Cover Story
Austin Nonprofit Elevating Artists with Disabilities Perseveres Despite Funding Cuts
Like many American nonprofits, Art Spark Texas’ origins can be traced back to an American president. It was Jean Kennedy Smith – President John F. Kennedy’s sister – who launched the Very Special Arts organization in 1974. The goal was simple: Give Americans with disabilities artistic training, and show the world what they do. The…
The Austin Chronicle’s 2025 Nonprofit Wish List
Every year The Austin Chronicle’s annual Wish List offers readers a guide to charitable giving with the purpose of helping local nonprofits meet their needs to keep serving our city and its many communities. Of course, these needs remain year-round, so we encourage readers to use this list into 2026. As always, do your own…
News
Conversation Leads to Community for Immigrant Women Practicing English
Once a week, in the crowded Zoom rooms of Ladies Let’s Talk, an Austin-based nonprofit, female refugees and immigrants living across the U.S. meet to practice English and build community. Here, Thanksgiving excitement is quickly overtaken by fond memories of other holidays that remind them of home. Shannon, a graduate student from Taiwan, reminisced about…
Beyond End-of-Life Care, Hospice Austin Supports Loved Ones in Bereavement
Tucked inside the garden at Hospice Austin’s Christopher House, a blue telephone sits with a plaque reading: To say hello/ To say goodbye/ To say I miss you/ To say I love you. The “wind phone” doesn’t take calls, in the traditional sense, but it offers an outlet for grieving loved ones to say what…
Surgeons, Artists, and Kids Are Austin’s Diplomats Through Sister Cities
Christian Schmitz has long had his heart in two cities. The first has been his family’s home for several generations now, but that’s a blink of an eye in Rhine-time. Romans founded his hometown of Koblenz in 9 BCE at the junction of the Rhine and Moselle rivers. The German city is known for its…
Manos de Cristo Gives Working Class Families Something to Smile About
Having nice pearly whites can be a total confidence booster, but a trip to the dentist is not something everyone can afford. That’s where Manos de Cristo steps in. Manos de Cristo helps people who struggle to make ends meet access dental care. Rev. Frank Diaz founded the nonprofit in 1988 with a church member…
The Week’s Biggest News in Brief
AISD Employees Detained by ICE: This past week, a handful of AISD employees were detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to reporting from the Austin American-Statesman. The employees include a teacher, a bus driver, and cafeteria workers from Hart, Pickle, and Perez elementaries, McCallum High School, and the Nelson Bus Base. AISD Superintendent Matias…
How TreeFolks Is Keeping Austin Green
Austin is home to a million people and a sprawling urban landscape. Despite the high-rise buildings and self-driving cars, the city is also defined by its lush greenery and parks. That balance between urban development and nature is exactly where TreeFolks has planted its roots. With a love for the city and a commitment to…
AISD Board Approves School Closures and Turnaround Plans
At close to 2 o’clock in the morning on Friday, Nov. 21, after hours of debate, the Austin ISD Board of Trustees voted to close eight elementary schools, two middle schools, and International High School. The voting meeting opened with nearly two hours of public comment, almost all AISD parents and teachers asking trustees to…
City Council’s Budget Reflects a New Fiscal Reality
Austin City Council finally passed its new austerity budget. Approved on an 11-0 vote last Thursday, the budget removes close to $100 million in spending on public safety, homelessness, and other services that would have been provided by the earlier budget funded by Prop Q, the request to increase property taxes, which voters rejected earlier…
Music
Music Notes
Melissa Carper Friday 28, the 04 Center Greater Austin-based singer/upright bassist Melissa Carper enters the holiday music fold with the release of her new Xmas-themed album, A Very Carper Christmas. The 15-track LP doesn’t just feature the Wonder Women of Country member offering her take on familiar classics – lead single “Made With Love” contains…
Arts + Culture
Different Stages’ Classic Christie Adaptation
I grew up down the street from a local community theatre. I never did as many productions as I wanted to – there’s a reason I write about theatre instead – but the atmosphere of the building is ingrained in my mind. I can close my eyes and summon the shadows of the backstage wings,…
Put It in a Book Knows the Value in Seeing Yourself in the Books You Read
