Editor's note: Shortly after this story was published, KUT got a statement from the city saying it would not close the pool earlier at this time.

The City of Austin will not reduce hours at Barton Springs Pool despite a sign posted this weekend teasing the earlier closure.

City Manager T.C Broadnax had directed all departments to identify 1.5% in cost-saving measures. The Parks and Recreation Department proposed closing the pool an hour earlier starting Sunday.

But Jessica King, chief communications officer with the city, said Broadnax had not approved the change or decided if it would save enough money to justify the earlier closure.

"Since the summer season is upon us and we prefer to provide residents with advanced notice on such changes, the City will not be implementing changes to pool hours at this time," King said. "However, as we prepare for next year’s budget, we must also prepare for tougher conversations across all department services."

Swimming is free at the pool from 9-10 p.m., and that last hour tends to be calmer, said Jennifer Hill, whose son is sensitive to bright lights and noise. The pair has been going for a night swim at least four times a week for the past decade � even in winter.

It’s less crowded, there's more parking and it's generally more peaceful, Hill said.

“It is a healing experience," she said, "and it has become a ritual bond that my son and I have shared since he was a child.�

Hill and other residents said if the change was made the community would lose a tradition like the full moon night swim. The closure would also create barriers for working families. The between $2 and $9 per person during regular hours, depending on where you live.

“The free night swim was the only way we could consistently experience the springs and feel part of something good and purely Austin,� said Nettie Reynolds, who has taken her two kids to swim at night because it's free. “To reduce that access now would be to quietly declare the springs are only for those who can afford them. � Barton Springs isn’t a resort. It’s a public treasure. And public means everyone.�

Council Member Ryan Alter, whose district touches parts of Zilker Park, said while that last hour is "swim at your own risk," there are still 10 staff members monitoring the pool and its facilities. The cost to keep them on adds up.

But Alter said keeping the pool open for the community, especially as the summer heat ramps up, may be more important than the potential savings from closing early.

“At the end of the day, we want our departments to try to save money where they can,� he said. “But also recognize that ... [if] the cost to the community is much more significant, it just doesn’t make sense.�

He said the city will be looking at other ways to cut costs.

Hundreds of Austinites stand to lose their jobs if a bill banning consumable THC products is signed into law.

Senate Bill 3 was sent to the governor's desk Sunday. Unless it's vetoed, the measure will close a loophole in the state's hemp law that has allowed dozens of cannabis shops to legally sell marijuana in Austin since 2019.

The bill is one of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick's top priorities. Gov. Greg Abbott has not indicated whether he'll sign it.

One suggests SB 3 will cost 50,000 Texans their jobs. Greg Autry, CEO of Sweet Sensi � a cannabis shop on Congress Avenue � believes the number will be far higher. Not only would his shop’s 42 employees be let go, but his security personnel and workers at the packaging and design company he contracts with could also lose their jobs.

“I’ve never been more disappointed to be a Texan in my life,� Autry said.

Sweet Sensi employee Nicole Cosper said the prospect was “extremely disheartening.�

“I’m a mom of two, so this is my livelihood," she said. "I put food on the table, I pay for field trips, kids clothes. I pay my bills with this job."

Proponents of SB 3, like Rep. Tom Oliverson, R-Cypress, say it will put an end to high-concentration THC products being sold at gas stations, vape shops and corner stores. These products are often sold in candy-like packaging and marketed to children, he said, and have led to an uptick in poison control calls statewide.

“Let’s be clear, no social good comes from the legalization of intoxicants. What began in 2019 as a bipartisan effort to support Texas agriculture has since been hijacked by a cottage industry of unregulated THC sellers,� he said. “These substances are not medicine, they are psychosis-inducing, overdose-prone chemicals masquerading as relief.�

But Autry said he fears an outright ban will only bolster illegal sales while eliminating reputable sellers with state licenses. (Autry said Sweet Sensi has licenses from both the Texas Department of Agriculture and the Texas Department of Health.)

Sweet Sensi doesn’t sell products with more than 10 milligrams of THC in them.

