Senior Art Director: Jynnette Neal jneal@advocatemag.com
Creative Director/Photographer: Lauren Allen lallen@advocatemag.com
Contributors: Patti Vinson, Carol Toler, Sam Gillespie, Niki Gummadi
Contributing photographers: Kathy Tran, Yuvie Styles, Victoria Gomez, Amani Sodiq, Rae Overman, Cat Iler, Jenni Cholula, Austin Gibbs, Ethan Good, Tanner Garza, Gabriel Cano, Brandon Gonzalez
Advocate (c) 2024 is published monthly in print and daily online by Advocate Media - Dallas Inc., a 501(c)3 non-profit corporation based in Dallas and first published in 1991. Contents of this print magazine may not be reproduced. Advertisers and advertising agencies assume liability for the content of all advertisements and sponsorships printed, and therefore assume responsibility for any and all claims against the Advocate. The Publisher reserves the right to accept or reject ay editorial, advertising or sponsorship material in print or online. Opinions set forth in Advocate publications are those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect the Publisher’s viewpoint. More than 180,000 people read Advocate publications in print each month; Advocate online publications receive more than 4 million pageviews monthly. Advertising rates and guidelines are available upon request. Advocate print and online publications are available free of charge throughout our neighborhoods, one print copy per reader. For information about supporting our non-profit mission of providing local news to neighborhood readers, please call 214-560-4212 or email aquintero@advocatemag.com.
ABOUT
COVER Mural on the side of Ixtapa Bay Restaurant. Art by Joel Angelo. Photography by Lauren
editor@advocatemag.com
Newsletter: advocatemag.com/newsletter
LAKEWOOD/EAST DALLAS
ADVOCATE
VOL. 32 NO. 5
PROFILE
12 Making art to electrify DINING
16 The peoples’ patisserie
FEATURES
22 Unfurled
26 Logging off
28 Thank a teacher today
32 A sensory scoopin’ boogie
34 What moms want
COLUMNS
38 Celebrating our beloved library
The color scheme in Lubellas Patisserie includes shades of muted blue and stark white. Flower vases that resemble the bottom half of a woman’s face are also scattered around the eatery. Read more on page 16.
Photography by Kathy Tran.
Photo by Kathy Tran
IN MEMORIAM
Long-time photographer Robert Bunch died on April 7, 2025. He worked for UPI, taking photos during Dallas Cowboys, Texas Rangers and Dallas Mavericks games. He retired in 2012 after more than 30 years as a professional working for newspapers and magazines, including nearly 20 years shooting for the Advocate . The Vietnam veteran and Class of ’65 Bryan Adams High School graduate quit professional photography and instead took it up as a hobby, shooting wildlife around White Rock Lake and McKittrick Canyon in Guadalupe National Park. On many trips to Yellowstone National Park, he was joined by his beloved dog, a chocolate lab named Coco who passed away many years ago. At age 77, Robert lost a long battle with cancer.
—Christina Hughes Babb & Jynnette Neal
Above: Blue Heron at White Rock Lake taken by Robert Bunch and featured in the July 2012 Advocate
Portrait of Robert Bunch by Can Türkyilmaz.
We’re not for everyone.
Not every agent can be an agent with us. Here’s why. A Briggs Freeman Sotheby’s International Realty agent knows more, handles more, sees more and understands more. It’s what they’re famous for. In fact, we rarely call them agents. They are real estate advisors — entrusted with giving their clients informed guidance, accurate information, honest feedback, valuable tips, even moral support if they need it. (Emotions can run amok during a purchase or sale, you see.) These professional, passionate advisors are with us because of their track records, awards, certifications and reputations — the best of the best. We adore them. And we support them. We have unique tech tools that help them free up more client time. We have brokerage executives who help them grow their business. We have an in-house team of marketing pros who help them tell stories, about their properties and sometimes themselves. (They do not like to brag. We do that for them.) We also believe in our advisors’ enrichment. Mixers. Field trips. Lectures. Lunches. Classes. Networking events. Art shows. Awards dinners. It’s rather like a fine-tuned sports team, where everyone has your back and works together. Yes, every advisor at Briggs Freeman Sotheby’s International Realty is a pro — smart, sharp, proven, respected. They are the local leaders backed by a global network, which benefits their buyers and sellers in all kinds of ways. A wide net. The first call. Priority access. Our advisors connect the best clients in the world to the best properties on the planet, from North Texas to Norway to New Zealand. In fact, calling them advisors may need a rethink. They are superheroes — able to leap over obstacles, soothe jittery nerves and save their clients’ sanity. And we are the brokerage stocked only with superheroes. We haven’t settled for less, since 1960 and counting. Why would you?
MAKING ART TO ELECTRIFY
Brooklyn-born, Dallas-based muralist hopes to connect with & inspire people through his art
Story by MADELYN EDWARDS
Photography by LAUREN ALLEN
If family is the most important part of his life, then art comes next for J.M. (James Michael) Rizzi. The New York City native/ Dallas transplant has left his mark on the country and the world through his murals, including recently under the Lovers Lane bridge in our University Crossing neighborhood.
Rizzi was obsessed with drawing when he was young. He started by copying comic strips from the newspaper and comic books, and that evolved into learning new techniques and experimenting with different mediums, like oil painting as well as pen and ink. He continued honing his craft as a student at the School of Visual Arts in New York.
While living in New York during the ’90s, Rizzi worked as a graphic designer and took on other random jobs, but he continued to create his own art, including murals. He made his first mural illegally as a teenager living in Staten Island, and he loved the adrenaline rush that came from that experience. One day when he was painting a mural in Brooklyn, the owner of a mechanic shop asked Rizzi to paint a mural at his business, and it lasted for 10 years. Since then, Rizzi has created public art in the U.S. and abroad, including in Saudi Arabia where he was invited to make a mural at a cultural center for art.
WHAT DO YOU LIKE ABOUT ART?
