The entrance to Taste of Europe features wooden, medieval-inspired double doors and warm, lantern-style lights on both sides of the doorway. Inside, cabinets on the walls display rows of colorful, painted nesting dolls — a mix of whimsical and cultural collections of Eastern European folk art. The decor was recently renovated with wood walls, terracotta tiles and new lighting to bring out the restaurant’s brown tone. The lights were dimmed and smooth jazz flowed through the dining room. This is the world of Alexandre Tsalko, a Belarusian who took over the restaurant in 2021 after his wife’s father, Mikhail Frumkin, retired. Frumkin didn’t want to close the restaurant because they had regular customers, so he told his son-in-law, “You can try. If you’re good, good. If you’re not good you can close,” Tsalko said. In 2002, Frumkin founded Taste of Europe on West Pioneer Parkway, about three miles from UTA. The restaurant was temporarily closed in August and reopened Nov. 1 following renovations. Outside of serving a variety of Eastern European dishes, the restaurant also has a small section in the corner selling European snacks, beverages and ingredients. When Tsalko took over the restaurant, he learned the business step by step from Frumkin. The family recipes, which haven’t changed, require all components of the dishes to be made from scratch. The restaurant’s signature dishes include golden brown potato cakes with a side of applesauce and sour cream, as well as beef stroganoff, served with a cream onion and mushroom sauce on top of egg noodles. Its flavors were once featured on Guy Fieri’s “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives” in 2012. The jagerschnitzel, thinned tender pork fried in breadcrumbs and covered in a mushroom sauce with sautéed sauerkraut, has brought Grand Prairie residents Deborah Cypert and Holli Blackwell back to Taste of Europe for almost a decade. They bring each other to the restaurant on their birthdays, Cypert said. They don’t eat out much, but if they are going to, “We want to come somewhere special where the food is excellent,” Blackwell said. Although Taste of Europe only opens for dinner Wednesday and Thursday and all day during weekends, Tsalko drives an hour and a half from Rowlett, Texas, to arrive at the restaurant at 7:30 a.m. every day to either clean, order or pick up food and do the prep work. His two sons live in Arlington, so he sometimes stays with them over the weekend. In the morning, Tsalko prepares in the kitchen. In the evening, he greets guests and serves tables. “This is family restaurant,” he said. “We check in everything, and it’s hard work, but it’s good. For business, it’s good.” His first order of business every day, though? “Coffee,” he said, laughing. Tsalko didn’t have much experience running a restaurant other than a pizza franchise from 2001 to 2008. He was a heating, ventilation and air conditioning technician before running Taste of Europe and is the only one in his family to have run a restaurant. The Taste of Europe crew is small, with only a few full-time employees, but most of them have stayed for years. One of whom is Terry Petersen, a chef who started at the restaurant in the summer of 2019. Petersen typically comes in an hour before opening to check if all the sauces are heated up and all the proteins are prepared, he said. He used to work at breakfast places. Here, he learns a different way of cooking instead of prebagged, frozen foods. “It’s real nice to get into an actual kitchen and cook scratch,” Petersen said. In August, Tsalko briefly planned to close the restaurant and move elsewhere. News of the closure spread on local Facebook groups like Real Arlington Foodies and Reddit, where he saw hundreds of messages asking him to stay open. He changed his mind and began redecorating. “I love my customers, and I stay,” he said. Blackwell and Cypert said they missed the old decorations, where artifacts reminded them of a museum. Now, it looks more like a restaurant. “But, the food is still the same, excellent,” Cypert said. As conversations went on, Blackwell, Cypert and their friend continued to taste the flavors of East Europe. And before the waiter could take her plate and clean the table, Blackwell wanted one last bite of beef stroganoff. @DangHLe news-editor.shorthorn@uta.edu

Ian Gillies, UTA alumni and artist, said UTA has been instrumental in getting him to where he is today as a musician. Students gathered for Gillies’ acoustic EP release party for The Practice Room Sessions, at Brazos Park from 7 to 9 p.m. The concert was held by UTA Student Records, UTA’s music label, and featured Gillian Jolie along with Abigail Hill, who opened for Gillies and performed their own songs. Amy Franco, music business and biology major, said that UTA Student Records is a class that brings music students together to produce music. In order to achieve this, she said their class has a regular lecture and has conversations about the music business industry. “It’s all student-run. It’s all student-motivated,” Franco said. “The professor assigns a CEO of a group, and we all basically collaborate together with our ideas,” Franco said. She said that so far, they’ve signed two artists. Jarod Silverio, UTA Student Records president and audio production major, said that in the class, students learn about what goes into managing a record label, like copyright law, marketing and publishing. “I’m overseeing the operations of our marketing, distribution, artist and repertoire and our contracts team, where we take in artists and consider them as projects for our semester,” Silverio said. In this position, he said he's had to learn new organizational skills and what it’s like to spend time in a studio with artists. “Having a taste of that really excites me for what I want to do after school,” he said. “Now, I see artists and label management as something I want to get into.” As someone who’s trying to make his way in the industry, Gillies said that UTA Student Records has helped him release his new EP. “They've been a massive help in terms of just advertising and producing and helping with so many different facets of, especially the show, putting it all together,” Gillies said. “I couldn’t have done any of this without them.” @mn.alansari news-editor.shorthorn@uta.edu

Residents have various entertainment options this week including a Dallas Cowboys vs. Houston Texans game, a yappy hour event and a chili cook-off, including seasonal events like Coca-Cola Classic Christmas and The Nutcracker ballet performance. Sports The Dallas Cowboys will take on the Houston Texans at 7:15 p.m. Nov. 18 at AT&T Stadium. Tickets, required for ages two and up, are available online and. Doors open 5:30 p.m. Holiday entertainment Coca-Cola Classic Christmas is an immersive holiday event held 5:30 to 10:30 p.m. daily from Nov. 22 to Dec. 29 at Choctaw Stadium. Guests can enjoy a Christmas light display, holiday market, ice skating, snow slide, live entertainment, themed nights and visits with Santa and Mrs. Claus. Tickets are available online. The United Performing Arts Guild presents The Nutcracker Ballet from 7 to 9:30 p.m. Nov. 22 at the Arlington Independent School District’s Center for Visual and Performing Arts Robert C. Copeland Concert Hall. This ticketed holiday performance invites the audience to experience a journey to the land of the Sugar Plum Fairy. Seating is reserved and prices range from $32 to $47. Local Dining Doggie Depot Yappy Hour will be 4 to 8 p.m. Nov. 21 at The Tipsy Oak. This event supports The Doggie Depot, a new off-leash dog park in downtown Arlington. The restaurant will donate a portion of sales to help fund the park. Attendees can enjoy food, live music and the company of fellow dog lovers. Leashed dogs are welcome on the patio. Residents can bring the heat to On Tap’s fifth annual Chili Cook-Off from 2 to 5 p.m. Nov. 17 Participants can enter their chili recipes for a chance to win the judge’s choice $100 prize or taste and vote for their favorite chili in the people’s choice competition for $5, with a $50 prize for the winner. Entries must check in and pay the $15 entry fee by 1:45 p.m. @fluffsjourney news-editor.shorthorn@uta.edu

