Wayward Coffee Co. on Davis Street originally started in a 1975 VW bus which was their mobile setup in the Bishop Arts District before opening a brick and mortar store in spring 2020. Read more on page 10. Photography by Kathy Tran.
TUES•MAY 17•7:30p
A kick-off to Dallas is Lit 2025! by The Writer's Garret. Listen in on Dallas’ vibrant poetry scape as the leading poets in our area read their original works. In cooperation with the Dallas is Lit Festival produced by the Writer’s Garret. Light refreshments and great friends will both be on-hand.
SAT•JUNE 21 6:00p
Our annual membership celebration and fundraiser is slated to be an exercise in overindulgence on this once annual day when the Earth's axis is tilted most towards the sun. Come raise a glass with us and toast to our connection to the flora and fauna that keep us tuned in to our terra firma and our own little piece of paradise, the Turner House. Dress in snappy cocktail attire with a whimsical nod to your favorite beast, bird, blossom or botanical.
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the music scene
Idania Hernandez is Oak Cliff’s multi-instrument maestro redefining
Story by JILLIAN NACHTIGAL | Photography by GABRIEL CANO
A master of 20 instruments, Oak Cliff’s Idania Hernandez has been able to take her music career to the next level.
She started in music at age 5 and attended music school in Cuba for over 13 years.
“I am somebody who practices every day and tries to learn something new every day,” Hernandez says. “Seven days a week I practice, and I take classes and courses.”
Hernandez studied under the direction of Maestro Gonzalo Bermúdez in the musical project “Ismaelillo” with which she developed for more than 10 years.
She jointly studied at the Benny Moré Provincial School of Art and the National Center for the Overcoming of Culture, graduating with a professional medium level in piano, flute and percussion.
She graduated from the Professional Vocational Level at the Mariana de Gonitch National Singing Academy in Havana -Cuba directed by Maestro Hugo Oslé.
Hernandez also has a degree in sSocial communication from the University of Cienfuegos - Cuba. She arrived in Dallas in January 2016 to continue her music career as she had more possibilities here to grow her work as an artist.
“A few months after coming to Dallas in 2016, I was contracted to play my first gig at the Grand Plaza in Fort Worth,” Hernandez says. “To this day, I perform there at least once a month.”
About three years ago, Hernandez moved to Oak Cliff and has played at spots such as Ocho. In 2021, she became so busy that she decided to open her own LLC to handle her bookings.
“I’m really grateful for the Oak Cliff area because it seems like my career really took a turn for the better when I moved over here,” she says. “One of the things that really makes me stand out is I am a female musician that’s very versatile and plays over 20 different instruments. My shows are very versatile. I’m able to go from one instrument to another within the same song.”
Hernandez says she loves to connect with her fans and wants to send a message of positivity and that you can do anything you set your mind to.
During her sets, she performs plenty of covers to appeal to the audience but also plays original songs. Her shows include different musical genres such as Salsa, Bachata, Merengue, Cumbia, Ballads, Latin Jazz, and American and international songs.
She says she draws inspiration from her upbringing, her studies and her life experiences in general.
Hernandez recently teamed up with DJ KANE, former singer of the Kumbia Kings for a song called “Amo tu Boca.” She’s also working on a new music video and collaborating with Arturo Soliz of Soliz Entertainment Group.
She is currently working on projects with other artists in hopes that she will become better recognized. Ultimately, she wants to earn a Grammy Award.
“Lots of things are in the works,” Hernandez says. “Hopefully in the next six months, I’ll be able to put out work with people I was fortunate to work with.”
This interview was conducted with a translator.
Idania Hernandez has participated in different international and national music festivals in Cuba, France, Ecuador, Mexico, Spain and the U.S.
& HEART HUSTLE
Story by JILLIAN NACHTIGAL | Photography by JENNI CHOLULA
From airbrushing shirts for his high school classmates to designing logos for major companies, Dallas illustrator and designer Agustin Chavez’s journey has been one of self-discovery, hustle and creative evolution.
“I think at a young age, I already knew that I was going to be creative,” Chavez, 36, says. “Since I was in first grade, when I drew my first picture, my teacher called me, and she was like, ‘You did this?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah.’ And she said, ‘Well, we need to talk to your parents.’ And I was like, ‘Am I in trouble?’”
This interaction stuck with him as he thought if he could get the attention of his teacher, other people might be interested in his art. He started drawing again in middle school, finding inspiration in vintage, retro, and ’80s and ’90s culture.
In high school, he realized he could start making money from his work. He got an airbrush and a compressor for Christmas and had trouble at first, but kept trying until he made a design on a shirt.