Part of it is, probably, there’s a bit of escapism. I like art, and I like people who make art if it’s sincere, regardless of what it is because most people don’t. Most people don’t try to do something different or make something that is their own. Art exists for the sake of itself. This is at least my belief, but I like people that do things and make things for no other reason but they want to do this thing.
NOT EVERYBODY CAN AFFORD TO WORK AS A FULL-TIME ARTIST, BUT YOU SEEM LIKE YOU’VE BEEN PRETTY SUCCESSFUL.
I have had full-time jobs almost my entire adult life, and then I would just at the end of the day go home and make art. It’s OK to not make a living off of your art. That doesn’t mean that you’re not an artist. I think that’s a misconception that a lot of people have. They’re like, ‘Well, I make art, but I don’t make a living off it.’ A lot of the artists that we’ve come to admire never did. If you go home every day and you write, then you’re a writer. Just because you might be sorting mail during the day, that’s not who you are. You’re a writer. But because we live in a society where you have to be able to afford a certain lifestyle, you gotta do a lot of shit you don’t want to do. That’s really what it comes down to. Is it the thing you don’t want to do, is that what defines you, or is it the thing that you want to be doing, is that what defines you?
HOW’D
YOU GET INVOLVED WITH PAINTING MURALS?
I was inspired by a lot of graffiti artists, and I just liked painting on walls. I like making big paintings, so painting murals gives me that ability to make really large, impactful work that can be seen by everyone, by the public, as opposed to creating artwork that’s just for a very small select group of collectors or gallerists. I like to
make art that engages with people. It’s just a great way to connect to people by painting murals. And it’s great to paint outside. It’s also a way of leaving my mark in cities.
WHAT’S THE COOLEST PLACE YOU’VE EVER TRAVELED TO DO A MURAL?
The most unexpected place from a cultural perspective was probably going to Saudi Arabia to paint in Riyadh just because there’s so much of a cultural difference between growing up in America and the U.S. and our perceptions of other people, particularly in Saudi Arabia. If my goal is to connect with people through art, going to places like Riyadh is such a wonderful experience because art breaks down a lot of perceived cultural differences, and it’s a great way to open up conversations with people because we, regardless
With the new mural under the Lovers Lane bridge, J.M. Rizzi aimed to give an area that had once been a homeless encampment a more welcoming vibe.
of whatever our cultural differences might be, can look at art, whether it’s a painting, a mural, a song, and now we have a shared connection to something. And once you start to build those little shared connections, well then you can break down a lot of other perceived misconceptions about people. That was probably my most interesting place to go from a cultural perspective, to be able to share that with a different society and hope to inspire. Another reason why I like to make public art is just to inspire people to do stuff. If I can paint an abstract mural on the side of this building, figure out how to do it, get it funded — you could figure out whatever it is, that thing that you’re trying to do.
IS THERE ANYTHING PARTICULARLY THAT INSPIRED THE LOVERS LANE BRIDGE MURAL?
The goal behind changing that space was that it had been a bit of a homeless encampment for a while. They put down those big rocks and wanted to do something on that wall to make it more inviting for the community. It’s really a way of just changing that little piece of landscape so that it feels more inviting and more welcoming to the community. The concept is, do something that’s colorful, bright, and you’ll see in the center, there’s a flower that’s growing out of it. And it’s like a sign of rebirth, of life popping out of this, of what once was kind of a little dark recess by the highway.
The star of Lubellas’ menu is the croissants, which can either be butter, chocolate, almond, pecan or pistachio. The patisserie also serves savory meals for breakfast and lunch.
the people’s patisserie
Lubellas offers a taste of France in Casa View
Story by MADELYN EDWARDS | Photography by KATHY TRAN
Casa View locals don’t have to fly to Paris to get a taste of French-style pastries in a charming and sophisticated shop.
Tucked away in the shopping center on Ferguson Road between Pet Supplies Plus and Metro by T-Mobile, Lubellas Patisserie could be where you meet your mother for Quiche Lorraine and a side of mixed greens salad ($14.25). Or, you could sit by the big windows framed by stark white drapes with your lover and share a slice of chocolate cake, iced with perfect swirls of whipped cream and strawberry jam ($5.75).
But if you go to Lubellas and can only order one menu item, get a croissant, either a simple but delicious butter one ($4.99) or a fancy and sweet pistachio one ($6.75), among other variations. These made-fromscratch croissants are almost as long as the diameter of the dinner plate they are served on. They are exactly how a croissant should be — flaky on the outside, warm and soft on the inside.
The croissants themselves are a symbol of the food quality standards at Lubellas, set by owners and married couple Maria Becerra and Ismael Trejo. Only a certain amount is made each day, and when they’re gone, they’re gone. This means the owners have had to ask customers to wait or come back another time, but that’s a price they are willing to pay to provide fresh, high-quality food that’s worth the menu price.
“Our croissants come fresh,” Trejo says. “We take our time.”
Trejo and Becerra have found that some customers don’t mind waiting for fresh food. In fact, Lubellas’ supporters have been integral to the restaurant’s success from the beginning. Trejo and Becerra, who have worked in Dallas restaurants for years, renovated the space on Ferguson Road to launch Lubellas and had help from “really nice people.” When they opened Lubellas a few years ago, word of mouth from followers and neighbors made the debut a big hit. People from all over the Dallas area patronize Lubellas, even if they have to travel far to get there, Trejo says. Customers have also donated eggs and Splenda packets to Lubellas.
“They really care about this place,” Trejo says.
Around 2009, Becerra didn’t become a pastry chef because it was her lifelong dream. It was more of a natural progression of her career in the restaurant industry. She started out as a hostess, then as a server and studied at El Centro College. From there, she worked as a pastry chef at the Italian restaurant Arcodoro & Pomodoro. Likewise, Trejo began his career as a dishwasher and rose through the ranks to become sous
chef de cuisine at Tramontana alongside James Neel. He also worked as head chef at Al Biernat’s.