As Texas results rolled in on election night, the answer to a long-pressing question came swiftly: Can Texas turn blue? By 8:12 p.m. Nov. 5, a little more than an hour after polls closed, now President-elect Donald Trump had won Texas. He eventually won over Harris by 14 percentage points. U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz defeated U.S. Rep. Colin Allred by nine points. The numbers reaffirmed the Republican Party’s dominance of Texas. Democrats didn’t just underperform — they lost by bigger margins than in previous election cycles, and former strongholds flipped red. What’s left is a continuously weakening case that Texas is a battleground state. Democrats also lost three seats in the Texas Legislature and nearly every contested state appellate court race and saw Republicans win 10 countywide judicial races in Harris County — reversing several years of Democratic dominance in Texas’ largest county. “What seems clear to me from the 2024 results is that Democrats don’t seem to have a clear message that the voters are buying,” said Mark Hand, political science assistant professor. Every election cycle, the state is seen as a potential flip for Democrats although Texans haven’t elected a Democrat to a statewide position since 1994. The last time Texas went blue for a presidential candidate was in 1976 for Jimmy Carter. “The Democrats probably have a lot of soul searching to do here on what is the message that is as clear and as strong as the message that Donald Trump and more MAGA-leaning conservatives have offered to voters,” Hand said. Texas Democrats need a real rebuilding cycle if they want to be competitive, he said. The process has already begun. Gilberto Hinojosa, the Texas Democratic Party chair, announced his resignation Nov. 8, three days following the election. He will step down in March when the party’s governing executive committee is scheduled to meet. “In the days and weeks to come, it is imperative that our Democratic leaders across the country reevaluate what is best for our party and embrace the next generation of leaders to take us through the next four years of Trump and win back seats up and down the ballot,” Hinojosa said in a statement. ‘The nation’s biggest battleground state’ At the Democratic National Convention in August, Hinojosa declared Texas as “the nation’s biggest battleground state.” In 2016, Trump won Texas by nine percentage points over Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. When President Joe Biden overperformed four years later, he still lost Texas by over five percentage points. Even when former U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke almost won over Cruz in 2018 and built further hopes that the Lone Star State may turn blue, that’s all it was — almost. O’Rourke lost by fewer than three percentage points. That year, however, Texas Democrats flipped state House districts, local government seats and state appeals courts. Republicans still controlled the Legislature and occupied every statewide office, but Democrats saw that year as the beginning of a new era. The data points in 2018 and 2020 may have led people to think Texas might flip to blue, Hand said. Nationally, 2018 was a bloodbath for Republicans, and O’Rourke was one of the politicians who rode and powered the Democratic wave. Four years later, Republicans performed well in Texas and Democrats didn’t, including O’Rourke’s loss to Gov. Greg Abbott by double digits, Hand said. Tarrant County is on ‘the redder side of purple than blue’ Texas Democrats saw certain bright spots in this election. In Tarrant County, considered a key battleground area in the state, Allred received over 1,000 more votes than Cruz. In 2020, Biden also won the county by less than 2,000 votes. Trump flipped it back in 2024 with more than 42,000 votes over Harris. Texas Rep. Chris Turner, D-Grand Prairie, was reelected for his seventh term in Texas House District 101, which covers UTA. Overall, Republicans had a good Election Day in Tarrant County, Turner said, but he saw the Senate race as an encouraging sign: Cruz has lost the county twice in a row, and voters are willing to split their ticket. “Since 2018, it is clear it is a purple county,” he said. “It’s still obviously a little on the redder side of purple than blue objectively, if you look at the results in this election, but purple nonetheless.” More Republicans moved from Tarrant County to Parker County in 2020, and more Democrats moved from Dallas County to Tarrant County in that time frame, said Jay Popp, one of Tarrant County’s GOP precinct chairs in west Arlington. “We kind of recognized that and thought, ‘OK, well, we need to start getting engaged, or we really need to get those efforts out and be more grassroots-oriented,’” Popp said. Since the Biden administration started, Tarrant County Republicans have worked together in trying to recruit people, said Jan Brand, longtime board member of Republican Women of Arlington. She sent letters to 100 local pastors and held social events like luncheons for recruitment efforts and community relationship building, Brand said. “Once you create those relationships, then it’s more likely that they’re going to get involved,” she said. ‘They're not grassroots. They're definitely top-down’ Texas Republicans are well-funded and well-organized, Hand said. The party has a handful of massive donors, including West Texas oil billionaires Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks. Influential billionaire Elon Musk may contribute to state-level elections in 2026. Abbott is also one of the best fundraisers in the country, Hand said. That type of consistent fundraising machinery is what Texas Democrats need to stay competitive and distance themselves from the national party. Texans are more conservative than national voters, and that hasn’t changed, Hand said. People believe that as the state becomes more diverse, it will become more liberal, but that also doesn’t seem to have played out. Turner disagreed that it’s a matter of organization. Instead, it’s a resource situation, with the Republican Party always well-funded, he said. He believes the Democratic Party in Tarrant County and Texas have to raise more money, start earlier and communicate with a broader segment of the electorate to build out bigger and faster campaigns — like Republicans, he said. Popp’s party has been effective in understanding the importance of turning the area from the roots up rather than being a top-down organization, he said. “That’s actually where the Democrats are failing right now,” he said. “They’re not grassroots. They’re definitely top-down. They’re kind of being told what to do and what to believe and how to believe it and I think that never worked.” The question of border, economy Democrats did not get the needed turnout from big urban counties, Turner said. The party also needs to confront a major challenge in South Texas from Rio Grande Valley to El Paso. Once a Democratic stronghold, South Texas border counties, where most voters are Hispanic, shifted to Trump. The switch is part of a national trend of Hispanic voters embracing Trump and Republican candidates, from rural communities to large cities like Miami and parts of states like New York and New Jersey. Nationwide this year, 55% of Latino voters supported Harris, and 45% voted for Trump, according to the Associated Press. In 2020, President Joe Biden got 63% while Trump received 35%. In 2024, Trump won 12 of 14 South Texas counties. In 2016, he won five. “We need to figure out why that is and do the work necessary to reverse those trends,” Turner said. AP VoteCast, a survey of the American electorate conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago, found that 41% of Texans listed the economy and jobs as the most important issue facing the country in 2024. Nearly three-quarters of Americans believe the country is on the wrong track, Turner said. That is a difficult number for the party in power to overcome, but there’s still plenty of room to look at strategies, tactics, messaging and get-out-the-vote operations. “There really has to be an in-depth, reasoned analysis done of this election, and we have to look at things top to bottom,” he said. The future Hand said he expects to see very conservative policies nationally, but even more so in Texas, when the Legislature starts in January. Turner said he hopes Texans will be engaged in the Legislature. “​​I hope Texans will let the Legislature know when Republicans are going off on some wild partisan tangent instead of addressing the real issues facing our state,” he said. The Tarrant County GOP’s goal is to elect conservative candidates to city councils and school boards, Popp said. “I feel great,” he said. “I feel really optimistic, with a lot of hope and enthusiasm about the momentum that’s behind our party.” On election night, Popp was at a watch party in Tarrant County when he noticed a big group. Popp chatted with them. They told him they weren’t happy with the nation’s direction nor school boards and city councils. They wanted to be part of the Republican Party and voted for Trump. He is used to hearing that. The GOP usually attracts older groups of people. This group, though, was different. There were more than a dozen guys. Different races. All under 30. Popp said he is hopeful for the future of the Republican Party in Texas. @DangHLe news-editor.shorthorn@uta.edu

Residents have a variety of events to choose from in Arlington this week including boxing and football events, a car show fundraiser and trivia. Sports Get ready for football Sunday as the Dallas Cowboys take on the Philadelphia Eagles. Kickoff is 3:25 p.m. and doors open 1 p.m. at AT&T Stadium. Tickets are available online. Deemed to be the biggest boxing event in modern history, Jake Paul and Mike Tyson will face off in a heavyweight boxing showdown 8 p.m. ET on Nov. 15 at AT&T Stadium. Additionally, the co-main event features the long-awaited rematch between Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano. This event will be streamed live globally on Netflix and tickets are available online. Entertainment Show off your ride and support the Martin High School solar car team at their car show fundraiser from 2 to 5 p.m. Saturday on Martin High School’s West Lot. Funds support their summer 2025 competition, where they will race solar powered student-built cars to Palmdale, California. All cars, motorcycles and more are welcome for a $5 parking fee, with games and prizes available. Contesters should pre-register their car online and email the registration link to stemsolarracing@gmail.com. Country music star Cody Johnson, along with Jon Pardi, Tracy Byrd and Ella Langley, will hit the stage 6 p.m. Saturday at Globe Life Field for his Leather Tour. Tickets are available online. Residents can test their knowledge of random facts at Murf’s Trivia at J. Gilligan’s Bar & Grill from 7 to 9 p.m. Tuesday. Check in starts 6 p.m. This triple-play trivia is free to all, with the chance of winning a prize on the line. American Idol finalist Haley Reinhart, a vocalist known for her jazz-infused pop sound and sultry voice, will be performing 7 p.m. Nov. 15 at Arlington Music Hall. Reinhart is currently on tour promoting her latest album. Tickets are available online. @fluffsjourney news-editor.shorthorn@uta.edu