“Let’s regulate it and make sure that veterans get their medicine, make sure that people who are recovering from alcoholism have an alternative and make sure our employees don’t lose their jobs,� Autry said.

Todd Harris, co-owner of cannabis shop Happy Cactus, is also pushing for tighter regulation. Without strong state guardrails, Harris said, he has been regulating his business himself. (Harris was put to the test when Patrick entered Happy Cactus in March to ask how many children buy the store's products and was subsequently carded, the .)

With an all-out ban, Harris said he will have to let go of his 14 employees.

Staying open under the restrictions of SB 3 will be next to impossible. The bill allows only the sale of CBD and CBG � chemical compounds found in cannabis that do not get people high. That accounts for just 1% of Happy Cactus� sales, Harris said.

He’ll also lose thousands of dollars. If there are any remaining THC products on Sept. 1, Harris said he will have to destroy them. Happy Cactus also pays about $3,000 a month for rent, and there are two years left on the lease.

“All these shops are going to have to rely on landlords being compassionate � but then it’s going to harm a lot of landlords, too,� Harris said.

If the bill becomes law, Autry will pivot to his Plan B, which is converting Sweet Sensi into a cannabis-themed bar, so he can retain some of his employees as bartenders � though he’s not happy about that.

“I don’t want to sell alcohol, and my message will be ‘drink a bunch of water, don’t drink that much alcohol,� which might put me out of business,� he said. “But I’m gonna try to make it work for my people.�

Autry is holding out some hope for Plan A � business as usual because Abbott has vetoed the bill.

“I would beg and hope that the governor would see companies like we’ve established, that don’t sell 50-60 milligram gummies, that want regulation � I would hope that he would see that there’s a majority of us,� Autry said.

“But I don’t have faith that that’s actually going to happen.�

This story was originally performed at ATXplained Live at Bass Concert Hall on Oct. 23, 2024. 

Each year, Barton Springs Pool attracts thousands of visitors from all walks of life and all over the world. They visit the pool to swim, lie out on the lawn and even do yoga. For that moment, it's the one thing everyone has in common � a day at the pool.

But it wasn't always like this. Before 1962, Barton Springs was open only to certain people � white people.

Chris Schulman wanted to know the history of segregation at Barton Springs Pool, so he asked ATXplained. "I’m especially interested in how it ended."

Like many places in the South, the city had what were called Jim Crow laws, which banned people of color from using many public facilities. A city plan adopted in 1928 also forced Black residents to East Austin, where there weren’t a lot of public facilities like parks and swimming pools.

Sarah Marshall, who coordinates historic preservation with the city’s Parks and Recreation Department, said Rosewood Park opened in 1929 as the first and only park African Americans were able to use. A second park for Black Austinites didn't open until about 1959.

"We definitely as a city recognize that the African American community at that time was extremely underserviced by the city � and not just in parks," Marshall said.

The Supreme Court desegregated schools with its Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954. The next year, the high court . But it took years for public places in Austin to integrate. In 1960, Barton Springs was still segregated.

The summer of 1960

Every year, graduating seniors at Austin High School would celebrate with a picnic at Barton Springs Pool.

In 1960, Austin High had several Black students. Joan Means Khabele was among them.

"The principal called me in and said, ‘I consider you to be the leader of the Black kids in your class. So I want you to go and tell them none of you can go to the senior picnic because Barton Springs and Zilker Park are segregated,'" Khabele told Austin PBS in a 2013 interview.

Khabele wasn’t going to just let it go � and neither were several of her classmates.

“As soon as me and several other people found out, we were fairly outraged," said David Martinez, one of a handful of Chicanos at the school that year.

Martinez said he’d dealt with racism his whole life and had learned to fight back � even in the smallest ways.

“It started off â€� 'You're not allowed to wear sandals,' so I wore sandals," he said. "Then they said I couldn't wear shorts, so I wore shorts. Then they said you couldn't have facial hair, and so I grew what my uncles teased me [as] ... a football mustache â€� 11 on each side.â€� 

Chicanos were allowed to swim at the pool, but Martinez said it wasn’t something Hispanic families really did because of the cost and the distance.

