12:18
  is that job still available?
• 12:19
  You know, and So it's been so
• 12:21
  interesting because my first two
• 12:23
  fests were virtual, with
• 12:25
  2021 having some drive-in
• 12:27
  stuff, and 2022 really being
• 12:29
  the first in-person
• 12:32
  festival for me.
• 12:33
  And seeing that growth has been
• 12:35
  incredible.
• 12:36
  And I've grown so much with the
• 12:37
  festival.
• 12:38
  I was a shorts programmer, and then
• 12:40
  I did some community programming and
• 12:42
  things. And then Hannah had asked me
• 12:44
  in 2023 if I was interested in being
• 12:46
  the artistic director.
• 12:48
  So this will be my third time.
• 12:50
  It just gets more
• 12:52
  fun, but also more competitive
• 12:54
  every year with all the films that
• 12:55
  we get.
• 12:57
  But just to see the festival grow
• 12:59
  within the short
• 13:01
  amount of time that I've been here
• 13:02
  has just been really, really
• 13:03
  amazing, yeah.
• 13:05
  Well, we talked recently with
• 13:07
  the directors of the Black Autour
• 13:08
  Film Fest. That's a one-day fest,
• 13:10
  a three-hour fest.
• 13:11
  Tell us a little bit more about
• 13:12
  what's going on this year for
• 13:14
  your fest.
• 13:16
  Yeah, well, since a couple of
• 13:17
  years ago, we expanded
• 13:19
  to be a five-day festival.
• 13:22
  And I think we kind of like where
• 13:23
  we're at. So the weekdays are in
• 13:25
  the evening.
• 13:26
  So people that had like worked
• 13:28
  during the day can still come out
• 13:30
  and join in on everything.
• 13:31
  And then on the weekends,
• 13:34
  we were going all day.
• 13:35
  So the weekends are a little rough,
• 13:37
  but for us at least, but I
• 13:39
  think for the crowd, I think they
• 13:40
  like that energy.
• 13:41
  In. And it really is just
• 13:44
  such a fantastic event in
• 13:45
  that we really make a lot of space
• 13:47
  at our events and parties per
• 13:49
  day that you can talk about
• 13:51
  the film. So it's not just about
• 13:53
  seeing film in silence together,
• 13:54
  but also like being in that AFS
• 13:57
  lobby that I think everyone in
• 13:58
  Austin that's been there is familiar
• 14:00
  with and having that electric
• 14:01
  feeling of being in community
• 14:03
  together and just talking to the
• 14:05
  filmmakers. You just saw their film
• 14:06
  on, you know, inside in the theater
• 14:08
  ad and.
• 14:09
  Just run into them in the lobby and
• 14:11
  ask them questions that you have.
• 14:12
  Yeah, so it's a really nice sense of
• 14:14
  camaraderie. It's almost like the
• 14:16
  best part of the experience is
• 14:18
  hanging around the lobby and seeing
• 14:19
  people's faces or whatever it might
• 14:21
  be. Yeah, and we have some films
• 14:22
  that start after seven on the
• 14:24
  weekdays, so come on out.
• 14:25
  So I might be able to make it.
• 14:27
  Okay, well tell us, I know it's hard
• 14:28
  to pick
• 14:30
  from everything, I'm sure you're
• 14:32
  really proud of everything that's
• 14:33
  going to be featured in the fest,
• 14:34
  but tell us a little bit more.
• 14:35
  I understand there's gonna be like a
• 14:36
  virtual reality element to this
• 14:38
  event.
• 14:39
  What is that gonna look like?
• 14:40
  There is, yeah.
• 14:41
  So that's with our Taiwan Academy,
• 14:44
  and we've been working with them for
• 14:45
  several years now, but we
• 14:47
  have one film that
• 14:49
  was made pre-COVID,
• 14:51
  and that's the VR film, so it's
• 14:53
  about 15 minutes.
• 14:54
  You'll get to put on the headset and
• 14:56
  experience the film.