Yash Ajariwal credits the U.S. for his personal growth. Ajariwal, an information systems sophomore and international student from India, said he was an introvert who couldn’t speak English fluently. After a year at UTA, he is involved in several student organizations and works two jobs. He hopes to further grow by obtaining a work visa in the U.S., he said. As Americans select their leader for the next four years, the candidates’ stances on legal immigration and the election results can potentially impact students and temporary work visas, which may directly impact international students nationwide, including at UTA. “We cannot even decide who we want as our leader, and we still get affected a lot by the decisions they make,” Ajariwal said. Presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump have different views on immigration, which may impact work visas, said Daniele Volfe, senior attorney at Akula & Associates immigration law firm. The Biden-Harris administration sees immigration as a benefit to the U.S., Volfe said. The Trump administration viewed immigration as a potential threat to jobs, wages and workers in the U.S. and aimed to control that. Under former President Trump, the United States denied a record number of visas, halted applications by asking for more paperwork and temporarily prohibited some categories of legal immigration, according to Immigration Impact. At the end of his presidency, the administration pushed for more restrictions on the H-1B high-skilled worker visa program, according to Politico. The Harris administration could be an extension of President Joe Biden’s policies, which have doubled down on border restrictions while opening additional legal pathways, improving processing times and reducing backlogs in the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and the Department of State and restoring refugee resettlement efforts, according to NPR. Alumnus Vivek Patel graduated in 2020 with a bachelor’s in science and computer science. After graduation, Patel had one year as an international student and two additional years as a STEM major under Optional Practical Training, which allows international students to stay in the U.S. while searching for work after they graduate, as his degree falls under Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. Patel was selected for the H-1B lottery visa in his final year, he said. Patel doesn’t expect many changes to work visa policies, he said. Based on the current administration, Harris may not make many tremendous reforms. Trump, however, may lean toward more merit-based immigration and require a higher salary threshold. While that won’t affect Patel, as he has years of experience in software development, he has more concerns for the newly graduated international students. “For students who graduate from a master’s degree without experience, they don’t have a real-world experience, so they will have to worry about it if the salary of H-1B threshold gets increased or something happens,” he said. This year, over 470,000 applicants competed for 85,000 slots in the H-1B visa lottery for skilled workers. While only Congress can alter the H-1B cap lottery quota, the president can issue policies influencing the cap process, such as how the lottery is conducted, pushing new forms and modifying filing fees. In 2020, the Trump administration didn’t allocate enough funds for U.S. consular officers nationwide, meaning longer wait times for visa interviews and approvals as travel resumed after the COVID-19 pandemic, said Katrina Moore, operations administrator at Akula & Associates immigration law firm. Congress is the branch that can make long-lasting decisions regarding immigration by passing laws, Volfe said. The president can do so through executive orders, which are open to be challenged by the next administration or a court. Volfe doesn’t expect changes in the process of going from an F-1 student visa to an H-1B temporary visa if either presidential candidate is elected, she said. The filing fee, though, can be affected. Under the Biden administration, the filing fee was increased to $215 from $10 starting next year, she said. Regardless of the presidencies, students need to maintain compliance of status, Moore said. They need to ensure their Student and Exchange Visitor Information System ID remains activated and are in contact with their designated school officials regularly. They should also ensure their I-20 form is updated and they’re not exceeding the number of unemployment days permitted under Optional Practical Training provisions, she said. “Maintaining those records and understanding them and your obligations — as students — is very, very important. Period,” she said. Ajariwal already has his plans mapped out. His STEM degree gives him three years of eligibility to work postgraduation. During that time, he will try to obtain his H-1B work visa to learn more about the field, similar to his brother who is on a work visa in Wisconsin. Then he’ll return to his family in India to start his own company. Before that can happen, Ajariwal is awaiting election results. @DangHLe news-editor.shorthorn@uta.edu

Mystery, mayhem and magic were in full swing in this year’s only Marvel show, “Agatha All Along.” The witchy show ended with a double episode drop Wednesday, concluding the season with mysteries solved and new ones looming around the bend of the road. I went into this show with an open mind but braced myself for disappointment after “Secret Invasion” and “Echo,” both of which I didn’t finish. Defying all expectations, “Agatha All Along” stole my heart — and my Airbuds wrapped. Everything from the cast to the wardrobe and the music blew me away, surpassing all my meager expectations. The show opens up with scene-stealer Agatha Harkness, played by Kathryn Hahn, stuck in Wanda Maximoff’s spell, three years after the events of “WandaVision”. After getting pulled out of the spell by Joe Locke’s character, Teen, Harkness gathers a coven of witches to journey through the Witches’ Road to get her magic back. Episode titles were pulled from the song “The Ballad of the Witches’ Road,” written by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez. In total, seven different versions of the song were played in the show, ranging from the sacred chant version in the second episode to Harkness’ son, Nicky’s, version in the eighth, each serving a different purpose. The cover from episode four is my personal favorite, and it’ll probably end up on my Spotify Wrapped. Every character had something they wanted at the end of the Road; the power and glory promised from the ballad appealed to them in different ways. Each episode was a different trial and, similar to “WandaVision,” was set in a different era to test each of the characters’ resolve “down the Witches’ Road.” The show built up the big mystery of the season: Teen’s real identity that remained unknown until the end of episode five. Teen was revealed to be one of Wanda Maximoff’s lost sons, Billy Maximoff. Billy Maximoff, known as Billy Kaplan or Wiccan in the comics, possessed the same chaos magic as his mother and inevitably influenced certain aspects of the coven’s path. My favorite episode was seven, as it tied together all the threads that had been exposed in previous episodes. The episode tied all of the divination witch, Lilia Calderu’s, random remarks into a neat bow, giving her closure. Calderu had her “Defying Gravity” moment, as she lived out her final minutes doing what she loved most: being a witch. Leading up to its premiere, the spinoff had gone through four titles before eventually landing on the current one, named after Harkness’ reveal song in “WandaVision.” The song “Agatha All Along” debuted at No. 1 on iTunes on Feb. 23, 2021. For being the lowest budget Disney+ Marvel Television show, they utilized everything to the best of their abilities. Opting to use practical sets rather than green screens made the show feel realistic. Marvel debuted its first sapphic relationship in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Harkness and Rio Vidal, aka Death — the second big character reveal. I appreciate how they showed kindness in Death. Vidal gave Alice Wu-Gulliver purpose, reminding the protection witch that she died protecting Billy Maximoff. Vidal also gave Harkness more time with her son, letting him say goodbye before he died in his sleep. In typical Marvel fashion, the show had an open ending, alluding to the next project in the extended universe. As always, there are a few unanswered questions: Is the Scarlet Witch really dead? How did Harkness meet Death? Why does everyone think she gave up her son for the Darkhold? I can only hope that the next time we see Harkness and Wiccan, they’re joined by his brother, the missing speedster, Tommy Maximoff. @marupudisairam news-editor.shorthorn@uta.edu