Still, he wanted to fight back. For him, this was about equality. So he urged Khabele and several other classmates to get a petition started.

"We believe that every senior at [Stephen F. Austin High School] should be allowed to participate in all the recreation activities at the picnic, regardless of race," the petition, written by sophomores and juniors, stated.

The petition

There's a copy of that petition at the Austin History Center. It's blank.

According to Khabele and several others, the students got people to sign the petition � and not just classmates, but also parents and other community members. It was passed around at school, dropped in teacher mailboxes, even slipped inside the school newspaper.

"The cafeteria was the social network," said Hunter Ellinger, who was a junior at Austin High then.

Ellinger's parents were union leaders. So when his father heard they were organizing around the senior picnic, he offered to make copies of the petition.

It wasn't long before parents and other people started calling the City Council.

"Now you have to realize that at this time Austin was really a pretty small town," Ellinger said. "It especially had a small town dynamic. So that was enough to make a splash."

The next day, Ellinger said, the principal announced that all seniors, including the eight Black students, could go to the picnic. No other people of color would be allowed.

"They eventually said, 'Well you can go to the picnic,' but they weren’t going to change the policy forever," Khabele told PBS. "They were just saying, 'Oh let them go. It’s just eight.'â€� 

The Black students still weren’t allowed in the pool.

Khabele said she wasn’t going to just sit by at the picnic tables and watch her classmates swim. She was getting in the water � rules be damned.

"So we started swimming," she said. "They really don’t know at first. Then they notice � 'Oh, there’s some Black kids in there.' They want to take us out. ... So we'd get out, go around, catch our breaths, and we come back again."

This small act of defiance set off a series of protests and swim-ins over the next couple summers.

Students, including Martinez and Ellinger, would find ways to make their voices heard, particularly at the pool's booth where they wouldn’t sell tickets to Black people.

Janet Means Scott, Khabele's younger sister, said several of them would go to the pool and overwhelm the ticket booth three or four times a week during the summer.

"We made no noise," Scott said. "We just got in line and got back in line over and over for an hour and a half or two hours.â€� 

They did this for two years. Finally, in July 1962, the city changed its policy. Now anyone could buy a ticket to Barton Springs, regardless of race.

No records

Except KUT could find no documents of the change. There is no city record of any vote by the council or a change in policy from the parks department. There aren't any photos or videos � or even newspaper articles � of these protests or swim-ins.

The petition at the Austin History Center is blank. There isn't a copy of the one students and community members signed.

Martinez said that was on purpose.

“I kept thinking they would pull the trigger and arrest us all," he said. "But no. They let us go swim. They weren’t going to allow us to make a scene.�

The only thing KUT found about the pool's integration was a single article in the Austin American-Statesman from Sept. 24, 1963 � more than a year after Black swimmers were allowed. The article doesn’t acknowledge the protests. It acknowledges only the silence.

"How did Austin take this next step toward integration so quietly?" the article states. "Just like that. No one said anything."

Fast forward to today, there still isn’t a whole out there. But the city has started to acknowledge this piece of history.

The City Council voted last year to rename the bathhouse at Barton Springs Pool after Khabele, who died in 2021. It's scheduled to reopen later this year after undergoing renovations. The city also plans to install a historical marker to document the struggle to integrate the pool.

'I wanted to know that I could'

Scott, Ellinger and Martinez all said they haven't been to Barton Springs in decades.

Scott said she was thrown in the water in 1962 � just days before the pool was integrated � and hasn’t been back.

“It's not that I wanted to swim," she said. "I wanted to know that I could."

But Khabele's children and grandchildren have loved going to Barton Springs.

Lesedi Khabele Stevens, Khabele's eldest grandchild, said she went to the pool a lot growing up with her cousins and siblings. But the power of Khabele's protest wasn’t always at the forefront of her experience growing up.