“I took it to school, and they were like, ‘Oh, you painted that?’ And then they were like, ‘Can you make me one?’” Chavez says. “By junior year, I’m already in business. I’m making shirts.”
He airbrushed shirts for his senior class and eventually started to pass around a binder where his classmates could place orders for him to make.
When he graduated high school, one of his friends suggested opening a shop. More and more people came as time went on, and they were in business for 10 years.
At that point, he began learning digital design because he knew that would be the next big thing.
“‘I’m calling myself a graphic designer because I got Photoshop, and I don’t know anything about graphic design, but I’m just creating because there’s no rules in creating,” Chavez says. “Me and my buddies went our own ways, and I started posting all my artwork on social media, and I started getting likes and recognition.”
Around 2013, he got to work with Rick Ross and other rappers. A DJ from a local radio station reached out and wanted to work with Chavez, and this was his first official design job.
“I met the owner’s son, then he gave me an opportunity to design the logo for one of their businesses, which ended up being La La Land (Kind Cafe),” Chavez says. “And once I did that, I started getting emails from companies like NASCAR and Target and
Agustin Chavez’s creative evolution and the rise of Dummy Fresh
Agustin Chavez’s brand Dummy Fresh is known for its iconic hats which often sell out.
Starbucks. And I started getting more of these conversations started.”
The pandemic hit, and one of Chavez’s friends had a gig with the Dallas Cowboys. Chavez expressed his interest in working with them and ended up getting a job with America’s Team.
“After two years, I was waiting for my raise, and they couldn’t do it because the team had a losing season,” Chavez says. “I was just like, OK, well, if I’m not earning, I got to be learning. But I already learned what I needed to learn. So now I have to move on. So I left, and I started doing my own thing at home.”
He started designing hats for his brand Dummy Fresh, which garnered lots of interest.
“My close friends were wearing them, and people were asking them where to buy them,” Chavez says. “Before I would even get to the pop-up shop, my hats were sold out. So people were like, ‘Oh my God, Dummy Fresh hats are selling out,’ I was kind of just tricking their brain into it being something that they needed to have.”
He started creating these hats in July of 2023, and by December, the Dallas Mavericks reached out, wanting him to do a design for them in his style.
While having all of this success, Chavez also dealt with hardships. There was a moment in his journey when everything came crashing down when his dad was in a bad car wreck.
“He died on the scene, and they brought him back to life,” Chavez says. “My dad did a full recovery. The doctors couldn’t explain it. My mom never left his side while he was in the hospital. He was under an induced coma for 14 days, and we didn’t know if he was going to be able to talk, walk or eat, and he came back.”
This was back in 2010 and put his designing on pause. His sister gave him $400 to get things started again, and he was able to build everything back up.
“I’m not afraid to hit rock bottom,” Chavez says. “I know how to work, and I think that helped me build my work ethic.”
On top of Dummy Fresh, Chavez is a muralist, with one of his most notable murals being the WrestleMania mural in West Dallas featuring the WrestleMania logo and images of WWE superstars.
“I’m at a point where I can pick and choose who I can work with and who I want to work with,” Chavez says. “That’s good. I’m grateful for that.”
Neville CrowellJason CucciaJason
from the ground up
How Wayward Coffee Co. brewed a community-centered success
Wayward offers a classic coffee and tea menu, including lattes, cold brew and matcha along with pastries.
Story by JILLIAN NACHTIGAL
Photography by KATHY TRAN
NOAH IRBY AND
TREVIN WILLSON
FELT
THE DALLAS COFFEE SCENE WAS MISSING SOMETHING — a space where great coffee, a welcoming environment and a positive company culture came together.
Wayward Coffee Co. originally began out of a Volkswagen bus with a built-in espresso bar, and they did pop-ups in Bishop Arts.
“It was a special, iconic, cool, little bus, and we still have it, but basically we did that for a few months. It was really fun,” Irby says. “And we were like, ‘OK, this is cool. It’s not very sustainable.’ We had to either jump ship and stop doing it, or take a risk and try to find a place to build back better. And so actually, the bus broke down a few months before we eventually found this spot.”
To make it work, Irby and Willson decided to DIY portions of the shop, including the furniture. Then, COVID hit about a month after they signed the
lease at their new spot on Davis Street.
“Most of 2020, it was very slow, obviously, because of COVID, and we were new,” Irby says. “But basically since then, it just slowly has gotten better. We’ve been able to add on some awesome people. We’ve been able to renovate a lot of the furniture that we initially built that started falling apart, we added some more space which is really wonderful, and it’s been awesome.”