Trejo and Becerra, like many food service workers, lost their jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic. Becerra started baking at home in their apartment — ”Cheesecakes, cakes … whatever fit in the oven,” she says.
When they moved to a new house where they had more space, Becerra started making cakes for weddings and quinceañeras in addition to supplying restaurants.
The idea to start Lubellas came when Trejo noticed an empty storefront in the Casa View Shopping Center while he and Becerra were taking their girls to school. The couple decided to inquire and eventually signed a lease for the space. They opened Lubellas a year later.
The Lubellas menu also includes meals for breakfast and lunch as well as pastries and sweets, like Grand Marnier-infused French toast ($14.75), a brisket burger on homemade chipotle brioche ($14.75) and a lemon tart ($5.99). While Becerra oversees the pastry creation at Lubellas, Trejo is more involved with the savory items on the menu. The couple is also not afraid
to collaborate with each other, Trejo says. Once, when a batch of croissants turned out wrong, the couple decided to use them to make the “double breakfast croissant” with scrambled eggs, bacon, cheese and maple-mustard sauce.
When they started Lubellas, not only did Becerra and Trejo face the challenge of running a business, but they also underestimated the amount of renovation work that needed to be done. Asbestos had to be removed, and they had to install a new air conditioning unit, plumbing and electrical system.
“It was a big surprise,” Becerra says. “We thought we were just going to be like, ‘Oh, we’ll just move this wall; we’ll paint here; we’ll put the floor in; we’re ready to go.’ No.”
Trejo and Becerra started with about 1,600 square feet for Lubellas and doubled their space last year to include more room for the dining area and the kitchen.
“We saw what the customers wanted,” Becerra says about the expansion.
Trejo and Becerra were aiming for a French-style decor inside of Lubellas. Walls are painted either white or muted blue, and the tables are designed with a white
If Lubellas adds a new location, owners and married couple Maria Becerra and Ismael Trejo want to continue to have high food quality standards.
marble motif. The seats and backs of the chairs inside the restaurant are made of a woven material that mirrors the light/ dark contrast of the walls by combining a cream color with a hint of blue or green. Pink and yellow flowers housed in white vases that resemble the bottom half of a woman’s face are spread throughout the dining room.
“We wanted something nicer here in the neighborhood,” Becerra says.
The moniker “Lubellas” is a combination of the names of Trejo and Becerra’s daughters, Luciana and Isabella. Becerra says the girls, who are grade school-aged, like to brag about their parents owning a bakery and offer up their mother’s cookie-baking services to their peers. Despite their daughters’ jovial attitudes toward Lubellas, Trejo and Becerra say it has been difficult to balance running the patisserie with parenthood, especially when they first started.
“Whenever you work in the industry, it’s your second house,” Becerra says. “You live more in the restaurant where you work than probably in your house because you spend a lot of hours.”
Patrons are the people who should feel at home in Lubellas, not necessarily like they are in a restaurant and have to rush their stay to free up a table, Trejo says.
“I want you to just come sit down, take the time — two, three hours,” he says. “Here, we don’t push any customer.”
As Lubellas’ patron base grows, Trejo and Becerra want to continue to build up their business through selling alcohol and possibly opening another store.
“If we open a second location, I know it’s going to be a very big hit,” Trejo says.
New banners on Main Street, Elm Street, Exposition Avenue
Story by MADELYN EDWARDS | Photography by LAUREN ALLEN
NEW BANNERS
If you walked around Deep Ellum during the past month, you might have noticed something new hanging from the streetlight poles on Main Street, Elm Street and Exposition Avenue.
More than 180 new banners were installed on the streetlight poles in late March. Eight artists, all with local ties, were selected to participate in this project by a committee of locals, employees, owners and arts experts. Individually, they crafted 10 unique banners that depict the “new growth” theme. Many of them include pictures of flowers and trees, but they also show roots and musical instruments to evoke Deep Ellum’s history.
HISTORY OF DEEP ELLUM
After the Civil War, former slaves settled in Deep Ellum, which is how the residents pronounced “Deep Elm,” and by the early 20th century, the community was built to serve African Americans. The fraternal organization the Black Knights of Pythias built their grand temple in Deep Ellum, and it included offices for Black doctors, dentists and lawyers, according to the Texas State Historical Association’s website. Then-Black newspaper the Dallas Express was also published in the temple at one point.
In the 1920s, Deep Ellum became known for shopping and entertainment; nightclubs, domino parlors and cafes opened. Jazz and blues musicians, such as Blind Lemon Jefferson, Huddie “Leadbelly” Ledbetter and Sam “Lightnin’” Hopkins, played in our neighborhood.
Changes in culture and industrialization caused a downturn in the 1940s and 1950s, but by the 1980s, Deep Ellum rebranded as the Dallas punk scene, and art galleries and nightclubs set up shop.
11521 Lochwood Blvd. | $785,000 | David Collier |
‘BEAUTY COMES FROM DIVERSITY’
The theme for the banners aims to resonate with the ever-changing nature of Deep Ellum. The artists made references to our neighborhood’s culture in their work, according to their statements.
“The composition of this painting (digitally refined) brings together poppies, daisies, bluebonnets and phoenix peppers, each distinct in form and meaning, yet thriving together,” banner artist Molly Frisby says.
“This piece embraces the idea that beauty comes from diversity, and growth happens when different elements coexist and evolve — much like Deep Ellum.
The contrast between organic shapes and structured neon lights and the mural-esque texture reflects the dichotomy of Deep Ellum and how it continues to change while staying rooted in its artistic legacy.”
‘ODE TO THE ARTISTS, MUSICIANS AND DREAMERS’
Amy Sherman — whose banner features an acoustic blues guitar and musical motifs — says, “This design is a tribute to Deep Ellum’s legacy and its ongoing evolution. It is an ode to the artists, musicians and dreamers who keep its creative roots alive, ensuring that new generations continue to thrive within its ever-growing branches.”
