Feature Stories

UT-Arlington Student Brianna Baucum Fights a Web of Lies to Bring Her Daughter Home

UT-Arlington Student Brianna Baucum Fights a Web of Lies to Bring Her Daughter Home

Deep Ellum Sticks Together

Deep Ellum Sticks Together

Tayla Parx Has Written Hit Songs for Big Names; Now It's Time for Dallas to Learn Hers

By Garrett Gravley
Jun 17, 2020

It's a brisk Friday night in late January and a long, single-file line of ticket holders snakes around the House of Blues in Dallas. Tayla Parx sits in the green room, preparing herself for her homecoming show. She's played arenas as a supporting act before and isn't entirely overcome with stage fright...
What Will the Dallas Music Scene Look Like When Music Lives Again?

By Tyler Hicks
May 12, 2020

A lone light shines down on a stage shrouded in darkness. There's the faint sound of movement, of shoes shuffling, throats clearing. Seconds pass, and the electric feeling of anticipation rises, the moment of, “They’re here; the show is finally starting.” The performer finally steps into that spotlight and begins...
For Momo Shack, a Momo Is More Than Just Food: ‘It Is Love’

By Sriya Reddy
Mar 5, 2020

Around the kitchen table, an assembly line is formed with each member assigned to one task. Some put the filling in the middle of the dough, while others, with a graceful and repetitive folding motion, finish up the momo. These memories are some of Leezen Amatya’s favorites. To him, momos...
Come Fly With Us to Pilots’ Favorite ‘$100 Hamburgers’

By Lauren Drewes Daniels
Feb 17, 2020

Five pilots sat around a table over lunch recently, discussing gumbo, cargo flights out of Winnipeg and getting stuck in a holding pattern. They were at Ardmore Municipal Airport in Oklahoma watching planes come and go from the dining room at Jake's Joint. The chef-driven restaurant adjacent to the runway...
The Microfarm That Could: How Profound Is Bringing Fresher Produce to Dallas Chefs

By Taylor Adams
Feb 10, 2020

It’s possible your favorite restaurant has a little “provided by” section on its menu and “Profound Microfarms” is listed there. If so, that's because Jeff Bednar decided a few years ago to leave his job in real estate and start growing things. Many of the top restaurants in Dallas get...
Soul Musician Taylor Morgan Just Wants to Praise God

By Tyler Hicks
Jan 22, 2020

“Oh, my God! Thank you, Jesus! God is so good! I love God!” This is Taylor Morgan, recounting the jubilation she felt after planning a successful event. Morgan, who's 30, plans jam sessions. She plans benefit concerts. Sometimes she sings. And she prays. She prays in her car. She prays...
Growing Pains: Stress Is Killing Farmers, But These Texans Keep Plowing Ahead

By Meredith Lawrence
Jan 21, 2020

Farmers across the country are struggling to make ends meet. In Texas, the stress weighs on farmers who sometimes struggle to figure out how to scrape together the next bill payment.
Moving on Up: A Project to Place Public Housing Tenants in Better Neighborhoods Gets a Boost

By Lucas Manfield
Jan 14, 2020

When Donna Pryor walked into her new three-bedroom home on a tree-lined street in Plano, she was mesmerized. There was a clean yard, a huge kitchen and a swimming pool out back. Finally, her children would be safe. Pryor left home when she was 13 to escape her drug-addicted mother. Pregnant...
Mallow Box’s Marshmallows — Ahem, S’mores — Exude Homemade Flavor

By Taylor Adams
Dec 30, 2019

There are marshmallows you get in a bag at the grocery store — the kind you can smell through the plastic as you approach that section in the aisle. Then there are real marshmallows — the ones that make you realize there can be a real freshness to these creations,...
Waffle House? At Christmas? It’s More Than You Think.