Metroplex residents have a variety of activities to choose from this week including a book festival, local theater and a basketball game. Entertainment Gather with fellow bookworms for the Indie Author Book Festival from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at the George W. Hawkes Downtown Library on South Center Street. The event features over 30 authors, publishers and bookstores, writing workshops, crafts, free giveaways and author meet-and-greets. No registration is needed. Get ready for some laughs with Sydney Castillo as he and fellow comedians Tamara Williams, Hot Topic, Isiah Kelly and Q Coleman take the stage for the My Cup is Full Comedy Tour from 7 to 9 p.m. Nov. 3 at Arlington Music Hall on North Center Street. Tickets are available online starting at $32. Study up on random facts for Murf’s Trivia from 7 to 9 p.m. Nov. 5 at J. Gilligan’s Bar & Grill on East Abram Street. Admission is free with check-ins starting at 6 p.m. and prizes up for grabs. Music For their Annual All-Youth Musical, Theatre Arlington is showing The Musical Adventures of Flat Stanley JR. from 2 to 4 p.m. Nov. 3. The musical follows the two-dimensional childhood hero, Flat Stanley, using professional-level costumes and lights alongside youth performers. Tickets are $15 for general admission, $12 for groups of 10+ and $6 for groups of 10+ on field trips. Grammy-nominated and Dove Award-winning band, The Isaacs, known for blending the bluegrass, gospel and country genres for over 30 years, will perform at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 6 at Arlington Music Hall. Tickets are available for purchase online. Sports Cheer on the Dallas Mavericks as they take on the Chicago Bulls at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 6 at American Airlines Center in Dallas. Tickets are available online starting at $21 and doors open at 6 p.m. news-editor.shorthorn@uta.edu

UTA students John Lam and Vincent Dinh’s politics go in two different directions. Lam cares about infrastructure, immigration and civil rights and leans progressive. Dinh, however, backs a Republican economy in terms of adding jobs and lowering gas prices. Both represent over 1.3 million Vietnamese American adults eligible to vote, according to the Asian and Pacific Islander Data. While many lean Republican, experts say sentiments after the Vietnam War don’t tell the whole story — culture and language barriers factor into the support. Now, as the younger generation reaches voting age, a potential shift may be happening. A Pew Research Center survey released in May showed 51% of Vietnamese registered voters identified as or leaned Republican, while 42% identified as or leaned Democratic. Most Chinese, Indian, Filipino and Korean American voters identified as or leaned Democratic, according to the poll. However, an October survey from the Asian and Pacific Island American Data showed that 42% of Vietnamese registered voters identified as or leaned Democratic, while 37% identified as or leaned Republican. Research has remained consistent in showing Vietnamese Americans’ support for the Republican Party, different surveys may yield various responses, said Alex-Thái Đình Võ, assistant professor at the Vietnam Center and Sam Johnson Vietnam Archive at Texas Tech University. Older Vietnamese Americans generally tend to care about the politics in Vietnam more so than in America, Võ said. They believe their votes in the U.S. are meant to impact policies and improve freedom, development and human rights in Vietnam. “They care so much about what is going on in Vietnam, the development in Vietnam because they know why they left Vietnam,” he said. After Saigon fell in 1975, the communist-led North took over the U.S.-backed South to reunify Vietnam. Millions of Vietnamese people who collaborated with the U.S. or were critical of the communist government fled the country to escape re-education camps or imprisonment. The first waves of Vietnamese immigrants held deep anti-communist views. The younger generations, however, don’t, Võ said. They see themselves more as Americans and relate to social issues like resolving student debt, health care and housing. Lam, political science graduate student, acknowledges many Vietnamese Americans are conservative, but he doesn’t agree with the Republican Party’s policies. “I just think the Democrats as a whole are a much better party to have in power than the current incarnation of the Republican Party,” he said. Võ said older Vietnamese Americans tend to take welfare policies like health care and food stamps for granted. Since those already existed when they arrived in the country, they see it as an American system, rather than a Republican versus Democratic Party issue. Health care policies were a tipping factor for Lam’s parents to support the Democratic Party, he said. The Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, helped decrease his father’s bill of over $30,000 after he was uninsured and hospitalized a decade ago. Lam’s parents can’t vote as permanent green card holders, but they began supporting the Democratic Party after Barack Obama’s successful 2008 presidential campaign and having also listened to former President Donald Trump’s rhetoric in 2016, he said. His parents left Vietnam in the early ’80s following the war, he said, but his mother said the Republican Party has changed a lot from those days. “The current Republican Party, especially Donald Trump, has morphed into a very, in her judgment, very authoritarian party almost in the same vein as the communists that took over in 75,” Lam said. Dinh’s father is a Catholic and supports the Republican Party because of its anti-abortion stance, he said. Business analytics junior Dinh supports Republicans for a different reason. “Just based on being in a Democratic economy right now, I feel like it was pretty bad these past four years, so it’d be nice to switch it up again,” he said. Võ said language barriers also prohibit Vietnamese Americans from listening to newscasts outside of ones in their language, which are typically run by the older, conservative generations. The perception after the Vietnam War was further reinforced: Republicans had a tough stance toward communism, and Democrats were the ones who betrayed them by protesting against the war, he said. “I’m not saying that they’re right or wrong, but what I’m saying is that these notions then are repeated in media, especially in Vietnamese media that cater to that audience,” Võ said. Artificial Intelligence-generated images of Democrats in communist garb plus the party’s lack of meaningful engagement with Vietnamese Americans and tendencies to move on from the war mean many in the community stick with the GOP, Võ said. For almost two decades, Vietnamese Americans in North Texas can catch news, music, sports and more on VVA 1600 AM. The Voice of Vietnamese American station, located at Asia Times Square in Grand Prairie, serves the area home to over 90,000 Vietnamese. Lien Bich Dao, the station’s general manager, and her husband Peter Dao, took over the radio in January. For 30 years, she has worked for multiple broadcast stations in Dallas and has chosen to remain neutral in her news delivery, she said. If you lean on one political affiliation, you lose the audience on the other side, Lien Bich Dao said. For every news segment, she said she quotes from reputable, trusted news sources. “My goal is to deliver and promote news — no prejudice, no guidance to follow what I want,” she said. This is one of the closest elections in her career, she said. Võ said gender roles also play into how Vietnamese Americans may perceive the presidential race. The culture itself tends to look down on women, and that may affect how Vietnamese Americans perceive a potential woman leader. “It’s important to mention: A lot of people who vote, they don’t necessarily vote because of policy, right? We tend to assume they vote because of policy. Reality, it’s not necessarily true. I used to work in politics, and I used to work in elections — people vote because of how they perceive that person through the image,” he said. State Rep. Hubert Vo, D-Houston, was the first, and to date, the only Vietnamese American elected to the Texas Legislature since voters sent him to Austin, 20 years ago. He now faces Vietnamese-born Republican Lily Truong in a rematch of 2022. In California, Derek Tran, a Democrat and son of war refugees, is running for one of the most competitive U.S. House seats. It’s hard to predict where the Vietnamese Americans’ support will go in the next decades, Võ said. The Republican-supporting first generation will no longer be alive. The younger generation may trend toward Democrats, but people tend to become more conservative as they grow older. “Is that the total reflection of the Vietnamese community? Possibly not,” Võ said. “What you can say is that the Vietnamese American community is more diverse than that, right? It’s not just Republicans or Democrats.” @DangHLe news-editor.shorthorn@uta.edu

Residents can expect Halloween-centered events, bar crawls and a taco and margarita sampling tour in the Metroplex this week. Entertainment Residents can experience a haunted night in Fort Worth during the fifth annual Trick or Treat at the Museum. The event takes place at the Fort Worth Aviation Museum from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Oct. 26. Attendees can paint pumpkins, walk through a maze and get sweets from candy stations. Those who wear a costume get in free. The Dallas’ Best Tacos and Margaritas Tour offers an afternoon of sampling award-winning tacos and margaritas from four shops 12:30 to 4:30 p.m. Oct. 26. Admission starts at $85 and includes air-conditioned motorcoach transportation, four tacos and two margaritas at selected venues and soft drinks or water. Tickets can be purchased online. Holiday cheer is coming Nov. 1, marking the first day of The Light Park in Arlington at Hurricane Harbor. Starting at 5:30 p.m. attendees can drive through the mile-long light show as holiday tunes fill the air. Tickets start at $29 and can be purchased online. Music Get ready to “BOOOgie” and shuffle this weekend with Halloween Weekend Socials from Oct. 26 to 27 at Electric Shuffle Dallas. The event offers DJs, prizes, music, giveaways and more. Admission prices start at $50 and can be purchased online. Residents can participate in the Arlington Official Halloween Bar Crawl on Oct. 26 at 4 p.m., starting at J. Gilligan’s Bar & Grill. This event will take participants around to the city’s “spookiest bars.” Tickets can be purchased online. Sports Enjoy Monster Jam motorsports in real time 7 p.m. Oct. 26 at AT&T Stadium. Tickets can be purchased online. @XenaDuly news-editor.shorthorn@uta.edu

