Arizona Illustrated

Snakebite, a small gallery space in Tucson, is owned by artists Geneva Foster Gluck and Racheal Rios who set out to fill a void in the downtown art scene. Modeled after various “creation spaces” they visited in different cities, Snakebite provides underrepresented artists a space to be more experimental with their work, to create discourse and build community. Artist Lizz Denneau is one of those artists who used the space to test her thesis for a low residency MFA program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Using a variety of mediums and found objects, Denneau’s sculptures unearth erased histories of the black diaspora and systems of racism and class. These histories, ingrained in ephemera and relics used in her work, invites us to examine what she calls “a collective ancestry and generational memory.” The owner of Angry German restaurant in Sierra Vista, Arizona used to get jokes about “sounding angry” when he spoke to his mother in German, so he decided it would be fun to incorporate that into his restaurant’s name. It is one of three German restaurants in Sierra Vista, even though the city has a population of fewer than 50,000 residents. Cochise County’s largest city has a thriving international dining scene, thanks in part to US Army base Fort Huachuca. What does it take to be a pro-female endurance athlete? Among other things, it takes time, training, and self care—all of which require funds that are tough to come by for female endurance athletes. The Homestretch Foundation seeks to close the gender pay gap for female athletes, and provide them with the accommodations, mentorship, and community necessary to excel in their field. The organization launched in November 2016, and more than 70 elite female athletes from 17 countries have called the Tanque Verde complex their home. The founder, Kathryn Bertine, was inspired by her own struggles as a professional cyclist without a base salary. She has fought for women to receive a base salary (still not equal to male cyclists), and to compete in the Tour de France. In this story, we will follow athletes to learn how they train, and learn what needs to be done to support the careers of more female athletes. In this installment of Arizona Illustrated’s poetry series, a collaboration with the UA Poetry Center, the acclaimed poet, Javier Zamora, reads Aniversario or We Moved To Tucson During a Pandemic, a tribute to his wife Jo Cipriano. Javier Zamora was born in El Salvador and migrated to the US when he was nine. His first poetry collection, Unaccompanied explores some of these themes. In his debut New York Times bestselling memoir, SOLITO, Javier retells his nine-week odyssey across Guatemala, Mexico, and eventually through the Sonoran Desert. He travelled unaccompanied by boat, bus, and foot. After a coyote abandoned his group in Oaxaca, Javier managed to make it to Arizona with the aid of other migrants.