EDGY YET DELICATE
Benjamin Wright Coleman, who depicted a woman surrounded by flowers in his banner, says, “In my pieces, I am attempting to display the edgy roughness that I associate with Deep Ellum (the part of it that I love the most) and juxtapose that with the delicate.”
‘DAY & NIGHT’
Marcos Alvarado created three of the 10 banners.
The first one, a watering can sprinkling a heart with flowers blooming through it, represents self-care. The second, two plant-covered figures watering each other, shows the importance of community. Finally, the third banner depicts a tree with green leaves surrounded by blooms and sunshine on the top and a dying tree in the dark on the bottom half.
“Representing the harmony of opposites, this artwork highlights the necessity of balance in life,” Alvarado says. “The mirrored trees symbolize seasonal change — spring’s renewal versus winter’s dormancy — while also nodding to Deep Ellum’s vibrant nightlife. The piece reinforces the idea that light and darkness coexist, each essential to the other.”
‘SHE’S LIKE A RAINBOW’
Lashonda Cooks’ “Bloom” banner shows a Black woman with flowers in her hair, each one with a different meaning.
“Bluestar for strength, determination and endurance;
blazing star for joy, happiness and blissfulness; alyssum for worth beyond beauty; bluebells for kindness; and chrysanthemum for honesty,” Cooks says.
AN ARTISTIC JOURNEY
Mikayla Magee’s banner is personal, a callback to her first time live painting in Deep Ellum, “symbolizing creative flow and ease.”
“This banner design represents both Deep Ellum and pivotal moments in my artistic journey with themes of growth and transformation,” Magee says.
STOP AND SEE THE ART
Two more artists created Deep Ellum banners. Tyson Summers used his iconic Fritz the Deep Ellum Owl from his mural on the corner of Good Latimer Expressway and Commerce Street in a new piece of art. And Jeremie Fletcher’s banner evokes Deep Ellum’s musical history with a guitar, cello, drum, harmonica and microphone surrounded by birds, butterflies and flowers.
The banners are expected to stay up through the summer, so next time you’re strolling through Deep Ellum, look up.
LOGGING OFF
After moving to Dallas for his wife in 2014, Lakewood neighbor Darryl Campbell became part of the city’s big tech scene. At the time, he was working a remote job for Amazon, but after realizing Dallas had a bigger tech
community than he originally thought, Campbell went back to working in person. Since then, he has worked at companies like hotels.com and Uber as well as tiny tech startups that didn’t quite make it off the ground. Through his work with
This former industry insider has a warning for big tech.
Interview by NIKI GUMMADI
corporate strategy and finance at these businesses, Campbell gained an insider’s perspective but also, eventually, a disillusionment with the industry itself. He says that after years of seeing how strategic and management attitudes in big tech had
Photography by TANNER GARZA
started to cause people real harm, he knew he had to leave the industry. His new book Fatal Abstraction: Why the Managerial class Loses Control of Software gives readers a glimpse into the world of big tech and a warning: things will get much worse if the industry continues to prioritize financial statements. We spoke with Campbell about the book’s origins and how he views the tech industry now.
WHY DID YOU LEAVE THE INDUSTRY?
The first, sort of immediate thing was that I was at a pair of startups, and they both failed. But I think one of the reasons that I left big tech specifically, and kind of the genesis for the book, is that when I started back in 2010, Google, Apple, Microsoft — the big companies — were not the biggest in the world. They were still kind of underdogs, and there was this sort of utopian idea that we’re making products that are going to make the world better, make us more efficient, drive down costs and so on. Then, around 2015/2016, it felt like the whole industry had changed. It went from being “tech the underdog” to being the 500-pound gorilla. People were using it to create monopoly-like power and to gouge customers out of pricing and to use our data in ways that were more manipulative.
WHY DID YOU START WRITING THE BOOK?
Like many people, I found myself with a lot of time on my hands during lockdown. This was right after the two Boeing plane crashes, the 2020 election and accusations that Facebook had really manipulated the way that people were trying to vote. There was this big debate about that, and it really felt like if I put some thought into it, that I could find the common sort of theme behind everything. Everybody’s saying the same thing: ‘I’m running the business to maximize profits, to boost the share price, to return value to shareholders.’ While that’s something companies have done for a long time, there is this special kind of danger that came with technology. For the first time, if you’re an engineer at Facebook, you push a button and whatever you do instantly goes out to three billion people around the world. Whereas 50 years ago, if you’re making a car and you make a little change, that takes 18-24 months to even
get in front of customers. There just is no longer that level of restraint.
YOU SPOKE ABOUT SIMILAR THEMES THIS YEAR AT SOUTH BY SOUTHWEST. HOW DID THAT GO?
South by Southwest is really ‘Rah, rah, technology,’ and what I found really gratifying was that, I don’t have a huge profile, but in a room with a 500-person capacity, it was still probably two-thirds full, and I had 20 minutes of questions afterward. It was really encouraging to see that even within the tech industry and within an event that’s very much still in that utopian optimist mode, there are still a lot of people who say, ‘OK, that’s great. But we also need to think about ways that technology can go wrong.’
HAVE YOU GOTTEN ANY PUSHBACK ON THE BOOK?
I think there’s two main areas where people say, ‘I don’t know about this.’ The first one is a lot of other books on technology say, ‘Mark Zuckerberg is evil or Elon Musk is evil, and you can’t really do anything about that.’ Or it’s like, ‘Oh, this is just capitalism, and you can’t change that.’ I think both of those are very pessimistic world views, whereas for mine, it’s really saying that, ‘Yes, you are going to have these people who are only focused on profit maximizing, but you also have all of these software engineers, developers, coders, whatever, who got into technology, sure, because it’s a lucrative profession, but also because they just believe in that fundamental promise of technology as this useful tool and this potential path to utopia. They actually have a vested interest in making that happen and the power to be a counterweight to some of these more financially focused strategies. Mark Zuckerberg can do whatever he wants, but he really depends on these tens of thousands of programmers.’