"Last summer, I ended up going with some friends who were from out of town," Stevens said. "And they were like, 'Oh, didn’t your grandma integrate or help integrate Barton Springs?' And strangely enough, it was in that moment the gravity of it really hit for me.�

She’d been so used to just freely going to the pool and moving around Austin, not thinking too much about the sacrifices � and the work � her grandmother had done.

Of all the tips on how to protect your dogs in the heat, Austin veterinarian Kacey Joseph has one big one to proclaim:

“Obviously, avoid the midday walk.�

Walking your dog during the hottest time of day can lead to heatstroke, heat exhaustion and burned paw pads.

But there’s an easy way to avoid those dangers.

If it’s above 85 degrees, "stick your hand to the asphalt and hold it there. If you can stay there for 10 seconds or longer, you might be OK,� Joseph said. “But if it’s too hot for you, it’s too hot for your dog.�

Some dogs may need it to be even cooler. Lean dogs with short coats and long noses are more resilient in the heat. But heavier dogs, those with lots of fur and the “smushed face� breeds � like pugs and English bulldogs � are more prone to heat exhaustion.

Dogs on weight-loss journeys are also more prone to heat exhaustion, Joseph said.

If it’s cool enough for a walk but still on the hot side, dog shoes, UV-blocking T-shirts and dog-safe sunscreen (yes, these all exist) can make the heat more manageable.

Joseph said she also sees dogs with heat exhaustion or heatstroke after being left unattended in hot cars.

If your dog is panting excessively, hanging its tongue out a lot, stumbling or acting strange, it’s time to go inside and cool off. Putting a wet towel over your dog and ice in its bowl can help.

If you don’t have time in the early morning or late evening to walk your dog, don’t sweat it. There are safer, air-conditioned ways to get your dog the exercise and mental stimulation it needs.

“A busy mind for a dog is the best thing,� Joseph said. “A short, 10-minute training session can be equal to a 30-minute walk. It does make them that tired.�

Joseph said playing with your dog outside in the shade or buying them puzzles or brain games are good alternatives.

Those early morning walks and brain puzzles are something dog owners might want to get used to. It’s going to be a long, hot summer.

Update: The City Council postponed until June 5 a vote on a zoning change that would allow the demolition and replacement of the Acacia Cliffs apartment complex. Mayor Kirk Watson said he plans to propose changes to the Density Bonus 90 program so it does not displace residents.

A city program meant to ensure affordable housing is built into new developments is facing criticism for its potential to displace more than 200 residents already living in affordable units in a West Austin complex. Now, they're asking the city council to reconsider the proposal from the property owner.

Density Bonus 90, also known as DB90, was created in February 2024 with the intention of creating different levels of affordable housing in places where it's needed, including along commercial and transit corridors. The program allows developers to build taller and denser apartment complexes as long as a percentage of the apartments are offered at an affordable rate. But housing advocates argue the program has gaps that can actually further displace residents and destroy existing affordable housing, including what exists at Acacia Cliffs.

There, the property owner is proposing a project that would replace all 290 units with up to 700, but, as of now, there is no guarantee that all current residents would have income-restricted housing available to them at the redeveloped complex. The city council is set to vote on the zoning case on Thursday.

If approved, work on the project would begin, starting with rezoning the property. Residents and housing advocates are calling on the council to postpone the vote to allow residents time to negotiate terms with the property owner, including better relocation benefits and guaranteed affordable housing at the redeveloped complex.

“The Austin City Council claims to be the national leader for housing affordability,� said Vianey Camorlinga, a resident and member of the tenant’s association. “But the level of affordability that DB90 adds to the affordable housing stock at 50% to 60% median family income does not begin to compare to the level of deeply affordable units that we have at Acacia Cliffs.�

The redevelopment proposal

Acacia Cliffs is a family-oriented complex that is home to many older adults, young and working families, single parents, and UT Austin students. The property includes 290 apartments, a swimming pool, a basketball court and a dog park.

Despite the amenities, Michael Whellan, the attorney representing the owner, said the complex is more than 50 years old and is in need of upgrades. He said the outdated apartments are why rent is low. It is what is sometimes referred to as naturally occurring affordable housing, or housing that is affordable but not subsidized by any federal programs, .