As Halloween creeps around the corner, movie theaters, TV networks and streaming services gear up for a season of spine-chilling films, with a lineup of spooky movies that are sure to haunt viewers long after the credits roll. But why do people seek out horror movies? It’s possible that there are psychological factors involved or that movies’ influence on popular culture has viewers excited to get scared. “Certainly part of it’s the season,” English professor Timothy Richardson said in an email. “October means that we’re allowed to watch scary stuff. We’re almost required to.” When viewers watch something frightening or tense in a safe environment, like in a movie theater or at home, they feel better afterward, he said. This is known as cathartic release, an ancient Greek term translating to “purgation” or “purification.” “Given how much [Halloween] is commercialized now, it really lets people entertain, I guess you could say, a different persona,” said English doctorate candidate Sean Woodard. The human desire to experience fear might be connected to an evolutionary past and can still have psychological benefits. Concepts like “morbid curiosity” and “scary play” can help viewers overcome current fears by gaining information to face new challenges and scary experiences, according to Scientific American. “I don’t like jump scares at all, so I tend to prefer more psychological horror like Hereditary and Midsommar, along with older films like The Wicker Man, Bride of Frankenstein, and the Tom Hanks movie Big,” Richardson said. Horror movies often work as mirrors for worries, Richardson said, caused by real-world social factors. “Cold War stories about aliens who look like us, teen stories about the dangers of drugs and sex, any time a monster can stand in for some big and unsolvable cultural anxiety,” Richardson said. “That we often tell the same stories over and over suggests that, over decades, we often worry about the same kinds of things.” Popular movies during the Halloween season range from horror classics like John Carpenter’s slasher classic Halloween and Alfred Hitchcock’s suspense thriller Psycho to more recent frights like Jordan Peele’s chilling horror Us and Zach Cregger’s psychological horror Barbarian, according to Reader’s Digest. “There are always new scary movies, of course, but over the years I’ve seen students rediscovering classic franchises like Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street, Scream and so on,” Richardson said. “Because these series often span decades, they’re movies that almost every generation has a way into.” There are some more lighthearted movies that have spooky elements like Kenny Ortega’s dark fantasy Hocus Pocus and Henry Selick’s supernatural stop-motion animation films Coraline and The Nightmare Before Christmas. Some of Woodard’s favorite Halloween movies are Cat People, Misery and Possession, but he usually uses the holiday to discover horror films he hasn’t seen before. One of his favorite Halloween movies growing up was Halloweentown, he said. “I think what’s really nice about the month of October, or Halloween in general, for horror films, is that there’s a wide variety of horror for people to choose, based off their own tastes and interests,” Woodard said. news-editor.shorthorn@uta.edu

At work, Dan Hawkins, 58, usually wears his contact lenses, wedding ring and — that’s it. No clothes. For almost 40 years, Hawkins has been an art nude model for life drawing classes at museums and schools across the Metroplex, including UTA. Throughout his part-time modeling career, he has also posed nude for paintings, sculptures and a little photography. “I love this job,” he said. “I love talking about it. Especially with people who’ve never been in a life drawing class because it is very clinical. There’s nothing erotic or untoward about it. This is the human body.” Hawkins’ first gig was Nov. 6, 1984, when he attended the University of Arkansas. He signed up to impress a girl he met in the dining hall, who told him her class drew nude models, Hawkins said. When he was called to be a last-minute replacement, he spent an hour before the class taking a long walk around the campus to contemplate. “When it was over, it’s like the opposite. It’s like, ‘I don’t want to get dressed,’” he said. “This is so freeing and so fun, too.” He got $5 an hour. Most on-campus jobs paid a minimum wage of $3.35. Hawkins never modeled in the life drawing class of the girl he planned to impress, and she never got to see him at work either, he said. He sought nude modeling opportunities at UTA after transferring in 1986 and then at other universities. Hawkins graduated from UTA in 1990. This fall semester, he has modeled for Texas Christian University, UTA and some colleges in Dallas. On average, he models around six weeks’ worth of classes at UTA, Hawkins said. On a bright day outside in October, the lights inside a classroom at the Studio Arts Center were dimmed. Lo-fi hip-hop beats soothed through the speaker. As Hawkins stood firmly on the stage, students sat or stood in a semicircle, filling their canvases with his pose in their medium of choice: pencils, charcoal or oil pastels. Hawkins’ experience allows him to offer different poses depending on the lighting, said Hallee Turner, art adjunct assistant professor. Oftentimes, he brings his own props or finds them in the classroom. “He’s very still. He has dynamic poses. He really considers what the artists need to work from,” Turner said. Although the department has three other nude models, Hawkins poses so often for Turner’s class that his measurements are ingrained in her students’ minds, she said. “Whenever we have other models, they’re like, ‘Oh, this is different,’” Turner said. Memorizing Hawkins’ measures has its pros and cons, drawing animation senior Ryan Oxner said. When Oxner took life drawing in the summer, there were just two models including Hawkins. Now in the fall, he started realizing Hawkins’ muscle, bones and other proportions, which is helpful, he said. The con? “Whenever you do switch models, it’s like, ‘Oh no, I’m trying to draw them like Dan,’” he said. Hawkins never kept this part of his life secret, he said, but he rarely talked about it outside of college art departments until 2001. When he got on the hot seat of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” 23 years ago, host Regis Philbin was fascinated by his part-time job. “The pot that I could win was over $2 million,” he said. “I was more nervous about talking about being a nude model than I was about trying to play the game.” Hawkins won $32,000 that day. He credited his performance to Philbin’s curiosity. “Once I got over that initial conversation with Regis and he started asking me the questions, I kind of calmed down,” he said. “I think it helped me in terms of playing the game.” Hawkins is self-employed and is trying to make nude modeling his full-time job, as he has gotten more hours in the last two or three years. He gets paid between $25 and $30 an hour, depending on the school, he said. Hawkins hopes he is only halfway through this career, he said. People are taught to wear clothes all the time and to have a certain amount of body shame, so not many people could do his job, Hawkins said. Even some who found confidence couldn’t pull off the poses. He has learned over the years what artists like. Usually, he chooses the poses — sitting, standing or ones that mimic athletes’ stances such as tug of war, boxing or disc throwing. “You can tell he’s having fun with it,” Turner said. “I think that’s part of the different energy. He’s just willing to try anything, and the students really respond to that.” Because the job is vulnerable, nude models can understandably be quieter or more reserved, she said, but Hawkins puts students at ease by talking to them during breaks and creating a sense of collaboration. Some models would choose to be more professional and tune out with their headphones between sets, Oxner said, but that’s not Hawkins. “Dan is just present the whole time,” he said. Sometimes, Hawkins is tasked to hold poses for one or two minutes, he said. Some classes require him to hold poses for 45. When Hawkins models, he thinks about story ideas and plot points for his novels — he has published four as D. H. Jonathan. Or he simply counts the time. Drawing senior Kade Winterton said Hawkins and students would goof around during breaks about Hawkins’ appearance on “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” and his career as a novelist. The back-and-forth jokes make for light-hearted moods. “We get to know him more than the other models, which I think can be more personal,” Winterton said. “Our works have that kind of connection from knowing him more. The other ones, I feel like I was just drawing a model.” After 40 years, nothing bothers Hawkins much anymore during those classes, he said. “I do like hearing people tell me how good of a model I am, so I keep doing it,” he said. “It makes me feel young, motivated and just stay as physically fit as I can be.” Hawkins walks between 6,000 and 10,000 steps per day, he said. Occasionally, he does push-ups and some leg lifts. His diet consists of high protein, low carb and low sugar. “I’m gonna take off all my clothes in front of three, four different classes here in the next two weeks, I’d better not get all fat and sloppy,” he said, laughing. He hasn’t been put in awkward or embarrassing poses before, Hawkins said. One time in spring 1985 at Arkansas, however, he was asked to put on a “goofy” straw hat and do a meditating pose. In the middle of class, a girl he saw regularly outside the art groups walked in. At that moment, Hawkins said, he felt more embarrassed by what he was wearing than what he wasn’t. @DangHLe news-editor.shorthorn@uta.edu