THROUGH THE PROCESS OF WRITING THIS BOOK AND WORKING IN TECH, HAVE YOU FOUND A COMMUNITY THAT SHARES YOUR VIEWS?
I’ve been surprised at how receptive a lot of people are. I think especially because a lot of them are my age or younger, it’s like this rising generation of people who maybe haven’t had these big CEO-type roles before, but they’re going to get there in the
next couple of years. They’re increasingly concerned that the industry that they’ve loved for so long has been kind of derailed by people who just come from a different generation. There’s this really big groundswell of interest in that.
WHAT ARE SOME OF THE MAIN TAKEAWAYS YOU HOPE READERS GET OUT OF THE BOOK?
The first one is that while people always have to pay attention to their finances, that can’t be the only way that people think about the direction of their company. There’s no market pressure that can force Boeing to make safe software. You just have to decide that that’s a goal to have. The second is that most of the problems that we’ve seen with technology are not because the software is inherently evil or unfixable, but it’s just because a lot of this stuff is really rushed and the people don’t have the level of quality control and thought that they really need to put in to make it properly safe. The third one is that there actually is this large group of people who can be counterweight to the profit maximizers and the managers who are only able to think in terms of finance.
HOW DID THE DALLAS TECH SCENE INFLUENCE YOUR WRITING?
People don’t think about Dallas as a tech city, but I think it’s really interesting both in terms of places where tech companies expand to but then also just the way that people talk about technology and how they integrate it into their lives. It’s very different than like San Francisco or Austin, where it is very much everybody has to be on the super cutting edge and talk about technology 10 ways to whatever. Dallas is that happy medium of places where people just want to get on with their day, and they want the tools that make things better. I think that’s a really useful lens and probably why I don’t think I could have written this book if I were in a place like San Francisco.
Fatal Abstraction is available at your local bookstore, Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble and wherever books are sold.
This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
THANK A TEACHER TODAY
Three East Dallas educators named finalists for teacher & principal of the year awards
Story by MADELYN EDWARDS
Without great teachers and principals, great students probably wouldn’t exist.
To recognize the work of educators in our city, Dallas ISD officials named multiple finalists for the Teacher of the Year and Principal of the Year. On May 6, the winning teachers and principals of year on the elementary and secondary levels as
“Mwell as at choice/magnet schools will be announced and receive monetary awards. Three of these finalists work at schools in our neighborhood. Though they differ on which schools they serve at and the subjects they teach, their goals are largely similar — giving every student they come into contact with the best education possible.
y job is to make you great.”
That’s sixth grade reading and language arts teacher Monica Robinson’s mission in her classroom at Robert T. Hill Middle School near Old Lake Highlands.
Robinson, who is in her 13th year of teaching, recalled one of her former students who didn’t know any English, but she had big dreams of becoming a doctor.
“She was the most diligent and hard working student,” Robinson says. “She came every day. Any tutoring opportunity, she was right there with me. She trusted the process that I was putting in front of her.”
That student is now getting ready
to start medical school. Looking back on her career so far, Robinson recalled seeing former students excel as the most special moments.
“It’s just wonderful getting high school graduation invitations because they remember,” she says. “They remember, ‘Ms. Robinson was a little tough, but she got me through it.’”
Robinson, who graduated from W.W. Samuell High School near Pleasant Grove, eventually followed in the footsteps of her mother who was also an educator. But at first, she didn’t think teaching was for her. She took on a corporate job, and it wasn’t until she was volunteering at a school that she felt inspired to be a teacher.
MONICA ROBINSON
“One thing led to another, and before I knew it, I was in the classroom,” Robinson says.
Despite not initially being drawn to the profession, Robinson now feels like teaching is her God-given gift.
“I walk in this room, and I know the Lord is with me,” she says. “The Holy Spirit drives that, and he gives me exactly what I need to present to the students what they need to be great readers and writers.”
Robinson likes to encourage her middle school students to try out new activities, find out what their gift is and learn what they need to know before going to high school. In her classroom, she calls understanding how to read and write a “life changer,” and she aims to introduce her students to books that they can relate to. Specifically, she pointed out Mango Delight by Fracaswell Hyman and The Trials of Apollo series by Rick Riordan, both of which include stories about young people.
“One of the things that we run into now, children are finding less and less time to pick up a book,” Robinson says. “They have devices, but that doesn’t necessarily equate to good reading and employing those skills. So, I like these writers because they really do allow the reader to connect without feeling overwhelmed.”
Last year — in what could be considered foreshadowing her recent recognition from Dallas ISD — the Greater East Dallas Chamber of Commerce named Robinson as one of the Teachers of the Year.
“When you get these honors, it’s just so affirming to know that the community is watching, and it’s like the community cares,” she says.
Being named a finalist for Dallas ISD’s Secondary Teacher of the Year made Robinson feel “super proud.”
“There’s so many good teachers, I think, in Dallas ISD that it’s like, wow, you get that opportunity to hold that title,” she says. “I take it very seriously. But it is a true honor.”’
And of course, Robinson told her mother about the news.
“She’s totally excited,” she says.
Old East Dallas’ Innovation, Design, Entrepreneurship Academy educator Rachael Esquivel is the kind of person who you would want to teach you algebra.
Esquivel exudes an easygoing attitude. She even spared some sympathy for the reporter who was late to meet her on account of not finding the school’s front door easily. But more than that, it’s important to her to form personal connections with her students to teach them math.
“Students aren’t going to learn if they don’t like you,” Esquivel says. “Students don’t like coming to math class, but they like coming to my class, they’ve told me.”