• 14:58
  It is 18 plus,
• 15:01
  so, it's not explicit, but it does
• 15:02
  have some sexual content.
• 15:04
  And we flown the filmmaker and the
• 15:06
  editor from Taiwan as well.
• 15:07
  But after watching that VR film
• 15:09
  in kind of like a semi-private
• 15:11
  setting, you're gonna get together
• 15:13
  in a room with the same cohort
• 15:15
  of people who watched the virtual
• 15:17
  reality or experienced the
• 15:18
  virtuality in a
• 15:20
  a room that's adjacent and be
• 15:22
  able to watch a short film that
• 15:24
  he made post COVID.
• 15:28
  Or the inception came during COVID
• 15:30
  and the quarantine, but then he made
• 15:32
  it inspired by that.
• 15:33
  Well, the fest is happening this
• 15:35
  weekend, but it sounds like the
• 15:36
  programming is year-round.
• 15:37
  What's the best way for people to
• 15:39
  keep up with those screenings and
• 15:40
  the events that y'all are hosting?
• 15:42
  Probably our website, yeah.
• 15:44
  Or if you're on socials like
• 15:45
  Instagram, we're on there too.
• 15:47
  Our website is aaafilmfest.org.
• 15:52
  Lots of A's. Three A's, don't forget
• 15:54
  the invisible one.
• 15:55
  That's why I was like I'm gonna let
• 15:56
  her say that I'm like all the A's
• 15:59
  All right, we have been speaking
• 16:00
  with Hannah Huang and Neha Aziz,
• 16:02
  Executive Director and Artistic
• 16:04
  Director of the Austin Asian
• 16:05
  American Film Festival.
• 16:07
  We're gonna have a link to the
• 16:08
  festival information in today's show
• 16:10
  notes. Thank y'all for coming out.
• 16:11
  Thank you.
• 16:19
  An Austin nonprofit arts group
• 16:21
  hosted this month its fourth annual
• 16:23
  Stories About event out
• 16:25
  at Austin Film Society Cinema.
• 16:27
  This year's storytelling theme was
• 16:30
  pizza.
• 16:31
  As Ella Kopaken reports for KUT's
• 16:34
  Art Beat, the evening focused on
• 16:35
  the universal connection of
• 16:37
  food.
• 16:41
  Audience members seated in Theater
• 16:43
  1 at AFS Cinema last Thursday
• 16:45
  night weren't the usual moviegoers.
• 16:48
  Instead, they were there for pizza.
• 16:50
  Mary Tyson attended with her
• 16:52
  daughter and husband of 39 years.
• 16:54
  Well, I love pizza.
• 16:55
  His name is Pizza Man because he
• 16:57
  loves pizza.
• 16:58
  Our first date was pizza the
• 17:01
  event was stories about pizza a
• 17:03
  storytelling show featuring an
• 17:04
  original short film pizza My heart
• 17:06
  followed by a variety of original
• 17:08
  minute-long pizza pieces from
• 17:10
  songs to flash fiction to
• 17:12
  drag Performances to poems to
• 17:14
  stories like Jacob Duffy how Biebs
• 17:16
  pizza is pizza is Pizza
• 17:18
  Pizza is pizza is pizza.
• 17:20
  People pontificate pointlessly upon
• 17:21
  pizza positions providing Protestant
• 17:23
  prospects, proving that posturing,
• 17:25
  peacocking, and preeminence are
• 17:26
  perceived priority part of the
• 17:28
  populace. There is no bad
• 17:30
  type of pizza.
• 17:31
  There is bad pizza, but there is no
• 17:32
  that style.
• 17:33
  This pizza night was the fourth
• 17:35
  annual Stories About event.
• 17:37
  Every year has had a different
• 17:38
  theme. The first in 2023
• 17:40
  was comfort food, then birth
• 17:42
  order, unique jobs, and now
• 17:44
  pizza.
• 17:45
  Christine Huang created Stories
• 17:47
  About and wrote and starred in
• 17:49
  Pizza My Heart.