Residents can expect a variety of events from a Día de los Muertos celebration, Halloween arcade events and free or low-cost live band performances throughout the week. Fitness Join the Treatment Research and Education to end Obesity Foundation for their Walk from Obesity event from 8 to 10:30 a.m. Oct. 19 at the USMD Hospital at Arlington. All funds raised will support the TREO Foundation. Online registration is $30 and on-site registration is $35. Entertainment Celebrate Día de los Muertos at the third annual Sundance Square Catrina Fest from noon to 8 p.m. Oct. 20 in Fort Worth. The event includes colorful costumes, local food vendors and a performance by a Selena tribute band. Attendees can enjoy live music and a Catrina Contest. Have a fright at Free Play Arcade - Arlington during Halloween Party-Night of the Living Arcade from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. Oct. 25. The event features discounted drinks, scary sights and sounds and a cash prize costume contest. Tickets are $15 and attendees must be at least 21 years old. Music Join the Arlington Community Band for a free performance 7 to 8 p.m. Oct. 20 at Lamar Baptist Church during their Sounds of the Season: Fall concert. For over 40 years the community band has promoted the appreciation of music through low-cost and free concerts, according to the event page. Enjoy a free United States Army Field Band and Soldiers’ Chorus performance 7 p.m. Oct. 25 at the Dr. Marcelo Cavazos Center For Visual and Performing Arts. Critics claim the band is one of the most versatile and inspiring musical organizations in the world, according to the event page. Sports Cheer on the Dallas Mavericks as they take on the San Antonio Spurs in their home opener starting 6:30 p.m. Oct. 24 at American Airlines Center in Dallas. Tickets are available online and are limited to four per person. news-editor.shorthorn@uta.edu

Right before UTA’s first official drag show began in October 2013, alumna Milaun Murry wondered if anyone would show up. “We were worried that we weren’t going to get a lot of people to attend,” said Murry, the event’s lead coordinator. The journey to that first show at Rio Grande Ballroom took a lot of effort. She and the LGBTQ+ Program had to present the history of drag and the community’s presence in Arlington to convince the university’s leadership. The show wasn’t just a one-and-done. Instead, they would present a series of programs to educate the UTA community on drag as an art form. Eventually, they got approval. Moments before showtime, Murry shut the venue’s door to set up the stage. Then, she heard a knock. “Our supervisor is frantic, and she’s like, ‘Hey, I really need you to go. Like, you’re going to need to go find more chairs.’ And we’re just like, ‘Why? We already pulled out all the chairs that we had asked for,’” Murry said. When they opened the door, they saw students line up around the corner and down the stairs. Although some of them had never been to a drag show, they were interested in learning about the art form, she said. “That drag show kind of represented a massive win,” Murry said. “It showed us that, ‘Hey, we have a space here on campus, and leadership is willing to listen to our needs and listen to our stories and we’re able to make change.’” The following decade, UTA would put on 10 annual drag shows inside the University Center — the only exception in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The shows were one of the most attended events for the then-LGBTQ+ Program. This year, the show won’t go on at UTA, as students have struggled to organize one of a similar scale. Texas Senate Bill 17 became law Jan. 1, prohibiting public universities from establishing or maintaining DEI practices and providing preferential consideration in hiring or treating employees on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin. The bill also prohibited funding any activities regarding DEI initiatives in the first state fiscal year that started Sept. 1. After that, public universities may fund DEI activities in general or LGBTQ+-focused ones but also have to provide the same amount for any other student organization that would want to put on an activity, said Shelly L. Skeen, lawyer and regional director at Lambda Legal. SB 17 doesn’t affect student activities, but many statewide universities are reading the bill very broadly to avoid missteps, Skeen said. Students can fundraise for their events in this first year of the bill’s effect, as universities will not fund them. “What’s happening is universities are erring on the side of caution because they don’t want to run afoul of the requirements in the bill itself,” she said. In the past, the LGBTQ+ Program put a lot of its funding toward the drag show, Arlington resident Josh Mackrill said. Through the shows, they established great partnerships, connected with community partners and showcased local drag queens. UTA’s drag shows allowed students to learn about drag as a funny, powerful and dynamic art form that’s not necessarily tied to sexuality or gender, Mackrill said. Memories of the shows stayed with Mackrill, such as seeing students starting their journey of self-expression by talking to the performers about doing makeup and getting into the business. “We got to introduce a couple different more resources, having HIV testings at the event, as well as introducing the ballroom element,” he said. “And then really just having a really great time for our students.” In 2023, UTA celebrated a decade of hosting drag shows on campus. The show was moved to the Bluebonnet Ballroom to accommodate a larger crowd as tickets sold and queens from “RuPaul’s Drag Race” performed. Such efforts funded the Maverick Rainbow Scholarship for students. In 2021 and 2022, tips from the free shows also went toward the scholarships, Mackrill said. Over the years, Murry said she still tried to catch the annual campus drag events whenever she could. Whenever she met the Pride Peers who put the show together, she would tell them how happy she was that the show still existed. To hear about the struggles of holding a drag show on campus, now, is disheartening, she said. “It just provides a very safe space in a vibrant community to really get to know amazing people,” Murry said. @DangHLe news-editor.shorthorn@uta.edu

This week's to-do list offers a number of activities such as festivals, a local vending event and a Shrek-themed rave. Music Pull up a lawn chair from 5 to 10 p.m Oct. 12 at Levitt Pavilion to watch for their third annual Do Good Fest Texas, presented by the National Life Group. September Moon, Catie Offerman, Carson Jeffrey and Aaron Watson will be performing. Concert-goers can bring their own food, beverages, lawn chairs, and blankets. Parking is free for attendees. Tickets are $5 and can be purchased online. Head to the House of Blues and experience Shrek Rave from 9 to 10 p.m. Oct. 18. This Shrek-themed event will have live music and performances that will have attendees “scared Shrekless.” Ticket prices vary and can be purchased online. Entertainment The Swap Block Party at Commodities will be from noon to 8 p.m Oct. 12 on East Abram Street. The event will feature over 15 local vendors, free giveaways, a live DJ performance, a $24 and under vintage sale and sneaker sales. Admission is free for everyone. Celebrate Italian American heritage in Dallas with the Columbus Day Parade and Italian Festival starting 11 a.m Oct. 13, at the Ronald Kirk Bridge. This event will have Italian merch, live music, an Italian car display and Italian food. Admission and parking are free for attendees. The Michelada Festival is a free outdoor multicultural event celebrating music, food and heritage. The festival will be from noon to 8 p.m. Oct 13 in downtown Fort Worth’s General Worth Square. All of the food and retail vendors in attendance are locally owned businesses and there will be a competition for the best Michelada. Sports Dallas Cowboys and Detroit Lions fans can watch them go head to head 3:25 p.m. Oct. 13 at the AT&T Stadium. Doors to the stadium open at 1 p.m. and tickets can be purchased online. @fluffsjourney news-editor.shorthorn@uta.edu