By Lauren Drewes Daniels
Dec 25, 2019

Just going to be honest here: I’m fascinated by Waffle House for a variety of reasons. For example, FEMA’s Waffle House Index, which the agency uses to determine the level of assistance a community needs after a storm. Or the time on Parts Unknown when Anthony Bourdain said it was a...
Food Sisters: Local Nonprofit Catering Company Gives Refugees a Hand Up

By Meredith Lawrence
Dec 23, 2019

Sunlight seeps into the small commercial kitchen in the Muslim American Society's Islamic Center as Maissa Alkhadir stirs a steaming pot of rice and potatoes. Reaching to a shelf above the stove, she grabs a plastic canister of dried spices and sprinkles some into the pot. Once it's done, she...
Discworld Is Real! Dive into Flat Earth Culture at their Global, Sorry, International Conference

By Danny Gallagher
Dec 10, 2019

"Be nice." That's the text message my mom always sends when I'm heading into a situation that's controversial or ridiculous. A Twilight film marathon, a Logan Paul concert, even Fyre Festival II — it doesn't matter. She'll still send the text because she's sweet and concerned for her first born...
Oak Cliff Native Judah Left Prison Behind and Found Success with African and Rastafarian Shop

By Malen Blackmon
Dec 9, 2019

During a seven-year stint in federal prison, a man who goes simply by "Judah" found something that people around the world chase after their whole lives (and still might never find): peace and meaning. The past may mold, but not define, an individual — and the Oak Cliff native and...
La Reunion Isn’t a Coffee Shop, Restaurant or Bar, Yet It’s All of Those Things

By Taylor Adams
Dec 6, 2019

In a traditional kitchen, it’s not uncommon to see an executive chef and pastry chef working together. At the very least, the kitchen lead is usually the one making ingredient orders, so they have to discuss that. But there’s another kind of collaboration going on in Bishop Arts, one among...
Not UR Girlfrenz Is Not UR Average High School Band

By Meredith Lawrence
Nov 21, 2019

The all-girl pop, punk band is popular, talented and not afraid to speak up.
Willie, Waylon and Them: North Texas Songwriters Put the Story Back in Country

By Meredith Lawrence
Oct 9, 2019

Across the nation, country music with a more classic sound, often labeled “Americana,” is making a comeback. Americana has come to describe a rising class of country musicians with an unornamented western sound and a penchant for storytelling and character-driven lyrics. In Dallas, that resurgence has many young faces.
Aspiring Pop Star Nya Marquez Grapples with Being Almost Famous

By Tyler Hicks
Oct 7, 2019

Nya Marquez is fond of saying “period,” as in “end of conversation.” She says it when she is giving dating advice to her friends (which she does often) and when she concludes a rehearsal (which she does almost as often). On a sunny Tuesday at a barren shopping center in...
Can Raising Cattle Be Environmentally Friendly? These Texas Ranchers Say Yes.

By Meredith Lawrence
Sep 17, 2019

Thigh-high grasses and plant stalks thwack the sides of the all-terrain buggy as Meredith Ellis maneuvers it down a faint double track through a dense pasture. Grasshoppers launch out of the way, whirring past bright purple, thistle-like Leavenworth's eryngo that poke up alongside creamy milkweed flowers. Yellow and purple wildflowers...
The Dallas Steakhouse Needs to Join the 21st Century. But Does It Want To?

By Brian Reinhart
Sep 10, 2019

Dallas has a growing bounty of diverse, interesting places to eat, but the iconic Dallas restaurant is an institution that hasn’t changed much in the last 30 years: the steakhouse. In almost every affluent neighborhood in town, steakhouses serve big grilled cuts of beef and big tannic bottles of cabernet...
Dallas Couple Teaches History, Fosters Community With South African Supper Clubs

By Paige Weaver
Sep 10, 2019

A Dallas couple is fostering community through baking, food and the history of South Africa. Stephanie Leichtle-Chalklen is the baker and cook behind Kuluntu Bakery, a cottage baking business in North Oak Cliff. With her husband, Warren Chalklen, they also host Ubuntu Supper Clubs — evenings focused on cultural awareness...

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