Search results for

This week on GJ, we speak with composer Nicolás Lell Benavides and librettist Marella Martin Koch about the dedication that went into creating Southwest Opera: Dolores. An opera adaptation of Dolores Huerta’s life in 1968.Nicolás Lell Benavides is a 2024 Guggenheim Fellow and has received commissions from West Edge Opera/San Diego Opera/Opera Southwest/BroadStage (Dolores), Music of Remembrance, The Washington National Opera, The Glimmerglass Festival, The New York Philharmonic/The Juilliard School, the LA Phil with Gustavo Dudamel, Eighth Blackbird, New Century Chamber Orchestra, and the Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music with support from the likes of the Barlow Endowment, Opera America, and the National Endowment for the Arts.Marella Martin Koch is a librettist, playwright, and lyricist whose work explores agency and its absence. Her trio of operas with composer Nicolás Lell Benavides includes Pepito, Tres minutos, and Dolores. Recognized by Operawire for her “lean and well-trimmed” storytelling “full of nuance and emotional pull,” her theatrical writing has been produced in over one-fourth of the United States. When she is not writing, she enjoys working with high school, college, and graduate students in New York City and across the country.

In July, Congress voted to defund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, eliminating over $1.1 billion in federal support for public radio and television – leaving tribal and rural communities especially vulnerable to loosing essential news.

A research project at the University of New Mexico recruited 252 Mexican immigrant women facing severe isolation and has demonstrated that the power of connection can be transformative.

On this month’s program we’ll hear from a local coordinator with Stand Up For Science and three University of New Mexico neuroscience researchers about their work and what they will discuss at a public event on August 23rd.

In previous weeks we’ve explored the effects on our state of federal workforce reductions and likely federal funding cuts to Medicaid. Now prominent organizations like the New Mexico Humanities Council are reeling from cancelled federal grants. On the next Let’s Talk New Mexico, how will our non-profits endure big losses of federal funding promised by congress?

Whether you live in Albuquerque, or down South, or in Santa Fe, or cooler areas that historically haven’t been their home, a warming climate is leading to a broader range and longer season for mosquitoes and other pests.

The growing danger of adolescent gun violence hit close to home at the University of New Mexico last week, as a shooting took the life of one teen, sent another to the hospital, and left a third facing serious charges.On the next Let’s Talk New Mexico, we’ll discuss the impacts on the University’s community and young people facing the persistent threat of gun violence.

Congress passed President Trump’s contentious tax and spending plan referred to as the “Big Beautiful Bill.”Health care, social programs, education, and clean energy will see major cuts to pay for increased spending on immigration enforcement, defense, and tax cuts for the upper class.

New Mexico’s 112 legislators and their staffs plus more than 400 more aides, pages and security personnel at the Roundhouse, and the countless advocates and lobbyists, are all flooding into Santa Fe for the session. So where do they stay? And where do they eat? And what about entertainment? On the next Let’s Talk New Mexico we’ll discuss the session’s effects on the city.

Our state's mountains, deserts, caverns and culture draw tourists from around the world, but a changing climate and more severe weather are threatening those places and that important part of our economy. How can we protect our natural and cultural treasures from fires and floods? Should we still visit places after a disaster hits?