Irby and Willson had been working in coffee for six years and didn’t always have the best experiences. They both knew that Dallas had a good coffee scene, but something was missing. So they decided to start their own venture.
“Dallas was definitely missing a special place,” Irby says. “We didn’t have anywhere we loved going to to hang out, like the go-to shop.”
Irby knew plenty of people in the coffee industry who had bad experiences with their employers, and he wanted to create a positive space.
“We were just like, ‘OK, we know exactly our ideal place to work, what that would be like. How can we create that?’ It starts
with people that you have, and then they create that environment for others and for guests to come in, and then everything else follows.”
Most of the people that come in are neighbors and regulars, and Irby says nowhere feels quite like Oak Cliff.
“It’s cool getting to know a lot of friends and special people through Wayward,” Irby says. “I think it’s very important to recognize that (Oak Cliff) is small community, but it’s such a big neighborhood with all these different little, small neighborhoods in it. It’s just the most connected, fun neighborhood, and we love it here.”
Their menu features all the classic drinks for coffee lovers, and they try to appeal to everyone.
“We wanted to be approachable to everybody and not feel pretentious,” Irby says. “We make sure there’s something for everybody to enjoy, like if you want a sweeter drink, we’ve got plenty of options for that, but doing that without sacrificing the quality and integrity of the coffee itself.”
Wayward opened a second location in
the Design District, and Irby says the success they have had since taking the leap after running out of a bus has been wonderful to experience.
“We want to be able to expand a little bit, but not too much, because the goal for us was never, and won’t ever be, to open a ton of shops,” Irby says. “It’s by far the busiest shop that a lot of people who work with us have ever worked at. So it’s really cool.”
Additionally, they opened Outpost Fine Goods next door to the Oak Cliff location. The next big step for Wayward is diving into doing their own roasting.
While the name of the shop originated from “talking through coolsounding words,” it’s easy for Irby to attach meaning to the name.
“Our goal is to be a place for people to find community. So if you feel wayward,” Irby says. “We were trying to create community, trying to let everybody feel like they have a place to come along.”
shifting landscapes
ELIANA MIRANDA’S ART PAINTS THE STORY OF CLIMATE MIGRATION.
The Oak Cliff-based artist explores human migration that results from ecological disasters such as floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, wildfires and earthquakes and draws inspiration from images and stories of climate migrants found in media outlets such as newspapers, journals and internet articles as a way to memorialize the consequences of modifying the environment to fit the needs of society.
Her journey with art started at a young age.
“Art is something that I’ve been doing since I was a kid. I was always drawing,” Miranda says. “I really wanted to be a cartoonist when I was young, but then I
learned the fundamentals of fine art, and I was learning how to paint and draw, and I really enjoyed it. I didn’t really care for the digital aspects.”
Her teachers encouraged her to pursue art in college, and she went to community college before transferring to Hamilton College in New York. She went on to earn her Master of Arts and Master of Fine Arts degrees from the University of Dallas.
“When I was in school for my undergrad at Hamilton, I was learning a lot about social issues and things like that,” Miranda says. “I decided I wanted to devote my work to those things. When I enrolled in grad school and I started working on my thesis, what I ended up making the work about was immigration issues because it was something that was really personal to me.
I’m a first-generation American.”
She started focusing her thesis on the U.S.-Mexico border, and as she was researching, she kept coming across the phrase “climate migration.”
“It was really interesting to me because I’ve been thinking about immigration issues as a result of political turmoil or economic opportunities, but I wasn’t really thinking about people moving because of climate,” Miranda says. “I thought that was really interesting, and I kind of put it on the back burner until I finished my thesis.”
In 2020, Miranda said she was inspired to come back to Dallas to figure out what she wanted to make artwork about. She ended up volunteering to build houses for victims of Hurricane Harvey and started to think about the concept of a home and
The art activist telling stories of human migration
Story by JILLIAN NACHTIGAL | Photography by VICTORIA GOMEZ
what it means to have to leave a home.
“That’s when I decided to completely devote the next few years to address climate change,” Miranda says. “So I came back to Dallas and started to walk through those things, and I started to focus on a lot of environmental disasters.”
One of the most challenging aspects of what she does is channeling her thoughts and passion into her physical art, she says.
“I just try and communicate what I want to say,” Miranda says. “I try to make my work as educational as possible.”
While her primary medium is painting, Miranda says she has been exploring installation work.