For almost 40 years, the AIDS Memorial Quilt has served as an honor to both those whose lives were cut short by the disease and as a visual tapestry of grief. The 54-ton patchwork, made up of 50,000 panels created by friends, family members and lovers, is dedicated to over 110,000 individuals lost to AIDS. As one died, a panel got sewn. Each 12-by-12 panel is an individual piece that then becomes part of a whole. UTA Libraries’ Special Collections will display a panel of the AIDS Memorial Quilt from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Oct. 18 on the sixth floor of the Central Library. A free open house event from noon to 2 p.m. Tuesday will have tabling university departments, local and student organizations, such as The Queer Social Work Association, YesterQueer: The Tarrant County LGBTQ History Project and the QTA: LGBTQ+ Faculty and Staff Network. The Special Collections will also present an interactive display for people to search for names of friends and family members memorialized on the 54-ton quilt. Attendees can share their thoughts on the quilts with a memory board. This marks the third year in a row that Special Collections brings the display to UTA, said digital archivist Kathryn Slover. UTA also brought in a portion of the panel in the ’90s and 2000s. Slover said she hopes that bringing the quilt to UTA allows the audience to draw a connection between the history of AIDS and the impact of what people are experiencing today. Around 1.2 million people in the U.S. are living with AIDS, according to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. “This is us sharing more and trying to provide that human aspect to the AIDS epidemic as well,” Slover said. “Trying to remember the people, not just the epidemic, commemorate and celebrate the people who were impacted by it.” Cleve Jones, human rights activist, author and lecturer, started the quilt in 1985, according to the National AIDS Memorial website. @DangHLe news-editor.shorthorn@uta.edu

Sissa Muerta didn’t understand the importance of having a community for queer people until he started performing drag in March. Growing up watching drag on YouTube, Muerta said it wasn’t until they saw a local show at the University of North Texas that an idea sparked: They wanted to try drag. “I saw how diverse it was and how gender diverse — all the different people that were like me,” Muerta said. “It was representation that got me interested in me doing it myself, which I think was cool. That's what I strive to do as well, is represent for people like me, because I think I needed that when it happened.” Last weekend, Muerta performed at Oh, What-A-Drag hosted by The Football Team Creative, showcasing local drag performers at Taípo restaurant in downtown Arlington. The space was offered without charge, so club members attended the event for free, and non-members paid $10 at the door, which went toward supporting talent and future events. “I'm just very happy that the community has accepted me in a way that I didn't think they would,” Muerta said. When The Football Team Creative first pitched the idea for a community drag show, member Maggie Clark said the group instantly began building on it. Growing up in a smaller town, Clark said she graduated early because other students would harass her for being part of the Gay-Straight Alliance, to the point of physical altercations. On her 17th birthday, Clark went to her first drag show, which she said brought her to tears. “Going to that drag show with my mom and my aunt and them being supportive of me being there was just like a really good full circle moment with my family,” she said. Moments like Clark's almost became illegal last year. Senate Bill 12 became law Sept. 1, restricting performers from dancing suggestively or engaging in sexually oriented performances in front of children or individuals younger than 18. The law was later ruled unconstitutional by a federal judge, meaning no Texas government officials can enforce SB 12. The attempt to ban drag is disheartening, Muerta said. “As a queer person, as a [transgender] person, it's really scary to open your phone or go on social media or the news, and people want you to die, essentially, or they want you to just cease to exist, push you to the fringes of society,” they said. Drag queens were at the 1969 Stonewall riots fighting for other members of the LGBTQ+ community, Muerta said. Now, the community needs to show up for and uplift each other. “An attack on one of us is an attack on all of us,” Muerta said. Clark said she wanted to ensure the event allowed each drag performer to feel good about performing, as it’s also a place to give people an opportunity to see and learn from fellow drag artists, no matter their experience level. “Gender expression is so important, and just being able to be comfortable. That's what I value about Football Team, is just being comfortable around people,” Clark said. “We knew this was a space where members get dressed up and have a good time and try their best at drag for the first time, and that's special because we created that safe environment for them.” After expressing interest in drag, Peach was shared The Football Team Creative’s post looking for local drag performers by a friend and immediately jumped right in. Between showcasing her vocals, Peach invited the crowd to dance to Chappel Roan’s “HOT TO GO!” as the room filled with attendees singing and grooving along. She said the nerve-wracking experience took her out of her comfort zone. “It's really awesome,” Peach said. “I think I’m actually glad this is my first performance.” Muerta said there's something unique and special that happens when cities like Arlington embrace the drag scene and host community shows outside of the Metroplex. He said seeing more places open up to drag is exciting. After only performing for six months, Muerta said they want to continue polishing their drag and embrace being a “baby” performer while learning from the community. One day, he wants to leave a long-lasting impact and represent those like them. “I don't have many other words to say. It's so beautiful,” Muerta said. “I learned so much from other people, and the support is crazy. They're ride or die. They really will be there for you no matter what, and they'll have your back.” @trinhvchristine news-editor.shorthorn@uta.edu

