Red River Cultural District launched the Red River Zine, a quarterly print publication, on Jan. 14. The staple-bound missive, a part of the organization’s Cultural Currents storytelling and preservation initiative, celebrates the people and places that have shaped the cultural district’s distinctive identity through first-hand stories and reporting, complete with historic articles and photographs. The inaugural issue includes the illusive origin of the One Knite, a historic club that later became Stubb’s; a deep dive into the Blue Flamingo, one of the area’s first LGBTQIA nightclubs; and the story of Emma Hartsfield, who once lived where Elysium stands today. Copies are available now at record stores and shops across the city, including Waterloo Records, End of an Ear, and Breakaway.
National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for the Humanities will each receive their full requested $207 million budget for FY26, as passed by the U.S. House of Representatives on Monday, Jan. 12. President Trump’s Executive Order 14168 in January 2025 hit Austin arts organizations hard, rescinding already-approved funding from city organizations like American Short Fiction magazine, Austin Film Festival, ZACH Theater, Creative Action, the Museum of Human Achievement, and many more. AFF, AFS, and the ZACH appealed the decision at the time. According to the legal requirements posted on the NEA’s website, 2026 applicants must comply with anti-discrimination laws and all executive orders, and “not operate any programs promoting ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion.’” The first round of submissions are due Feb. 12. It’s unclear, as of now, how the fully funded NEA will distribute funds and respond to Austin applications.
Dale Watson & His Lone Stars played at the controversial, recently renamed Trump Kennedy Center on Jan. 8. Though the performance was surreptitiously left off of Watson’s East Coast Tour social media posts, fans expressed their disappointment in the white-haired country singer in Instagram comments and posts of their own. Frustration with his seeming endorsement of the president’s obtrusive and polarizing cultural campaign didn’t stop the longtime honky-tonk staple from securing a multi-album deal with Forty Below Records, the independent imprint of producer Eric Corne, announced Jan. 14.
This article appears in January 16 • 2026.