“Older units start to have problems, no matter how hard you work to keep on top of them,� he said. “And older buildings eat up a lot of energy and let stormwater run off without detaining or treating it. That all starts to add up. What we’re proposing would address all of that.�

All 290 apartments would be demolished under the current proposal and replaced by 650 to 700 new units.

Under the DB90 program, a property owner is allowed to build a taller and more dense complex as long as 10 to 12% of the apartments are income-restricted for people earning 60% or below the median family income, or those earning around $75,000 a year.

That would mean around 80 of the new apartments would be income-restricted. But that is only a fraction of the affordable units already available. Current residents have said they also make much less than $75,000 and are concerned they would be competing with more people for a spot.

Residents and members of the tenants' association said this would effectively push people out and force them to find housing elsewhere.

Whellan said the project is in its early stages, and it will be at least two years before demolition begins. Residents on the property are being offered relocation benefits and assistance, including help with moving expenses,

The struggle to find affordable housing in Austin

Residents opposed to the project said it's not just about money for moving expenses, but finding affordable places to live has become difficult.

Camorlinga said they want the city council to update the DB90 program so complexes like Acacia Cliffs are not lost, and people are not displaced or end up homeless.

Acacia Cliffs resident Rosa Gutierrez moved from Arizona to Austin about three months ago to be closer to her daughter and grandchildren. She is on a fixed income and said it took her several months to find a place she could afford to live in the city, and she fears having to start the process all over again.

“The displacement we are all facing is pretty detrimental,� Gutierrez said. “It would be a big hardship for me if I have to move again, and so soon.�

Several residents expressed similar concerns, including having to uproot children who go to school and frequent the parks nearby, and disruptions for people who rely on the bus system to get downtown easily.

Camorlinga said the tenants would like to see the developer do a one-to-one replacement of affordable housing, meaning 290 apartments of the proposed 700 are available at an affordable rate.

Council Member Marc Duchen, who represents the area, said he shares similar concerns about the program and its impact on affordability.

“[DB90] does create some affordability where there is none, which is great when converting from light-industry to housing, but in this case where you are taking naturally occurring affordable housing it actually creates a net loss of affordable housing, because of its low requirements.�

He said he will be calling for changes to the DB90 program, including increasing the number of affordable apartments that are required and increasing relocation benefits. He said he also wants to see the program be used in a more responsible way so that it does not result in a loss of affordable apartments.

Duchen is also calling for a postponement of the vote in hopes that residents and the property owner can reach a more meaningful arrangement. A postponement could take place Thursday but must be agreed to by a majority of the council.

After a springtime of breezy, cool mornings and dry air, a heat wave hit Austin like a train last week. Those triple-digit highs and thick humid days are likely a taste of things to come, as Central Texas moves closer to what are typically its hottest months of the year.

But, forecasters say, that doesn’t mean the summer will bring a repeat of record-breaking heat waves like the one in 2023 that delivered 45 days in a row of triple-digit highs.

“The signals that I'm seeing right now don't call for a summer as hot as 2023,� Mack Morris, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service's Austin/San Antonio office said. “However, it will be warmer than normal. It will be hot.�

Morris � who recently presented the seasonal outlook for June, July and August � said rain will be a deciding factor in how quickly things heat up.

Austin is currently about 4 inches below average rainfall for the year, and the recent heat wave served to further dry the soil.

“With continued drought conditions, it doesn't really take long to dry the soils out in the month of June,� Morris said. “With drier soils, temperatures usually heat up a lot faster.�

But, forecasters say, there could be some rain ahead � including next Sunday and Monday.

“May is, in Austin, typically the wettest month for the year,� Mary Wasson, a meteorologist for the San Antonio Express-News and the Houston Chronicle said. “We [could] get a quick 5-inch rain total, and that would put us where we should be for the month and kind of eat away at the deficit for the year.�

If we do get more rain, Morris said, it should keep triple digits at bay a little longer. But that could also increase humidity, leading to a higher “feels-like� temperature.