She’s been in numerous exhibitions, including Latino Americans 500 Years of History at the Idaho State University, Contemporaneous Commentary: Voices in the Current Sociopolitical Atmosphere at the Wichita State University, Intersections at the Texas Woman’s University, and the AMOA Biennial 600: Justice Equality Race Identity at the Amarillo Museum of Art.
Miranda was one of the selected artists for the virtual residency with the Mexic-Arte Museum in Austin, TX. and the 2022 Texas Vignette. Recently, she was selected as one of the Cohort 5 studio artists at the Cedars Union residency in Dallas.
One of her recent works, “We’re Not Fine Here,” explores the weaponization of the environment surrounding the U.S.-Mexico border, disproportionately impacting the region’s poorest communities.
“Heat-related disasters south of the border have caused an array of issues, including drought and water scarcity, often becoming a catalyst for migration,” she says. “However, the influence of a changing climate is not only present in these regions but also manifests through the militarization of the U.S.-Mexico border, where heat, land and water are used as a weapon to hurt immigrants and asylum seekers.”
Miranda’s goals for the future include continuing to explore such issues through her art and expressing herself through more creative mediums.
“I’m starting to think about materials more,” she says. “I want to find ways to make art that’s a little bit more sustainable.”
Eliana Miranda’s work is an exploration of current human migration issues as she investigates the environmental and socio/political impact of the displacement of people.
CLAY BODY
Bella Tylen’s whimsical, vintage-inspired ceramics tell stories through form
Story by JILLIAN NACHTIGAL
Photography by DORIAN MARSH
Bella Tylen has found her creative home in ceramics, creating pieces that take on a whimsical, otherworldly quality.
Drawing inspiration from vintage styles, ancient Greek pottery and her own love for eccentric, tactile art, Tylen creates ceramics that are as unpredictable as they are captivating.
Tylen was first introduced to ceramics while attending Denton High School, where she says there was a great art program and teachers.
“I just fell in love with it my junior year,” Tylen says. “And my senior year, I spent the entire year making fairy gardens, so my work has an aspect of fantasy to it.”
Ceramics is expensive, Tylen says, and she was unable to find a studio for a long time. She moved to Oak Cliff and got a membership at Pottery for the People, where she dove back in to her craft.
“Now I’m in a space where I have a little outdoor studio, and I can just work all the time,” Tylen says. “I want my art to be kind of wonky and eccentric. I’ve fallen in love with the handbuilding concept, because it kind of makes its own shape and evolves into its own form.”
Handbuilding is a ceramics technique that allows you to create forms with clay and your hands, without using a throwing wheel.
“It gives me a little more control over my designs,” Tylen says. “I really love corsets and ribbons and frills and lace. I love birds. Lots of spirals. I try to keep things really eclectic.”
While taking a break from ceramics after high school, Tylen says she tried “just about everything” from woodworking to painting. She came back to ceramics because she found she was always more of a tactile builder.
“I love ceramics because it’s 3D so it’s like, I don’t have to do the job of
BODY
Bella Tylen, an Oak Cliff-based ceramicist and model, draws inspiration from vintage style and strives to create whimsical ceramic pieces.
creating the shadows and the highlights like you do with painting,” Tylen says. “I’m not good at that. But with ceramics, I don’t have to do that. I just make a form, and the light does all of that.”
Tylen also curates vintage and takes that style into consideration when creating ceramics.
“I’m obsessed with everything old,” she says. “I do try to add this age element. I’m really inspired by old Greek ceramics and kind of like the figurines that they put on them, and they just have this otherworldly, Old World essence. So I tried to kind of incorporate that in my work.”
When she makes a piece, Tylen likes to imagine a story as to where it might belong if it were from Ancient Greece.
“I want people to kind of come up with those stories themselves,” Tylen says.
As far as creating her pieces, Tylen says sometimes she knows exactly what she is going to do, and other times, it doesn’t turn out how she anticipates.
“Especially when you’re handbuilding, clay is so finicky. So if it’s too wet, let’s say you pinch in a coil that’s pretty wet, it’s gonna be more flimsy. So it might like flow up this way and make like a weird bend, and so it changes the shape,” she says. “There’s a lot of factors that influence how things turn out.”
Tylen says she wants her work to be “odd and satisfying,” and one of her most popular pieces is a bottle she made in a random flow state.
Outside of her ceramics, Tylen models full time. She says the traveling she does to Los Angeles and New York for her job inspires her art.
Most of her engagement and sales come from Instagram, but she has had products in local stores such as Tlazo Home.
“I’ve been really shocked with just the community that it has built,” Tylen says. “Because I feel like sometimes you get the following, like the community feeling, or that engagement, they just follow along and are really engaged. I’ve built a community of artists.”