Esquivel is also a math coach, which means she helps out in other classrooms in whatever area that’s needed, like classroom management or providing more one-on-one teaching time with the students.
Though she studied sociology and
Solar Preparatory School for Girls Principal Olivia Santos remembers being a shy little girl who was able to come out of her shell thanks to a teacher. Santos credited that educator for helping to inspire her career.
“I was a pretty quiet child,” she says. “I really didn’t speak at all until second grade, and I felt like that teacher in second grade just encouraged me to bring out a side
human development in college, Esquivel always had an interest in teaching math and mentoring young people. When she came to Dallas from Connecticut, she was working with an AmeriCorps service program called City Year. The nonprofit deploys AmeriCorps members who are ages 17-25 to schools to work with students on academic, workforce and interpersonal skills.
“It allowed me to be in the
classroom without being the teacher,” Esquivel says. “It allowed me to form student relationships, to see that side of teaching that you normally don’t get to see. I wasn’t in charge of lesson plans. I wasn’t in charge of grading or any of the other side of teaching. It was really just helping the kids with Algebra I in the classroom and building relationships with them.”
Esquivel was based in Spruce High School near Pleasant Grove, and the experience inspired her to earn her teaching certificate and continue serving at Spruce. She took the next step in her career and became a math coach at Innovation, Design, Entrepreneurship Academy, where she is in her second year.
Teaching Algebra I is challenging nowadays for a few reasons. For one, it’s a subject on the state’s standardized test, and that adds pressure on educators, Esquivel says. And students are still dealing with the
that I hadn’t before then. And I realized, if one person can do that for someone, that was something that I wanted to be for somebody else.”
In preparation to one day become an educator, Santos took notes about every teacher she had and what projects she enjoyed the most. She was actually able to incorporate her ideas from her notebook into her own classroom when she joined the profession.
Santos, who grew up in South Texas, has worked in East Dallas DISD schools for 20 years, ever since she graduated from Southern Methodist University. Given her experience as a second grader, she was drawn to elementary grades, second through fifth, and liked being able to teach every subject.
Santos’ career eventually led her to Solar Prep for Girls, which is on North Henderson Avenue near Vickery Place, offers pre-kindergarten through eighth grade classes and was founded in 2016. She was on the founding leadership team and is currently in her
ninth year of serving at the campus in various roles and fifth year as principal. Before being at Solar Prep, Santos noticed a similar trend of girls lacking confidence in her classroom.
“I saw that a lot of my girls as a teacher would hesitate to speak up, hesitate to be the center of attention,” she says. “That was something that really did stick out to me, and I thought about the fact that I just had my first child, and my first child was a girl, and so I thought, what kind of future do I want to see for her and what does that environment look like?”
Santos saw a confidence boost in the girls at Solar Prep right away.
“I immediately was a believer in this,” she says. “We had a lot of questions from parents about, ‘What’s going to happen when they join the boys?’ and ‘Are they going to be just as confident?’ But as we have seen now, our girls move into high school, it’s almost like that they’re that much more confident. I think that they don’t even see it as a barrier or a factor,
OLIVIA SANTOS
Photos courtesy of Dallas ISD
RACHAEL ESQUIVEL
learning disruptions that occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, which can be a big problem in math because the lessons build upon each other. Children also tend to have shorter attention spans now, and it’s more difficult to keep them engaged.
Esquivel focuses on what she can control and tries to make learning fun in her classroom. She hosts a weekly auction for prizes that students can earn tickets for by helping their peers, doing their work or scoring a grade of 100 on an assignment.
The best parts of teaching for Esquivel are helping students learn, seeing them earn good grades and creating a classroom environment where they feel comfortable.
“I want them to remember that someone was on their side,” she says. “I want them to remember that I took time to get to know them.”
and in fact, they’re that much more ready for any challenge.”
The success of Solar Prep for Girls is evident by the alumni who come back to share how the school impacted them, and that has been Santos’ favorite part of the experience. She also enjoys seeing Solar Prep leaders go on to become principals at other schools and take what they learned at Solar to improve another campus.
“Whether it’s students or adults, I get really excited to be able to see our impact spreading into different spaces,” Santos says.
As a finalist for Choice/Magnet Principal of the Year, Santos said she was surprised by the recognition and praised the work of her peers at Dallas ISD choice/magnet schools.
“I think that we have just a lot of really creative leaders that I learn a lot from every day,” she says. “I am just excited to be able to work alongside them every day, and to be able to represent them is really wonderful.”
A SENSORY SCOOPIN’ BOOGIE
Young children have fun engaging their senses at free event
Story by MADELYN EDWARDS
KID-FRIENDLY POP MUSIC blared over the green space at The Shops at Park Lane on a sunny day in late March while parents watched and assisted their children with scooping sensory mixes into plastic eggs.
This was — as described by Gabriela Bogran, head of hands-on fun at arts and crafts store My Festi Goodies — a free sensory event that is designed to allow children to have fun, be creative and engage their senses.
For young children, activities like identifying colors, feeling textures and holding objects are developmental and educational milestones. Sensory play can help them do that by engaging their senses, like touching playdough or sand, hearing different sounds or recognizing smells. My Festi Goodies’ sensory kits usually include a scoop, a mix of textured materials, a tray and other items to play with.
It’s like a small zen garden for children.
Bogran
hosted the first activity in her series in March and plans to have another one from 1-3 p.m. on the last Saturday in May at the park area between Starbucks and Chipotle. After that, she may even continue the events further into the year.
The activities are intended for children as young as 3 years old with parent supervision, but older children can enjoy it as well. Bogran decided to start the series because she wanted to host an Easter-themed event that would be full of learning and fun. This was her first time hosting this event for the public, but she has led the activity at schools.
“The kids love it,” she says. “They really don’t want to leave once they start exploring and getting their hands on the sensory mixes. It’s very fun and satisfactory for me to see how there’s different minds creating different things with the same theme.”