Rain becomes increasingly less likely in the summer.

“We're not way into those summertime hot and dry days yet,� Morris said. “But I do think we aren't going to see any more mornings in the 40s and 50s.�

The lawsuit Attorney General Ken Paxton filed against the AGÕæÈË°Ù¼ÒÀÖ County Commissioners Court in September over allegedly violating the Texas Open Meetings Act (TOMA) has been settled.

The lawsuit was filed after the commissioners court agreed to pay AGÕæÈË°Ù¼ÒÀÖ County District Attorney José Garza $115,000 for private home security in a closed session in March 2024. Paxton's office argued such a use of public funds should be deliberated during a regular session, when residents have a chance to weigh in.

Garza said a series of escalating threats, including tweets displaying his address and one handwritten note that read "Resign by the end of June or we will kill you" pushed him to ask for money for private security.

In the settlement, AGÕæÈË°Ù¼ÒÀÖ County did not admit to violating TOMA but agreed to continue complying with the act going forward.

“This agreement balances public transparency with security concerns like those permitted for discussion in executive closed session, thereby protecting our employees and elected and appointed officials,â€� AGÕæÈË°Ù¼ÒÀÖ County spokesperson Hector Nieto said in a statement.

Since the lawsuit was filed, the commissioners court has taken steps to ensure all elected or appointed officials receiving threats can get protection through the county. As attorney general, Paxton too has a taxpayer-funded security detail.

The AGÕæÈË°Ù¼ÒÀÖ County Commissioners Court is in the midst of one other lawsuit with the attorney general. In September, Paxton also sued the county for funding a program that mailed out voter registration forms to unregistered voters ahead of the election. That litigation remains ongoing.

When I sat down to chat with Molly Hale, she had spent part of her morning pushing pieces of string through a small wooden loom.

“I am working on a tapestry, weaving out of different types of threads,� she said. “It just comes randomly what I want. I got three done over there and I also add charms to them.�

Hale is an artist who produces work at SAGE Studio & Gallery, an organization in East Austin that supports and shows the work of creators with developmental and intellectual disabilities.

“My mom is my big advocate,� said Hale. “She got me into all the fiber art stuff. She taught me when I was 13 years old and I am actually 41, so I’ve been doing it ever since.�

Like many studios, SAGE is not just a location where people produce art. It’s a place where creatives find community.

Hale is not originally from Texas and, according to her, the transition to living in the Lone Star State was difficult.

“It took a long time to cope,� she said, “but I suffered enough, and I’m mostly thinking on the bright side of things than on the wrong side of things. I found a couple of good friends here actually in SAGE.�

First founded in 2017, SAGE is not a day program where people with disabilities simply make friends and learn social skills. It is a studio and gallery space that is looking to make a name for itself and the artists it represents.

“To date, we’ve paid over $200,000 in commissions to our artists,� said director of external relations and cofounder Lucy Gross. “We have artists that earn upwards of $30,000 a year from their art sales.�

Artists at SAGE work with a wide range of materials like paint, pastels, colored pencils and fibers. When an artist sells an original work, they keep half of the final sale price. The other half goes to SAGE.

“We’re constantly looking for new opportunities for our artists,� said Gross.

Since its inception, SAGE has done collaborations with companies like Vans, Whataburger and Austin FC. One of its goals is to help artists with disabilities break into and build careers in the mainstream art world.

“My hope is that we can sort of evolve to where we’re just showing art,� said Gross. “Whether that art is made by artists with or without disabilities, that’s kind of moot.�

The burgeoning progressives

SAGE Studio & Gallery is a self-styled progressive studio. These are organizations dedicated explicitly to cultivating and promoting the work of artists with intellectual disabilities.

Progressive studios have been around since at least the late 1970s. Any attempt to come up with an exact count of how many there are is an exercise in futility.

“It’s been really challenging to pinpoint a specific number,� said Cléa Massiani.

Massiani is an independent curator and a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Maryland. She is currently working on a dissertation about the history and role of progressive studios.