• 17:50
  She's the founder of Color Arc, the
• 17:51
  non-profit production company behind
• 17:53
  both projects.
• 17:55
  It's goofy, it's very wholesome, it
• 17:56
  is very heart forward and it's
• 17:58
  vulnerability and connection through
• 18:00
  food.
• 18:01
  Launched Color Arc Productions in
• 18:02
  2015 with the goal of promoting
• 18:04
  central Texas stories rooted in
• 18:06
  diverse perspectives and told
• 18:08
  through diverse mediums.
• 18:09
  I founded it because I was
• 18:11
  producing my very first play when
• 18:13
  I was also like a practicing
• 18:15
  attorney and a young mom.
• 18:17
  And now we've produced several
• 18:18
  plays, storytelling shows,
• 18:20
  and now short films.
• 18:21
  And I quit my job.
• 18:22
  Now I'm doing nonprofit
• 18:24
  artistic work full time.
• 18:26
  She created Stories About as a
• 18:28
  way to connect with fellow
• 18:29
  storytellers after the pandemic.
• 18:31
  When you share in a room full of
• 18:33
  almost strangers, you feel like
• 18:34
  you're taking part of something so
• 18:37
  private and sacred and special.
• 18:40
  And yeah, maybe like a
• 18:42
  little bit holy, and that's
• 18:43
  what live art can.
• 18:45
  She dedicated the first year of
• 18:47
  Stories About to comfort food, after
• 18:49
  realizing how much of her own
• 18:50
  artistic work was grounded in the
• 18:52
  joy of the food she made and grew up
• 18:54
  around.
• 18:54
  Memories that are inherent.
• 18:56
  When you're talking about food or
• 18:58
  smells or who made
• 19:00
  it for you, what you felt like when
• 19:02
  you ate it, what you felt, like
• 19:04
  when, you didn't have enough of it.
• 19:06
  There are so many things that came
• 19:07
  forth from that night that
• 19:09
  it became an annual thing.
• 19:11
  Pizza My Heart, Color Arc's first
• 19:13
  short film, also grew out of the
• 19:15
  pandemic.
• 19:16
  The film's story follows a
• 19:17
  heartbroken girl, played by Hwang's
• 19:19
  12-year-old daughter, and a pizza
• 19:21
  delivery woman who comforts her,
• 19:22
  played by Huang.
• 19:23
  ACC commissioned me to write
• 19:25
  a radio play,
• 19:27
  and the prompt was pizza delivery.
• 19:30
  So then I just started talking, I
• 19:31
  was like, what are the pizza
• 19:32
  deliveries? Someone's got to deliver
• 19:33
  the pizza. What if it's
• 19:36
  a singing delivery specialist
• 19:37
  and she has a jingle?
• 19:39
  What if the jingle is to a little
• 19:41
  girl, though?
• 19:42
  And what if they connect?
• 19:43
  Last year, PBS announced it would
• 19:44
  distribute the short.
• 19:46
  To celebrate, Hwang decided to make
• 19:47
  the next stories about a pizza
• 19:49
  palooza.
• 19:50
  She reached out to Via 313 to supply
• 19:52
  pizza for the night.
• 19:53
  After hearing her idea, the company
• 19:55
  decided to sponsor the event.
• 19:57
  This is Jesse Galeotto-Grieby,
• 19:59
  Via 3 13's marketing director.
• 20:01
  With Color Arc, it was an easy
• 20:03
  alignment for us to go, oh, we get
• 20:04
  to celebrate Austin and art and
• 20:06
  give back and help to
• 20:08
  invigorate these communities that
• 20:10
  we show up in.
• 20:12
  With a sponsor in place and AFS
• 20:14
  as the venue for the second year in
• 20:15
  a row, Huang put out an open call
• 20:18
  for original short pizza
• 20:19
  performances.
• 20:20
  She challenged applicants to make
• 20:21
  their stories a minute or less.
• 20:24
  One person submitted an
• 20:26
  abstract comedy dance,
• 20:28
  and her hands and her arms
• 20:30
  were just flying like windmills.