In Bogran’s opinion, sensory events that give children space to be creative and develop fine motor skills aren’t very common, so her series is filling a need. In her personal experience, she has engaged her oldest
child in sensory activities since he was 1 year old, and when he started pre-kindergarten, his teacher was praising his fine motor skills.
“The kids have a lot of creativity, but sometimes we just don’t have the right resources or places to take them to, and so I think this is a great opportunity for kids to explore the world of sensory,” she says.
Parents in attendance described coming to the event because it was something fun for their children to do in the spring while temperatures range between cold and hot.
“The weather is nice, so now we are ready to do more outdoor things,” says Erika Amaya, who brought her daughter and her daughter’s friend to the sensory activity. “And they love crafting — arts, crafts, so I thought it was a good experience for them.”
And the fact that the event came at no cost to families also likely helped attract participants.
“I love free stuff sometimes to just get her out of the house instead of just sitting around looking at an iPad,” says Dominique Hall, who attended with her 3-year-old daughter. “Sometimes, it’s a hit or miss if she’s actually going to enjoy it, so when it’s free, it’s perfect. If she enjoys it, perfect. If not, I didn’t waste any money.”
During the event, Bogran seemed impressed with the turnout and participation. The children could be creative, and the parents were able to enjoy themselves as well. She even recalled one parent playing with the sensory mix. At first, she tried to make the event more structured with different activities at each station, but she decided to just let the children play how they wanted to.
“I enjoy whenever they do whatever they want, and they use their creativity,” Bogran says. “That’s the whole point is to use their creativity and learn.”
www.AaronKendallConstruction.com
Forget the flowers
Moms want fellowship and support
Story by MADELYN EDWARDS
WHEN COURTNYE LYNCH
and her husband moved back to Dallas with a newborn over a decade ago, she felt desperate to connect with other moms.
Upon returning home, Lynch discovered that the people she had known in Dallas had moved away, and she needed to find other parents like her to spend time with.
“Being a new mom myself, it was a difficult time,” Lynch says. “It’s kind of isolating to have an infant and be at your house, especially for a first time mom.”
Lynch heard about MomCo — short for the Mom Community and formerly Mothers of Preschoolers, or MOPS — through word of mouth. From there, she was introduced to the MomCo chapter at Wilshire Baptist Church on Abrams Road near Lakewood. Eventually, she became one of the co-coordinators in the group and is able to help support the leaders on the steering team.
“What I was looking for is a group of women that kind of were intentional in their relationships with each other, intentional with their relationship with their child,” Lynch says. “The fact that it was a group of faith-filled women from all different denominations was important to me as well. I didn’t necessarily need to follow like one particular church. I just wanted women that were kind of traveling this motherhood journey on the same path.”
Getting flowers and a nice lunch on Mother’s Day is nice, but moms of young children also describe wanting to connect with other parents for sup -
port and friendship. Thankfully, there’s a few groups in East Dallas, like Wilshire MomCo, for moms to join.
The purpose of MomCo, according to Lynch, is to bring out the best in moms and help them reach their potential as mothers, partners, friends and human beings.
“Having young kids kind of absorbs you, and if you’re not fed into yourself, you can’t really be the best person as a mom,” she says. “I think that is why MomCo was established, just to kind of help women foster that relationship that they need with themselves and with their community. It’s just hard. You can get lost in young motherhood. It’s really a difficult season in life, and it’s impossible to do alone. I think that’s why when you had kids years and years ago, you had a village. The saying, ‘It takes a village,’ really is true. And for many women, MomCo (formerly MOPS) is their village.”
Most of Wilshire MomCo’s members have preschool and kindergarten-aged children or are expecting their first child. They participate in meetings, social events and playdates with their children, Lynch says. The group also has come together before to support moms in need by coordinating a meal train, donating diapers or through prayer.
MomCo isn’t the only support network on this side of U.S. 75. Parents on Facebook can join the East Dallas Moms group where moms (and some dads) come together to seek recommendations and resources in a judgement-free space. However, members of this group must live in our neighborhood: east of
Membership information
Wilshire MomCo
Costs at least $100 per semester, September through December or January through May. Childcare for young children is available at an additional cost: $160 in total for one child per semester, $180 for two children and $190 for three children.
Meetings are held at least once a month from 9 a.m. to noon on Friday mornings.
Sponsorships are available. Membership of Wilshire Baptist Church is not required.Registerstion online.
East Dallas Moms
Open to mothers who have children at any age under 18 or are pregnant.
Members must reside in the East Dallas area — i.e., east of U.S. 75, north of I-30 and on the southwestern side of the I-635 loop
Join the private Facebook group.
Lakewood Early Childhood PTA
Costs $45 annually to join and benefits the J.L. Long Middle School and Woodrow Wilson High School feeder pattern, including Lakewood Elementary, Geneva Heights Elementary, Lipscomb Elementary and Mount Auburn STEAM Academy.
Find the PTA on Instagram at instagram.com/lecpta
U.S. 75, north of I-30 and on the southwestern side of the I-635 loop.
“We try really hard to vet those moms, just to make sure that they’re within our immediate community, where you really could grab a coffee with them easily, or run into them at the park,” says Erin Clark, the Facebook group’s administrator and parent of an older step-daughter, a preteen and two younger children.
Clark also described early motherhood as lonely. In addition to feeling joy at the birth of a new baby, moms can also feel tired and confused. That’s why spaces for moms to talk are necessary to have.
“It’s still really important to have a place you can go and ask questions with as little guilt and shame and judgment as possible, which is really what we try and do in our group,” Clark says. “Moms groups can be really catty. It’s wild. We pride ourselves in being really diverse and really supportive. We’ve had very, very, very few instances where we’ve had to really monitor or regulate or call out behavior that’s not acceptable.”
