Powerlift

Consider Gaia Gardens, an organic urban farm in the Bellamah neighborhood that once operated a vegetable stand accessible by foot and bike on the Arroyo Chamiso trail. Cited by city code officials, the farm eventually folded amid a range of challenges.

Granillo, who helps run a farm just outside city limits, says a range of obstacles stifle agriculture inside Santa Fe, from zoning to access to water.

But the charter review commission is considering giving Santa Fe officials a mandate to support sustainable local agriculture inside city limits.

A charter amendment the commission is debating would declare access to nutritious food a human right and direct the city government to make available city land and water for the sustainable production of food.

“I know water can be gold and scarce but how can we give it back to our own community?” Granillo says.

The proposal isn’t as specific as some of the amendments commissioners are considering on the subjects of direct democracy or the role of the mayor. Instead, it would add something of a mission statement on ending hunger to Santa Fe’s guiding document. But the guidance it would give city officials to put resources to use for sustainable agriculture could be key in future debates over where and how to farm in the City Different.

In the short-term, Granillo says he would like to see a charter amendment like this kickstart more small-scale community gardening, building connections between city officials and local neighborhoods while also promoting education around sustainable agriculture.

“In the long run, I’d love to see farms all over Santa Fe,” he says.

Equity and inclusion

The proposal by several city councilors earlier this year to rebuild the obelisk on Santa Fe Plaza sputtered, but a nugget of that plan might live on through the charter. Commissioners are considering asking voters to create an Office of Equity and Inclusion as well as a Human Rights Commission at City Hall.

The office would be tasked with examining the city government’s actions from the perspective of equity, with backers pointing to the adoption in some cities of equity checklists as an example of the work the proposed office could take on in the future.

The Human Rights Commission would include five members—one for each council district and another appointed by the mayor.

While the mayor and council could set up an office on equity and inclusion on their own—and councilors have signaled they still want to—members of the Charter Review Commission argue that having voters approve the idea would give it staying power.

“A different administration may have different priorities and a standalone office is only as effective as the budget that is assigned to that office,” says Commissioner Alba Blondis. “So without a statement that a commission shall be, it can come and go depending on budget and administration.”

MUSIC THU/13

Getting Better All The Time

Denver three-piece Bleak Mystique defies classification. Just when you think you’ve pegged them in the throwback ’80s sound category, they get grungy; just when you feel like you’ve got a hold on the ’60s elements at play, they drop into a Weezer-esque moment. Sam Shapiro, Aidan Hutchings and Hayden Bosch are so varied in their sonic explorations, in fact, that we should maybe just call them rock, stop getting hung up on genrefication and move on to actual enjoyment. Point is, there’s a lot to enjoy here for musical polyglots in search of a good time. Often unexpected and definitely weird, Bleak Mystique might not fit into any box neatly, but they’ve certainly done their homework. In other words, you can maybe ID some inspirations, but you can’t narrow this band down.

(Alex De Vore)

Bleak Mystique: 8 pm Thursday, April 13. Free Second Street Brewery (Rufina) 2920 Rufina St., (505) 954-1068

ART OPENING FRI/14

Quickly Now

It’s hard to afford original art. True enough, and the whole game can sometimes feel like a means for rich folks to move around their money. Hecho Gallery, though, operates differently. At this week’s Quick Draw, the second in a series, artist Daniel McCoy (Muskogee Creek/Potawatomi) hand-picked a number of local artists who will come together to create new pieces on the spot that collectors can then buy, also on the spot. McCoy himself will be there, art-ing it up, alongside notable locals like Ryan Parker, Yvette Serrano, Conor Flynn, Robyn Tsinnajinnie and so many more—13 in total! It’s fun to watch ‘em work and even more fun knowing you just collected a new piece without putting yourself in the poorhouse.

(ADV)

Quick Draw: 6 pm Friday, April 14. Free. Hecho Gallery 129 W Palace Ave., (505) 455-6882

MUSIC SUN/16

Bizzier Than Ever

One of the cooler aspects of the rap and hip-hop worlds remains how members of downright legendary acts often have their own solo careers going.

Case in point: Bone Thugs-N-Harmony’s Bizzy Bone heads to Santa Fe this week on his I’m Busy Tour through a promotions partnership between Sins Events and Reloaded Talent, and that’s a big-ass deal to fans of sick beats and lyrical excellence. Bizzy’s been known for a steady stream of releases, as well as a rather interesting background (Google it, buds, because it’s sometimes wild), but his dual-threat rapping/singing abilities keep him at well over 100,000 monthly listeners on Spotify. You’ll also find DJZ and Buck D on the show. (ADV)

I’m Busy Tour ft. Bizzy Bone: 8 pm Sunday, April 16

$30-$35. Tumbleroot Brewery & Distillery

2791 Agua Fría St., (505) 303-3808

EXHIBITION SAT/15 & TUE/18

Amores Perros

The largest papier-mâché Aztec dog god you’ve ever seen

It took 10 years, multiple international organizations and decades of papier-mâché experience to bring Oscar Becerra-Mora’s enormous alebrije “Xólotl: Dios Perro,” to Santa Fe. But the timing of the work’s Southside Library exhibition couldn’t be better.

Originally the shared brainchild of Denver’s Mexican Cultural Center, the Museo de Arte Popular in Mexico City and several other Colorado and Mexicobased arts organizations, Becerra-Mora’s sculptural piece arrives in conjunction with the exhibit La Cartonería Mexicana/ The Mexican Art of Paper and Paste at the Museum of International Folk Art.

But unlike the modestly sized creatures by founder of the alebrije tradition Pedro Linares in MOIFA’s collection, BecerraMora’s titular piece—which clocks in at more than 13-by-14 feet—takes inspiration from the gigantic fantasy creatures carried aloft in Mexico City’s annual Monumental Alebrijes Parade and Competition. And rather than the dream imagery that led Linares to his original chimeric paper creations, Xólotl draws from the Aztec pantheon to convey a message of multiculturalism.

“I picked the Xólotl, which is a dog deity with symbolic importance in pre-Hispanic mythology, at first because I heard that people in Denver are dog lovers,” BecerraMora jokes in Spanish. “But on the other hand, this deity had the particular ability to transform into other animals, which I associated with the alebrijes—which are pieces that are mixes or hybrids of different animals.”

Xólotl’s nomadic exhibition history has created a cultural and geographical interchange that echoes the mingling of diverse animal forms in alebrije.

Because the piece has been exhibited in spaces such as the History Colorado Center, Denver International Airport, Seattle Airport and University of New Mexico, in some sense, Becerra-Mora says, it has “become a kind of ambassador for Mexican culture through folk art.”

The work is arresting enough on its own to merit a trip to our town’s comfiest library. But for the full context of both the exhibition and its namesake underworld god, head to Museum Hill to hear BecerraMora speak with translation assistance from Ericka Hernández of the Mexican Cultural Center. (Siena Sofia Bergt)

XÓLOTL: DIOS PERRO TALK

2:30 pm Saturday, April 15. Free Museum of International Folk Art 706 Camino Lejo, (505) 476-1204

ÓSCAR BECERRA-MORA: XÓLOTL (OPENING)

6 pm Tuesday, April 18. Free Santa Fe Public Library Southside 6599 Jaguar Drive, (505) 955-2820