In the 2024-25 school year, Texas ranked No. 2 in the nation with over 1,700 book bans, according to free speech organization PEN America. Many of these books have themes of race, gender, sexuality, and LGBTQIA. While these kinds of diverse stories are under attack in Texas, nonprofit Put It in a Book is saving…
Shop Holiday Wares at These Festive Fairs
Armadillo Christmas Bazaar Daily Dec. 13-21, 11am-9:30pm. 900 Barton Springs. armadillobazaar.com The holiday season is all about traditions, and keeping them going is this market’s mission. What began as a way to fund the iconic Armadillo World Headquarters now fills the Palmer Events Center with shoppers and supporters. Ring in 50 seasons of shoppin’ with…
Screens
Zootopia 2 Review: Hopps and Wilde, Back on the Beat
Aesop got it. You can use cute talking animals to teach important life lessons. So when Disney once again opens the gates to a city filled with conversational critters for Zootopia 2, you know there’s more than just sight gags and big adventure. The first film was released in 2016, and with co-director Rich Moore…
Wake Up Dead Man Review: Believe in Benoit Blanc
So who did the dastardly deed? Was it the local doctor (Jeremy Renner)? Was it the groundskeeper (Thomas Haden Church)? The local lawyer (Kerry Washington) or the aspiring politician she claims is her son (Daryl McCormack)? The cellist with chronic pain praying for a miracle (Cailee Spaeny) or the has-been SF writer (Andrew Scott) or…
Food
How Hope Austin Is Working to Address Youth Food Insecurity
To address youth food insecurity, one local nonprofit chooses to remain invisible. That may mean delivering meal kits directly to schools each week, distributing snacks, or sourcing fresh produce – all completed by volunteers who come in and out, anonymous to the students they serve. The crisis they’re tackling is sometimes seen as invisible, too.…
Columns
The T Stands for Thankful
Here’s the time for gratitude, and boy am I full of that this year. Honestly, when times are at their most tough is when I realize just how MUCH I have that’s good in my life. So imagine for a moment we’re at a big long table covered in brown, beige, and dark green dishes…
What Texas Cannabis Consumers Have to Look Forward to (Eventually)
Two weeks ago, I was the cannabis columnist for The Pitch Kansas City. I had just published an article regarding the unregulated hemp industry in Missouri, met with a local entrepreneur to highlight his cannabis manufacturing company’s recent expansion to Arizona’s legal market, and gobbled down a package of edibles for a product review. Now,…
A Season for Giving
I think it was around this time last year that our publisher Cassidy Frazier wondered aloud about doing a nonprofit issue timed to Thanksgiving and Giving Tuesday, the annual global day of giving that follows the holiday. We were all feeling pretty raw after the election, but still – I don’t think any of us…
Feedback: November 28, 2025
Play Fair With Rosedale Dear Editor, I see today the headline that Austin ISD has approved a plan to close 10 schools, and I really feel for those communities, for an extra reason beyond the potential loss of their cherished community hubs. Things in the Rosedale neighborhood and its former school are a bit different…
Day Trips: Martinez Pottery, Marshall
Martinez Pottery continues a tradition of manufacturing pottery in East Texas that stretches back to the Caddo people. The family-owned business 5 miles north of Marshall specializes in farmhouse chic crockery with a simple blue band or hand-painted designs. The company is operated by Vickie and Marcos Martinez, who have more than two decades of…
The Luv Doc: Getting Some Familiar
Dear Luv Doc, My ex and I broke up a while ago. Our relationship was mostly good and ended on friendly terms. (This very column was a topic of conversation on our third date, so you know we both have excellent taste in advice – it turns out that’s just not enough compatibility to make…
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
Hopefully not a TikTok trend: In recent years, some men are getting leg lengthening surgery to become a few inches taller. There were four main types of wine produced in ancient Greece: red, white, yellow, and black. White was light, yellow was sour, while red and black were sweet. If you perspire while eating hot, spicy…
Fun + Games
Free Will Astrology
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Some seeds can remain dormant for centuries, waiting for the right conditions to germinate. The oldest successfully germinated seed was a 2,000-year-old date palm seed. I suspect you will experience psychospiritual and metaphorical versions of this marvel in the coming weeks. Certain aspects of you have long been dormant but are…