Lakewood Early Childhood PTA also offers fellowship for parents, mainly moms, through adult and family events as well as a group chat for members to get recommendations and share experiences. However, that organization — which has been around since 1952 — also focuses on fundraising for local schools in the J.L. Long Middle School and Woodrow Wilson High School feeder pattern, including Lakewood Elementary, Geneva Heights Elementary, Lipscomb Elementary and Mount Auburn STEAM Academy.
“It’s enriching the community, essentially,” says Jessica Edwards, incoming president and mother of two. “We have the events that you can go to, but it’s also just making sure that the futures of the kids that are in our community and organization have that path, and they have that support all the way through. So that’s really what it’s all about.”
Edwards joined the PTA — which she describes as more of a community organization — so she and her children could make connections in the community. She also got her children involved in sports teams through the PTA.
“My daughter, whenever she started kindergarten at Lakewood, ended up knowing a couple of girls in her class, and that gave her that extra level of comfort,” Edwards says. “For me, that was totally worth it.”
When Clark became East Dallas Moms’ admin two years ago, the group was mainly a place for moms to ask questions and get answers from others in the group. Nowadays, the members have been coming together for fellowship offline, Clark says. They’ve planned social events for moms and swap meets where members can trade baby and maternity gear. East Dallas Moms also has side groups for members based on shared hobbies and age of their children.
“We value all kinds of motherhood journeys and parenting journeys, and we want you to know that you’re not alone, and you have space,” Clark says. “I think it’s really important to know that there is community, and you might have to seek it out a little bit, but it’s there for you.”
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OUR NEIGHBORHOOD
By PATTI VINSON
Celebrating our beloved library
May 1970: Richard Nixon is president, protests against the Vietnam War have erupted, the Beatles’ song “Let It Be” is a hit on the radio, and a gallon of gas can be had for about fifty cents. And in East Dallas, the new Lakewood Branch Library opens to much fanfare. Here we are over a half century later, and perhaps we should let it be when it comes to politics or the price of gas. But our branch library remains a beloved fixture in the neighborhood and invites everyone to join in its 55th birthday celebration, as well as the opening of the library’s 60th annual Art Show, on May 17.
If you’re searching your memory for the 50th anniversary festivities and art displays, well, Scottish poet Robert Burns sums it up: “The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.” Sidenote/library promo: Look for Burns’ works as well as John Steinbeck’s novella Of Mice and Men on the shelves of the library.
“The crafts were prepared,” recalls Leslie Lake, branch manager for the past fourteen years. “The volunteers were summoned. The children’s performers were booked. The raffle prize was ready. The old-timey, black and white photos were displayed.” All that was left for the library staff to do was wait for the big day, May 9, 2020. “But it was all for naught,” sighs Lake.
Yep, COVID. Lockdown. The world came to a screeching halt, celebrations were scrapped, and instead of hosting a party and an art show, the dedicated staff and supporters of the Lakewood Branch Library would spend the next few months improvising the delivery of library services to bored, restless, shelterat-home citizens. “We spent the summer of 2020,” remembers Lake, “running across the parking lot in the blazing hot sun — and occasional pouring rain — with masks and gloves on to put bags of books and DVDs in people’s car trunks.”
Eventually, the library’s doors opened again and party planning resumed, this time with an eye on the 55th birthday. If you’re
of a certain age, you might recall that the original neighborhood library opened in 1938 and was located in the Diener-Mills Building on La Vista, which now houses the dental practice of Dr. Ben Alexander and 2 Shea Gift Shop & Med Spa. At the time, it was called the East Dallas Library. Fun and weird fact: In a sign of the times, patrons were allowed to smoke as they thumbed through books and searched the card catalog.
By the 1960s, the East Dallas community was growing and needed a new library building. “Then-mayor J. Erik Jonsson proposed the 1967 Crossroads Bond package,” explains Lake, “which included the construction of four new branch libraries. The new Lakewood Branch Library on Worth Street was the first of the four to open. The building design won an award for the architectural designers Fisher and Spillman.”
At the 55th birthday celebration on May 17, expect to see plenty of old black and white photos of the hoopla surrounding the 1970 opening. Adults, be sure to don your thinking caps for trivia contests. For the kids, there will be crafts involving beads, quilt blocks and creating birthday cards. And, of course, what’s a birthday party without clowns? The Ramazinis will perform for kids of all ages on the library lawn.
While you’re at the library, don’t miss the opening day of the 60th Annual Lakewood Branch Library Art Show. Wander into the auditorium and down its nearby hall to witness just how talented your East Dallas neighbors are. Debbie Simurda, head of the art show committee, describes it as “a vibrant celebration of creativity and community. It transforms the library into a gallery showcasing diverse works from local artists, ranging from paintings and photography to sculpture and crafts.”
But the show is more than just an exhibition—it’s a community tradition that welcomes everyone. “The Lakewood Library art show used to be professionally judged,” according to Lake, “but the decision was made not to do this anymore as it was intimidating to some of the artists and preventing them from entering the show. The heart of this art show is the Lakewood and East Dallas community. The focus needs to be on creative output from people of all skill levels and walks of life. For many, it might be
the first time they have ever displayed their work publicly, and the library community is a most welcoming place to do so.”
You, the public, will decide who receives the People’s Choice Awards. Adds Simurda, “We really want to engage the community as well as spotlight the many talented artists that are participating. We will have ballots — one per person — at the library and everyone is invited to vote.” Voting closes May 31, and winners of the People’s Choice awards will be announced June 2. The art show runs through June 18.
A final thought on the treasure that is our Lakewood Branch Library: the librarians are the heart and soul of the library experience. When you stop by for the celebration and art show, take the time to thank your friendly, neighborhood librarians.
PATTI VINSON is a guest writer who has lived in East Dallas for more than 20 years. She’s written for the Advocate and Real Simple magazine.
Above: Opening day at the Lakewood Branch. Bottom: Mrs. Marian Underwood, head of the branch from 1938-1961.