“I have counted over 80 studios across the country at the moment,� she said. “I’m sure by the end of my dissertation, I’m going to get to at least 90.�

By Massiani’s count, California, New York and Illinois are the states with the most progressive studios. Texas has at least seven.

Part of what makes creating a definitive list impossible is that “progressive studio� is still not a widely understood term in the art world.

“There is a clear lack of scholarship, so a lot of people are not even aware that they are in existence,� explained Massiani.

One of the leading efforts at raising awareness of progressive studios is , a project that has tracked, written about and highlighted the contributions of artists with disabilities since 2014.

“There is more connectivity among studios than when we started,� said cofounder Andreana Donahue. “A lot of us know each other.�

This relatively small movement is still establishing itself, but there have been some recent breakthroughs in visibility.

In December of 2024, the Museum of Modern Art in New York City featured the work of , a painter who works out of the progressive studio NIAD Art Center in Richmond, California.

In conjunction with Mullen’s exhibition, MoMA added the term “progressive art studio� to its list of art terms on the museum’s website, a move that advocates view as helping legitimize their cause.

“I’ve been working in this field for over 10 years, so I’ve been able to witness the continued convergence with the mainstream contemporary art world,� said Donahue.

The pipe cleaner artist

first started making art out of pipe cleaners in third grade, when he had a teacher who incorporated them into a math lesson.

After the class was done, Beverly asked for permission to play with some of the leftover pipe cleaners.

“I made a Sonic figurine. It wasn’t the best-looking thing, but I loved it,� Beverly reminisced. “Sadly, the next day when I went to grab it, a janitor threw it away.�

Beverley attends SAGE Studio & Gallery four times a week, and when he first started coming, he spent most of his time making figurines of anime, cartoon and video game characters.

“I like making silly things and stuff like that,� he said. “Basically I kind of have like a kiddish brain.�

Beverly has worked with pipe cleaners for more than a decade, and in recent years, the scope of his work has expanded. Since joining SAGE, his work has been displayed at more than a dozen exhibitions.

His favorite was a solo exhibition hosted at SAGE called “Go To Your Room.�

“Basically my solo show was a teenage room in the �90s and �80s,� said Beverly. “I made Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em, Hungry Hungry Hippos. I made old classic snacks like the Lunchables Deluxe.�

At the time I interviewed Beverly, he and other studio artists at SAGE were preparing for an upcoming show called , a three-day event hosted at the Loren Hotel in downtown Austin.

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For the exhibition, SAGE will display work alongside 10 other galleries and have an entire hotel room that it’s repurposing with art for a concept that Beverly explained to me.

“It’s going to be a honeymoon for a rancher and his city girl wife,� he said.

For the show, Beverly has made pipe cleaner roses, an engagement ring, cowboy boots, a champagne bottle and many other items that might be found in a recently married couple’s honeymoon suite.

One of the centerpieces of SAGE’s new exhibition is a three-foot, pipe cleaner recreation of Gustav Klimt’s The Kiss that Beverly has spent a month making.

“The frame is made out of sparkly pipe cleaners,� explained Beverly. “They’re very very shiny, but the cons are they’re like glitter, so they’re a mess to clean up and they stick all over you.�

Beverly’s reinterpretation of The Kiss is breathtaking.

It glistens and has flowers, and he stitched thousands of pipe cleaners together to make it possible. But the process of creating it wasn’t exactly fun for him.

“It’s kind of like doing homework at school,� he said. “It’s kind of boring to make.�

This is not the first time Beverly has reimagined a famous piece of art. He’s also made pipe cleaner versions of The Birth of Venus, American Gothic and The Last Supper.

“It’s a headache to make these,� he said. “But it’s worth it in the end.�

Recreating the classics is not artistically fulfilling to Beverly, but these pieces are visually striking, widely recognizable and, because they sell, they make his career as an artist more sustainable.

“I’ll keep making artwork until my fingers give out,� he said.

Artists at SAGE Studio will have around 40 pieces on display at the Friends Fair, and everything is for sale. Pieces start at $50 and go up from there.

The most expensive item will be Beverly’s recreation of The Kiss.