• 20:32
  She was like, this is my
• 20:33
  interpretation of
• 20:35
  putting pizza toppings on a pizza.
• 20:38
  Felice Triragoff based her series.
• 20:39
  Of haikus on an elementary school
• 20:41
  lie.
• 20:42
  My pizza piece is about
• 20:44
  my long-term love affair with Book
• 20:46
  It. It's a program where
• 20:48
  you read books and you earn points
• 20:50
  for pizza.
• 20:52
  You know, you had to take a test to
• 20:53
  prove that you read the book.
• 20:55
  I told my
• 20:57
  teacher, with a straight face, I
• 20:59
  said Anna Karenina.
• 21:00
  She loaded the quiz.
• 21:01
  I failed it spectacularly.
• 21:04
  I got got by Anna Karenena.
• 21:05
  Some of the other pizza pieces were
• 21:07
  less light-hearted.
• 21:08
  Lynn Mikeshka performed a song about
• 21:10
  a situationship gone wrong while
• 21:12
  strumming a ukulele.
• 21:15
  People say that
• 21:17
  love is like pizza even
• 21:20
  when it's bad it's good
• 21:24
  But I can tell from
• 21:26
  the way that you touch me
• 21:29
  That you don't want me like you
• 21:33
  Hwang pieced together a lineup
• 21:35
  that emphasized the unity of
• 21:37
  pizza.
• 21:38
  Here's Jesse Gagliotto-Greeby from
• 21:39
  Via 313 again.
• 21:41
  You go from pizza at a
• 21:43
  children's birthday party, pizza
• 21:44
  when you move into your first
• 21:46
  apartment, pizza when
• 21:48
  your bribe your friends to help
• 21:49
  you move in to your first house.
• 21:51
  You know, pizza comes with these
• 21:53
  milestones and celebrations and
• 21:55
  I just trusted that
• 21:58
  color arc had a vision
• 22:00
  and was going to bring that to life.
• 22:02
  And food is staying a theme for
• 22:03
  color arc.
• 22:03
  Next short film.
• 22:05
  Hwang is adapting a story her mom
• 22:07
  first told at stories about comfort
• 22:09
  food.
• 22:09
  Sweet Potato Pig.
• 22:11
  I'm directing it.
• 22:12
  It's my mom's story.
• 22:14
  She's a Vietnamese-American refugee
• 22:16
  and it's her immigrant story told
• 22:18
  through her food memories.
• 22:19
  For her, food is the ultimate
• 22:21
  connector, which also makes it
• 22:23
  the ultimate story anchor.
• 22:25
  It's a universal language and
• 22:27
  the guard comes down and you
• 22:29
  immediately connect.
• 22:30
  You might not know someone's
• 22:33
  language or where they came from,
• 22:35
  but you know when something tastes
• 22:36
  good. Because I
• 22:38
  At the end of the day, we all gotta
• 22:39
  eat.
• 22:40
  For KUT's Art Beat, I'm
• 22:42
  Ellico Pakin, in Austin.
• 22:44
  You ordered a
• 22:47
  pink pizza, my heart.
• 22:48
  Pizza!
• 22:51
  There's more from the stories we
• 22:52
  shared with you in today's podcast
• 22:54
  show notes and at kut.org
• 22:58
  slash signal.
• 22:59
  That is it for us.
• 23:01
  Thank you for making us part of your
• 23:02
  Monday. We're going to have some
• 23:04
  different hosts over the next few
• 23:06
  days. So be nice to them and keep it
• 23:07
  tuned in right here to community
• 23:09
  powered public radio.
• 23:11
  This is KUT news.
• 23:13
  Our Austin signal team is Rayna
• 23:15
  Sevilla, Alexandra Hart
• 23:16
  and Kristen Cabrera.
• 23:18
  I'm your host, Jerry Quijano.
• 23:20
  We'll be back with you tomorrow.
• 23:21
  Talk to you then.