I want my art to be kind of wonky & eccentric.
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MUSIC TO THE NEIGBOR HOOD’S EARS
GE O RGE NICKSON
PERCUSSION
HOW DID YOU END UP IN OAK CLIFF?
I’m an avid cyclist, and when I first joined the orchestra in 2019, I spent some time exploring Dallas looking for beautiful, hilly neighborhoods that are fun to ride in and stumbled upon East Kessler Park. I fell in love with it instantly and knew we wanted to live here.
In its 120 year-run, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra (DSO) has become the largest performing arts organization in the southwestern region of the United States, earning national recognition and praise.
There are 93 full-time musicians that are a part of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra this season — three of whom are our neighbors.
Story by JILLIAN NACHTIGAL
Photography by LAUREN ALLEN
These interviews have been edited for clarity and brevity.
DID YOU ALWAYS KNOW YOU WANTED TO BE A MUSICIAN?
I would say that the desire to play music has been a constant for me since I began at age 7. I never really thought about making a decision to “be a musician,” I just kept following the path in front of me that led to studying, working hard and loving the process of making great art. Eventually, I turned around, looked back and realized, “I guess I’m a professional musician at this point!”
HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR EXPERIENCE WORKING IN THIS FIELD SO FAR?
I’m extremely grateful for the opportunities and performances I’ve been able to be a part of. This field requires everything of you. Unwavering commitment from an early age, 12-hour days of practice throughout college, grad school and even to this day, with no guarantee that any of it will work out. The reward is amazing though. Being able to share the stage with the greatest artists in the world, travel the world playing all kinds of music in some of the greatest venues on earth and being able to make a nice living doing it has been an absolute joy. I try to enjoy every concert because what we do is fragile. It is a complicated art form that requires a lot of resources, and we have to be mindful of the deep privilege in making this art.
STEPHANIE KEY
INTERIM SECOND CLARINET
WHAT INITIALLY DREW YOU TO MUSIC?
Both of my parents were vocalists and music educators. In addition, my father was the chair of the music department at the university where we lived, so as a child, instead of logging hours with a babysitter, I attended concerts with my parents. From band to orchestra, student and faculty recitals, visiting artists concerts, I heard it all. They taught me to conduct to keep me busy, and I conducted a lot of concerts from my back row seat! Music has always been a part of my being – I hear it everywhere: not through headphones, but through nature.
WHY DID YOU CHOOSE THE CLARINET?
At the age of 10, I originally wanted to play the oboe but was quickly convinced to play the other black instrument with silver keys by my (oboe playing) band director. I’m still not sure why, but I am grateful she did. Quickly, jazz clarinetists Benny Goodman and Peter Fountain became heroes early on, then as I began exploring more repertoire, Harold Wright and Robert Marcellus became icons of the classical repertoire. I continue to be amazed at what I can do and create through the clarinet. It is the most flexible and inspiring instrument to me.
WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO A YOUNG MUSICIAN?
BE OPEN. And listen. So often in our field, people become judgmental and, I believe, lose sight of what it is we do. We make music. No one is wrong. Everyone has something to say. Everyone has worked astoundingly hard to achieve what they have, and they deserve a chance to be heard and respected. Again, just as in life, we need more humility and respect and empathy for each other. We have so much to learn from each other, in music and in life, and it all feeds into each other and what we ultimately have to say through our instruments. I teach my students to emulate kindness, find that beauty in yourself; it will always come back to you when you treat people kindly and respectfully.
ROBERT O’BRIEN
ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL TIMPANI & SECTION PERCUSSION
WHEN DID YOU KNOW YOU WANTED TO BE A MUSICIAN?
Around my junior year of high school, my musical commitments started getting more and more serious. Even though it involved more rehearsals and practicing longer hours, it was always exciting and never felt like a chore. I knew then that I had found my passion.
WHAT DREW YOU TO PERCUSSION?
Initially, I chose percussion simply because I knew my dad had played drums when he was in middle school. I got really drawn in when I started studying privately with a great teacher who showed me just how vast the percussion world truly is.
WHAT IS SOMETHING PEOPLE MAY NOT KNOW ABOUT THE MUSIC INDUSTRY?
If there was a ranked list of the most important traits required for this field, I would put talent at the very bottom. I speak mostly from my own experience, but I believe being successful in the music industry comes down to working hard, working intelligently and getting lucky.
WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE PART OF BEING IN THE DSO?
The level of artistry my colleagues bring to the stage is frankly astonishing. I work at a place where I am constantly inspired to push myself to the highest level. For a job, it doesn’t get better than that.