Jenna Schroeder never forgot the loneliness and isolation of her freshman year at UTA in 2022. Schroeder was a gay girl from Austin who didn’t communicate her sexuality to others, she said. At UTA, she had no friends outside of her roommate, and clubs for LGBTQ+ students weren’t very active. Becoming president of the Lavender Alliance in fall 2023, which she calls a safe space for UTA’s LGBTQ+ community, was nothing but a coincidence, Schroeder said. The organization had no leader, so she stepped up. The following academic year has been a whirlwind. Texas Senate Bill 17 went into effect Jan. 1, prohibiting public universities from maintaining many diversity, equity and inclusion practices on campus. Because the term is broad enough to include many underserved communities, resources for LGBTQ+ students also went away. Within weeks, the website and social media platforms of the LGBTQ+ Program, which advocated for gay students on campus, disappeared. LGBTQ+ student organizations began losing funding for their events as the university complied with state law. This October, instead of celebrating Campus Pride Month like in previous years, flyers for events focus on celebrating LGBTQ+ History Month. Currently, the Intercultural Student Engagement Center, UTA Libraries, the School of Social Work and The Queer Social Work Association are promoting five events in total. UTA is allowed to recognize historical events, such as LGBTQ+ History Month, Black History Month, Hispanic Heritage Month and Women’s History Month, according to the UT System compliance code with SB 17. Last year, the LGBTQ+ Program promoted about 20 events on its Instagram to celebrate Campus Pride Month, according to UTA Libraries’ Special Collections archives examined by The Shorthorn. After SB 17, Schroeder said the Lavender Alliance had neither money nor faculty support. She also went into debt after funding got pulled. It then became a journey of learning curves while maintaining a full course load and having other personal obligations, she said. Schroeder, however, persisted. “I need to make sure that people have resources because I didn’t have resources, and they need to have social connections that I didn’t have, you know?” she said. ‘The only difference is we’re queer’ This October marks The Queer Social Work Association’s first anniversary. Using their background in social work, members want to be advocates for LGBTQ+ students on campus. Within days of its creation, the association pushed for the display of pride flags inside the Social Work and Smart Hospital Building last November to commemorate Transgender Awareness Month. In March, the group spoke for transgender rights and denounced SB 17 at the Texas State Capitol. The group of five is working with Student Government to expand all restrooms at UTA to be labeled as “all gender,” said Elwim Sorto, the association’s CEO and co-founder. Between the state political climate and the limitations in place, surviving has been a hassle, Sorto said. Discouraging moments have arisen, and group members have grown frustrated over the past year. But, they would talk to people who appreciated the association’s assistance. “People are just out there being silent. People are isolated, and they don’t deserve to feel like that,” he said. “Everyone deserves to be happy.” LGBTQ+ student organizations are no different from any other social student clubs on campus, as they all have members who share interests, said Brayden Wilder, software engineering sophomore and Lavender Alliance member. “Our interest is just talking about the queer community, discussing the problems within it, discussing how we can solve it, and it’s just no different,” Wilder said. “The only difference is we’re queer and they’re not.” ‘I just want people to not feel excluded’ Before Schroeder joined Lavender Alliance, Violet Murguia was a club member in fall 2022 when it had about five active members. Murguia was still in the closet back then, questioning her identity as a transgender woman, she said. However, using the group’s Discord server and asking members questions, she began to come to terms with her identity. “The only way to find out I’m trans is to go through it and having people there to support me,” she said. Murguia, the club’s public relations executive, these days forces herself to be more social and outspoken despite her anxiety. Whether it’s messaging members on Discord or attending meetings in person, she wanted people to know they have at least one friend, she said. “I just want people to not feel excluded,” she said. Among one of the promoted events on Lavender Alliance’s Instagram, the group posted about Lavender Graduation last April. The ceremony, which celebrates identity and culture for the graduating class, included remarks from UTA alumnus Jacob Reyes, news and rapid response coordinator at the GLAAD. “When I gave my speech, I made sure not to beat around the bush. I made sure to say ‘LGBTQ.’ I made sure to say that students who were at the Lavender Graduation ceremony were not just there to celebrate their creativity and their individuality,” Reyes said. “They were there to celebrate the fact that they were queer and allies of the community, and it’s important to say that.” Seeing students being impacted by SB 17 restrictions hurt Reyes personally, he said. It was at UTA that he was able to express his truest self. He returned to school in his late 20s and found his identity through the LGBTQ+ Program and the then Multicultural Affairs. Reyes wasn’t alone. A 2023 presentation at New Maverick Orientation showed the LGBTQ+ Program’s survey of 183 LGBTQ+ students, the majority of which felt that UTA supported their identities and allowed them to express their authentic selves in class, according to archived material from Special Collections. In 2022, UTA’s LGBTQ+ Program received a five-star Campus Pride Index rating based on the university’s commitment to LGBTQ-inclusive policies, programs and practices from Campus Pride — a national nonprofit organization working to create safer, more LGBTQ-friendly learning environments in higher education. Reyes knows how much it means to have programs and safe spaces like the LGBTQ+ Program, he said. On one of the floating shelves in his room displays his Lavender Graduation stole. “Having that stole, just being able to see it every day, it reminds me that I’m in a better place because of UT Arlington,” he said. ‘I felt like I was heard’ Wilder grew up in Cypress, Texas, then moved to Katy, Texas, where they were surrounded by conservative individuals who didn’t accept queer people. Despite this, they found other queer friends and built a community. Wilder joined the Lavender Alliance a week or two after coming to UTA, hoping to find a community just as close-knit as the one back in Katy, and they said they found it. “I felt like I was heard, like I belonged somewhere,” Wilder said. At around 11:55 a.m. on a fall Wednesday afternoon, more and more LGBTQ+ students showed up for a weekly meeting at the Sabine Room at the University Center. At noon every Wednesday, the group discusses educational topics related to queerness. On Fridays, they meet to socialize. These days, Lavender Alliance has mostly recovered from debt and has received financial help through fundraising and fellow students. The club has around 60 total members. Its growth has been overwhelming, Schroeder said, but she hopes to continue expanding, putting on events and providing resources. When people attend meetings, she wants them to feel supported and not isolated. As the meeting went on, people continued sharing their stories. One spoke, and the others listened. At times, a student would gasp listening to their peers’ experiences. “They should feel like they’re among friends and that they should be comfortable,” Schroeder said, glancing at a group who stayed after the meeting to chit-chat. “That’s what I work to achieve every day.” In the 16-by-34 foot room, students had different skin colors, different gender identities and came from different backgrounds. Yet, in that moment, they had something in common: They wanted to listen to others’ experiences as a member of the LGBTQ+ community — and be heard for theirs. @DangHLe news-editor.shorthorn@uta.edu

In 2019, director Todd Phillips created an origin story for Joker, Batman’s iconic nemesis, that would go on to achieve great success. The first film received 11 Academy Award nominations and won two, grossing over $1 billion at the global box office and winning the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival – it’s clear people love this DC villain. When I heard that there was going to be a sequel, I was intrigued about how Arthur “the Joker” Fleck’s story would continue. Once I heard it was a musical, I became skeptical. After leaving the theater, I only had one question: What did I just watch? Joker: Folie à Deux – meaning “madness of two” in French – was released in theaters Oct. 4, exactly five years after Joker. Following the events of the first film, Fleck, played by Joaquin Phoenix, is institutionalized at Arkham Asylum as he awaits trial for the crimes he committed. While incarcerated, he meets Lee Quinzel, played by Lady Gaga, and sparks fly… literally. Prosecutor Harvey Dent is attempting to prove that Fleck isn’t just mentally ill, but that he’s a monster and must face the death penalty. Fleck’s defense attorney Maryanne Stewart argues that he needs proper psychological care because there’s another person inside him, the Joker. Visually, the film was stunning, with brightly colored sets and costumes that made me feel like I was watching a deranged version of La La Land. There is a good balance between the film’s bright and colorful fantasy versus the dark and harsh reality, but the gore is disturbing and, at many times, pointless. Showing the prison guards’ physical brutality and harsh taunts towards Fleck’s acts of violence isn’t new, but in the first film, it had a purpose. Despite the unorganized story, the musical numbers were the best part. Hildur Guðnadóttir’s score is just as haunting as before, with even more intense, dramatic bass that gives us a look into both sides of Joker: the showman and the psychopath. Many actors have played the character of Joker over the years, with each one bringing a different approach to the character. Joker: Folie à Deux isn’t the best Joker film, nor did it show the best rendition I’ve seen from the character, but Phoenix’s talent can’t be denied. Phoenix embodies the spirit of Joker, even as his character is unsure of his identity. The problem with Joker: Folie à Deux isn’t the acting – it’s the writing. Fleck seems to be going through an identity crisis with two different sides telling him what to do: His lawyer wants him to show people that he’s human, whereas Quinzel wants to see the real him. But if Fleck doesn’t even know who he is or who he wants to be, how can he determine what’s real? Well, that’s just it – he can’t. Maybe that’s the point of the film. Maybe it’s a warning for worshiping a false idol. Maybe it’s a wake-up call to have us stop living in a fantasy world, face our reality and try to make a difference or better ourselves. news-editor.shorthorn@uta.edu

Residents have a variety of activities to choose from this week, including a visit from the Hello Kitty Cafe Truck, a family-friendly Fall Festival and concerts at Arlington Music Hall. Music Hum along to classic tunes as Theatre Arlington shares the stage with the Oldies but Goodies as part of the Club Cabaret series with Chris and Dinah Menger at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 4. Tickets are $16.70 online. Arlington Music Hall hosts James McMurtry with special guest BettySoo at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 11. Tickets range from $38 to $80 and doors open 5:30 p.m. Entertainment The Hello Kitty Cafe Truck West will visit The Parks Mall at Arlington from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Oct. 5, bringing sweet treats, Sanrio merch and photo-ops. The truck will be located near the Ice Rink and Round1 bowling and arcade, accepting cards only. Settle into autumn with River Legacy’s Fall Festival from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Oct. 5 at River Legacy Park and River Legacy Nature Center. The family-friendly event brings games, a pumpkin patch, live music and treats like hot dogs and funnel cake. Tickets can be purchased online at $8 for individuals or $45 for a family pack of four admission tickets and $20 worth of coupons. Proceeds support the center’s environmental education. Residents can decorate lanterns and float them on Cliff Nelson’s pond during the Phantom Lights festival from 6 to 8 p.m. Oct. 5 at the Cliff Nelson Recreation Center. Attendees can enjoy a dance party and costume contest. Festival-goers can pre-register online for $10 paper lanterns or purchase them on-site on a first come first serve basis. Big Boy No. 4014, named the world's largest operating steam locomotive, will embark on its eight-week Heartland of America Tour and be on display from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Oct. 10 and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Oct. 11 on Lancaster Avenue in Fort Worth. The event is free, but parking rates apply at the Convention Center Parking Garage. @trinhvchristine news-editor.shorthorn@uta.edu