Santo Domingo Pueblo poet April Kateri Chavez will be performing with Grammy-winning hip hop artists Questlove and Black Thought of The Roots, as well as D.C. go-go band Mambo Sauce, in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall at 6 p.m. Eastern (4 p.m. our time) today.

This free Millennium Stage performance will be webcast live and archived for future viewing at www.kennedy-center.org/programs/millennium. The event is part of An American Playlist: Three Evenings Celebrating the Performing Arts, which marks the culmination of the Arts in Crisis 50-state tour.

Chavez, also known by her people as Keel chiin bah (Woman Who Comes Back from War), proudly represents the Diné Nation and the Pueblo of Santo Domingo. She has competed and coached at Brave New Voices as a member of Team Santa Fe and is a student at Stanford University.


Oscar winner Alan Arkin has been a regular at Real Food Nation this summer.


Another Oscar winner, Gene Hackman, seen at Downtown Subscription, where Sam Shepard also has been spotted frequently in recent weeks.


Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen honored 50 Irish American Women of Influence at the Irish Consulate in New York on July 12 for their contributions to American life. Among the recipients was The Santa Fe Opera's Acushla Bastible, writer, director, actor and educator who manages the opera's extensive in-school Student Produced Opera program. Bastible, a native of Dublin, attended Trinity College has made Santa Fe her home since 2004.


Santa Fe artist Mary Anna Keshen received the Recognition Award recently at the second annual Regional Juried Art Exhibition at the Forsyth Gallery, Texas A&M University. Focusing on contemporary art in various media, the jury said Keshen's abstract construct, Gone With the Wind, reflected her contemporary abstract painting, photography and printmaking abilities. Keshen works in mixed media, painting on canvas as well as computer software-enhanced images.


Watch for it: The Great Food Truck Race show premiers Aug. 15 on the Food Network. The show was filmed partially in Santa Fe, and features Chef Eric DiStefano of Coyote Café/Geronimo fame, New Mexican food editor Rob DeWalt and possibly Roque Garcia of Roque's Carnitas. The show features seven food trucks competing in cities across the country — including ours!

 
The preview at the Santa Fe International Folk Art was packed full of shoppers — and for the first time in a couple of years, the party wasn't rained on. Seen on the hill: Artist José Ramón López and wife, Nance; Jen Hobson, deputy secretary for the Department of Tourism; Emmy-winning screenwriter Kirk Ellis; U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Luján; and actor and activist Ali MacGraw.


Two of the big movie panels at this year's Comic-Con in San Diego feature made-in-New Mexico films. Paul and Cowboys & Aliens will be discussed Saturday in what is described as an "exclusive Hall H presentation." Paul director Greg Mottola and cast members Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Kristen Wiig, Bill Hader and Sigourney Weaver will discuss the movie about two sci-fi geeks making a pilgrimage to Comic-Con who find a real alien while traveling through America's UFO heartland. For Cowboys & Aliens, director Jon Favreau will discuss what is happening behind the scenes at his film, currently shooting in New Mexico. Later on Saturday, Marvel Studios will discuss Thor (also made in New Mexico) and the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

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