San Antonio’s Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center springs back to life with new Texas Author Series, Tejano Conjunto Festival
Texas Author readings will take place on the first Friday of every month. The May 6 outing will spotlight Mouthfeel Press, a bilingual publisher based in El Paso; the June 3 event will feature Texas Poet Laureate Lupe Mendez, who will read from his collection “Why I Am Like Tequila.”
The theater, which dates back to 1940, needs repairs to its electrical system, its plumbing and its foundation, as well as an upgrade to its tech equipment. The city sent engineers to assess the theater last summer, and they found it was in need of about $3 million worth of repairs. “We’re going to hire an architecture planning firm to help us really thoroughly think through what we want to do with the entire campus and then raise money to do it,” she said. “We can actually do a proper plan. We don’t have to wait for grant funding — we’re ready to go. That’s what we’re working on right now.”
One corner soon will be dedicated to the shop’s role as a visitor center for El Mero Weso, the West Side Cultural Arts District.