The asking price is $3,000 because having a disability doesn’t preclude anybody from ambition.

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News spread Wednesday that agents with U.S. Customs and Border Protection pulled an Austin musician with legal permanent residence off a plane headed to Europe, further fueling concern about an escalating immigration crackdown from the Trump administration.

Members of Lord Buffalo wrote on social media that their bandmate, Yamal Said, was removed from a flight leaving the Dallas-Fort Worth area Monday afternoon. The band was headed to Amsterdam to start their European tour, which they have since canceled.

But KUT News has not been able to confirm a connection between the arrest and his immigration status. Instead, Said's removal from the plane appears to be related to a criminal warrant.

A CBP spokesperson confirmed Wednesday that the agency took Said off an international flight because of an active arrest warrant. Said is a Mexican citizen and a legal permanent resident of the U.S. The spokesperson said he was turned over to local law enforcement.

KUT News reached out to the band via email and text, but a member said they did not have a comment.

Online jail records indicate Said is being held in a Tarrant County jail for allegedly violating a protective order, also known as a restraining order, at least twice in the past year. In Texas, this is a felony. A conviction could result in at least two years of jail time.

The warrant for Said’s arrest was issued by the Llano County Sheriff’s Office. KUT News reached out to the sheriff’s office in an attempt to get additional arrest documents Wednesday, but was not able to by deadline.

Multiple searches of a immigration detention database did not yield any results for Said's name.

George Lobb, a criminal defense attorney in Austin, said removing someone with a felony warrant from an international flight is not unusual.

“It’s not uncommon for people to get pulled off of planes entering the U.S. and departing from the U.S. when they have felony warrants," Lobb said.

Lord Buffalo removed an earlier post from Instagram in which the band described Said being taken off the Amsterdam flight. A new post asked for privacy.

"We still know very little about the situation, but we have been asked by our drummer’s family and his legal team to respect their privacy while this situation evolves," the band wrote Wednesday evening.

The Trump administration has threatened to revoke the legal immigration status of some permanent legal residents of the U.S., also known as green card holders. But these cases have focused on people speaking out against the war in Gaza.

Regardless, an Austin immigration lawyer said green card holders can also face immigration action, including deportation, because of a criminal conviction.

"Many crimes are considered deportable offenses," said Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, who has been an immigration attorney for nearly two decades.

In 1939, Irish author James Joyce published Finnegans Wake, a piece of literature that defies comprehension.

“riverrun, past Eve and Adam’s,� it begins, “from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs.�

The book starts and ends with a sentence fragment, combines multiple languages and has no clear or linear plot.

It’s a work that’s so dense, one group that started in Austin has been working on it for more than a decade.

“We’re only reading one page at a time,� said Peter Quadrino, founder and organizer of the

Every other week, Quadrino hosts a Zoom call where people from around the world gather and attempt to understand one of the most infamous books in English literature.

The group spends the first 15 minutes of each meeting socializing. Then they all go around in a circle, and each person reads two lines until they’re done with that week’s page.

After that, they spend about an hour and a half researching, annotating and trying to make sense of Joyce’s experimental prose.

“We used to read two pages per meeting,� said Quadrino. “Then at a certain point there was just so much going on in the pages and so much in the discussion that we had to lower it to one page per meeting.�

Finnegans Wake is confusing � and, to many, totally incomprehensible � but the book’s complexity has made it a point of fascination for literary enthusiasts in the eight decades since it was first published.

Houston, New York, Boston, Seattle, Dublin, Kyiv and many other cities around the world host groups dedicated to reading and analyzing Finnegans Wake.

“I’ve spoken at Joyce conferences in I think six different countries now,� said Quadrino, “and just being in this world, I’ve made so many friends.�

The Finnegans Wake Reading Group of Austin, TX is moving through its book at a glacial place � and that’s the point. Their focus is the journey, not the destination.

“I never really consider what it’s going to be like when we finish because I don’t want it to end,� explained Quadrino, “and if we do finish, we’ll just circle right back to the beginning and keep reading.�

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